Two Marathons Same Result

I ran the St. George Marathon in Utah in October of 2015 in around 3 hours and 31 minutes.  I ran the Phoenix Marathon in Arizona in February of 2016 in around 3 hours and 27 minutes.  My goal in both was 3 hours and 10 minutes in both which is a 7.15 pace.  In both races I was between 7.20 and 7.30 pace through mile 18 and then that is when the wheels fell off.  I need to figure out those last 8.2 miles. 

I am still here....

After a long absence I wanted all two of you, whomever you are, who look at this blog to know that I am still alive and kicking.  Merry Christmas and happy new year!  I have plans to post my St. George Marathon report and my current and future training. 

Running Report 9/14/15 to 10/2/15

9/14/15 MONDAY
Did 7 quarter mile repeats with a quarter mile jog in between each.  All on the treadmill.

1. 3% incline -- 6.52 pace
2. 3.5% incline -- 6.52 pace
3.  4% incline -- 6.47 pace
4. 4.5% incline -- 6.42 pace
5. 5% incline -- 6.37 pace
6. 5.5% incline -- 6.31 pace
7. 6% incline -- 6.27 pace

About three miles total running.
In the afternoon I ran four miles nice and easy, not timed.

Day 7 miles
Week 7 miles
Month 126 miles
Year 871 miles

9/15/15 TUESDAY
Ran 5 miles on the track.

1. 3.46
2. 3.50
3. 3.47
4. 3.53
5. 3.52
6. 3.51
7. 3.49
8. 3.53
9. 3.58
10. 4.12

Total time 38.55 average of 7.47 minutes per mile.

Week 12 miles
Month 131 miles
Year 876 miles

9/16/15 WEDNESDAY
Ran for thirty minuets this morning, approximately 4 miles.  Started out slow an decreased the speed every 5 minutes until 20 minutes.  Then decreased speed at 20 minutes and again at 25 minutes. 

Week 16 miles
Month 135 miles
Year 880 miles

9/17/15 THURSDAY
Ran 5 miles this morning.

1. 4.09
2. 3.48
3. 3.38
4. 3.54
5. 3.42
6. 3.52
7. 3.46
8. 3.43
9. 3.59
10. 3.56

Total time 38.30 average of 7.42  per mile.

Week 21 miles
Month 140 miles
Year 885 miles

9/18/15 FRIDAY
Ran four miles on the treadmill in the morning.  Half mile splits are as follows:

1. 3.27
2. 3.22
3. 3.20
4. 3.16
5. 3.16
6. 3.13
7. 3.13
8. 2.52

Total time of 26.01 average of about 6.30 per miles

Week 25 miles
Month 144 miles
Year 889 miles

9/19/15 SATURDAY
Ran total of 12 miles in the morning.  Ran six miles, then slow jog for five minutes then rest for seven minutes and thirty four seconds (total rest of 12.34) and then run another six miles.  Here are the half mile splits:

1. 3.33
2. 3.33
3. 3.25
4. 3.36
5. 3.29
6. 3.29
7. 3.32
8. 3.28
9. 3.31
10. 3.29
11. 3.31
12. 3.25

12.34 jog and rest

1. 3.36
2. 3.27
3. 3.28
4. 3.33
5. 3.30
6. 3.31
7. 3.30
8. 3.23
9. 3.27
10. 3.25
11. 3.33
12. 3.24

For the first six miles I averaged 7.01 per mile and for the second six miles I averaged 6.59 per mile.

Week 37 miles
Month 156 miles
Year 901 miles

9/21/15 MONDAY
Ran 4 miles on the treadmill.  Started at 7.30 pace.  Increased the pace by one notch every quarter of a mile until 2.25 miles.  At 2.5 miles I took the incline at 1.5% and the pace to 6.15.  At 2.75 miles I went to 2% incline and 6.00 pace.  At three miles I decreased the pace and the incline until I reached 4 miles. 

Week 4 miles
Month 160 miles
Year 905 miles

9/22/15 TUESADY
Ran four miles on the treadmill.  Overall pace was an average of 7.30 minutes per mile.

Week 8 miles
Month 164 miles
Year 809 miles

9/23/15 WEDNESDAY
Ran four miles on the treadmill.  Finished in 25.55 which is a pace of 6.29 per mile.  At three miles I went to 6.15 pace.  At 3.5 miles I went up to 6.00 pace.  At 3.75 miles I went to 5.54 pace and 1% incline.  At mile 3.9 I wen to 5.49 pace and 1.5% incline, and mile 3.95 -- 2% incline and 5.44 pace.  This was my last continuous hard run before the marathon. 

Week 12 miles
Month 168 miles
Year 813 miles

9/24/15 THURSDAY
Ran 4 miles in the morning.

1. 4.01
2. 3.42
3. 3.46
4. 3.48
5. 3.50
6. 3.44
7. 3.52
8. 4.01

Total time of 30.48 and average of 7.42 per mile.

Week 16 miles
Month 172 miles
Year 817 miles

9/25/15 FRIDAY
Ran four miles.

1. 3.56
2. 3.44
3. 3.54
4. 3.52
5. 3.49
6. 3.47
7. 3.49
8. 4.06

Total time of 31.01 average of 7.45 per mile.

Week 20 miles
Month 176 miles
Year 821 miles

9/26/15 SATURDAY
Ran 8 miles in the morning.

1. 3.37
2. 3.33
3. 3.29
4. 3.33
5. 3.30
6. 3.33
7. 3.33
8. 3.36
9. 3.28
10. 3.26
11. 3.33
12. 3.25
13. 3.26
14. 3.24
15. 3.31
16. 3.28

Total time of 56.12 average of 7.02 per mile.

Week 28 miles
Month 184 miles
Year 829 miles

Right calf muscle did not feel good.  I had to stop several times to discipline my dog and once at the halfway mark to stretch my calf muscle.

9/28/15 MONDAY
Did a slow jog for about 1 mile since my right calf started tightening up so I stopped the run

Week 1 mile
Month 185 miles
Year 830 miles

9/29/15 TUESDAY
Did a 4x400 workout on the treadmill.  400 meters at 6.00 pace and jog 200 meters at 12.00 pace and then repeat four times.

Week 2 miles
Month 186 miles
Year 831 miles

9/30/15 WEDNESDAY AND 10/1/15 THURSDAY
No run either of these days.

10/2/15 FRIDAY
Nice easy two mile jog in the morning.

Week 4 miles
Month 188 miles
Year 833 miles

Running Report 9/8/15 to 9/12/15

9/8/15 TUESDAY
Ran 8 miles on the treadmill.  Finished at an average of 8 minutes per mile.

Week 16 miles
Month 62 miles
Year 814 miles

9/9/15 WEDNESDAY
Ran six miles in the morning.  Started at 8.00 min pace.  Every quarter of a mile I would increase the pace by one notch.  I continued this all the way through 3.5 miles.  At 2.75  miles I also increased the incline .5% every quarter of a mile until 3.50 mile mark.  At that time it was at 2% incline.  At 3.50 miles the pace was at 6.44 or something like that.  After that I brought the incline and the pace down one notch each every quarter mile.  I never let the incline go below .5%.  Finished the six mile in 44.09 which is around a 7.21 pace.  In the afternoon I ran six miles out on the road.  I used the mile markers as a distance measure.  At least one of the markers was off by about 40 seconds.

1. 7.34
2. 7.22
3. 7.46
4. 8.40
5. 8.01
6. 8.03

Total time of 47.29 average of 7.55 per mile.  Total of 12 miles for the day.   The six miles out on the road was pretty hard because it was hot and the miles already are starting to pile up for the week.

Week 28 miles
Month 74 miles
Year 826 miles

9/10/15 THURSDAY
Ran 8 miles in the morning on the treadmill at 7.45 pace.  Ran 6 miles in the afternoon on the treadmill at 8 min. pace.  Total of 14 miles for day.

Week 42 miles
Month 88 miles
Year 840 miles

9/11/15 FRIDAY
Ran ten miles on the road this morning.

1. 3.39
2. 3.27
3. 3.31
4. 3.37
5. 3.34
6. 3.37
7. 3.35
8. 3.39
9. 3.37
10. 3.41
11. 3.35
12. 3.42
13. 3.38
14. 3.34
15. 3.38
16. 3.38
17. 3.37
18. 3.41
19. 3.38
20. 3.25

Overall time 1 hour 12 minutes and 15 seconds.  Average of 7.13 per mile.  I totally hit the wall at mile 5.  I just repeated to myself over and over, "fight through it" and "don't slow down until the next half mile marker.  Then at the next marker I would think "ok, I can push it to the next half mile."  I really didn't know if I could make it.  In fact I doubted that I could but I didn't want to slow down until the next marker.  With two miles left the mental trick became, "I have not come this far and suffered this much to lose it all now.  Then with a mile and a half to go, "make it through these next two half miles and then just a half mile left and then it will be over."  With one mile to go I had an infusion of energy because I realized I was about four seconds ahead of pace.

Week 52 miles
Month 98 miles
Year 850 miles

9/12/15 SATURDAY
I ran 21 miles on the treadmill at night.  Excuse the crassness but I call this the diarrhea run.  I normally don't do this but this is what it was.  I went to the bathroom I think 4 times.  At 4.5 miles I stopped to go the the bathroom and change the channel on the TV to the BYU vs. Boise St. game.  Then again at 1.5 miles, again at 2 miles, then again at another 6.5 miles or something along those lines.  That was super lame because every time I would go to the bathroom the treadmill would stop, thus I have no idea of my overall time at all.  It was demoralizing because I had no desire to push the pace.  This is my last 20 miler as well so it was frustrating.  I should have just done my run at 2:30 a.m. this morning when I woke up anyway. 

Week 73 miles
Month 119 miles
Year 871 miles

Running report 8/31/15 to 9/7/15

8/31/15 MONDAY
Ran 6 miles this morning on the treadmill.  Starting at 8 min/mile and increasing on click every quarter mile until about 4 miles.  The last four quarter miles I increased the incline by one notch.  At 4 miles I started decreasing the pace and the incline every quarter of a mile.  Finished 6 miles in 43.30 about 7.15 pace.

Week 6 miles
Month 125 miles
Year 752 miles

9/1/15 TUESDAY
Ran 5 miles this morning. 

1. 4.13
2. 3.54
3. 3.41
4. 3.40
5. 3.46
6. 3.52
7. 3.40
8. 3.47
9. 3.55
10. 3.57

Total time 38.29 about a 7.41 average.
Ran 5 miles in the afternoon.

1. 3.59
2. 3.56
3. 3.56
4. 3.57
5. 3.52
6. 4.10
7. 3.56
8. 3.54
9. 4.08
10. 4.05

Total time of 39.58 average of 8 minutes per mile.

Day 10 miles
Week 16 miles
Month 10 miles
Year 762 miles

9/2/15 WEDNESDAY
Ran 5 miles in the morning on the treadmill.  These were the approximate minutes per mile pace ran at:  0-1 miles 6.58, 1-1.5 miles 6.54, 1.5-2.0 miles 6.50, 2.0-2.5 miles 6.44, 2.5-3.0 miles 6.40, 3.0-3.5 miles 6.36, 3.5-4.0 miles 6.30, 4.0-4.35 miles 6.15, 4.35-4.5 miles 6.30, 4.5-5.0 miles 6.00.  Total time 33.30 average of about 6.42 per mile.  That last half mile at 6.00 pace was a killer!  The last quarter mile was all anaerobic, will power, mind over matter, race pain, the dark room, etc.  As always the incline on the treadmill was set at .5%.

At night I ran five miles.

1. 4.29
2. 4.25
3. 4.19
4. 4.37
5. 4.32
6. 4.39
7. 4.31
8. 4.27
9. 4.40
10. 4.33 

Total time of 45.18 average of 9.04 per mile.

Day 10 miles
Week 26 miles
Month 20 miles
Year 772 miles

9/3/15 THURSDAY
Ran 5 miles in the morning.

1. 4.02
2. 3.49
3. 3.49
4. 3.47
5. 3.46
6. 3.52
7. 3.42
8. 3.50
9. 3.49
10. 3.59

Total time of 38.29 average of 7.42 per mile.
Ran three miles at night.

1. 4.42
2. 4.48
3. 4.46
4. 4.56
5. 4.54
6. 5.17

Total time of 29.25 average of 9.48 per mile.  Super slow.

Day 8 miles
Week 34 miles
Month 28 miles
Year 780 miles

9/4/15 FRIDAY
Ran 6 miles on the treadmill, finished at about 7.30 pace.

Week 40 miles
Month 34  miles
Year 786 miles

9/5/18 SATURDAY
Ran 12 miles.

1. 4.21
2. 4.02
3. 4.00
4. 4.02
5. 4.02
6. 4.10
7. 4.26
8. 4.24
9. 4.04
10. 4.00
11. 3.57
12. 3.57
13. 3.48
14. 3.57
15. 3.49
16. 3.51
17. 3.48
18. 3.44
19. 3.33
20. 3.36
21. 3.29
22. 3.38
23. 3.35
24. 3.30

Overall time 1 hour 33 minutes and 55 seconds.  Average of 7.50 minutes per mile.  Definite negative split.  Miles 7-9 I tried to to run at 7.45 pace and miles 10-12 I tried to run at 7.15 pace.  this was at the end of a high mileage week.  Next week hopefully will be even more mileage.

Week 52 miles
Month 46 miles
Year 798 miles

9/7/15 MONDAY
Yasso 800's today.  Run 800 meters at a certain time then run 400 meters at the same time and repeat.  I did a total of 10.  The first 800 was slow at 3.20.  Repeats 2-9 were at 3.10 or 2 seconds under that and then the last repeat I did in 2.58.  45 seconds after finishing my heart rate was at 120 beats per minute.  I was surprised it was so slow.  While each repeat was challenging, I did not have to open the door to the "dark room" all the way except on the last one.  So maybe 10 repeats at 3.05 is within reach but I don't think 10 at 3.00 is a possibility right at this moment.  That being said, I think before I took my 2 week break , I did 6 repeats at 3.00 so maybe it is possible. 

Week 8 miles
Month 54 miles
Year 806 miles

Running Report 8-24-15 through 8-29-15

8-24-15 MONDAY
Did Yasso 800's on the treadmill today.  I did 6 repeats of half a mile in three minutes and one quarter mile in three minutes.  Last but not least I did one continuous miles in six minutes.  This was on the treadmill and so it was not as hard as running on the road at that pace.  I ran a total of six miles for the entire workout.

Week 6 miles
Month 74 miles
Year 701 miles

8-25-15 TUESDAY
Ran four miles in the morning.

1. 3.57
2. 3.42
3. 4.01
4. 3.52
5. 3.53
6. 3.45
7. 3.51
8. 3.57

Total time 31.01 average of about 7.45 per mile.

Week 10 miles
Month 78 miles
Year 705 miles

8-26-15 WEDNESDAY
Ran 5 miles on the treadmill today.  The following are approximate pace setting on the treadmill per quarter mile.  Remember, approximate.

1. 8.00
2. 7.30
3. 7.26
4. 7.22
5. 7.18
6. 7.14
7. 7.10
8. 6.58
9. 6.54
10. 6.58
11. 6.50
12. 6.58
13. 6.47
14. 6.58
15. 6.44
16. 6.58
17. 6.30
18. 6.15
19. 6.00

Finished in about 34.10.  That is about 6.56 minutes per mile.

Week 15 miles
Month 83 miles
Year  710 miles

8-27-15 THURSDAY
Ran six miles in the morning.  Half mile splits are as follows with the exception of split 4 which was one mile:

1. 4.25
2. 4.11
3. 3.54
4. 7.42
5. 3.34
6. 3.22
7. 3.31
8. 3.34
9. 3.42
10. 4.05

The idea was to start out slow, increase speed until the middle and then slow back down again until the end.

Week 21 miles
Month 89 miles
Year 716 miles

8-28-15 FRIDAY
Ran 10 miles on the treadmill today.  Finished with a 7 minute average.

Week 31 miles
Month 99 miles
Year 726 miles

8-29-15 SATURDAY
Ran 20 miles this morning.  With one obovious exception these are my mile splits:

1. 9.25
2. 9.05
3. 22.03 (combined with mile four
4. (see mile three)
5. 9.19
6. 10.14
7. 9.14
8. 9.53
9. 10.02
10. 9.21
11. 9.08
12. 9.30
13. 9.31
14. 4.52
15. 4.56
16. 9.56
17. 9.50
18. 9.41
19. 8.26
20. 9.37
21. 9.54

Total time  3 hours and fourteen minutes and four seconds.  About a 9.42 average. 

Week 41 miles
Month 119 miles
Year 746 miles

Running report 8/17 through 8/22

8/17/15 MONDAY
Ran three miles in the morning.

1. 3.38
2. 3.39
3. 3.41
4. 3.47
5. 3.43
6. 3.40 

Total time of 22.10 average of 7.23 per mile.

Week 3 miles
Month 22 miles
Year 649 miles

8/18/15 TUESDAY
Yasso 800 day.  Did 4 Yasso 800's in the morning.  Each 800 was at 3.10 and then a slow jog of 3.10.  About two hours later I did some more Yasso 800's on a treadmill.  I did 4 of those at 3.00 with a 3.00 minute slow jog in between.  Last I did one continuous mile in six minutes.  Total of 6 miles including slow jogging in between reps.  

Week 9 miles
Month 28 miles
Year 655 miles

8/19/15 WEDNESDAY
Ran four miles in the morning and four miles in the afternoon
Morning run:

1. 4.35
2. 4.09
3. 4.02
4. 3.53
5. 3.55
6. 3.57
7. 3.57
8. 3.56

Total time of 32.28 average of 8.07 per mile.  Afternoon times I didn't get all the splits.  Total time 36.00 minutes.  Average of 9 minutes per mile. 

Week 17 miles
Month 36 miles
Year 663 miles

8/20/15 THURSDAY
Ran six miles on the treadmill.  Finished in 41.06 which is an average of 6.54 pace.

Week 23 miles
Month 42 miles
Year 669 miles

8/21/15 FRIDAY
Ran 5 miles on the treadmill as a recovery jog.  Finished in 39.15 which is about 7.51 pace.

Week 28 miles
Month 47 miles
Year 674 miles

8/22/15 SATURDAY
Ran a total of 21 miles in three different segments throughout the morning.  First segment I ran 14 miles in 2 hours and 11 minutes which works out to be close to a 9 minutes and 21 second pace.  After an hour of rest I ran a 5K race in which I finished second overall.  My first lap time was 10.52 and my second lap was 10.05 for a total of 20.57.  Then after about and hour of standing around I ran 4 miles in 37.39 which is about a 9.25 second pace. 

Week 49 miles
Month 68 miles
Year 695 miles

Thoughts: I think this has been my highest mileage week so far and that coming back from some time off so I hope I haven't bitten off to much for my body to handle.  Goals for next week would be to do more total miles, and get my long run time down into the 8 minute range.  I would like to do my recovery jogs at 7.45 pace