A change of heart...

Well, after my reoccurring ITBS problems, I have only run a few times in the past month, but I have kept my cardio reasonably high at the gym by riding stationary bikes. I had resigned myself to not running the marathon, but I've had a change of heart and will attempt it this Saturday. My time is certainly going to be slower than I was planning on, but I will still be able to say I ran a marathon and it will set my PR bar pretty low for me to be able to break it next time. For those that will be there, I will be the slow guy with the saved head and goatee (Bib#816).

After initially deciding to drop out of the race, I had canceled my hotel reservations. So last night when I decided I was back in, I checked and there was not a single hotel room left in logan or brigham city. I've been searching the hotel sites over and over again all day today hoping that someone would cancel their reservations and luckily, at about 5:30 this evening a hotel room at the Quality Inn came available. Better yet, it has 2 queen sized beds and the option for a crib, so Sarah and the kids are making the trip as well. I'm so excited that they will be there to cheer me on, it will absolutely help me push through to the finish line knowing that they will be there waiting for me.

Day 87

Now that I am starting to run at night during the week, I really need to stop procrastinating, especially on my longer runs. My training plan called for 9 miles, so I decided it might be helpful for my fitness to run up 3900 South to Wasatch Blvd. and back. I was completely gassed trying to run up some of those hills and my time going up really sucked. I did, however give my Amphipod Full Tilt Hydration pack another try and had no issues with it at all, so at least I got that out of it as well. I ended up going 9.45 miles in 1:53:07 for a very sad pace of 11:58 (I told you going up killed my pace). I did keep my heart rate down though to an average heart rate of 167 bpm.

I just can't win

I've decided to do my weekday runs in the evening now because I am having too hard of a time waking up early enough to get the runs in now that I have to be to work by 7:30. So yesterday I was ready to do my run, then remembered that my Dad needed a ride to the Instacare to get another shot of antibiotics for his cellulitis. So I picked him up at 7, thinking it shouldn't take too long since he had already been seen the night before and just needed a 2nd shot. The Dr ended up thinking the cellulitis was still spreading, so she took more blood work to test and said that if his white cell count was higher, we'd need to take him to the ER. After waiting forever, the results came back and it had dropped, so he finally got his shot and I took him home. I didn't end up getting home until about 9:30, and I still needed to finish loading some things onto a computer that I am fixing for a friend at work, so I wasn't able to run at all. I am going to get my run in tonight no matter what, since it is 9 miles.

I am also thinking about running another half marathon coming up in a few weeks. I've got to get some longer runs in anyway, and this one is a fundraiser for an organization that provides financial assistance to families who have lost young children to cancer. They are closin the new Legacy Parkway and the entire race is on the parkway itself. They have a half marathon, 2 mile fun run and a 20 mile bike tour for any interested. Here is the info.

Oops, I forgot to post the results

Distance: 13.15 miles
Duration: 2:34:59.01
Pace: 11:48 / mile

Day 83 - Provo River Half Marathon

Another case of bad luck for me where everything seemed to go wrong. My calves started cramping around the 2 mile mark, then Mother Nature Called and I ended up standing in line at the bathroom for 10+ minutes, then to top it off my hip (IT Band) started hurting around mile 9, which really slowed my pace. But, I still pushed through it all and finished, so I will take it and use it as motivation to keep my training up for the Top of Utah Marathon coming up.

Day 76

If you were wondering, no I have not died. My IT Band flared up so bad that I could barely walk and I had to take a few weeks off to rest. I was so bummed out about it, that I kinda just blew off the blog. It finally started feeling better last week, so this past Monday I went out for a short run and there was little to no painm so I am getting back into the training. My hardest thing right now to do is slow down my pace, I keep going out at a much faster pace that I can sustain right now since the injury, so I have to keep catching myself and I have to focus on shortening my stride which helps keep my IT Band from hurting too much. Today is supposed to be a long run, but Sarah has got our whole day scheduled and planned already, so I decided to swap rest days and I will go out for the long run tomorrow, though it won't be the 16 miles that the plan calls for since I missed a few weeks, I will probably do 10-12. As long as I am feeling relatively well, I still plan on running the Provo River Half Marathon next Saturday. I really want to beat my 2:14:09 pace that I ran in it 2 years ago and I think I have a good chance at it this year as long as I can stay somewhat healthy between now and then.

Day 51 and 52

I took the last 2 days off as well to see if I can get rid of this pain. Sarah suprised me today and took me to Salt Lake Running Company to get me an early Anniversary present - The Marathon Stick. It's for massaging my muscles after running and it helps push the lactic acid from your muscles which aids in your recovery. I also had a chance to talk to Seth Wold who helped me pick the right Stick model for me and gave me a lot of advice. I described my hip pain to him and found out it's my ITB. I had read that it might be my ITB, but because my knee hadn't hurt at all, I kind of blew it off before. Seth gave me advice on using the stick to help with my ITB. Seth Wold is currently the fastest Marathon runner in Utah - he ran a 2:22 marathon in winning Ogden this year. I always love going to Salt Lake Running Company instead of just going to a big sports chain store because the workers are all runners and I pick up a lot of great advise from them.