Monday, April 14, 2008

Early 9-miler

OBJECTIVE
9 mi. @ 8:20/mi.

ACHIEVED
9.03 mi. @ 8:08/mi.

4:27 AM 42° 81% 0 mph

This is "recovery" week. I'm doing three 9-mile runs this week at an easy pace. This is the last recovery period prior to the marathon so I'm hopeful that by next Sunday, I'm feeling very good physically.

At this point, I'm happy to report the only thing that bothered me this morning was my left ankle. It's still achy and doesn't seem to be improving but it does seem to loosen up after a couple miles.

I didn't really feel like going when the alarm sounded at 4 AM but drug myself out the door. To illustrate how simple my mind is, I've always been very eager to run when I'm going out in new shoes. Well, today was the maiden voyage of my new Mizuno Wave Rider 10's. These are the same model as my last two pairs and are getting harder to find now that Mizuno is selling newer models. This pair is red, blue, and silver and look pretty good. But not even the lure of new shoes was motivating this morning.

On days I start out like this the runs usually aren't that great but this one turned out okay. I drove to the Y and ran the bayou trail out and back for 9 miles. The morning air was surprisingly cool and for the first couple miles I wished I had worn long sleeves and gloves. My hands were very cold at the finish.

There was low lying fog which turned the bayou into something like the Michael Jackson Thriller video. Maybe the thought of zombies at 4:30 in the morning darkness prompted me to pick up the pace! Actually it was pleasant. I sat on my desired pace (8:20) during the trip out and cranked it up a bit on the way back in. I noticed again this morning if I sync my breathing with my strides that I ran faster.

Interestingly, I can clearly remember this "recovery" week in preparation for the St. George marathon last fall. I'm not sure why it's such a vivid memory ... maybe because it was a new route that I hadn't run before or since ... ??? I pulled my training log to see what pace I ran these 9-milers. I ran one on Monday and another on Thursday. The planned pace was 8:51. I ran 8:49 and 9:41. This made today's 8:08 feel even better!

May 17 and the marathon will be here before you know it. I checked our flights yesterday and they still look very good (we're flying standby). Paige's training for the half seems to be going well. She got new shoes last week too. Cameron has now decided he wants to run the half but I checked yesterday and it's sold out. I'll add him to the wait list today. I've been tinkering with elevation-based pace charts. I've still got some work to do there but a plan seems to be formulating.

I'll post again after Wednesday's run. At the moment, I'm not sure if it's going to be AM or PM. I would like PM but think I have a scheduling conflict so it may have to be another early morning extravaganza.


PRE RUN
Clif bar & water

POST RUN
SlimFast
Later, water & oatmeal w/skim milk

8 comments:

Becky A said...

I also did not get signed up before it was full. I talked to Stephanie she said they are having a meeting Thursday and might move 100 of the marathon openings over to the half. If they do this Cam and I are at the top of the list.
Brandon

Care said...

Hey! Other than your love affair with your shoes, I enjoyed reading about your marathon prep. That's great your whole family is involved. Where's the marathon? (I might have skipped over that part too quickly) And thanks for the 80s memory - You are actually a pretty good writer, you drew some nice pictures with words. I thought you were only good with numbers.
Happy training!

Shaury said...

Wow! 4:00 AM Next time I'm up feeding Hazel that eary I'll think of you out there running & being up feeding the baby won't seem so bad. Keep up the good running. Can't wait to see you guys in May.
:) Shaury

Cory said...

Brandon -

Good thinking taking the inside track to Stephanie. I usually hate people who know people that get race favors for them BUT in this case I don't mind a bit!

Cory said...

Carrie -

Nobody is supposed to be on here reading this since it's an embarrassing tribute to my many failures and occasional success. (The pictures are bad too!)

It's the only way to force myself to train. I'm afraid somebody might check the blog and ask me why I haven't run recently or why I'm so slow!

Cory said...

Shaury -

I'm glad Hazel is getting fed.

Early morning seems to be my best time to run. I get lazier and busier as the day goes by. There's also much less traffic, heat, and humidity in the morning. A person who I run with occasionally said the miles before daylight don't seem as "bad" but still count. I think that's because we're still half asleep!

I look forward to meeting Hazel and seeing you, David, and the boys. Hope last Sunday's activities went well sorry that we weren't there! We hate missing events like that!

Cory said...

Brandon -

How is your training coming along? And what about our orange "family" team shirts? (just joking!)

Cory said...

Carrie -

Forgot to mention the marathon I'm training for is the May 17 Ogden Marathon. Is Tim running this year? I thought he missed last year for Wasatch Back training ... ???