Sorry I haven’t updated for the last few days but its been pretty hectic and then Julie and I took a relaxing day on Sunday so no computers! Its less detailed than usual as I’m really busy today but I thought I would fit something in as I’m waking up from my nap.

I took Friday as my recovery day as I knew I would be tired from the 10 mile steady state that I did the night before. Recovery days for me mean that I run the usual time on my feet but just very slowly. My morning run was 85 mins but only 11 miles so I knew I had done a good job in going slow enough. I was right that I was really tired so it was good to just go easy on the trails and enjoy the scenery. I had a nice long nap in the afternoon and then sent off a bunch of training programs to the athletes I coach. I got my second run in around 3pm and again at a nice slow pace. 60 mins and 8.5 miles later I got back to the house and quickly got changed so I could head out to time Jason’s workout. He was doing a hard run on Lake Mary road and it turned out to be a gorgeous night. The sun was starting to set and there was no wind so he had a pretty good run. Julie headed down to Phoenix for the evening so Carlson came over to the house and we had some dinner and then watched Book of Eli.

Saturday was a very busy day. I woke up at 5.30am and answered some emails while the coffee brewed. I had to be down in Phoenix by 11am to do some wedding stuff so it meant driving for an hour to Sedona (and getting my hour prep time for run out of the way) doing my run there and then continuing down the road to Phoenix. The sunrise when driving down was amazing as the sun was shining off the red rocks. I parked at Beaver Creek and did an easy 18 miles on the dirt road. The run was shorter than usual as I’ll be running the World Half Marathon Champs next weekend. It was nice just to tune out and run easy on the road all alone. It was very scenic and so quiet. I got back in just under 2 hours and then jumped into the creek for 10 minutes to cool my legs down a bit. I got changed and back on the road pretty quickly. I stopped at Camp Verde to grab a coffee and some oatmeal from Starbucks and then finished off the trip down the mountain.

I arrived in Mesa right at 11am and met Julie and her parents at our wedding reception venue, Regency Garden. We were finalizing the last details and I was actually seeing the place for the first time. It was really nice but I wasn’t being very enthusiastic as I was really hungry and tired from running and driving all morning. We left and headed straight to a deli to get some food and life was suddenly all better. As soon as I started to chow down I felt good and had energy again. We stuck around for a few hours so we could go to church with Julie’s family and then headed back up the road. We grabbed some food on the way up and then went to bed soon after we got back as it had been a long day.

I woke up early on Sunday morning to watch the live stream of the Chicago marathon. The finish was incredible and I didn’t know how I was going to run after watching that without going all out the whole way. Unfortunately the guys from the training group that were running didn’t have a good day but that experience will make them stronger and they’ll be back to fight again another day. My run was really nice as again the weather was perfect and I was trying a new route. It turned out that the run from door to door was exactly 10 miles so I guess I have found a new easy run route. I got back to find Julie getting ready to head out the door for a run so I made some pancakes while she was out. When she got back she made some apple pancakes, which put me right to sleep. I passed out for about an hour in front of the TV and woke up to find Julie painting in the back room. She has been working on a painting for above our fire place and it’s turning out really well. After having some tea and waking up a bit, we went for a drive up the mountain to see if all the aspens were turning colour yet. There were some but I think next week will be a lot more golden. We took a walk on the trail and had a really nice time just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful scenery. I decided to take the evening off training as I was already at 125 miles for the week and I didn’t want to do much before the half marathon next week. We got home and made some pizza from scratch. Garlic, peppers, mushrooms, chicken and some eggplant chips that I fried up were all added as toppings and it filled us right up. That meant that we really sleepy right away and we just passed out early.

I met Carlson in the morning for our usual pre race workout. We were running 5*1km with 2 mins recovery on Trina’s loop. It was a perfect morning for training so that made it easier for the both of us. We actually didn’t run that quickly but it was good to get rid of some of the rust in our legs. We ran between 2.58 and 2.49 for the reps and we both felt good to have got it done. It was a strange feeling to be putting in a lot of effort into the workout but not running that fast. We weren’t bothered by this but it was just a strange feeling. I headed back to the house quickly after the workout so I could have some breakfast before getting a massage at 10am. It was great as it was putting me to sleep right at the end of it so luckily I only had a one minute walk back to the house where I could just crash into my bed. I had to do a lot during the day as I would be heading out to China the next day so once I was awake I was in work mode. I got all my washing done and wrote a few training programs before heading out for a second run of 50 minutes. I then headed out again to ride the bike beside Jason as he went through his workout. The gears slipped at one point and I smacked my knee against the handle bars. It was really sore and I was worried that it was going to be tough to bend my knee for a few days but I think because I kept riding and continuing to move my knee, it didn’t stiffen up. We had leftovers for dinner and then headed out to do something that I have to keep secret as it’s a surprise for our friends. It was a really long day for me so again I headed to bed pretty early.