Go slow to go fast.

My knee hurt and my legs were pretty trashed all week after that race.  Then we were camping and that was a great excuse to take it really easy.  I did some fun mountain biking, but otherwise took it really easy.

Today I was feeling well rested and recovered and the pain was gone in my legs, so I headed out for just about an hour on the legacy parkway trail barefoot out my sister's front door where we are staying.  It was really nice.  I like that trail, nice and smooth.

Nan and I jogged the North Salt lake 5K with Abe and Breanne this morning.  It was really, really cool for me.  I ran with Abe the whole time and paced him and coached him through it and it was such a fun experience.  

The dude totally impressed me and made me proud in his first 5K at the age of 6 years old.  He was excited to do it, and he was really coachable.  As we jogged I taught him about the importance of going out slow and pacing evenly.  And I gave him some pointers on his arm swing which he implemented.  He was really steady, but definitely working hard from the get go.

After about a mile we passed 7 or 8 year old kid being paced by his Dad who had obviously gone out too fast. 

At the half way point we stopped at the aid station for the first time to grab some water.  He refueled well and then kept running.  He said the water made him feel less tired and he thought that was cool. 

Then Abe started getting a side ache after the big drink of water.  So I taught him how to breath out as loud and as hard as he could to get rid of it.  He walked a bit trying to get rid of it.  

Then he jogged and breathed out hard, and pushed through the discomfort without complaining.

Then the kid we passed earlier caught back up, clearly intending on not letting Abe beat him.  When they were only about 7 feet in front of us the kid would keep turning around and commenting to his Dad things like "oh no, they're still right behind us".  And "Why is that guy not wearing any shoes??"   (I was running barefoot since I wasn't racing).

But that lit up Abe's competitive juices, and it started to become a sprint between the two kids.  But i told Abe to hold back because we still had a long ways to go, and to just run steady.

He did that, just kept a steady clip, breathing out hard to keep the side cramp at bay.  Within a minute or two of that the kid buckled over hands on knees and stopped running, clearly having overexerted himself to try to stay in the lead.  Abe just kept powering forward, pretty  enthused at the quickly growing gap that I was informing him of and that he was still running fast.  (haha, 10-11 minute mile pace is cruising for a 6 year old distance runner apparently).

Abe ran the rest of the way in and picked it up really well for the last 400 M.  He ended up beating the other kid by over 2 minutes in that last mile which was kind of funny.

He finished in 34:04 - a 10:57 avg pace.  And I couldn't be more proud of him in his first 5K.  He was tough and had a great attitude.  He has really grown up a lot in the last year...he would have quit that race a year ago when the going got tough and started bawling probably.

And although we didn't pay for race shirts, I bought him one afterward, and he was so stoked to have it.  He was proud of himself, and definitely earned that shirt.  They only had men's medium sizes left so its way too big for him, but he was stoked still the same.  He'll probably wear it to bed for the next number of years and fondly remember his accomplishment of finishing his first 5K.

Its pretty cool how he and Breanne find joy in running so young.  Maybe they will burn out by the time they are 10.  Or maybe they will love it all their lives.  Either way we wouldn't force that or anything on them...but its pretty cool for now that they get so psyched about it and have so much fun doing it. 

After the race, nan and I ran up mueller park trail which was a really nice time.  Great trail. 

Easy hour+ run in Herriman, UT staying with some friends out there for the 4th.  ~600' vert.

Easy jog with Nan on some paths in Herriman.  Finished off with 3 miles barefoot on the sidewalks.

6.5 miles easy up skunk canyon, down enchanted mesa.  59 minutes - 1000' vertical.

Easy 7 miles with Brendan around Buffalo Ranch before he headed out to pace Nick Clark at Hard rock.  I'm stoked to see how that race goes down this weekend.  I'm jealous of Brendan and his pacing duties for Nick down there.

Very nice barefoot cruise for an hour around the bike paths.  Summer is awesome!  Tomorrow I have nothing on the schedule...i'm thinking in honor of all those hard rockers I'm going to drag my own butt up a 14er in the morning.

Easy 8 miler with Nan up lehigh street, across to lower bluestem, home on marshall with a mile of barefoot at the end on the bike path.

Did my first speed workout in about 3+ weeks.  It felt hard.  Man, when I don't run fast for a while, even just a few weeks, and then I go back to it, the heart and legs seem to not like it so much.  But if I do it consistently, I find that I crave the periodic speed/hard doses.  And they don't hurt so bad.

 It probably didn't help that I miscalculated my pace on all my splits.

I was going to do 8 x 400 on the path.  I started out and did the first one in 1:06.  Thinking to myself that was 76 seconds.  Oops!  I then proceeded to think 1:06 meant 76 seconds on all the subsequent repeats.  So I was getting more and more annoyed and feeling out of shape that I wasn't able to hit 76 second quarter mile repeats.  I kept coming short of the quarter mile in the 76 seconds.

 Afterward on my cool down it finally dawned on me.  

Then I felt like a total math whiz!  

Then I didn't feel so bad about my fitness after all.  My actual pace on all the repeats ranged between 4:45 to 5:15 per mile (some up hill, some down hill).  So I wasn't as bad off as I assumed, that's actually right where I expected to be. 

10.5 miles total - 1:20 total time.  a few hundred feet vert, tops. 

On a side note, Brian Beckstead was in town today, and at Nan's request, dropped her off a pair of Altras.  And now I'm SUPER jealous of her.  Those things look awesome!  I can see now jun why you are continually going off about them.  I wish I was elite so they would give me a free pair too!  Or I wish they actually had them in stock so I could actually buy a pair.  They look like pretty sweet running shoes to me. 

Easy 7 ish miles.  Up past fairview, n. shanahan to mesa and back down.

A little over an hour,  ~1000' vert.

In honor of the first mountain stage of the tour de france I decided to go ride my bike up a bunch of mountains.

Just kidding.  While I do love riding a bike of any variety, I couldn’t bring myself to spend the 3.5 hours this morning riding when I could spend it running over a few peaks.  I wish I had time to be bike and run a few hours a day…but alas, I have to choose at this point.  I still love watching the Tour de France though.  More this year than ever before since I just visited France and rode on many of the routes and mountains they are riding this year.

Today, being the first stage of that variety actually.  They climbed the tourmalet today, which we also climbed in May.  So I was pretty eager to watch the stage today.  The crowds were slightly bigger for them than when we were there.  Here we are standing at the top of the climb after riding it.  It was very similar conditions as the tour stage today with clouds at the top, but the clouds parted for us.  As you can see, there weren’t many people cheering us on at the top, as compared to today when the summit had thousands of people lined up all over the place.

Nan, Me, Matt and Ashley (my sis. and bro-in-law)

Within minutes of getting to the top, Jurgen Van Den Broeck showed up.  He couldn’t quite hold our pace as it turned out, so we beat him to the top.  But here he is pictured, in one of his training rides on the TDF route.  We chatted with him and his manager briefly.

On the stage today it was cool to see Frank Schleck attack the leaders today looking strong.  I like watching Frank and Andy.  Bummer about Radioshack all being pretty much beat down and crashed out of this years tour at this point.  It would be a total miracle if Levi or Kloden made it back to the podium at this point…not happening.

Anyway, as for my morning run, I got in 3 summits up the aforementioned peaks, about 5000 feet of vert. and about 16 miles on the route that I ran.  Tons of fun.  Took it pretty easy and was out for about 3.5 hours leaving at 5:45.

There’s a lot to love and enjoy about July.  But two things high on the list are long mountain runs in 65-70 degree sunshine and the Tour de France.  Its slightly harder to get started working each day I have noticed though.  Oh well…work can wait until August.

Here are some pics from this am.

1.5 miles from home at the trailhead

Green Mountain summit marker

Green Mountain/boulder view from Bear peak

S. Boulder peak from Bear

Easy barefoot cruise on the bike paths for about an hour.

Track workout FAILURE.

Was going to do 7 or 8 x 800M today.

Didn't get around to making it to the track until 5:30 pm - it was about 88 degrees out, which felt fine to me actually.

After my warmup and strides I started doing the 800's.

2:36, 2:41, 2:38, 2:50.

After struggling hard to pull out a 2:50 on the 4th one, I called it quits.  I was feeling kind of crappy, lacking motivation or energy to continue doing more of those.  And it was clear I should stop when it was hurting to pull out a 2:50.

I feel like I should have no problem doing 8 of those at 2:36-2:38 right now.  So I was kind of bummed about not feeling it.  But its just a day.  I'll hit the track again Tuesday and hopefully feel better. 

8 miles total. 

Easy hour up Koehler/Enchanted mesa, down skunk canyon.  Gorgeous morning.

~6.5-7 miles - ~1000' vert 

Had a much better feeling workout today than Saturday.

I think the difference was mostly because it was nice and cool in the morning.  But I was probably a little more fresh also.

Today after the warmup of 3 miles or so and strides I eased into some 400's, notching the pace down little by little until I got to the 73 range and then kept it there.

Here were my splits for 10 of them:

79, 77, 75, 72, 73, 73, 74, 73, 72, 72 

Did 200 meter recoveries between each. 

On the last one I tried to kick the last 200 meters to hit 70 seconds, but apparently I didn't have it in me.  It felt way harder than the previous 72, but the split wasn't any faster.  Clearly that was good timing to call it good for the day.

I'm going to do the west end 3K race this Thursday night.  My goal race pace will be to see if I can hold onto 77 second quarters for 7 in a row.  Its going to be tough...should be fun though.  The winner will probably hold 70-71 second quarter mile pace, based on previous results. 

8 easy and flat down to bobolink and up the s. boulder creek to marshall and home.  Beautiful Sunny morning run.

Really nice run this morning with Nan, easy on the bike paths.  I love the chances we get to run together and just chat without distractions.

I woke up at 4:30 this am and drove an hour and a half to pull weeds in this field.

It was a service project for church, had a good time chatting with the guys I rode up with and back.

Then I attempted a 24 mile loop from my house, to bluestem, to mesa, to doudy draw, to marshall mesa, singetree, marshall rode and home.

But I lost motivation after I got over to Coalton road in superior.  The 90 degrees was starting to set itself in upon me and I decided to call Nan to come pick me up on Marshall road.

Gorgeous run though, and I felt great, until the end when the sun had sucked all the water out of me.  Ended up running about 16.5 miles ending in old town superior with 1000′ total vertical in about 2:15- 2:20.

Some views from the route:

Bluestem Trail

Doudy Draw

Marshall mesa near coalton road

Swimming at Scott Carpenter Park with the family after the run…the water was nice and cool…very refreshing.

Shaking some rust off for the first 20 minutes or so today...nice and slow.  

Ran with Eric starting at the trailhead at NCAR this morning.

8 miles - 1:24:01 - 10:24/avg - 1770' vertical.

Ran a loop out the mesa trail to skunk canyon and back on the connector to mesa.  That trail has a lot more vertical than it seems.  It feels like you're running along the foothills and not gaining much, but always either up or down something steep about 15 different times, and the vert adds up quick.  I love the mesa trail, its a really fantastic trail through the forest with awesome views of the valley and the flatirons.

Sometimes directly after a 28-30 second 200 meter repeat when my heart is pounding and the nausea approaches rapidly, I ask myself as I walk or sloooowly plod around the curve, “Why the heck do you want to try and run a faster mile?”  And for the next 30 seconds I am nearly convinced that mile training sucks and I’ll just go back to training only for 50K to 50 mile events.

But then 30 seconds later I’m running another 200 meter repeat and loving the speed…until about the last 15 meters when the cycle and questions start over again.

Other times, when I have some company on the repeats, none of those questions pop up, and 28 seconds feels great.

Its an odd thing.

This morning I was able to start out the first couple 200′s with Patrick Hunt over at Fairview.  That was motivating enough to get me started right out the gate at 28′s.

Then I was on my own for the next 10 of them.  Halfway through, 90 seconds was still not quite enough recovery, and mentally I was caving in a bit as well.

Then I was able to jump in with Kenyon Newman and Bob on the last few, and I was right back to running 28′s.  Granted, I had a little more recovery between the last few.  But it was odd that at that point I felt like I could have done a few more at 28 whereas earlier I was falling off pace hard.

Here were my splits for the day.

4 X 100 to get moving: 19, 19, 18, 15

14 X 200: 28, 29, 28, 29, 31, 30, 29, 32, 32, 32, 33, 31, 28, 28

Felt good to get a decent set of fast running in the legs.  Next up is a saturday session of 400′s with some 200′s to finish off.  I’m shooting for 69-70 second quarters and will see how many of those I can hold.  My last set of 400′s I was averaging 73′s a couple weeks ago, so its going to be a bit of a stretch I think.  But I’m going to give it a shot.  Because if I’m going to come anywhere close to a 4:40 at the pearl street mile in a couple weeks I’m going to need to be able to hold the pace for a set of 400′s.

So how is this all going to help me run a 50 miler in steamboat in september you ask?

I have no idea.  But I find myself drawn to speed work at this point.  At least I’m still getting in a 15-20+ mile run in each week.  I see the 50 miler as a fun day running through the mountains.   I guess I’m not all that ambitious about running hard and fast at that distance at this point.  I really just want to complete a 50 miler.

And after last saturday when I bailed on my planned 24 mile route after only 16.5 miles of running in the heat, it makes me wonder a bit about that.  But that was in 90 degrees so I guess I can’t beat myself up too bad.  The heat was getting brutal.

 These shoes are money.  Jun wasn't lying.

The Altra Instinct – www.altrarunning.com

Thank you Golden Harper and Brian Beckstead.  For creating a shoe that fits a normal foot and doesn’t have a built in heel lift.

I mean honestly, how hard would it be for more shoe companies to just make a shoe like this?  Its not that hard people.  But while its not rocket science, I applaud and appreciate Brian and Golden for taking the risk to start a new shoe company to create footwear that promotes natural running form, since its obviously so hard for all the big companies to do it.

Sure they have been coming around slowly over the last number of years, but as I look around I still can’t find a shoe like this anywhere else.  Even the new balance minimus shoes still have a slight heel to toe drop and the shape of the shoe still isn’t ideal in my opinion.   And it doesn’t have to have a pocket for each toe and require odd looks and stares from all passers by in order to allow the foot to move like it should.  Its really quite simple:

A – make the shoe conform to the shape of a foot and not a foot to the shape of the shoe.  (granted, not all feet are created equal, I get that, so perhaps this is just the shoe that fits my foot best.  But I have a hunch a lot of people would like this shoe)

B – Make it the same thickness under the forefoot as at the heel.  I mean seriously…why rob the body of its natural propulsive power and efficiency by sticking a wedge under the heel?  That doesn’t make any sense at all to me.

This is the first shoe I have ever worn that truly fits my foot and allows my foot to ‘feel free to move about the cabin’, freely and comfortably.

After testing it on an 8.5 mile hour long run this morning, I am definitely digging it.

I’m very glad to finally have a shoe that fits and doesn’t have a built in heel lift.  Soooo glad.  Its quite refreshing and still making my day.

The shoes arrived yesterday and though I already had a nice road bike ride up to the top of flagstaff with Nan this morning, I had to get out and break them in afterward.  And they did not disappoint.  

7.5 miles easy barefoot on the bike paths with Nan.  About 1:03.  It has turned into a Friday routine to run with Nan, which I really like.  We have a girl who lives with us right now who watches the kids for us when we want in exchange for free rent.  It allows Nan and I to get out and run and ride together a couple times a week, not to mention free babysitting for date nights every week.  It's really nice.  Nan has been running barefoot with me for the last 10 minutes of our runs, working on strengthening her feet a bit more which should benefit her.

AM:  Attempted a 4 X 100 meter at goal mile pace (70 second intervals) workout this morning.

After 200 meters into the first one the top of each of my quads were feeling sore and strained.  I could tell I still wasn't quite recovered from Tuesdays 200's.  Further emphasizing with clarity that the repeated 28-29 second 200's was a bit too much for me at the moment.

I decided to try one more to see if I would warm up.

Nope, still straining.

I did both of the 400's in exactly 70 seconds.  But I called it quits and jogged home.

 PM: Got out for another easy run.  After warming up a mile or so it turned into one of those effortless runs that left me completely invigorated at 9:15pm when I got home.  I am thoroughly enjoying cruising around in the Altras.  Definitely the best fitting shoe I can ever recall wearing.  They contribute a lot to the smoothness and comfort of the run because my toes can spread out and it is the closest feeling to barefoot I have experienced while wearing a shoe.  Other than the fivefingers, but the fivefingers chaff me in a few spots which is annoying.  So I'm happy to have a shoe that is flat, fits the foot right, and doesn't chaff.