Go slow to go fast.

I was just going to take it easy today.  And that's always fine and dandy until I start running down Simms hill which always encourages a 5:20 pace for a half mile at which point its hard to slow down for some reason.  Inertia?  I don't know, but after that I couldn't convince myself to go slow again, so I just enjoyed hammering it up the next mile climb.  Normally I'm sucking wind at the top of this hill just to hold 8:30's, but today I never slowed below 7:20.  Hmmm...that's cool I guess.  I've still got a ways to go though before I'm at the fitness level I would like to be at...the kind of fitness that may allow me to actually hang with this past Saturday's Boulder group run like this.  I strongly considered going on this run...but I couldn't justify taking the entire morning/early afternoon off from my moving/family duties (oh and then there's the piece about me not even being in the same county any more as these guys after even the first climb so what would be the point of the 'group run' for me right?)

Today: 5 miles - 36:49 (7:22) - HR: 144 - 310 feet ascent 

Looking back it appears that October (168 miles) was my biggest month of mileage ever (which isn't even as much as some crazy people run in a week, but which feels great for me to be notching it up a bit).  And I'm feeling really good.  I think I'm going to do a Turkey day 10K in Bountiful UT on Thanksgiving (just since we'll be staying there with family) to see where I'm at on the 10K scene...I think I will shoot for 37:xx...I've never gone under 38 in a 10K, so I'm interested to see what I can do now that I have been getting in some consistent road mileage.  I'd love to get in the 36's, which means a sub 5:57 pace, but kind of doubt if I'm up to that for a 10K just yet.

Took it nice and really slow this morning.  That was what the body was calling for and that is what I gave it, and it was very rejuvenating.  Felt like I was able to work out some minor kinks and stiffness by running really easy for an hour.

7 Miles - 58:48 (8:24) -  HR: Mid to low 130's

Beautiful morning run through the dog park and around the pond. 

Took it really easy again with 5 miles in 8:32 pace - 42:43

Did an hour of p90x core with Nan afterward

Met a realtor named Jeff at lunch and rode an out and back (about 9-10 miles and ~2K feet climbing) at Walker Ranch on the mountain bikes.  WOW it was gorgeous out there.  60 degrees, sunny, calm, and we had the mountain almost to ourselves.  Is it really November???  Really glad to get out for an hour+ ride with the excuse that it had something to do with business. 

nothing.  just feeling like a day off and sleeping in until 8 was in order...and it was indeed.

Pretty easy 5 miles this morning, felt good, wished I had more time to keep running but I got caught up doing some work in the wee hours of the AM and didn't get out in time to do more and still be back in time for Nan to get her run in.

 5:07 miles to be exact - 39:57 - 7:53 avg - HR: 141 avg - 300 feet ascent

Decided I'm going to do Nan's workout schedule with her this week and possibly push into the 50+ mile week for my first time ever.  I've been hovering in the mid 40's most weeks lately, with a lighter week last week of only 31, so it feels like a good week to up the ante a little bit.

Today was 7 miles easy with 6x30 second strides in the middle somewhere.

I also couldn't resist running up simms hill as part of the easy.  Didn't push it hard, but still pulled out a 7:25 mile up and down it.  Pushing hard up and down it would be a 6 min. mile.

Then I did the 30 sec. strides at these paces: 5:45, 5:28, 5:23, 5:23, 5:23, 5:17 - with 60 seconds slow between each.

7 Miles - 56 minutes - (7:59 avg) - HR: 139 avg - Pretty easy effort...legs and everything felt great.

Super easy 5 mile recovery run to just move the legs this morning - 45 Min - HR: mid 120's

Mostly easy medium-long run today.

Felt really easy the first half.  HR pace was a little higher coming back home after 7 miles and my legs were moderately tired...so it didn't feel totally easy.  And the last mile up hill to my house I pushed the HR pace just to finish the run in a slightly negative split on the second half, felt good.

14 Miles - 1:47:16 (7:39) - HR: 140 Avg - 460' ascent. 

5 really slow and easy through the dog park on a cold but sunny morning - 8:50 pace.

Did some p90X core stuff after. 

4 mile Tempo workout this am.

warmed up for 2, then another .5 with a few strides.

Then I did 4 miles at 6:11 pace with these splits:

• 6:03 - 49' net descent - HR 141 avg -159 max
• 6:05 - 10' net ascent - HR 161 avg - 164 max
• 6:15 - 58' net ascent - HR 165 avg - 167 max
• 6:21 - 10' net ascent - HR 165 avg - 168 max (that was a tough mile!)

It's a beautiful thing.  Living at that base of the flatirons.  I am pretty psyched about where we live now.

Ran out my door step, about a 1/2 mile to where the dirt starts.

Steve (an ultra runner who lives around the corner) met up with me for my inaugural Boulder run, along with his friend Ricardo and his dog.  It was great running with Steve again, and meeting Ricardo.  Steve is good company and someone to try to keep up with as he is definitely in better uphill running shape than me and has run up and down green lots of times.

Snow was falling lightly, temp was about 30 degrees, felt great with long sleeves and gloves.

It was fitting that the mayor of Green mountain breezed by us on his way down as we were on our way up bear canyon.  Although he had some different looking shoes on than I would have expected.  And in analyzing his tread the rest of the way up the mountain from his foot prints in the snow (the only foot prints on the trail that morning so far) I was almost convinced they were inov-8's he was running in.  But I'm not so sure, and it seems unlikely that he would be running in inov8's...maybe I'll ask him on his blog and see if it was perhaps the new mystery 101's he's been talking about.  But the tread was entirely different than the current 101's and very similar to inov8 tread.  Maybe inov8 is making him an offer?  I doubt he would be switching from NB at this point though...but you never know.

It was snowing less on the peak than down lower, just a dusting of snow on the trails the whole way up really.

12 miles from my door to the top and back.  3000' elevation gain.  2:09 today.  11:01 pace.  Taking it pretty easy the whole way, walking some of the really steep stuff.  My calves were kind of feeling it most of the way up from the tempo run on Saturday finishing my biggest mileage week ever so far last week (52...yeah...not that big for some of you, but for me doing 45-50 lately is a marked improvement).

Easy run at 8:30 pace around the paved trails east of our house on the flat land.

Starting to feel sick...annoying. 

Woke up with a nasty sore throat...have been pounding emergen-c etc., didn't feel like doing anything today

Felt almost back to 100% today...guess the megaloads of vitamins I pounded paid off quick.

Had a really fun, mellow, cruise through the trails at the base of the flatirons in the crisp winter sun this morning.  Very fun run just exploring.

1:25 - 10:20 pace - 1600' vert.  - 85% single track from my door step...I think I am in love with where I live.

Took me a long time to warm up this morning.  I guess the recent influx of hill running during the week must have taken a slight toll on me this week...that and it was a foggy and humid morning at 6 AM and I'm trying to recover from a really annoying cold I got nailed with this week.

Today was to be my last main 'repeat' workout before the 5K next week...but my motivation/energy level for it was kind of lacking due to the above reasons.  Today was one of those days having a group to run with would have probably pulled me through.  As it was, I only made it through 2/3 of the workout before bailing and cruising easy for home.

After my warmup I did a 12 min supposedly half marathon pace.  But it was rough.  I was struggling just to keep it under 7 min. pace and by body just felt lethargic and weird...the speed gear wasn't there.  An on top of that I did the whole 12 minutes at a slight uphill.  Hence the slow pace -  6:55 for 12 min.

Then I was going to do 4 x 4 min hard X 1 min rest X 1 min really hard.

But I already felt like running slow the rest of the way home.  But I sucked it partially up and started my first repeat, going the slight downhill direction.

That felt better, I was more warmed up and now a bit rested and going downhill so I hit a 5:47 pace.  Not where I wanted to be, but at this point I realized today I wasn't firing on all cylinders so I would just make the best of it.

Then 1 min back uphill struggled to hold 5:40 for even 1 min.

Then an uphill grind for 4 min with a struggle to pull off 6:10

Then another 1 minute, downhill direction in which I was determined to avg under 5 and squeaked in a 4:59 for that minute.

Then I had had enough.  Bailed on the final two 4 min and 1 min repeats and just jogged home.

Better than nothing, but not the ideal workout.  Still felt good to get out and do at least some harder effort today though.

I'm waiting to cast judgment on what impact the slower paced hill running is having on my flat speed.  In the short term, it seems to have been detrimental, but I think that's just because I'm tired and sick. 

9.2 Miles - 8:02 avg - 1:14 - HR 145 avg - 320' ascent

Weekly Summary: 42 Miles - 6770' vert 

Super easy recovery run around CU campus, past Boulder High, and back home on the broadway trail.  Evening run in the dark around Boulder only crossing 1 intersection going right through the heart of boulder both directions...Boulder is kind of into trails apparently.  I like it here.

7.25 - 59:40 - 8:14 pace - HR: 132 avg  - Nice and really easy cruise around town...feeling pretty good.

Did a moderate workout with Nan and the Running Republic tonight.

I purposefully held back a notch on the repeats and it made it feel slightly easier than previous workouts, but it was still a solid effort...I don't think I was very far backed off when I look at the paces.  Nan was of course doing the same, not going all out, only she was a distance ahead on each one.  

 Here were my splits:

10 minutes at 5:50 pace, 3 minute slow, 4 X 2.5 minutes at these: 5:44, 5:40, 5:46, 5:53.

The coach said we should do half marathon pace on the 10 minute interval...oops.  I'm pretty certain 5:50 is not my current half marathon pace...probably more like 6:30-6:45 is a lot more realistic for that.  So perhaps I pushed that interval harder than I should have 2 days before a race.  Oh well...too late now.  It felt good and smooth, so I went with it.  I wasn't maxing my effort at least.

The 2.5 minute intervals felt relatively easy going at just a slightly faster pace but for much less time.  The last two were more uphill, the first two were slight down hill.  It was a pretty even and good feeling effort.

Hopefully the roads aren't icy on Thursday...its going to be friggin' cold, but as long as its not icy it should be alright for the race.

Looking forward to seeing how the last month or two of training will translate in a race.

wow...felt really stiff today in the left hip after yesterday's workout...guess I pushed it too hard after all.

Farmington Turkey Leg 5K

I think people were scared off by the chilly weather…but it turned out to be a gorgeous morning to be out for a 5K.  And fortunately the roads were almost entirely dry and ice free on the course.   Turned out to be a really fun race and as always a great way to start out Thanksgiving Day.  I’m filled with gratitude at the moment for many things.  My amazing wife and children that I am so blessed to be with topping the list, right along with the blessing of feeling fit and healthy and spiritually at peace, and having an abundance of good things in my life.

Nan and I were among the first to arrive at the race at about 8:20 – we were dressed in 4+ layers and we cruised the course for a warm up.  It was good to get a preview of the course.  The last 1/3 of a mile was on a snow/ice packed trail and we knew it was going to affect the pace at the end somewhat, but otherwise, the course was nice and dry.

But I knew the middle mile of pure uphill was going to be the crux for me today.  My goal after previewing the course and seeing what I was up against was to run 5:45 the first mile, then hold 6:00 pace for the uphill mile, and then hopefully 5:45 or under the last mile in order to squeeze in under 18 minutes.

Well…I couldn’t quite pull off the plan unfortunately. Everything was pretty close to right on except that middle mile.

I only held onto a 6:20 pace the middle mile and that extra 20 seconds is almost exactly what I missed my goal by.  I was actually auto-splitting my garmin at ½ mile increments because I wanted to see the splits in more detail.  So I was shooting for 3 minute half miles those middle 2, but I hit 3:10’s on both.  After that I was pretty sure it was going to be a long shot to pull off a sub 18, so I set a new goal of trying to real in the 3^rd place dude, who had been coming back to me the entire 2^nd mile, as he had gone out with Nan and the other leader, and was running big positive splits.

I reeled him in to within about 10 yards after the downhill, and held him there for the last ¾ mile, but once we hit the final ¼ he pulled out a stronger kick than me and ended up beating me by 20-30 yards, and about 10 seconds I think.

It was a really fun race though.  I suppose looking back I could have pushed myself harder.  Mentally I didn’t feel like I had a very deep dig in me today.  But I felt like I ran a really steady, even race.  I’m OK with it.  I think my biggest mistake in analyzing the week is that I probably worked out too hard on Tuesday.  Coach D told us to do 10 minutes at half marathon pace and I ended up doing it at 5K pace.  I think I would have had more in the tank today if I would have taken it more easy on Tuesday, because yesterday my butt muscle hurt pretty bad and I was a bit stiff.

Anyway, we had a fun time.  But…I wasn’t at puke level by the end of the race, so obviously I didn’t fulfill the purpose of the 5K…oh well…next time.

Here are my ½ mile splits from the race and totals for the day:

2:53:78, 2:57:54, 3:10:25, 3:09:69, 2:45:31, 3:00:96, 0:25 (4:47 pace the last .1)

18:21 total – 5:57 pace – avg HR: 167 – Max HR: 175 - 160' Ascent

I know I can push a lot harder than that, last 5K I tracked HR my heart rate maxed at 185, and averaged about 176 a year ago, and then I only ran 20:33.  Not sure what to make of that.  Does that just show I should be pushing it harder and running faster, or what?

10 miles on the day with the warm up and cool down. 

I love the days like this when I get to run and race with Nan.  Its fun.  Normally we have to switch off running/watching the kids.

Nan took 2^nd today in about 17:20. A high school runner dude beat her by just a little bit.

AAbout 2 mile point

 Pics taken by jun, thanks for posting jun.

Finishing

Did a workout with Nan and Allie this morning around the road loop in sugarhouse park.

 My motivation lacked a little bit since I was done with my once per year 5K and don't have any road racing plans looming.  But I got into it after we started and was able to outsprint Nan on all the 1 minute intervals...only to the proceed to suck major wind and get severely dropped on all th subsequent 3 minute intervals.  Allie and I kind of traded off on the 3 minute intervals...I would sometimes go ahead on the uphill and downhills and she would tend to either reel me in or gap me on the flats.

Here are my totals follow by the splits.  We did a 30 minute warmup, then a 10 min at half marathon pace, then 4 x 3 min fast, 1 min rest, 1 min hard with 15 pushups in between each set.

11.5 miles - 1:35 - 8:15 avg - 660' ascent/descent (thats kind of a hilly loop) 

10 min interval: 6:27 pace

3 min. interval paces: 6:08, 6:17, 6:26, 6:39 - we all seemed to get consistently slower each one of these, that's because on the early two we netted a down hill for 3 minutes, the last 3 minutes netted a 48 foot ascent.  Our effort was pretty even I think.

1 min interval paces: 5:16, 5:19, 5:00, 4:59 - the first two were uphill and the 2nd two were slight down hill.

That was a good feeling workout....nice to get the legs moving a little faster. 

Weekly review: 48 Miles - 3500' ascent 

Ahhhhhhh....green mountain.  I like it...a lot.

After the normal day off running yesterday, My legs were feeling fresh and itching to go up a mountain.  I was actually kind of bummed that it didn't snow a bunch over night because I really enjoyed the snow running on Friday with spikes...but I wasn't too bummed.  The dry trail all the way up to the top of Green this morning was nice also...and there will be plenty of snow runs over the next couple months I'm sure.

2:15 - 12.5 Miles - 10:56 pace - 3000' ascent

It felt so great to be running up and down a mountain today.  I'm really pleased with where I'm at at the moment.  I don't feel like I'm in great mountain running shape, because I've been running so much flat stuff lately, but my legs feel really good.  I've been consistently getting 45-50 miles a week for the last 6-8 weeks with only a couple smaller week exceptions, and I feel the consistency showing in my ability to recover and feel strong on each of my runs. 

Easy run around town through the lower foothills.

Beautiful sunny, 35-40 degree, dry morning.  

7 Miles - 57:50 - 8:16 avg - 480' ascent - really easy, light effort, just cruising. 

Anyone else excited to see how the NF50 plays out this weekend?  That's going to be an epic showdown for sure.  Any predictions on the top 3 places?  I think I'm going with Tony, Geoff, and then Dakota.  I think it would be cool to see the current Coloradoans sweep the top three, but its a tough guess on the win here.  I would predict Geoff if it were 100 miles, but I'm leaning toward Tony in this case.  But really, the field is so deep, there are probably 7-8 others who could just nearly as likely win it.