Going With The Flow

AM - 15 miles on Jeremy Ranch Road. Goal was to go a nice, sustainable pace. Went out a little slower this time on the way out, and it made the run much more enjoyable on the uphill back. Ended up being about the same as my 14 miler last weekend - 7:17 pace overall. I thought about going a little further, but one step at a time. I think it was actually harder to ride 4 miles on the bike while he finished his run!

Afterwards, I took my first ice bath in 7 years. About as terrible as I remembered! 

AM - 4.4 miles horsepark loop. Feeling some soreness from the race and long run back to back = easy runs today.

PM - 5.6 miles with Jake, flat and easy.

AM -9.5 miles total, great workout this morning! I felt strong.

2 mile warmup
2 mile tempo  (5:50, 5:38)
4 min recovery jog
8 x 400m (all ~80 seconds, 5:20 pace)
1.5 mile cooldown.

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PM - 2.2 miles at Wheeler Farm. Decided to stop here on my way home since I had never run there before. Pretty nice ~1.5 mile loop, just a little smelly from all the animals!

AM - Legs needed an easy day, so this run was more about time on my feet for a medium-long run of 10 miles. My running felt "off" - stride didn't feel smooth, ground felt too hard, just one of those days. 7:50 pace.

On a positive note, I haven't had five days in a row of 10+ miles in a long time - I'm just glad that the increased mileage isn't having much of an effect on my back (probably steady at 85%). Stretching and abs every day is working! I am also a firm believer in the exercise ball at work now too. Going to take the rest of the day off.

 PM - Okay, I know I said I was going to take the rest of the day off, but I ate a bunch of junk today and also wanted to be outside for a little bit. So I just ran 2 miles easy!

AM - Met up with Allie this morning for a nice 7.3 miles around Sugarhouse area. Hopefully she didn't hate it and will run with me again next week!!

PM - 1.5 miles on the grass in Sugarhouse. Was planning to do some 200s, but after two pathetic ones I realized that the legs didn't have it in them and stopped. Definitely for the better - I've done a lot this week.

On a side note, I made it to the gas station with only 2 miles left on my car's gas meter today (very nerve-racking situation). I am notorious for taking the fuel tank way lower than I ever should, not really sure why except that I hate putting gas in my car. Anyway, it always makes me think of my first date with Jake. It was after a soccer game, and when we got in my car I had one mile to go with the closest gas station at about a mile from us. Made it, luckily, but I'm pretty sure that first impression is what made Jake fall in love with me :o)

AM - 4.4 miles easy. 15K Trail Race in Park City tomorrow. Get to wear my new bright pink Saucony Hurricanes uniform for the first time!

Best part about my job  - Half Day Fridays from Memorial Day to Labor Day!

AM - Jake and I got a free entry to the 15K for helping out at an aid station in the 10K. Since we are planning on running the XTERRA National Championship in Sept, this seemed like a good idea. What I really enjoy about trail races are that the times/paces are irrevelant, distances are approximate, and they are typically low-key. All three were true in this case.

This course has about 600 ft of elevation gain and stays between 6300-7000 ft. After 1.5 mile warmup and some strides, the race began and we were off. Splits were all over the place, from 6:05 to 7:25 min/mile. Definitely some big hills and very windy. For much of the downhill sections there was a switchback every 40 ft or so which made it pretty tough to get any speed at all. The uphills destroyed me a little bit too (I blame that on the altitude). I should probably run more hills in training. I decided that this race would be a pretty awesome mountain biking course, so that's now on the list of things to do.

Overall, the race was exactly as planned - a hard tempo run. It wasn't as fast as a typical tempo I would do, but definitely the same effort level. The best part of the race was wearing my new bright pink Saucony uniform!

Got a quick massage after the race and won some Smartwool socks in the raffle. Cooldown for 2 miles. Fun morning!

PM - 12 mile bike total. Rode up to the Tour of Utah race. Wow - those cyclists are FAST.

From August 2011