Going With The Flow

AM - Back-to-back hard days. Goal of today was to get my legs used to running downhill in preparation for Top of Utah Half.

Ran relatively easy pace up Emigration Canyon for 6 miles (7:45 pace), then 6 mile tempo down the canyon (5:41, 5:45, 5:43, 5:36, 5:33, 5:39). This run is ~2% downhill gradient, but I was very happy with this effort. Especially after the race yesterday! Cooldown at probably 10 min/mile pace :o)

Got home and took an ice bath. Laughed at Jake for being a baby and taking 5 minutes just to get in the ice bath. Now time for some relaxing by the pool!

PM - Rode the bike while Jake ran his shakeout 4.5 miles.

AM - I am TIRED. The combination of my biggest mileage week ever and two really tough workouts caught up to me. Ran 4.5 miles very slow and easy.

PM - 40 min of strength class (only about 50% effort). Went to Sugarhouse to run 3.5 miles, but hit the wall at 3.1 miles. My body is exhausted. Hopefully I'll have my legs back under me in time for workout on Wednesday.

AM - I think that 9.5 hours of sleep and wearing my Saucony Amp Pro2 recovery tights made me feel better this morning. Still a slow 4.5 miles, but I should be ready for a hard workout tomorrow.

PM - Went to Sugarhouse to do 3-4 miles, but started running and my right lower leg immediately cramped on me. Weird. I have been having some soreness in my arch to the point where pronation of my right foot causes some pain. So I've tried to be extra careful with lots of icing and massaging. Maybe the posterior and/or anterior tibialis muscles, hard to know. Once I iced my leg, I did a mile jog to see if it would still cramp, but seemed okay. I was wearing an ankle brace all day, so maybe that irritated it somehow. So workout tomorrow is on, but if I feel any discomfort then I'm stopping.

AM - Woke up around 5:15 and started grumbling about how it's too early, then realized I still got 8 hours and need to get over it! Is it sad that I'm 24 years old and go to bed at 9pm? Don't answer that.

Jake and I headed up to Liberty Park and met up with Emily. Warmup 2 miles. I could feel a little tightening in my right leg, but after stretching it seemed fine. Workout was 3 x 2 x 1 mile w/ .5 mile jog between. Splits were 18:25, 11:55, 5:40 (or close to that; I had to make up for cutting a few tangents).  I was well under my target paces of 19:00, 12:20, and 6:00, probably due to the fact that Emily was there and I was rested from the last two days. Workouts are so much better with a partner! I felt very strong today.

The rest of the week is easy - YAY!

PM - Easy 2 miles while getting new tires on my car.

AM - 10 miles easy around Millcreek with Allie and Jake. 7:40 pace.

AM - Horsepark loop 4.4 miles. Slow and easy 8:10 pace.

I decided to run the Dart Challange 5k up in Kaysville tomorrow. Since this is a very flat, fast course, my goal is to break 17:30. That's a 24 second PR! I don't think this is too far of a stretch - I ran 17:57 at the Charitable Trust 5K with a significant hill for the last 0.5 mile. We'll see.

PM - 1 mile shakeout.

In short - I hit my goal! 29 second PR feels great.

Warm up was worrisome. I ran about a quarter mile and then pain from my ankle to the area around the top of my fibula. It's so hard to explain (definitely not shin splints, I've had those before). I stretched and massaged for a few minutes and then tried to run again. After 4-5 steps, the pain got increasingly worse and so I stopped again. More massaging and stretching, longer break. I found that if I ran in a circle counter-clockwise the pain was very mild, so that's what I did for about 5 minutes. Luckily no one was around! I ran on the grass and that seemed to help too. So I was finally able to finish a 2 mile warm-up. I decided that if it was still acting up during strides, I would not race.

Once I put on my racing flats and ran to the start line, there was no pain. I'm wondering if the shoes I warmed up in are the problem - the last three times I have worn them, the pain developed. But could it be something more?

Okay, so now the race recap. Before the race, Corbin (Davis XC Coach) informed me that I might have some good competition this morning - Morgan Haws from BYU was there (PR 5000m 16:14, 10000m 33:39, All-American, etc). I was hoping that she would be close and we could work together!

I went out a little fast (those high schoolers really like to gun it off the start). I finally eased into a good pace by the half mile and Morgan was right there with me. Mile 1 - 5:31. Not bad. We ran together through mile 2 - 5:35. We were both running a steady hard pace, working together. It was great. I made it to about 2.7 miles with her, then she threw in a surge. She made it look so easy! I didn't have that extra effort in me. Mile 3 - 5:40. I pushed it through the finish about 5 seconds behind Morgan with a time of 17:25.

I am very happy with my performance. Part of me is disappointed that I couldn't push a little harder to stay with Morgan, but I have to put it in perspective. I ran hard, ran a new PR, and felt strong while I was racing. Hard to beat that.

Cooldown with Allie and James (Fiddy). I wanted to get 12 in for the day, so 6.9 miles. Talked with Corbin and Janae (other Davis XC Coach) for a while. They have 70-80 kids on their team! That's awesome, and overwhelming. Janae is 8 months pregnant, about 5' tall, and her stomach is sticking out about a foot and a half! She is so cute.

Anyway, great local race. I definitely recommend it for a fast time. The course is very flat, with several turns (making tangents very important).