Recovering From Microfracture Surgery

6 miles at 7:35 average pace with Sasha and Colby along the normal Provo River Trail. Legs are a bit sore from the hills on Saturday but ok. Knee was stiff as usual for the first mile or so and then was ok after that. I think I will maintain about 40-45 miles a week for the rest of May and then push up to about 50 miles a week in June if everything goes well.

9.5 mile easy run with Colby from BYU along Provo River Trail and Carterville Road. Averaged 7:27 pace overall. Felt a bit tired today but towards the end started to feel better. Finished the last 1/2 mile in 3:05.

Big group today at with Sasha. Normal 6 mile route along river with Sasha, Jeff, Colby, Tyler and we picked another up towards the end as well. We were moving a bit faster than normal today running sub 7:30 pace by the three mile turn around. Then Sasha wanted to do one of his FAT miles at about 6:00 pace so I decieded to join him and Jeff for this. I felt pretty decent so I stayed with them for the whole thing. We ran a 5:51 mile on the slight uphill section of the trail. I think we hit 1/4 splits of 89, 87, 88, 86. After that we slowed down so we could all group back up. We ended up running 7:08 average for the 6 miles with the last 3 miles at an average pace of 6:48. Feels good to run sub 6:00 pace every once in awhile again and the knee handled it ok as well.

Easy run with Colby and Vern along Provo River Trail and then Carterville Road. Averaged 7:11 pace overall with the last 7 miles at 7:05 pace average getting a little faster each mile with last mile in just under 6:40. Good day to be a runner!

Easy 6 miles from Sasha's house with a big group of 6 today. Ran average pace of 7:34 relaxed and talking with Sasha, Jeff, Colby, Tyler and Vern. Knee ok but lower back was stiff for some reason.

I was helping with the ROTC "George Q" Cannon today for the start of the Run13 Smile Center Memorial 10K and 5K in Orem. Since I was there I decided to run the 10K since I needed to run 6 miles today anyway. Considering this was a first year race it had a pretty good and fast crowd going after the first place prize money of $100. There were several BYU Track runners present in both races along with Seth Wold in the 5K and Josh McAdams in the 10K. Obviously Josh McAdams won the 10K just running with the other BYU lead runner and then outkicking him at the end with a time of 31 something if I remember right. In the 5K Seth Wold won with a slow time as he was pacing the female BYU runner Sarah ???. He was first in 17:30 and she was first female and second overall with a 17:32. After that times dropped off a bit but overall another great race by Jeff Gehring and Run13. I easily think they are the best race directors around right now. So on to my race report.

I wanted this to be a tempo of sorts but just try and stay fairly comfortable and see if I could run under 39:00. The legs were not feeling great but overall I met my goal of breaking 39:00.  The conditions were a bit on the warm and very windy at the start. It was a big loop course with almost no elevation change so potentially a fast course. However, we found out very quickly the wind was going to be a beast early on and at the end. The first mile was into a pretty decent right front cross wind. It didn't feel terrible but you could feel it for sure. Right from the start 4 runners took off together and I was all by myself in 5th. I could hear the first female, a BYU runner, just behind me for a little while but I was not sure how far back as I did not look back. I think the first 2 miles were a gradual up as we were running towards Provo Canyon. Just before the 1 mile mark we turned directly towards Provo Canyon and met the wind straight in the face. At this point you could feel the full force of the wind and it was pretty brutal. We were most certainly climbing ever so gradually and into a nasty head wind. This mile really took a lot more energy out of me than I was planning on. Still all by myself and thinking I could hear someone not far behind. In my mind I kept thinking it must be the BYU runner and top female and was hoping I could maintain my pace as long s possible and try not to get chicked. After a little over two miles into the wind we turned into a neighborhood and know for the next few miles we would at least have a crossing tailwind. This was good news but I could still feel the legs hurting from the effort into the wind. The bad news was the last mile was back into the stiff head wind. I struggled during this last mile with the wind and was expecting to get passed by the lead female at any moment. I refused to look back an see if I was correct. I made it to the finish in 38:47 and actually did not get passed. After I finished I was correct that the lead female runner, from BYU, was the next person to finish after me. She ended up about 30 seconds back and she was 5th overall. So overall pretty pleased with 4th overall and 1st in my age group considering where I am at in my comeback. I still have a long ways to go to but I am happy that I was able to enjoy this race even with the challenge of the wind and running all alone the entire run. Hopefully this will become more like marathon pace eventually versus threshold pace right now. Anyway another day I was given the blessing to run and race so no complaints whatsoever. My splits are below:

Mile 1	6:00 slight up and crossing head wind
Mile 2	6:20 slight up and very strong head wind (this killed)
Mile 3	6:10 recovering from head wind with legs dead
Mile 4	6:12 just trying to hold pace
Mile 5	6:25 turned into a crossing head wind the second half of this mile
Mile 6	6:26 slight up and with a brutal head wind again (just wanted to get to the finish)
.2 miles	1:14 so able to finish at about 6:08 pace even with head wind and dead legs