Artichoke's Running Blog (Ken Spence)

5 Miler on Standard route.  Quite slow in 47:15.  32 degrees and cold breeze.  Full sweats, hat, gloves.  I think my early morning running partners have bagged it for the winter.

Standard 5 miler in 46:08.  About 36 degrees at 5:00 a.m.  Felt fair.  Nothing to brag about.

Slow and easy 5 miles at 9:30 pace at 5:00 a.m.  Race tomorrow morning.

Cold Turkey Race went well today.  I placed 2nd out of 22 in the M50-54 division.  I had taken 1st the last two years, and even though I ran an almost identical time to last year, the first place guy had me by nearly a minute.  The weather ended up turning out great.  It rained on my drive all the way to the State Capitol and continued to rain lightly up until the time I got out to warm up and it quit.  It was dry the entire run and even a little bit of sun at the finish.  860+ runners finished.  A nice run to prepare for my over-eating the followed.

Easy 6 mile recovery run in 53:08, or about 8:50 pace.  Nice to have a weekday off from work be able to run in the daylight.  9:30  a.m., about 43 degrees.  Through town and up Middle Canyon about 1 mile and back via Vine and Main Streets.  Felt sore from yesterday's race.  The downhills pounded by quads.  10 miles scheduled tomorrow morning with Tina.  The trail will be too muddy so we'll probably do the Smelter Road or the city perimeter loop.  Watched the new movie "Run For Life" a documentary on Fred Lebow who started and directed the New York City Marathon.  It's pretty good and just barely came out this month.  I highly recommend it.

Smelter Road hills today.  Not another runner in sight.  Where is everybody?  10 miles, moderate effort going up, but we pushed the downhills some.  1:25:15 for 10, or about 8:30 pace.  Fastest mile = 7:10.  Legs still sore from race on Thursday.  35 miles this week.