A Balance, Redefined

Single: Easy family day. It is so beautiful out today. Went to Liberty Park with Kaitlyn and Sandra. We ran a loop together and then I continued on by myself while they played in the park. Finished the run by going down the big green slide with Kaitlyn a few times. Just a great day. My knee/calf was still a little funny but my foot did not have pain today. This week will mostly be easy miles focused on some good turnover for next Saturday. Congrats to all the great performances yesterday. You all rock!!! Mi 5-T2 Avg. 8:13 HR 137

Asics DS-Trainer #1: 198 / / Asics DS-Trainer #2: 212 / / Saucony Rides #1: 200 / / Saucony Rides #2: 187

Single: Back to work. Full but productive day. My schedule worked out so that I was running right at the hottest part of the day went out at 3:30pm. Ran to the City Creek drinking fountain and back. Kept it relatively easy, which was easy to do in 87F weather. Mi 8-R2 Avg. 7:58 HR 148

Asics DS-Trainer #1: 198 / / Asics DS-Trainer #2: 212 / / Saucony Rides #1: 200 / / Saucony Rides #2: 196

Single: Initially I was going to run today as a double but my schedule wasn't going to let that happen. I did have a big window this morning so I adjusted. My initial plan was for some more "hard" miles but I opted out for a few "MP" miles. I was wiped out from last week and actually slept nearly 8-hrs last night. Then got out the door at ~7am for a City Creek + MG extension run. I did the MP miles as 2X2 Avg. ~6:10. My HR monitor broke today. I looked down and it said 225 I took it off and carried it the rest of the way and it never went below 180?!? When I got back it turns out that there is a small crack near the battery and some sweat got in there and the battery ruptured... I'll call Garmin today or tomorrow and see if they'll replace it... The run otherwise was great. It was a little cool at the start especially in the canyon and then warmed up to almost hot by the end. The creek is so full of water and is so relaxing to listen to. Mi 13-R2 Avg. 8:04

Asics DS-Trainer #1: 198 / / Asics DS-Trainer #2: 212 / / Saucony Rides #1: 200 / / Saucony Rides #2: 209

AM: Be careful what you wish for... Earlier this week I "complained" how we skipped straight to the middle of summer. Well today was a classic spring day, cold and rainy. It actually felt good. The only problem was that my hands were cold the first half, then they were just numb :). One thing I had forgotten running the desert these last two years was the joys of a wet shirt, let's say band aids would have been nice... Mi 8-R1 Avg. 8:20

PM: Treadmill run. Easy. Right knee is a little "funny" not sore just off... Mi 4-T1 Avg. 8:00

Asics DS-Trainer #1: 202 / / Asics DS-Trainer #2: 212 / / Saucony Rides #1: 208 / / Saucony Rides #2: 209

I have to admit my EYES ARE OPEN!!! I didn’t realize how large the blog had grown. Initially I was going to post my vote request to everyone who posted in the last three days. However, I only had a 15 minute break so I barely made it through today and it isn’t even over yet!!! That is truly amazing. That does bring to question a different discussion going on right now (http://fastrunningblog.com/forum/index.php/topic,338.0.html). I know there are more people on the blog that would be great training partners virtual or real but we need to have some way of subgrouping so that we can get in touch. In all honesty I usually only have about 15 minutes a day (obviously today I've spent more than that) that I can devote to the blog and that is not enough time to meet all the great people that I “saw” in passing during my leaflet campaign. I hope I didn’t annoy you all with the random post. Just curious to see what the response will be. Thank you for bearing with me…

Single: I'm not sure why I've been consumed by this mileage issue. I think part of it is that the purpose of the blog to me is as a tool to learn what training it takes to get better. For that we need to be able to see what training people are doing at a glance we don't all have the luxury of working from home and spending multiple hours each day on the blog. That is why I think the best way to do this is to have a way of knowing who's running what who's crossing training what and what combinations work best for what people to accomplish what goals. It is not all about who I can or can not beat in a head to head race as Sasha put in his comment on the discussion forum. It is about what are the people that beat me doing and how do I get there?... In any case I'm not even sure what I should or should not put in mileage anymore or if I should bother blogging anymore... But for now I did an easy random run SE of my house. Mi 8-T1 Avg. 7:34

Asics DS-Trainer #1: 210 / / Asics DS-Trainer #2: 212 / / Saucony Rides #1: 208 / / Saucony Rides #2: 209

Single: This week overall went a lot better than the last two. Today I was however pressed for time and barely squeezed in this run before heading home. With the time restraints I cut the run short and ran a little harder than I would have otherwise. Especially on the way back... I did an out and back on the trials to behind This is the Place and on the way back a mountain biker and I were going neck and neck up a small hill. He was nice and commented on my pace so I decided to show him what I could really do. He hit the next hill and I didn't see him again... It was fun to stretch the legs a little before tomorrows race. I've really been building this one up in my mind. Mi 4-R2 Avg. 7:41

Asics DS-Trainer #1: 210 / / Asics DS-Trainer #2: 212 / / Saucony Rides #1: 208 / / Saucony Rides #2: 213 // Adidas Adistar (flats): 150

Single: If you've been following my blog, since the marathon you've seen I've been a bit of a head case. And today brought in the old saying that competition is 10% physical 90% mental. That being said going into this race I had high expectations. I wanted to break my old PR by at least 31 seconds. The course had been talked up a lot and I felt that with my current fitness level this was realistic, and I still do. I had gotten at least 7-hrs of sleep each of the last two nights so I was feeling rested. However, the mental strain of the week did have me a little more tired than I would have liked. I got to the course while Demetrio was setting up the finish and chatted with him briefly for the first time in a few months. Then headed over to the start. I saw Josh and Megan and did a  good warm-up with them, I enjoy their senses of humor and it helped ease me into the race. I did a brief additional warm-up on my own and then headed over to the line. I spoke with Steve A. briefly and told him my main goal was to go all out through the 2-mile and then see what I had left. I shouldn't have put this into words, as we will see. I had prepared myself for this course and new that it was fast. However, it is not as crazy downhill as I was expecting. In fact it isn't even as steep as the FireHouse mile. This does make me more happy about the outcome of this race. Also, the weather was near perfect. Just a little too cool which is great for racing and a great 10-15mph tailwind for nearly the whole first two miles.

The first mile is the fastest and Josh and Megan had warned me not to flip out about the split. So I went out by feel and didn't look at my Garmin until the beep at the mile marker. The thing that did have me flip out a little were the presence of two bloggers I did not know JeffMC and Tyler (Cannonball). They were putting a gap on me quickly but I just kept going by feel. As I would find out later both are 5K "speed demons". In the way back of my mind I wanted to run a "2:30 St. George" equivalent which would be ~15:31 by Sasha science. That would have me at the mile marker in 4:46, I hit 4:44.12 a new mile PR, with only 152 ft of descent. Already in the second mile I was feeling it but I REALLY wanted to hit a sub-10 so I kept to what I told Steve and toughed it out, I hit mile two in 5:08.40 (close to my HS PR) with 138 ft descent and went through the 2-mile mark in 9:52.52 a new 2-mile PR (first time under 10). I don't know if it was the mental strain of knowing how fast I was running or the very light 40ft climb after the turn, but I quickly dwindled. Steve A passed me at this point and I'm still kicking myself for not going with him, I think we would have easily both been under 16 if I had, sorry Steve. I had it physically but mentally I wasn't doing too hot. Also, I was shaking up my innards a bit and was thinking bathroom, bad idea... I looked at the Garmin and I had dwindled to about 5:50 pace. Instead of making me go faster it hurt me more. However there are two quick turns and then you can see the finish. I put it in overdrive and tried to get back to Steve. I managed to drop my pace back down to ~5:10 (showing I was obviously dogging it) but it wasn't enough, I didn't get Steve and I didn't get sub-16 but I did get 16:08.30 for a new 5K PR. I was really impressed with how well Steve ran after the accident and the other bloggers did great. Sasha had a particularly great race considering he was running Ogden this time last week. Overall you can't complain when you set a PR, much less THREE of them. The only thing I'm upset with is I KNOW that my body had a sub-16 in it today but my head kept it from coming out. The good news is that I now know that I can run this pace, aided or not, and I can't wait for the Des 10K!!!

After the race I had a good talk with Steve A. Then did a cooldown with the bloggers for a little over a mile then the rest of the cooldown with Bill C and another good conversation. So overall both socially and running wise it was a great day. Mi 4-R2, 7-AA Race Avg. 5:10 (Garmin did get the heart rate monitor to me in time but I didn't set it up right. I would have loved to have known my HR during the first two miles :(...)

Asics DS-Trainer #1: 210 / / Asics DS-Trainer #2: 212 / / Saucony Rides #1: 208 / / Saucony Rides #2: 217 // Adidas Adistar (flats): 157