relentless forward progress

 Lunch - easy shakeout five. 7:40

Dinner - easy hour after work. So windy! 7:05 

Met Matt, Reed, Scott, Mike, and Chad at Matt's and ran the Thanksgiving loop. Such a nice morning. It was so good to see everyone after all the solo work lately. Definitely one of those mornings for me where the run felt secondary. love those. 7:10

I was fortunate enough to pick up the win today on this tough course and beat my time from last year by 10 minutes. Average elevation is 9300ft. I went out in a pack of 3 and tried to keep it conservative. The last 7.5 miles of this are a real beast so I consciously hung back a little and waited until the start of the nasty hills at 5. About a half mile before the start of the hill I put a large surge in. 

I was thankful I saved it for later today. Neither guy covered the move and I kept it rolling the rest of the race. The climbs are hard on their own but after the downhill start at that elevation it's just mean. Cups of water over the head at most every aide station.

The last 5k is very tough. The race doesn't start until 9am and there is no shade so I got really warm. I was in the pain cave and I did fade some but I'm very happy with the effort today. I've got some good strength, I just need to stretch it out farther and put some more turnover behind it and this will be a very good fall season. Thanks for all of the support friends!

 Easy 5 in the grass. Legs are toast from the race :). 8:00

 Golf course loop in Spanish fork. first and last mile very easy. Legs loosened up so the middles were fun. Ate bugs on the river trail, yum! 7:06

 Lunch - easy 5. 7:57

 Dinner - Great run after work from Vintage Park. Took the river trail to the pipeline dirt road and then hit the single track to Bridal Veil falls, beautiful. Cloud cover made the heat much more tolerable. After that first mile the legs felt much better. The climb felt great and the cruise down from the falls was really nice. First and last mile were very slow. Finished it off with a cold soak in the river. Now for ice cream with the kids :). 6:55

lunch - easy 5. 8:00

pm - Spanish Fork loop after work. headwind was nasty until I got up over the golf course. Rain felt nice. 7:01

Another great run with the Thursday group. It was really cool to be standing at Bridal Veil falls this morning while it was still rather dark, with a big group of friends. 6:51

Pm- easy 5 at the sports park with Scott on the grass. 8:00 

 Scott came down and stayed with my family last night so we could get am early start on this workout. The plan was to get some tempo miles in on the Hobble Creek half course and some bonus miles. The start line is 18 miles from my home so it works out great. 

We planted bottles at just after miles 9 & 14. It was dark and a little chilly at the start. We decided on a 2 mile warmup, 3x3 mile MPish tempo with 1 mile floats and then a cooldown back to my house.

It was a little tough to get going but the run went great. Warmup (7:40, 6:36).  First set 5:40, 5:32, 5:28.   Float mile 6:40. Second set had the hill and the bike path miles.  Second set 5:32, 5:31, 5:44.  Float mile 7:06. I let Scott go on the second set, he was feeling good. We hit the bottle stop after the second set and decided to scale the last one back a little but still ran it separate.  Third set 5:43, 5:39, 5:42.  Breathing was great on the last set and I was happy the effort felt good with the last 3 flat and not nearly as aided as the first two sets.

I hit 13.1 in ~1:19 & felt great which is a good sign towards the end of a high mileage week and with 4 slow miles on a workout. Cooled down back to my house. Next week will be fun. 6:13 avg for the run.

It was great to have Scott down with my family. The run was just a bonus that topped it off.

 Large group of guys today hit the canyon for some miles. I turned around at Vivian and finished up the last 5 on the grass at the soccer park. Lots of fun running with the guys and with Reed on the return. 7:06

Breakfast at Magleby's after was tasty. 5 guys, over 500 miles this week. :) lots of French toast went down today.

 Best rest day in a long time. Slept in, good foodies, nap, bbq, friends and fun. 

lunch - the easy lunch 5. 8:11

Pm- out and back from my home after work. Turned into a mellow progression. 7:45-6:24. 7:05avg 

Am- easy 5 on the grass. 7:45

Pm- reverse loop in the heat from home. Great views of the mountains. 7:00 

I decided to scale it back today and do a small primer for Saturday instead of a workout. 4.5 miles easy then 2x mile with 1/2 mile jog. 1.3 cool down. Miles were 5:17 and 5:10. Focused on relaxing and good form, they felt great. Excited for Saturday. 6:37

 Easy 6 on the grass after work. 7:40

 Easy shakeout with strides. Ready to crush my PR tomorrow.

 Going into this race my confidence was high. When Scott asked me if I was open to him running with me and pacing me I was all for it. I seriously can't thank him enough. Based on the workout we had on the course last week I was confident that I could run ~1:13 and if the day was right that I could be closer to 1:12.

 The plan was to start conservative and ease into it, which is how I normally run my races. I have always thought of myself as conservative and patient but this experience pointed out some things that I can work on moving forward that will help me.Some of the thoughts contained in the race report to follow did not go through my head during the race, they are reflections from the last day that I have added in. I welcome feedback or input as always. I still think I have a lot of room to improve and love opinions :).

I had a good warm up but the closer it got to time the more nervous I got. I had to continually remind myself to calm down. 1000+ people singing to Hawk Harper for his birthday helped to do that and bring the fun vibe back. Also, one of my most favorite things is lining up with all of friends and really everyone else at the start. I love that energy. Soon enough it was time. We started the race off and saw the leaders take off quick. I was happy to see Matt charge out but not get caught up in the initial sprint fest. Mentally I wished him well and then got into race mode.

Scott and I were through the first mile in 5:42, which was just perfect as far as plan was concerned. From there it was evident that it was going to be 3 of us for what I thought would be the rest of the race. Scott, Spencer Evensen, and me. I was glad there were 3 of us. As the pace lowered I thought the effort felt right and we all seemed to be going together instead of pushing and pulling each other. It was a good feeling.

Now for the start of the learnings :). I found out that I am quite impatient. I could see Dave, Bryce, and Brick not too far ahead every time the road opened up. Whenever this occurred in the first 4-5 miles I would immediately and almost subconciously pick it up too much. Scott would tell me to calm down and I'd look at the watch and be at 5:00 or under pace. This is good to know because I need to learn to let people gradually come back at a farther distance. I also didn't know that I do that so much during a race but I do. For me it can't be the best course to continually dip well under what a sustainable pace is. Miles 2-6 were 5:34, 5:26, 5:28, 5:33, and 5:25. I was just under 34:00 at the 10k which is a huge aided PR and I was feeling fine. I could see Dave was coming back and I new that we were going to catch him.

Scott had been concerned about a possible pebble in his shoe. It was effecting his gait and stride. I knew he would eventually have to stop and take care of it but I wasn't worried. Spencer was still with us and I felt great. It was so nice to have Scott's coaching along the way. Reminders about using arms, running the tangents, easing up in sections that could be used for recovery, etc. So many good reminders and tips I hadn't thought of, the using the mallet arm swing was great on the hill at 7 :). Mile 7 was 5:39 and that was with the hill so I was happy. I knew we'd be on the bike path soon. We passed Dave and wished him well and then Scott was ready to take care of that pesky pebble.

Just before the mile 8 marker I wanted to be sure to get my GU in my mouth and even stop if necessary to get enough water down so my mouth would not be left sticky. I did end up slowing WAY down to make sure to not lose the fluid out of the cup, take a few deeps breaths, wash the GU down and continue. Even with the stop mile 8 was 5:44. Spencer gapped me on this slow/stop and I wanted to get back up to him. I think this is where I made a possible error pushing it to get back to him. By the time I caught him and with the rollers on the bike path I was feeling the pace and went over that magic line and my breathing went out of sorts. I stayed with Spencer and tried to draft to recover but it just wasn't going to happen. I started to get nervous again and slowed up to try and get some air. Mile 9 5:45.

I was confident that I could get it going again if I could get my breathing back under control. The workout last week the last 3 miles of the course were 5:42, 5:39, and 5:42. I would be very happy with that so I focused on gettign back under control before the mile 10 marker. Form, cadence, breathe, light feet. I kept thinking these things and then I started to hear footsteps coming up behind me. I did not look back the whole race and although it did initially startle me I knew it had to be Scott lol. Sure enough when he got closer he told me "it's just me". Pretty humbling stuff to have him stop, take off shoes and fix things, find blisters, put shoes back on, get going again and catch me in under two miles haha :). I was really grateful to have him back. Mile 10 was 5:57... uh oh.

Scott broke the wind and let me draft up the hill during mile 10. My breathing was all over the place and I didn't feel the same power going up the hill and after that I felt last week. I just tried to stay positive and keep going. Every time I felt like I was picking it back up and feelign good I'd glance at the watch and find the pace hovering around 5:50. A little disheartening since I ran it so well last week but now I'm almost there. Mile 11 5:55. Mile 12 also 5:55.

Scott's encouragement was so helpful during the end of the race. I actually felt much better as we made that turn on to the long straight towards the park but I just couldn't get the legs to turnover. I was doing mental math and knew I would have to get the legs moving much faster to crack 1:13, and I hadn't given up yet, but it wasn't meant to be for the day. Dan was also there in spirit and it was helpful to draw inspiration from him. We got to the chute and he pushed me hard and I had my PR so I was happy. The guy even let me cross the line first. All class :). I have the best friends in the world. I ended up 10th in 1:13:25 so I have a ton to be thankful for even though it's not quite the result I wanted.

So I think I have this mental block at 5:30 pace. I believe it freaks me out. It shouldn't but it does. I can run 5:30 just fine, but as soon as it goes to 5:29 then it's suddenly too hard lol. This is ok, it will pass. I remember when that was 6:30, and then 6:00, and then 5:45...

I need to work with a sprint coach or person. I don't know how to sprint :). I started this thing backwards. I can go long but I never learned how to go fast when I was young. I think learning to spring would be most helpful going forward. I need to work on my patience too. If I'm more patient, and I build in some real speed then I can actually attempt tactical race moves and fun stuff of that nature. I also just need to relax in the later miles of a race. Every time I am able to get the cadence back up, lighten the feet, good form, breathe deep... well the pace comes down by itself. It doesn't always have to be an internal fight at the end.

I'm super grateful for a PR race. It was a tough start to the year injured and it took some time to come back around but I'm improving again and that makes me smile... a big smile :). I'm faster than this, I know it. If I can be smart and stay consistent and utilize some new skills/tools I think I can go under 1:10. I know I will crack 2:30 in the marathon. It will be next year but it will happen. I'm going after 2:35 at St. George and I'm going finish this training cycle proper to put myself in the best position to do so.

I was so excited to hear about everyones races. The cool down with Karl, Matt, Zak, Scott, Mike, Ty, Dave, Kassi,  and Spence was pretty special for me. A great group of people just running some easy miles and celebrating the day and each others performances, it doesn't get much better. But the performance of the day has to be Matt's :), 8.5 minutes faster than last year!? 1:06!? Just plain awesome. I'm so thankful to know and to train with such a wonderful group of people. It was most excellent to see and talk to so many good people before and after the race. I look forward to many more miles and races and the camaraderie they will bring. Much thanks to everyone who helps and inspires me. See you on the roads/trails! :)

very easy walkie jog

golf course loop in the rain after work. 7:09

lunch - easy 5. 8:00

pm - exploring in Spanish Fork after work. Did some solid hill work and found the canal road. So awesome. I'm excited to run more on it. 6:59

lunch - very easy 5. 8:11

pm - More canal road fun. Easy out and back in the heat. This road is so sweet. It's a 12 mile stretch of dirt from Spanish Fork to Santaquin. It's my new happy place. I just cruised and enjoyed it. I can't believe I have lived here this long and didn't know about it. Extra tired today, I was up at 2am to cook for 400 people at the employee breakfast at work. Sleep will be welcome. 7:41

 Matt asked me yesterday if I would run longer with him today. I was happy to oblige. We met the large group at 5am and ran with them until the usual turn around point. After that we were solo. At the 10 mile mark we were sufficiently warmed up (1:13:15) and it was time for the tempo. 6 miles @ 5:50 was my plan, mine went like this: 5:34, 5:22, 5:26, 5:44, 5:34, 5:39, 5:44, 5:36. So a bit too fast but a solid effort. I'm happy I went 8 instead of 6. Matt went 9 and was much faster. I will dial these back to where they should be in the coming final weeks of the cycle. We cooled down the last couple together. Perfect way to start the day, feeling awesome.Thanks for the invite Matt! 6:38

Very easy grass and dirt loops to absorb the big workout yesterday. Put some strides in at the end, legs feel great. Light rain and a good mix of music made it very nice. 7:58

Randy and Scott came down this morning to run with me on the canal road. We started just after 6 and it was a perfect morning. The rain yesterday softened the road up without making it muddy. I planted water last night so we had a stop in middle. Went by really fast but we just took it easy today. 7:35

lunch - 5 easy. 8:00

pm - Golf course loop via river trail after work. Perfect running weather. 7:04

Threshold work

Workout today was 3 mile warmup, 6x 2k descending, with 1/2 mile quicker than a jog jogs, cooldown. I wanted to be +/- HMP on these and executed it well although the last one was tougher than I thought it was going to be. Splits were 7:00, 6:57, 6:55, 6:50, 6:43, 6:37. The jogs were all ~7:20 pace. I'm happy with this one, it was one that made the pancakes after very tasty :). <6 weeks to go and I feel like it's all coming together. 6:23

lunch - very easy 5. 8:11

pm - ran out to the lake and back with Scott H. Double dose of easy today to help the legs absorb the workout last night. Very enjoyable run tonight, the miles flew by. So nice to have some company. 7:43

Lunch - easy 5. 8:00

Pm- vintage park to pipeline and back on the prt. I pushed the hills pretty hard and then cruised back. It was very hot but very fun. Easy grass cool down at the park. 7:08

Easy miles on the highline canal road in Spanish Fork. Beautiful morning. 7:05

Met an awesome crew this morning, Fritz, Matt, Scott, Zak, Toni, and Bryce. I warmed up a mile before we started. The plan was 10 up and 10 tempo. I knew the 10 would be a push for me so I thought about going 8. We ran the first 10 quick, especially up south fork, it was so much fun. At the turn around we got situated and then it was time. It was fun to watch Fritz, Matt, Zak, and Scott tear off. My first mile was 5:22 & they were gone lol. I started to feel it around mile 6 so I stopped and took a GU and some water. i finished the 8 with a weak final mile in 45:57 (5:45 avg), and jogged in the rest with Fritz and Scott. Fun morning. Such a great benefit to have these guys pull me around :). It's not quite what I wanted today but it's still a great workout to punctuate a big week, thankful. 6:29