relentless forward progress

I felt really good post marathon, best I've ever felt afterward. After a few days running last week I decided to take a week off and rest/recharge. I've always thought that such a thing was hard and not necessary. It turns out it's easy. There is a great purpose in a solid week of recovery and I feel like I can now really embrace what is to come. I'm going to ease in and have fun from here and see where the road/trails take me.

This morning with the crew was great. Matt, Mike, Reed, Zak, Chris and I ran the canyon early. The air was crisp and cold. It felt strange at first after so many days off. Soon enough the invigoration of breathing and reaching back and pushing off and the sound of foot falls and conversation took over. What a morning! The stars and moon were very bright at Bridal Veil and the leaves smelled great. I love teh smell of fall. I sped up into a couple surges on teh return but nothing too serious. I feel a little tired and fat :) haha. Excited to get back to it. 7:01

Time for a new garmin though, mine is fried. And some new shoes :).

Hit the Lehi track with Matt, Mike, Scott, and Jeff. The guys were doing mile repeats and I wasn't quite ready for that so I did some shorter stuff. Warmed up a half mile before the guys got there then a 4 mile warmup with them with 3x strides. Then I did 2x 100, 2x 200, 4x 400, and 4x 200. The first 200's were 31 and 30 according to Mikes watch. My garmin dies so on the rest of the intervals I kept the effort the same. It felt really good to move fast. It's been a long time since I did shorter stuff and I don't know that I have pushed like that in.. well ever. I didn't go overboard though and it felt smooth so I'm happy. Consistency with the track will only build build confidence moving forward. 2 mile cooldown around the field felt very nice.

Runner's Corner did the annual Waffle run this morning. It was lots of fun and a perfect morning for it. Spent some time running through the leaves in some peoples yards :). It's a great hilly loop. We ran with the UVU team for part of it. I got into a little race toward the end of the loop on the last mile with one of their guys and it felt really good to break away solid with a 1/4 mile to go, score 1 for team old :). Delicious hot waffles with all the fixins afterward. Mucho fun. Also tried out some new Saucony Cortana 3's. Very nice!