High Speeds

 I've always found the name "Murray Fun Days" rather ironic. The course is anything but fun - with a late 8 AM start, direct July sunlight, and about 1.5 miles of uphill :-). I ended up getting about the time I expected - 15:35 or about 5:00 average per mile. The pacing was even too - 4:58, 5:01, and then 6:36 for the last 1.1 miles to the end. That ended up being good enough for first. I've won 5K's before, but this was the first one with a police motorcycle escort, so that was cool :-).

I felt like the limiting factor for me was the same as in Utah Valley - this imbalance between the right and left legs. It felt like I was going to trip if I went any faster. I could tell some stabilizer muscles in the left leg were doing more than their fair share of work - and when they tired out I couldn't speed up past 5:00. I felt like I had the muscle power and glycogen to do it, but the legs wouldn't cooperate - kinda like a car with a good engine but misaligned wheels or messed up transmission.

I've been seeing a physical therapist at a place called Fyzical (would recommend). That's been helping for sure - I've been able to hit some great times in the last few months - but there is still some monkey business going on that's keeping me from 100% performance. Today the exact same thing happened as in Utah Valley - I wanted to go faster and felt like I had the juice, but the monkey business got in the way.

In any case - happy with the result and excited to see what the future holds! Next race is Des News (half).

Did 3x2 down - 14:45 and 14:47.

Did a 6 mile tempo down the canyon - 5:09, 4:58, 5:02 (15:09 3 mile), 4:55, 4:53, 4:56 (14:44 last three miles). Total time was 29:53. I'm happy with the negative split. It didn't look like I was going to crack 5:00 pace at the half-way point - especially after that 5:02 mile, but I was able to run the 5:00 guy down. Ended up with 18.5 total.

Did 4x2 in the canyon - 9:59, 9:58, 9:43, 9:47. Total of 16 miles.

Today did 2x3 for the workout - 14:49 and 14:47. Total of 18.

Taper.

  I initially wanted to run the 10K, but when I talked to the eilete althete coordinator, he told me that the 10K field was already stacked and I should try my luck in the half. The 10K was stacked - with Jared Ward in the field. However, the half wasn't much better :-). There ended up being 5 guys who went under 1:05 - including Connor Mantz who decided last minute to run. 

 The first 6 miles of the half are down Emigration Canyon, and are pretty steep downhill. The first mile was 4:38 - then three miles was something like 14:08 and 6 was in the ballpark of 29:30. To put that into persepctive, the first 5K and 10K were faster than my respective flat PR's. I stayed with the leaders until about 6.5, at which point my legs suffered a meltdown. This issue has popped up before in workouts - after a certain point I have a hard time controlling my left leg - some stabilizer muscles tire out. I think this is caused by an imbalance I havc where I'm unable to bring my right leg as far forward as the left one.  Physical therapy has helped keep the problem under control, but it's still there.

After losing contact with the leaders, I limped for probably half a mile at around 5:30 or 5:45 pace. I was then able to speed up to around 5:10-5:15 pace and held that to the finish. I got passed a little before mile 8, but latched on. Then we both got passed by the guy who ended up in second place. I went after him for about a 100 meters, then dropped back, but was still able to pull away from the frist person who had passed me. 

I ended up with 1:05:19 - 6th (!) place. This is roughly equivalent to my Utah Valley performance. It was cool to run 4:40 pace with the big boys for the first 6 miles, and to pretend I was faster than I am :-). I'm happy that my crash pace was 5:10 and not 5:20, (or worse). I think that if I can get this issue with muscular instability/imbalance resolved, then I'll see a breakthrough in performance. It was a good race - and a good way to fnish out my time in Utah. I'll be moving to Texas for grad school in a week - so stay tuned!

Des News recovery.

Des News recovery.

Did only 8 as my legs are still recovering from Des News. Was able to do a pickup in 5:08.

Total of 12 miles in the neighborhood in Colorado.

Did 10 in the morning in Lubbock, and then added 2 more at night in Georgetown, TX.