I am one with the levee and the levee with me

7 miles

2 miles. Disappointing finish to the week. Finished moving in the morning, had rugby in the afternoon, then drove to Washington and was completely wiped out by the time I arrived.

I'm in Washington this week. 10 miles easy on some of my old trails.

AM - 6 miles easy

PM - 4 miles easy 

8 miles - 53:07

6 miles

AM - 7 miles

3 easy miles.

10 miles. This was my favorite run of the year... I got a break from the wind today and got to run through the rare Eastern Washington rainstorm. It was dark and dreary and wonderful. Ran through the orchards and desert and loved every minute. The smell of wet sagebrush is the one thing I love about my hometown. Dry, dusty smelling sagebrush is no good, it was to be wet.

The wind was back today. I went and ran basically the same trail as yesterday.... not as good. Dry and dusty and windy. Bleh.

I drove out to another of my old runs. It follows a four-mile road through the middle of farmland to the base of a hill called Jump Off Joe. No word if Joe survived, but it's quite a climb from bottom to top. We used to do this once a year in high school - the road from the base to the top is about 1.5 miles long and climbs several hundred feet. One of these days I'll measure it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the run, and the climb confirmed to me that it is as bad as I remember. 11:57 was my time, 10:10 back down, so maybe it's a touch longer than 1.5 miles. I don't know. But fun day.  

Started out through the orchards again and tried to hit a canal road, but I couldn't find it and ended up running through the middle of a wheat field. It was actually more enjoyable than you might think; there's something about sort of barren wasteland that I like.

Stopped by a high school track on the way back and did 6 x 100m strides. Splits: 15.7, 15.8, 15.2, 14.1, 13.8, 13.4. 

Drove back to Utah today. Got in late, but headed out for a few miles before bed. 65:03 total.

AM - Met at Sasha's house for an easy 8.

AM - Met at Sasha's house for an easy 8.

PM - Added 4 miles down the river trail at just under 7:00 pace.

AM - 8 easy miles with Sasha and the gang. One 6:00 mile pickup, but otherwise pretty standard run.

PM - Added an easy 4. 

AM - Started the day with an easy 6 from Sasha's house.

PM - Added an easy 3. 

I got a call last night from my brother in Springville. One of his neighbors has been putting on a race for the last few years, and my brother and his wife were helping out this week, so they invited me out to run it.

I was impressed with how well the thing was put on. The story behind it is that one of the race organizers' kids was killed in a car accident a few years ago, and they organized a scholarship fund in her memory. They use the race as a fundraiser - the website is here.

Anyway, the race starts in a little park just outside of Hobble Creek Canyon, and as luck would have it, there was a stiff breeze blowing out of the canyon at the start of the race. Spencer Gardner showed up, and as the race got under way, I tucked in next to him. I remembered his name from some of the state meet results, and he was wearing some BYU gear, so I figured I might have a chance against him if he wasn't in top shape but that he'd blow me away otherwise. Well, I don't think he was in top shape, but he still blew me away.

The first mile was with the wind at our backs, and Spencer took it out hard. The wind was just hard enough that the air seemed dead still around us. I stuck right on his shoulder, trying to test if the pace was his honest 5k pace, or if he might break later in the race. I thought if I could make it to two miles with him I might have a shot. One 90 degree turn to the left about a half-mile in, and the cross-wind was still favorable. I tried to make small talk with Spencer, but got a cold shoulder. A couple other high school kids hung with us through a half mile but dropped off and left us alone after that.

The first mile finished at the top of a lenghty uphill, and he threw in a surge or two as we approached it, and I stayed glued to his shoulder. I knew the pace was too fast for me, but hoped that he would crack first. He didn't. We climbed the hill, maybe 200-300m long, and passed the mile. My watch said 4:54. Probably a bit short, I would have expected something closer to 5:00. He surged again at the top of the hill, and again I stayed stuck to his shoulder. Just after the mile, the course turned left again, this time straight into the wind. I started grunting a little, hoping that he'd think I was done and ease up a bit, but no luck. I tucked right behind him, but he made a terrible wind block, and pretty soon my grunting was just out of sheer pain. We were getting close to halfway, but I couldn't keep the pace and the deadly gap began to form. I tried to close it, but my legs were getting heavy and I couldn't respond. By mile 2 he had 10-15 seconds on me. The watch read 10:29... mile 2 was probably a bit long, but I think the overall distance was close to correct.

By this point, the course had looped back to the first hill, and the wind wasn't bad going down. A right turn at 2.5 put the wind square in my face again, and I cursed it all the way to the finish. The watch read 15:52 at mile 3, and I covered the last bit in 24 seconds for 16:16 final time. I believe Spencer finished 19 seconds up.

I hate getting beat. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Especially when a guy gives me a cold shoulder. The audacity!

But overall I'm satisfied with the run. Obviously the course was a little short; 24 seconds for .1 miles is not quite right. I'm guessing 10-15 seconds overall, which puts me about where I expected given conditions, fast start, etc.

I stuck around for the kids' races after, which were honestly the best part. They had races for ages 2 and up... quite entertaining. Especially for you bloggers with kids, I highly recommend this run next year.

As a post script, gmap-pedometer.com measured the course as about .03 miles long. By its measurements, the 1-mile mark was exactly right, 1-2 was long, 2-3 was right, and 3-finish was short.

PM - Added 4 super-easy miles.

AM - Easy 8 at Sasha's. Calves are pretty sore, quads and hamstrings feel tired, and my arches hurt.

Just for fun, I went back to gmap-pedometer to do a much more anal measurement of Saturday's race and found it to be 3.079 miles. Mile 1 and 3 were in the right spot, mile 2 was a little early, and 3 to the finish was .079. A straight conversion would put me at 16:22.

PM - Added an easy 4 down the river trail. 

AM - Bought some new shoes yesterday, working on breaking them in. New shoes always cut into the bottom of my ankle for a week or so. Met at Sasha's house for an easy 8 at 8:00 pace.

PM - Added an easy 4 tonight. 

I'm having alarm issues and slept through it for the second day in a row. This time I woke up at 7:30 and had missed the run at Sasha's.

Went out a little later for a tempo run. My aerobic base isn't really there yet, so I figured I'd go at 5:30 pace until it was harder than tempos should be. I'd hoped for 5 miles, but decided to cut it off at 4. Mile splits as follows:

5:32

5:32 (11:04)

5:34 (16:38)

5:28 (22:06)

Cooled down for a bit on the trail, then added 8x100m strides, first two in 16.5, next five bouncing between 14 and 15, and final in about 13.6.
 

10 miles down the trail today. 1:12:06.

Went out for an easy run this evening. About halfway through my Achilles suddenly started shooting me with sharp pains. It lasted for more than a quarter, so I stopped and tried to stretch, but that made it worse. Not wanting to hurt it further, I stopped to walk, but walking was worse. Tried walking backwards, sideways, tumbling... nothing worked. Finally I tried a quick shuffle, discovered it was painless, and within a quarter mile I was back up to 7:20 pace with no pain. Weird. It's not giving any pain now, so I'll throw some heat on it tonight and see what happens tomorrow.

Ran an easy 10 tonight. The ankle felt tender, but didn't get worse with the run. I iced it all night and it seems to be feeling better.