I am one with the levee and the levee with me

Lots of snow on the trail this morning, so I took it nice and easy in 7:20 pace. Classes are starting at 8 am this semester, so I have to adjust my training schedule a bit. Today I squeezed in 6 miles before class, was in class from 8 to 11, then ran 3 more. I don't think this is ideal training, but I have to do what I can. The second run has room from more miles, so I think I'll be able to increase to 70 or 80 without much difficulty.

6:30 am - 3x1mile with 1:00 rests on the indoor track. My legs have been a little tired, so I decreased the volume slightly. Lots of walkers and joggers on the inside lane which was a little irritating, but overall a good workout.

1 - 5:29

2 - 5:31

3 - 5:25

I nearly ran over a jogger on the last one, so it may have been a second or two faster. I plan on hitting about 55 miles this week, but I want a slight taper in intensity heading into Saturday's race. Total distance: 6 miles. I might do a steady run on Wednesday, but the rest of my miles will be recovery this week.

11 am - 3 miles easy down 800 S. and the river trail. Still lots of treacherous spots on the trail.

11 am - This was one of my favorite runs in a long time. I've never run in so much snow before, and it felt like I was running on clouds. I headed down the usual route to the river trail, there must have been about 6 inches of snow over most of it. At least before the overpass, where the rest of the trail had been plowed. Total time for 7 miles was 50:40 - 7:14.3 pace.

I had to drive my wife up to Lehi this morning for work, so I didn't get the chance to run this morning. Hopefully I'll finish the rest of it tonight.

6:30 am - 3 super easy miles before class (23:00, 7:40 pace)

11 am - My legs feel kinda tired from the last week or two (I think especially from that 13 miler with Ted and Sasha), so today and tomorrow are recovery days. I have a hard time making myself run slower than 7:00 pace, so I went out 3 miles as slow as I could stand it (7:13 pace) then made myself run back slower than I went out (7:26 pace). Total time was 44:01 (7:20 pace).

The adrenaline is already starting to flow in anticipation of Saturday's race. I feel that I'm easily in 9:00 shape, but it's been so long since I've done a serious race that the demons of doubt keep creeping in.

I have always had a hard time keeping myself under control the day before a race. Adrenaline is already pumping through me every time I think about it - and it consumes about 99% of my thoughts at the moment. It's funny, the night before my first high school race I just layed awake in utter fear of the next day. I'm not sure exactly what I was afraid of, but I didn't fall asleep until about 4 am.

So I've gotten a little better since then, but even the day of regionals my senior year in high school, I woke up with a sore jaw that I could barely open because I had been clenching it all night long. But considering I ran my pr 5k that day, a little nerves are probably okay.

In any case, I'm totally stoked for tomorrow's race. I did an easy 7 this morning (50:56 for 7:16.6 pace), and my legs feel terrific. They're still slightly fatigued from training, but I have a feeling it won't factor into the race tomorrow. I found a relatively dry stretch of trail and opened the throttle to around 3000m pace for 20 seconds or so, just to wake up the legs from their 7:30 pace slumber, and they feel peppy and ready to go.

9 am - 3 easy miles down Springville Main St. to wake up the legs.

BYU Indoor Invite 3000m - 9:12.93

Well, I went into the race with three goals: 1) don't get last, 2) break 9:00, and 3) at the very least, get a PR. Goal #2 wasn't quite there today, but it was a good race, a good opener for the season, and it makes me excited for what's to come.

It's a little depressing going to these races and not knowing anyone. High school track meets were always a blast because you can just goof around until your race, then goof around some more once your done. I couldn't help feeling a little awkward and out of place next to the other guys on the line. None of them knew me, but I knew most of them. I'm admittedly a huge track nerd, but I never thought of myself as a stalker before.

Anyway, during my warm-up I felt great. I got in about 2 miles 45 minutes before the gun with a few race-pace strides. I knew that I could hit the mile in 4:50 without much trouble, and if I could I felt I would be close to that 9:00 mark.

In any case, when the gun went off, the pack was quickly leaving me in the dust at my 4:50 pace, so I had to make a quick decision, whether or not to match pace. I've always had a difficult time coming from behind, so I grabbed on to the second pack that was forming and hung on. The first lap was 55 (5 laps to a mile), and the quarter was 68 or 69 (sorry Ted, you told me so).

It was at that point that I kind of spaced out. The only coherent thought I had from laps 2-7 was "Keep going!" All I could think of was not getting left behind, and I was surprised when I went through the mile in 4:44 (only two seconds slower than my time trial a few weeks ago!). I hit 4 laps-to-go in 5:00, and all I had to do to get my goal was run 5:00 pace for 4/5's of a mile. Of course, my brain didn't put that together till later, so I kept plodding ahead, not thinking about time, not thinking about anything except keeping my body moving.

In retrospect, I feel that I ran a good race, but my biggest mistake came at about lap 6. I had a Utah Valley guy 2 seconds up on me -- perfect position to grab on to him and let him pull me along. But I regretably let him go; he ended up at 9:06. He could have helped me through the difficult laps 6-8, where I lost a lot of ground on the 9:00 guy.

But, as it was, I hit the bell lap in 8:15-8:16 and knew I had my PR, and a 57 second last lap sealed the deal. While I would have liked to run a bit faster, I liked the race. I got out fast (maybe a little too fast), hung on as best as I could, and it ended with a decent time. As I build my miles and add in the speed stuff, I expect my times to drop dramatically. Today's race was a good springboard for the rest of the season.

Complete results can be found here:

http://www.byutrack.com/Various/Special/Meet_Info/2007-8/CougInInv/index.htm