I am one with the levee and the levee with me

9 easy miles in the snow - 1:07:02. I'm growing fond of the snow, and I will be sad when things warm up again. A nice run up Hobble Creek Canyon again, a little cold on the way back with the snow blowing in my face.

6:30 am - 4 mile tempo on the indoor track. I was feeling a little sluggish, most likely from all the snow running, but overall a decent run. My splits were all over the place, largely due to the sluggish feeling. Total time: 22:17 -- believe it or not, that turns out to be a PR for the distance.

Here are the mile splits:

5:37 (first 2 laps in 5:50 pace by mistake)

5:31 (11:08)

5:42 (16:50)

5:27 (22:17)

11 am - Ran 30:10 more that I'm calling 4 miles, although it was likely a little more. I'm trying to get in the habit of slowing down the in-between miles to rest the legs more.

Good job to everyone that ran Painter's! Very impressive races for the blog!

6:45 am - Only had time for 5 miles this morning, so I headed out at an easy pace down to the river trail. There's still a good amount of snow on the trail, so the pace was fairly slow (7:30 pace or so).

 11 am - Another easy 4 miles (29:14). Headed up Provo Canyon Rd. this time. It was sunny towards the canyon, but there's this cloud hanging around BYU. Rather ironic, if you ask me.
 

7 am - I really need to get more sleep! All the 5 hour nights are getting to me, and getting out for my runs today was difficult, to say the least. So 3.2 easy miles this morning; very cold outside, 9 degrees or so, I think?

11 am - Got in another 5.1 on the river trail that is beginning to dry up a little. I only fell asleep once in class, so that wasn't too bad. Average pace for this run was right about 7:00.

I wanted to get a mile repeats workout today, but my wife was sick this morning and I couldn't make it to the indoor track. So 7 easy miles to start the day with. I headed up towards Hobble Creek, but didn't make it into the canyon. Lots of snow and ice on the ground. I should be able to get that workout in tomorrow.

Total time - 49:22

Well, I finally found out what the "short track" at the BYU facility is. I got there for a workout and half the track was closed off by giant garage doors. I went and asked the janitors if they could open it up, but they said it is always closed on Saturday's.... that doesn't make much sense to me since the only thing going on in the other end was a karate practice, but the bottom line is that they wouldn't open it for me. Bleh.

So the short track really exists and really is 7 1/7 laps per mile. I was a little upset about it and almost left, but finally decided to stick it out and run my workout. I'm glad I stuck it out, cause the workout went better than expected.

I had 4x1mile planned today at 5:00 pace, but I just did 7 laps per rep to make it easier to figure. So 5:00 pace came to 4:54 for 7 laps.

The first two were kinda tough -- I was having trouble with the frequent turns, and felt like it was wearing me out.

Rep 1 - 4:58 (5:04 pace)

5:00 rest

Rep 2 - 4:56 (5:02 pace)

5:00 rest

Since I was feeling a little tight, I expected to start the bonking process on rep 3, but Sean Sundwall's post yesterday about relaxing came to mind (on Sasha's cruise control thread -- if you haven't read it, you should), and I tried to relaxing myself a little more. My stride got a little longer and my limbs felt looser, and I felt awesome. I started the 4th rep expecting it to kill, but each lap just felt easier and easier.

Rep 3 - 4:52 (4:58 pace)

6:00 rest (had to wait for high school runners)

Rep 4 - 4:48 (4:54 pace)

I was shocked that I still felt really good after the fourth, and I probably should have done at least one more, but there was a high school group doing an 800m time trial, so I stuck to the original game plan and headed out on the rest of my run.

The other 9 miles were done in 60:02 (6:40 pace), and it felt really good. I'm pleased with today's workout.