I am one with the levee and the levee with me

AM - 5 easy miles towards Hobblecreek Canyon. We got a second car, so I can do some of my runs from home now, instead of running from BYU at 6:30. I like it. Total time, 34:48.

PM - Got in 6 more miles around Springville. It was a very warm night and a nice run, I'm hoping the weather stays nice from here on, but I'm sure that's wishful thinking. Miki has been out running with me (that's my wife).She wants to get in better shape, since she sits in an office all day, and I'm trying to talk her into starting a blog, but she's not enthusiastic about it. We're starting at 15 minutes a day and increasing from there... I'll bet a month of this will make her a total addict. She's done well gutting out the runs so far.

AM - Squeezed in 3 uneventful miles this morning. Should be a nice day.

PM - I went to Springville High's track to do a 4x1600m workout. It was dark out and I was feeling really good, so I wanted to start at 5:00 and work down to 4:52 and 3:00 rest between. The first one I was off pace right from the start with a 79 quarter, then 2:35 at the half... I finished at 5:10.

I geared up for a faster second rep, and I went through the quarter in 73, but then hit the half in 2:33. I finished that one in 5:06.

Doing the reps in the dark wasn't working for me, so I walked off the track. I've never walked away from a workout before, but I figure I can finish the workout better on Wednesday. I'm thinking either 4xmile starting at 4:57, or 2xmile with the first in 4:40, second in 4:40-4:43. Either one should be good.

AM - 5 miles this morning past Springville High. It must have been around 40 degrees... downright toasty. 

Later AM - I never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad I walked away from yesterday's workout. I did a much better workout on the track today, and it gave me a mental boost that 4x5:05 miles wouldn't have. I warmed up about 15 minutes towards around the BYU track facility. Some of the lady sprinters were working out, but their coach said I would be okay to do my workout. It was very warm today (60 degrees, I think?) and there was only a slight breeze on the track. Nice conditions.

As I was putting my spikes on, this guy came up to me and asked me if the track was open to the public at the moment. I told him what I was doing, and he asked if he could join me, and of course I said yes. He ran a 16:03 5k recently, so we're in comparable shape. It turns out his name is Anthony -- he's from Michigan and ran a 4:09 indoor mile at a smaller college up there. He was just visiting family here and is trying to get back into shape.

So I decided the 2xmile workout and it was great to have somebody running with me. I was so excited that I started with a 65 second first lap. Yikes! The 800m came at 2:17, but then we slowed quite a bit. The second 800m was 2:29 and we finished in 4:48 for the mile. I didn't realize we had slowed that much, but I was feeling fantastic... I think I could have tacked on another 4:48 mile if it we'd kept going.

Anyway, 5:00 rest may have been too much -- I was ready at 3:30. But we got underway for the second mile, again with a 66 second first lap. The 800m came in 2:18, and I slowed a little on the third lap, but not by too much -- the 1200m was 3:31, I think. I picked it up a little on the last 400m (69 seconds), and finished the mile in 4:41.

Anthony suggested that we do a few more 400s, and I reluctantly agreed. We did 4 with 1:30 rests that went 66, 65, 64, and 62. I was surprised on the last two, I went through the 200m in 30 seconds -- apparently my speed is a little better than I thought. I'll have to try a mile time trial sometime soon.

So I was pleased with this workout. We were a little sloppy with the rests, but I was happy with how good I felt and with the faster times.

2x1mile:

4:48 (5:00 rest)

 4:41 (6:00 rest)

4x400

66 (1:30 rest)

65 (closer to 2:00 -- sloppy)

64 (1:30)

62

AM - Ran 7 miles down the river trail... it's a little breezy out today, bleh. My calves are pretty sore from yesterday's workout since I haven't done much in spikes recently. I took the run pretty easy: 7:25 pace out against the wind and 7:13 pace back with the wind. I have to babysit my brother's kids tonight, so I'll probably get the rest in later tonight.

PM - Got in another 28:30 at around 10 pm. The pace was pretty relaxed, so I'm calling it 3.9.

Met up with Sasha this morning at 9 and warmed up two miles with Benjamin, who ran some blistering splits. I think his second mile was 6:54, and he looked like he was taking it easy.

After that, we headed to the 5-mile tempo start and got going. We started at about 5:25 pace, going through the half in 2:43 (Sasha was a second or two ahead of me), but I lost focus a little and slowed through the mile in 5:30.

So I got my mind together and focused on keeping up with Sasha's pace, and the quarters started rolling by. Soon we reached the two mile (10:57) and then the turnaround (13:41, I think, so a 2:44 half). We picked it up a little after the turnaround and reached 3 miles in 16:24. I was feeling way better than last week's tempo, and at 3 1/2 we picked it up to 5:20 pace, reaching 4 miles in 21:47 (PR!!), still feeling good.

I picked it up over the last mile, reaching 5 in 27:06. Last mile in 5:19, last half was 2:38, but I didn't catch the last quarter. Next week is the BYU Invite, I feel that with any luck, I should have a big PR.

Mile splits:

5:30

10:57 (5:27)

16:24 (5:27)

21:47 (5:23)

27:06 (5:19,  5:25.2 avg.)
 

Met with Sasha and Jeff this morning for an uneventful 15. This makes a mileage PR for me, and a few more weeks in the 70-80 range will be beneficial. The run started with Sasha asking us how many grams of vodka it takes to get legally drunk....

I was feeling pretty tired from the week's work, so I made them run slow for me. I think we ended the 15 at around 7:30 average, then Sasha and Jeff and the new-found Matt went on for some more. We picked up Matt about 11 miles in... well actually, he caught us.

Sooo..... I'm pooped. Time for nap.

Actually, I just checked Sasha's blog and he says it was 15.1, so even bigger mileage PR!