I am one with the levee and the levee with me

AM - 5 easy miles this morning. My legs don't feel too bad. 35:30

Later AM - 5 mile tempo on the river trail. I wanted to do some long intervals on the track, but left my flats at home. I hate doing track work in trainers, so I figured the tempo run at 5:30 pace was a good goal.

I was feeling kinda flat part way into it, so I took a minute rest at the turnaround. Here are the splits:

5:29, 5:30 (10:59), 2:42 (13:41, downhill section)

1:00 rest

5:30,  5:34 (11:04),  2:46 (13:50, uphill section)

I didn't like doing it in trainers, but that's life. The run averages to just about 5:30 on the nose.

AM - Woke up bright and early for an easy 3. 

Later AM - Hit the trail for another 8 miles. I left the watch behind and found it difficult to run an easy pace by feel. I'm constantly thinking about pace and wondering if I'm going too slow or too fast. I didn't realize I was that dependent.

AM - Warmed up 2.5 miles, then hit the track for a workout. I had a lot of fun with this workout, it wasn't particularly hard, but it wasn't meant to be. The idea was to let my body get used to 4:50 pace without making the workout totally killer.

3x1000m (3:00 rests)

3:03

3:00

2:53

4x100m strides

I wanted to practice running a fast final lap, so I opened up on the last rep, finishing with a 66 final quarter.

The workout felt pretty easy and got me excited about running faster times. I really think I can crack 15:20 right now, but I haven't done any good workouts at that pace yet. It's in there, though, I just have to put down the mental barriers and do it.

 

AM - Had an awesome run up Hobblecreek Canyon.... runs like this make me remember why I fell in love with running. 10 miles, about 7:00 average.

PM - Took Miki to the track for a run, we're into the second week of pretty consistent running. She seems to have a fear of running a steady consistent pace, so I'm trying to figure out how to break that. She likes to run the straights hard and jog the curves, which is fine every once in awhile, but she needs to learn to run a consistent effort. If I tell her to run a steady mile, she'll run about 13 minutes, but when she does it her way, she'll hit 11 minutes without much trouble. I'm thinking if we get away from the track she'll not focus on the distance so much and just run, but I don't know. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Anyway, 3 more miles for me at about 7:10-7:20 pace.

AM - I headed out in about 7:10 - 7:20 pace up the canyon, and came back a little quicker, maybe 6:50 pace. Threw in a 30 sec surge on a flat section to remind the legs what race pace feels like. Total time 1:02:45.

I have an exam at 7am tomorrow (can you believe that?) so I'll have to hurry up to Logan right when it's over. I'm really looking forward to this race, I feel ready for a good one.

Utah State’s track is pretty sheltered, but it didn’t make a difference against today's wind, I figure it was blowing 15-20 mph throughout the race, give or take.

A good crew showed up for the start, though, including Brian McKenna, Nate Ogden, and Jared Keller. Seth Wold was going to pace Brian partway, so things started reasonably, and I tucked in behind the two of them. Nate Ogden shot out front, then Seth, Brian, me and Jared making up the pack.

First lap in 75, then 73, 72, and 74 to make it 4:54 at 1600m. I stayed right behind Brian through 6 or 7 laps, but the wind was totally killer, and skinny runners don’t block the wind well. I started to lose contact around the seventh lap; I noticed Nate was coming back to us at that point. Seth dropped out here, Brian went after Nate, but I lost contact.

Once I lost Brian I couldn’t keep the pace, Jared went by me and I slowed to 5:10 pace, maybe a little worse. I went through 3200m in 10:02, getting hammered by the wind on every back stretch. I saw that Brian had caught Nate, and the two of them got some distance on the rest of us -- they were around 9:53 at 3200m. The next two laps were awful as I battled the wind in no-man’s land; I believe at least one of the laps was 81, 5:24 pace.

I was hurting pretty bad by this point, but Jared obviously was as well. With about 3.5 laps left, I made a move and caught him easily, but as I passed he stayed close. We were doing 5:10 pace with two laps to go, but it was the worst pain I’ve felt in awhile. Jared was still within striking distance with a lap to go, I tried to open up but couldn’t find the gear. The windy backstretch sapped what little I had left out of me, and he blew past at the 200m mark. I managed to pick it up a little on the homestretch, but he was out of reach by that point. I managed 35 seconds on the final 200m, but Jared must have been more like 32. I was so dead at the finish…. Definitely the most painful run I’ve had in a long time.

Final time was 15:51 and I felt that I fought pretty well considering the conditions. Nate finished in 15:32 (amazing final lap, he and Brian were still together with a lap to go), Brian in 15:42, and Jared in 15:48. On the positive side, I got out in a quick first mile, so when I get in a race in good conditions this shouldn’t be an issue. I’m a little disappointed with the time, even considering the wind I need to be running faster.

These were the splits:
4:54
5:08 (10:02)
5:14 (15:16)
0:35 (15:51)