Slept in today to 7:00. Heaven. Ran with Jon in the evening. Ran from my house to canal trail and continued up to the Nature Trail center bldg. The river trail is runnable again. A bit muddy but not too bad. We picked it up from the Blvd the rest of the way home to catch the 7 min guy in-spite of Jon's whining and mocking. Good times.
Striders 1/2 Marathon (13.1 Miles) 01:17:25, Place overall: 9, Place in age division: 4
Slow miles
Fast miles
Total Distance
4.00
13.10
17.10
Striders 1/2 Marathon.
Well, my only complaint was the wind. It made the second half of the race pretty ugly. Temps were ok, not bad, but combined with the wind chill it made for a rough morning. I drove with Jon and we met up with Clyde, Logan, and Andy for a bus ride to the start. We met up with more bloggers and did some warmup and stretching/waiting for the thing to start. Lots of snow still in that canyon and Ogden Valley.
We finally got under way and immediately I could feel the wind. I mostly drafted through the canyon so it wasn't too bad. Plus the downhill countered it pretty good. We got a bit carried away with the first mile, but soon settled into a better pace. I felt really good until mile 10 or so. That was when the wind picked up (headwind or un-favorable crosswind the whole way). I was also in no-mans land too from mile 8 on in so it was a struggle. I felt like I had a shot at my pr (1:16) until about mile 9-10 then it was out of reach. My splits were:
1: 5:30
2: 5:41
3: 5:43
4: 5:40
5: 5:47
6: 5:51
7: 5:48
8: 5:54
9: 6:05
10: 6:06
11: 6:24
12: 6:19
13: 6:07
.1: 0:32 (5:12)
1:17:25 (5:55) 175 ave 180 max
Beat my Moab time by over a minute, even with much worse conditions. I would guess the wind affected me by 1 to 1.5 minutes, but that is hard to tell. I do feel that if I had conditions like I did for my 1:16 PR (TOU half 2007) I would have PR'ed. Who knows though. 4:20 course PR over my time from last year. I am happy with the results and am now looking forward to the Ogden Marathon. Of course, we still have a battle on for 2nd place in the Striders Series. Chad added another min+ to his lead on me, but due to his sickness, I made up the time I was down to Jon and then a bit more. He ran a great race to cut his losses and gut it out. It will be a battle at the 30K!
I enjoyed mingling with the other bloggers during the cool-down and after. It is always fun to catch up and talk running. I have a few medals for some of the folks who (wisely) split early. Josse, I sent yours with Tom/Kim. Walter and Steve, I have your medals. Good job guys.
AM: Ididn't set my alarm clock properly and so I slept in a bit. Didn't have time to get as many as I wanted, but I managed to get 3 on the treadmill this morning. Legs are feeling pretty good. Not sore at all. I did scrape them last night, but very little bruising. Just easy miles for a few days.
T-21:50 (7:17) 3 miles
PM: Met Paul in the afternoon. Ran Planet walk, then Planet Fitness, then a loop in Providence. Good pace, feeling pretty good. Last two miles, I was tired. The recovery is going well.
AM: My legs were not happy with all the miles I did yesterday so today they revolted. I didn't put up a fight though and took it easy. Providence-River Heights loop
T-61:24 (7:44) 8 miles 148
PM: Met Paul and we ran the Landfill Loop. We chatted about Wasatch Back Relay. I am getting excited and it is still MONTHS away.
AM: Legs were dead again today (no suprise). Out and back on 400W. Great road to run on. No traffic, super wide. I was hoping to beat the snow home. Didn't make it. 3 miles of blinding snow/sleet. I am hopeful that is the last for the year. Knock on Wood...
T-61:46 (8miles) (7:45) 150
PM: 3 on treadmill in the evening. Kept my dinner in me!
AM: Sleepy 5 miler. Legs are starting to get the life back in them. Just in time to work them over this afternoon with a real workout. Not timed, but faster than the 2 slower runners I passed on the Planet Walk. Ha!
PM: Medium Workout. Providence - Millville loop (11 miles). I was excited to see sunshine and I think I got too excited as I froze with only my short-sleeve shirt and shorts. My hands were frozen stiff. I started off with 3 miles warmup at sub 7 min pace. The wind was at my back and I was cruising. The plan was 8 miles of tinman tempo pace (6:10-6:20). The course is super hilly so it is difficult to gauge the speed. The first mile was a steep uphill with the wind.
7:24 (I actually think that is a record for me on that mile due to the tailwind).
6:07 (flat with favorable cross-wind).
5:47 (downhill with favorable cross-wind)
6:16 (rolling - non favorable wind)
6:13 (rolling - non favorable wind)
6:07 (rolling - non favorable wind)
6:16 (flat - headwind)
5:59 (flat - headwind) Trying to get home fast cause I was cold!
New course record for me by over 10 seconds a mile.
Once I got home, I jumped on the treadmill for a half mile cooldown/warmup not timed.
Long run split into pieces. First ran 10.3 by myself. Ran up to First Dam via Canal Trail. 7:05 ave. Was doing well coming home hitting 6:30-6:50's. Ran to Jon's house. Helped him and two other friends move his couch upstairs. Then carb-loaded for the second half of the run. 2 doughnuts. Mmmm Ran with Jon for 8 miles into Providence. Dropped him off, ate one more doughnut, ran to Planet Walk then home. 2100 calories burned, 1500 calories eaten. Still in the black. Well worth it. Had sections of good speed, but most of the run was slow and dragging. Must be the end of another PR mileage week (85 miles) after a big 1/2 marathon. Smart? Probably not.
AM: Right Hamstring is super tight and tender. Must have pulled it Saturday while doing manual labor. Its been too long since I have had to do that. I am turning soft. Took it easy to try and loosen it up. (Landfill loop)
T-45:00 (7:30) 145
PM: Body is not happy. Went SLOW and it still was not very much fun. Kids in the stroller didn't help, but it gave me a good excuse for going slow. Providence and Planet Walk
AM: 8 miles in the wind. 400 W to 1600 N. and back. Felt much better than yesterday, but still a far cry from feeling "good". Slow, easy miles, until I can get the hamstring happy and some life in the legs.
AM: Small to Medium workout. (Kind of a gray area). It was overdue, so I hit the Young Ward Loop 11 miler this morning. 2 mile warmup then progression tinaman tempo pace. 6:20, 6:16, 6:10, 6:10, 6:11
At that point, I backed off to 6:30 range for the remaining 4 miles. 6:30 felt like marathon pace where 6:10-6:20 felt like half marathon pace. Very distinct difference in pain levels. My HR is continuing to drop, so I hope the mileage is paying off.
T-1:10:38 (6:25) 161 ave
PM: 5 miles with Jon, Paul and the kids in the stroller. Easy Pace. 8 min pace
Early morning run with Logan. We met at the West end of Hollow road and we ran up the canyon 10 miles and back down. On the way up it was pretty windy (headwind) at the mouth of the canyon. It got much better by mile 4 or 5. Right at mile 5, Jon was waiting for us. He joined us for 10 miles. He seems to be much healthier now. Easy pace up then a bit faster on the way down. I was dragging big time today, but survived. The last 4 miles Logan and I did some faster miles. He took off at 5 min pace or so and I kept it at 6 min range ( 5:48, 6:00, 6:04, 5:59) to the car. It was pretty tough keeping the legs going with them so fatigued. Glad that workout is done!
T-2:19:22 (6:58) 158 ave (170 ave during the fast miles)
AM: 8 mile on the Providence Hills loop. Uneventful due to finding a port-a-pot at just the right time. That was close. Legs were lead until after I hit the big downhill. That brought them back to life. I finished strong at 6:45 pace.
T- 59:46 (7:23) 150
PM: 5 easy miles with Jon. Only 1 pit stop. What a letdown.
Young Ward loop with Jon this afternoon. Easy pace warmup then we did one mile faster at 6:28 pace then I stepped it up a bit to do 3 more @ tinman pace. I went 6:13,6:17,6:15. I was shooting for 6:15 to 6:30 so I kept it right on the money. It felt pretty good until the last one where I had to work. I decided that was enough and that it would be better to save some for Saturday. I looped back a bit to get Jon and then we ran the rest of the way together at 7:30 pace home. Now I have to get the legs with some life back in time for the 30K. That race is so crazy. Long, but not quite as painful as a marathon. We'll just have to see how it goes.
T- 1:11:30 (6:54) 158 ave (171-173 during the faster stuff)
AM: Rough night with the kids last night. Kept us up for a large chunk of the night. Got out in the morning for an easy 5. Tried to sleep during the run, but failed. 8 min pace must be fast enough to stay awake. I will try for 9 min pace next time.
PM: Easy 6 on the Landfill Loop. Wore a watch to keep the pace slower than 7:30 overall. It didn't take long to realize that it wouldn't be too hard to keep it that pace.
Easy 5.05 (to round out my weekly mileage) on Planet Walk. Not timed. Today is Bethany's first day of her clinical tests in Amarillo. The grandparents fought tooth and nail over who got to watch the grandkids. Needless to say, I didn't argue much. The kiddies are in SLC where I will join up with them after the race on Saturday. Good Luck Beth! Ace it!
Striders 30K (18.67 Miles) 01:55:03, Place overall: 2, Place in age division: 1
Slow miles
Fast miles
Total Distance
3.40
18.60
22.00
Striders 30K. Final Race in the 5 race series. 1:55:03 2nd Overall
I was not looking forward to this race as it is a long race without the "glory" of a marathon. Which makes sense since it is a marathon minus all the hard miles. I didn't really have a time goal coming into today. I was 2 mins down on Chad for the series and 2 mins up on Jon. I felt pretty secure in this spot as I thought it was unlikely that Chad would bonk bad enough to let me make up the time. You just never know though since the race is so long. I warmed up a few easy miles with Jon as we watched the sunrise. It was about 28 degrees at the start, but starting to warm up. By the end, it was just perfect weather.
We (Chad, Jon, Ben, Nate) started out very easy and chatty for a few miles until we got bored with the pace and Chad and I eased away from the group. It stayed pretty relaxed for a few more miles, but was not easy by any means. By mile 9 I was feeling sluggish and Chad made a 10-15 sec a mile move that was just enough to drop me. I slowly continued to lose time to him over the next 9 miles as he was by far the strongest out there today. I switched from hanging on to Chad to treating this as a tempo run to get ready for Ogden. I hit some faster stuff when i could, and slowed on the rollers. I was pretty spent by the end, but kept it together to finish strong. I am happy with the race as it shows significant improvement over last year (duh, of course). I am still not sure about my time goals for Ogden, but figure to be between 2:40 and 2:45.
Good job Chad for winning the series and doing so convincingly. Good job Jon for toughing out the sickness and securing third. Good times.
Here are my split for those interested:
1-6:54 (long, but at 6:19 pace)
2-6:15
3-6:13
4-6:11
5-6:09
6-6:15
7-6:15
8-6:15
9-6:12 (bye bye Chad)
10-5:57 (downhill now)
11-5:49
12-5:52
13-5:56
14-6:00
15-6:14 (rolling hills again)
16-6:12
17-6:22
18-6:17
18.6*something - 3:44 (5:46 pace)
1:55:03 (6:10) 169 ave 183 max
4+ min PR over last year
Best news of the day though, was Bethany is 3/4 the way through her test and has passed all portions until now. Only one more day of testing! Yeah for Beth!!
Ran with Chad today. I joined him in the morning at his house and he took me on a tour of the SLC bench. Ran by the zoo and by Bonneville Golf Course and followed some ladies around as they rode their bikes. Great place to run. Little traffic, tonz of hills. Easy pace. Legs are tired from the 30K, but not sore at all. Hamstrings are tight, so I need to work on them today.
T-1:25:00 (7:45) 148
By the way, for those interested, Bethany passed her 3 day test!! We all knew she would, but she still did it. It's party time at the Drapers!!!
AM: Providence Canyon Road. Easy pace. Felt much better the second half of the run.
T-59:14 (7:24) 146
PM: Ran with Jon and my kids in the stroller for a while. Then ran with both Jon and Paul for all of 1 block. Then ran home. Made it all the way home before I realized I left the kids at Paul's....Just kidding.
