Trails!

AM: Easy 5 on the treadmill watching Incubus. Ready for another week of training. I am excited that it will be an easier week capped off with a race.

T- 36:20 (7:16) 1%

PM: 8.25 miles with Jon.  Cold but sunny.

T-59:00 (7:10) 151

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.

T-1:23:40 (6:58) 156 

AM: Planet Walk 5. No watch

PM: More planet walk with the kids in the stroller.  Did the first 1.75 miles with Beth too.

Landfill loop in the morning.  Easy pace, no watch.  5x20 second striders.  Sluggish today.

Taper for Striders 1/2.  5 Miles on the TM.  Incubus Concert again (middle 1/3).  Ready to roll tomorrow....

T-37:10 (7:26) 145-148

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.