Trails!

Hill workout - 

House to Dry Canyon. 3 miles flat then 2 nasty miles (~8 min and ~9 min pace) then did 1 mile up Dry Canyon.  12:20 mile with HR at 170.  Its about a thousand foot climb over the last 1.5 miles.  At 6 miles, I turned around and flew down the canyon. 5:45 on the trail, then 5:37, 6:07 on the road before it flattened out.  The remaining 3 miles were at 7 min pace.  Legs are shot now.

T-1:30:40 (7:33) 12 miles 156

PM: 2 with the kids in the stroller.  We went to the park.

I woke up this morning and couldn't even walk.  I am so sore from the hill workout I did yesterday.  Marathon sore.  I put off the run until the evening to try and work the soreness out.  It sort of worked.  I did ok during the run once I got warmed up.  I joined Jon for 7 miles on the Landfill loop and then did the Planet Walk by myself.  I swallowed a pound of cotton while on the PW.  Not a good time of year to visit the PW.  

T-1:17:30 (7:45) 150

Up early to join Paul and Jon for an easy run.  We did 7 with Jon, dropped him off then ran Paul home, then did the PW again by myself.  Legs still very tender.  Going down stairs or any hill is painful.

T-1:38:00 (7:50) 142

AM: Planet Walk 5 with strides.  Legs still sore, but much better every day now.  The scooter is broken, so I rode the bike the 4 miles into work (12 min).

PM: Rode bike home then rode out to Wellsville and Mendon by myself.  Pushed it pretty hard.  I was pushing close to MP or Tinman Tempo pace effort the whole time.  ~25 miles at 20.5 ave speed.

Met Paul, Jon and Joe (after 300 invites he finally comes to a run with us) at PW but didn't go on it.  Instead we did Landfill loop and checked out the dirt road at the bird refuge.  I enjoyed my 8:20 pace before I met up with them.  They forced me to wake up and get moving.  Good to get out and enjoy the nice morning.

T-51:30 (7 miles) (7:21) 146

Rode bike to work and will ride home later, assuming I ever leave.

Utah Hemophilia Foundation Blood Run 5K -

3rd Overall, 2nd Male 17:00 (5:28) 179 ave 185 max HR

Yep, I got chicked. But I am getting ahead of myself...

I have a brother in law who is a hemophiliac and my wife is a carrier of the disorder, so I have some real close personal ties to the hemophilia foundation. I was planning a trip to SLC for a family gathering so I was able to fit in this race without a big deal. It is held in Highland (in Utah county). Nice area and it turned out to be a great day for a race. I got there and ran the course for an easy warmup. I was not feeling great due to the non-taper and the fact that this is the highest mileage week of the year for me. Not a lot of zip in those legs. I have done 0 speedwork in the last few months and was completely unprepared for this race. But, it is a 5K so at least it is over quick.

At the starting line I saw a few fast looking guys but 2 fast looking girls. One was MaryAnn (formerly of the Blog) and the other was a super skinny girl Lindsey Dunkley (33:11 at Des News 10K in 2008). The first mile was downhill and with the wind (there was a canyon wind this morning). I was in 5th place for most of the mile working my way up to 3rd by early in mile 2. Mile 1: 5:19  I was able to get past MaryAnn and into 3rd place but couldn't quite get up to the shoulders of the top two runners (Logan Petty the top runner for Davis High, and Lindsey).  I was thinking to myself, who is this girl?  Impressive.  Mile 2 was not great and I was not enjoying the headwind we faced.  I was slowly slipping back and losing contact.  Mile 2: 5:42  Ugly.  Mile 3 was back up the hill, but no longer into the wind so it evened out a bit.  The two speedy folk kept pulling away and I was slowing down.  I hit the mile 3 in 5:38 but the garmin showed .95 for that mile.  So either short or I took the tangents too well.  Is cutting through backyards legal?  I will go with the short mile theory.  The final bit was uphill too, but I was fighting the clock to break 17 min.  I lost by .1 as my official time was 17:00.1.  So, it was a good race based on time, but it was short so it was only average.  Maybe I will focus on some speed work and run another 5K later in the season for a shot at a PR.  But before that, I need to train with this Lindsey girl.  Very speedy, but she ended up getting out kicked by Logan by 11 seconds.  I know I will never hear the end of this from Jon.  He LOVES it when I get chicked (it seems to happen all too frequently).

The highlight of the race though was the free massage at the finish.  Not many 5K's have complementary massages.  I won a plauque thingy for third overall and won a $50 gift certificate to 26.2 in American Fork.  The raffle was stacked with a couple of hundred prizes.  I walked away with $20 gift card for Ruby River Steakhouse (where my wife and I enjoyed a great lunch while grandma watched the kids!).  Not a bad days work for a charity run.

After the race, I did a cooldown waiting for the awards and then drove to the mouth of the canyon and looked for running trails.  I ended up on a dirt road that is basically the shoreline trail.  It was nice to get off the roads and enjoy the trail.  I did 4 out and back and called it a day.  (7:45 pace).