Trails!

Post Draper Days - Pre Des News easy run.  Did the trusty Planet Walk with no watch.  I felt pretty good, not spectacular, but I should be fine for tomorrow.  Did a couple of striders as well.

Deseret News 10K

I was not thrilled to get up at 4:30 for a race, but what can you do?  I made it to the starting area in plenty of time to hit the port-a-pot before the long lines.  I met up with the usual Logan guys + chad and did an easy 2 miles to warmup.  

The race started off as expected, with old ladies in front and kids sprinting.  Once that got ironed out, I settled into staying close to James.  He slowly left me in the dust.  This course is pretty dang fast with the first 5K loaded with downhill.  I went thru the first mile in 5:14 and felt in control.  I repeated the effort and was rewarded with another 5:15 second mile.  I felt like I was on cruise control as occasionally during the flatter sections, my pace slowed and I wasn't able to get the legs moving.  Its a good thing the course is downhill, as I didn't have much pep.

The third mile was much slower as the major hills stopped. 5:39.  On a good note, I passed thru the 5K point in about 16:30 - a PR for the distance, but it cost me.  I actually planned on going that fast in the hope that I could hang on for a great time, but it just didn't materialize.  My fourth mile was run in 5:39 again, but I was losing it.

I think that about at this point, I went on auto-run and didn't make any effort to push the pace.  I kind of slipped into mildly-painful mode instead of death-march mode that I need to be in.  I need to get past the pain threshold.  My fifth mile was a "stellar" 5:49.  I did enjoy making faces at the parade folk camping out and had thoughts of cruel ways to wake them up (losing my stomach contents on them, stepping on the sleeping bags while singing BINGO).  I think I was losing concentration or something.  I tried to pick it up the last mile to catch the group in front of me, but I had nothing.  6:04 for the 6th mile and that made me mad.  Mad enough to give a bit of a kick even though no one was around me. 1:08 for the last .21.  My watch read 34:49 but the official results say 34:51. 

Overall, I fell I had a good race.  It wasn't what I had hoped for, but not too far off.  I figured I would be between 34 and 35 minutes.  I think I left some of my race at Draper Days last sat.  I can't complain about a 3 min PR even if it was on a favorable course.

Things to work on:  Focus and have positive thoughts.  I think I need to incorporate more shorter tempos (3 miles really hard) to train myself to push past the pain threshold. 

Total Time: 34:51 (5:37 miles)

Ave HR: 181 Max HR: 193

Place 49/2034 Age Group 9/128

After the race, Paul, James, Chad, Adam and I ran up to the zoo to try and cheer on the marathon guys.  We totally missed them (Sasha, Steve O), but saw many people suffering along so we counted that.  Ran about 5 miles for the cooldown then drove over to Chads house for some grub.  Thanks Chad! 

Post Edit:  After reviewing the Online Results (as compared to the results printed at the race, my time has been adjusted to 34:49 (chiptime).  I will now call my official time 34:49

Still felt sore this morning from Des News so decided to run on my flat loop (Young Ward Loop).  Started out at 7:30 pace and as I loosened up sped up to 7ish pace.  Very muggy out.  I thought I was in the south or a rain forest or something.  Very unusual for Logan.

Total Time: 1:12:50 (7:13)

Ave Hr: 152

Met with Jon at his house this afternoon for a workout. We headed out to Blackhawk Park (I think thats the name) via the Planet Walk.  The park has a paved trail around its perimeter.  By running 1.5 laps we measured .92 of a mile.  We ended up doing 4x1.5 laps with full rest (2.5 min) between reps.  Our goal pace was 5:30-5:40 a mile pace.  

We stayed together pretty good as we are pretty evenly matched at this point.  It sure helped to have someone to work off of.  I went 5:07, 5:06, 5:06, 5:02 (which is about 5:35 a mile pace).   

I felt a bit flat in the legs.  My lungs and heat did fine, I was limited in my leg speed.  I am sure that it has to do with Des News.  Other than that, I felt pretty good.  After the four reps, we ran back to Jon's house the same way at 7:30 pace.

Total Time: 1:14:38 (7:17 ave) including rest jogging/walking

Ave HR: 158 Max HR: 187

Ran to Merlin Olsen Park and met with James for an easy run this morning.  We ran up the Island to the Water Lab trail and back via the Canal Trail and the Blvd.  Nice chatty run.

Total Time: 1:11:03 (7:41 ave)

Ave Hr: 147

Met with Jon and James and drove up to the start of the Top of Utah marathon and ran on the course to Jon's house at mile 21.7 (according to Mr. Garmin).  We tried to stay around 7:00 pace and did so coming in with a 6:51 ave pace.  Some of that is due to the 6:27 mile and a 5:44 pace .6 to finish it off. 

My blister/chunk missing in my skin caused some major problems by mile 10 as the moleskin lost its stickness and my sock was chafing.  Eventually, Jon came up with an idea of suing his toilet paper AND the baggie he carries it in to cushin the foot.  That worked like a charm as the friction was plastic on plastic not foot on sock/shoe.  That got me through the run.

Overall, a good training run, one of my stronger 20 milers ever.

Total Time: 2:29:05 (6:51)

Ave HR: 153

Afterward played Ultimate frisbee with Jon and company.  I wore the Garmin to see how much running actually occurrs during a game.  We played for 1.5 hours and covered about 5.5 miles.  Which comes out to about 16 min miles.  No speed records there.  I figure all the sprinting is worth 2.3 miles to round out my mileage to 25 miles today. Ave HR: for the time playing frisbee was 149.  Not that bad of a cardio workout.