Trails!

Met with Jon, James, and even Dan for a nice 12 miler in Green Canyon.  6 miles up and 6 down with 4.33 on singletrack and 1.66 on a dirt road.  Great trail up until the last mile then it was too overgrown and rocky to run well on it.  Easy up and fast down.  ~2000 feet of elevation gain over the 6 miles (5200 to 7200 feet).  Once again, it sure was nice to have company on such a long run (time-wise at least).

I will have to remember to not run that last mile up next time.  Not worth it.

1:45:00 (8:40) 149

Workout day.  Easy warmup to mile 20 of the TOU course barely breaking 8 min pace for the 3 miles.  Jumped right into my tinman tempo to the end of the marathon course (6.2 miles).  The first mile has a nice downhill into providence which helped me get the motor running.  After that, it wasn't too bad.  I met up with Paul about mile 22 and he kept me distracted enough to keep the pace steady.  I went: 6:16, 6:23, 6:21, 6:20, 6:20, 6:20, and 6:09 pace for .25.  I went by the garmin and not the mile markers.  Mile 22 had the marker about 7-8 seconds past my beep and the rest stayed about the same distance.  Either that mile is long, or my tangents were bad.  Probably tangents as there are lots of turns there.

I am happy with the workout as I was able to hold that pace without overextending myself.  Finished off the run with 2 miles back to the house at about 7:30 pace.

Total Time: 1:19:53 (6:57) 159 ave

Another typical recovery 8-miler(Providence-River Heights).  Felt lousy until the 6th mile then finally broke 8 min pace.  Legs are sore.  I need to stretch them better.

1:04:56 (8:07) 138 ave

Workout Day.  Ran 1.5 miles over to Paul's house to meet him for a run.  No sign of him, must have not received the e-mail.  I was feeling ok for the warmup.  My left knee was hurting again, but it got better as I warmed up.  I was around 7:30-7:45 pace right off the bat, so I was excited for a good day.  I decided to do 2 miles of tinman tempo to warmup for the CV's (as that was Paul's original plan and I thought it was a good one).  I headed out toward the Planet Walk and hit 6:14 and 6:24.  Cruised by Paul's house again and no sign of him so I headed up toward first dam via the canyon road.  I did 5x 3 min at ~CV pace with 1.5 min rest.  They got progressively harder as the road is a gradual uphill and the wind was fierce coming out of Logan Canyon.  I hit:

.52 in 3:00 (5:49) 

.51 in 3:00 (5:54)

.51 in 3:04 (6:01)

.49 in 3:02 (6:15) Nasty wind here.  I swear it was the same effort level.  I decided here to hold off on the last one until I hit the bathrooms at First Dam and run it with the wind.

.54 in 3:02 (5:37) Much nicer

That put me at the canal trail so I decided to run home on the canal trail via the Blvd.  I wanted to hit some "brisk" pace miles as Paul calls them so I stayed comfortable and cruised home.  (6:50, 6:31, 6:08 (down Blvd), 6:28).  Good workout hitting MP effort to Threshold effort.

Total Time: 1:21:35 (6:45) 12.1 miles 159 ave

Easy run on Planet Walk.  Ran into Paul and joined him for a couple of miles. 

Met Paul and Logan for a long run up Blacksmith fork canyon.  We started at the west end of Hollow Road and ran 10 miles up and back.  The pace was conversational but hard.  We hit a brutal headwind going up the canyon that made the 7:15 - 7:30 pace feel way too hard.  I was thankful for the turn-around point (~700 feet elevation gain) to be able to run with the wind and downhill.  Ahhhh.

Miles up were: 7:35, 7:10,7:27, 7:37, 7:13, 7:19, 7:09, 7:00, 6:57, 7:01

Coming down the canyon, we (they) were doing really well, but I was again suffering.  I need to stop running with super stars.  They kill me.  But they pulled me along at MP for most of the way down.  I was dropped when those two started to actually work (during mile 18).  Until then, we cruised along enjoying the downhill and the tailwind.  I was never happier to see the car.

Miles down: 6:37, 6:17, 6:15, 6:34, 6:13, 6:09, 5:57, 6:10, 6:18, 6:11

Note:  I counted all my miles faster than 6:30 as "fast" miles.  This run set the record for the fastest training 20 miler (downhill or out and back).  I only needed to do a 37:30 10K to get the same time as my Ogden Marathon time on a harder course.  Good training for St. George.

Total Time: 2:15:17 (6:45) 159 ave HR 174 max HR

* Good week of training with some solid workouts.  I dropped my mileage a tad, but I needed a good week to recover from the previous milege increases and it gave me a chance to do some quality workouts.  All my ~70 miles were from singles.