Trails!

I didn't feel up to racing today so I just went on a training run.  I haven't been on the Deer Fence Trail in a while so I headed up to Mountain road.  I ran from Dry Canyon over to Providence canyon and down the Providence Canyon road back to the house.  I was still struggling on the run today.  Even more than the difficult trail causes anyone to feel.  I am feeling the same "overtraining" symptoms that I felt a month or so ago. I needed a week of easier runs with less intensity to feel back to normal.  I might be headed down that road again.

T-1:38:46 (8:04) 151

AM:  Another day of no desire to run.  Dragged my butt out of bed and forced myself to run.  Started out slow, well over 8 min pace then finally got going by mile 4.  The rest of the miles were around 7:15 pace.  Felt better by the time I got home.  I will do some easy miles this evening.

T-61:06 (7:38) 148

PM:  Almost got killed riding the scooter home from work.  50 mph winds with major rain and lightning everywhere.  I pulled over to the corner of 10th north and 6th west (I actually only made it about a mile or so) and huddled under a building covering until my wife came and got me.  I waited all evening for it clear up enough for me to go back to get it.  I finally had enough at 8:20 and went for it.  I got completely soaked running the 2.75 miles to get it but that was only half the battle.  I had to somehow not crash driving it home in the rain.  I did live to tell the tale though. 

T-20:15 (waterlogged)

AM: Landfill loop against my will.  Mind over matter. 

T-46:25 (7:44) 147

PM: Mini-Workout (as opposed to a big workout). I joined Jon for a VO2 Max workout at Blackhawk park.  I am not sure how this correlates to marathon training, but Jon assured me that it did. I ran 2.5 miles warmup to the park with 1 mile near Tinman tempo pace (6:17).  We did 3 x 1.02 miles (according to the garmin) with 2 min rest in between.  I went: 5:35, 5:37, 5:36.  Followed by easy miles home.  It feels good to get some kind of a workout in this week as I have felt like a bum.  Now I can do easy miles till Sat and not feel guilty.

T-59:03 (6:57) 8.5 miles 165 ave 200 max

AM:  This morning I ran with Logan High's #3 runner (Colton Wiser).  He is in my ward and wanted to train with me when he could.  He took it easy on me and kept it around 8's.  I dropped him off at mile 4.5 and added some to make it 7.1.  I plan on a few more miles this evening.

T-55:53 (7:52) 146

PM:  Ran laps on the Planet Walk with Paul and Jon and the little ones.  Easy pace, so my boy took up the whining instead of me.  Poor Jon and Paul had to listen to him whine the whole way. 5.1 Miles

T-40:30 (7:51) 148 

Providence Hills Loop this morning.  I am feeling much better today.  I was pretty sluggish on the uphills but got going pretty good on the downhills.  Threw in 5x100m strides on the downhill to prepare for tomorrow's pounding.

T-61:37 (7:36) 152

AM: Easy run to shakeout the legs. Got to sleep in for once. Ahhhh heaven. Nice morning in SLC. 70 degrees at 9:30 promises for a warm day, but luckily the race is in the mountians.

T-26:30 (7:35) 150

PM: Alta Peruvian Downhill Dash. Downhill is quite an understatement. Very steep painful course. Cool race though with a laid back feel. Nice prizes and a nice BBQ afterward. I highly recommend this race. I ran some warmup (2.5 miles) with Sasha, Paul, Bob, Nathan etc. It was harder than it should have been but we were at 8500 feet.

I was shooting for between 4:50 and 5:00 mile average for this race, which seemed weird as my 1600m PR is 5:00. Pretty cool to beat that time for ~5 miles. The race began and the usuals went out hard and I found a tall guy to hide behind for the first two miles. That was nice as the headwind was pretty noticable. Here is how it went:

Miles	Time	Ave HR	Notes
Mile 1	5:02	171	Just trying to stay in control and draft.
Mile 2	4:58	183	Sweet, Mile PR!
Mile 3	5:04	184	Passed my drafting buddy and got out by myself. Had to work harder in the wind.
Mile 4	5:06	184	My feet are on fire and my legs hurt bad. Will this be over soon?
Mile 5 (.99)	4:37	187	No one to catch, no one has passed me since mile 1. Try and finish strong and not trip

Finish Time Official: 24:47 (5:00 ave) Sweet, I set a new 8K PR for my year of PR's and also a few others (dowhill aided of course) along the way. The Garmin (and other peoples there) had the course at 4.99 miles so it was a tad long, but no big deal. My ave time according to the garmin showed 4:58.

I was pretty much spent at the finish and wasn't able to run back up to the start like some of the others. I made it 1.25 miles up the 9% grade in 12 min/mile pace with my HR hovering around 180. I bummed a ride and finished my cooldown up around the lodge (5 miles).

Paul, Sasha and Bob all ran great and I wont spill the beans for them, but they ran awesome. I won a cool hardbound National Geographic book of portraits as a prize and also a gift certificate for a free breakfast at the lodge for my 3rd in the age group. Not a bad day. Everyone got something.

http://www.altaperuvian.com/dash.htm