Per Aspera Ad Astra

6.1 with Holly (to South Temple to 9th to 13th to 5th and back with an extra 2 blocks for good measure) at 7:24 average pace.

7 ish at lunch with Nate and Adam. Nobody had a Garmin, but we did a few minutes shy of an hour on a combo of roads and trails at an easy effort

Ski day #50 at Brighton (night) with the gf.

Ski day #51 of the season at Deer Valley with the gf, then dinner at Mariposa, which was utterly fantastic.

19.2 miles in MN, from my house to Pine Point Park and back.  Figured I should get in a long run if I'm still wanting to do the BOSHO trail marathon on Saturday.  Probably went harder than I needed to and kept every mile under 7:00, despite a lot of hills and a LOT of slow snow on the trail.  Felt good during the run with an average pace was 6:47, but legs were a little sore afterwards.  I was surprised not to bonk, considering that this was more than twice as long as my next longest run in the last 5 1/2 weeks, in addition to the fact that I only ate 100 calories of skittles over the run (a few 3 times between miles 10 and 17).  I'd like to get another decent effort in tomorrow, but it depends on how my legs feel.

8.3 miles at 7:03 average pace, mostly roads with some trail, relatively rolling, with a fair amount of wind.  The easier your effort, the more benefit you get, pace wise, when running at low altitude, compared to UT altitude.  I was certain I was running no faster than 7:30 pace (didn't wear a GPS), but when I got home, I found it to be 7:03 AP.  Awesome.  Route was to Katherine Abbott, out the far side, up to Chatham, up to Warner, to Gateway, to Jamaca, to 80th, to Hickory, to Park, to Ash, and back home through the Streetcar path and Wildridge.  Legs a little sore from yesterday, but not bad.  Hip is fine, which is good.

BOSHO Trail marathon, basically off the couch, run on all the fitness I could gain from a 19.2 mile long run 4 days ago, and nothing else of value since March 1st.  I got 2nd in a time 6 minutes slower than my 2nd place time from last year, and missed the win by a little less than 4 minutes.  I led for the first 10, shared the lead until 16, lost it on an uphill, almost regained it at 18, but then a gnarly blister on my left heel exploded and it slowed me down.  The trails were in good condition, but it was pretty hot and I think everyone up front got pretty dehydrated over the last hour or two, thanks to all of us carrying only one bottle and there only being aid stations to refill at miles 4, 10, and 21.  I obviously could run faster here if I show up with more than one run of significance in the last 6 weeks.  Legs feel great afterwards (trail races just don't beat you up the same way), but the last 8 miles on the exploded blister were very painful and I couldn't really walk afterwards.  The inside of my Nikes are pretty bloodstained, so I think it's a good time to throw them out and get some Saucony XC flats.  More on the race later.

Photo by Jared Campbell

Heel blister was extremely bad and very painful all week until yesterday/today, and my legs felt more hammered than expected, so I just decided to let things heal.  Time to start training for real!  I'm leaning towards just waiting until the fall to do another full marathon and taking the time to build up a new really solid base in the mean time (biiiiig summer mileage before getting into workouts).  I can wait a little longer to go sub-2:40. :)

8.1 miles with Holly at 10 PM, after day #54 of skiing for the season.  Mostly around 7:15-7:20 pace with a bit of hills, but picked up 5, 6, and 7 at 6:35 pace.  With altitude and a little hills, coupled with my rather poor fitness at the moment, that felt pretty hard.  Hah.  Nevertheless, real training has officially commenced again!

Similar route to yesterday.  My place to 9th/south temple to 21st to 5th, and back.  Mostly low 7:00 pace, but did miles 2 and 5 at tempo (5:49, 5:51) for 6:52 ap.  Pretty warm, even at 11:30 PM!

Lift + treadmill workout.  1 mile warm-up at 6:46 and then 9 miles of tempo.

2: 6:00

3: 6:00

4: 6:00

5: 6:00

6: 6:00

7: 5:58

8: 5:56

9: 5:54

10: 5:35

I felt surprisingly good.  The initial plan was just to do 8 at 6:00 pace, but I felt good, so I just rolled with it.  I definitely had more miles in me at this pace, but the gym was closing, so this was what I got.  Maybe I won't completely die in Provo City Half next weekend after all. :)

2.5 tempo into work at 6:44 average pace (2-3% average grade uphill) to get my Garmin and better shoes, then 1 easy (6:5x pace), then 2.5 @ 5:04 pace (3-4% average grade downhill), then 1.5 mile cooldown.  Actually, on that 2.5, I accidentally didn't start my watch for .5 miles, so I only caught 2 of it, but I figure my pace was pretty consistent.  What's sad is that it's nearly impossible for me to currently run 38 year old Meb's marathon pace for 2.5 miles on a downhill.  Hah.

I don't feel like killing myself in June at Utah Valley Marathon, so instead of signing up for that, I signed up for the Drop13 half on the same day (down BCC).  That race is obviously ridiculously downhill, but I signed up to have some fun with it and try to get an elite status qualifier for St George (1:13:00).  I calculate that a 1:15:00 on a pancake flat course at sea level with no sharp turns (or 1:15:30-1:16:00 on a typical "fast" course) would equate to 1:11:20 here, despite the altitude, so I think I should be able to get it.  I'm really excited about training again lately and, as can be seen from most of what I've done this week, I'm excited about running FAST, so this seems like a reasonable goal for me.  Going to do something long-ish tonight.

Run: Just 10 miles.  Going longer with Fritz tomorrow.  Treadmill at gym since it was windy and I was being a wimp.  64:31, mostly 6:30-6:50, then last mile in 5:31.

With Fritz.  Ran from my place to meet him at Memory Grove, then 5 miles up that and City Creek, then down to canyon road, up to 11th, to Virginia, down to 3rd, and back home.  7:15 AP with all those hills, basically high 6:00s effort, so a pretty decent run.  It was 44 in the city, so probably high 30s at the highest point in our run, in additino to being really rainy. I learned the difference between snow jackets (what I was wearing, and which soaked through), and rain jackets, so I was pretty cold by the end.  Fritz was nice enough to give me socks to wear on my hands as gloves, as I realized by the time i met up with him after .4 miles that my hands were going to freeze.  Overall, felt good.  Time to tutor and then hit up the fresh powder!

With Fritz, Adam, Rob, and Allie.  7:27 AP.  Legs were slightly stiff after skiing quite hard yesterday afternoon, but loosened up nicely.  Now off for ski day #56 of the season.

7 miles easy with Holly at like midnight.  My place to 9th East to 9th South to Liberty, loop of Liberty, and back the way I came. 7:33 AP.

Was going to do 5 at half marathon pace on the treadmill, but I felt good, so I did a pick-up type tempo run instead.  5:49, 5:40, 5:39 (nervous to go much faster, even though it felt relaxed), 5:34, 5:17.  Felt really great tonight.  I could tell I was moving, but it felt fluid.  I'm really excited to be focusing on a half marathon in June instead of a full.  Working on speed with some shorter workouts for awhile is going to be really fun!  In any case, I was going to do something longer, but this was the time I had, so this is what I did.

Ski day 57 of the season, then worked until 11pm.