Cool Runnings!

Ran 6.0 miles on the treadmill at Snowbird.  The change from about 1700 ft to over 8000 ft definitely had an impact on me.  I could feel a major difference in how easy it was to run 8:30 miles.  However, I am hoping that as I continue to put in the miles up here, my body will be able to adapt to the lower oxygen and make things easier for me when I run Provo River.

Ran 5.5 miles on the treadmill up at Snowbird in the evening, as I was not able to run in the morning.  Started out at 6.6 mph (9:04 pace), increased to 6.8 mph (8:49 pace) after a mile, then increased to 7 mph (8:34 pace) after the second mile.  Ran at that pace until 4.5 miles, then increased to 7.5 mph for the last half mile.  Cooled down another 1/2 mile at 6 mph for a total of 5.5 miles.  Felt good about this, as I played 18 holes of golf in the morning with my dad and brothers and ran all around the course.

Did not get to run in the morning, as I woke up late (probably a good thing).  Ran in the evening, planned on running 6 miles total (including cooldown), but had to cut the run short due to my stomach - dinner did not agree with me.  That's what I get for eating bratwurst and sauerkraut . . . started off the run at 9:05 pace, warmed up for a mile, then increased to 8:49 pace.  This felt a bit more difficult than yesterday - probably attributed to the greasy brats in my stomach.  Ran at that pace for 1.5 miles, then increased to 8:34 pace until 4.5 miles, then slowed back down to 8:49 pace to try to settle my stomach down.  Didn't help.  Oh well, I don't want to overdo my distance as Saturday draws closer anyways.  Tomorrow I will probably do 4-5 miles, and Friday as well - nice and easy.

Ran 5.0 miles on the treadmill this morning at a nice easy pace - 9:05/mile the entire time.  The run felt good, I didn't feel exhausted afterwards, and didn't feel like hurling afterwards (not eating brats made a difference, I'm sure).  Another 4-5 miles tomorrow, and then it will be time to run the Provo River 10 miler.

Ran 4.0 easy miles on the treadmill today - shorter distance to make sure my legs are fresh for tomorrow.  Pace was 8:49/mile.  Then I ran 0.5 miles cooldown at 10:00/mile for a total of 4.5 miles.  Getting excited about the Provo River 10 miler tomorrow.

Ran the Provo Riverwoods 10 Miler on our way home from Snowbird.  Stayed with Sasha and Sarah Friday night (thank you guys!), got up early and helped Sasha set up the timing equipment.  Warmed up a bit, got on the bus, then warmed up a bit more when we got to the start (Sasha, you are a beast - what was a warmup for you on those hills got me huffing and puffing).  My original goal was 1:15, Sasha felt I could reach 1:10 and advised me to run 1/4 splits of 1:45.  I decided to follow his advice and see where it got me.  Now on to the race:

Started out nice and cool, big downhill at first, which got me a couple faster quarters, then settled down and was consistently hitting quarters in about 1:44.  Ran the first 4.5 miles with Clay from the blog - that was really cool, and helped the miles to go by extremely fast.  Continued to hit quarters between 1:40 and 1:45 throughout, caught some people, but as we descended, it started to get hot.  Right about mile 8, I started feeling the effects, and my legs started feeling dead, although I was able to keep up the same pace.  There was a girl about 10 meters in front of me that kept my competitive juices flowing, although I didn't think I could catch her.  Every time there was a small uphill, I caught up, but she gapped me again when we went back downhill.  At about mile 9, I started wishing the race was over, and felt like I could no longer maintain the pace.  However, when I checked my splits, I still wasn't doing so bad - around 1:46-1:47.  My slowest two splits were 1:48, towards the end when I was running out of steam.  The last 150 meters or so, I decided to kick it in and see if I could catch the girl in front of me - surprise, I did!  Saw my wife and oldest son cheering me on right at the finish - that was really cool.  Finished in 1:08:31, by far better than I anticipated.  Even better, after the race, Sasha told me he thought I could get a Boston qualifier with some more training.  To top things off, I got 14th overall (did not expect this, I thought I was top 50), and won my age division (since Sasha got first overall).  I haven't won my age division in anything since I was 16 and won my age in a 10K.

Legs are feeling a bit sore, but not overly so, this could partially be due to enforced inactivity as we drove home from Provo to Mesa.  I am extremely happy right now.  Congrats to Sasha, Clay (who did great in finishing in 1:12 and change) and all the other bloggers who ran.

Sasha - can you elaborate on what you would recommend for my training?  Obviously I need to put in more miles - if anything, that race showed me that I still need to increase my aerobic base.  My hope is that I can get up to 60 miles/week in preparing for St. George - sounds like I probably need to put in some more tempo runs like this as well to train my legs and body to run at this speed for marathon distance.

Update:  PAIN!  My quads and calves are extremely sore today from the downhill running.  Overall, still feeling OK, but I seem to have contracted some illness from a combination of things:  elevation (Snowbird), sunburn and exertion.  I hope to recover quickly, but this week will have to be an easy week.