Old Man Still running

I ignored the alarm clock at 3:40, but did roll out of bed a half hour later without any good excuse since I was wide awake. It was 28 degrees out and a bring waxing moon was setting to the west. I did an eight mile loop out to the Lake Mountain ridge. There were puddles here and there that reflected the moonlight ahead of me. The moon set and I pushed the uphills a little harder than usual, thinking about how hard I pushed them last weekend at the Moab 100. My knee started to hurt again around two miles, but I ignored it and it was just an anoyance, not a problem. By the end it didn't hurt. Great. Looks like I'm back at it and look forward to doing to tought training. Next long race for me is a 50-miler in two weeks in Fruita, Colorado. I believe it will be similar to the Moab runs.

4 miles in the evening with the dog.

Out running at 2:30 a.m. this morning. The moon was wonderful and for some long stretches I was able to run without a light. This morning I again ran the 18-mile "hand-gun" route (called that because the map of it looks like a gun.) I ran clear out to Eagle Mountain city center. It was peaceful and pretty uneventful. While running north through Cedar Valley, there was a mild head-wind that made it chilly on the hands so I ran without a light and hands in my vest pockets. It was 38 degrees when I left and returned to home, but in pockets I could tell that it was below freezing because there was some frost here and there. I only took one water bottle filled with water, and no food. Toward the end I was getting pretty hungry. I did the run 12 minutes faster than last time, 3:20. Home before 6:00 a.m. I had a very nice nap on the bus heading into work in Salt Lake City.  It feels like I have fully recovered from my 100-mile run 10 days ago.

3 miles walking during lunch and 4 miles running with the dog before dinner.

Zero day, rest day.  Nine hours of sleep.

Woke up at 3:40.   Poked my head outside and saw a slight drizzle coming down.   I decided to head to the rec center to wimp out on the treadmill.   However....   My electronic key worked fine getting in, but I set off the alarm and high-tailed it out of there.  The problem is that the alarm is reset to for day light saving time, but the electronic access isn't, so they are an hour apart.   All winter I could get in there at 4 a.m., but now it looks like 5 a.m. is when the alarm disables.   Oh well, just another reason to keep me away from those dreaded machines.  

So, instead, I put on another layer and decided to run on the Jordon River parkway, starting at Utah Lake.   This is a paved trail.  With the rain, the real trails would be a muddy mess, so this would be better and I was glad to be away from the streets and homes.   I didn't have to use a flashlight because there is nothing to trip over.  I was enjoyed running in the dark along the Jordon River.  This is a popular running route, but of course at this time in the morning, I had it all to myself.   I reached the point where they are constructing a new huge bridge over the river, for the eventual new parkway to the freeway.  I dodged the fence (noticing that many have done this before me....worked my way across the contruction area, and dodged the fence on the other side, and was back on the paved trail.

One fun feature of this run was that I kept startling wildlife.  First, I heard a huge noise on the river.  It was a flock of geese that I startled.   Next I head a big noise in the brush, probably a deer, but couldn't tell because it was dark.  I next noticed some big critter running in front of me on the trail.  I was hoping it wasn't a skunk, it wasn't.   I crossed under Lehi Main Street SR 73, crossed the Willow Park, and continued along the river until I reached 9600 North.   Then I turned around and headed back.  

As I reached the construction zone, I knew I would need to turn on my light, but the chain link fence across the trail arrived sooner than I expected.  I bounced off the the fence....boing!   Thankfully, the fence wasn't tight, just a temporary fence, so I did actually bounce and didn't get hurt.  Pretty funny.    I crossed back over and made it back to my car.  I ran the 10 miles in about 1:45.

I had a good time running in the dark.  When my work moves to Riverton later this summer, I look foward to long runs into to work along this route.

Stayed home with a cold/sinus infection.  Usually a long run cleans out the head, so for the morning, I went did an 18-mile run, similar to my "hand-gun" route, except I didn't run across the Church farm because I would have been run off by the workers.  I rarely run this route in the light, so it was a different experience.  While in the wilderness between Saratoga Springs and Eagle mountain, I was surprised to run into a female runner.  She was wearing a Salt Lake marathon shirt.  She shouted, "Its nice to see someone else running out here."  I replied, "Yes, I rarely do."  In fact I don't think I ever have seen another runner out there.  But that isn't too surprising because I'm usually out there between 4-5 a.m.  The run was pleasant and pretty uneventful.  It became a little warm out in the middle of Cedar Valley, but then cooled as I climbed back into the foothills.   The run felt easy.  I was out for 3:10.  

I ran in Mary Ann's April Fools 10K on the Provo River Trail.  Well....kind of, not really.   Dumb, me, I didn't double check the website and didn't know the start time had been moved up two hours.   So, when I arrived at 10:30 a.m., Mary Ann was cleaning up.  She felt bad, but had no reason to.  She encouraged me to go ahead and do the run since the course was still marked and she would put me in the results.  Why not, I agreed.   It would be interesting to see if I could push myself hard enough alone.  Since I had already run 11 miles this morning, I didn't have high expectations.   I thought I would run well over 45 minutes.  I didn't push the first mile too hard because I didn't want to burn my lungs, but it probably was about a 6:45 pace.  The second mile was 6:55.  I was feeling good and wasn't pushing it too hard, dodging some walkers and joggers along the way.  I reached the turn-around at 21:31:02, which I knew was almost a minute faster than last month on the course, on a 43:02 pace.   "OK", I thought, "let's push it harder and see what I can do today."   The return is a gradual uphill all the way.   My legs felt surprizingly great, to I pushed ahead.  I had a mile split of 7:06 and then a lazy mile split of 7:22.  After that I kicked it into gear and finished strong with a 43:47.   I was pleased.  If I would have had competitors to push me, I'm sure I would have done much better, but I still was almost a minute faster than last month on this course.   So, I got everything I hoped for, a nice tempo run in great running temperatures and a much better time than expected.

Here is what I did earlier in the morning.  

With a storm coming in today, I decided to go punish myself on the treadmill for a little while.  I did 7 miles mostly at 10% incline or higher.   I did tough spurts up at 25% incline.  Ouch.  Felt good afterwards.   When I went outside to my car, the dawn was approaching and it felt warm at 45 degrees, so I decided to put in 4 more miles along Utah Lake.   The geese and birds were really making a racket in the rushes along the lake.   I noticed a big flock of geese overhead in formation heading northwest.  All of a sudden, something spooked them.  They fell out of formation and were flying in all directions making distressful honks.   They kept doing this for a couple minutes but then finally calmed down and resumed their journey.  Pretty cool.   The cold air was a bit nippy on my bare arms, so I pushed the pace pretty hard to stay warm.    It has been a good week of running, 83 miles in five days this week.