Chad's Runs

7 miles at 5am.  It was really quite nice this morning.  The roads were mostly wet.  I decided to avoid the JRP in favor of the roads.  I figure that the JRP was more likely to be slick and iced over.  I felt better this morning that I've felt in a while.  I had enough in me to push it on the last mile.  3 months ago I would have run a 7:30 with that effort.  This morning I barely made it under 8:00.  My speed is gone and with only 2 months of real training before Utah Valley I only have time to build stamina so I won't be fast.  Oh well.

As for last week, I got in 24 miserable miles.  I decided to take Friday off because of how bad I felt after Thursday's 10.  Then my wife made me promise not to run on Saturday.  She said I needed to rest and I didn't push back too hard.  So I was 16 miles short of the 40+ I wanted to do.  Crap.  I've got to do better this week.  I hope I have built up enough red blood cells to get me through 45 or so miles this week.

7 miles nice and slow on 700 south.  It was slick out this morning which is the main reason why I slowed it down.  Yesterday the nights snow left the road wet.  Last nights snow left the road icy.  No spills though.  I ordered a RoadID this morning.  I've been meaning to for a while but never got around to it.  The slick roads reminded me that it might be a good idea.

8 miles on the JRP and down into Saratoga Springs.  The weather was nice, I didn't even bring a hat or gloves.  It was also cloudy enough to not need my headlamp.  I hate that thing and when it is cloudy, even without a moon there is enough light from the glow of the clouds that I don't need the light.

7 more.  No excuses or crazy crap getting in the way of runs this week.  It feels good but my body does need tomorrows day off.  I'm not used to running 4 days strait.  Yesterday was warm so I wore shorts this morning.  It turned out to be pretty cold.  I was fine in shorts but I did need gloves and a hat.

I don't know how many I will run Saturday. Its been three weeks since I ran 19 but I don't feel like I could run that many now.  I guess it depends on if I find someone to run with.

Finally, an encouraging run.  18 mile solo run Saturday morning.  I took it nice and easy for first half, about 10 minutes miles or so.  In ran north on the JRP, then through the Thanksgiving point area.  I was going to cut across I15 at the Thanksgiving Point / Cabelas interchange but there are no sidewalks.  Weird.  Apparently pedestrians aren't allowed there.  So I continued to head north on the frontage road.  It is closed half a mile or so north of there so I didn't have to deal with any traffic.  There isn't anything wrong with the road for running or biking.  I got to the top and a little beyond to where I could look down into Bluffdale when the 9 miles were up.  It was actually quite peaceful.  The road is set down below far enough so you can't even really see the cars on the freeway and since the road is closed I hardly saw a soul.  Just one other person on a bike.  I was able to pee in private.  Anyway, my plan was to pick up the pace on the second half.  I ended up running the second half over a minute per mile faster.  I stopped to take a hammer gel at mile twelve but other than that I just kept going.  I felt strong all the way through the end.  My last mile was the fastest.  However, I should have hydrated better.  I didn't feel it during the run but I was thirsty for the rest of the day.  I couldn't get enough water.