my makeup may be flaking

AM 4 PM 4*2000 at 8 minutes repeat + interval.

6:41,6:44,6:44,6:41 (so less than 90 seconds rest each time).

This pace felt pretty difficult, but I was still able to hit the pace I wanted.

Did 4*100m after that.

AM 11.5

PM 4

AM 8

 PM 2 mile warmup then 4 loops of liberty park (5.4 miles) at about half marathon pace. Then 2 miles cooldown.

My laps were 7:30,7:42,7:39,7:34. Total time was 30:25 (5:37 pace) I was slowed down quite a bit trying to dodge many, many people walking (this is hard to do at 5:35 pace). Primary motivation for this run was to put some more miles in my type as to see how they feel. I've had some cramping problems in my races the past month and I wanted to see if it was the shoes. I felt great the whole time and could have easily gone a couple more laps, so its not the shoes.

AM 9.5

PM 8.5

AM 9.5 One loop of Sugarhouse

PM 4.5 Short run around campus.

AM 5.5

PM 10 To sugarhouse, I did two loops of the park and back to the department. Second half of the run was very fast.

As I still have no car, I took the train.

Poor planning this morning. I ran left my house running at about 6:20am without eating anything. I was quite hungry when I got to the train station and quickly bought something from a vending machine. I sat on the train eating and drinking gatorade and realized I'd left my number at home!

Anyway, I was nauseous from eating to soon before the race, but, as usual, told myself to try my best and also not to puke in front of little children or hot women.

It looked like I might be have no competition until Jamal Tongo showed up right before the start. Nate H. was with him but didn't run. I feel like Jamal is following me around. I've done 6 races this year in Utah and he's been in 4 of them!

At the start there were the usual sprinters but I took the lead after about 200m. About a minute later, Jamal came up on my shoulder and we started to pull away from everyone else. We hit the mile together in 5:13 and I stayed with him a bit longer, but then he chose to really pick it up on a little steep section.

The second and third miles are really big hills and I ran 5:33 and 6:00. Then we started to head back down and I ran a 5:11. Jamal ran 5:24,5:51,5:05 for this section so he was pulling away at a pretty steady rate.

Mile 5 was 5:12 and at this point I couldn't see Jamal because we were running through the 5K runners. He had the benefit of a lead bike to clear his path (he told me this had helped him afterwards) but I was ducking and weaving quite a bit. I felt pretty strong at this point, just quite sick. I did the last 1.2 in 6:23, which is about 5:13 pace. This is pretty impressive because this was a flat mile and had a lot of twists and turns, in addition to the human obstacles.

Anyway, I ended up 1:10 behind Jamal, which is about how much he beat me by at minuteman, except that was a 10K. This was certainly my best 10K ever as it adjusts (using course tool plus altitude) to a 31:42 flat sea level time. My previous best was 32:30. As a point of comparison, I ran 32:53 at Des News which translates to a 33:14 flat race at sea level.

Not only was this my best 10K, it is also my best non marathon/half marathon race ever and also my best non-tapered race ever (both by significant margins). I had been worried that my 5k and 10k were holding back my improvement, so I've been focusing my training in that direction with pretty good results.

After the race, I ran the 5k course, picked up my award and then ran to the farmington train station as an extended cooldown.

AM 5.5

PM Did 8*600 with 1 minute rest.

1:45,1:46,1:50,1:51,1:51,1:49,1:51,1:49

I'd been hoping for a 1:50 average and I ended up with 1:49.5. This was slightly faster then when I did the workout previously, but I had half the rest.

Afterwards, I did a long cooldown barefoot on grass.

AM 11.5

PM 5.5 with about 3 miles up tempo (I didn't time it).

AM 8

PM 10 From school I did two loops of Sugarhouse, I did about 4 miles of up tempo running.

AM 4

PM I did 6 by mile with 90 seconds rest.

5:18,5:19 5:20,5:21,5:24,5:22

 After the first couple, I was starting out quite slowly in each of these and gradually picking it up. I generally felt much better after the first 600 metes. I think that 90 seconds is about amount of rest to take.

Two loops of Sugarhouse park

Racquetball in the afternoon

I trained this week with absolutely zero intention of racing today, but how can I pass up a free 5k?

I was a bit lazy and did wake up until 7:15. I ran to the start line and got there at about 7:50. Unfortunately they were out of bib numbers when I got there, but they told me to go ahead and run anyway.

When I saw BJ (he is 6'7" so not hard to spot), I knew that I wasn't going to win anyway.

 At the start I took off pretty fast, much faster than was really intelligent. There was someone right on me however, someone wearing headphones. I mean really, I don't want to be a snob or anything, but I don't care how "hard core" your playlist is, it's not going to overcome the fact that I train harder than you. This guy stayed right with me until about 400meters in at which point he just stepped off the course and stopped. I just don't get that kind of behavior and it really threw me off. Now I was kind of hanging out in front by myself in front of the main pack, which is not what I really wanted to do. BJ caught me after about a mile and I stuck with him until the halfway point when he decided to pick it up.

I really felt awful through most of the rest of the run but only positive split the two loops by about 15 seconds. I was kind of amazed when I ran 16:05, but then I realized that they had just hoped the course would be 5k, when it clearly wasn't. There is a 5k course marked out at Sugarhouse, but for some reason (logistical probably) they didn't use it.

Anyway the race director decided to give me the prize for second place even though I was banditing because I had tried to register. I thought this was fairly generous of them.

Anyway, the course tool has this come out to about an even 5k, so it is right in line with all the other 5ks I've run this fall.

AM 5.5

PM I did 3*mile with 5 minutes rest.

4:59,5:00,5:02.

It was quite difficult to push myself to run this fast by myself. The pace did not feel especially painful, I am just not used to running at this pace mentally. It's a good sign though as this was much better than the last time I did this workout. I ran even or negative splits in all the miles.

Did 6*100 barefoot on grass then cooled down barefoot on grass also.

11.5 in the morning

5.5 in the evening,

AM 4

PM 10.5 I wanted to do a hard training run, but I started feeling dizzy about 3 miles in and just quit.

I felt really sick this morning so I was pleased that I at least ran this fast.