morning - 22 STG course. Slept until 8:00 this morning after getting home late. Then ate some breakfast and took the suburban back to the district and finally got running by 9:30 - luckily it wasn't too warm, but it heated up by the end around noon. Tis was the workout I've been waiting for all summer, maybe since back in the spring since prepping for Phoenix. Ran and up and back from the finish. Going up I noticed as I started up the hills at miles 3-5 that I was actually running pretty quick without any effort. Then I just kept getting quicker while trying to make sure I wasn't working since I wanted to push down the course a bit. Even through the big climbs up I ended up ave 7:10 for the 11 mile up (just past Snow Canyon). That is faster than a lot of my normal runs. The coming back down, I just wanted to be around marathon pace - and it ended up pretty good. Went between 5:10's-5:30's throughout and low 40's on the two miles that include parts of the Winchester Hill. I kept telling myself not to go crazy, so I just the effort pretty even and strong, but not all out since I know what going to hard on the course three weeks out can do to you.. By the end, I was working a bit harder to hold the pace through town, but was able to do it. Total run ave was 6:20. Not too bad considering I really did not even want to run today and actually didn't even feel physically that good today. Hopefully I can reap some benefits from this and build on it in the coming two weeks and getting feeling better mentally and physically - then something good could happen on race day. (Kinvara lime 258.75) Did see something today that drives me nuts. I saw a mom running with her kid (probably about 14 years old) down the course when I was dropping off some water. I later passed them on my way up. It had been over an hour since I first saw them and they had gone about three miles. The kid was obviously really hurting and his mom was pushing him in the back to get going. Now... Sometimes my daughters don't want to do things (okay, they never want to do anything) and I have to encourage them (sometimes less than pleasantly) to do it. But having 14 year old run marathons is not the way to get your child into running. Now, I'll admit this is a blanket statement, and there are rare cases when a teenager could run a marathon, but rarely. Parents, let your son/daughter learn a lifelong love of running through shorter races, team practices and races and the varieties of other activities related to this amazing sport, not by making them "run" a marathon with mom/dad to try and bolster your self-esteem since your child is so amazing a can "run" a marathon. Hammy is continuing to improve (felt totally fine today). And got in some good workouts this week. Goals for next week: I am going to try and come into Weds.' workout a little fresher and push that tempo a little more than I have been able to. Then I'll get my reps in later in the week (either in SLC Friday morning or Boise on Saturday). | 