Running

AM 7 in 57:13 (8:10).  Went up to the trail by State and 300 West and then back.  10 x 100 meters with 100 meter walk/jog rest in-between. 

AM 5.10 in 41:56 (8:13).  Up Center St. and back.  Not much time today for anything.

AM 10.25 in 1:20:37 (7:52).  Up to Ivory Ridge and back.  My legs don't feel that great this week, and it's suppose to be a recovery week for me.

PM Crossfit 

I headed out to Tooele (which is where I'm originally from) today to visit family and decided to run there 5k that is held in tandem with their parade.  I don't run a lot of 5ks and quite frankly, I'm a bit scared of them.  Half marathons put me right on that edge of being very uncomfortable, and 10ks and 5ks put me way, way over the edge.  I should probably do more of these shorter races.  Anyways, since I don't run a lot of these, I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

The course seems pretty accurate and mile 1 has some pretty good downhill on it.  Crossed mile 1 at 5:15 and immediately got a bit scared, but I was actually doing okay.  Mile 2 puts you on to the parade route, which is where the race stays all the way to the finish.  The parade route is a great distraction because it provides for some great "people watching" while running.  It is still downhill, but not nearly as much as the first mile.  I had eventually passed all those that started off way too fast, and was now behind about 6-7 people, who were all high school kids.  Crossed mile 2 at 5:23 (these are probably the 2 fastest, consecutive miles of my life).  The leaders were probably about 30 seconds ahead, but I had one kid right in front of me.  I knew I was probably in trouble for mile 3 as it levels out quite a bit and then switches to a mild uphill for the final half to three-quarters of a mile.  I knew I was going to struggle on this part and that going out too fast was going to come back to bite me.  Sure enough, mile 3 was 6:17 and then the last part took me 35 seconds.  I completely died at the end and never was able to catch up to the kid who was in front of me for most of the last 2 miles.  

Anyways, the winner had to have been right around 16:30ish.  Like I mentioned, everyone that finished in front of me was in high school.  They all looked like they rolled out of bed and could run that fast every morning if they wanted without much trouble.  But I was quite pleased with how well I ran.  Average pace for the race was 5:40 and never in a million years did I ever think I would ever run that fast in any race.  Makes me want to keep working to get faster.  For the most part, I felt somewhat smooth during the first 2 miles, but as I mentioned, kind of fell apart the last mile.  Overall, a good run and day (pretty hot during the run as well).  

PM Crossfit.  I was so tired last night and this morning that I just skipped an easy run and slept in.  Went to Crossfit in the evening.  Got a mile in during the workout.  Legs are very sore from the wall balls during Wednesday night's Crossfit class.

AM 16 in 2:02:24 (7:39).  Started at 5:40 AM behind the movie theaters in the Riverwoods and ran 8 up and 8 down.  Surprising felt really good, which was odd because my legs have not felt good the last two days.  Right when I turned around in South Fork and started running back down, all of a sudden I heard something to my left.  When I looked over there was a moose running parallel to me about 20 yards away.  I stopped, and it kept going and it turned and headed away.  I'll admit, I got a little scared when I saw it running.  I now believe that they are as fast as people say they are.  And they are huge.  It sprinkled on me on the way back and there were tons of people in the canyon.  

Went to Crossfit after running.

Next week I will ramp back up the mileage to around 60.  Hopefully my legs will respond to the recovery week I had this week. 

AM 13.75 in 1:50:23 (8:02).  Up just past Smith's Mktplace and back.  Wanted to get something longer in today because I'm not sure if I'll get a run in tomorrow or not.  Didn't feel real great, but did okay today.

PM 3.25 in 30:30 on the TM in Bozeman before my meeting.

AM 3.0 in about 26 min from my hotel before catching a flight back home.

PM 3.6 at about 8:30 pace in the early afternoon.

AM 7 in 59:00.  Slow, recovery run up 300 West and back.

PM Crossfit 

AM 9 in 1:11:08 (7:54).  Up 300 West and back.  First 2.5 with Mark.

PM Crossfit.  Workout was 5 rounds of completing 200 meter run and as many ring push ups as possible in 2 minutes with a 2 minute rest.   

AM 7 in just over 57 min up to the path parallel to State.

PM Crossfit.  .75 during the workout. 

AM 20 in 2:33:07 (7:39).  Same usual Saturday route.  Started at about 5:40.  Kept the pace honest on the way up, and then started clipping off 6:5x's - 7:2x's on the way down.  My body is ready for a day off.

AM 9.0 in 1:13:05 (8:07).  Up 300 West and back.  Not much in the legs.

PM Crossfit.  1 mile during the workout. 

AM 12.4 in 1:36:24 (7:47).  Big cemetery loop.  Basically up in to Highland via the cemetery in Lehi.  Felt pretty good the last 3-4, but took a while to get going.

AM 7 with Mark up 300 West and back.  Slow, recovery run.

AM 3.5 warm up to the Lehi track.  3 mile tempo at half marathon pace.  2.5 cool down at home.  My garmin said I hit the 3 miles in 6:15, 6:19, 6:19.  I think I ended up closer to averaging 6:30 for the full three mile temp.

PM Crossfit 

AM 7 slow, recovery miles out towards Saratoga and back.

AM 21.50 in 2:51:17 (7:58).  Started just before 5 AM behind the movie theaters in the Riverwoods and headed up just past 10.75, which put me pretty close to the top of South Fork.  I was pretty cold all the way up until about mile 15 due to a steady, small breeze.  Just took things very easy the whole way.  Hardly looked at the watch.  I will take things easy the next three days and hopefully will be able to run a good half on Wednesday.  I'm excited to see how the improved training over the last 2 months helps with the race.  Hopefully today's run didn't do more harm than good.

AM 9.05 in 1:13:39 (8:08).  Up 300 West and back.  Pretty slow run, but the miles went by fast and I felt better than I was expecting.  Tomorrow I will do 4 miles with some strides and hopefully I will feel good for the half on Wednesday.  This may be my best chance of going under 1:20.

PM Crossfit. 

AM 4 easy miles with some strides.

Despite the aided course, this was a really, really good race for me today.  I've never gone under 1:20 and was able to get it today, and I just generally felt really in control and good throughout.  And I was able to hold the pace together throughout the race.  Really happy with how things went.

5:57, 6:01, 6:00, 6:07, 6:05, 6:02, 5:59, 6:11, 5:56, 6:09, 5:59, 5:58, 6:10, 0:57 

Started fast, but not nearly as fast as a bunch of others.  It was pretty incredible to see Fritz, Riley, and one other guy just take off right from the start.  For some reason, I didn't think the downhill was as steep as it really is (It never seems this steep during the marathon).  I was really able to just lock into a pretty good pace and rhythm and keep it up.  It helped that I was able to catch and pass people all the way up through about mile 10.  After that, there was one girl way up ahead, and she started coming back to me but I just ran out of real estate to catch her.  I was worried that I was going to die once we came off of S. Temple and things flattened out, but I was able to keep it together and finish relatively strong, although that last straightaway is rough. 

Like I said, really happy to have finally broken 1:20, albeit on a very aided course. Although I'm sure it has to be comparable to all the others downhill screamers around here.  I'm feeling really good about my training right now and just need to continue to put the work and miles in and hopefully I'll continue to get faster and stay healthy.  

Cooled down 1.40 and walked about 4 miles afterwards. 

AM Crossfit .50 during the workout.

AM 16.10 in 2:10:18 (8:06).  Started at 5:30 AM at the theaters in the Riverwoods.  Went 8 up and then back down.  Probably about 3-4 more than I should have done.  First run since the race on Wednesday.  Right calf was really tight for the first 4-5 and then loosened up. Took it really slow and easy.  Tired from the race and all the family/wedding stuff this week.

AM 9 in 1:15:55 (8:26).  Up 300 West and back.  Legs are not responding well since the race last Wednesday.  Just a slow run this morning with some aches and pains in my legs.

PM Crossfit 1 mile during the workout. 

AM 11.10 in 1:30:41 (8:10).  Up to Ivory Ridge and back.  Feeling better, but not back to normal.

AM 4.10 slow, recovery miles.  So slow it was kind of miserable.  Hopefully I can get a few more in this evening.

PM Crossfit