Running

8.42 at overall pace of about 8:09.  Nothing left in the legs after yesterday. 

4.32 in 33:41 in the evening. Didn't feel great, but was able to keep a descent pace.

5.58 in 41:57.  Really tried to push the pace the last few miles on this one.  Last two miles were in the upper 6's.

3.0 easy on the TM

10.02 in 1:19:21. Didn't feel like I had much in the legs today. Probably won't run again today.

5.80 in 46:45. Pretty slow and easy. Should be able to hit the 70 mile mark this week with a long run tomorrow.

18.20 in 2:21:46.  Up Provo Canyon and it to Southfork and then back down.  Very happy with this run and was able to throw down some faster miles.  Jeff and Sasha passed me coming out of the canyon on their tempo run and I hooked on to their pace for a mile, but then I had to let them go.  They are incredibly fast to keep that kind of pace for so many miles.

This is the most miles I've run in a week ever.  I could definitely feel it today.  I will scale back a bit now.  

Plan for next week is to go about 12-13 on Monday and then take it pretty easy the rest of the week in preparation for the Mid-Mountain Marathon next Saturday.  This could be a stupid move to run this race so close to St. George, but it is a lot of fun.

12.42 in 1:33:42. Ave pace of 7:33.  Ran up just a little past Vivian Park and back to the mouth of the canyon.  Wasn't planning on running hard, but I felt good and this ended up being a pretty fast run for me.  Splits:

1-8:47 2-7:51 3-7:43 4-8:59 5-7:08 6-7:12 7-7:53 8-7:05 9-6:30 10-7:59 11-6:41 12-7:06 0.42-2:41

5.12 in 41:08.  Nice and easy this morning.

AM 5.14 in 38:02. 7:25 overall pace. A nice little faster paced run for me.

PM 5.65 at around 9:30 pace. Very slow, but I was fine with that as I was running with some friends.

5.43 at around 8:00 pace.

2.54 nice and easy around the neighborhood.  Mid-Mountain Marathon tomorrow.  I'm very excited.  This is the hardest and funnest of all the marathons I've done.  Goals for the race:

-Don't get hurt (lots of opportunities to trip in this race)

-Ultimate goal is to finish in 3:30 (winner finished in just over 3 last year), but would like to at least beat my time from last year of 3:48.

-Finish strong, both mentally and physically.

I've had doubts whether or not to run this race hard because I don't want to screw anything up for STG, but I've decided I'm running tomorrow's race hard and we'll see what happens in the next few weeks.

Ugh.  I forget how hard this race is.  It does a number on my body.  Feet are sore today (I’m writing this on Sunday), along with my legs and back.  Now for the excuse……this is the only time all year that I run on a trail and my body can certainly notice a difference between the trails and the road.  Most of the trail on this race is extremely rocky as well.  Overall, this is a very fun race and is very well organized.  I would recommend it to anybody looking for a good trail run.  Here are my times at each of the mile markers they had posted:

Mile 5 – 39:55  Started a bit fast so that I wouldn’t get stuck behind somebody slow on the single track trail.  After about 2.5 miles I was running by myself, which I actually liked better than running in a group of people.  Seems like we climb for the first part of the race.  I couldn’t catch my breath and my legs already don’t feel that great.  But I was happy to see I was on 8 minute/mile pace.

Mile 10 – 1:20:03  Occasional runners pass me, but I’m certainly not passing anybody.  Feel great on the downhill portions, but any uphill section is just kicking my butt.  Still about 5 minutes ahead of where I was last year though. 

Mile 14.8 – 2:01:28  I notice that my lower stomach muscles are giving me a lot of pain and any time I have to climb my groins are giving me trouble. 

Mile 20 – 2:48:01  Miles 15-20 are the worst part.  It is a pretty good climb and my legs are done.  Still not many people around, but I do start to come up on blue-shirt guy.  He doesn’t stop at the aid station, but I do stop.  I didn’t see him again until about mile 25.

Mile 26.2 – 3:36:45  Blue shirt finally comes back into view and he is strugglin.  He pulls to the side of the trail with about a mile left and lets me pass.  I was so glad to be done.  This race is hard, but is actually pretty fun.

I will take it easy for the next few days, and will actually probably start to taper for St. George.  I was amazed at how my legs just had nothing in them for this race.  I don’t want that problem for St. George.

No running or any physical activity for me today.  I'm still pretty sore from the marathon on Saturday.  At times during the day I don't feel that bad, but at other times during the day I ache all over.  I will try and put in some easy miles tomorrow morning.

4.0 recovery miles.  Stayed up late watching the Raiders (it's hard to be a fan of the Raiders), but actually didn't feel too bad on the run.  Ran without a watch.  Legs a bit sore, but not as bad as expected.

Lifted weights and did the elliptical for 15 minutes in the evening.

Pretty easy run with no watch.  Felt really good at first, and then legs felt tired at the end.

Slept in today and justified it by saying that I was still recovering from the marathon.  Will probably lift and do some elliptical tonight.

6.0 with no watch.  Nothing hard, just nice and easy.  Planning on around 16 up and down Provo Canyon tomorrow morning.

16.03 at overall pace of 7:40 up and down Provo Canyon early this morning.  This was a lot faster than I was planning on, but on the way out of the canyon this guy named Richard (crack o dawn group) passed me and so I let him pace me.  We ended up talking and running for a good 3-4 miles and it made me go a lot faster than I had planned.  I need to back off a bit for the next few weeks.  Had a lot of miles in the 7:30-7:50 range and a couple in the 6:20s.

6.19 in around 50 minutes.  About 8:05 pace.  I wanted to run a marathon yesterday after reading all the TOU race reports.

4.33 in 35:11 around the neighborhood.  It was the coldest its been in quite some time this morning.

7.06 in 54:54. 2 mile warmup.  1 mile fast (6:18). 1 mile slow.  1 mile fast (6:31, but would have been around 6:00 if I didn't have to come to a complete stop at two separate times having to wait for cars).  2 mile cool down.

I'm encouraged with the two fast miles.  I had to work at them, but I felt pretty good overall.

5.03 at about 7:53 overall pace.  Kept things pretty easy.

6.03 in around 47:45 or about 7:54 overall pace.  Threw in 10 100 meter (approx.) strides.  Legs didn't feel all that great.  Planning on around 12 easy miles up and down Provo Canyon tomorrow morning.  Feeling fat as a result of the cutback in mileage for STG.

12.04 at overall pace of 7:54.  Never felt like I pushed the pace at all, but my legs didn't feel all that good.  I still think I'm recovering from the marathon a couple weeks ago.  I will take it real easy this week and hopefully the legs will be ok next week.

5.51 at overall pace of 7:18.  Felt pretty good today.  Didn't feel like I had to work that hard to keep a pretty fast pace, which is usually hard for me to do in the mornings.  Good sign for the marathon this Saturday.  No running for me on Tuesday or Wednesday as I'll be out of town.  Plan on around 5 miles on Thursday and nothing on Friday.  I'm very excited for the race this Saturday though.

4.35 additional miles in the evening at around 7:20 pace.