Running

9.25 in 1:10:36.  7:38 avg pace.  Did the short cemetary loop.  One of the best morning runs I've ever had.  Things just felt really smooth and easy.  Felt like I was almost gliding and that I didn't have to do much to get the pace up.

Not sure how this week will go.  Would like to hit around 60 miles, but I would also really like to run well at Hobble Creek, so I may scale things waaay back on Thursday and Friday.

Tempo day.  2 mile warm up out towards Saratoga.  Stopped and stretched for a bit and then got in to my tempo.  Plan was 5 or 6 at marathon pace (6:40-6:50) hitting the JRP and coming back home via 700 South.  Very flat course. 

Splits: 6:36, 6:39, 6:31, 6:36, 6:39.  Avg for tempo was 6:37.  It's like I get so scared I'm not going to hit my times that it makes me run faster.  Oh well.  I had to work at it this morning pretty good to keep myself going. I think if I could just relax a bit more and slow down maybe 7-10 seconds more that I would be a bit more comfortable.

Cooled down with 1.50 back home.

PM Elliptical for 25 min

9.0 in 1:15:26.  8:23 avg pace.  Wow.  I was really slow this morning.  Very tired and worn out for some reason.  Will try to scale way back the next few days and hopefully some "pep" will be in the legs on Saturday.

6.25 in 50:33.  8:05 avg pace.  Ran the new Pioneer Crossing Rd.  Went 3 miles west and turned around and came back.  The road isn't open to cars yet, but is practically finished.  It wasn't as fun as I thought it would be to run it.

5.25 no watch.  Standard route.  Nice and easy.

Was hoping to hit 1:20, but I'm finding that that might be way out of my league for now.  Plan was to try and hit low 6's or sub 6's in the canyon and then try and hold on until the end.  Splits:

1-5:56

2-5:43

3-6:02  I'm settled in with a nice little group of 4-5 people.  Pace is fast and a bit uncomfortable, but I'm going with it.

4-5:45

5-6:09

6-5:49

7-6:43  About the 6.50 mark I find that I got to pee.  I lost a good minute at Provo River half to a pee stop and now it's going to happen again.  Probably lose about 40-45 seconds on this mile because of the stop.  Mentally this killed me.  I just kept thinking "not again."  I've never had this problem in the past, and now it's happened in my last 3 races. 

8-6:07  Passing same people again that I passed a mile previously.  By now there is about a 40 second gap in front of me to the next people and no one behind me.  It's lonesome.  I hate that.

9-6:41  Hit the trail portion and I'm fading.  The little uphills are killing me and the heat is getting me.

10-6:39  I spent a long time at the aid station right after this mile marker.  Mentally I'm done.  A little more mental toughness and I think I could have got the 2 guys that were in front of me here.

11-7:15  Feel like I'm giving up.  Legs are dead.  A guy catches me and he's flying.  I'm interested to see how long it takes him to get the group that's a good 45 seconds up on us.  He eventually got them before the 12 mile marker.

12-6:36  Don't know where this came from.

13-7:15  Walked a couple times in here and feel like I'm just jogging it in.  Legs do not feel good.

.10-0:41 One more guy passes me right here. 

 Well, overall I guess it wasn't too bad.  This is about 90 seconds slower than my last year's time at this race.  Why does it feel like I'm getting slower?  I wonder if the DesNews Marathon is getting the best of my legs.  Maybe it was jump in mileage a week ago.  At any rate, I got a good 11 miles in at marathon pace or way better.  Hopefully a couple more weeks of good training and solid mileage will lead to a good Top of Utah Marathon just below the 3 hour mark.