Wheeler Farm Loops

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AM - 6 miles, easy jogging.

Heading to CA this afternoon for a few days. Tomorrow morning I'll run a 5K in Fontana, then meet up with my aunt & uncle and head to Santa Barbara for the rest of the weekend. Road mile on Sunday morning. I don't really have any specific goals other than to just compete and run to win. The 5K is a point-to-point net downhill course, so my time will get an "*" anyways. And I have no idea what to expect in the mile... other than if I do it right, I shouldn't be able to walk afterwards :-)

The hospitality of both races has already been incredible, and I'm not even there yet. When I emailed Fontana Days about getting an entry, they said sure, and we'll pick you up at the airport and comp you a room at the Hilton for the night! What?! Not sure how I deserve that, but I definitely appreciate it. 

I'm also planning on soaking up as much beach time as possible!

PM -  3 miles around the hotel in Fontana. Hot out!

Bus got us up to start area around 7am (race started at 7:45). Warmed up the first 3 miles easy then did a 2 min faster effort at ~5:00 pace, then some more jogging and strides. It was cloudy and warm, a little humid (compared to Utah, so that's not saying much). 

Off the start 4-5 guys got out ahead of me. One got out really fast (Jordan Horn, who runs on the McMillan Elite team, although I didn't know who has was at the time and thought it was just some idiot going out way too fast). After about 1/4 to 1/2 mile I moved into 2nd place and that's where I stayed. Jordan was in the clear and when I went through the 1st mile in 4:31, he was probably 15 seconds ahead of me. It was crazy... And he wasn't coming back... I was moving at a good clip and he was getting further and further away. At some point during the second mile I realized he wasn't just some yahoo and he was legit.

With no challenge from behind, I kept a nice steady rhythm for the next 2 miles - 4:37 then 4:35, and 28 seconds for the final stretch. Gun time and chip time were both 14:10 (I love it when that happens!).

The course was definitely aided, but it wasn't like a down the canyon quad mashing screamer. I wasn't sore at all afterwards. The elevation profile is somewhat deceiving because there is an overpass we ran over that doesn't show up on the map. It was very smooth runnable downhill - hence the super fast time. I think it maybe gave you about 10 seconds / mile compared to the track... Although who knows for sure? I'll find out next weekend in Portland.

I did an interview for the local TV station after finishing, then cooled down 2.5 miles, filled out paperwork to receive my $100 prize, then headed back to my hotel with my aunt & uncle, who had to come watch and were at the finish line. The three of us had a solid breakfast at Denny's and then drove out along the coast to Santa Barbara.

I did a 3 mile shakeout after the drive, then we spent the rest of the day milling about in SB. I picked up my bib for the mile race, and discovered that Clyde had left me a good luck note earlier in the day. Ate too much pizza and ice cream (whatever, I'm on vacation!).

Fontana Days is a fantastic community supported race. The people in charge of the race were so nice to me... I just hope I ran well enough to justify the airport pickup and hotel room that they were so generous to give me! I'd definitely go back to this one next year. I like smaller races where they really pay attention to details - in a lot of ways it reminded me of the Mountain to Fountain 15K. 

We stayed about 1.5 miles from the start, so I was able to sleep in for a long time and just run to the starting line as part of my warmup. I made sure to get another really good warmup (3.5 miles easy plus a bunch of strides so my heartrate was already up to Mach 10). There were 11 of us in the elite men's mile, the second to last heat of the morning (the DOG mile was last, and it was so funny to watch). They had about a dozen heats - all different age groups, a family fun run, then master's men/women and elite men/women, then finally the dogs.

The field was obviously loaded. Jordan, who had crushed me the day before, had the same plans for a weekend double as me. Christian Hesch was there, along with some other guys who had run sub 3:45 1500m races recently. A first place prize of $500 for a mile brings out some talent. I knew I was in over my head a bit, but that's what I needed and wanted.

The course is a point to point down State Street in downtown Santa Barbara. It's a net downhill of about 1.5% average. You can really roll fast on this course. We were running into a headwind, but it definitely wasn't enough to negate the downhill!

The gun goes off and everyone is out like a freaking rocket! I'm pretty sure I'm close to last place after 100m (turns out there was one guy behind me). The main pack went through the quarter in 56 seconds, I came through in about 60 point something. I hit the half-mile in 2:03, and three-quarters in 3:07. They were calling out splits so I never looked at my watch. No one has passed me and no one has come back to me yet. Finally I started reeling one guy in and got him with maybe 200m to go. Then I set my sights on the next guy and really started making up some ground on him, but just ran out of room. A couple more strides and I might have gotten him... we were neck and neck at the finish line.

I had 4:09.4 on my watch, and I asked one of the clock people at the finish line what my time was, and they confirmed the 4:09. Made sense, that's what I saw on the main clock as I hit the finish. Cool - I felt pretty good about that time even though I got my butt kicked. Four of the guys went under 4 minutes. But then when the official results were posted, they had me at4:12. There's a big difference between 4:09 and 4:12. I'm pretty darn sure that I didn't click the stop button 25m before the finish line! So now, if my time really was 4:12, I'm not so happy about it. It doesn't really add up - since I hit 3/4 in 3:07 and really felt like I accelerated in the last couple hundred meters. That would mean I ran a 65 second last quarter... I don't know... its all splitting hairs at this point. What's done is done. The race was hand timed, so I guess a mistake could have been made, who knows? Its a downhill race anyways so it doesn't even "count". Next year I'll just have to go back and break 4 minutes with room to spare! 

I cooled down 4.5 miles, back to the hotel plus some extra. My legs felt way too good during the cool down - to the point where it was frustrating! I did 6-8 hard & fast hill sprints towards the end of the run and felt strong. 

Middle distance racing is a whole different world. I just wasn't prepared to move my legs any faster, it takes some re-training of the brain. But I think I can run so much better at these shorter distances... I need to keep at it and work on my speed endurance and race tactics. It will come with more practice and time. As nerve wracking as these short races are, they are also really fun. I think if I ran this mile over again the next day, I could go even faster. I really don't think fitness was my limiting factor - instead it was a lack of intuitive knowledge about how to run the race, how hard to push (mental toughness?), when to make a big move, etc. Ultimately, having the confidence to take a big chance and know that you can hold that pace. Or just be reckless enough to try it!

AM - 9 miles up to work. First couple with Andrea. Got in after midnight last night, so not a lot of sleep, but I'm still pretty jacked up from the weekend and therefore wasn't tired at all. I posted my reports from both races - Fontana Days 5K and State Street Mile.

PM - 6.2 miles, met Andrea on the way down to SHP and did a lap around the perimeter. Just easy running today. 

AM - 7.3 miles up to work.

PM - 7.5 miles. Ran 4.5 miles down to the track, then 3 x 1600m @ HM pace - 4:58, 4:56, 4:54. Windy out, but the pace felt easier than usual... probably because I wasn't sprinting like on Sunday! Walked back to Andrea's car for a cooldown... gotta cut back the miles this week somehow.

AM - 7.5 miles. JAJA run, but Andrea unfortunately had to stop after a few minutes. Ran for an easy hour w/ Allie and James, primarily discussing the new Big Cottonwood Marathon. If it doesn't drop 3500+ feet, is a marathon even worth running? :-)

I'm pretty bummed out for Andrea. Trying to stay excited about my own races this weekend, but its hard to see her fight through so much, whip herself into incredible shape, and then have it break down again before she even got a chance to race again. Doesn't seem fair. 

PM - 4.5 miles. Did a loop around the perimeter of SHP, then to the track - 4 x 600m (200m jog) @ 10K pace [avg = 1:48.3] + 4 x 200m (30s rest) in 32.2 seconds average. Kept the effort easy, just enough to keep the legs feeling sharp. Wore my heavy shoes so I'll feel extra light on my feet when I put on my 3oz spikes on Friday night.

AM - 5 miles easy.

I put up a bunch of pictures from last weekend on Wasatch & Beyond. Southern California is really nice and I'm already trying to figure out when another trip can be arranged...

PM - 3 miles w/ Andrea + some short strides. 

10K is at 8:55pm tomorrow night. We're flying to Portland in the afternoon. The plan is simple - run a 5K PR for the first half, then start racing :-) Decided to scratch from the 5K on Saturday night and just spend the rest of the weekend visiting the coast and doing vacation things. I think I could pull of a pretty good double, but its actually a lot more important to me to spend a fun weekend with Andrea and not just sit around a hotel waiting for the next race. In this case, since the 10K is Friday, I get to have my cake and eat it too.

3 mile easy run in the morning with Andrea. Then a half day of work and flew to Portland. We landed and all the stereotypes about the city were confirmed within minutes - it was raining, our rental car was a Subaru, and there were bike lanes and complicated recycling options everywhere! Got to the hotel, took a nap, then headed over to the track at Lewis & Clark College around 6:30pm. Watched a few of the other races, then started warming up ~8pm. It felt weird to be starting my run at the time I'm usually getting ready for bed.

This was my first track race since 2008, and first 10K on the track since 2004. It had been a long time since I had been in this type of environment. The rain had stopped and the weather was nice and cool - it was a perfect evening for racing.

The field was a little more than 20 guys, so when the gun went off there was some jostling, but I managed to avoid getting spiked and also managed to avoid jumping out too quick.I settled immediately into the rhythm I wanted - 72 second laps. First 3 miles (1600m splits) were 4:48.5, 4:47.0, 4:48.6 (14:24.1 at 4800m, and ~15:00-15:01 at 5K). Perfect.

The leaders were wayyyy out front, and I had positioned myself behind 2 guys in light blue singlets who were clearly working together to try and break 30 minutes. We were sort of the "chase" pack, although we weren't really chasing anyone. The blue guys went out a little faster than me, and it took 4-5 laps to catch up to them. Once I did, I sort of hung behind for the next 6-7 laps. Apparently they were not too happy that I had latched onto their group, and one of them said something to me about sharing the work, so I jumped out to the front at 5K and took over the pacing for a while. Next two splits were 4:49.3 and 4:50.7 (24:04 at 8K, a little slower than I wanted). The pace was just lapsing a tiny bit - 72.0s were becoming 72.5s, but those 0.5s add up!

5 laps to go - one of the blue guys is long gone off the back, the other one passes me and puts a gap on me. The lapping game is heating up now as well. I'm running in lane 2 passing the slower runners, and also being courteous enough to move out to lane 2 when I'm being passed by the faster guys. I'm starting to think sub 30 is out of the question. The sixth split was 4:50.4 (28:54.6 at 9600m). I mustered up what I had left and closed the last lap in 68.0. As I approaching the finish line I heard the guy calling out the times - 29:58, 29:59, 30:00, 30:01, and THEN I came through at that point and just said "D@MMIT!" With a smile on my face, of course. Heck, I can't really complain about running 30 flat for 10K when I've never broken 15 minutes in a 5K on the track.

Ahhhh so close, but no cigar. Final time was 30:03 and I came in 9th place (haven't seen official results yet). I gave it what I had. Obviously 29:59 would have been a much nicer number, but in terms of my fitness, its the same thing. I'm content for now. This is still a big jump for me, a PR by over a minute. I ran about what I expected tonight.

Racing on the track is different... its honest, its exposed, its a bit intimidating in some ways. There's nowhere to hide out there. If you slow down, everyone watching knows it. I love it - and I hope to continue to race more in these types of meets.

I cooled down for about 4 minutes, then went out for ice cream w/ Andrea and two of my friends who live in Portland. It was good to catch up with them, and we all had a good night. Almost on cue, the rain started pouring again once the track meet had ended for the night.

Its very late, so I'll wrap this up. A good race for me, even though 30 flat isn't "equivalent" to a sub 65 half-marathon, I believe I'm capable of that next weekend if I have a great race. I can hold pace pretty well when moving up from 5K/10K to the half.

Oh, and when you haven't worn superlight spikes for anything longer than 200m reps, running 25 laps in them will beat your feet up really good :-)

Looking forward to the rest of the weekend - running in Forest Park tomorrow morning, then off to the coast.

AM - 12.2 miles. Andrea and I ran in Forest Park on Leif Ericson Drive (a gravel road closed to traffic). It was pretty cool - like a rainforest back there.

PM - 4 miles. We ran 2.5 miles on the beach in Seaside, then I added on a little more when Andrea stopped. Fun running along the ocean while the waves were crashing.

I have pictures and stuff to share when we get back. Gotta catch up on UVM reports while on the place tomorrow night. Seems like from my quick glance that it was a rough day with the wind. Congrats to everyone who fought hard and soldiered on.

AM - 10.2 miles in Seaside. Today I got to do the job I might be best at - pacing really fast women! :-) Andrea was doing a cutdown tempo so I set the pace for her... she nailed the workout. It felt good for me to run faster than jogging and get my legs going through a bigger range of motion.

After the run we hit the hot tub one last time, then visited Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park. Beautiful day, the sun even peaked out a little. The Oregon coast is, however, pretty chilly in general. Then back to Portland (via Dairy Queen) and flew home in the evening. Saw lots of snow-capped volcanoes from the plane, which makes me want to get back up to the PacNW (with skis!) for a volcano tour.

Got a lot more pics from the weekend to go through - here are a few from today...

AM - 8 miles, up to work. Three easy days in a row! I figured if I wasn't going to do the 10K/5K double, I might as well get myself 100% rested for Duluth. Nothing left to prove in training at this point.

PM - 4.3 miles down to SHP.

I put up a bunch more pictures from the Oregon coast on Wasatch & Beyond. 

Andrea also shot a little video during the 10K...

AM - 8 miles, Last Chance Workout! Warmed up 2 miles around SHP, then down to the track. Cheerleading practice has already started - but they are staying out of lane one (so far). Workout was 5 x 1000m (400m) + 5 x 200m (45s). Splits - 3:04, 3:04, 3:02, 3:02, 2:59, 32.0, 30.8, 31.3, 30.8, 30.4. I have a little weakness in my left butt (pulled something getting out of bed on Sunday morning), but it doesn't really affect me while running, so I'm 0% concerned about it.

PM - 4.2 miles. My concern about my butt went up to about 5% during the course of the day, but it doesn't bother me when I'm running... I only notice it when walking slowly, and I don't plan on doing much of that this weekend. The concern-o-meter would have to get to about 9000% before I'm really worried :-)

The fields are stacked for Saturday and the weather is looking like it will cooperate. Here's the entry lists. Outside of the Olympic Trials Marathon, it has to be the deepest road race in the USA this year... ~85 women and 120 men with solid credentials. The key will be to run smart - not get out too fast and have something left to mow people down in the last 5-8K.

AM - 7.4 miles w/ Andrea, Allie, and Fritz. Nice run, feeling good.

PM - 4.2 miles. Nice and hot outside - love this summer weather! 

AM - 4.4 miles, horsepark loop w/ Andrea. I put tracking / webcast info on Wasatch & Beyond.

PM - 4 miles. Around SHP and then 4 x 400m @ race pace (74s). If you just think of a half-marathon as 52x400m w/ zero rest, its a piece of cake, right? :-) 

Fantastic discovery on Google Maps last night - our hotel in Duluth is approximately 600 feet from Dairy Queen. The race organizers really knew what they were doing when it comes to setting us up in a hotel with everything we need (ie. ice cream nearby)...

Flew out at 6am to Duluth (via Minneapolis). The hospitality level has been off the charts - we had a driver waiting for us at the airport holding a sign with our names. Never experienced that before! :-) Checked in at the Canal Park Lodge, which is the race HQ - got our bibs, then went to the media luncheon at the convention center, then went to the information meeting for the national championships. Definitely the biggest group of ultra-fit people I've ever been in a room with! We met up w/ Derek D and his wife Allison, who is also running the women's half champs. Finally back to the hotel and met Erik (Hamdog) for a run along the lake. Ran 35 minutes plus some strides. Feeling good, ready to roll early tomorrow morning.

First impressions of this whole race atmosphere - the Grandmas Marathon knows how to put on a great race! The volunteers are super helpful and nice (perhaps even surpassing Utah standards!). I could easily gain 10 lbs before tomorrow with all the free food (and beer - yep, the elite athlete hospitality suite is stocked) they are throwing at us. And speaking of food/drinks, it seems like the party will be going all day and all night tomorrow. Its gonna be a lot of fun. I can't wait to get out there.

The weather should be good - not as good as last year, but not like the Boston Massacre either. It supposed to be 57 degrees at the start, light winds, and 100% humidity. Guess that means I won't have to drink anything, since I can just breathe in my fluids.

I simply didn't have a sub 1:05 half-marathon in me today. I'm not disappointed in my race, although a few seconds faster would have been awfully nice (more on that later). In terms of time/performance, this was probably the second best race of my life (after last fall's Long Beach Half Marathon). My 30:03 10K last week would have predicted that I should run in the high 1:06s, so I beat that by quite a bit... although I expected that I would. Here's how it played out...

Bus left our hotel at 4:45am. Weather was good - calm winds and cool (but definitely very humid, 90-100%). There were basically 4 separate races - the Men's National Championship at 6:15, Women at 6:25, the Gerry Bjorkland Half Marathon at 6:45, then the Grandma's Marathon at 7:45. Quite a lineup - its amazing that the race pulled this off without any hiccups at all. I'm incredibly impressed by everything Grandmas/Duluth has done this weekend - they put on a world class event.

Warmed up 2 miles + strides. Then we were on the line and ready to roll. I positioned myself a row or two back - I didn't want to get sucked out too fast. Gun went off and I held back... there was immediate separation of ~40 guys in front of me. I let that pack go - it wasn't where I needed to be. A big gap formed within the first mile between the gigantic lead pack and my pack, which was 12-15 guys strong. We hit the mile in 4:54 - perfect. The next two miles were 5:00 and 4:55. Still right where I wanted to be. Due to the rolling nature of this course, even effort does not result in even splits. Its a deceptive course - fair, but definitely not super-fast unless you have a tailwind. Its point to point, but the starting and finishing elevation are the same (make sense, it goes along the lake, and lakes don't have a "lower" end).

Miles 4-6 were 5:04, 5:04, 4:56. Still running well, but already falling off that sub 1:05 pace I wanted to target. Our pack was down to about 7-8 guys and we were working together pretty well. When the pace would start to lag, I'd move to the front and try to inject some speed. I did that several times throughout the middle 10 miles of the race. I recognized a few of the guys in the group - Fred Joslyn and Kevin Castille (who recently set USA Master's records of 14:00 and 28:57). Kevin and I pretty much ran stride for stride the entire race (he ended up beating me by a fraction of a second). Super fast for an "old" guy! :-)

I'm getting off topic... back to the race. This is where is started to get tough. Miles 7-10 were 5:05, 5:10, 5:04, 5:10. Ouch. Those 5:10s really hurt, mentally. We were all still in a pack and no one really took the incentive to stretch it out - I tried to on the downward side of Lemon Drop Hill (~15K), but I just couldn't get my legs to go any faster than low 5-minute pace.

After 10 miles you start to come into Duluth and the crowds get a lot bigger. Its a fun place to be running. Our pack splintered at some point during miles 11-12, it went down to 3 guys, and we were starting to pick off guys who had been out ahead of us and were falling back. I missed the 11 mile marker but the split for 2 miles was 10:10. Not terrible but this should have been faster since its gradually downhill at this point. I started to find some faster rhythm in the final 1.1 miles 5:25, so ~4:50/mile pace). There were about 5 of us all running together in the final stretch. I didn't quite have enough kick. Official time was 1:06:02 and I was 27th place overall.

It wasn't a long wait before Erik came in (PR!), and then we watched Andrea bring it home. Very exciting to see her duking it out w/ Dot McMahon in the final straightaway! 1:17:21 was a very, very good race for her. I was happy, relieved, and proud to see her run great (and that her injuries held up). We cooled down 2 miles along the lake with Allison D (who ran a huge PR and finished one place after Andrea). Then back to the hotel for a shower before watching Derek D finish up a very good run in the marathon.

Full results are here.

Analysis / Thoughts...

There was a $500 bonus for sub 1:06:00... so missing that by 2 seconds totally stinks. But I can't complain too much because its my fault for not sprinting harder at the end - I cut it too close. Plus the race paid my way out here and covered our hotel, food, etc. The hospitality here has been world class - I've never been treated like such a rock star... Grandma's even outdoes Boston. I already have this one on my calendar for next June.

I gave it a good shot today. It was clear by mile 4 or 5 that I wasn't breaking 1:05. Really, the times across the board weren't super fast. If you look at the guys who finished ahead of me, pretty much all of them are Olympic Trials qualifiers, so its not like I'm getting beat by a bunch of scrubs. It was an elite, deep race, and going into it, I figured a Top 25-30 finish would be a good outcome. My prediction was spot on. I'm competing well against good competition, and I want to keep racing and testing myself against the best runners. I want to be in the Top 15 in races like this, and that is what I'll keep working towards.

I'm going to shut it down in terms of hard workout and races for a while now. Its been an overall successful first half of the year. I was in the best shape of my life in the month before Boston, and while the marathon was a bit of a disaster, I was able to move forward from there and race well in May and June. Other than Boston I've raced consistently well for 5-6 months now. But I feel like I'm on a bit of a plateau at this point, or at least about to hit one - its hard to hold a high fitness level for months and months - so backing it off for a while (while I am still feeling good and like I have a few more races in my legs) will pay off later this year and beyond.

Today was a fun race. Its fun to be a part of a national championship event and perform at a level that shows you deserve to be there. What makes it even more special is that Andrea and I both had good races today... its awesome to be able to share these kinds of experiences!

A few pics... will post more when we get back. We have lots of post-race parties to attend now! :-)

AM - 10.5 miles. First half of the run along the lake shore path with Andrea, then added on around the harbor and finished by running the last 2.1 miles of the race course. Pretty much all of the turns in the entire race are in this stretch, and I wanted to get it locked into my head for next year. Stood in Lake Superior for a while afterwards... Whew that is a cold lake! It's a beautiful day in Duluth... Sunny and warm!

After breakfast we rented cruiser bikes and rode around for a while, then walked several more miles, did another round of soaking in the cold lake, and now we're just killing a little before we fly back to SLC.

The awards dinner last night was a lot of fun (and had great food). A highlight for me was when Adam Goucher came up and introduced himself to me, and told me that he likes our blog (wasatch and beyond). That was pretty cool because I've been a huge fan of his for over a decade.

I felt really good on the run this morning... Although a couple easy weeks will be good for the body and mind.

In other news, did you know Dairy Queen will just fill up a 16oz soda cup withsoft serve for you? It's not on the menu... But apparently we've been to the one across the street enough is weekend that the manager decided to let us in on that secret! :-)

AM - 4 miles in Minneapolis, slowly. We were supposed to get back to SLC last night, but our flight from Duluth to Minneapolis was delayed due to mechanical problems, so we ended up spending the night at the Marriott near the airport. Hung out and chatted w/ Ryan Bak and his wife, Natalie. They both ran the Grandma's Marathon on Saturday. Since Delta picked up the tab for everything, we had no problem ordering really overpriced food at the hotel! $6 for a bowl of ice cream? Sure, as long as we're not paying for it! The bartender really had a hard time believing we were over 21 years old... apparently not many people our age go sit at the bar and order soda and ice cream. In the grand scheme of things it worked out OK b/c I got Delta to give us vouchers for future flights, which took the sting out of those darn 2 seconds from the race a little bit.

Posted a Duluth Mega Photo Gallery. Here's a few...

PM - 7.4 miles easy. Felt like an oven outside! But much more enjoyable than the muggy, sticky air in Minneapolis. 

AM - 7.3 miles. Slow run commute. I was thinking of riding my bike, but that would have taken just as long.

PM - 7.3 miles home. 

AM - 7 miles. Got the wolfpack back together for a JAKJAFR, and almost added on an "S" and "A". We'll wait for you next time Susannah! :-) 

PM - 9 miles. Met Kevin, Rob, and his XC team for a run up at Alta. Coach Murphy had us do a few easy laps around the parking lot to warm up, then we ran up the dirt road to Albion Basin, did a few laps around the campground, and back down. Perfect evening up there, capped off by a tall glass of cold chocolate milk. Kevin and I agreed that running at 9000+ feet would have been brutal for us when we were in high school!

This is going to be a regular Wednesday night thing for the summer. 

 
If you happed to have a wedding coming up at Snowbird, its beautiful up there right now. I took this picture on my drive down. 

AM - 11.5 miles up to work. Passed Allie along the way but she was moving too quickly in the opposite direction so only got off a "Hey!". I think I figured out the secret to making the hill up to HCI seem tiny - run at Alta the night before.

PM - 3 miles. Ran from HCI down to the zoo and met the girls... switched into my cycling shoes (WHAT?) and we biked up Emigration Canyon to Little Mountain. Nice ride - very enjoyable gradient for cruising on the way up... and after a mile or so on the way down I wasn't a scared little baby anymore. I am not an all-star when it comes to trying to clip into pedals. Oh, and we forgot to bring water... no big deal... it was under 100 degrees today :-)

Olympic Trials start tomorrow! There are a thousand articles on Letsrun and Oregonlive about the track meet, but lost in the shuffle is a very interesting article about David Katz and measuring marathon courses (with a focus on the London Olympic Marathon route). He doesn't use a Garmin and Google Maps :-)

AM - 12.3 miles up to work. Much warmer out this morning - I was actually seeking out sprinklers to run through! Slightly embarrassing moment when I saw a blonde girl running towards me in about the same spot (and same time) I saw Allie yesterday... I just figured it was her and started to say something witty... but it wasn't Allie. Lesson learned = I need Lasik.

PM - 10 miles home plus an extra loop around the neighborhood. Hot out! 

10K tonight!

Tim Layden of SI wrote a nice article on Webb & Ritz today. He flashes back to this piece he wrote 11 years ago. Most high school superstars (in all sports) flame out quickly. These two guys, who were given the absurdly difficult task of rejuvenating American distance running when they were 18 years old, actually lived up to (and maybe went beyond?) the hype. And are still going strong over a decade later. If Webb is in the hunt with 2 laps to go next Thursday, you can pretty much bet that the internet is going to explode :-)

If RAGNAR counts for race reports, than so does this! :-)

Had a great time at Allie & James' Wedding Bells Relay this morning. Allie posted the results here. We stacked the deck for our team - not necessarily in terms of talent, but definitely in terms of outfits! The girls wore dresses...Kevin and I wore our best shorts. Devra ran our leadoff 200m leg, then we alternated 400s - me, Kevin, Amiee, and Andrea. My splits were 63, 62, 64 for my 3 legs. It felt harder than running a full mile at that pace a few weeks ago! Pretty good for my "easy" week and running 22 miles yesterday.

Our main competition was the Pachev family - Sasha and Benjamin really took on their fair share of the load for the family, running more legs than any of us did. It was so cool that their whole family ran - even down to the ones who are barely big enough to walk!

Just a lot of fun this morning... thanks Allie & James for putting this together. I think of all the cool races I've run in the past month, this was definitely my favorite.

8 miles warming up to SHP, then cooled down about 3.5 w/ Bonnie and Dean. Awesome to finally meet those two and spend some time running and chatting with them. 

Took LOTS of pictures... 

Full slideshow...

AM - 7.5 miles easy, horsepark loops.

Then... Pfeifferhorn! What an awesome day. Andrea, Amiee, Kevin, Jillian, and Tanya went on a great hike up in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Up to Red Pine Lake, then the upper lakes, then a few of us went up to the ridge and I sealed the deal for the team by tagging the summit of Pfeiff - I think it was the only peak on the alpine ridge than I've never been on previously. Its a good push - 3700 feet over 4.5 miles to the top. When we got the ridge, since I was going solo the rest of the way, I ran a good part of it... some skyrunning... just soooo cool - although pacing was key at ~11,000 feet :-) There is a fun knife edge area that requires some scrambling before you go up the final stretch to the summit.

Somehow, in the last 1-2 miles on the way down, I dropped my camera. I'm pretty upset only because I know I had taken about 100+ awesome pictures today. I don't care about the camera itself, but I am essentially obsessed with documenting fun days with friends like this, so I just hate to lose the photos. I ran back up ~1.5 miles, walked around for a while searching, then finally ran back down to the car. No luck :-(  At least I got some extra trail running practice. Ran the stretch from the White Pine trailhead to the trail junction in a little under 7 minutes, which is pretty good... it usually takes about 20 minutes to hike it. And I didn't fall once!

Despite the loss of the camera - I just can't get over what a great day it was to be up high in the mountains with a great group of people. Lots of fun - I love these kinds of days! 

Amiee was nice enough to send me some of her pictures to make me feel better...

That's me on the top if you look close! 

Andrea insists that I add a few miles of running to my daily total, since she knows I ran at least 3 while looking for the camera. So, we'll say PM - 2 miles. 

AM - 12.1 miles up to work via Tanner Park / Parley's Trail. I'm already having mountain withdrawal so I think I subconsciously picked the hilliest route possible. Thank goodness for Alta Wednesday because Friday seems sooooooo far away right now.

PM - 8.8 miles home.  

5K heats are tonight. Runner's World posted a fantastic profile on Alan Webb this morning. His career has been a roller coaster of ups and downs. I'm really hoping he can make the finals and even though he'll be a long shot, at least get a chance to make the team.

AM - 10.7 miles. JAJAK group run. Andrea and Allie gapped the guys right from the cars and it took us over 1.5 miles to reel them in. Shaving my head last night didn't make me any faster this morning. I split off after ~8 miles and went up the hill to work.

PM - 9 miles home. Ran into AdamRW up on campus and we ran about 5 miles together... good to catch with him! 

Tomorrow night we'll meet at the 6200S park & ride around 5:30pm, then carpool up to Alta and meet Rob and his XC team. 

AM - 8 miles, horsepark loops. Lots of dogs out this morning. 

PM - 9 miles at Alta w/ Rob, Kevin, Fritz, and the XC kids. Awesome night up there (as always)!

I've been thinking a bit about the second half of the year. Looks like Andrea and I will probably run the Big Sur 1/2 in November, and possibly the RnR Vegas 1/2 in December. If that plan pans out, those two will be my focus races (Big Sur is very competitive, and Vegas is a PR-type course... I really want another crack at 1:05), but they are a long way off. In the shorter term I'm planning to run the TOU half and marathon, but at this point I don't see myself putting in another "big" (10-12 week) training cycle / buildup for those two races... even for the marathon. I'm gonna sort of wing it. I got right back into workouts a few weeks after Boston, and while the results were pretty good in May/June, and the fire to start hitting the tempos and intervals is already burning again, I need to be objective enough to realize that I'm playing a somewhat dangerous game if I keep pressing forward with the harder efforts. Especially since I haven't taken any true "down" time in the past six months. So no structured workouts for the next month or maybe even longer... I won't rule out jumping in a low key race (Tour de Run?) if I start getting antsy, but that's it. Its very tempting to continue to keep rolling along when you're running well, but if I had a coach - the first thing they would tell me to do right now is back off for a while. No one has a linear improvement curve (in the long-term) so I'd rather shut down the intensity on my own terms, rather than risk getting stale or injured in the future. Plus, its summer, and while I really do enjoy enjoy the rigors of harder training, right now I want to keep things 100% fun and have the flexibility to do whatever comes up and seems cool. That being said, a lot of the things I think are fun/cool end up being hard, anyways :-)

AM - 10.3 miles up to work, slow jog. 

PM - 7.3 miles home. 

If anyone is interested in doing Tour de Run (3 stage race on July 13-14 - 5K, 10K, 5 miles), you can use the code wasatchreferral and it will only be $50. This seems like a pretty cool new idea, hopefully we can get a bunch of people to sign up... maybe even make a few teams from the blog? I wrote some more about the race on Wasatch & Beyond (blog link)

AM - 10.3 miles up to work. Leaving for a little vacation this afternoon - spending 4 nights at Brian Head (elevation 9600 ft!) and using that as a springboard to Cedar Breaks and Zion. Then we'll head "down" to Bryce Canyon for a night before coming home. Can't wait to hit the road!

How about those 5Ks last night? If you didn't see the end of the men's race - here's the video highlights. Start at 2:10 for the last lap. Incredible trials for Galen Rupp... 5K/10K double, both Olympic Trials records... wow. Letsrun recaps -  Men - Women. I feel so bad for Julia Lucas. Really happy to see Molly Huddle (Go Saucony!!!) and Lopez Lomong make the team. I ran at the same high school state championship meet as those two... so its good to see that they've improved a lot more than me over the past decade! :-)

PM - 7.1 miles at Brian Head on a really cool dirt road. Lots of climbing. High altitude. Love it. Almost got trampled by an Elk.

The Y-axis is what its all about..

Fires off I-15 on the drive down...

AM - 10.5 miles. First half w/ Andrea on a dirt road, second half up on some wild terrain on the Navajo Ridge. Basically just ran up and through the ski area. 

PM - 8.3 miles. Brian Head town trail with some extra climbs thrown in for good measure.

Andrea, Amiee, and I went to Cedar Breaks National Monument and did a cool hike on the rim. Then we played horseshoes, basketball, ARCHERY, ping pong... it was basically nonstop activity!...