Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 9 miles. Rob had the team do a 3200m time trial today, so I was given the duties of running 75 second laps to pace Kramer. Ran 3200m in 10:04 (5:01/5:03), so ~LT effort. Kramer couldn't quite hold that pace after 1600... but he's coming off some downtime and it was pretty hot out. It won't be long before he's blowing me away on the last 200m of everything. Good light workout for today... I still can't kick what has become an annoying sinus infection so I'm going to continue to keep the next couple days easy. 5 up, 2 down.

PM - 8 miles. Didn't feel as hot this afternoon as the last couple days. A little breeze helped. 

AM - 11 miles. Went to Alta w/ Rob and Kevin and met the xc guys up there. Its was like 70 degrees at that elevation... heavenly.

PM - 8 miles. Wasn't planning to go that far but the temperatures might cool off soon so I gotta get in my heat acclimation while I can!

AM - 5 miles. First half with Andrea and then finished w/ 4 x 1/4 mile on the dead-end street in 69, 68, 67, 64... but the street is ~2% downhill so the effort was ~5K. None of those would have been under 72 on the track. Just wanted to get a little neuromuscular stimulus without being taxing.

PM - 4 miles. 

Someday I will run 5 kilometers at a pace faster than I do for the half marathon. Today was not that day!

Teren won easily in 15:19, then Josh McCabe just in front of me in second (15:42). Felt flat on my warmup and never got going. Teren and Josh were way up (~20 seconds) on me at the 2-mile mark, and Josh was coming back to me in the last quarter mile, but my kick was non-existent again.

Splits - 5:03, 5:00, 5:11, 28.

Gotta kick this sinus infection. It doesn't affect me too much on easy stuff, but I feel like it affects me a little more when I try to run fast.

Fun cooldown with Andrea, Sandy, Ashley, Sasha, Benjamin, and Steve.  

Andrea took some pictures and snapped a few of some other bloggers: Murray 5K Photos

AM - 9 miles [2 up, 3 race, 4 down].
PM - 4 miles in West Yellowstone.  

AM - 11 miles. On a dirt road along Lake Hebgen in West Yellowstone. We were originally planning on going to Jackson Hole, but ended up switching plans at the last minute and went too Fritz's cabin in Montana instead.

I know I said "no more half-marathons until TOU 1/2", but I'm making an exception for this... it was an ALL-AMERICAN FUN RUN for crying out loud! Fritz told us about this race a couple weeks ago... it's something of a tradition for his family, and apparently the race has grown from about 20 people to probably close to 400 this year (between the Kids' 1K, 5K, 10K, and HM).

It was an awesome, low-key, fun community event. You could almost call this a trail race. The course was a rolling jeep road/trail at ~6500+ feet with plenty of hills. I was thinking that Fritz and I would run ~1:20 and easily take the top two spots... but there were some other very good runners there and it turned into quite a battle. Elijah Armstrong (a high-schooler who ran 14:28 for 5000m on the track a few weeks ago) stuck right on me until the very end, along with Jacob Howell (who only fell back a tiny bit over the last two miles). I had no idea who Elijah was at the time, but I suspected he was very fast because we were moving a really good clip for that altitude/terrain, and he was strong all the way. It came down to a kick, and I should have known better to wait until the last 75 meters because he got a jump on me and I wasn't able to match it... he won by a full second. There was a little incident with a stroller at the end but even if that didn't happen I think Elijah had it all the way. He really impressed me... the kid is the real deal.

I was pleased with the effort. It was a great aerobic tempo run type workout, and I came away with a nice chunk of gold coins.

Mostly it was just a really fun day with Andrea, Amiee, Fritz, and his family. Fritz's nephew ran the Kid's 1K and the girls all ran the 5K. We had a great time, so thanks Fritz for letting me know about this race and inviting us up to Montana for the weekend.

Course Profile (yes, I actually wore a Garmin just to get this!)

Elijah taking it in the final stretch

Trying out a GIF file...

AM - 10 miles. Along the Hebgen Lake road again. It's a dirt road at 6800 feet and hillier than Jeremy Ranch. I'm guessing I averaged barely under 9:00 pace. I like running slow in beautiful places like this.

We drove home via the Mesa Falls scenic route. Andrea and I went for a short run there.

I put up my reports for Murray 5K and the Sawtelle Stampede with some of Andrea's photos.

A couple from today... 

AM - 14 miles. Dimple Dell gully run. First 6.5 w/ Rob and Kramer, and then we looped back and picked up the rest of the team.

PM - 8 miles. 

AM - 14 miles. Started with Andrea for a couple miles, then ran up to the track: 25 x 200m in 33.9 seconds avg (hot/cold). 5 up, 3 down. Not even close to the workout I had planned, but the cheerleaders at HHS refused to yield any ground in the middle of the homestretch. It was either run on the grass on the inside or weave out to lane 8. I didn't want to stir up trouble so I just used the opposite side of the track for my faster segments. 

PM - 9 miles. LT Reps: 3 x 1 Mile in 5:00, 4:59, 4:57. Tempo loop.  ~3 up/down.

AM - 12 miles. Alta run w/ Rob, Kevin, and the team... up out of the smoke! We saw two mooses.

I've posted this before, but I love the elevation profile of this run...

PM - 4 miles.

AM - 8 miles. First 4 on the grass at SHP, then another 4 w/ Rob on the road loop. Finished by doing a couple hill surges with the kids, where I was reminded that I am not 17 years old.

PM - 4 miles. 

Tour de Run, Stage 1, 5K - 15:40, 2nd place

I took it out quick, Josh McCabe and Chris Rushing followed close. Hit the mile in 4:52 and Chris dropped back by 1.5 miles. It was down to Josh and I, which it what we probably both expected. The middle portion of the course was a windy trail through a forested area and around a pond. A fun course (reminded me of Thanksgiving Point). We ran the second mile in 5:00. The third mile has a short uphill stretch. We were running side by side through there, but Josh pulled ahead in the last quarter-mile and won by 0.8 seconds. Third mile was 5:08 and then the last tenth was 39 which seems kind of wrong, but maybe one of the other miles was short. Doesn't matter, this is racing, not time trialing.

Stage 2-3 report here. 

Stage 1 report here. 

Tour de Run, Stage 2, 10K - 32:42, 2nd place

The "hill" stage. I took it out a bit more conservative (10:36 at 2 miles) and then Josh absolutely crushed me on the uphill. I ran 5:56 for that mile, and probably fell 20 seconds back. Mile 4 was back downhill (5:02) and then I closed the gap a bit over the last two miles (5:00, 5:02, and 64 for the last 0.2) but Josh won the stage by 14 seconds.

Tour de Run, Stage 3, 4.32 miles - 22:43, 1st place

Ran the first two miles in 5:06, 4:59 and I could tell I wasn't going to get 14 seconds back on Josh because he was stuck right on my shoulder and running strong. So I asked him if he was planning to run Draper 5K and Des News 10K. We agreed that since that was the plan for both of us, we weren't going to kill ourselves today and kind of cruised the next two miles (5:25, 5:37!) and then I pulled away a bit in the last 1/3rd (1:36) and won by 3 seconds. I think after three races, my uniform smelled so wretched that Josh was happy to let me move away a little bit.

I ended up second place overall by ~10 seconds. Chris Rushing was third, Karl Siebach was 4th, and Kevin was 5th. On the women's side, Allie won by a landslide! In the team competition, Smores and Friends (Allie, James, Kevin, and I) won and were rewarded with a gigantic basket of Kneaders goodies. 

This was a fun, well-organized event. I know there were a lot of races this weekend (with a lot more prize $) but I'm really glad I chose Tour de Run. There is something to be said about racing instead of just time-trialing and I think Nate Houle has created a unique event... I hope it gets some traction and more people do this in the future. Overall the turnout was somewhat small, but everyone there seemed to love it. All 3 races were loop-type courses that started and finished at Lone Peak HS. They were fun and challenging (and in the case of the 10K, somewhat brutal). But I'm growing tired of bus rides and downhill dashes (great attitude with the Des News 10K coming up, right?) so this was a nice change from what kind of races we typically have in Utah. Lots of great prizes too. It was good racing against Josh, he's had my number over the last month but we've pushed each other, and I enjoy that kind of competition.

Andrea took lots of photos.

Here's a few... 

Nate would update the leaderboard after every stage

Airing out the smelly singlet between stages

Start of Stage 3

Finish of the last stage

Ladies' podium

Gentlemen

Smores and Friends

And my favorite, this is what 3 races in 17 hours feels like...
 

AM - 9 miles (2 up, race, 1 down).
PM - 7 miles (2 up, race, 1 down). 

AM - 10 miles. Originally planned on going to Jeremy Ranch today for something a little longer, but nixed that plan last night. I don't want to get too greedy. My "target" summer race is TOU 1/2, but the Draper/Des News double is also very important, so I didn't want to push my luck and risk aggravating the hamstring after back to back quality days. Kept the pace slow and the course very flat this morning. The bonus is that I got to run FOUR MILES with Andrea!!! :-)

Came back and saw the news about Tyson Gay. Makes me sad. I've always really like him. Man, is anyone doing this clean? I doubt it will happen, but eventually one of these guys needs to totally come clean, name names, and blow up the whole infrastructure of cheating.

PM - 4 miles w/ Andrea (bike). 

AM - 10 miles. Easy horsepark loops.

PM - 10 miles. Easy horsepark loops. 

I'm considering starting to race with a Garmin, because I'd really like to earn one of these in the fall...

AM - 11 miles. 4 x 1 mile on Wasatch Blvd in 4:42, 4:42, 4:42, 4:37. In 2011, Andrea and I would use this as a sharpening workout. Haven't done this in a long time. My form felt awful/choppy on the beginning (fast/very downhill) portion of the first three reps, but then I started to figure it out on the last one and smoothed it out a bit. Thought about adding a 5th and trying to dip under 4:30, but that might have been too much for my hamstring to handle. The times seem fast but they're not really too impressive, the gradient is ~1.5%...

PM - 4 miles w/ Andrea (bike). 

AM - 13 miles. Up at Alta w/ Rob and the team. Kramer and I did 8 campground loops this week, which means next time we'll probably have to bump it up to double digits... especially since Rob ran more than us. The wildflowers are really starting to go off in Albion Basin... its just a fantastic place to be running right now.

And on the topic of Alta, this year is the 20th and final Peruvian 8K. The entry form just went up on the USATF circuit schedule. Good quad mashing training for St George, etc!

PM - 4 miles w/ Andrea (bike).

AM - 5 miles. Four laps around the SHP road loop w/ the Alta guys, and we threw in 6 x 30 seconds fast. I was able to hang w/ Kramer for the fast efforts, which is actually pretty good for me. I haven't gotten the wheels turning over that quickly in a long time, and the hamstring was able to handle it.

PM - 4 miles w/ Andrea (Run!). 

I listened to this podcast w/ Tim Noakes a couple days ago. A bit dated, but highly recommended. At the very least, Noakes makes you think a little harder about some topics that we take for granted.

AM - 6 miles. Some horsepark loops and then a short ~LT effort on the tempo loop: half-mile in 2:26.

PM - 1 mile. Short shakeout w/ Andrea + some strides. 

Big race week coming up... Draper/Des in the next couple days, and if those go well (ie. no injury issues) I'm considering running the Snow King Hill Climb next weekend while we're in JH. 

Always one of the more competitive 5Ks in Utah, Draper Days did not disappoint this morning. The start was madness (funnel the crowd after 15 meters, see below) and it was a minor miracle that no one took a fall. Good thing we weren't wearing spikes or it might have gotten bloody.

I tried to stay up on Teren's shoulder during the first mile, but in reality we were running as a fluid pack of at least 5 - Teren, Josh, Riley, Tomy, and myself (not sure if anyone else was close early on. Hit the mile in 4:47, right about where I expected. I tried to string it out a little bit and take the lead in the second mile, but my mini-surge only lasted for a short time before the guys were right back on me. Josh and Teren started to pull away just a little as we hit the two mile mark (4:45, and 9:32 at 2 miles). Riley was a few strides ahead, and it sort of stayed that way all the way to the finish. Last mile was 5:02, and ~35 for the last tenth. I finished 4th place in 15:09.  Josh won, followed by Teren (both under 15) and Riley was a few seconds ahead of me. Scott and Kramer finished 5th and 6th. Good running by a lot of the people on the blog.

This was one of my better 5Ks in a while. I'm never going to be remotely satisfied when I finish off the podium, but I'm moving in the right direction, and its not like I lost to a bunch of scrubs! :-) Two years ago I ran 15:04 here, but the course was short that year, so this was a much better performance. Today's race exactly ties my "altitude 5K PR", which I ran on the track in 2011 a week before running my half-marathon PR. So that's good. I ran a little more mileage than I probably needed to this week, so a couple more really light days should leave me even fresher for the Des News 10K on Wednesday, which is going to be absolutely stacked. I'm excited.

Ran a nice cooldown with a bunch of the guys afterwards. Always fun to get to do that. And Andrea ran today, continuing her comeback, which makes me very happy.

I like this course. A perfect loop, with a slight (yet challenging) incline from ~2-2.7. 

AM - 11 miles.
PM - 4 miles w/ Andrea (bike).

AM - 8 miles. Horsepark loops.

PM - 4 miles w/ Andrea (bike). 

Andrea and I went up to Alta for a wildflower hike during the afternoon. They are at their peak right now... 

AM - 5 miles. 5 x 1/4 mile in 62, 60, 60, 60, 58 on the dead-end street (~2% downhill). Three weeks ago I did 4 x 1/4 in ~67 avg on this stretch. A lot of the improvement has to do with staying focused on my form.

PM - 7 miles w/ Andrea (bike). 

Here's my contribution to the running world for the year, the result of a successful science experiment: Homemade, Flexible Ice Packs. You can make them any size you want. I made a couple that cover my entire hamstrings, at a cost of ~$1.75 each. 

AM - 4 miles. Ran w/ Andrea and then finished with a half-mile effort in 2:27.

PM - 2 miles. Shakeout. 

I'll give a +1 to this: Rob suggests folks pick up an e-copy of The 27th Mile, all proceeds going to those affected by the Boston bombings. 

This is my fourth Pioneer Day since moving to Utah, but first time racing the Deseret News Classic. We've been out of town on vacation every time. This year we strategically scheduled vacation for after the race (leaving for Jackson Hole as soon as I finish typing this out). Rob called the other night to give me some good advice ("be ready to run faster for the first couple miles than you ever have in your life"). Yesterday I read a few older race reports; Paul's recap from 2010 gave me a good idea of how to dial in my race "strategy": "...Not that you can really 'target' much at Des News. You more just load and go, and hope for the best. It's not a cerebral race." AKA no strategy, just run hard.

My only real goal for this race was the get on the podium. I figured it would take something ~29 minutes or under to crack the top 3. I wasn't quite able to accomplish the "A" goal, but I still had a pretty good run. 

AM - 8 miles on the dirt roads at the National Elk Refuge.

PM - 8 miles. Exact same run as this morning. I quickly became obsessed with this area. Already high on the list of my all-time favorite places to run.

Spent most of the day in Grand Teton NP. We ended up hiking around Jenny Lake to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. Saw a moose swimming in a pond. Stopped several times on the way back to soak our bodies in the cold lake. It was glorious. Wandered around Mormon Row and took cool photos later in the afternoon, with the old ruined cabins and mountain backdrop. I love this place. Fun day.

Quads aren't sore at all today, I thought they might be. Guess I either didn't run hard enough, or those Alta runs got them toughened up. I'll go with the latter. Right hamstring is tired, but better than after Tour de Run.

AM - 8 miles. Elk Refuge.

PM - 4 miles. On the singletrack trails in Snow King mountain with my friend Rachel.

Today was awesome, and a big breakthrough for Andrea. We hiked from Lupine Meadows up to Surprise and Ampitheatre Lakes (10 miles r/t, 3000 feet up to the lakes). I'll post photos next week, the area was amazing. We took a long, cold soak at the top and again in Cottonwood Creek when we got back to the trailhead.

Decided to skip the hill race tomorrow. Andrea helped me see the light that I had nothing to gain by running it. If I tweaked my hammy (sustained hill efforts put a lot of stress on the hamstrings), I'd regret it. And if I ran really well, no one cares. My short-term focus is on TOU 1/2. I raced consistently well in July, but none of them were great. I want a great race in Logan next month. So I need to treat the Des 10K like I should a half marathon and not move faster than 8:00 pace for 5-6 days after the race. Low intensity, full recovery, then be ready for a couple hard weeks of training in August leading up to TOU.

AM - 15 miles. EASY 2 hours on the Elk Refuge and then on the bike path heading north from town where Andrea joined me.

Out friends were able to borrow their friends' boat for the day, so we took it out on Jackson Lake, after spending a few hours doing trail restoration at the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

AM - 15 miles. Around Jackson and on the Elk Refuge. Andrea biked about half the run with me. It was chilly - wore gloves the entire time!

PM - 4 miles.

Did a short hike on the drive home... Ski Lake via Teton Pass. We ran most of the way down.

This is Gershwin, the horse that lives next door to our friends in Jackson.

And a couple from Ski Lake... not the most amazing lake compared to some of the places we've been the previous couple days, but it was still a nice hike...

AM - 14 miles. Gully x 2. Ran the first loop w/ Rob and Kramer, and then met the team for round two... they were doing a time trial, so Kramer and I paced the lead guys.

PM - 5 miles w/ Andrea (bike). Did a little "test" on the tempo loop to see if I'm ready for a real workout tomorrow - 2 x 1/2 mile in 2:27, 2:21 (~1/4 jog in between). Seems like the legs are ready to fire again. 

I put lots of photos from our Jackson trip on Wasatch and Beyond. Amphitheater Lake definitely goes very high on the list of "best lakes ever"... 

Jenny Lake, Hidden Falls, and Inspiration Point
Amphitheater Lake
Grovont aka "Mormon Row"
Jackson Lake

AM - 13 miles. LT Reps: 3-2-1 Mile (0.5 mi jog) in 15:09 (5:08, 5:05, 4:56), 9:48 (4:53, 4:55), 4:47. Tempo loop. 4 up (3.5 w/ Andrea), 2 down. Was targeting 15:30/10:10/4:55 so this was good.

PM - 7 miles. Horsepark loops. 

I'm purposely avoiding any longer AT-type tempo runs as "key" workouts for the time being. Just trying to focus on LT (or faster). I'm not really worried about the marathon specific type workouts (like the 10-12 mile tempos); those are easy for me to jump right into when the time comes, and I feel like I can wait until I'm about 6 weeks out (which is a long way from now), especially while I'm continuing to make progress at 5K-HM. I haven't done a true long run in about 4 months, so I'm planning to starting putting those back into the mix, starting this weekend, once every other week or something like that.

Best part of the morning was seeing this note on my laptop when I got back...
 

AM - 16 miles. Usual Wednesday run w/ Rob and the team at Alta, but Kramer and I stretched it out a little further today. I remember when 10 miles was a good run up there! Great to see so many guys working hard, pushing to stay up in the front as long as possible, putting in the extra loops at the top, etc. Enjoyed the run quite a bit.

PM - 8 miles. 6 w/ Matt in Draper, then another 2 w/ James on campus. Shoe testing. 

For those not fortunate enough to live in Utah, here's a couple photos of the upper section of the road in Albion Basin (~9500 feet). This is the flat part that we have all come to really appreciate. I took these when we were hiking a week ago.