Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 23 mile long run. Early morning Tour de San Francisco, including the obligatory out and back across the Golden Gate Bridge. Averaged 6:55/mile.

AM - 11 miles. Golden Gate Park and along the beach.

PM - 4 miles. GGP again with Andrea and some friends.

AM - 10 miles. Golden Gate Park, similar to yesterday.

PM - 2.5X wine tasting/tours.

San Francisco was very fun - although it was chilly and foggy in the city for the majority of the weekend, so we spent most of Saturday in Marin County, and then all day Sunday in the vineyards of Sonoma.

AM - 12 miles.

PM - 8 miles. Thunderstorm!

AM - 13 miles. LT Reps: 3 x 3000m (600m) in 9:30.8 avg. HHS track. Thought about pushing this to later in the week after not getting my normal amount of sleep for several nights in a row, but it worked out fine and wasn't too hard to put them in the target range (9:30-33). Another small improvement from last week.

PM - 6 miles.

AM - 16 miles.

PM - 6 miles.

AM - 12 miles.

PM - 9 miles.

Read this morning that a local guy died on/around Capitol Peak. I did a (relatively unwise in retrospect) solo ascent of that mountain in 2008. Sharp ridges, constant exposure. Unforgiving terrain around there. I remember feeling a sense of relief when I got back to my jeep that day.

AM - 14 miles. 20 x 200m (200m) in 34.2 avg. HHS track.

PM - 8 miles. 

Got bloodwork done this morning. HGB, HCT, and Ferritin were at all time lows in early June (14.3, 42.1, 61). Based on how I'm feeling, I'd expect the numbers will look significantly better this time. Should get results back next week - closest hematocrit guess wins a dollar...

AM - 24 mile long run. Park City - Snyderville Basin loop. Averaged 6:45/mile. First 20 w/ Fritz and Josh, then tacked on an extra out and back on the dirt path. I really like this route... I feel like I get the stimulus I need, but I recover a lot quicker than I would from an equally long run at Jeremy Ranch.

AM - 12 miles.

Bloodwork results back. Josh E and SlowJoe tied for the closest guess on HCT and win the grand prize. In the interest of full transparency, here's my biological passport data:

Things are trending back in the right direction. You really can't expect much more of an increase in that amount of time, especially considering I didn't do a whole lot in June.

AM - 14 miles. There was a smell of superglue in the air at the horsepark.

PM - 8 miles.

AM - 12 miles. LT Reps: 2 x 4000m (800m) in 12:38, 12:39. HHS track. Football team started pumping the music for their calisthenics a few laps into the second rep... that should be done more often for track workouts.

PM - 8 miles.

AM - 13 miles.

PM - 8 miles.

Ante up.

AM - 17 miles. Possibly a horsepark loop record.

PM - 7 miles. 6 + 10 x 30s uphill. Not exactly popping on these, but was able to keep the effort honest. We've got a red-eye flight to Knoxville and I didn't anticipate being motivated enough to crank out hill reps tomorrow.

Unboxed a fresh pair of wedding shoes for the weekend...

AM - 10 miles. Sluggish after flying through the night.

PM - 7 miles. Mostly along the Tennessee River before dinner at Calhoun's. Felt a lot better after a short nap in the afternoon.

AM - 25 mile long run. All around the suburbs of Farragut, TN (very hilly - like a concrete Jeremy Ranch). Averaged ~6:50/mile. Didn't get started until almost 8:00am which should have been a death sentence, but luckily there was some cloud cover for the first 2 hours and it didn't get too hot. Ran a pretty hard quarter mile to close out the run after I hit the twenty-five mark and was pleased to see I had some spring left.

PM - 5 miles.

Decided that I prefer "rich man's altitude" (Western ski towns) to "poor man's altitude" (southeast humidity).

AM - 11 miles.

The wedding we went to Tennessee for was very nice, although the ceremony was in a steamroom!

AM - 14 miles. 

Afternoon walk around the Ijams Nature Center trails before flying back to Utah in the evening.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 8 miles. LT Tempo: 5000m in 15:44.0. HHS track. This wraps up a nice progression of workouts since I got rolling again...

Today's session would have been 2 x 5000 if I didn't have a race this weekend. I'll cut it back a touch the next couple days and give it a whirl on Saturday. I haven't done a single marathon-specific session yet, but that has been by design (even though Chicago is less than eight weeks out). I realized early in the summer that I needed to be very patient in rebuilding my fitness. So far, I am very pleased with how this stretch of training has gone... definitely moving in the right direction. I'm having a lot of fun with it right now, and I'm excited to start racing again (it's been almost 4 months)!

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 8 miles.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 8 miles.

AM - 8 miles. 8 x 200m ~35s, HHS track.

The Top of Utah Half Marathon is the only race I've run all four years since we moved here. The past three years I've come in gunning for a fast time. That only worked out in terms of winning once. This year I was a much different place in terms of training and sharpness (my first race in 16 weeks!). My goals were:

1. Win
2. Finish the race strong
3. Continue to build overall momentum with my running

I'm not at the fitness level I've brought into this race previously, so I ignored the splits being spit out by my watch, and focused on running a smart race that would put me in position to accomplish all of the above goals.

Going down the canyon, I hung back to see who else would take the initiative. Jason led the early miles, while Fritz and Steve eventually moved up to him. According to the timing mat I was 17 seconds back of those guys at seven miles. I wasn't sure how I felt - not great, but not bad either. Then it seemed like Steve moved even further ahead and had a good sized lead on everyone. At the nine mile mark I was probably almost 30 seconds off the lead and needed to get moving. I passed Jason during the 10th mile, then Fritz during the 11th, and finally got Steve at the top of the Millville hill in mile 12. I had a good amount left in the legs and was able to stretch the lead out to a comfortable margin. It felt good to break the tape.

Splits and previous years...

It looks better when you use this view...

Obviously a lot slower than I've run here in the past, but I'm not reading anything into that. For where I'm at right now, I got everything I wanted out of this race. One positive that sticks out is my attitude over the final miles. I had the chance (and contemplated taking it for a few minutes) to cruise in and use excuses like "it's your first race in a while" and "you've got a lot of miles under your legs recently" but instead I told myself "go get everyone" and I ran the last 3-4 miles exactly as I planned. I also remembered around that time that I had already spent the prize money on Thursday so I had better win it back!

Random thoughts...

-Locked my keys in my jeep (in pouring rain) at the packet pickup on Friday night. Special thanks to the TOU staff for helping me out and making sure I got a good night's sleep!

-Broke a new uniform out of the plastic wrap today. It's actually the same exact kit, but I wasn't happy with how the spring ended so it was time for a fresh start.

-Adhering a temporary tattoo of a wolf to your shoulder gives you unlimited potential.

-Article from the Herald-Journal. Did I really say "boogie up the Millville hill"???

AM - 10 miles.

PM - 6 miles.

AM - 12 miles.

PM - 8 miles.

AM - 12 miles.

PM - 8 miles.

I really like this photo of Blacksmith Fork Canyon from Saturday's race. When has Utah been so green in August? 

AM - 12 miles.

PM - 8 miles.

AM - 17 miles w/ 6 mile AT Progression on the tempo loop in 32:51 (5:28/mi avg). Splits - 5:40, 5:36, 5:31, 5:26, 5:21, 5:17. 

PM - 7 miles. 6 + 10 x 30s uphill. 

How the Diamond League was won (watch this if you are even a borderline fan of running).

AM - 12 miles.

PM - 6 miles.

Spent the afternoon hiking through stunning landscapes in Capitol Reef National Park. We are staying in an eclectic cabin in Torrey for the next couple days. I found some dirt roads that head into the Fishlake National Forest, so that's where I can be found in the mornings and evenings while we're down here. I love this part of the world.

AM - 26 mile long run. 7:00/mile avg, ~7000 feet elevation. Torrey / Teasdale area. Totally misjudged how dark it is here at 5am! And windy. Caught a spectacular sunrise in the middle, and finished with the Garmin beeping some sort of jingle to let me know I had  set a personal record of 26.37 miles. I don't plan on running that far again this fall unless I start running tangents like an idiot.

Spent the day along Highway 12. Hiked to Calf Creek Falls for a swim!

AM - 12 miles. Great Western Trail.

PM - 5 miles. GWT again.

Spent the day in Capitol Reef on a guided canyoneering trip. It was great fun - a very scenic hike up to the top of a plateau, then we dropped into a slot canyon and made a series of rappels. A long day - we were out in the wilderness for a solid eight or nine hours.