Wheeler Farm Loops

Shhhh! We don't call it smog here. That sounds unhealthy and has a negative connotation. It's "the inversion".

Nice workout, Jake.

I really like the components of that workout. Nice work Jake. It will be fun to see what that looks like in February.

"Inversion" is what they get in Jackson Hole.... minus all the pollution! I love it when the Weather Channel calls it "fog" as if we are dumb enough to believe that.

The smog line was approaching Snowbird's base area this afternoon. Really awful looking.

I'm not sure I want to see what these workouts will look like later in the spring Derek. Too painful to think about on a holiday :-)

this is my favorite ksl forecast of all-time (from jan 2010): http://bit.ly/1hY2arX

they were trying so hard to add variety to the endless days of dirty air.

Great workout Jake!

Wave run! Looks good. My first one of the block is next week. They are truly terrible...

Great pics!

Besides the obvious primary benefit of these runs (lactate clearance efficiency), they really teach you to "default" to marathon pace. I noticed that after the first alternation with the faster minute I wanted to go to a typical recovery jog pace, and then after that I wasn't slowing down enough on the 3 minute segments. So there are a lot of ways to utilize these runs.

Of course, 1 minute at LT pace is easy... when it gets to a mile at that pace and then 5:20 is recovery pace, that's going to be tough. Building up to that in SMALL increments!

Sounds very familiar! I remember noting last year when I did these that the "recoveries" were definitely the hardest part. But you still surprise yourself with how you actually can recover at some pretty fast paces.

Thanks for the reminder. Just bought my 4 year membership, only $100 bucks and they still had my information from college so no need to submit proof of age.

They don't change the membership numbers every year like they used to... so if you buy one of the long-term memberships, it stays the same throughout.

Thanks for driving down, Jake. Fun run. Always a pleasure!

i was hoping there would be eggs in the photo. the trick is to peel them under water.

it looks like you are wearing james' pants!

Haha that's exactly what I thought about Jake's pants when he got home!

I got taller. I'm up to 6'4", 225. Getting ready for crossfit games this summer.

Thanks for the lift. I think I took last place for both speed and completeness. I will take note of the cold water trick.

Just eat 'em whole in the future. The shells are pure fiber.

Great workout, and always better with friends in this weather!

Nice workout Jake. Sounds like a great crew. Although you've take a very conservative approach lately your solid fitness is showing in these workouts. I bet you run a solid time in Houston.

I was out of the gates hot in January last year... then ended up toiling in no-man's land for the middle part of the year. If I was hammering now, being only 4 weeks out from CIM, I'm afraid I'd repeat that. I like the idea of a more progressive build, slower but steadier, cycle to cycle. That will get me to where I want to be in May/June... with some solid intermediate results along the way.

My goal for Houston is to not embarrass myself :-)

When I told Andrea that I just wrote down that my goal for Houston was to "not embarrass myself" her response was "that's gonna be hard!"

just wear lots of glitter. that's how they do it in houston. it's not embarrassing. trust me.

I am "liking" Allie's comment. T'would be epic!

http://goo.gl/59rYUe

That is the worst food product I've ever seen. Sorry Mountain Dew.

Awesome pictures and I am liking the 2014 fun plans. I completely agree about having a healthy balance of running/life. Adventures are incredibly important!

Those photos are sweet. Too bad the smog is already coming back. :(

We might get just enough disturbance in the weather this week to keep it from getting too bad. And maybe some more snow too!

wasatchsnowforecast.com is a great site to follow for skiers and general local weather enthusiasts.

We'll see... That snow on Thursday can't come soon enough. Watching the inversion literally spread from Kennecott out my lab window this afternoon has been extraordinarily frustrating. :(

I'll give you a whatever++. The extra + is for making me smile with that picture of the puppy in a leather jacket.

Definitely among the best photos I saw today in all of the snow puppy blogs that I subscribe to.

Nice workout in the cold. That's a good looking dog with a cool name = Fitz.

Fritz w/out the r (r = rabies for a dog?)

Hi Jake K, it's Tara.

It seems I have had a lot of those whatever+ workouts. I'm glad you finally put a name to them!

Great workout! Whatever.

Hey Tara. I googled Tara and it came back Tara. That's how I knew it was you.

I'm in whatever season for a few more workouts and then I'm flipping the switch to not-whatever season after I get my ### kicked in Houston next weekend.

Nice job today, Jake. Smart to ease into things.

Early morning workouts... Not good.

That's a pretty intimidating K9.

That is awesome news Jake. I have always thought it would be fun to race 10 miles.

I am really interested to see what the qualifying times to enter will be! Think I could run 10 miles by then?! Otherwise I'll pace Luke :)

Its probably harder to get into the regular race than the US Champs. They hold a lottery for Cherry Blossom, which is sort of rare for a non-marathon... very big and popular event.

Guessing they'll post the qualifying standards at some point this week or next.

Will you let me know when they post the standards - I'd love race that distance if I qualified and I don't have anything planned in April. Seems like the perfect excuse to finally see DC.

They actually have a seeded section if you scroll down from the elite entry standards a little. I didn't see this when I looked last night...

http://www.cherryblossom.org/theraces/elite.php

Thanks Jake.

15K/10mile races are great. Its like running an overly-aggressive half-marathon without the pain of the last 3 miles :-)

3.2 is a fast walk. I am only up to a 1.9.

What's a Canova :)

Vern Gambetta stole your blog title for his January 8 post.

Canova is what you need to learn to run the marathon good.

Here's a picture of him coaching:

http://athleticsillustrated.com/wp-content/uploads/canova.jpg

Rob - I like almost everything Vern posts... and that one especially.

You haven't found the secret treadmills? I think every gym must have at least one ungoverned one. I usually have to fight an extreme incline walker to get it though.

What an exciting day! Mental toughness workouts are always fun.

Lol. At least your cause was good. Not a news war with grenades:).

the schedule looks good -- i like the xc race on there! i also like the 10% bonus for championship races. should be a fun year.

i am so excited for the winter series to get rolling. i'm already wearing my singlet.

You guys get 'er done! Reason #37 I like the Krorths! Is Andrea going to run?

Yep, we're both going to DC for Cherry Blossom. My friends back there are excited we're coming out.

I'm happy about the status of the circuit... we have good races, we don't have to reduce the prize money, and the XC race is going to be a cool addition. I'll post more specifically about that next week. We'll incorporate team scoring so the Davis vs SLC vs Utah vs StG counties battle can finally happen! :-)

by the way, what are reasons #21 and #36?

Blankets. Meticulously detailed adventure planning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMZcdut1BsY

By my math you just finished a 105 mile week not 93.

14+15+14+13+14+23 = 93

"I"m keeping it under 90 a week for the winter." - Jake on Sunday. :)

You started the week with 12 miles last Sunday. Sunday is the first day of the week. Saturday is the last. You ran 105 miles, admit it.

Lay off, he's Pastafarian, they go to church on Monday

:)

Sunday is not the first day of the week. Its the latter half of the weekEND.

Not that weekly miles are the be all, end all... but I've always found that it makes a lot more sense to keep track Monday-Sunday, because I'm almost always going to do my long run on the weekend, but its 50/50 whether it will be Saturday or Sunday. If you always take Sundays off, then it makes sense to start the week with a zero.

Nice and easy 23 miler. What a perfect morning. Thanks for the pacing help. That was the most fun I've had with shorts on.

How does it rank against short-less activities? Top 100? 200?

OK, in the last seven days (some people call that a week), you have run 105 miles.

Nice run today btw.

OK I'll give you that, Mr. AP Calculus

So you have definitely earned that ski day tomorrow.

Let me review my journal and I will get back to you.

Solid week, Jake!

I was at Solitude with my 4 kids for the afternoon. No lines made for many runs in a short amount of time. A good day!

Its amazing how even powder days are never crowded there. When the snowpack is a little deeper and you can get in the trees in Honeycomb Canyon and off the Summit lift, its almost like skiing life-served backcountry all day.

Pretty awesome skiing. That's what it's all about...

thanks for the reminder -- i've been procrastinating but i finally renewed. i may just have to fly back from el-mahalla el-kubra to participate in the xc showdown.

winter series time. winter series! AHHHHHH!

Andrea Valentine Present Idea #1 - http://bit.ly/1eER22T

TWO TIMES more protein than beef!!!

Looks like a great schedule Jake. Thanks for the hard work putting it together.

Amiee - there is a much better choice than those bars already available. Google "Snickers"

Snickers do not have twice the protein as steak like crickets! With your new found interest in sustainable proteins, I thought you might find it interesting that crickets need only 1/12th the feed of cattle for a hundred gram portion and they don't require acres of grassland plus they reproduce quickly which is handy. They provide more iron than beef and as much calcium as milk :)

I'll let you try them out first. If I see you on TV at the Crossfit games this summer, then I'll give 'em a shot.

I still think you're in for a solid race. You are probably fresher than you realize.

If you mean fresh as in "cool" or "mad dope", then you're right.

I agree, 50 degrees + a lot of competition will you get moving :)

More than lapping the walkers on the tempo loop at 5am? No way!

You'll feel great once you breathe in that soggy sea level air. The real treat is being in Texas anyway!

Do I need to bring my passport to get into Texas?

Yes, and your personal sidearm of course.

Nice work. You just might surprise yourself this weekend. Best of luck!

smokestacks. AHHH!

The SLC Winter Series, brought to you by Kennecott Pollutants!

I've enjoyed reading Scott's blog (you posted a link a while back). I hope he runs well.

Plans for Sunday or just see what happens?

Go out slow (~5:10?), which will probably put me in last place early on. Move up, negative split... hopefully run fast enough that running a PR on March 1st seems realistic.

And most importantly, beat SlowJoe.

And by that I mean I'm going to outkick him at the end of our shakeout run on Saturday.

Unless he sets up the meeting w/ Hakeen Olajuwon that I've requested.

I like this: “Being in shape [to run a time] and doing it are two different things,�

And this: "I've always felt it was not up to anyone else to make me give my best."

Don't let SlowJoe's name fool you.

Interesting workout this morning...I like it!

I still say this every Monday and somehow by 10am I'm eating sweedish fish again!

I'm doing something like this about every 2 weeks. I did 3/1 alternations on Jan 1st. Next time it will be 3/2 or 2/2. They'll build to the point of being 1 mile LT / 1 mile AT and going for ~10+ miles.

That "being in shape" comment is very true, Tom. I feel the same way. I think eventually you get to the point where you don't consider what happens in training a victory - you either perform on race day, or you don't. The stopwatch and tape measure never lie. That's not necessarily a bad way to look at it... if you hit your goals, you've earned it, and if you fall short, you start up again and give it another shot down the line.

I just saw the transportation list for Houston and it looks like we're on the same flight. When are you flying back? I'm at like 6:00 am Monday I think.

Cool iitt.

Hopefully Steve is our pilot!

I'm heading back Sunday evening.

the one and only time i've ever been on a jumbotron was in 1997 when i was holding up a giant 'hakeem olajuwalk' sign.

checking to see if he's on pinterest...

THAT WAS YOU?!

http://www.pinterest.com/DannyZamir/hakeem-the-dream-olajuwon/

I think its official

Whenever I read wave tempo, I imagine you doing the wave while running. It doesn't look great because you're doing it solo.

It's a win win situation. If you don't run as quickly as you would like, you will come back mad and motivated to work hard. If you do run as quickly as you would like, you will come back excited and motivated to work hard.

Have a swell time and have a few fried crawdads for me :)

After the cricket bars I don't trust any food you recommend!

Good luck tomorrow. Those intersection sprints are key pre-race primers. It's a good thing you got them in. Coasting for you is still max or more training than most. I think you will do great.

Have a good race. Your fitness will be there. Should be a fast run. I'm guessing you'll be in 100th place after a 5:10 first mile. Then it's time to start picking them off.

Good luck tomorrow Jake!

Sounds awesome! Good luck out there. I'm sure you'll run great. The fitness is there.

Hakeem called and said you had a great hook shot. If only you were about a foot taller...

Have fun tomorrow.

Good luck Jake.

Good luck, buddy

Traffic light sprints are the best substitute to simulate "being-chased-by-a-bear" pace when you don't have an actual bear.

Good luck, Jake.

Good luck tomorrow Jake! Have fun with all the free stuff!

Not bad Jake. Good perspective.

Simply a deposit in the motivation tank. Looking forward to a healthy build up and breakthrough performances from you this year. I appreciate your perspective.

Sticking to your own training plan for the year will pay off at your goal races... and in the mean time, you still throw down 'slow' times along the way that inspire all of us! :)

Definitely not a bad starting point going into 2014 Jake. I feel like you ran about what you anticpated you were capable of so nice work. Most importantly you are 100% healthy going into the season.

Since you can't stay peaked all the time, this little valley may be a good thing to help you build momentum toward the important races at the end of the spring season. Utah warming up eventually won't hurt either.

Solid, Jake! A good starting point. Great things in store for you this year.

Big picture! Hope I can be racing there next year!

Nice race Jake, you executed your plan perfectly and looked great when you passed me like I was standing still. It was fun hanging out with you after the race. You're in for a great (fast) season.

Consitent pacing and great start to the year. Lots of good things

I like your positive thinking! You're season is going to be great!

Nice work. Just what you wanted and expected.

Solid race Jake. The next 7 months should be exciting.

Another great race. Off just some "so so" training. I'm excited to see how your racing and training come together through the spring and summer. Good job man.

always positive that's why you are this good. trying to learn from you. Great job.

Thanks y'all. I added a bit more, mainly just about hot tubs and ice skating.

Now that I've got the US Champs out of the way, I should have my nerves under control for the SLC Winter Series.

A very level headed and accurate report. I agree with you that if you stick to your plan it will work out. Too many runners hammer all out all the time only to break themselves. Nice run and outlook on 2014.

nice job, jake. i'm liking your incremental approach in 2014. i hope you had the chance to sneak away from houston and visit the mall in the woodlands.

winter series elevation profile (from memory):

____________________/

Impressed with your positive attitude after a race that didn't meet up to your expectations. That's great! Thanks for the tip re auto splits!

Nice race, Jake. You've gotten really good at running ~5:10 pace. "Just" need to carry it over the longer distance. You will.

Slow and steady wins the race, or gets you to a 2:17.

Good icebreaker. Have fun with SLCWS.

I'm really excited to watch your 2014. 2:17 would be awesome. I know you have the talent, drive and tenacity to do it. I love your positive perspective.

Still strong, looking good for a big year.

Nice race considering the company your keeping! Great insightful information you've started passing along too. You describe my motto of "PPPPPP" so very well.

Nice start to 2014. This is going to be a good year for you!

some fun thought there. thx

I'm glad you get to experience all that good stuff

I think the yasso guy might have been trying to sabotage everyone else. You should have told everyone about your secret -- time trials with a 40 lb. weighted vest.

Interesting stuff Jake.

I might have to try your vest idea....

Not as exciting to get up and run in the worst air in the nation. There is a dark cloud hanging over the lowlands.

Nice! Glad to see I'm not the only occasional lazy one, especially in January.

O.M.G.

YEAH!!!!

Not to mention announcing that they will have CREED and GOO GOO DOLLS at the finish of ALL of their races from now until eternity!!!

I already have a contract with Creed. They are the official soundtrack of my heart. So, this works out great, as I can do RnR races and it won't violate the non-compete clause.

Great use of the word eternity. One of my favorites.

Saw this on letsrun earlier. Great accountability of CGI.

now we have to find a new debate topic for high-altitude yahtzee matches.

CREED. that strong, rumbly throat.

Stupid CGI and their support of American runners. What are we, the only country in the world? THEY ARE SO XENOPHOBIC!!!!

Hey did you see the American Development money at the Pittsburgh Marathon. An additional 40k in American only money added to prize pool plus OT qualifier bonuses.

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2014/01/40500-american-prize-purse-added-2014-dicks-sporting-goods-pittsburgh-marathon/

I like the 6 mile progression. Fast finishing mile!

I heard in Houston that Pittsburgh was planning to announce something... that's a great program. Its nice to see all these races stepping up and offering incentives like these. The OTQ standards are no joke anymore, so this kind of stuff helps a lot.

A man of many words.. and miles :).

AM - 80 FUs

PM - 64 FUs

Hahahaha! You read my mind :). Furlongs ftw!

Thanks for the entry Jake. Enjoy the fun and clean air up there.

Nice race Jake! I love that you wheeled off 200m. I was tempted to join you!

Only 1:44 improvement actually. But still glad to be improving. I will get in a faster one before the marathon. Thanks for the encouragement out there and nice LT run :)

Edited. You're such an honest guy!

Crossing 5:00 pace is definitely going beyond the LT line right now. I have no illusions of being able to hold that pace for much longer at the moment, but give me a month or two and then it will be a different ball game (I hope!). The wheels/turnover are starting to come around, but some work is definitely needed!

Nice race Jake. Good to see you and thanks for the 200s afterward! Your patience and plan for the year is looking good and you've executed it well thus far.

Wow, 15:32 for 5th place! Must be some secret chemical in the pollution up there. Good race Jake.

Nice race, Jake! Fun, as always, to hang out with you.

you weren't kidding about wheeling off 200s. and you got people to join you. i'm sad i missed it but i love that there are so many giant running dorks in utah.

i hope you refueled with jupiter bowl cheese paper.

Great race Jake

It was great to see you as always. I look forward to watching you string a whole slew of sub 5 min miles together for 13.1 this year.

Another solid race for Jake. I can't wait to see how your plan falls into effect this year. Good job!

Good strategy this year for races. You guys are really setting the bat this year.

Nice race Jake. Still a great finish in such a stacked field. I can't wait to see more 200m markers and races at race finishes.

15:32, some 200s and a day skiing in Park City. Sounds like a day most people would dream of. Good work Jake.

Thanks guys. I put up a link to Andrea's photos. She captured some nice shots of many FRBers.

I'll have 200m and 400m marked off at the 10K in two weeks for post-race fun.

I hope I'm not coming off making it seem like I "could" be running remarkably faster but I'm choosing not to. That's not the case. I realize I have some limitations at the moment (lack of fast running... and I could lose a few pounds). But those things can (and will) be changed and I'm excited about what's to come this year.

Who's that guy dressed in orange like it's July? Oh, wait..

Great race Jake. I'm having fun reading all of these 5k reports tonight. 200's were a nice touch.

Great race Jake and tell Andrea thanks for snapping the photos!

Great race Jake. Nothing like a good set of 200's after a 5k to teach the body to endure pain. You guys are nuts!

Nice race, Jake. And to you I give the "Man-Beast Award" for least amount of warm clothing in the photo.

It was the same temperature as CIM. I figured if I could handle 140 minutes in a singlet, I could handle 15.

Plus I'm tired of Bam's snarky comments about how we're a bunch of wussies :-)

Nice way to start the week

Nice way to end the week Jake. Sorry Dave. I'm on the Sunday ends the week side.

Nice way to END the week :-)

haha we posted that at the same time Derek!

what a great way to spend such a fabulous day

Nice workout and pacing Jake.

Nice workout! Now when do we get a polar vortex snowavalanchesharkgeddon?!?

We don't want a Polar Vortex - we want a Pineapple Express!!! :-)

Solid work Jake. Cheater.

Looking sharp!

you see the olympic trials are going to be hosted in LA?

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/01/29/la-to-host-u-s-marathon-trials-for-2016-summer-olympic-games/

Yeah I've been following the story. The delegates voted unanimously in favor of Houston at the convention in December, but the USATF CEO was hell-bent on having it in LA. It was really a situation where both options were great... a win-win for the athletes. LA should enhance the media exposure (in theory).

Having it in LA makes it seem super exciting for some reason. Think I'll be there cheering you and anyone else on.

LA should be great and those of us who are fortunate to qualify (hopefully that will include us) will already be familiar with running in air pollution too...added bonus.

Oh if I make it, I can almost guarantee I'll take a leave of absence from work and move somewhere less "foggy" for a couple months. I think I could find a way to swing it as a medical necessity under our HR rules :-)

Nice session Jake. Best of luck executing the new plan. It sounds like both you and Riley have come around this year in terms of listening to and taking care of your bodies as the first priority. I am excited to see the outcomes.

Me too. I've been pretty good about not beating myself up and spacing out workouts... but other than for short periods of time (like the last part of the build to CIM), my training hasn't been super-smart. Hopefully by cutting out some races and just focusing on consistent progression of workouts, I can actually run to my potential in the HM this spring. Its a borderline miracle I've even broken 66 w/ how haphazard some of my training has been.

Get er done!

Interested to see what you and the Bamster came up with and how it goes.

Bamster and Jakers have been having way too much fun on the Ireland running threads!

We need to get more serious about doing the tissue work now, especially for the hamstring and calves!

That is a great book to use as a resource! Sounds like you're being very careful and smart. I hear the weather in LA will be nice in 2016. Ok, I didn't hear that.

Here's the visual forecast:

http://tinyurl.com/q583az6

Maybe I better read that book. I have a million things wrong with me.

Maybe I better read that book. I have a million things wrong with me. Thanks for the link again.

Your week (ie, 7-day stretch) is going to be WAAAAY over 90 again. :) Guess Sunday is going to be a forced day off? Hah.

86 + tomorrow. That's keeping me in the 90s. I bet I'll survive that.

I see 107.7 on the mileage board. :)

Impossible. No decimal points.

It seems awfully convenient for it to start snowing really hard right when you were planning to run fast...

definitely a variety of characters. At least we all share one interest.

I think Andrea is calling you a wuss :) Of course that is a relative term.

Consistent as always, Jake. Nice, patient week of building.

I agree, it seems that Andrea is calling you a wuss. Love it :)

I like that FRB is a place where someone can run 20 miles, averaging 6:45, in the snow, and "wuss" gets tossed around!

Its a tough crowd, Joe.

Pretty cool!

I do like the green here, but man I miss that view. Also, cool cadence chart this week.

Bam is probably shaking his head that you're even looking at the data afterward.

Cool-lookin' workout though! The last 3 minutes sounds painful.

Bam would prefer I just count to 1200 in my head, but life is all about compromises :-)

You mean you don't like running 4:50 pace on the treadmill? Me neither. Those Woodways vibrate and tickle me feet.

What is the purpose behind dropping from 2 x 20 to 4 x 10?

Nice one, Jake! Sounds painful, yet fun :)

I am impressed that you made sure you got this in before the storm. I just like to stick to the schedule and blow workouts. You are so wise.

So on the 3x1 mts faster and faster, was your watch buzzing at the minute mark?

The TM and all its buttons and lights would definitely defeat the "by feel" purpose of the workout.

I will (attempt to) explain the purpose to starting w/ 2x20, dropping down, then going back up when I have some more time later...

Yeah Josh, I guess I'll make it public... I upgraded to the Forerunner 220. So I can pre-program workouts and then it vibrates and beeps when its time for me to either speed up or slow down. I think it will be very useful for these runs that are based on time/effort, and the also when I come back to the wave tempos.

We discussed it a bit but I didn't realize how detailed the programming could be. I've never figured out the workout feeatures.

The amount of stuff you can do w/ it is borderline overwhelming

Good stuff Jake. I appreciate you sharing the details. This is probably a dumb question but is this something you decided to do on your own or did you get it from someone? Just curious what your reasoning is for this type of training and what you think the main benefits are.

OK Jason I'm going to try and explain briefly (and will probably fail)...

The first goal for this year is a substantial half-marathon PR... so that means making my LT pace faster. For most people, the approach would be a 5K training cycle (get fast!) and then start extending the length of LT efforts. That's a perfectly good method and works in most cases. For me, however, that isn't really the right approach for a number of reasons. 1) I'm more slow-twitch (look at how close my 5K/10K/HM paces are)... 2) I'm hesitant to do a 5K cycle during the winter because of injury risk. I plan to do a 5K cycle this year, but its going to be in the "safer" season (mid-summer).

So, we approach it from the opposite direction... start w/ longer efforts and work them down (esp since I'm comfortable doing really long workouts). As I move to the shorter efforts like 4x10, 3x8, I should (in theory) be running faster but staying on the right side of the threshold line. And then when I "rebound" and start extending the efforts again, they will (again, in theory) be a bit faster at the same perceived effort level. That's why it is important to not run these Garmin-dictated. Then it would be easy to go faster. The idea is to get faster on "feel" alone. Its not all about the LT workouts... I'll do some step down HM/10K/5K repetitions and the hill repeats which will also help improve the LT pace. After this block, hopefully I'll be fast enough to move to some other types of workouts. The benefit of this approach (top-down) is that it will also translate better to the marathon, eventually.

Rachelle - not a dumb question. This is a topic for another (longer) post, but in brief, after CIM I finally came to terms w/ the fact that I was on a 1:06/2:20 plateau. Those are good times, except that they aren't good enough for me, and I'm selling myself short if I let myself be content at that level. I started asking a lot of questions to a guy who I think REALLY understands modern marathon training. Remember Bam? :-) Hundreds of e-mails later (not an exaggeration), he has helped me put together a really good plan for this spring. This is the most confident I've probably ever been about my running... and that's saying something when I just ran 15:30/1:07:30 :-0

Anyways, I was able to get to a decent performance level on my own over the past few years. But I need help to make the jump to 1:04/2:16. A lot of help. Hard work alone isn't going to get me there. Especially w/ how haphazard my workouts have been. I can train smarter. So Bam is helping me with the workouts (he understands the patterns better than I do), and Andrea is in charge of all of my ancillary work. I am ultimately still the "decider", but I've surrounded myself w/ a team that really wants me to excel, and I trust their judgment.

That's a long comment reply!

Thanks for the detailed response Jake. I really appreciate you sharing all of your knowledge and I'm really excited for you. That Bam is kind of a smart dude!

i am glad i waited to comment...i was reading through this on monday and i got all overwhelmed and excited like any runner would reading about threshold effort and VO2 trigger and africa. thanks for the details. this is a cool workout, and i like your approach. your summer 5k cycle could set you up for a mile eliminator $win$.

just remember that bam is a giant claw operating an epson hx-20 from the mariana trench.

I'll post more as we get further along, explaining what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. If things work out, then hopefully it becomes a good learning tool. There will certainly be adjustments made along the way. I'll try to summarize and make it as clear as I can.

The thing to remember is that this workout means nothing on its own. Sort of like my "good" HM workouts in the fall - the 10 x mile, 2 x 5K... those didn't really mean anything or help my fitness as much as they should have, because there was no method or systematic adaptation going on. They were just stand-alone very hard workouts. This time around, I'm going to do certain types of workouts in sets of 3-6 sessions, over a month or more. So no individual workout is a building block, but instead a set of 5 LT workouts or 3-4 hill workouts (for examples) is an important piece of the foundation.

The mile eliminator needs to be moved to August... not the week after Grandmas Marathon :-) Although I'll probably just enter the Elliptigo Mile anyways.

$&%^! i have to get elliptigo insurance. ok.

Nice work Jake. That hill work will pay off.

does your garmin have a gyroscope? that's a serious question.

Serious answer... probably not. It doesn't really need one, since position relative to earth's gravitational field doesn't impact the way it is calculating cadence. It should be recording a "step" every time the acceleration of your wrist reaches zero, because that should match your stride. Obviously that isn't a linear motion so hopefully they put a tri-axial device in the watch.

Engineers / Mathematicians (Andrea, James, Collin, KEVIN?)... am I right?

Great workout Jake. The graph means nothing to me....but it looks really cool! :-)

Its just steps per minute, or stride rate. 180 strides/minute has been a buzzworthy number in the running world... I pretty much default to right around that number when running ~MP... and then when I'm running at a faster effort (the hill efforts), its closer to 190-195 str/min, which again is what you'd expect.

Dorky running nerd stuff :-)

Most likely it's a man watching the feed from a satellite in geosynchronous orbit with a click counter.

That actually makes a lot more sense to me

I got the footpod for my garmin since I have trouble counting while I run,hence the 14 mile half I ran in the past ha ha

Seriously a great workout. I love the hill work. This one over by me would be a good one for you to try some time (winchester westbound to 1300 west) good one to push up.

I was tempted to buy the new Garmin 620 cause it claims to tell you V02 max but then I decided that number was going to be about as accurate as calories burned and wasn't worth the extra money.

It estimates your VO2 Max. The only way the watch could actually tell you is if it came with a built-in treadmill, mask, and equipment to analyze O2/CO2. Running a 5K would give you a much closer number than that watch.

Oh, I forgot to mention it comes with pretty colors too.

the mask or the watch? either way, i'm sold.

i don't care what the watch does as long as it has pretty colors. that's a serious statement.

Technology. What'll they think of next? I did my first phone deposit a couple of weeks ago and then the next one I tried didn't work, so I had to drive to the bank. :(

I have to say mobile deposit is pretty cool. I think my mom just learned how to use the ATM for deposits. Her stack of deposit slips will go to waste.

any technology that saves one from an awkward conversation with a human is great. self-service EVERYTHING, i say.

Great to see you as always, Jake. Nice post-race session! Nice work today. Just another stepping stone.

Nice day overall. Very impressive!

Good race, jake! I love your little diabolical postrace speed sessions!

Jake! Good to see ya brotha. Nice relaxed effort today. "Not that Windy"? Were you at the same 10k everyone else did?;) good work. Glad to y'all there. Look forward to more runs. Make it happen.

The wind was definitely rough... I just meant it wasn't enough to justify that kind of slowdown for me.

Jake - the wind is hard to judge by feel or even numbers, unless they gave you the vector field of the wind for every point of the course and you calculated the integral along the path. You just have to look at a group of tough fit consistent runners and calculate the difference between expected and actual times. Riley lost 57 seconds in the second half relative to the first, and he was an outlier - probably because he is a power runner - strong on the uphill, relatively weak on the downhill - so he can deal with resistance, but it comes at a cost of fluidity. On average we saw around 90 seconds. So I'd say your slowdown was normal.

Yeah I'm not too worried about the actual time that the wind cost us... I was just unhappy w/ myself for taking my foot off the pedal like that. Wind or not, I know my effort level tanked, because when I got focused again I was able to run a solid post-race workout. Two years ago I ran much faster for a longer distance in wind that was just as strong, so I know I have it in me.

Nice race Jake. I wouldn't worry too much about the lapse in effort. It happens to me from time to time as well, especially in settings like today where yeah it's a race but not really a big significant one.

Sorry I didn't join ya for the post-race speed work, didn't want to push that fast on my knee right now. But it sounds like you had an even better session today than after the 5k. Those will pay dividends.

Nice workout Jake.

Solid run. I like the 10 x 30 at the end as well. Crazy how much competition is up there.

Nice job Jake and great little post race session. Loving that second picture...turns like that in races are so awkward!

I'm a little behind on getting to race reports this week but with yours that's usually good. I don't get the 50 notifications on my email from everyone who follows you. :-)

Your race and your fitness are fine, you just need something new to stir your soul.

UTAH!

Solid workout! I'm impressed by how consistent each segment was without much watch pacing.

The last one would have been slower if it wasn't for the faster finish. I guess my "feel" told me "slow down" :-)

I think our bodies are often better judges than heart rate monitors, Garmin etc. It's often about being realistic and being in tune with them isn't it?

Realistic is the key. Sure, I'd love to run 4:57 pace for my LT work right now and pretend that was really my threshold... but it isn't, I'd be pressing a lot to hit that pace... and then I'd be working too hard and not fully adapting. So asking that "could I do another 2x10 minutes?" question is important. I am confident I'll get the threshold pace down to the low 4:50s approaching it this way instead of forcing it.

I like the minutes workouts. Basically 4 x 2 mile for you with short rest. Good stuff.

I think doing these in terms of minutes instead of a set distance is a subtle way to cue you into not hammering the workouts. But yeah, essentially the same thing. Once I get faster this will be like 4 x 2.03 miles! :-)

Exactly. I know Paul does shorter versions when he is transition to longer workouts, but I don't see too many folks on the blog doing them regularly.

My problem is that I don't like uneven numbers, but it helps that my LT is currently between 6:10 and 6:00, so I can "cheat" a little (i.e. 3 x 12)

mudbrownoldgoosepoopspringiscoming grass. hooray!

First words of the run by Andrea...

"It's so nice out... It also kind of smells here"

Relaxed is a good sign. Looking good Jake!

Hills. Good for you!

By next month I should actually be fast enough to run on the track, which sounds great after this. One minute uphill pushes are hard! :-)

As I was watching you run those, I could tell that your form is definitely improving...I think these workouts and the ancillary work are helping a lot!

What's funny is that unless someone has run something similar to those hill reps they may read that and not think much of it. But to those who know how tough that is, it's impressive. Those hill reps really put you in anaerobic territory pretty quickly. Nice work!

10 x 1 min hill efforts? That sounds completely awful....especially after a tempo. These workouts you are doing are not easy and take a lot of mental focus. Very nice Jake!

I get exhausted just reading after rep 2 on those 60's. Freak that beast mode Kong. Good hurt. Madeithappen

Good for proper lean forward, good for the glutes.

What's the goal effort on the hills? Other than really difficult :)

3K effort is the target. What that means in terms of pace, who knows. They are fast but definitely not all-out. Recovery should be quick (not pace, but the time is takes to recover)

Those were good, The Nash one was a little depressing.

Maybe they can turn to trail running.

I liked how honest Nash was...I felt like I could really relate to how he was feeling. If only I had the resources that he does...

That's how I felt. I wanted to relate to Nash but then I realized I never had success or million dollar contracts so there really was no similarity.

Read the article that goes along w/ the video. Its really good. I admire that's he is opening himself up to the cameras like this... when he doesn't know the outcome. There's no guarantees. This could all go down in flames. Or he might be able to pull off one last push. I'm rooting for him.

Baron Davis needs to go on Steve's diet.

Steve is a person pursuing the highest level of something that he is passionate about and loves. He wants to get the most out of himself... prove that he can still perform even when his body is fighting against him. I think a lot of people can relate to that on some level.

I need to go on Steve's diet!

This is old, but here's something he wrote in 2009:

https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=91414362951&ref=mf

wearing my nash jersey to work today.

UC-Santa Clara, Mavs, Suns, or Lakers?

Phoenix I or Phoenix II? Mavs I or Mavs II? I watched that yesterday. I wonder what kinds of outspoken things he has yet to say.

It makes me feel older. I've got a small window before I might as well just keel over.

Murphy has to be in on this since he was Nash's current age when Nash was full of hope and doing headers to a young Stoudemire in the dunk contest.

'97 suns, so phoenix I.

When you think about it, how many perimeter players in history have been able to get up and down the court at his age, playing against guys half their age? The fact that he was even able to stretch out his career to his late 30s is pretty incredible... a testament to how well he takes care of himself. So that should be motivating... if you do things the right way, you can get more out of yourself than anyone would expect.

And if you watch those videos closely... watch how he's doing everything on one leg. Always working on balance. This is the stuff Andrea drive me nuts about. When I'm brushing my teeth - "stand on one foot!". But she's right. How often are you on both feet at once during any athletic activity?

There is Stockton who was woefully missed by Simmons in the article when saying staying beyond usefulness happens to all of them. He slowed down but never hobbled off. Didn't miss a start over his last 442 games.

Age 40 . 82 games, 27.7 minutes, 2.5 rebounds, 7.7 assists, 1.7 steals, 10.8 points.

I saw that re the balancing stuff. Do you have some kind of board?

Stockton still played good defense when he got older, too.

I use the bosu ball at the gym from time to time. We don't have anything fancy. Stand on one foot and close your eyes... that's enough of a challenge!

Nice! Thanks for the video links.

Not quite 30 or maybe just and you are already contemplating old age, Jaker?

I stepped off the treadmill the other day and I thought it doubled as a time machine because I heard Michael Jordan's name announced not long after Issiah Thomas's. That's about the time I stopped watching basketball. I miss it sometimes.

I honestly didn't know who Nash was. Dude is fit. Too bad about nerve issues. Life is hard enough without being in pain and nerve issues can be very debilitating.

MJ just had twins! And he can still dunk! He's a baller to the very end.

Nash is a really interesting guy. I've been a big fan of his for a long time (I'm partial to undersized, not so quick, white guys who can shoot the lights out). Seven seconds or less was a fun era. He directed the 30 for 30 on Terry Fox which is also worth checking out.

my current banner ad is displaying shawn kemp jerseys.

http://goo.gl/GVOvrn

http://goo.gl/RGKZk5

Shawn Kemp's transformation was epic.

Do those balls represent his boobs?

In all fairness, he did have like 17 kids during the period between those photos, and I've heard that isn't the best thing for your figure.

LOL

His transformation was epic... But so were his dunks!

Why? Is the Valentine's stuff for someone else?

Otherwise my prediction is that she will appreciate your thoughtfulness AND your frugality. Both good traits.

Echoing Rob, from what a little birdy told me you might be the best (and thriftiest) Valentine ever. Unless you are going to squirrel all of that way for yourself.

I would be disappointed if you paid full price!

Everyone knows the real valentines day is the 15th anyway.

Nice run Jake.

Nice week so far Jake. Good job on those 10 x 1 min uphill efforts the other day. Like Riley said those could easily be looked over but those had to be really tough.

nate's clown make up is always a hoot. and i love it when he blows confetti at us out of his bike horn.

I was pretty impressed by the guys' hairstyles - Nate, Josh, Collin, James...can't wait until Jake's hair gets long enough for styling and profiling.

great hair poofbombs this morning. i put james' hair in curlers every saturday night.

Be careful about what you wish for...

http://goo.gl/Rpj2zS

Business in front, party in the back!

Nice recovery workout......it would probably kill an old guy like me!

Your crit from January 2012 was enviable! Looks like it is swinging up from June 2013, but your Ferritin and Iron need a little boost. Do the numbers align with how you are feeling?

Hard to know... it might align more to the total mileage I've been running at those times!

I haven't been using iron supplements as much, so I'm glad my Ferritin is staying up.

I'll probably do a CBC and Ferritin test every 3 months this year. It could be kind of cool to track on a more regular basis. Create my own biological passport.

Well the numbers are solid either way. Would be interesting to correlate to what you are doing in your training and how your are feeling and performing in those increments of every 3 months.

Nice workout Jake. I see more and more work at sub 4:50 effort creeping in. Good job.

Nice workout Jake. It's going to be fun to see how well you run next weekend.

Riley - you should consider dropping down to the half marathon at Phoenix....might be better for your knee and an exciting race between you and Jake! :)

Andrea, I was just thinking this morning how I'm much more prepared for a fast half than a fast full. But this will serve as a good prep for Boston and give me some insight into what I'll need to work on between now and then.

I don't have high expectations though, just hope to run a solid time and get some more experience at the distance.

The half would certainly be fun though. Plus Jake beats me every time we race outside of Utah :)

Nice work... as always. bloodwork= stomachache to Superfly.

"Lucked out" meaning of course changing the timing to ensure you hit the right weather.

I love this workout. Great job Jake.

I tried to say it was good planning on my part but Andrea said I got lucky again, so I can't argue w/ that! If the storm was moving in a few hours earlier, let's face it, I wouldn't have woken up at 3am to do this :-)

Rachelle, this is essentially a 4-3-2-1 x Kilometer workout... just a little short of that. Great way to get in 30 minutes of fast running.

Pretty cool idea for an LT workout. Each subsequent rep would be like a gift as they got shorter and shorter. Although I see you (Magness?) ruined the "gift factor" by dropping the pace. Great run.

Yeah it seems easier on paper, but then you realize every (shorter) rep needs to be a bit faster, so mentally it isn't bad, but physically it can be deceptive. Run the first segment too hard and you're toast :-)

Good workout Jake, would this be considered a wave type workout? Good luck at the 15k coming up. I'm thinking you could possibly close the gap on this race.

A wave style workout would be alternating faster (~LT) segments with "slower" segments around marathon pace. So this wouldn't be that type of workout, because I was running the recovery portions much easier than that. I did a few of the wave runs in early January to usher in some faster paces, but I've shelved those for the time being until I get faster. This was more of a classic breakdown workout... sort of a progression run w/ full recovery b/w the segments to allow me to hit faster paces.

I'm not sure what will come of this 15K... I sort of need to blend it into a long run... but I'm definitely feeling like I'll be able to run a solid half-marathon next weekend in Phoenix.

1. That story is great! Thanks for that.

2. BananaGrams has a hyphen?

Yeah it looks like a capital "i" bbut you just rotate it 90 degrees and it turns into a dash. I learned this trick from Amiee, who reads a lot of Bananagrams blogs.

Tonight I'm going to try and see which letter I can rotate to make VO2-MAX. That would be a good one to clear V,X, and possibly a Z.

1. Why would a healthy runner have lungs packed with clots? I am skeptical of the purported idiopathic-ness. Although remind me to tell you the same sort of story tonight because I don't want to break HIPPA-ness so openly!

2. VO2 is an abbreviation so a no go!

I'm still stuck on the fact that there are MULTIPLE bananagram blogs, that Amiee reads! This subculture is news to me.

Good point, if she wasn't such a great athlete and lived a more balanced life, there's no way she ever would have had any problems.

Yeah Amiee's RSS feed is like 25% bananagrams stuff. I wouldn't even want to steal her iPad if I was a thief.

That being said, she's usually finished w/ the game while I'm still trying to piece together my second word, so her dedication pays off.

Good story. Unusual but good. She was a boss back in the day.

that's a beautiful bananawordgrid. great use of the hyphen. and perfume. and jive.

our set has a semicolon and & an ampersand. it costs $5 more but it totally changes the game.

"the penguin & the fatdomesticatedwolf went to the store; neither of them had enough money to buy glitter."

Allie. Please start writing screen plays and books. As well as TV shows. You're and excellent runner but your creative smart a$$ whit is beyond excellence and your awards await you.

Just be careful what you call "strides," as Coach Murphy will get after you :)

I think what I did here would fall under Jay Johnson's definition, and Murphy is a big fan of his, so I'm guessing he would agree...

http://www.coachjayjohnson.com/2013/05/how-to-run-strides-an-overview/

Maybe I am confusing it with "speed work" versus "intervals." By the definition in the link, I am running my strides too hard (probably 600-800m pace), or I guess I am not longer doing strides but "sprints."

But the definition here also squares with other ones I have read. I'm not one to really quibble about definitions (and of course the comment above was in jest) but I do like to make sure I am roughly the right effort so I am not killing myself but also not loafing.

Rob's pet peeve is when people label workouts like mile repeats as "speed" work :-)

When I'm running 100m strides w/ a break in between, I'd guess I'm somewhere in the 800m/1500m effort. When I'm doing these as "pickups" towards the end of a run, in a continuous fashion, its probably more like 5K effort.

The blind kayaker still blows my mind in Sensory Overload - http://vimeo.com/83546783

We should just watch all the other trailers to films that we didn't get to see last night!

More Ueli: http://vimeo.com/21418116

His Eiger record: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzjpQF0_55A

The part starting at 2:13 is pure mountain stoke.

I am finding it more difficult to sit at my desk today and I have only been here one minute...

MOUNTAIN STOKE!!!

i love miss elizabeth hawley.

the "nose to ass" climbers on everest reminded me a bit of the debate that went down at good old aladdin's outhouseinthehouse lamp.

Nice race today, Jake! You are definitely rounding into form quickly. You are ready for a good one in Phoenix. I really enjoyed running and hanging out with you today. I love your garmin course profile. Pretty funny; there isn't even a bump in the road!

Nice photos by Andrea!

Nice race Jake. That elevation profile looks right on. Thanks for the encouragement at the end. I would like to hear what Andrea has to say about my form because I was sort of disgusted by it.

I do remember last year but I'm not sure how you could. I am #1556.

Nice race brotha. See ya in July. :)

I remember last year forced me to the treadmill... which I've felt bad about for a full year, until I found out today that Kassi did the same thing - warmed up and then bagged it.

I always thought that course was deceptively hilly! Thanks for the proof.

Oh, and I've never felt even remotely bad about last year. I chalk it up as a tribute to my good sense.

The Garmin never lies!

I can still count my TM runs on one hand, so at least I didn't make a habit of it. Your suggestion that day probably helped me win the marathon the following weekend!

Good race today. You do look relaxed. Of the two videos and one in-person sighting, I think you have dropped your arm swing a few inches and your elbows are closer to your body.

Great photo of you and Josh and matching shoes.

Great job Jake. And it looks like you got in a better workout than the others because you ran a tougher course. You are set up well for Phoenix.

Phoenix is a good half course. I may run that too next week. Love that elevation profile!

Nice race, looking strong. Like the Hurricane's jacket too!

Right on Jake! Really strong today. Off to bigger and better things now!

nice race. birthday garmin would have done a better job with the elevation profile. wear it at phoenix next week and you'll see.

it looks like the palace photobombed that really touching pic of you teaching josh about the lake.

also, your next race in utah better be the SHRC mile eliminator!

"Josh, did you know that The Great Salt Lake is a tiny remnant of prehistoric Lake Bonneville and that only one species of shrimp lives in there?".

"And that with each year's diminishing snow-pack, it becomes less and less great every year".

Great job, Jake. Cool video too, looking very smooth.

Don't forget to log your vert.

Really nice pacing and negative split and a great effort heading into Phoenix. Nice work Jake.

Your set up well for Phoenix:) Stay rested and stay sharp. I have to agree about your form also. I noticed something different that day when you were past the turnaround. I was just in too much anaerobic pain to process it! Good luck:)

Allie - I still don't think my executive counsel is going to approve me racing the week after Grandmas, but I hear you are tight w/ Andrea, so see what you can do :-)

Rob - I was SOOOO lost on your comment about the Salt Lake for several hours today. I JUST got it a few minutes ago.

Thanks everyone. Glad we had such spring-like weather for most of the winter series this year. I'm sure that bodes terrible for all the spring marathons.

I'm glad you got it Jake.

I never knew a lake shore could be so hilly.

Great race Jake. Really nice consistency and negative split.

No "thou shalt run this year"? Utah county will be so dissapointed!

Awesome race. But I come here for the photography. Love the pictures:).

Have you ever thought of doing nine striders instead of eight?

It's one better.

Or it would put me over the edge and lead to overtraining :-)

Very solid Jake. 4 x 1 at 5k with only 90 seconds is probably a very good 5k race pace indicator. Getting fast! See you at the start.

I don't really like those colors...do you think you could change them? Then, of course, match the 4 other training calendars you have.

Nice workout! You have definitely shown a lot of improvement since the US Half Champ race, and I think the next block of training is what will take you to the next level.

I need some sort of split cell for the workouts that blend two different systems. It requires a lot of highly OCD work to keep all these spreadsheets in sync! If I could just access Google Drive at work, life would be simplified.

Derek - any recommendation for getting dropped off near the start? If my parents can get me w/in about a mile, I'd rather do that than take the bus.

Last year I parked myself at Brown/Val Vista which is just about 2-2.25 from the start so I just ran to the start for my warm up. Also plenty of open bathrooms on the way. Val vista north bound should be open up to McDowell which is the road the race starts on. Taking that could get you even closer.

Really solid workout Jake. I think the graph looks really pretty with all of the bright colors.

i agree with andrea about the colors. google just doesn't offer a good selection. i can send you some custom swatches that i created in ms paint.

i like the plan. thanks for the summary, explanations, and visual aids. i am slowly building my 5k plan and it's stressing me out -- that book is so good but there's a lot to process. i may just have to stick with two 1970s sessions/week.

I'm doing a few sets of basic, 70s style interval workouts starting in a couple weeks. 400s, 800s. Simple, but hard workouts. They have their place.

I agree with the dissent on the lightness of the color scheme but on the other hand I like it also. It's far more ambitious and presentable than anything I post online. Well thought out too.

It's hard to look back in a weekly text view format and pick out the key workouts, and how they stack up over time... and whether there is actually a targeted approach or someone is just doing a bunch of haphazard workouts. I'm going to recap each block of training I do this year in this fashion... not necessarily for people to copy, but to show how you might think about setting up your own plan... and thinking longer-term w/ progressions of certain types of workouts. Hopefully it will be useful.

The color is tricky for my colorblindness. Can I get an auditory version? Good thing things are marked too, and I follow closely enough that I know what is what.

I'll start working on a braille version tonight

A little late, but nice going Jake! I know just where this little gem of a workout came from...it took me three tries to get it right.

Should be interesting to see how you do this weekend -- are you pretty much training through it?

Semi-taper... no workout tomorrow, just some long strides / 200s and a shorter PM run + all the usualy gym stuff w/ Andrea. Friday will be a typical pre-race day (~5 miles). If it isn't windy (fingers crossed!) I should get a really good benchmark for where I'm at.

This workout is really going to suck when the target pace is 4:40. But I guess that will also be a good thing in many ways :-)

Great workout, Jake! Impressive, especially given the short rest intervals. Fascinating tables and summaries.

I would submit that when you do this workout, when the target pace is 4:40, that it won't hurt any more than it did for 4:53 pace. The reason is because your fitness level will have climbed substantially. In college, I did mile repeats in the 4:30's, and those didn't hurt any more than mine currently do.

Makeithappen Jake. Nice time coming up on Saturday. You need to believe in your speed.

I got on the PHX website and you are pretty much famous on the front page :) Good luck Saturday!

Best of luck this weekend!! Have fun, and run fast!

I like that photo, and not just because its been the front page of their website for the past year :-)

It captures the sense of RELIEF I felt at that moment. I was a little banged up going into that race... then had the Kenyan guy running on my shoulder for the last 10 miles... it felt good to break away and get the job done.

Wasn't it all rainy the last time you guys were down there? Or maybe that was Rob... Anyway have fun and good runs!

That was Rob, the weekend before Thanksgiving for the NXN XC meet. Which was also the last time it rained in Phoenix, according to my parents.

I lived in Mississippi for 2 years, but the worst rain storm I have ever been in was in Phoenix. Our plane got struck my lightning that trip.

Good luck!!

Can't they just move the race by one day??

This is why races should be on Sundays :-)

All races should be ran on this course.

http://goo.gl/86uUtI

That staircase isn't even built to code.

What are you talking about? That's a Certified World Record course. Net Elevation gain/loss = 0. Or is it?

The other 80% fell in late November.

True, they only get like 5 rainstorms per year. So it's almost guaranteed that NXN and the Phoenix Marathon will have dry weather on race day for the next 50 years.

It's warmer than you're used to, probably. A little rain might help.

The 20mph headwind should help keep it cool, too :-)

I knew you'd see the bright side!

There's a dividing line somewhere that starts around the Midwest (and the area continues west) that marks that races are on Saturdays (which I prefer). My mileage gets weird when I do a Sunday race followed by a regular week + long run.

I just did some checking, and the winds are SUPPOSED to be lighter, just on the threshold of tolerable/mildly annoying (~11 MPH), but I guess when you are running ~12MPH ~11 MPH is really magnified.

Yeah it looks marginally better at the moment. As with all things, you see what you get in the morning. I'd actually care more if I was in better shape, if that makes sense.

I like Saturday races for local... Sunday for traveling.

That definitely makes sense Jake. I'd care more too if I thought I had a huge PR in me. But I don't feel that way at all. So regardless of weather I'm just going to focus on racing my competitors and not worry about the clock.

Good luck tomorrow! I hope the weather cooperates.

very solid time actually. 12 mph headwind to boot. Very well executed Jake. Your training the last 2 months has been professional caliber brotha. Youre headed for a huge year for sure. Nice W again. madeithappen...

Let me get this straight... You beat a guy who just ran 65, and you beat your Houston time despite a headwind (and it had to be more hilly than Houston)...and this isn't a big improvement? What am I missing?!

Great job jake, congrats on the win! Awesome to take the guy down like that.

Nice job Jake! I agree with SlowJoe...wow, you are definitely getting into shape! You are running much stronger than just a few weeks ago! I'm excited to see how this season pans out for you! I feel like it's gonna be epic :)

It's actually an easier course than Houston... net drop of ~40 meters. Less competition though (obviously!). Probably the fastest OTQ eligible 1/2 course there is. Unfortunately today we were running into the wind... but on a calm day or if the wind was coming from the East, this would be a flyer.

Indy will be more of a Houston-type course... flat loop.

nice win! let's go bowling.

Nice to see you today Jake. Great job!

Great job, Jake! Keep up what you are doing in training. Your fitness clearly likes it! You are improving weekly. Yeah, you pretty much own Arizona.

I like it.. I'll take it any day:) I hate headwind..

Congrats on the win and the fine time. Though I only half believe it because you are currently omitted from the results page.

If you search for my name, it shows me as "DQ" for the male gender. Emasculating.

But they handed me a chalice, check, and I sort of remember breaking the tape, so I'm pretty sure RunSum doesn't know what they are talking about :-)

Same thing for Kassi... DQ. Apparently we weren't allowed to wear rollerblades.

Congrats on the win Jake - Nice race.

Nice racing Jake! Fun to see you and Andrea, and meet your parents! I hope it's sunny and hot for the rest of your stay.

Strong work, Jake!

BTW, Did the race finish in a Chili's parking lot?

Great pictures and commentary! Really cool race for you.

That's awesome! You downplayed the weather factor. Great race and a good win!

Jake totally dominates and wins another race? Yawn, what else is new?

Just kidding. Nice work and congrats

Great race Jake and nice job keeping the AZ streak alive. That guy you beat ran a 2:17:19 at CIM in 2011. You are well on your way.

Great job Jake. I randomly ate dinner next to Jesse at a 20 person dinner tonight. Nice guy. I thought your race was worth about a 1:06 flat with the headwind. Like Fritz said, well on your way. Nice cooling down with you guys today.

Congrats on a nice race.

Great race, Jake. Running hard a mile 10 is a marker of fitness regardless of time comparisons. Something to that I think.

B'Ryan Seacrest.. You can't make that up. I've noticed that RunSum is pretty goofy. I've tried to follow a few races on it and they always seem to disapoint.

Awesome race Jake. Congrats on the W.

Very nice race and win Jake. I think you're fitness is noticeably getting better every week and this race shows it even if the time doesn't.

You beat a solid competitor in less than ideal conditions. I agree with Derek that you may have been 1:06 flat without the wind.

It will be fun to continue to observe your long term plan and results over the next few months. It looks very promising so far.

Also, man you're famous in Arizona!

Congrats on the win Jake!

Congratulations on the win Jake. Very well executed race and I think your training is exactly where it needs to be to reach your goals. Keep on keeping on.

As always great job. Good win. And nice photos. I was hoping to cross paths at the finish/ awards but we got back there late. Maybe next time.

A Utah sweep! So happy for you, Riley and Kassi. Congrats and well-done Jake!

Thanks everyone.

I forgot to mention it when typing up my original report, but I do feel the need to mention that the t-shirts given out by this race were really nice. Stretchy and fitted.

I doubt I'll ever comment on race shirts again, so this is a big deal! :-)

stretchy... and fitted? you sure that those weren't just the winner shirts?

:)

Jake you thinking the 1:05 is the standard you'll shoot for?

I'll give both a serious shot. Longer focus on the half this spring, but I'm running grandmas marathon 7 weeks after the Indy 1/2.

Then in the fall I'll target another half (probably one of the RnR races in September), then a longer marathon buildup.

So I'm giving myself a couple stabs at both standards.

Umm I imagine your dad as much more competitive than you. Nice runs Saturday!

He had 4 hole in ones on a tough course, and then came back to win skee-ball (sp?). At least I scored more points in pop a shot basketball (which Andrea is also VERY good at!)

Excellent workout.

Still in Arizona?

Fast recovery! Nice workout.

Back to SLC last night. Should have put "tempo loop" in my entry to clarify!

Mike - probably something of a calculated risk to do the workout today, but I felt like the way the race played out worked to my advantage in terms of recovering quickly.

Very nice Jake. I think doing this workout today shows that you didn't overdo it at all on Saturday.

Where are your parents moving to?

Mid-Atlantic... Maryland until my Dad retires, then they plan to retire in North Carolina.

They might actually move in time to be in DC for the 10 mile champs next month, so that would be cool.

That's a big dinner. 10 lbs? Sounds like one of the restaurants with an eating contest.

To be fair, we bought two days worth of meat :-)

You look happy in the new picture.

I wish I had made an even more ridiculous face.

The photographer's response to this photo was "do you want to do that again?"

"nope, i bet it's perfect!"

All people who just won a 1/2 marathon should look that happy.

Gotta ask... What are horsepark loops.. For the past year I see that all the time. Is it like a horse race track that's the soft dirt?

Good question that comes up every couple months. I should link to the horsepark in my sidebar :-)

http://jkrong.fastrunningblog.com/blog-11-18-2013.html

4500S/1500E. Big Cottonwood Park. 1.1 - 1.5 mile soft surface loops.

Andrea and I started calling it the horsepark several years ago. Sometimes there are dogs running around, which is great, and during the summer/fall people you'll occasionally see people in the trees dressed up in medieval costumes and hitting each other with foam weapons in some sort of very strange fantasy role-playing game.

got ya. There is this Horse Race Track here in SoJo and I've gone and ran around it several times .75 / lap but its like loose soft dirt so it's terrible footing but it's good to take some pounding off your legs. Thought you might have founds something similar. Thanks for clarifying.

They used to do a one mile race on the horse track near where I grew up in Saratoga Springs. I never did it, but guys who would run 4:20s couldn't even break 5 due to the soft footing. Much respect to horses for dealing with those sorts of non Rupp-certified conditions.

you have one week to change your profile pic jake or we are all going to dog pile you. :) jk, thats actually a funny pic...

I can think of nothing that would make me look so cheery.

I'll take it down before the copyright policia comes to get me :-)

Great effort Jake! I am usually not myself until at least 8 or 9 days after a HM...great that you could hit those paces for that amount of LT work.

Awesome workout Jake!

I feel like I'm making steady progress. The 2x20 next week will be a good indicator of my fitness gains during this block of training... and then the track intervals start! :-0

I didn't notice the short rests before. Nice 4 x 1.977 mile workout :)

Yep, very short rest on the 10 and 20 minute efforts... keeps you from running faster than threshold.

Wait until I do all my marathon workouts in kilometers :-)

You may be above me on the mileage board today, but I've got the bigger percentage increase in mileage from last week... :)

It takes me a good two to three weeks to recover from any race distance. :)

Where is the Yellowjacket Invite 5k?

Georgia Tech's home track invite. I have to go to Atlanta for work at the end of the month, which I wasn't too thrilled about at first (long trip for basically one day there), but GTech's track meet starts the Friday night of the work meeting, so the sponsor agreed to pay for an extra night hotel and I'll stay and run the 5000. Now its more of a running trip than work trip :-)

Nice way to turn a work trip into something fun!

Excellent. Truly excellent:)

I read skinned as sinned, hoping you were consuming hot caffeine and swearing like a sailor.

Swore the whole time, like a man!

You like that Bam? I didn't even run extra because it was a weekend day!

It's the new picture - it's brilliant.

oh haha... I keep forgetting I changed that!

A Bam sighting?

They only email each other 10x a day!

Nice on that last mile! Thanks for the motivation today.

Thanks for the nice run. Sorry I avoided that last Sugarhouse hill but maintaining 5:40s for the rest of that mile would've put me in the well and I didn't want any part if that.

That is one heck of a long run..

That was a fun run today. Heck of a run for both of you guys - Rob and Josh. Steve, we'll have to get you out w/ us for a longer run again sometime soon.

I'm enjoying the "no pressure, just run 2 hours and finish fast" long runs for now... they'll get wilder in the last stretch before Duluth :-)

Jake-As long as you guys don't turn my legs to jello at the end:)

Solid long run Jake. Nice dose of everything today.

Jealous of your powder! Send some my way! What a perfect day- LR + sunshine + mountains + skis.

I noticed that, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing? Tough to make time for all of those slots. Either way I have to get my membership in soon to even be counted.

I'ts probably a good thing in general for the circuit though.

It's a great thing for the circuit as a whole that races want to participate, and RDs (like Kendall, who directs Thanksgiving Point) deserve a shout for supporting competitive racing and USATF.

Definitely hard to try and squeeze them all in... last year I ran almost all the circuit races, this year it is going to be tough for me to run more than 5 or 6. You sort of need to pick and choose what is important to you. But what I'm really happy about is that the circuit schedule is strong and full of great races - lots of good choices!

nice to have one more marathon option on there. two days after des news...that would be the true summer double.

Only impressive if you go run the Eugene Marathon on July 27th too

Two very solid additions. I've run both and they are great events. Too bad neither line up with my schedule.

Good workout considering the conditions. That sucks to lose to the coat. I will send Teddy out on a search mission.

If Teddy and/or Nicolai finds it, I'll give them a huge reward. If Nicolai is actually the one who took it... well, then I don't really mind... it will keep him safe in the dark! :-)

If Teddy is the one who took it, then I'm simply impressed he was able to get it untied from the sign!

It was probably that kid from Houston that was yelling at Allie during her race.

Oh yeah, nice workout too. Tough to crank it down to those paces in any conditions.

What a cruel world this is and full of injustice.

Who's that guy in the picture?

MUD RUN!

Oh, was that your jacket? Sorry...

That's when she started dating me, Rob. What does that say about Andrea!?!?

Way to get the job done.

I feel the same way about candy that I do soda. You get away from it long enough, and you kind of forget about it (also the old rule if it isn't there you won't want it applies I think).

Now, if I had boxes of Powerbars in my pantry I would eat all of those. Example: Last night, woke up after trying to fall asleep. BAM! 2 Lara bars. Went to sleep, woke up in the middle of the night BAM! another Lara bar. I wasn't fully awake for the third one, so the calories don't count.

Oh, and congrats, too!

They key is to hide things in your kitchen and not remember where you put them :-)

Another benefit:

http://goo.gl/bLH3iD

Congrats! that's awesome man

Congrats on the sponsorship. You'll be disappointed to hear that I dropped Diet Mountain Dew from the diet. I love the stuff but I am trying to eat and drink things with ingredients I can pronounce and Diet Mountain Dew was falling a little short there.

Congrats and welcome to PowerBar Team Elite! I was with both PowerBar and Saucony for about 2 years with no issues.

I need to remember to capitalize the B!

Yeah it should a good thing. No excuses to miss the 20 minutes post-workout window for a protein bar anymore :-)

Derek - I ran my 1/2 PR at Long Beach when I was off the dew. Maybe I need to try that again!

Congrats Jake! I can't help but weigh in on the Dew…

Definitely worth ditching and you probably will start craving it less. I always go with Derek's advice- if you can't pronounce most the ingredients OR the list of ingredients is as long as short novel, it probably shouldn't be fueling the race car :)

Congrats, Jake. Well deserved.

3 seconds/mile is a significant improvement from 5.5 weeks ago! Another improvement like that during this next block and you'll be flirting with sub-1:05 at Indy.

2 x 20 minutes is a ton of LT pain, great job. Good to see everything paying off as well. Enjoy the trip!

3 seconds of true LT improvement though, not just workout seconds, which could be accounted for by having a good day.

Yeah I think it's a fair indicator of where I'm at right now. I'm in a good place... ideally I'll be able to be in the ballpark of 49:30 at the 10 mile champs, and then extend that out for another 5K a month later.

I like it good work. I agree with Andrea 3 seconds is great. That's 39 seconds in a half!

Nice work Jake. I definitely agree that 3 seconds is a significant difference.

I'm so sorry you have to go to sunny San Diego for work. Rough life...

Beautiful evening for a run in San Diego. Does it get any better than that? :)

Why don't school teachers ever get to be in San Diego for a week - except at their own expense when one of their runners makes it to Foot Locker?

Nicely done, Jake!

Lots of horses up in Del Mar with the horse track and polo fields in the area. Sometimes you see horses on Dog Beach too!! I once almost collided with a horse while running on an equestrian trail because the horse's rider was texting!!

He probably got on a horse. I swear he cheats some times.

Had a thought: has anyone done research on the effects of recovery at sea level? For instance, yesterday perhaps you recovered better/about the same even though you went longer. Of course, this really is only pertinent (assuming there's something to it) for those able to move back and forth.

This is what you get in the humanities: an ability to pose questions you don't have the training to investigate so other people can research them :-)

No texting and horsing!

Jason - in theory, yes, it would enhance recovery. That's what a hyperbaric chamber would do - increase air pressure and O2 saturation. In reality though, the difference between 4500 feet and 0 probably isn't that much (like going in a chamber). I'm not sure on that, though.... and now I'm curious...

Good LR today. Love SD. One of my favorite spots in the world. I saw that Connor won and his time. Man this dude is just beginning. That's an amazing time at his age. He's gonna be really good when it's all said done. Kid has iT! MIH hope your flight gets delayed for another week if you know what I mean.

SD is nice, but I'm already itching to get back on my skis tomorrow!

Sounds like a paradise run!

Fun! I can't wait to show you my shiny new skis :)

We need lots of snow so we can ski through June!

Speedy! Time to get those fast-twitch muscles working.

Very cool. It's nice to have the option of the oval for days like this.

I know... It takes forever to drive there and back, but worth it every once in a while.

Awesome FAST workout Jake.

Nice workout Jake. I have done workouts like this in this past and slowly built them up in speed and reps. I seem to sharpen quickly with these. You have two great things going right now: a healthy body and a strong belief in your training. Good work!

I think it's awesome you're working these speeds - a good lesson for all of us. Nice repeats.

These will help pave the way to faster times on longer reps, like 800s and 1600s. Gotta unlock a little of the speed first so 70s don't feel so quick!

FYI, espn won't let me use sammy sosa as my avatar.

Go with mark McGuire Allie.

Or Atlanta Hawks superstar Spud Webb

for my avy I tried to be a parakeet- ode to Allie. NOT APPROVED.

Awesome workout. Nice explanation of the science. Did you go into "panic mode" ever? Between you and VanBeekum there are a couple of great workouts on here today. I'll go back and sit at the kids table now.

Looks like lots of great LT sessions went down today! I like how a session at 5:00 pace and faster includes the word "shuffle." Good stuff.

Everyday I'm shufflin...shufflin...shufflin.

Strong work Jake.

Interesting workout, nice job.

BAM!

Nice work by you and the British guy who spells utilize with an 's'

Man, 40 min @ LT with the additional pain of 3k/5k....great job. Sounds terribly awesome.

I was going to say earlier that you must have felt lazy running only 42 miles by Wednesday but then wow. Huge effort.

Thanks guys. My training for the past 7 weeks has basically been geared towards getting ready for what I'm going to be doing now. Its only one workout, but I was expecting this to be pretty rough... and it wasn't. Don't get me wrong, it was hard, but it felt controlled. I didn't need to look at the watch much... I've gotten a good sense of pace just from breathing and cadence by doing the LT workouts by feel recently. No panic mode, Derek... but I'm running a 5K next weekend so I'm sure I'll hit it then :-)

And as Joe astutely realized, the italicized explanation of the workout was from Bam (John).

Great workout Jake. Fun to see the variety. I like the explanation of the workout. "It hurts like hell but in a nice way". Love it.

Great workout, Jake!

So who comes up with your workouts: yourself or do you have a coach?

I turned the keys over to John (who used to post as Bam on here) in January after Houston. We work together to come up w/ the outline, and I have a lot of input, but the specifics of my LT and track workouts are all his doing. I haven't needed to really modify anything thus far, because it's a very individualized program. He really knows his stuff, and he thinks bigger picture than I do, which helps me make less stupid decisions. And then Andrea runs the other side of the show - PT, strength, etc.

In a lot of ways it has become easier to follow orders... but only b/c I have the right people calling the shots :-)

Good stuff! Love the Energy Bites the most! I have a closet full of stuff but nice to have on hand.

we use all of our open spaces as pantries. tub, car, behind the tv, etc.

I think most of this is going in the spare bath tub w/ the 50 pairs of shoes.

I have a spare living room empty. Good for many delicious items as needed 😜

How did you create that emoticon?!?!

long answer - its a new product from apple called the iphone5S. I think they might make it Jake. They have 130 billion in cash as a company right now. not too shabby. I have done better in most monopoly games I play but Apple should last for atleast 5 more years until the second tech bubble happens.

short answer - typed from my phone.

oh i've heard of them. same company that made the oregon trail games in the early 90s. i could shoot like 90 buffalo at a time.

Congratulations on the new sponsorship Jake. That is awesome!

You can send some of that to me....and some of your extra shoes, too. Size 10 1/2. Thanks.

I could only seem to shoot the rabbits and squirrels in that game. 20 bullets, 8 lbs meat.

Confucius say: one can shoot 90 buffalo- but only carry one.

Saaaweeet:) Love PowerBar products.

All good stuff Jake. And wise moves.

I like the second point about shorter recovery runs. I love it when I read blog entries like "14 mile recovery run". Not a whole lot of recovering going on there.

I would replace the Mountain Dew (crap, no redeemable qualities) with coffee (a gift from God).

I've done WAY too many 10-15 mile "recovery" runs in the past couple years. Kept me aerobically strong, but I was never truly recovering all the way.

I wish I could enjoy coffee (for the caffeine)... I just despise the taste. I even hate coffee ice cream!

Now that I'm switching to the Bjorklund 1/2, I can pace you in for the marathon!

Maybe, but most likely that will be me finishing 12 minutes after you.

eggsellent. now you can run the mile eliminator.

Nice workout this morning, Jake. 800's in the teens were one of my favorite workouts in college. They really build fitness and confidence.

Great plan and approach. My only concern (and it's a selfish one) is that you won't be racing Grandma's Marathon. That would have been fun to prepare for it together. But, it sounds like I'll still see you there -- killing it in the 1/2!

Bjorkland will be fun. I wish we were going. Looks like RnR San Diego then a summer of misery. Maybe we'll make it out of here for some races.

I'll still be doing long runs, Matt. Just probably will keep them to ~2 hours for April, May and June, so I should be able to join you guys for several.

It's tempting to run a lot of marathons, but I still have never really prepared for one properly. I want to try and do it the right way... Get my 1/2 time down, get my 5K time down, then give myself 10-12 weeks of uninterrupted specific marathon prep.

Looking at the big picture.. Looks like all smart stuff. And, almost off the Dew?! Must be an accomplishment if you made note of it. Nice work!

I'm going to join you on the strides, strength training, and no candy crap starting this week... I'm 4 pounds heavier than I want to be, not good after three 100 mile weeks.

You can still jump on on lent, Jon. I won't say anything about how you started 2.5 weeks late.

Derek - I don't envy your summers. Part of the reason I want to run Chicago is b/c summer training is so great here... it gets hot, but the mornings are perfect, and then could get the boost of both heat acclimation and moderate altitude when going to race. Our winters aren't ideal but you can usually get in most of what you want to get done... I can't imagine dealing w/ 95 degrees at 3am. That's why my parents are gone in a few weeks... they can't handle another one.

I approve this message. I say put "Get off the Dew" on my list of short term running goals :)

I like the Chicago goal except I likely won't be in the area to attend. The last few years have been pretty ideal marathoning weather (as I see it). Big group of people to work with maybe? I'd have to look at the time distributions to see where people are clustering.

Common sense = great (if you can follow it). Running seems to involve the classic distinction between can I?/should I?

Jason - Chicago probably has the best OTQ incentive program out there in terms of $$, which hopefully will draw out everyone who thinks they have a shot, and they sometimes arrange pacers during years when big groups are going for the standards. Add those things to the course and it's a no-brainer for me. I won't be able to get perks like hotel and travel as I would at a smaller marathon, but I have no problem paying a few bucks out of my pocket for a chance to run fast against the best competition.

Sounds like a plan, Jake. Let's hook up for a run soon.

This looks like more fun and a ton more exercise yet thousands of people are dropping $92 across the street to take the chairlifts. I guess I didn't get the ski gene.

We were going to ski inbounds today but it just wasn't worth it. Our criteria for lift-skiing is: 1) powder day or 2) t-shirt weather.

There's a lot more people backcountry skiing compared to when we first moved here. The sport is really exploding.

Are you still running the track 5k this weekend?

That's the plan at the moment, unless I catch Andrea's illness.

I've got a pretty long/hard workout tomorrow, and then the 5K on Friday night is taking the place of the workout I had scheduled for the weekend. So this will be a pretty good quality week and then I'm going to really taper going into the 10 mile championship... I think I can run pretty well there.

I think a track race will be good for the competitive mindset. You know that feeling when you step on a track to race? It's good for you.

Agree. That's why even though it didn't fit "perfectly" into what I had planned, it was worth a slight alteration. The pain of a 5K will make the pain of 10 miles feel less bad... for a few miles at least :-)

Plus, otherwise this trip to Atlanta would be really annoying, having to fly that far for a one day meeting.

Nothing like a hard 18-mile workout before 8am to get the day started off right!

I can't think of a worse way to start the day :-)

Great workout even with a little slow down. And, hey, it's 6 x 1 mile+ with 1 minute self-flaggelations plus two more repeats.

I just looked at a 1% negative split for 1:04:59. The good news is that you don't need any 4:52s. You "just" need perfect 5:00 splits through 6 miles and 4:53-4:54s the rest of the way! Simple enough, right?

great workout Jaker...MIH Lot of the locals here headed out to Duluth this year. Maybe I should put the half on my schedule and join the gang...MIH

In Jason terms, this is 8 x (1.01 mile, 343 meters).

4:52 is OK but it has to be after mile 10 :-)

Spencer - I know Matt and Mike were thinking Grandmas... Rob M is going too... who else?

Glad it was tough.

Thanks Josh. I'm glad you are glad I'm not slacking off too much :-)

Sarah is awesome to me because she's willing to classify me as "elite".

Great workout Jake. Your falling apart speed is probably close to what you ran in Houston. Good sign.

Rob - On our refrigerator we have a list of our friends and you're in the "elite" category there, too.

Derek - Yeah, that's true. I think every once in a while it's OK for the wheels to come off a bit - in very unscientific terms, your body says "whoa, don't want that to happen again... need to find a way to adapt." That being said, you don't want to run to failure all the time. Another difference between this week and last was doing to the workout at dark o'clock on an empty tank. When you start getting up to 40-50 minutes of sub 5:00 pace running, it gets harder to pull that off.

All things considered, I'm actually encouraged by the workout, not disappointed at all.

Amazing what a difference a few seconds make on an effort. I can always tell when I run a repeat a couple seconds too fast...

Great workout jake, great things ahead for sure...

Incredible workout. Nicely done. I hope you get over your cold soon.

How'd the legs feel today after that monster workout yesterday?

He almost fell asleep in the hot tub and his legs buckled on him walking out to the car...so I'd say he's tired today :)

That would be a fair assessment.

The 8:00 guy dominated me today.

Jake, something I never expected to see happen has happened. You're getting beat on the yearly mileage board.

In fact, it's even better than that. There's no easy way to put this, so I'm just going to come right out and say it- you're getting chicked on the mileage board. We all are. Ha!

Good, its about time someone else put in some miles!

I'm aiming to be at the top of a different board this year. It's like golf... lowest score (time) wins.

Good luck Jake. It may be snowing in Atlanta.

You can ski in Georgia. Google "Sky Valley".

Closed in 2004!

Probably due to Al Gore and his Global Warming agenda.

Really? I moved here in 2002 so I haven't kept up with it. Sad!

That's what Wikipedia says.

Good luck with your 5k. Make sure to takes notes for James and Allie. I am guessing they will be along the lines of "Everything here sucks. Stay in UT."

The airport is busy and I haven't made ANY friends yet. There is also apparently an "Underground Atlanta" so I'm not sure how a Garmin would work there.

On the bright side... the humidity?

will you ride the MARTA from end to end and write down all of the stops and the travel times? also be sure to drop off some resumes at CosmoLava.

Historical note: General William Tecumseh Sherman treated the city of Atlanta very badly during the War of Northern Aggression. The modern day city was built on top of the ruins of the old city. Underground Atlanta is an upscale shopping mall built among the ruins of the old city. It's pretty cool actually.

Too bad you aren't flying Southwest and couldn't just change your flight!

I'll hang out w/ Eric and that scores me extended family bonus points that ill cash in the next time I don't feel like flying back East for the holidays :-)

Good call.

I think I am sensing a pattern of how you pick your races. Yellow jackets, cherry blossoms, _______. Too bad the 500 festival didn't involve some sort of fruit (wouldn't have to be a cherry).

I'm transitioning to a lot of midwest races, and I don't think fruit type things exist there. Unless corn is a fruit?

Apples! The most delicious honey crisp apples! I think they are originally a Minnesota production.

Wise, very wise. Racing sick is the worst and it really kind of puts ya in a hole.

It's gonna come together for you nicely. Really taking care of yourself. 77% of MP?