Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 17 miles. Its borderline of whether I can even call this a morning run, since I didn't get started until after 11am. I was planning on running Jeremy Ranch today, but when I woke up (after sleeping for nearly 11 hours... yep!) I saw that it was snowing in Park City and didn't feel like dealing with that. So I did a major kitchen/bathroom cleaning spree (which should count as cross training), then headed out when a weather window appeared to open, although I still ended up getting caught in a few cold rain showers. Ran one of my favorite loops - down to the base of Big Cottonwood Canyon via Holladay Blvd and then back home along Wasatch Blvd. Kept the pace super easy the whole time, just wanted ~2 hrs on my feet and some good hills. No fast finish today... I did enough fast running yesterday. 

The sun better come out tomorrow so I can wear my USA flag split shorts! 

PM - 5.5 miles.

Ended up hitting more miles than anticipated this week... but the quality of the workouts didn't suffer at all. I've had a nice progressive buildup since Boston - 62, 81, 99, 108, 117, 131... on my run last night I had a feeling in my legs (and mind) that is hard to describe but when you get it, you know good things are coming. Its time to catch fire. 

AM - 13.5 miles. Slept in forever again and when I saw the sun shining through the windows, there was only one place to head - Jeremy Ranch - knowing I'll be traveling the next 3 weekends and I won't get to run up there for a while. About 5 miles into the run I saw Rob M coming the other way, so I ran back with him, then added on a few more. I'm glad I ran into him, good company and conversation, and I think he is convinced that this is the place to be all summer. Between weekend runs in PC and the planned midweek evening trail runs at Alta, its going to be a lot of fun (and a lot of high altitude!). The road itself is in the best condition I've ever seen it, because Morgan County must have cleaned all the rocks off their half of the road during the past week. Its nice and smooth all the way.

Afterwards I soaked my legs in the freezing creek while a bunch of fighter jets flew overhead. It was really cool.

PM - 4 miles. Then burgers and badminton with the Murphy clan. 2016 Olympics, here we come!

AM - 8 miles. Warmed up 2 miles w/ some strides, then 5 mile tempo in 26:16 (5:15/mi avg). Splits - 5:21, 5:20, 5:14, 5:12, 5:09. One mile jog home. Didn't sleep well last night, so I waking up early wasn't fun, but two easy days in a row left my legs feeling pretty good.

PM - 8.5 miles. A nice steady run, mostly on gravel and grass... beautiful, warm evening and I felt like I could just cruise along forever. Decided against doing anything faster this afternoon. I noticed today that I didn't notice my achilles at all this morning - I think its about 99.4% of normal now, so I'm not playing roulette with it. Giving it a good soak in the ice tub as I type this entry.

Seriously, how cool is this? A lot of $$$ is probably spent following Kilian Jornet w/ a helicopter... worth every penny! Radical SkiMo footage.

AM - 9 miles. Warmed up 2 miles around SHP, then to the track and strides. Workout was 12 x 400m (200m jog) + 8 x 150m. Target paces were 5K goal/dream pace for the quarters, and just fast/relaxed on the 150s. Averaged 68.9 seconds for the 400s and 22.9 seconds for the 150s. Just to prove that I can keep the standard deviation low, here are the actual splits - 69.9, 69.1, 68.8, 69.3, 69.2, 69.0, 68.5, 69.1, 68.9, 68.3, 68.3, 67.9, 23.0, 23.1, 22.9, 22.7, 22.8, 23.0, 23.0, 22.7. Jogged some backwards laps in lane 8 for a cooldown.

Allie and James sighting on the drive up to work - they looked like they are only a few weeks away from being married. 

PM - 8.3 miles. I had no set plans for this afternoon other than to do something cool. The Kilian video released yesterday got my mountain juices flowing, so I put my rando skis in my car this morning "just in case" I decided to take the afternoon off from running and go ski something... but Rob M sent me an email this morning suggesting we go run at Jeremy Ranch after work, and that offer is just too good to pass up. We met up there around 5pm and ran out a little past Mormon Flat and back... good conversation and the miles just flew by. Afterwards we iced down in the creek for 15-20 minutes. Man, that cold water recharges my legs, and running through those hills out there recharges my soul. Great day!

AM - 6 miles, slow jog.

PM - 4.5 miles. Jogged around on the grass at SHP for 30 minutes, then went down to the track  and spiked up for a quick speed session - 2 x (150m, 100m) + 2 x 200m with full recovery (~75-85 seconds b/w each one). Just wanted to practice running fast without tripping over my feet (easier said than done). Splits were 21.1, 13.6, 20.8, 13.4, 28.1, 29.1. That's quite a bit faster than I am used to moving my legs!

This paragraph on accumulation from Functional Path Training is worth a read. It was posted last week, but I thought its worth sharing. Very applicable for many of us - keep the big picture in mind.

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AM - 6 miles, easy jogging.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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