Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 14 miles. First 10 w/ Kevin (2.5 of those with Andrea as well) and then ran home... and right into the pool.

PM - 4 miles. 

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

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

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

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

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

PM - 4 miles. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Elijah taking it in the final stretch

Trying out a GIF file...