Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 8 miles. 5000m Time Trial on the Highland track. I wanted to get in a harder effort this weekend, but I was out of town for yesterday's races, so decided to run a time trial on the track instead. I ran 15:22.7 (on Andrea's official stopwatch), which is actually 8 seconds better than my track PR from college. I came through 3200 in 9:45, then sort of fell off the pace in the last mile... running solo is tough. I think this was a good tuneup for next weekend, and especially encouraging after eating camp food (ie. bacon and bacon-related products) for the last 3 days! :-)

PM - 4 miles easy.

Andrea and I took my Dad up to Snowbird for Oktoberfest and a scenic tram ride during the afternoon. Wispy clouds made for some cool photos. More pictures here. 

I also put up some pics from my camping trip to the Uintas. The mosquitoes are past their peak and hardly noticeable, so if you're looking for some running/hiking at 10K feet, now is the time to get up the Mirror Lake highway before the snow starts flying again!

AM - 8 miles up to work.
PM - 7.2 miles home.

My parents and sister went up to the Tetons for the week, so Andrea & I are watching their dogs. Jesse James (12 year old Bichon Frise) is a huge running fan. He attended every XC/Track meet in high school, and made his way to most college XC meets, too... running all over the courses w/ my parents and barking at all the runners. Its been a long time since he's been at a race, but he will be there at the TOU1/2 this Saturday... so if you see him, say hi!

From Jesse James

AM - 4.4 miles easy. Did not get ANY sleep last night... Jesse James was feeling sick and needed to go outside every five minutes to either poop or throw up. I'm glad I don't have kids... does it make me a jerk to say that?

PM - 6.1 miles. Andrea and I did the same workout that we did the Tuesday before Utah Valley: 2 x 1 mile on Wasatch Drive (-1% gradient). In June I ran 4:57, 4:54 (temperature in the high 60s). Today I ran 4:39, 4:31 (temperature in the mid 90s).

All things considered, a good little workout, and I feel confident that I will run a strong race at TOU this Saturday. I feel like I've made the progress that I wanted to this summer... but we'll find out in a few days. I've never run one of these famous Utah downhill 1/2s (unless you count the 2nd half of UVM, in which case my aided PR is 1:10:37). I'm also excited because my family will be there to watch.

I had absolutely no discipline on my diet today, which I'll chalk up to being up all night, and incessantly snacking to stay awake at work. Not a good thing to do, but at least its only Tuesday and I have a few days to get myself back on track and feel sharp before the weekend.

AM - 7.2 miles up to work, easy.  
PM - 4.3 miles.

AM - 5 miles easy. Its so dark out in the mornings now! I just read this blog post which I thought was a refreshingly simple point of view, especially the last couple paragraphs.
PM - 2 miles and a couple quick strides.

AM - 5 miles easy. Ran w/ Andrea. Drove my car to work for the 3rd time this week... that's the downside of a low mileage week... it almost takes me longer to drive than to just run up here!

PM - Drove up to Logan, met up w/ my family (they are on their way back from the Tetons). Staying at the super convenient Super 8... got a frosty at Wendys... feeling relatively relaxed... now its off to bed. 

I've been looking forward to Top of Utah 1/2 as a way to cap off the "summer season," and since it fell 12 weeks before Philadelphia, the timing was perfect before I start my big buildup towards the marathon. I also figured this would be a good indicator of whether I was on the right track towards the OTQ.

Pre-race logistics were easy breezy. TOU does an awesome job organizing this race.  Andrea & I got on a bus around 5:20am, hung out w/ Paul and chatted a bit at the top, and before you know it, it was time to warmup and get rolling.

I took the lead off the start... Paul and I separated from the pack immediately. Splits down the canyon were 4:48, 4:58, 5:03, 4:55, 4:51, 4:56, 4:53. We pretty much ran together... I tried to make sure the pace was honest and would set us up for sub 66. I would get a little bit ahead at times, but not by much, and by the 5-6 mile mark we were running shoulder to shoulder.

Around 7.5 miles I got a bit of a sidestitch and Paul put a little gap on me. I was probably 5 seconds behind when we hit the 8 mile marker. For the rest of the race, he maintained a 5-10 second lead. I never was quite able to make a strong enough move to close the gap.

Miles 8-10 were 4:59, 5:05, 5:06. Ten mile split was 49:35. 

Now it was uphill time. Ugh. The hill from 10.5 - 12 is not easy. I missed the 11 mile split, but I ran 10-12 in 10:39. I think it was probably around 5:15/5:25 for those two miles. Paul kept running strong up ahead.

Crested the hill and tried to take advantage of the remaining downhill, with a goal of getting under 5 minutes. I ran the last mile in 4:58 and then the last 0.1 in 28 seconds.

Official time was 1:05:40. At first I thought I could have run faster, but a few hours later my perspective has changed. I'm really happy with this result... its probably the second best performance I've ever run (other than UVM). I guess at first I was a little disappointed because I didn't feel 100% today, but all things considered, its a big step forward for me. It was also great to have my parents and sister (and their dogs) there cheering me on at the 7 mile mark and the finish line. 

After I finished, I ran back a bit to watch Andrea bring it home with another PR! Then ran about 4 miles cooldown w/ Paul and called it a day. 

Now its time to buildup for the marathon. I am excited to see what happens this fall. Its going to be a fun journey. 

There was a nice article about the race in the Herald Journal. 

Awesome awards! We weighed them on our kitchen scale when we got home... mine weighed 6 pounds! I barely have the upper body strength to pick it up :-)