Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 8 miles. Horsepark loops w/ Andrea (on her bike). Felt a lot better than last Sunday... I think that means I ran at the right effort level yesterday.

Bowling - 124, 160, 154 = 437. Very pleased with this result! 14 marks in the last 2 games... locked in and picked up the spares.

PM - 7 miles easy, wandering around the neighborhoods, while Andrea rollerbladed along. We must have looked really cool.

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The only time I pay attention to politics is when something related to sports comes up. I've found the Paul Ryan marathon lie to be pretty amusing. The moral of the story is that when the Letsrun message board guys want to get to the bottom of something, they will (ie. Kip Litton). Runner's World is getting credit for breaking the story but it was really this thread that did it.

Striders' blog says that they'll try to get the Wildcat 1/2 on the circuit again next year. I think that is excellent news. 

AM - 15 miles. Met Fritz, Scott, Brandon, and Matt at Jeremy Ranch. It was a really nice morning up there... anytime you can still run shirtless in Park City in September, that's a bonus! And it also means you didn't start too early... we met at 9:30 which was perfect - I was able to get back to back nights of double digit sleep hours. We chatted away on the run and the miles flew by... ended up averaging close to 6:45 pace which is probably one of the faster runs we've done up there. ZERO cows out this morning, but lots of dead snakes... weird. Thanks for the great company this morning guys. Looking forward to some more runs on that road this fall. 

PM - 4.2 miles w/ Andrea on rollerblade patrol.

Spent the day relaxing by the pool. Finished off two pretty good books this weekend - Dream Team and A Bolt from the Blue. Those Teton climbing rangers are amazing dudes... so is Larry Bird.

AM - 9 miles up to work.

PM - 7.2 miles home, Directissimo.

AM - 9.5 miles. The 10 days out last chance workout... in the past I've usually done 2 x 5 miles for this one... I love that workout but I tend to get carried away with it and really hammer the second rep. In my quest to not do any impressive workouts leading up to TOU, this time around I decided to only run a 10K tempo and save it for next weekend (and the 5K this Saturday in Layton). Warmed up 2 miles and then got it rolling on my "home" loop - 10K in 32:05 (Avg = 5:10/mi, Splits - 5:17, 5:17, 5:14, 5:07, 5:05, 5:02, 1:02). 10 minutes of light jogging for a cooldown... no mileage padding :-)

Andrea has been working on getting the kinks out of my hips/hamstrings/etc over the past couple days... its working because my stride felt nice and loose during the slightly quicker miles towards the end. I'll give her 80% of the credit and the other 20% has to go to the shoes...

Yesterday my secret weapons for TOU arrived. Saucony has a new version of the Fastwitch (6) coming out next March/April, but they were able to get me a pair in time for the marathon. I wore them for the workout this morning. They are lighter than the FT5 (they are using seamless flexfilm for the upper) and the fit is even better. A very smooth feeling shoe. Looking forward to racing in these. Plus, they are outrageously bright orange. The pictures don't even do them justice. Colors are very important to me!

PM - 4.5 miles, easy jogging around the neighborhood. Did a bunch of other shoe-related errands after work - went to Dicks and educated their staff on the differences b/w the Ride and Guide models, and then dropped off a whole bunch of shoes at the SL Running Company for them to donate to Africa or wherever else they send them.

AM - 10 miles up to work.

PM - 4.5 miles down to SHP with the last 2 miles in 10:21 (5:12, 5:09). Pretty easy effort since its downhill... hopefully that will feel even easier in another week.

AM - 7 miles, easy horsepark loops.

My back has felt a little tweaked the past two days. Not sure exactly what brought that on, but I'm hoping it goes away soon! 

Gotta love Usain Bolt - "I said, 'Coach, I really need two months off.’ And he said, 'Do you do one hundred miles a week?’ And I said, 'No I don’t. I don’t even do fifty miles in a year.’ I think I’ll be getting six weeks." 

PM - 3 miles. Easy loop around the block w/ Andrea. She was actually running, not biking or rollerblading! :-)

Did the week before the big race tune-up 5K this morning up in Layton. This is a good race - well-organized, started on time, accurate course, no waiting around for awards, etc. I'd highly recommend it.

Warmed up 2.5 miles w/ Andrea, then changed into my flats, did some strides, etc. I didn't have anybody go with me off the start - so it was a solo effort. Came through the first mile a little quick (4:37), but it was gradually downhill to that point. The second mile has a hill with a sharp incline at the end of it that is a bit of a burner, but then you get a little downhill afterwards to recover. I split 5:11 for mile 2, then 4:55 for the 3rd mile, and 32 for the last tenth... finished in 15:17. The ever-so-gradual uphill over the last half-mile really made me wish I was running on a flat track :-)

 

I'm happy with the results... last October I ran 15:09 on the track a week before running 1:05:45 at Long Beach. Today's time was a little slower, but on a course with a few hills so I'd say the performance was just as good, if not a bit better. I'm not in peak 5K shape by any means (simply haven't done the workouts for shorter races) - but it would be interesting to see what I could do right now with someone to race against all the way. Its just so hard (impossible for me) to run to my max in a 5K/10K when I don't have someone to push me (or chase). In any case, its all about the marathon right now, and I'm feeling pretty confident about next weekend.

Cooled down by running the course again w/ Andrea, Allie, James, and Andrew. Fun morning... I won a one-year membership to Gold's Gym for my efforts... haha, don't think I'll be using that anytime soon (or ever)! 

I should also note that Andrea ran over 5 miles today, Allie won the 5K, and James didn't die - so overall it was a great day for the JAJA crew! :-) 

Andrea was the photographer again (Layton Classic Photo Album)...

PM - 3 miles up at Alta. MarkP was kind enough to give us his hotel voucher for the Peruvian Dash since he was out pacing the Wasatch 100 and couldn't make it up here. We went for a hike up to Cecret Lake while everyone was running the 8K, then came back for the BBQ and a long time in the hot tubs. I went for a short run up to Grizzly Gulch to shake out my legs after the hike. I just love running up here. Definitely owe Mark big time for hooking us up!