I'm retired from racing. Really.

AM- Today is Marci's birthday, so I took the day off work to celebrate.  Early morning 6 mile run before I made her breakfast in bed.  Easy miles, except threw in .5 mile fast to get ready for an afternoon workout.

PM- workout day.  Nice weather- about 45 deg and a bit breezy, but I wore shorts and a long sleeve shirt.  I ran the Providence hills loop and wanted to do 4-5 miles at a moderate tempo pace, though I wasn't sure what pace that would be since I'm not in great shape and since the whole run is very hilly.  Almost 3 miles warmup at about 7:30 pace, then started the tempo at the bottom of the Providence hill.  Tempo miles were 7:29 (very uphill), 6:24 (1/3 mile uphill, 2/3 down), 5:59 (mainly downhill), 6:12 (pretty flat), 6:07.  Cooled down till I hit 9 miles.  The tempo felt ok- the first big uphill was painful (I saw my pace as slow as 11 min/mile), the downhill was fast.  I really could have used someone to run with the last 2 miles- my pace was decent, but I could have gone faster.  I kept falling off pace and had to consciously push my speed back up.  6:10 pace is pretty good, but I could have done better.  I'll do another hill workout on Thursday- maybe repeats.  9 miles in 1:02:30.

AM- 6.5

PM- 8.5 more.  Saw Drew Michener running- he looks like he's doing fine.

My Saturday post-long run donut run has scientific backing.  If it works for the USA Olympic cross country ski team, it works for me:  http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-02-11-protein-recovery_N.htm

PM- Small workout today.  I planned to do hill repeats, .5 mile each.  I didn't want to run downhill, so I did it on the treadmill.  I did 2 miles warmup, then started the repeats- .5 mile at 6:58 pace on a 5% incline, then .5 mile recovery.  I only planned on 4 but felt good so I ended up doing 6 repeats.  9 miles total, and a good workout for the Striders 10 mile next week.  I'm counting the repeats as MP- I was working pretty hard.

AM- Easy 6, but I felt good and had time so made it 7. 

Today is our 5 year anniversary, so Marci and I are going to the Melting Pot in SLC for dinner- no evening run.  But I don't need it- my planned 60 mile week will already end up closer to 65... plus it should be a good dinner.

Wow, quite the adventure run today.  Paul and Cody were out of town, so I was on my own.  I slept in and finally started my run at nap time- 3:30 pm (with a barely-eaten PBJ and Mac and cheese digesting in my stomach).  It looked gorgeous and sunny out, though it was only 35 deg.  I wore shorts and a long sleeve tech shirt, with stretchy gloves.  As soon as I started, I discovered a brisk breeze was blowing that made it quite cool- I turned around 3 minutes into the run to trade my shirt for a fleece top, and to get my ear warmers.  I was very glad I did that, but I was still an absolute popsicle for 2/3 of my run - brrrrrr!!!  But at least having frozen legs and hands helps distract from how tired I was.  Wind chill was 25 deg when I finished, and I was in my shorts and thin gloves for all 140 minutes.

I ran to the canal and up into Logan canyon.  I took the mostly-snowpacked, sometimes rough, and occasionally very icy river trail almost to the end of the singletrack.  My average pace on the roads was about 7:30, and was about 8:15 on the snowy trail, though the last mile of very rough singletrack yielded a whopping 10:23 mile!  Wow, smoking!  And let me tell you, it was as hard as a 6 min mile on the roads.  I was glad to turn around, but discovered I now had a strong headwind that really chilled me even more.  I ran back along the canal and through River Heights and Providence to my old house, then to the church where I picked up my car.  The return miles on the road were 7:30-8:00 pace, and my legs were rather tired by the end.  Of course, I kept my donut streak alive by stopping by Macey's for a danish, even though it was 6:30 pm.  18 miles, 2:20:38 (7:48 avg- pretty darn good supposing I had 5 miles on snow and ice).

My left hamstring is very tight at the bottom and has been for a while.  I had to stop 3 or 4 times to try stretching it- it really slowed my down on the downhills.  I'll have to work on it. 

Last week I did 58 miles with a 16 mile long run, both of which were my longest since SGM.  So that means I broke both records again this week with 64 miles and 18 mile long run.  Next week will be ~65 miles and will include the Striders 10 mile race.