I'm retired from racing. Really.

First 4:30 am run of the year.  Winter is still here- 20 deg.

pm- ran 5 miles with Cody, then just over 5 more by myself.  I'm guessing 7:27 pace with Cody, then a hair slower by myself.  I just looked at his blog and it said 7:23 pace, so we were moving a bit faster than I thought.

It sure is a lot easier to get 15 miles in 2 runs rather than 1, even with the 4 am wake up call.

Elite- 442

Adrenaline- 291

Mini-workout with Cody on Young Ward loop.  3 mile warmup, then did a short tempo run.  I was hoping for 3 miles around 6:30 pace.  First mile was with Cody in 6:30.  Second mile he picked up the pace and I kind of lost concentration- 6:45.  Picked it back up for the 3rd mile- 6:30.  Ran home from Cody's house after the run.  11 miles, 1:18:45, 7:10 avg.

767- 160

6 miles at 4:20 am.  Started off real slow (.5 mile in 4:20) and tried to pick it up from there.  Pushed the pace pretty hard- well, as hard as you can make sluggish legs run in the morning.  I only had 45 minutes so was afraid that I only ran ~5.5 miles, but mapmyrun actually put me at 6.05, so I was a hair under 7:30 avg.  45:01 total.

2 good running-related notes:  I have been doing a good job of getting to bed hours earlier than I ever have in the past most nights.  I was asleep at 9:30 last night and 10 pm Mon night.  I even have a few 9 pm bedtimes, which is far better than the 11-11:30 I have lived for the past 5+ years.  I also found that being sick resulted in some weight loss- down to 139 lbs this morning, the lowest since right after my mission.  My normal weight since then has been 155 or so, with a low of 145 and a high of 170.

Adrenaline- 297

9 easy miles. It snowed off and on all day, and it was hailing with thunder and lightning when I got home from work.  Huh.

Elite- 451 

6 easy miles.  I'm excited for the 30k tomorrow- strange distance.  Should be a good race.

767- 166

Day of the last Striders series race.  I went in not really knowing what to expect- I am 95% recovered from my sickness, but I first got sick Mar 18 and essentially missed 3 weeks of good training.  I was in 3rd place in the series, 29 seconds ahead of Ben.  My only goal was to hold onto 3rd place.  I planned to take it out slow at 6:30 pace and then see what happened after mile 9.  3 miles warmup.

Pretty good weather- probably 30 deg, slight breeze the whole way.  Sunny- shorts, singlet, gloves and hat.  Found out at the start that Tim Wight would not run because he has a stress fracture in his pelvis- ouch!  Get well soon, buddy.

Mile 1 was with Ben, Nate Pollard, Cody, and Chad- 6:54 (mile was a bit long), then Cody and Chad pulled away and I ran with the other 2.  Mile 2 was 6:16, then 4 miles between 6:29-6:34.  Then we did 3 miles of 6:50-6:56 pace up a gradual incline with a slight headwind.  First 9 miles were very easy for me (I could have done ~30 seconds faster per mile), but I was just fine with that.  After the top, we picked it up a bit- 6:26 for mile 10, then 6:10 and 6:06.  When we hit mile 12, Ben (who did SLC marathon last week) and Nate decided to slow down to 7:00 pace while I kept going with a 6:08 and a 6:03.  At mile 15 I was starting to feel my 6:10 pace and hit some gradual uphills which continue through the end of the course- Cody says they at 20 seconds slower than the previous miles.  I did a 6:18, 6:23, 6:24, then 6:26.  Felt pretty tired but actually maintaining a decent pace.  I got passed by Jeff M at mile 18- tried to hold him off but he had a good head of steam.  Last 0.6 in 4:02.  4th place overall, 3rd in the series.  I met my goal.  Sub-2:00 would have been nice, but the first 9 miles were too slow for that.  Very slow 1.5 miles cool down.

Chad easily won, 1:53, and Cody took second, 1:55.  They had decided whoever won would take the other and myself to breakfast, so Chad took us to a good little restaurant.  Thanks, Chad.  Top 3 FRB sweep in the men's overall for the series- Chad, Cody, and myself.  Sasha and Steve should be happy.  We even got some comments on how nice our matching shirts looked.  Big congrats to Chad and Cody and all the other series runners.

I was happy with today- I got 3rd in the series and got a good training run for the marathon.  Based on today, I'm not really going to taper for Ogden marathon and will aim for a 2:50 time- not going to push it, just use it as training for the rest of the year- start slow, see what I have left at mile 18.  Feel good, with a slight pain in my right knee that I will monitor.

Adrenaline- 299

Tangent- 187