I'm retired from racing. Really.

I'm back.  Much to Marci's surprise, going all week without computer and the FRB did not kill me.  I flew home from 2 weeks in Florida and turned around the next day for a family reunion in Colorado.  Finally returned home on July 24- tonight will be only the 4th night sleeping in my bed this month!

No run today- resting the foot.  Although I did 1 barefoot mile on the grass while playing frisbee at a family reunion. 

AM- 16 mile run near Winter Park, Colorado.  Needless to say, after 2 straight weeks of running at sea level in hot, humid Florida, running in 40 deg and 8700 ft in the mountains of Colorado was quite the change.  The temp was nice, but the elevation change was very apparent.  Ran on a nice gravel trail and some excellent singletrack.  Though the non-stop hills added to the elevation woes.

PM- 4.5 mile run, 2 mile crosstrain.

AM- 14 miles on the nice gravel "Granby to Fraser" trail.  Only planned on 13 miles, but saw a park with water near the turnaround, so added more.  I definitely need to drink more water at this high of altitude.

PM- 7 easy.  The house we are staying at is midway up a mountain, so all my runs finish with a nice uphill slog.

No run today- drove from Colorado to SLC.  Foot and legs needed the rest.  But my foot is feeling much better- running 100% on dirt/gravel this week certainly helped that.

Deseret News 10k today.  First time running it, though I have read many race reports and knew what to expect.  I arrived back in Utah yesterday after 3 weeks away.  Woke up at 3:53 am- early.  81 deg when I got in my car- very warm for a race.  Ran a mile at the house, about 2 more at the start.  4 stars.  Saw a few bloggers (though not as many as expected) and lined up for the race.  My old 10k PR is somewhere between 33:00-34:00 from college- kind of sad I don't remember exactly.  Post-collegiate was last year's 34:37 at Garland on an out-and-back course.  I was hoping for a 33:00-33:30, though the heat put that in doubt.

This race is stacked and starts off very fast, though some people at the front definitely should have been further back in the pack and kind of clog things up.  First mile was 4:59 downhill- my first sub-5 mile in years, I think.  Then 5:07 second mile.  Ran a bit with Ben Van Beekum on this stretch, though he and Adam RW quickly pulled away and put about 20 seconds on me way too easily.  Third mile should have been 5:20, but I did a 5:35- wow, way too slow.  My legs were fine, but breathing was labored and body has some definite general slogginess.  At this point I was just behind 2 women (who I thought may have been the top women, though they ended up being numbers 5 and 6).  Passed them, then one of them passed me back- ended up being Michele Suszek.  She and a guy were about 10 yards ahead of me and holding steady.

Mile 4 was 5:37- about 20 seconds slower than I wanted.  I knew sub-34 was unlikely.  Running down the parade route was rather nice, though more downhill would have been nicer.  There was a fair amount of cheering aimed at Michele, though I appreciated it, as well.  Mile 5 was 5:32- I started to get a second wind, and my endurance kicked in, seeing as mile 5 is usually slower for everyone than mile 4.  At this point I passed Michele and a few guys.  The only aid station was on this stretch, and I gratefully wet my mouth and my head- the heat was very noticeable, though running in Florida certainly had helped a bit.  Mile 6 was pretty bad- 5:54.  I passed another guy but had someone fly by me.  Just wanted to finish.  Last .2 was 1:20, with a final time of 34:06.  41st guy, 10th in my age group, plus 4 women [way] ahead of me.

Overall, I would grade my race a very pedestrian "C" today.  Well run race with accurate mile markers.  And it is a post-collegiate PR, though very aided.  I ran ok, but didn't have any kind of spunk or race day magic.  I can think of any number of reasons/excuses: no speed work or Big Workouts in 3 whole weeks, very poor sleep this week (hard to sleep with 2 young kids in the same room), lots of travel with different eating patterns, acclimating from Florida to high-altitude Colorado to Utah, lots of driving.  My legs felt fine and have no soreness, with my breathing being the restrictive factor during the race.  But in the end, it was just one of those days where everything doesn't click for whatever reason.  Oh well, no worries.

Next up- I hope I will be in town for the Jupiter Steeplechase in 2 weeks, then TOU 1/2 and marathon.  But I will likely be in Florida for 3-4 weeks in the next few months, so may miss some.  And my company just announced 450 more layoffs, so I have to work hard to not be in that group.

PM- 3 easy with the family.  End of a long, busy day.  Next week should be somewhere between 90-100 miles, depending how my foot and body feel.  This was definitely a recovery week.