I'm retired from racing. Really.

AM- 6 easy on the golf course.

PM- BTW (Big Trail Workout)- this was supposed to be just a leisurely trail run with Cody but it ended up being quite the beast.  He was feeling his Wheaties today, while I felt pretty bad.  Cody was faster today on the ups, downs, and flats.  We ran from First Dam up the canyon to Guinavah Malibu (6 miles, 48 min), then ran up the steeper grade to the wind caves (1.85 miles, 22 minutes).  Then the fun started.  We thought we knew where the trail was to take us the rest of the way up to the saddle on the Birdenuix trail above Green Canyon, but ended up bushwacking and clawing our way up scree and prickly plants.  It took 30 minutes to go .5 miles to the top, with a vertical gain of 1200 ft.  Umm, yeah, that means 40-45% grade.  The Garmin was barely reading that we were even moving.  We found the trail about 100 yards below the top and were amazed how much easier and faster it was than bushwacking.  We took a break at the top to eat a granola bar and enjoy the view, then descended the rather steep trail down to Green Canyon.  My legs were screaming at me- definitely not as recovered from Des News as I thought.  Finally reached the bottom of the canyon and looped back to the start via Bonneville shoreline trail.  My legs are trashed and I am exhausted.  Total distance was 16.5 (or so), with a Garmin reading of 5000+ ft elevation gain.  2.5 hours on the nose.  Although it was technically a medium distance run, my legs were as tired as at the end of a 22+ mile long run.  Trashed.  But, like Cody says, any trail run beats a road run.  Good, yet very tiring way to start the week.

AM- 8.5 easy on the golf course.  Had a near-incident with a skunk.  I've always wondered how I would react if I got sprayed.

PM- 6.5 easy with the wife and kids, circling around Logan.  Nice evening weather for a run.

PM- Supposed to be a BW tonight, but I knew within about 5 steps that it wasn't going to happen- legs are still very tired and sore from my Monday run.  I can tell my legs got whimpy from my trip to Florida and lack of trail running.  Anyways, ended up doing 9 miles in about 1:15:00.  Slow and easy.

AM- Finally a BW.  My legs felt good today for the first time this week, and actually for the first time in 3 weeks.  My last BW was 3 weeks ago with Cody (4x1600m at 5:43 avg pace- first track workout of the year), then I left for Florida and have never felt great on any runs since then, including Des News 10k.  I haven't had any 20+ mile runs and have aborted several BW during that time, so was starting to get worried that 3 weeks of sub-par running indicated some bigger problem.  It was great to finally get in a good workout.

Warmed up about 4 miles, then 2 miles tinman tempo, ending up at LHS.  Planned 5x1600m at sub-5:40 pace with 300m rest (~2 min).  Ended up doing 6 repeats.  I had the LHS boys and girls soccer teams practicing nearby to provide me with entertainment, as well as occasionally having to dodge soccer balls or people on the track.  Splits were 5:33 (too fast?), 5:36, 5:34, 5:36, 5:32, and 5:26.  Felt great but working hard the whole time.  Cooled down 4 miles w/ 4 strides.  Total of 16.5 miles at 1:55:00.  It's great to play hooky from work and be able to do BW in the cool mornings rather than the hot, hot afternoons.

PM- PWWF 4.  I took McKinley to her first movie today- we saw Up.  Pretty good, though it was a tad long to keep her attention the whole time.  Fun Daddy Daughter date.

AM- 7.5 easy.  Trying to recover for a very hard long run tomorrow- plan is 23 miles with 10 at marathon pace.

PM- 3 more.  Walter came into town so I'll be running with him in the morning, which is nice since Cody is sick.

AM- Long run with Walter, who thankfully came into town.  We met at 5:15 am at the bottom of Blacksmith Fork and drove up to about mile 10 of TOU (ended up being exactly mile 10, which is pretty good since the mile markers are gone).  Ran up to the start in exactly 1:15:00 (7:30 pace), though my legs and achilles started hurting at mile 7- that wasn't a good sign for the coming speedwork.  Filled up the water bottle.  I didn't have any granola bars or gu's at home, so I made my own concoction of marshmallows and almonds.  We ate some at this point- it was actually pretty good and a nice energy boost.  Then we ran back to the car- goal was about MP (6:00 pace or so), though I would have been happy with 6:15-6:30 given the way my legs felt.  Averaged 6:13/mile for the first 6, though we were still semi-conversational so not going too hard.  Mile 7 was a slow 6:27 (a bit uphill, plus I think we were getting tired).  But the seeing the slow mile helped us kick it into gear, finishing with a 6:03, 5:53 and 5:51.  It feels good to do 5:50 pace at the end of a long run.  6:09 avg pace for the way down.  Dropped Walter off, then I added 3 more miles on Hollow Road.  Total of 23 miles in 2:40:20 (6:58 pace). 

This is my first 100 mile week ever, but it was easier than my first 93+ mile weeks last year- my legs have adjusted pretty well.  And although my achilles is sore and my legs are tired, my legs are definitely much less tired and sore today then they were after Monday's crazy trail run.  It was a very hard run last Monday, that's for sure.  Good week- 100 miles, plus 1 BW, 1 BTW, and 1 long run with speed.  I'm off to Florida again next week, so my mileage might drop a bit.

Thanks for getting up so early and running with me, Walter- it was very nice not to have to run alone.  And for the record, we only had 600 ft elevation drop in the first 10 miles of the marathon.