Seeking a better country...

I made it home in time to run on a beautiful afternoon as the sun was setting.  I wasn't sneaky enough to leave the house without three little ones in tow; 2 on bikes, 1 in the stroller.  We slowly made our way over to the dinosaur park they like (2 miles).  I dropped them off at the play equipment and ran laps with Jack.  The first one I noticed a strong south wind, and knew it was going to take forever to get home.  I ran 3.5 at the park, then collected the girls, and herded cats home into the wind.  They whined.  They complained.  They were tired.  We made 12 minute miles.  It was getting dark fast, and we didn't have any evening gear to enhance visibility, so each street crossing was nerve-wracking.  Jack sat silent and motionless in the stroller until the last mile, when he started shaking his bowling-ball head "NO" back and forth.  

My rt knee felt a bit sore, tendinitis kind of sore.  Or maybe it's the shoes?  I feel about 85% recovered from this cold.  The extra sleep has been nice; I need to get to bed earlier.  I'm loving the daylight in the morning, for just a few more days before it all gets tacked on to the end of the day.

I revisited one of last year's key workouts; the downhill tempo run.  I put a board under the back end, and took off running.  8 miles in 54 minutes, 1 mile cool-down.  I got pretty sweaty.  I'm vexed by the sore rt knee.  I'll have to consume some vitamin I today.  

On a separate topic, I think it's pretty dumb that spelling the letters out counts as words in scrabble.  "Aitch", "em" and "es" don't really seem like quality words. 

8 more on the treadmill.  The day after a harder effort is never very good, and tonight was no exception.  But I completed the run.  Mentally, my training is lagging a bit...  

"Race" on Saturday.  I say "race" because I need to just incorporate that into my 20 miler.  I plan to arrive early enough to do a 5 mile warmup, then the race with a 5 mile add-on afterward.   Last year I bumped along for 7:23 pace.  I guess my goal will be to beat that, maybe keep it to sub-7 pace for the 10 miles.  With all the hills, and before & after miles,  that'll be ambitious.

I found the missing shoe.  A 7 mile jaunt seemed like a good way to celebrate, 7:50 pace.  My start time was late because of 2 daughters' ballet recital.  They were amazing.  

Today's race served a two-fold purpose; a race and training run.  The upcoming marathon is much more important than the winter series, but I still limp away feeling like a chump for giving up a lot of time this morning.

Spencer graciously consented to hang out in the parking lot for an hour so I could get some miles in pre-race.  I started around 7:10, planning to do 5 before and 5 after.  I got "misdirected" on my out and back warmup, and ended up with 6 before, and came within 30 seconds of missing the start.  Also, there is nowhere flat to run around Weber State.  The warmup, "easy" miles were more taxing than necessary, esp. since I was pushing to get back in time for the start.  (It was chip timed...why do I care when I cross the mat?)  

The course mirrors the 10k, which is reasonable until mile 4, which commences a hellacious 1.5 mile climb, then some downhill and rollers till 6.5, then another steady 1.5 mile climb, followed by a nice 1.5 mile coast downhill, then final steep section at mile 9.25.  I held on pretty well until the steep at mile 5, (which was mile 11 for me) and walked a bit.  Once the dam started to leak, I didn't keep my finger in the hole, and made a pretty good living of walking up portions of a lot of the hills.  It was 20 seconds at a time, but WAY too many times.  I found myself in the no mans land between the good runners and the pretty good runners, though, so I wasn't losing placing.  But it's a series, and I lost around 5 minutes.  

Needless to say, I didn't turn in a great time; a minute slower than last year.  I blame that on a variety of factors; I was running miles 7-16, not 1-10, I needed some immodium, and had extra miles to do afterward, so rationalizations and excuses were plentiful.  But the one I can take responsibility for is that I was a wuss and walked too much.  

So anyway, after the finish, Tara, who beat me by 5 minutes on a bum ankle came with me for the final 4.  We were pretty slow, barely eking out 10 minute miles on winding BST and Mt. Ogden Golf Course.  Did I mention there is nowhere flat to run?  That sure didn't help.

 The main take-home from today is I HAVE GOT TO WORK OUT A FUELING STRATEGY.  Oh yeah, and toughen up the old brain.  

After a Frosty at Wendy's and a very frosty ice-bath (15 minutes) followed by a 20 minute hot shower, I feel okay.  My legs are pretty tired, and I want to puke, but other than that, it's a typical Saturday in March.