El Burro Blanco

8 miles in the morning.

13.75 miles in the evening.

I got my lovely 8 miler in this morning.  I have my workout with Paul Pilkington tonight.  I am excited and nervous at the same time.  I hurried home from work and did a brisk 6 miles at 6:40/mile pace overall.  I then went over to Weber State's indoor track and did my workout with Paul Pilkington.  I did an easy 3 mile warmup with a few strides thrown in there.  He had me do 6x 800m at about 85% effort.  I did them all about 2:25 pace.  He wanted to see about where my threshold pace is.  It was a good workout and wasn't to much.  I hope that he can help me increase my speed and get better as a runner.  I did a 1.75 mile cooldown jog and then called it a night.

8.10 miles in the morning.

12.50 miles in the afternoon.

I did my wonderful 8 miler this morning.  Exciting.  It is getting much easier to continually wake up at 5 AM in the morning and get my first run in.  That sounds really crazy.  I pushed the distance runners today.  I took 5 of the top runners and had them do about 5 miles at 6:00/mile pace.  I runner stayed with me the entire run and 4 others dropped a little.  It was slightly windy and we ended up averaging just over 6:05/mile pace overall for 5 miles and then did a slight cooldown.  We did 7.5 miles at 6:32/mile pace overall.  It was a good push for them.  The girls did 6 miles in just under 43 minutes.  The team is getting better and better each day.  I came home and did another 5 miles at 6:00/mile pace overall because I had to hurry out to the basketball game and help out.  Another big day.

8 miles in the morning.

12 miles in the afternoon.

I had a tough time getting up this morning.  I had a weird dream last night that I was back playing basketball in high school.  I didn't do so well if I remember correctly.  I woke up and realized I am 5'9" and 1/4 and have about a 12 inch vertical.  That is why I run I guess!  It was a "steamy" 18 degrees this afternoon.  I gave the team the choice to run inside or outside.  Most of them chose to do half in and half out.  I only had one taker to run the entire time outside with me.  We kept the pace easy for the 5.5 miles.  I did an ab circuit with them afterwards and then came home and did another 6.5 miles right at 6:00/mile pace overall.  Paul Pilkington said that a lot of my slower runs should try and be at 6:00/mile pace.  It does seem a lot easier lately.  I will do 10-12 miles tomorrow and then 8 in the morning on Friday just to be ready for the race on Saturday. 

12 miles in the afternoon.

I did 6 miles with the track team this afternoon.  We did 35 minutes with 4x1:30 min. pickups.  I pushed the pace for the top runners where we were at 4:50/mile pace.  It was a good push for them.  We kept the pace honest in between each pickup.  I came home and did another 6 miles at 6:00/mile pace overall.  It was a nice day for running.  I am doing a slight taper while gearing up for the race on Saturday.  It should be lots of fun.

8.10 miles in the morning.

I woke and felt really good.  Katey was a sweetheart and did my pre-race ritual head shave.  It is much easier to comb!  I think this might be the only running I do because we are heading for St. George as soon as I get off work.  Hopefully it is a quick trip.  It can take forever sometimes.  I am really looking forward to seeing everyone this weekend.

I was not really sure what was going to happen with this race but I wanted to do well.  I guess I did alright because I surprisingly ended up taking first place.  The race started at 9:00 AM so I slept in on a race day!  I woke up and did a 3 mile warm-up around my parent's house with a few pickups to get the legs moving.  Katey, my dad, and me then headed over to the race.

I got there and it was fun seeing all the Fast Running Bloggers with all of the singlets and warm-up gear.  It got me really excited for the race.  Sasha, Nick McCombs, Dave Holt, Little Bad Legs, and Karl Wilcock (16 year old from Hurricane) went out and traded quarters for the first 5 miles.  I have never really done that before but everybody stayed relaxed and helped each other out.  Nick started to push the pace and I decided to go with him to see if I could stay with him.  We came upon the first bridge and it was still a little icy and Nick slipped bad and fell.  He hollered for me to slow down so I did but ended up slipping and falling on my hip.  It left a nasty raspberry.  We both got up and kept going.  It threw off our rhythm a little but we got back on track.  We talked a little bit and were pushing each other.  Nick threw in a couple surges and I think he was trying to drop me.  I kept right up with him and we were really moving.  We looped back around and got on the trail again.  I didn't like this part of the race because we were running in and out of people still coming out on their initial loop.  Runners were clapping and cheering but we both wanted them to get out of the way.  Nick slowed a little bit at about mile 10 and told me to go for it.  I wanted him to come with me because we were pushing it together.  I waited until about mile 12 and then really kicked it in.  I heard Katey and my dad cheering from on top of the mountiain and they told me to go for it.  I came around the corner and stayed on the trail but needed to continue going straight.  I had to stop and come back in order to finish.  I crossed the line and felt awesome.  Nick really pushed me this race and it was a huge confidence builder.  This was probably one of my best races ever.  The course is truly honest with hardly any downhill and a fair amount of slight uphill in it.  The problem was that it was a little short and the times were all off.  They had me running a 1:07:42 which was way off.  It is okay.  I did a cooldown of 2 miles with Dave and then another 1.5 miles with James and some of the other Fast Running Bloggers.

Here are my splits:

1- 5:33

2- 5:33

3- 5:20

4- 5:22

5- 5:28

6- 5:08

7- 5:17

8- 5:15

9- 5:21

10- 5:06

11- 5:20

12- 5:21

.92- 5:30

I received a free pair of shoes at the St. George Running Center for my win (thanks Steve!)and also a cool diamond that glows in the dark.  Sweet!  This is a good confidence builder for me to really get rocking and rolling for the year.  Great job to all who ran and keep up the great work.  Thanks once again for all the support Katey.  You are the best!