El Burro Blanco

6 miles in the morning.

9.15 miles in the morning.

My legs felt great this morning.  I wanted to be safe anyway so the pace was around 7:20/mile.  No soreness in the legs after TOU is a great sign for St. George.  I need to really let it loose in a couple weeks.  I didn't get my run in until later in the evening because I mowed the lawn and was cleaning house for the Mrs.  I started out with 3 miles at 7:24/mile pace and then bumped it up to about 6:35/mile pace for the next 3 miles.  I was feeling good so I went up to 6:00/mile pace for a couple miles and then finished with about a half mile at 5:42/mile pace.  Not really a big push but I wanted to get the week started off on the right foot. 

6 miles in the morning.

10 miles in the evening.

I woke up and did an easy 6 mile run.  The temperature are really getting cooler in the mornings.  Yikes!  I figured today was my easy day so I did a relaxed 10 miles this evening at a 7:13/mile overall pace.  It felt nice just to get the blood flowing.  The run was nice and controlled.

16.25 miles in the afternoon.

I slept in this morning but didn't do it on purpose.  Oh well!  I knew I had a big workout for this afternoon so it didn't bother me too much.  I got home after a big meeting and then got the workout started.  I wanted to do the first 10 miles at a easy pace and then push it up to see if I could go below 5:20/mile pace for 6 miles.  I did the first 10 at a 7:13/mile pace and then was able to knock out a 5:18/mile average for the last 6 miles.  I did a short cooldown and called it a day.  I was thrilled to do the last 6 miles at that pace towards the end of a long run.  This is a good sign.

5 miles in the morning.

12 miles in the evening.

I woke up and was a touch sore from the workout last night so I made sure that it was a slow paced run this morning.  Legs actually felt better after I was done.  I got some of the yuck or lactic acid out of them.  I didn't want to push this afternoon due to the 5K on Saturday and big run on the St. George course.  I went for a 12 mile run and ended up doing it at a 7:24/mile pace overall.  It was a nice slow run for me.

6 miles in the morning.

I got up and put some sweats on.  I don't usually wear sweats but I thought I would bring back the 80's style a little bit and see what would happen.  I wasn't planning on doing anything fast so I wasn't worried.  It was really cold so I didn't mind the sweats one bit.  I was happy to get in the 6 miles because Katey and I are driving too St. George this afternoon.  I might get in a couple miles later this evening.  I will have to wait and see.

I woke up this morning and it was raining a little bit.  I ran from my parent's house to the start of the race.  It was my 1.15 mile warm-up.  The rain stopped and I was really happy.  I met up with the St. George guys at the start.  It was good seeing them again.  Their were a lot of high school cross country kids there.  I didn't recognize too many other people.  I really wanted to go sub-16 today so I went out quick.  I went out front and had the lead for the entire race.  I heard a couple guys behind me but told myself just to focus and not worry about them.  I had to smell gas of the 4-wheeler/"lead car" because it stopped a couple times as I caught up to it.  The wonderful smell of gas!  I came around the last corner and knew that I would be close to 16:00.  I crossed the finish line in 15:54.  It is not the fastest course due to 2 decent hills on the course so I was very pleased with my time.  They clocked me in 15:52 but I will go with my Garmin.  I was happy to get a new 5k PR.  My splits were 5:12, 5:08, and 5:03.  I went back and ran with my wife and sister until they crossed the finish line.  I won a free pair of shoes at Rebel Sports.  I will probably use it to buy another pair of trainers.  It makes the trip worth it.  The St. George guys did well in the race.  Great job guys.  Steve Hooper, Dave, and me went up to run part of the marathon course afterwards.  It was raining really bad but we decided to do it anyway.  We started up at the turnoff for the Snow Canyon State Park.  I was hoping to push the pace but the rain slowed us down a bit.  We went down too the finish line of the marathon.  We went 10.5 miles at a 5:59/mile pace overall.  The rain was so bad at times I couldn't see.  Also, we were running in 2-3 inches of red dirt water at times.  The shoes got pretty heavy.  It was fun running with Steve and Dave though.  I decided to run from the finish line back to my parent's house in Santa Clara.  I added another 6.25 miles to make the run a total of 16.75 miles.  I was happy to get in the miles and run part of the marathon course.  I am real excited for the marathon in 2 weeks.  It should be lots of fun.