Patience; the new endurance sport.

I had the best run.  My legs felt great, which is good news that I've at least trained to the point a 15 miler didn't phase me.  So there's that.  I felt great.  Now it's dumping a ton of snow and my best friends are in Park City this week so I'll be skiing tommorrow.  I am giddy.  It's going to be like 30 inches of fresh powder.  I don't know if I can sleep.

I had such a great day....started out by running my standard 8.  My pace is faster when I know I only have to run a little over an hour: 9:30/9:13/9:34/9:20/9:13/9:50/9:50/913 and it feels pretty good although I'm still stopping for bathroom breaks every few miles.... bad habit, and...I am still on the treadmill most days.  It's just so easy to hit the machine in the basement instead of the road with the cars, weather, and people or whatever.  I've never done this much pre-race running on a treadmill except for the Moab half marathon and some for Boston last year when the weather was crummy.  I'm only running on the ground once or twice a week, and it makes the road running harder.  Anyway, today I headed up to the Canyons in PC to see my friends who were visiting and staying at a condo there.  There was so much fresh snow and sunshine.  We played and played all morning and afternoon; laughed on the chair lift rides up, sailed down mountainsides soft with fresh packed powder, jumped, raced like we were all 18 again when we'd all first known each other and used to ski together. The snow wasn't that deep so my quads didn't burn as much as they do when it's super thick, but I was suprized how beat everyone else was by the end of the day.  Backs aching, legs burning, everyone was sore....not me.  I felt guilty nothing hurt, and overall it had been a pretty easy ski day.  I'm glad I took the edge off by running my miles early in the morning because I was tearing it up and had plenty left over by days end.  But of course, seeing friends always gives me that extra bit of energy.  It was a glorious day and I'm hoping to use that feeling, plus the tulips coming up out of the ground as some extra fuel for the Naitonal Marathon in a few weeks.  It will be fun to run with Cath.

This was kind of a tough run.  I had to do it in the evening and chose to run around the streets.  I ran a lot of up hill and sidewalks up to the cemetary, up to Rock Canyon, down around the MTC and BYU.  I wish I could say it was good to be outside, and while I could feel spring thaw in the air, it was very distracting to  be running with cars. 

Spring is definitely in the air. It was so balmy.  The bunnies at the cemetary are out in adorable record numbers, the bulbs are are swelling their tuberous tips above the ground, my japanese willow has exploded with hundreds of veltety buds, the children are out on the driveways and running around their yards; and everyone wanted to pull their car over to say hi. It was a party outside.

Saved my gas today for a little night skiing with the kids and their friends.  I had a ball playing red baron with the tweens.  We need helments though if we are going to ski that fast in the dark.  Either that or I'm losing my nerve from oldness. Still, protecting your brain is probably smart.

Met Smooth, Kathy, Karen, Teena Marie, and their friend  Matt way up off 7200 South at a part of the Jordan River Parkway I'd never been before.  I hadn't seen Kathy since we started out at the Boston Marathon together last year!  She ran up with Teena like a champ--she's going to rock  Boston again.  Smooth was pretty bad when we got there, she could hardly breathe but a hit of the inhaler at mile 6, and a naproxin 7 miles later... I was cheering her on from about a mile  back. I thought I might only go 15 to 18 but the turn around point on the far North gets into some pretty seedy WVC territory: A stoner and flasher's paradise, the back of a prison, and a criminal youth facility where boys with teardrop and neck tatoos play basketball while a huge supervisor looks on to make sure no one jumps the chain link fence.  The further north we ran, the creepier the bike riders became (they carried their dirty garbagy looking stuff in baskets, had wobbely wheels, and looked generally like thugs on stolen bikes).  I stayed close until about 17 when the Alieve I gave Smooth kicked in and she no longer held back in the low 10's.  Karen tried to say with me, but eventually toward 18 she got a good lead and I walked a few 10'ths for mile 18 and 19.  I finished the last .5 ok, but I was in a lot of pain. Finishing up, even in pain, was pretty sweet though.  I've hardly run on the ground except on Saturdays and the week before last I put down that 20 in the snow and on the treadmill.  I just kicked my butt.  So last week and this week, even though I was the last one coming round the corner....I did it.  I have no idea how this will translate to DC Particularly since I really should have run 20 last week, and 15 this week then 8 next week (for a 3 week taper).  I've had 2 20 mile runs, and 2 50+ mile weeks in the last month.  I can only hope that will help me get the job done on the 26th.  Now I'm going up to Sundance to help my BIL with some chores at the cabin.  I wonder how the snow is holding up on the back mountain. AP 10:08 (I only ran the first 13 with any grace).