Dave's Addiction

I am recovered! I think I was a little sick on Saturday because my kid now has a cold and I was feeling wonky, probably explains the failure to PR. But watch out this weekend!

I meant for this to be a moderately hard run, but it ended up at a 5:58 on the flat course! I think that is either a record or close to it. Great tempo run, I am ready for Nebo.

Run to McDonald's and back, via the gym (upper body)

10 around the town on the crappy bike, really

Pre-race strides, .2 on the flat, .2 at 14 on the TM, hillsprint

The goal today was to break every record I could, including Walter's course record, my mile, my 5K, my 10K, and my half. Unfortunately they changed the course, eliminating the first .52 miles of downhill and replacing it with .52 miles of flat at the end, for a total time penalty of 31 seconds. This would make it much more challenging. I had also tried to get Walter to come down and race me, sort of as a superpacer, but he would not take the bait. It didn't end up mattering though. The start came and I saw Craig, who I beat last year, there as well as a few other fit-looking guys. As the gun went off I engaged my first-mile-is-free superpower to try for a new record, but alas I only got a 4:52. Still feeling good though and well out front I settled in to what I hoped would stay a sub 5 pace for a long time. Second mile was 5:05, drat! Third mile was 5 flat though and I had high hopes for the 4th mile which is the most downhill, but it came in at 4:55. OK, I was probably not going to get a course record even with the correction but I could hear people coming up on me fast, which was a real shock! In mile 4 I got passed by Craig Green and Jeff Olsen, and passed quickly. I bet they did mile 4 in 4:40. As he passed Craig said "Nice, I see you are saving something until the end." Dude! Are you serious? You are blasting me at my top speed and you think I am holding back? Crap he is fast. Well, he pulled ever so slowly ahead in each succeeding mile but I still held out hopes to nuke him in the flats like last year. I did get my 5K record though at 15:25 and things were looking good for the 10 K as well. But it was not to be, missed it by 10 seconds at 31:20 because even though mile 5 was a solid 5:06, mile 6 was a 5:18. In mile 7 I was catching the rubber burning twins but I had to stop and tie my shoe, arg. Even with that it was still a 5:17 so that was pretty good but they had gained quite a bit of distance anyway. Then things started to flatten out with miles 8-10 at 5:27, 5:23, and 5:35 through the big field. But Jeff was coming back to me! I passed him with authority in the middle of the flat part in the fields, but Craig was maintaining a solid eighth of a mile out front and things were looking grim. Into the rollers we went, last chance to grab him. Even with the last three miles at 5:45, 5:46, and 5:49, I was unable to overtake and he beat me by 50 seconds. But I got 1:09:17, which was a new PR by 21 seconds for this course given the 31 second correction!

.5 run around the reservoir, had to stop and walk three times. Ow. Rode bike to and from (7 miles)

1 mile run on the TM, still a bit painful in a few spots but much stronger. Full recovery by tomorrow. More bike around the town (7 miles)

Full recovery, a tiny bit of deep achilles pain that is going away. All running today - who am I kidding, not running for a week, yeah right)

Standard pre-race strides, .15 on the flat, .25 on the TM, hill sprint

I guess the week long rest was helpful - even with 10 percent less descent I still only was 9 seconds slower than last week, and this course was actually the full 13.1 instead of just 13.

They didn't have enough buses for the half but I didn't care - nicer to wait in the warm valley. When we got up there it was way colder at the start than I expected, so I was glad for the space blanket. I was also happy to find gloves in the portapotty, thanks going out to some wonderful forgetful person.

I hung out with Johnny at the start all alone, waiting for everyone to walk out of the starting area and get there. Really well set up. I still couldn't see anybody except Brett who could beat me, so it was looking like Podium day! Well only one way to find out. They started the race at 7:25 and I slammed it to max right away, garmin says I hit 17.5 MPH! Oops. Still I didn't get caught by Brett until .75 in, but then two more guys passed me. Crap, fourth gets nothing in this race. All I could do is grind away and hope for the best. Mile 1 seemed slow at 5:16, and mile 2 was also 5:16. Even worse mile 3 was 5:27 and I was wondering if Nebo had killed me.

Then I came around a corner and the road disappeared off a cliff. I had forgotten that BC has its dip in the middle and not at the beginning. Mile 4 was 5:14 and 5 got down to a blistering 4:49! At this point Brett was still in sight and the other two guys were drifing back, so I figured I was doing pretty good. Mile 6 was a 4:58 and somewhere in those two I pulled off a 4:45, which is my new mile PR. Crazy. The 5K was 15:28 and the 10K was 31:40, all in the middle and not using the first two miles. Pretty close to PR pace there too.

Craig Hudman, the number 3 guy, was starting to send off vulnerability vibes by mile 7 so I was getting my hopes up. But I was only gaining 10 yards per mile or so on him and he was 300 yards ahead. Miles 7-11 were 5:17, 5:02, 5:14, 5:28, and 5:50 with that nasty slight uphill out of the canyon. And I got to see Toni at the mouth of the canyon. He is looking even stronger than before, if it were possible. Anyway the third place guy was still about 200 yards ahead though so it looked grim for me. But as I passed aid station K I saw somebody sitting in the middle of the road by the workers, covered in sweat! I wasn't sure if it was him but then the spectators were suddenly yelling "third!" instead of "fourth!" as I passed! So now I couldn't slack off, because I just knew he was going to jump up and catch me as he saw me pass.

But it was not to be. I figured as long as I maintained the punishing pace I would still gain 20 yards per mile on him and there was only 1.5 to go. I redlined all the way to the finish chute for a 5:23 and 5:46, then went to black at 5:13 for the last tenth. Ow. I didn't realize the Pepi was the other guy who had passed me, and since he was born within a very few days of me he can always knock me out of the division and masters. I had never met him before today - he's totally cool. And small. I think I will call him Piccolo Pepi :) No wonder he smokes me so bad. So Brett beat Pepi by 3 and a half, commenting that it was a nice tempo run (he is going to Rock and Roll and so he didn't want to push it) and Pepi beat me by 2 and a half, then I beat Craig by 2. Well worth the trip!

Wait! I just read Craig's report and the guy that was sitting wasn't him! OK, nowI am wondering what ended up happening. Nice race Craig :)

I am truly shocked. I can run today! Sort of - no fast stuff but way better than last week. Which is cool considering the effort yesterday was significantly stronger.

Almost completely recovered! Speed day tomorrow for sure. Did some mild hills in the run.

I am shocked how recovered I am. Just a little tightness in the right hammie. Well, nothing for that but a nice speed workout on the TM!

1 at 11.8

1 at 12.1

1 at 12.5

.5 at 12.8, active recovery

.25 at 13.1, active

.25 at 14.0

First canyon run of the winter season! I am going to do a lot of these. Ran up slide canyon to the sixth crossing. Bombed back down.

Two hard days make one easy day

Isaac and Abigail came along for the first bit of the up and back in Hobble Creek Canyon, Isaac peeled off after half a mile and came back for a nap, Abigail got slower and slower and then peeled off after 1.5 miles. They'll get it eventually :) I tried easy up and 2x2 temp down but me knee was wierdly out and starting to hurt a little on the second one so I aborted. Everything else doing great though and I popped it back in after the run.
 

EZ run but feeling really good after a no-race weekend so did a hill sprint up from Hunters Valley

2x2 tempo run on the downhill course, downhill and down/up miles were 5:15 and 5:48, flat and uphill miles were 5:55 and 6:05.

Fartlking around Springville and Mapleton

10 bike around the town, really

Standard pre-race strides (flat, TM, hill)

I had been getting a mild cold all week and kind of felt like crap, but I decided to go for it anyway as I might be able to take the $500 if everyone was going to St George. It looked like ugly weather was going to be the order of the day and sure enough, a nasty rain awaited us at the start. I cut a mouth hole in a garbage bag and stayed pretty dry until the start. Then I discovered that a few other people far faster than me had decided to run this race for the first time. The first mile was free but it felt slow, so I was shocked to see it go by in 5:06. I was even more shocked that the first two guys did it in 4:37. I led the race for maybe 200 meters. Then three more passed me in the second mile as I slowed down to a more reasonable 5:28. The rain started coming down harder and my big socks sucked it up, making my feet heavier and heavier. Also we ran out of significant downhill so the next three miles were 5:34, 5:56, 5:59. At that point I was completely alone and starting to feel a little under the weather, ha ha. I just decided to phone it in and not get passed for the rest of the race - 6:04, 6:06, 5:57, then getting flat and tired - 6:11, 6:09, 6:21. Then my right knee started to hurt a little again. At this point I just decided to be careful and then take a long time off running afterwards to avoid chronic injury, as I have been really pounding it. So I finished with 6:17 and 6:10, then 5:23 at the end just for fun. I almost got beat by the first place girl (1 minute) but I managed to keep ahead. Crappiest race of the year - I didn't even feel sore the next day. But not bad for being sick and heavy. A decent way to end the year.

EZ run to gym and back, on one month break now

Initiating lower body weight training phase

More lower body at gym, lots of machines to try!