Dave's Addiction

Tendonitis completely gone, doing strength and cross training with long run increasing 1 mile per week (will be 12 this weekend)

I am still a bit slow on the speed but had a great mile at Runners Corner TM challenge, not allowed to say how good until contest over.

Great month, gradual increase in mileage and intensity. All tendons back to normal, strengthening routines well established

Progressive 9.2 to 12.0 by one minute increments, slowed down for one minute at number 28.
 

Very nice run, ez gym route

21 minutes of running up to 10.2 mph, then 4 minutes of stairs and 5 minutes of bike

First ladders of the year. Yikes those were hard. Only got a 5:42 mile and the times on the way down suffered badly. I'll do them again in a few weeks.

Recovery from the nasty

Nice eagle bench run around Mapleton

Standard gym route, did 80s on the dumbell press today!

First real race of the season, it was a little rough. The first 1.2 of this is decently uphill, and I caught myself running a 5:07 at the beginning like a fool. But it did get me away from the crowd and after a half mile I was settled in to a decent pace, got 6:37 on mile 1 and ran a little hot into lactic land for the next .2. But then the downhill came and I cleared it in three minutes or so, and it was just me, the cop, and lots of bicyclists. I had hoped to grab ome sub 5:10 miles but now I remember that I need a 300 foot drop to do that without overheating and all these miles were 100-150. But a few in the 5:20s and a lot in the 5:40s were nice too, and I came around the corner to the uphill homestretch over 4 minutes ahead of the second place guy and well ahead of the course record so mission accomplished :)

Have you ever run a perfect race? Not perfect as in you did everything just right to minimize your time, but perfect in that when you wake up the next day every system feels perfectly used, every muscle just perfectly sore - not too much, but feeling like you used them all equally and right at that exact point where they will benefit the most. More like a perfect workout. That's what I feel like today. Race wasn't half bad though!

Everybody started out at a moderate jog, so I spent a few seconds winding through the crowd and burst joyfully out front, ready to run my free mile. Taylor's footsteps sounded a little worried as he followed, not sure if I was on to something or just on something. I wanted to beat Riley for the first mile but got passed at about .7 or so by Taylor and Riley. I had to start dropping back to HM pace at the end of the first mile so I wouldn't screw the rest of the race. Strangely enough I was still hanging on to a 200 foot gap at 1.8 when we hit the flat but that soon ended. 5:12 and 5:24. Now the goal was to get under 1:16 so I could beat my times from the previous two years.

Down the canyon I tried to run as fast as I could without feeling any burn, and I mostly succeeded except a few times I just dropped back to relax. Need to work on the focus a little. I also lost 15 seconds when I broke down and tied my shoe at mile 5. I just couldn't take it any more :) Flat mile was 5:53, pretty good! Then I got 5:37, 5:40 and 5:41 (+16 shoe) in the canyon. As it started to flatten I got 5:50, then realizing I was going to make my goal if I just kept it under 6 I relaxed a little and got 5:59, 6:00, 6:13 on the uphill, then 6:01 and 5:58 coming into the finish with 4:30 for the last two blocks. My GPS seems to always read short on these races so I ended up 40 and 20 seconds faster than my previous two years respectively, and tied with my 2013 record if I take out the shoe tying delay. 8th overall, nuked the age group and Masters.

Well THAT was the wettest race I have ever run. At least I didn't have to do Ogden :) Started off fast like usual, charging up the hill on a cloud. Then reality set in at about .25 and I slowed down and got passed right away, but was able to hold about 100 feet back on the flats. Every hill let 1st place get further away though, and I didn't see him any more after leaving the bowl. Even with the mud starting to accumulate I was still able to hold in the mid 6s on the upper road, and this time I remembered to eat grapes at the gun range! I don't know if it helped - I still had a lot of get up and go and went up the hill pretty well. Got passed at the upper aid station and never was able to see 2nd again no matter how crazy I got in the mud chutes going down. The last bit of the flat road was a total disaster and I overshot the turnpoint losing a minute but still managed to equal last year's performance but with the disadavantage of mud so very satisfactory. 3rd overall, they mercifully handed me my chili and prize so I could get in the warm car.

I love it when I can still get within 1 second of my record, makes all the running worth it. Today was just solid - started out with a 5:39 into the wind and slightly uphill, then got a 6:10 on the mile with the monster hill in it, then another 5:39 on the downhill into the finish. I guess that last mile could have been faster, but I really laid it out there so I can't complain. On to Drop 13! 10th OA, 2nd mast

I went in to this one only a week from the silliness of last Saturday, where 19 miles in the sun was on the menu. I had hoped I was recovered completely but my calves were a little stiff so not so much. Walter showed up, so it was real this time. First mile - I took off like usual, hearing the patter of feet close behind, so I held nothing back. 4:40 first mile. Felt pretty fast but last year was 4:37 so I could tell things were a little mushy. The upper flats went quickly in the mid 5s, but then the steep part where I should have been in the high 4s was in the low 5s and my calves were screaming. I just couldn't make proper use of the downhill but niether could Walter so even at two minutes slower than last year I still beat him by a little over a quarter mile. The top three in this one were all masters even with a field of almost 1000 so old guys rule again :)

Couldn't get into AF, had to race, so there I was. What fun! I was ahead until about .75 in, then I let Golden by. Remarkably on Strave it showed him pulling ahead of me at a perfectly even rate without regard to terrain. That was weird. Once we got to the top of the climb 1.5 miles in it was an easy glide down to the Herriman puddle, then a climb back up (where I actually saw him like one time) and then a stomp to the finish. We rant to the top again EZ after the race. He broke his old record by 2 minutes and beat me by almost 3.

Started off quick on the warm day and got right to the front. I stayed that way all the way up the backstretch which is a small series of uphills, total about 40 feet of gain.Then the K-man smoked me in the wind tunnel, a nasty 3/16 piece where you gain 10 feet into 15 MPH of wind. I stayed 6 seconds behind him for the next mile into the finish. About 10 seconds slower than two years ago after adjusting for distance. But second isn't too bad when you beat the rest of the track team :)

It was hot hot hot today, 78 at the start. I lost about 5 seconds per mile except the last one where I died and got 25 seconds slower. Splits were 4:55 (in front for a tiny time), 5:21 (got passed by Connor here, finally got to meet him for a 4 seconds), 5:48 (small uphill), 5:38 (back to my old self on South Temple), 5:51 (uh oh), 6:14 (dying on the uphill). Smoked the masters and would have gotten the 30 year old divisions too except that I couldn't quite catch Iron Wolf at the end. Too cool if that is his real name :)

The buses were kind of slow getting up the canyon for this one, so things were a little delayed. As we milled around at the starting line, somebody blew an airhorn which apparently was the go signal and after a few seconds we all figured it out and went. The first 1.5 miles of this one are brutal downhill, I almost broke my mile record without even trying (missed it by 1 second) at 4:35. Second mile hits flatter stuff, got a 5:02. I was passed in the second mile by Skylar but he seemed a little irregular, like he was trying to find a pace. I told Justin as he passed me like a metronome in mile 4 to go get him :) Things were pretty warm but I managed to keep them in sight until mile 7, then I was just getting way too hot and the legs felt dead from the first two miles. I think I have to keep it over 4:50 to go the distance.

Anyway after mile 7 I just decided to relax because it was so hot and there was nobody even close. I walked all the aid stations and enjoyed the run through the neighborhoods, then suddenly the high school was right there and I boogied in for third overall. Not the greatest time but I'll be a little more conservative at the start next time.

Another Hobble Creek grind, but this time everybody seemed to be holding back more than usual. I went through mile 1 in 4:48 (a bit fast) but nobody passed me until 2.5 in - for a minute, I thought everybody had decided to jog it. Ha ha. My overly zippy first mile made me unable to break 5:30 in a consistent fashion for the remaining miles, which made the remainder of the race a bit hard. I hoped I could stay ahead of Curtis but he passed me just before the first dip in Mapleton and there was no way I was going to catch him going up that hill. I slogged through the flat canal road and enjoyed the Maple street downhill to the end, but he still beat me by 50 seconds or so. Nice day anyway.

I usually hate these Ragnar things but this one was pretty fun. Everybody was trying hard, nobody biffed it, and we won. Who could ask for more? Well wecould have used a 12th team member and because we didn't haveone I had to run 4 legs along with Walter and Steve but I got to run it in at the end and that was totally cool. The first leg was 3.8 downhill, but it was also 4 PM and 90 degrees. We were near the front of the pro wave and I tried to catch the Google guy. I was gaining on him for the first two miles but then the heat got to me and I had to back off. Didn't lose much though, 5:17 average pace. 

The second leg was at 11 PM and it was still pretty hot, in the high 70s. I got to run through 7 miles of the industrial wasteland of NW Portland. Joy. The third leg at 6 AM was much nicer though, it was 4 miles in the country, not a single McDonalds in sight. Everybody was pretty tired by then and we all agreed that nobody cared about the 4th leg but we just aren't wired that way so we all ended up putting a lot of effort into it. I started out slow on mine but it had another cool hill and at the bottom the van pulled up. The guys said that if I could make it to the finish in 22 minutes we would win. My watch said that would require a 7:50 pace or so, and 6:30 was still withing reach. So I reached it and we won by 4 minutes. Gotta love it :)

Third race in three weeks, but I figured I would do OK because I felt good all week. Curtis came so i was motivated, and I didn't realize it at first but Pepi was there. I wish I had realized it earlier. The race started and all three of us went out at the customary speed, but Curtis quickly dropped back a little because he didn't want to thrash himself before St George. But Pepi stayed right with me for the first mile (4:55) and started to pull ahead as I was unwilling to trash myself so early. I stayed pretty constant (5:06, 5:09, 5:04, 5:10) then again on the milder hill (5:18, 5:17) then a little less steep (5:34, 5:27). But then I just didn't care as much as I should have. Pepi had pulled to 200 meters and Curtis was not visible and I was sick of pushing it so I just let back a little (5:59). To my surprise, Pepi did too! We both sort of phoned it in for the last three miled (6:19, 6:17, 6:13). But it was only then that I realized who it was. Had I known earlier, I would have hung up the phone. Also he got a flower arrangement made entirely of fruit. I really need to stop phoning it in at the end :)  But 2nd overall was cool and I almost caught the last guy I know of who is my age or older and faster than me. Except Curtis.