Denouement

Met Melody and Julie in Orem.  It was so wet, slushy snowness.  I think I weighed 10 lbs heavier at the end of the run from the wetness.  Melody was so nice and let me shower at her home, then I went to my work, which is just a couple of minutes from her home.  Good pace -7:37 ave pace.

evening - resisted the temptation of all you can eat cheap hot dogs, doritos and sugar water at the elem school hot dog dinner (my kids ate plenty though).  30 min elliptical, bridge exercises. 

Walked .5, stretched, then went outside for run.  30 min warm up (3.76 miles), then 20x 25 sec strides, 60 sec rest in between, paces were really erratic.  I don't think my gps deals well with such small segments, the pace for the 25 sec ranged between 3:27 pace and 8:25 pace (both laughable and not correct). Overall the paces averaged 5:29, which is reasonable and better than last week's average for the strides, which was I think about 5:40.  I wasn't happy with that average so I don't think I posted it.  

 Ran 9.08 easy but at a decent enough clip to get in 9 and get home in time, 7:21 ave pace.

20 min bike at PT

3.5 miles walking in evening

Good food at Marions :D 

Warmed up 30 min (stopping to stretch) and then did a 25 min steady state run (6:21-6:32 pace).  Same as last Thursday, except adding 5 min.  Also same as last week, my first mile of the steady state run was the hardest.  Didn't help that the first mile started uphill.  Splits were 6:39, 6:20, 6:23, 6:22 (for .9 miles), 3.9 miles in 25:05, or 6:25.8 ave pace.  

Will do core this evening, but no other cross training, so that I am not too tired for my 10k on Saturday.

Easy miles, not sure average pace, around 7:50

Smile Center 10k on the docket today.  I am in base-building mode, so a little early to be racing, but I registered for this race a long time ago, so here I am.

Goal was to run 6:00 pace the whole time, regardless of competition.

I wanted to break 60 miles this week, so had to fit in quite of bit of miles before/after.

Ran 3 miles warm up, then another mile between strides and additional jogging.  Lots of prerace jitter bathroom breaks, which is good.  

I knew Maryann was running the race, so it would be between me and her.

Mile 1 - 5:50, Maryann led, then I led, then she led, I tried to draft off people, slight uphill this mile, I think the mile was short

Mile 2 - 6:09, MaryAnn and I are still trading of leads, I draft when I can, still slight uphill, I think this mile was long, 12:00 for two miles

Mile 3 - 5:39, slight downhill, still trading leads, I think this mile was short

Mile 4 - 6:04, slight downhill, I took the lead right before the three mile mark and held it, though I could hear MaryAnn right behind, I started focusing on catching the guy ahead of me, who was slowing, but he missed a turn.  I yelled at him with no response, then I heard MaryAnn yelling, but I am not sure if he heard either of us, only when us RACERS started yelling at him did the volunteers/police start calling for him to turn around.  This mile was likely dead on

Mile 5 - 5:58, trying to stay strong and get another sub 6:00, this mile was likely a bit short, given how the next mile goes, MaryAnn still right behind

Mile 6 - gradual uphill, I didn't see the mile marker, but it was a 6:27 mile according to my garmin.  I tried to stay strong, but obviously didn't.  I knew MaryAnn was right behind

.24 by my watch to the end (another indicator mile 5 was short), 5:42 pace.  MaryAnn stayed right behind, I held her off by 2 seconds, from what I hear.  We had a turn with perhaps 30m to the finish line, I wish it had been a longer straight away.  I saw the clock turn 37, came in at 37:02 by that clock and was ecstatic, since I didn't get the sixth mile split I was in ignorant-laden bliss.  Turns out their clock wasn't synced right, so my real time was 37:32, which means I really slowed down the last mile or they didn't have the miles accurately marked, I am not sure which.  Too bad, I like 37:02 alot better.

I never ran a sub-38:00 flat 10k in Utah in 2008, mostly because I trained through the races, and I only ran two flat 10ks.  I trained through today's race too, though.  The NCAA altitude adjustment for the 10k is about a minute, and I ran 36:38 at my height of fitness in December 2008, in Paris, France, so near sea level.  Today I was 54 sec off that time, so I think I am fairly close to where I was in December 2008, which is awesome, since my mileage was much higher when I did the 36:38.  I would have liked to hit my 6:00 pace, but I guess I'll have to leave that for another time, and overall I am happy.