Denouement

Ran 7.06 at 8:04 pace.  I ran these miles a little faster than my normal easy pace because I was a little short on time.  My legs are feeling good, not really tired from Saturday. 

Mizuno (15)

Ran 4x1 mile with Tom this morning.  The goal was to be between 6:20 and 6:30.  Seemed reasonable but was quite faster than my pretty mediocre mile repeat workout from 3 or so weeks ago, which I did alone.

Warmed up for 2.39 miles to Osborne's. 

When we started our first repeat we quickly realized that it was still pitch dark and we still couldn't see the road surface, and that we were risking our ankles.  It made it hard to want to kick into the faster gear for the repeats but we did the first 1/2 in about 3 minutes, then we eased up to make the first mile 6:20.

1 - 6:20, slight consistent downhill, 4:43 rest (.5 mile, .25 out and back so that we could retrace mile 1 for mile 2)

2 - 6:25, slight consistent uphill, the opposite of mile 1, 5:01 rest (.5 mile)

3 - 6:10, flat part of tree line road, then slight downhill toward bishop's storehouse.  In the middle of this repeat I was stuck at about 6:23-6:24 target, which frustrated me and I tried to pick it up, pleased to seek I was able to. 5:20 rest (.5 mile)

4 - 6:15, slight uphill and headwind to make the last interval twice as hard and more sweet to complete successfully. 

The first two miles had positive splits when comparing the first 1/2 with the second, and the third was negative, and the fourth was even.

I think this was a great workout for my mental strength.  It is always nice to be able to to better in a workout than your goal and to make the final intervals faster than the initial ones. 

I am really grateful to Tom for hanging with me on this work out.  He is a great running partner!

Ran easy, 8:08 pace, happened upon the fast ladies and ran with them for a while.  It feels good to do less than 10 for an easy run!

Ran in the evening on treadmills trying to choose one, working the treadmills to 6 min miles.

Mizuno (33)

Run down Payson Canyon.  I forgot my GPS watch!!!  I felt lost and confused.  Actually, it was a good thing because I didn't want to take it too hard, just wanted to run a couple of miles at marathon pace.  That was hard to do in the first half because it was so very, very dark.  I felt some strange sharp twinges behind my knees, like the bottom of the hamstrings, on various foot strikes down the hill.  I could feel some tenderness in my knee but nothing sharp or painful.  I stopped at Beer Can (nice name for a spot, eh?) which is 8 miles down at 56 flat, then ran back up to some runners.  They drove me to the bottom where I ran up toward the canyon for .5 mile easy and back down .5 easy. 

A good female runner I have run with a couple of times crossed paths with me today and it turns out we are targeting the same time at St. George, 3:10 for the first half (so actually slower than 3:10 because of negative splits). 

Evening:

What the freak!!!!  My ankle started hurting around 5:30 pm for no aparent reason.  It is on the outside ankle bone area and hurts when I walk normally on it or even when I tiptoe on it.  It is true pain, but not sharp, more like a tendon or muscle.  I have been icing it and it seems to be calming down somewhat.  I hope it feels better in the morning or I will be taking the day off.

Woke up this morning to some pain in ankle, but less than the night before.  Decided I would get out and see what it felt like to run.  If it hurts while walking, then see if some running won't make it better, eh? 

I walked for about 50 yards, but it hurt at every strike.  Started jogging, hurt for first .25 mile, then started hurting less.  By .35 I wasn't sure if the ankle was numb or magically popped back into place, but it went from a numb feeling to just a potential problem spot by mile 1 and the rest of the run it felt no different than just a weak spot like my knee sometimes feels.

Overall pace 8:54

As I walk around this morning my ankle will occasionally hurt a small amount but it seems much better so far. 

Ran 7 miles to warm up, including running the course backwards.  Not really high quality miles for half of them.  I was the race director of this event for the past four years, so this was the transitional year of me handing it off, so I had to check in with the registration area and make sure everything was flowing smoothly, so I just didn't have the time to get in the 10 miles before the race that I wanted to.  I should have woken up earlier.

The race starts up a long hill.  I am not sure on the grade but it's enough to slow you down and give you a nice downhill afterward.  I wanted to stay within sight of the BYU lady pack (about 7 runners) but I knew they would be ahead of me.  I also met a young lady at the starting line named Whitney (junior in college) who lives in the town next to me who has beat me in a couple of races.  She is a strong runner.  I wanted to be around 6:45 pace up the hill, then keep below 6:30 for the downhill and try to keep the 6:30 for the flatter end. 

Up the hill I was feeling winded but fairly strong.  I kept the fast girls in my sight.  I was at about a 6:25 pace at the top of the hill at about .65 into the race.  Right after the hill (at .84) I accidentally turned off my watch  when my watch showed 6:14 lap pace so far (no mile markers that I could see) which messed up my split, but I realized it later.  So my first split on my watch for 1 mile probably occurred at 1.3 or so and was 6:16.  I felt strong going downhill in the second mile but kind of like in foreign territory, hard to keep up the pace for two miles in a row.  My second split for mile 1.3-2.3 was 6:22, still pretty strong.  I pass one BYU runner (YES!) in this mile, but get passed by another.  In the last mile or so I found it hard to keep up pace, but knew I would break 20 minutes if I kept up my effort.  With about .5 to go I passed Whitney from my neighboring town and another runner or two.  My watch shows my last split as .84 in 5:14, or 6:14 pace. 

19:36 baby!  Best by far since college.  I have not broken 20:30 since college so this is great!

I ran another 3 miles after the race, again low quality running around the track area, waiting for the awards, and my son who ran the .5 mile kids race wanted to stick around for the drawing.