What lies within

Easy on Murdock with Scott, Matt, Toni and Spencer. (7:08)

Easy up Provo canyon with Matt, Scott, Brandon and Toni.

Hiking in Goblin Valley.

Scott and I decided to pace the provo city half marathon. We wanted to run somewhere between 1:15 and 1:20 as a good tempo run. 

I was a little apprehensive about such an effort this soon after SLC and my tender hamstrings but I just told myself if they flared up I'd quit.

Toni dropped us off at Vivian and we jogged up to South Fork. Chatted with a few folks and then continued up the canyon. We met up with Justin Park and finished his cool down with him.

There was a lot of positive race energy at the start. I felt like we were cheating, all the fun and none of the stress!

We started out about the same pace as Spencer, Melody and Kassy. Spencer dropped back after 3. Scott and I ran a steady pace, breaking the wind for Melody and Kassy. Melody dropped back a touch at 10 and Scott went back to support her. I pulled Kassy along to the finish.

Splits for the half: (5:55, 5:48, 6:07, 5:52, 5:48, 5:52, 5:56, 5:52, 5:52, 5:55, 5:57, 5:52, 5:52) 

Hamstring was a little tight but it held up the whole way. It was fun to see so many great performances today.  

Easy run on the Murdock canal road with the dog. Picked it up a little bit at the end just for good measure. Legs felt better than I thought they would.

Met Scott and Spencer at Lone Peak HS for a track workout. 3 mile warmup around the golf course. 2 laps of straight-away strides. The plan was to do some 400s, 10-15 with equal recovery. I was shooting for 70. 

Splits: (1:03, 1:07, 1:07, 1:08, 1:07, 1:08, 1:09, 1:09, 1:09, 1:09, 1:09, 1:04) 

I felt pretty good. I think there is still a little residual marathon fatigue in there but I was happy with the workout. We were obviously a little too excited as the first one was too fast. 

Scott and Spencer looked great. Perfect weather and temp. Couldn't ask for a better morning at the track. 

Met Matt, Scott, Reed, Spencer and Trevor for a steady loop around Thanksgiving Point. Good conversation and perfect weather made for a great run. Legs were sore from yesterday's beating. 

PM: 3 mile shakeout on the treadmill (8AP). Weights. 

Jordan River Trail with Matt and Scott. Beautiful morning. 6:54AP. Felt stiff and a little sluggish the first mile but great the rest of the way.

Slow run on the murdock trail with the dog. Last 2 miles with Spencer. Missed the group message to go later :p.

8AP 

Ready or not, here I come! 

A fast 5k seemed a good idea for some post-marathon turnover and Big Cottonwood fit the bill. Met up with Spencer and drove to the finish line, boarded the bus to the starting line. 30 people. Warm-up up the canyon for a mile or so. On the way up we passed the 10 mile mark, which was odd as they were intending to start the 5k about .25 down canyon. Got back from the warm-up and told the bored looking guy starting the race that we were in the wrong spot. He looked at me like I was an idiot. We finally convinced him to call the director who confirmed that we were in the wrong spot, so everyone hiked up to the real start line.

So far, this was the most poorly organized race I've run. Once everyone arrived the starter gave an unceremonious bleep with his megaphone and we were off. Spencer was still peeing in the weeds so he had to hurry and catch up.

Splits: 4:35, 4:51, 5:06, 5:04 (for the .2)

At the 3 mile mark the course deviated off the trail and into a parking lot for the finish. I missed the turn off and kept going straight. After about 3.3 I realized I had to be lost. I turned around and jogged back to the finish line. I was pretty pissed but didn't have anyone to blame other than myself.

Good news is, on the Garmin at least, I got my goal time (14:55). Good run nonetheless. I felt good. 4:35 was a bit of a system shock. There were 25ish STAIRS on mile 2. I need to figure out how to run a 5k without getting lost.  

Had a nice massage afterwards and headed out for a bit of a cool down with Spencer.  

Stayed up late. Slept in. 10 easy miles with the dog on a very warm morning. 7:30AP with a couple miles around 6:00. My left calf hurt to walk on Sunday. I thought I'd tweaked it again. It felt good today though. Cross my fingers.

Met Scott, Spencer, Matt, and Reed for a run on the Murdock trail. After 3 Scott dragged me a long for a bit of a tempo run. He was planning on 5 at hmp. 

I joined him for the first 2 (5:25,5:15). I had to take a pit stop after 2 so I let him go. I did one more on the way back (5:30). It was a good little push.  

Ran with Scott, Matt, and Spencer along the Jordan River Trail. Good conversation about wild animal attacks and some interesting residency stories from Matt made the time fly by. (7:04AP)

Late night, slept in. Ran at 11:30. I wanted to do another tempo effort. I ran out of gas after 2 miles, gave up after 3. I think I was dehydrated, it was a little hot.

LTs (5:32,5:30,6:09)

Legs felt great, cardio, not so much. 

Easy run (excepting the Mother) with Matt, Reed, Brandon and Spencer. (7:10ap)

Met Matt and Brandon in Orem for a run up Provo canyon. Brandon stuck with us through 6. It rained from 4 - 12. We turned around at about 3 miles up South Fork. We decided to do a little push down the canyon. As we started it starting raining HARD with a strong head wind. Our 5:20 ambitions turned to 5:50. We settled in around 6:00s and kept that up for around 8 miles. A fun, cold run!

Easy run with Scott, Spencer, Reed and Matt. 7:08ap

Track workout with Matt, Scott and Reed. I couldn't decide what to do. I was feeling too lazy to do a lot of volume. Matt was going to do a few 8s and a few 1/4s so I decided to start with him and see what happened.

I ended up doing 4x800 (2:28, 2:21, 2:16, 2:24) and 3x400 (66,68,59).

Inconsistent. It was fun to open it up a little on the 3rd 800 and the last 400. The last 100m of the 59 brought back some good highschool/college 800m race memories of lactic acid coming out my ears.

Fun stuff. Matt was just whetting the appetite and Scott was ripping them out a mere 3 days after the Ogden half! Reed had a great session too. Super fun to be going to the track with such a great group of guys.  

Easy run with Matt, Spencer and Scott around thanksgiving point. (7:22ap)

Provo canyon run with Brandon, Matt, Reed and Spencer. 7:20s up. Reed and Spencer sped up a bit on the way back. After a mile I decided to try and catch them. 2 miles in 5:16 and 5:13. Caught Reed near the end of mile 2. Easy the rest of the way. Felt good.

JRT with Scott, Matt and Reed. A little chilly but pleasant. We saw a yellow headed black bird, yes, it was really called that. Who's naming these things? (~7ap)

Up and Down AF canyon + Matt, Reed, Spencer, Walter and Chris. 10 miles up at around 7:20 avg. 6 Down (5:45, 5:15, 5:25, 5:25, 5:20, 5:30, 6:00). Felt ok but not great. 

Easy run in the morning on the Thanksgiving loop with Matt and Spencer and ... I'm forgetting. 3.1 at the AF memorial 5k with my son Ezra. He ran 26:01, a big PR for him. It was fun to see Matt and Brandon and their sons tearing it up. Spencer ran back and forth between everyone and gave encouragement. It was a great time!

Scott's loop with Scott, Matt, Spencer and Reed. EVERYONE had to take a pit stop at 3. At 4 I reluctantly decided to follow Scott and Matt on a tempo leg. I only did 3 but they felt really good, way better than Saturday. (5:19, 5:14, 5:19). I felt good, could have kept it up but I'm wary of digging myself another hole.

JRT with Scott, Spencer and Matt. Gorgeous morning. Teaming with wildlife. We saw a huge heron up close and a few big pelicans. Great morning. (7:05avg)

Late night, slept in. Ran with the dog up through the Lehi foothills. I couldn't find my garmin so I wore a timex and mapped the run manually. It was tough. 2k feet elevation change.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/217977569

1:46 total running time 

Easy run with a big group at Scott's house. Good times.