Speed only kills if you don't have it!

AM- I went out on an easy run this morning.  I went in to River Heights and Providence and did an easy loop.  I didn't feel too good today, pretty slow, sluggish, and not much energy.  It was probably the events of the weekend all combined.  I always have some runs like that once in a while, and they dampen my spirits a bit, but I know that I usually feel better the next time out.    8.2 miles  1:02:15

(Hurricane-320 miles)

PM- Drove my wife and son upto the river trail and they went to the nature center while I ran.  I ran up the trail just past single track and back.  It was hot when I started but by the time I finished things were starting to cool off.  I felt way better tonight on my run.  I ran good, and even ran back in 6:30 average pace, including the single track section.  I finally got some good trail shoes the other day (Montrail Hardrocks) and I loved them.  I highly recommend them, at least for the first 6 miles of wear.  6 miles in 41:31    I ran back upto the nature center after to meet my wife and son.

(Hardrock- 6 miles)

I woke up late because the power went off during the night and reset my alarm, so I only had time for a short run bofore work.  That is okay, because I was planning on a short anyways because of my race tomorrow.  I ran down to the Temple at a very slow pace, and came back the same way.  I did do 5x100 meter striders on the way home.  Hopefully I can just relax the rest of the day, enjoy the festivities here tonight, and be ready to run how I want to tomorrow.  Good luck to all of you with races tomorrow, I know I will see a few of you at the Blacksmith Fork Freedom run.  24:14

(Adrenaline-240 miles) 

Picked Jon and Cody up and drove to the start.  We warmed up for a mile and messed around for a while.  Then we ran into Logan Fielding and ran another 1/2 mile with him.  Jon and Cody had never met Logan before.  By the way registration looked we would never get the race started, but they ended up turning about 100 people away so that we could finally start.

I knew there were some fast runners there today, Carson Campbell, his brother Tod, all the the State Campion Mountain Crest cross country team, Logan, The guy that beat me at TOU half last year, and others who looked good.  I didn't worry about place, I just wanted to see where I was at in my training at this point.  Here are my splits:

Mile 1:  5:34- Started off with Logan and a pack of about eight others.  I felt pretty good. 

Mile 2:  5:40- Still running with Logan and feeling good.  The High schoolers were still hanging around and getting annoying!

Mile 3:  5:46- Logan and Neal Ferrin pulled up a few seconds, and I was starting to feel tight.  Frustrating, because I should feel good still!

Mile 4:  5:44- Still really tight, and I see Logan, Neal, and Kevin Dickey slowly creeping away from me.

Mile 5:  5:38- Tod Campbell comes up on me and I start to relax again.   

Mile 6:  5:33- Still running with Tod, Logan and Neal aren't too far ahead and not gaining too much.  Kevin Dickey starts coming back to me.

Mile 7:  5:51  Tod falls back a bit and I see Logan and Neal double the distance on me in the stretch before the hill.  Took a little water at the top of the hill and hoped to catch Kevin.  The hill didn't really help or hurt me.

Mile 8:  5:51- This was a bad mile for me but I felt fine.  I thought that I had picked up the pace, when in reality I had slowed up.  Kevin Dickey sees me coming and puts some good distance between us.  Logan was flying and I never saw him or Neal again really.

Mile 9:  Feel relaxed and wishing I would have felt this good the whole race.  Start to close on Kevin Dickey.  But still not super motivated, because of some bad miles and the big gaps in front of me.

Mile 9.3:  1:40- Kevin Dickey is slowly coming back to me and I just don't care anymore because the finish line is right there. Kevin ended up 4 seconds ahead of me, I should have caught him  instead of wuss around in cruise control.  I felt was better at the end than I did anywhere else.  Ended up with 52:48 for my finish time.

I thought that Carson had run away from everyone but it turns out he fell apart and took 4th.  I think he was in the lead for the first 7 miles.  Logan ended up really flying in, and pulled away big time in the last 3.3 to take 2nd overall.  Jon and Cody weren't too far behind me and did good too.  Josh Steffen came in 1st place.

I was OKAY with my time.  I had said that I wanted to run 52 minutes, and averaged 5:39 miles instead of 5:35 miles, so not too far off.   My time today would have won just about every Freedom Run in the last 10 years, but was only good enough for 6th today.  I was glad that there was a good bunch of front runners to compete against.  I am not quite sure why I felt so tight in the middle of the race, those were my slowest miles and should have been my fastest, acccording to the course.  I'll take this race today though, and I guess it is even a PR for the distance, because I have only done two other 15Ks and they weren't that fast.  There was a very competitive field and everyone ran well.   Good race overall, but I need to work on my shorter race mental game.  I can not think like I am always in a marathon and that I can dink around and people will still come back to me.  I need to hit the speed work before I go do any 5K or 10Ks, and get out of my marathon mentality for these shorter races.

I cooled down with Jon, Cody, and Logan for about 2.5 miles on the course, and had a big July 4th Chuck Wagon Breakfast after the awards.   

(Fastwitch -23 miles)

AM- Easy recovery run this morning out into River Heights and back.  A little tightness in the hamstrings, shoulders, and neck, probably a result of my tough miles in the 15K yesterday.  I felt alright though and went pretty slow.  5 miles  in 38:39

PM- Went on an easy 4 miler after work.  It was way HOT (95 degrees) and I was glad that I didn't go any longer.  I did my Lundstom Park loop, and did some running through the spinklers around the University.  I came right home and jumped in the pool for 15 minutes to cool off.  Not the best time to run but I have a dinner to go to tonight and I didn't see myself having a chance to go after.   27:40 

(Hurricane-329 miles)

Met Paul at canal trail head at 6:30 am.  It was not as cool as it has been last night and we had both had rough nights of sleep.  I was glad to run with Paul and pass the slower easy miles with some conversation.  We did the canal trail to 1st Dam, took the Bonneville over to Green Canyon, and back past Lundston Park and the University.  It is a good loop, and one that Dave and I did several times last summer.  Friday is my easy day usually, so I was glad that Paul wasn't wanting to do tempo or anything like that.   1:17:56

(Hardrock- 16 miles)

I ran over to the start of the canal trail and met Paul and Cody at 6:30am.  It was a little cooler than yesterday, but still pretty warm for that early in the morning.  We ran up to Gueneva Malibu and  back on the river trail.  We started of at a slow pace but got faster as we went.  On the way back we were doing 5:45 pace or so for a couple of miles.  I didn't feel that great for the run, but was able to hold the pace fine.  I was feeling tired and thirsty when we got done, but I still had some energy.  I got home and realized that I had run just over 17.3 miles and if I went just over two more I would hit 70 miles for the week.  So I ran around USU for a couple of miles to hit that mark.  I am not sure if the two extra miles did me any good, but I did hit 70 miles for the second time this year, and the second time in about six years.  I ended up doing just over 15 miles with Cody and Paul and the rest on my own.  2:30:00

(Hardrock- 35 miles)

It was a good training week for me.  My goal for the summer is to stay over 50 miles a week until mid to end of August and then bump it up to around 70 for marathon season.  Any mileagae over 50 is just icing on the cake.