Speed only kills if you don't have it!

We did a loop today that went over to Oquirrh, down passed the Park to the pool, on the river trail, up tithing hill and back on 12600 S.  We warmed up for a mile then did a 1.5 mile tempo.  Alex, Dillon, and Parker helped me lead the group, we were at 5:35 or so (8:25).   We also did 3 tithing hill repeats in about 1:10ish.  This was a good workout for me to see if I could still run sub 5:40s after all this time.  7.5 miles total.

Some of the kids wanted to go with Jamin and Aubree to "shoot the tube" up by the east bench.  I went along and we made a practice out of it.  We ran around in the river bottoms and around the neighborhood for a few miles and then went to shoot the tube.  This was a blast.  I only went twice but they were both great runs.   The first time the water was damned up to my waist and there were about 10-12 of us that went down.  The end was crazy as I got pushed over the top of everyone and almost tossed over the second dam.  Nolan was hold the dam and was sucked down with us because of the force.  My second run was with four of us and was almost as much water and with speeds twice as fast it seemed.  Good times! 

We did Yellow Fork today for practice.  I wanted to go up the left trail where we usually come down.  Somewhere along the way we missed a turn or two and ended up trailblazing up a deer trail to some road.  The road ended up being one we had never been on and it kept climbing up and up.  Alex and I were leading the way so most kids tried to follow, most probably would have turned back at 2 miles up where the trailblazing began but there was a lot of positive peer pressure.  We ended up going to a ridge where we were above the copper mines and just below the one radio tower.  We could see Butterfield, Rose, and Yellow Fork canyons.  The climb had been a nasty 2,000 feet in 4.5 miles, kids were cursing my name!   However, we had 8 boys, 3 girls, and myself that made it to the top.  On the way down most of the kids went back the same way while me, Alex, Aubree, and a couple others went down several different roads that kept splitting.  We ended up running almost a mile further that the rest of the group, but finished first.  We came out from the south end of Rose canyon. 

This was a brutal run, which I loved, I just should have taken water with me.  It might have been the hardest workout any of those kids have ever done.  Jon, Cody, and Paul would have loved this run!   I was surprised at how pretty those Oquirrh mountains are once you get up into them.  1:26:26 for the run, 7:15s down and 10-12:00s up. 

Ran by myself this morning up around Rose Crest and over to the pond by the Cove.  I came back along Emmeline and down Juniper Crest.  A lot of hills, which is good even with being sore form yesterday.  Now I am off to Provo to get the axle on my truck fixed.

Easy run around North Riverton and on the lowest canal.  Played some Ultimate after the run.

I needed a long run to hit 50 miles this week after some shorter days and spending a lot of time doing things other than running.  I was supposed to meet some of the guys for a run and then I knew I would have to get more mileage after that.  Alex and Bryce showed up 45 minutes late because they slept in, so I got two miles in before they came at 8:30.  Then we ran out to Butterfield Canyon and back (same run as last Saturday).   We had to stop for some potty breaks so it took longer, but we got a nice 10 miler in. 

I met Derrek and Aubree after their little 5k at the Jordan River Trail and we did 4 more miles.  It was 10:30-11:00ish by now and I was getting hungry, and all we seemed to talk about was food which didn't help.  I helped myself to some of the food at the end of the race before going home and gorging myself.  16 miles today, not bad.  I will have to get at least two 20 milers in this month if not three, so I need to get used to long runs again.