Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

Easy run to First Dam and back. 6:52/mile pace for run. Did a block with the dog afterwards.

12-mile run (Millville-Providence Loop) with 7-mile Tinman tempo within. It is a rolling course with a lot of uphill in the middle and downhill at the end. Tempo splits were 6:03, 5:54, 6:18 (uphill), 6:45 (uphill), 6:14, 5:51 (downhill), 5:38 (downhill). I threw in a couple hill surges before the tempo, and a few 100m strides afterwards. Stopped at gym toward end of run and lifted weights and ate free pizza before waddling home. Gotta love free food. All-in-all, felt very good today, better than most of the past week. 6:28/mile pace for the entire run. Ave HR 163.

(Adrenaline orange: 94 miles)

Easy 9-mile run (North Logan Out-and-Back). I had passed the 7-minute guy near the end, but with two blocks to go, some lady about hit me in her car. Why is it Logan drivers are incapable of looking for pedestrians, runners, and cyclists? The end result was me stopping abruptly, and then manuevering around the car. In the meantime the 7-minute guy passed me back, and I ran out of road before I could catch him again. Oh well.

(Adrenaline black: 319.5 miles) 

AM - Easy 6 miles. Went and ran on the paved river trail, and bumped into Cody on the way back. We ran together until the end of the trail, then I diverted off to the new Macys. They are having their grand opening of their new store, and mailed out coupons for free eclairs, free sausage, and free deli salad. I hate Macys almost as much as Walmart, but love free stuff even more, so I decided to check it out. I managed to get the sausage and some seafood salad, but they were out of eclairs and wouldn't have more until 10AM. Seeing as to how is was 6:45AM, I wasn't about to wait around, so I took my other plunder and ran back home 2 miles carrying a bag of meat and salad. Al Gore would have been proud, especially since today is a Red Burn Day here in Logan. It's too bad, though, because I really wanted the eclairs. I was looking forward to eating a six-pack of them at work this morning with multiple cups of coffee. Oh well. Oatmeal it is.

My SI joint had been bothering me for the last two weeks, but I went in to the chiropractor for my monthly appointment last night, and he got my hips rotated back into alignment. Running felt much smoother today. It's always great to get the ol' body fixed up and tuned correctly. Running has been "blah" over the last week or so, mostly because of SI discomfort and feeling biomechanically "off". This morning was very enjoyable, and I had more hop in my step. Hopefully it will stick and not immediately slide back.

(Adrenaline yellow: 416 miles)

I just had a good laugh. I clicked on the "real age" banner ad out of curiosity and annoyance (I'm kind of sick of seeing it), and I took the "real age" test. Although my calendar age is 27.7 years, my RealAge is 18.5! That's funny to me, since that's exactly how old I look. Whenever I fly with my boss for business trips, the ticket counter people assume I'm his son and ask me if I even have a drivers license. It's one thing to get carded at the bar, but another to be asked if you're even 16-years old! Anyway, click on that banner ad for a good chuckle to give Sasha a little ad revenue.

PM - Did 8 miles (Landfill Loop) at 6:48/mile pace. 8x100m strides near the end. Nice day, other than the inversion.

(Adrenaline orange: 102 miles)

For those interested in the Striders 10-miler this weekend, I've posted my thoughts and some analysis of it on my personal blog.

Ran an easy 10 miles in the evening around River Heights and Providence, most of it with Jon. Beautiful day.

(Adrenaline black: 329 miles)

I've posted a map-making tutorial on my personal blog, and some screenshots of the WRC 10-mile course. Check it out if you're interested.

Easy 8 miles out to First Dam and back along 10k course. Did some very short striders too.

(Adrenaline yellow: 424 miles)

Striders 10-miler. Dee Events Center (again). Weather was overcast with an occasional ray of sun. Light breeze, enough to be noticeable as a headwind at times, and cool temperatures, in the lower 40s. Pretty good racing conditions, and just warm enough to go with the singlet and shorts (and gloves).

My goal today was to back off a little at the beginning and then race very hard the last half. This would ensure a quality workout, a good overall finish, and faster recovery. I also wanted revenge on that last hill of the race from the 10K, and going out a little slower would help that cause.

The field was good, but a little less dense that the 5k and 10k. I think people are a little tired of racing every other week, and are tired of painfully difficult courses. Plus, 10 miles is not a popular distance. I suspect that those not committed to the entire series just stayed home.

Right at the gun, Joe jumped out to a lead, and no one bothered going with him. I soon found myself running with Bob, and by the end of the first mile, we had separated from the rest of the pack. Joe was already was out ahead by that point. I did not intend to get out this fast relative to the pack, but I had someone to run with and the pace felt good, about MP. However, the first couple miles were downhill, and although it felt very easy, I was a little worried about coming back up them the other way and wondered if I should have stayed back with the others. But for now things were good, and working in with Bob was helping. First two-mile split was 10:55 (missed the 1-mile mark), 3rd mile was 5:53 (long?), 4th "mile" was 4:19 (short; apparently the race cut off a block).

Things got hard around Mile 5, where the course climbed a bit more steeply before it went back down toward the Ice Sheet. Bob dropped me temporarily here, and I went a little bit anaerobic up the hill. This made me uneasy, since there was still over four miles and a really big hill left. But I recovered on the downhill and caught back up to Bob right before we started the "real" climb during Mile 7. Joe, meanwhile, was somewhere out there still, a distant speck. He looked strong, but seemed to have stopped pulling away at least. Mile 5 was 5:43, Mile 6 was 6:17.

Bob and I worked up the big hill (which I've nicknamed "Stairway to Hell"), and again, Bob pulled away toward the crest. But I was still feeling okay and knew that I would be basically home free at the top. I crested the hill and started hammering back down, made up lost ground on Bob, and caught him before Mile 8. We then started working together to try to catch Joe, who seemed to finally be coming back a little. I started to struggle a little, and Bob took over and blocked the headwind for me, and also started surging pretty hard. I was able to work in with him and stay tucked in. But unfortunately Bob's calf went out right before 9 miles, so I went on solo. It was really too bad, because I was just starting to remember how to work with a teammate again. Two people working together can always pull more load than the summation of two individuals working by themselves. Basic rule of pack running, and something I haven't done much since college. It gives me hope for marathon pack running with teammates though. Mile 7 was 6:26, Mile 8 was 5:01, Mile 9 was 5:16.

Regardless, I was feeling good enough with a mile to go to make a good charge up that final hill (a big goal for me) and then have a very good kick during the last 800 meters. I still finished about 25 seconds behind Joe, so some ground was gained, but he ran a very strong, complete race. Final time was 55:20. Last mile was 5:28. Final results are here.

All in all, I was quite happy with this race. It was definitely better than the 10K, and maybe a bit better than the 5K. I still struggled on some of the uphills, but I think there was some improvement, and I seemed to be able to recover and surge well on the downhills. Looking back at the splits, perhaps my uphills were a little better than I originally assessed, but I can only gauge at the time by how I feel (hurting a lot) and by the competition around me (Bob and Joe). So maybe I'm an okay uphill runner, but Bob and Joe are just really good at it, I don't know.

Talking to people with Garmins and to Bill, we generally agreed that the course that was run today was a little short, probably about 0.12 miles, which is exactly one block. Bill said that a block was cut off from the certified course, so there you have it. Regardless, even with adding a minute or so, I'm still very pleased with my time, as I didn't expect to run much under 58:00. The course was pretty fun, and seemed to allow more recovery than the 10K course. It's no wonder that times were relatively faster.

(Burn: 66 miles)