I had a basketball game at 8:00am. I would have preferred to have skipped it, but I have family reasons (playing with my son) and duty reasons (I'm sort of in charge of our team) for feeling I need to be there. Because of the game, I missed running with Larry, Wayne, and Kevin. I talked with Kevin later and I think he said they went about 10 miles or so at an easy pace. I saw them getting ready to start out as I headed to my game. I missed the sociality, but it sure looked cold. I ended up running alone at about 3:15pm. My wife Karen gave me a ride down to Utah Lake State Park and I ran along the Provo River Parkway trail up to the mouth of Provo Canyon and then on up through Orem to home. It was just under 12.5 miles overall. My average pace was 8:49/mi. It was chilly, but I was dressed well for it. There's an interesting fact about running upstream on a river trail, it's a gradual uphill the whole way. I feel okay about the 8:49/mi pace. I maintained a pretty steady effort; my heart rate was right around 145 most of the way. It would rise temporarily to around 155 when I would speed up going down an underpass under the road and push up the hill on the other side. Climbing the hill to University Ave, and then later climbing from the mouth of Provo Canyon up 800 N to Orem, also took a little extra effort. At mile 6 (heading N on Univ.) I took an eGel and I think it helped. I was feeling pretty low on energy at that point. I ate a bowl of cereal after the game this morning, but was reluctant to eat too much after that because I usually run on an empty stomach (early in the morning or just before lunch). At mile 10 I was feeling some stomach cramping, but I eased off the pace for a half mile or so and felt better. The average paces for each mile were: 1 - 8:32/mi 2 - 8:19/mi 3 - 8:23/mi 4 - 8:07/mi 5 - 8:26/mi 6 - 9:05/mi (climb hill to Univ. Ave.) 7 - 9:01/mi (feeling pretty tired) 8 - 9:26/mi 9 - 9:28/mi 10 - 9:36/mi (stomach cramps) 11 - 9:20/mi 12 - 8:39/mi (slight downhill-feeling better) 12.5 - 7:29/mi (downhill home-pushed pretty hard) | 