Every Race is an Adventure!

With the forecast of a storm later this morning, and the temperature around 40 this morning, I made the difficult decision to run alone in the "warm before the storm" instead of at noon with "the guys". Even as I was running I kept second guessing my decision, and even entertained the thought of maybe running at noon, too, which I knew wouldn't be wise. I was planning on 6 miles this morning, but near the end of the run I decided to detour and add another mile onto the run, reducing the temptation to run again at noon.

I pushed the pace just a little this morning. I've only been averaging 9:15 to 10:00 for most of my easy runs this winter, but this morning I averaged around 8:50. I even threw in some striders to focus on my form a little. I think it's about time to gradually get my legs back accustomed to turning over a little more quickly. My next race is the Spectrum 10K in March and my leg speed is no where near where it needs to be. I don't plan on any sub-7:00 miles for at least a few more weeks, but I'd at least like to string some sub-8:00 miles together a little more often.

My plan this week is to run at least 5 or 6 miles everyday and get back to a 40 mile week. I've only been averaging 25 to 30 for most of the winter and would gradually like to build up to 50 by April.

A couple of recent events have caused me to ponder on what is truly important in life and count my blessings. A good man I serve with in my church calling was just diagnosed with a brain tumor and is going in for emergency surgery today. Like many of you I also heard last night that President Hinckley passed away. I've thought that maybe a key to happiness is to be positive and to enjoy the blessings of each day, and that a successful (happy) life does not come from a few great deeds, but from a lifetime of simply trying to be a good person, do our best, and be nice to people.

Larry had a seminar and couldn't run this morning, so I opted to run at lunch instead when I thought the weather might be a little warmer and the roads a little less slippery. I think it was a good decision. It wasn't too cold and the roads were in pretty good condition.

I ended up running a loop starting east over to State St., north on Slate Canyon Drive to 300 South, west to University Ave. (dropping to 400 South along the way), then south over the bridge and back to Novell. I didn't have my Garmin but I measured it at about 6.3 miles on Google Earth.

I was planning to average a pace between 8:15 and 8:30. I finished in 53:00 even which is about 8:25/mi. Good enough. No aches or pains to speak of. I can tell the Achilles is still not 100%, but it finally seems to be improving.

I opted for the treadmill today at noon. I went 6.2 miles at around 8:35/mi. Just as I was finishing up I heard Kent Gassman's voice behind say, "Some some for tonight." I had forgotten that we had a church basketball game scheduled for 10:00pm.

Surprisingly, I had some zip left in my legs for the game. We actually won our first game. I had a lot of fun playing with my two sons and all the other guys. Both teams showed pretty good sportsmanship and it was great...but late. I stayed after to do a little stake clerking I needed to get done and didn't get home until around 11:30pm.

I ran 6 easy miles solo on my serpentine course this morning. I don't know where Larry was this morning.

There was a light covering of powdery snow. It squeaked with each step in the quiet morning, and also seemed to cushion each step. It actually seemed to provide pretty good traction, too.

I was thinking this morning about how slow my training pace has been this winter, and how I have still managed to maintain fitness well enough to run Painter's pretty well a couple of weeks ago. One thought that crossed my mind was that at a slower pace I'm actually spending more time training per mile. For example, at a 7:00 minute pace I run six miles in 42:00 minutes, while at a 10:00 pace I run six miles in 60:00 minutes. That's 18:00 additional minutes of training. So while my mileage and pace have been down, my overall training time has held pretty steady. (I think this is what is known as rationalizing.)

The kids were out of school today so I didn't have to be home at 7:00am for the normal school morning routine. I decided to go play basketball in the morning with my old buddies. I've been playing with some of those guys for over 15 years, but since I got serious about running again I only make it there occasionally now. My 21 year old son has been playing with them for a number of years, too. He's the regular and I'm the visitor now.

There were only 7 this morning, but three of them (plus me) were old timers and it was really good to see them again. One was Greg. He and I have been playing basketball together since high school. All this basketball probably isn't good for my Achilles tendon, but I sure had a lot of fun this morning.

I had a church basketball game this morning at 7:00am. We didn't win, but played respectably against a good team. Both teams showed great sportsmanship and we all had a good time. Late in the game some of the players on the other team (one of which was Rich, who I shared a house with before we both ran Boston last year) more or less left me open and dared me to shoot a 3-pointer. I took my time and swished it from the corner. It felt good.

After the game, I drove my sons home, changed into some fresh running clothes, and Larry and I went for a run. We didn't go far or fast, but it's always good getting out with Larry.