Every Race is an Adventure!

I ran 6.2 easy miles with Larry this morning on our normal route down and back on 400 E in Orem. Jolene ran with us for a couple of miles then turned back. We only ran about a 10:00/mi pace, but that was about as fast as the road conditions allowed. Many of our steps were crunching through an inch or so of frozen snow, but in some spots the ice was smooth and very slippery. During one especially bad stretch near the end of the run I intentionally slid and easily slid 2 or 3 feet. As we turned off that street a bit later I unintentionally slipped and nearly went down. Despite the risks, as usual it was an enjoyable run as Larry and I discussed our lives and solved the world's problems. If only we could remember the solutions after the run and get people to listen to us...

At lunchtime I ran the Eagles View course Tom and Cory. We averaged 8:08/mi, but that included stopping at the State St. intersection for a while waiting for the light. I normally stop my watch when I have to stop at an intersection, but today I didn't. I wish I would have. I think it makes comparisons to previous runs more consistent since how long I have to stop at a red light is a variable outside of my control that can have a significant impact on the overall pace.

Our pace out/up was 8:54/mi. Our pace back/down was 7:24/mi.

My last 6 Eagles View runs have been:

1/22: 41:57 (8:24/mi)

1/25: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

1/29: 37:58 (7:36/mi)

2/5: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

2/12: 37:53 (7:35/mi)

2/26: 40:11 (8:08/mi)*

Today was a basketball day. At 6am I played with my son Andrew and the morning guys. At 10pm I played in the 1st round of our church tournament game. We were the bottom seed because we hadn't won a single game all season. I guess we finally had the right combination of guys show up because we came from 4 points down in the last minute and knocked out the #2 seed. I pulled myself out of the game early in the second half because I was scared of getting hurt. The other team had some really big guys (like 6'6", 300+ lbs) that were playing pretty rough. One of these guys fouled one of our players really hard on a layup in an earlier game and cracked his elbow. These guys were a foot taller than me and weighed almost twice as much, and were merciless. I didn't want to have my Boston Marathon plans terminated on a layup attempt in a meaningless game. Call me a wimp if you wish, I call it...being a coward, or at least careful.

In the morning I ran the normal Orem 400 E course with Kevin. The weather phone said it was 21 degrees and I dressed well for that temperature. I was fine while we headed south. As soon as we turned back north, however, we realized that we had been running with a tailwind which was now a very cold headwind. My face got pretty cold (numb) but the rest of me was okay.

We took a few detours this morning. First we took a minor detour at 400 S when we headed west to go over to Main St. to go back north. We both were thinking we were on 400 N. 400 S does not intersect with Main St. When we saw State St. approaching we turned back and went north on 400 E as usual. At 800 N, we did go west to Main St. and stopped at Gold's Gym so Kevin could use their bathroom. There sure seemed to be a lot of people there on the treadmills, etc. We then crossed over 800 N and made our way around the construction to get onto Main St. and head home. We ended up doing about 6.7 miles @ 8:23/mi. The first mile was @ 8:37/mi and the last mile was @ 7:45/mi.

At lunchtime I ran Lake View with Cory and Nathan. It was sunny and cold, around 31 degrees I think. The pace for the first mile was around 9:00/mi. We then conciously picked up the pace. The average paces for the next 4 miles were 7:23, 7:33, 6:50 (we pushed it hard), and 7:30. We averaged 7:38/mi overall. Tom would have probably made me run a 7:00 pace for most of those miles, but it just wasn't in me today...and Tom wasn't there.

This morning's run was similar to yesterday morning's run. It was roughly the same course, but without the detours...and without Kevin. It was cold again, with the cold north wind again freezing my face on the return north, but this time I was alone. The pace was slow. The footing was tricky. There was about a 1/2 inch of snow along the shoulders of the road. I was tempted to run in the road where it appeared to be clear in many areas, but the reflection from the street lights revealed that much of it was black ice. The snow tended to pack to the bottoms of my shoes, often flying off and hitting the backs of my legs and occasional dropping into my shoes. I was tense most of the run, not feeling confident in my footing. If I had known I was going to be running alone, I may have waited until lunchtime and been able to run a little faster, but at least it's behind me now, and Sasha won't reprimand me for skipping a planned run because of bad weather. ;-)

I was planning to play basketball this morning, but then was asked to substitute and drive the junior high carpool because the assigned driver was having car trouble. I like to keep Friday's light so I'm not too tired for long runs on Saturday. I was just going to play ball today, but since I didn't, I went to the fitness center at lunchtime and put in a few miles on the treadmill. I warmed up for 0.5, then ran 0.5 at 8:00/mi, then 1.5 at 7:30/mi, then gradually cooled down for another 0.5 mile. They were showing "Blast from the Past" with Brendan Fraser and Alicia Silverstone. I should have run more miles so I could finish the movie. I was quite enjoying it.

I had a good run with Kerry and Kevin this afternoon. It was a first attempt at a team run for our Wasatch Back Relay team, but many couldn't make it.

It was sunny and felt colder than I expected. The temperature was in the low 30's with a cold breeze at times. Kerry had a little stomach distress in the middle of the run, but he and Kevin both seemed a lot fresher than me at the end. I was beat. This was a high mileage week for me.

We went a little over 13 miles and averaged 8:32/mi overall. After warming up we started out at about 8:13/mi for the next few miles. We gradually slowed as we turned north and headed uphill for a while. Kerry had stashed water and Gatorade at a couple of places, and we also stopped for a bio-break at Kohlers. I feel like we held a pretty good pace throughout the run, and we finished pretty strong, averaging 7:52/mi for last 2.2 miles. It sure felt good to stop.

I enjoyed running with Kerry and Kevin, but I wish more of the team could have been there. I felt bad that we lost some with the schedule change. I look forward to more participants (and warmer weather) for the next team run.