Every Race is an Adventure!

I ran an easy 6.3 miles with Larry in the morning. Our legs felt kind of heavy from Saturday's run, but it felt good to stretch them out.

At lunchtime I ran Eagles View with Tom and Cory. Known of us felt like pushing the pace too hard, although we did manage to squeeze in a couple of faster miles at the end.

My Eagles View runs this year 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)*includes time stopped at light
3/5: 39:22 (7:52/mi)
3/12: 41:57 (8:23/mi)

I ran 8.3 miles on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail above the Eagles View neighborhood and south toward Springville. Just before Springville I took the dirt road down to State St. and headed back north along State St. As I approached the Eagles View neighborhood I decided to head back up into the neighborhood and take the normal route back from the Eagles View gate. Unfortunately, I headed up the road south of the white fence just before the neighborhood and ended up having to go off road through the hills. I finally made it back into the neighborhood and to the gate and then back to work.

Much of this run was in the hills and I had to work pretty hard. Even so, I only averaged 9:46/mi for the 8.3 miles. The steep uphills took so much out of me that it was hard to make up for it on the downhills. I also found myself holding back on many of the downhills because of the steepness and/or poor footing. Nevertheless, it was a fun adventure and a good run.

Even though most of the run had been significantly slower, the last couple of miles from the Eagles View gate back to work I set the goal of averaging under an 8:00 pace, in spite of my tired legs. I thought it would be a good mental as well as physical challenge. I averaged a 7:49 pace for the 0.65 miles down to State St. I worried about the next 1.5 miles back because it was not downhill any longer, it was mostly level with two overpasses mixed in. After the first overpass my overall average pace since State St. was 7:41, 8:01 at the top of the second overpass, then 7:54 at the bottom. If I could just hold an 8:00 pace for the level section back in I'd meet my goal. I was so tired I decided to not look at my watch until the next intersection. I just focused on form and rhythm. At the intersection I was pleased to see my overall pace since State St. down to 7:45. I pushed on, not looking at my watch again until just before the finish. My final average pace from State St. was 7:40. I was thrilled.

One of my first thoughts after finishing was that it was too warm. I was hot and thirsty. Through all my cold winter runs I'd been looking forward to warmer weather, and now it was finally in the 60's and I was thinking it was too warm. I pushed that thought away and replaced it with thoughts of how beautiful the day was, what a challenging yet enjoyable run I'd just had, and how good it felt to be done with it...and the water at the fountain in the fitness center tasted so good.

I ran the normal Orem route with Larry this morning. It was very enjoyable. I can't remember a single time over the years that I haven't enjoyed running with Larry. We can talk about anything, and have talked about just about everything. I don't even mind hearing stories I've already heard a couple of times before. My memory is so bad most of them seem fresh anyway.

At lunchtime I ran the Lake View tempo run with Cory and Tom. Today's run was not nearly as fast as previous weeks. Tom wasn't feeling well to begin with and dropped back on the return trip. Cory and I ran the 3 tempo miles at roughly 7:31, 7:37, and 7:04. Cory had to head back for a meeting. I waited and ran in with Tom. We had a total of a couple of miles of warmup and cooldown.

This morning I ran the normal Orem route again with Larry at an easy pace.

My schedule isn't going to allow a 20 miler on Saturday. My conflicts start around 7:00 am and are spread throughout the day. I'll have time to run, but not 20 miles. Instead, I decided to run the 10.5 miles home from work today, and I plan to run back in to work in the morning. I left my street clothes (plus a fresh shirt and underwear), and my vehicle, at work.

I ran from East Bay up University Ave. to the mouth of Provo Canyon then up 800 North to Orem, then worked my way up to 1200 North, over to Main, and then north to home. I ran the 10.5 miles in 1:25:08, an average pace of 8:06/mi. (I stopped my watch for lengthy traffic light stops, but kept it running during brief delays.) The average paces for various stretches of the run were:

Work to Wil's Pit Stop: 8:08/mi

Wil's to Provo Canyon: 8:19/mi

Up 800 N to Golf Course: 8:42/mi

Golf Course to 1200 N 800 E: 8:15/mi

800 E to Main on 1200 N: 7:46/mi

1200 N to 1600 N to Home: 7:36/mi

I'm thrilled. I was hoping for around a 9:00/mi average pace, and as heavy as my legs felt when I started the run I thought that was overly optimistic. The temperature was perfect, about 60 degrees with a bit of a breeze. The run home was very enjoyable. I hope the run back tomorrow morning is equally as enjoyable. It will be a little cooler I'm sure, but it's a gradual downhill most of the way instead of up. I'm really kind of looking forward to it.

I'm nearly euphoric. I just finished my 10.5 mile run into work this morning and I feel great, and it's not just because I only had to stop at one red light coming down University Ave. (a near miracle in my opinion). I ran the 10.5 miles in 1:21:13, an average pace of 7:44/mi. Here are the average paces for various stretches of the run (paces for yesterday's trip home in brackets):

Temperature: mid 40's [yesterday aournd 60 F]

Home to 1200 N to 1600 N: 8:01/mi [7:36/mi]

Main to 800 E on 1200 N: 7:58/mi [7:46/mi]

1200 N 800 E to Golf Course: 8:05/mi [8:15/mi]

Down 800 N from Golf Course: 7:58/mi [8:42/mi]

Provo Canyon to Wil's Pit Stop: 7:20/mi [8:19/mi]

Wil's Pit Stop to Work: 7:42/mi [8:08/mi]

Overall: 1:21:13 @ 7:44/mi [1:25:08 @ 8:06/mi]

The overall downhill grade definitely helped make this run faster than the run home yesterday. The weather was a little chilly at the start, and there was a really strong headwind from the golf course to the mouth of the canyon, but overall the cool sunny morning made for a very enjoyable run. Today's run was a training run for Boston, but it felt much more like a blessing.

I ran the water tank road with Larry early this afternoon. We wanted to get in some downhill in preparation for the Spectrum 10K next Saturday. We took it easy on the way up, including walking some of the steeper sections, so we could push the pace a little on the downhill. I didn't risk pushing it too hard on the dirt portion of the downhill, as the footing wasn't all that good. In fact, I only pushed hard for two sections.

On the steep paved section down to 800 E I pushed as fast as I dared, holding back so I didn't end up kissing the road. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I averaged a 5:46/mi pace on this section. We then recovered as we ran over to 400 E at about an 8:36/mi pace.

The final push was downhill on 1600 N between 400 E and Main. I think the downhill grade there is nearly perfect. It's a pretty good downhill but I didn't have to expend any energy at all putting on the brakes to not lose control. I averaged 5:40/mi for this 1/2 mile stretch, slightly faster than the steeper downhill.

I've been told the first half of the Spectrum 10K this year is steeper downhill, with a more gradual downhill the second half. My first goal is to set a new 5K PR (less than 20:13) in the first 5K of the race, with a stretch goal of breaking a 40 minute 10K overall. I figure to do this I'd need to average around a 6:00 minute pace the first 5K (18:12), and then try to hang on and average a 7:00 pace (21:42) the second 5K.

This would still be a real stretch for me. I've trained all winter for the first time since I started running again, and I've been putting in record mileage for me recently. This week I ran nearly 64 miles, and I've run over 256 miles in the last 5 weeks since I decided to run Boston this year. I've been focusing on marathon training, so I'm concerned about having enough speed for this 10K. I plan to run shorter, faster miles next week as I taper for the Spectrum 10K. We'll see how these runs go, but today's experiment running some short, fast downhill sections at a sub-6:00 minute pace gave me some hope for a PR performance next Saturday.