Every Race is an Adventure!

This morning's run didn't go as planned, but it's all good. Larry said he and Nick were going to meet Joe Judd, a former neighborhood runner who now lives a few blocks outside the neighborhood, at 5:30am instead of 5:45am. I decided to go out early and join them. What I didn't know was that 5:30am meant 5:20am and meeting at Joe's house at 5:30am. After determining I was alone, I decided to run 1/2 mile loops around the block to see if anyone came out at 5:45am. Nobody did but I kept running loops anyway.

After a bit I came around the corner to see Larry, Nick and Joe walking up my street. They were following the neighborhood 5K course and were taking a walking break. Joe hasn't run for a while. I finished my loop around the block and met them at the NE corner and ran then walked then ran with them back to Joe's house. It was enjoyable chatting there for a while, but I wasn't getting much running in.

We eventually left and I ran back home with Larry and Nick. I had 18 minutes before I had to be home so I left them and got another couple of miles in (loop to 1200 N and 400 E) for a total of 5.5 miles. That didn't seem like enough, so after family scriptures and prayer I ran another couple of miles worth of loops around the block until it was time to take my daughter to school. I ended up with a total of 7.5 miles.

The ankle I rolled on Saturday was pretty stiff and sore Sunday morning, but loosened up pretty quickly. It was still a little stiff and sore this morning, but much less so and loosened up and didn't bother me during my run.

I'm planning my first two-a-day in a long time tomorrow. I'm looking forward to my first noon trail run with Grant and Joe and company from work. I hope I can keep up.

In the morning I ran the 2000 N hill route with Larry, Wayne and Kevin. Larry cut it short because his ribs were still hurting him. He's been pretty tough running with sore ribs. I hope they start hurting him soon.

At noon, I went trail running with Grant, Joe and Dan. Grant had to turn back early because of time constraints. The rest of us ran to the rock pile and back. I enjoyed running the trails. Joe powered up the hills, and Grant and Dan can sure fly downhill with their long legs. My uphillers were really burning by the end, but I didn't fall too far behind.

It's been a long time since I've run a two-a-day, run in the sun, and run 12.5 miles on a weekday. Overall, I survived it pretty well. It's still a little intimidating to think that Squaw Peak is 4 times that long. I averaged about 11:00/mi. There's no way I'll run Squaw Peak that fast. I'm hoping to manage around 14:30/mi if everything goes well. My training is not where I hoped it would be at this point, but at least today was a step in the right direction.

Kevin and I started on the Wednesday route toward the water tank hills, but my legs were still heavy from running there the day before so I convinced Kevin to morph it into the flatter Thursday route to Cascade. I felt bad I couldn't push the pace a little more for Kevin, but my legs were dragging. We only got down to around 8:40/mi near the end, and averaged about 9:00/mi overall.

It was cold and stormy this morning...and so was the weather. Life has been a little hard lately (I'm very blessed, no real complaints). After going to the bathroom, checking the temperature, and watching the storm outside, my first inclination was to crawl back in bed and curl up with my pillow, so I did. I was thinking maybe I would spend the whole day that way, but by 5:40am something inside of me had got me out of bed and by 5:49am I was on the road. It wasn't long before heavy snowflakes were landing on my glasses making it difficult to see. I eventually took them off and stuck them in my pocket. I managed to run the Thursday route by rote, but the pace wasn't much to brag about.

What a great run...although it felt more like a series of runs. I started running from the mouth of Provo Canyon at 5:30am with Larry and Wayne. A little over 2.5 miles into it I turned back so I could meet the guys at the mouth of the canyon for our 2Slow2Win2Dumb2Quit team run. I stopped at the Timpanogos Park restrooms on the way back for a much needed bathroom stop.

When I got to the parking lot the last members of the group were just arriving. I hope I don't forget anyone, but the runners included Kerry, Greg, Dan, Deeks, Will, Scott, and Tim. We all ran together to begin with and I got a chance to talk with most everyone for at least a little bit. It was nice talking with everyone.

We all had different goal distances for the run. One turned back at 3 miles, four at Bridal Veil Falls, one at 4 miles, and Dan and I went on to Vivian Park. As Dan and I ran back to the mouth we ran into Larry, and then Kevin. After reaching the parking lot I turned back and ran back to find Larry and Kevin. I met them at the fountain at Timpanogos Park and ran back to the parking lot with them.

Winder Dairy had a truck there giving out free samples of their new milk chocolate recovery drink. It was cold and tasted very good and seemed to have a lot of good recovery stuff in it.

My goal today was about 18 miles and about 3 hours. I ran 18.75 miles in 3:02:01. The average pace was 9:42/mi. It wasn't fast, but fast was not my goal. This puts me over 50 miles for the week...another step up in my training. I'm still feeling some pain in my heel, and my hip got a little sore in the latter miles, but overall I'm feeling pretty good and am still optimistic about being ready (enough) for the Squaw Peak 50.