Every Race is an Adventure!

Kevin and I ran an extended Lindon loop this morning. I felt stronger this morning. It may have had something to do with only running 2.4 miles on Saturday instead of 12-14.

Avg. pace: 8:52/mi. 

Kevin and I ran the 2000 N hill route this morning. The temperature in the mid-40's was a nice change, but it was still a little chilly with the head wind on the uphill.

I felt like pushing the pace a little. Kevin easily matched me, and beat me up all the hills and at the end, but I must have worked him a little because neither of us spoke much this morning.

We averaged 7:08/mi on the mile downhill and 7:06/mi on the 1/2 mile downhill. I actually saw sub-7:00 pace on my watch for much of the long downhill. I haven't seen that for a long, long time. We averaged 8:52/mi last week on this route, and 8:25/mi today.

I've got enough miles in, and seen enough improvement, that I'm beginning to feel the urge to slip in some speed work. I'm really reluctant. After working so long to get healthy again, I do not want to get injured. I'll have to listen to my body and try to balance "no risk, no reward" with "better safe than sorry."

Kevin had an early meeting this morning so we left 15 min early. He still turned back early, but it was a relatively nice morning and I felt like going farther so I didn't turn back with him. He turned back at the Cascade golf course. I went on to the fountain up the canyon and ended up with 8.1 miles instead of the planned 6.

Today was a recovery day so I didn't push very hard. I averaged about 9:30 pace for the first 4 miles. As I reached the parking lot by the gas station at the mouth of the canyon on the return trip I heard voices coming under the bridge on the trail. In the early morning light I'm pretty sure it was Josse that saw me and waved. She was running with a few other fast women I didn't recognize in the brief moment I saw them. I figured they were running on up the canyon but then it sounded like they may have turned up into the parking lot behind me.

The thought of them blowing by me as I ran 9:30+ pace up the hill I guess was enough that I subconsciously picked up the pace. I ran up the hill at closer to 8:30 pace. I kept telling myself that it didn't matter if they passed me. I'm still getting back into running after an injury, it was a recovery day, and they are all probably 2-3 decades younger than me. Still, something inside me didn't want to get passed without a fight.

As I neared the top I heard their footsteps and voices closing on me. I figured getting passed was inevitable, but then I realized that I was almost to my turn at the golf course. If they were going straight, maybe I could avoid getting passed. I held on and made the turn just before they would have passed me. I felt a little unsocial, and a little ashamed of being so reluctant to get passed...and a little bit victorious...just a little.

I don't think I have much chance of this year being a PR year, but I'm optimistic as my average paces every week keep getting a little faster. A couple of times recently I've felt the urge to take the brakes off and go all out, but the wisdom of experience and the fear of injury have restrained the fire. Patience. Here a little, there a little. Enjoy each run every day. The joy is in the journey. The destination...there really isn't a destination. Each finish line is a new beginning.

This applies to life in general. Today Karen and I celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary. Our years have been metaphorically full of seemingly endless miles of training, good weather and bad, PRs and injuries, 5Ks and marathons, successes and failures.  Like every race, I think every marriage is an adventure. I'm not in the best running shape I've ever been in, not even as good as recent years. But I don't think Karen and I have ever been more in love. I know I've never been happier.

 I ran the water tank hills solo this morning. I made it up the 5 hills in 17:55...not a PR but not bad. The views of Utah valley coming down were beautiful. The sun was just hitting the snow-capped peaks of a half dozen mountains on the west and south of the valley.

I ran the Fast Half Mile from 400 E to Main on 1600 N at 6:46 pace. I was quite surprised and pleased to see sub-7:00. Very encouraging.

Since Kevin missed the hills yesterday I agreed to run them with him this morning. When he didn't come out I decided to run up 1600 N at an easy pace towards the hills and see if he came out late and caught up to me. I never saw him. When I reach the base of the hills my body was a little reluctant to repeat yesterday's run alone so I decided to turn around and run back down 1600 N. I ended up running 1.5 miles down to 400 W then back up to 800 E then back down to Main again and home.

I was feeling tired, so I worked on my mental toughness a little during the run. Often while running uphill I'll tip the brim of my hat down and look down a little to block out the sight of the uphill ahead of me. This morning I held my head up and mentally focused on and proactively challenged the uphill. I also pondered a little psychology and physics.

I imagined myself running 50-100 yards ahead of me and imagined what I would look like if I was running efficiently, strong and confident, and what it would feel like. I then tried to run that way and feel like I imagined myself feeling. Mentally I told myself that if I'm going to be running like that in 50-100 yards anyway it wouldn't be that much harder to start 50-100 yards sooner...so run like that now.

Later in the run my thoughts switched to physics, and what it meant to run efficiently. I imagined a large straight arrow representing a force vector on a physics diagram coming out of my hips and aiming straight ahead up the road. I then imagined smaller arrows in up and down and side-to-side directions. These represented wasted energy that should be focused on moving me forward. The image came to my mind of a tulip-shaped flower closing up like a Venus Fly Trap, redirecting and merging all of the smaller mis-directed energy arrows into the large straight arrow moving straight ahead.

I consider these mental experiments a success.  My legs were feeling pretty heavy the first trip up the hill, averaging only 10:45 pace for the first 1.25 miles up. I averaged 8:29 pace back down, 9:26 back up the second time, then 8:12 the last 1.2 miles back down and home. After averaging only 10:45/mi for the first 1.25 miles, after playing mind games with myself I ended up averaging 9:12/mi overall for the 5.6 miles.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning...finally.  I met Wayne, Kevin, Larry, and Larry's wife Jolene at the mouth of Provo Canyon for a long run. It was cool enough with the breeze at the start that I wore my jacket and gloves.

Larry's health still doesn't allow him to run as much as he would like. We ran 3.8 easy miles with him, with a little walking mixed in, averaging about 12:00/mi.

Larry and Jolene stopped to turn back at Bridal Veil Falls. Kevin, Wayne and I continued on. We had realized the Provo City Marathon was running down the trail this morning until we saw some of the mile markers. We didn't know what time they were starting or how many runners there would be. We got to Vivian Park and talked to some volunteers at the aid station there. The marathon was going to start in about 10-15 minutes at South Fork Park. We were planning on 14 miles and still had a little over a mile to go to get to 7, so we decided to risk it and head on up South Fork Canyon.

At mile 7 Wayne said he wanted to push on to 8 for a 16 mile run and Kevin and I decided to join him. Not long after we saw the lead marathoners coming around a corner. We moved to the far side of the street and stayed pretty much out of the way. There weren't as many runners as we thought there might be and they passed by us pretty quickly. The race had just started so they hadn't spread out very much yet.

We continued on to the 8 mile mark, averaging about 9:42/mi for the 4.2 miles of uphill after Bridal Veil. We could tell Kevin could have going faster, but Wayne and I were concerned about having enough energy left to finish the 8 mile return trip so we didn't push it. 

Kevin pushed ahead at about Bridal Veil and ran the next 3 miles about a minute per mile faster than us. Wayne pushed ahead of me a little before Timpanogos Park. I averaged 8:29/mi for the 8 miles back down, and that was plenty good for me at the end of my longest long run, and highest mileage week, of the year so far.