Every Race is an Adventure!

I stayed up late last night to take care of an urgent matter so I chose to skip the morning run. I did take an early lunch and get in 3.75 miles before meeting up with Tom and Nathan for our noon run. We ran the old Lake View run at an easy pace. I was especially careful on the dirt path where I twisted my ankle last Wednesday. This was my first run since then. I ran out front so I could have a clear view of the path ahead. That path really needs some maintenance.

My ankle felt pretty strong, but not quite 100%. We'll see how it feels this afternoon and tomorrow morning. So many of my buddies are training so well right now. I don't want to fall too far behind. Now that the relay is over, it's time to focus for the next three months on preparing for the St. George marathon, and the half marathons leading up to it.

I've been reading the book "Mormon Scientist" about renowned scientist Henry Eyring. He called himself a "happy muddler". He counsels that there will always be many unanswered questions: "In fact, each answer seems to raise more questions . . . Actually, that's what makes science and religion, fun. Faith is feeling good about myself, feeling good about God, and muddling along after truth as best I can . . . I'm a happy muddler".

I like the approach of just being happy and doing the best I can with what I'm given and not worrying too much about things I don't know or I can't control. I plan to just happily muddle my way to St. George, training as much as my body and my schedule allow. For me, training and fitness and achievement and PRs are just means to an end. The ultimate goal is to be happy, not just at the destination but all along the journey, smooth or bumpy, rain or shine.

Ran the 2000 N Tuesday route with Wayne. Larry's hip is bothering him so he joined us on his bike this morning. It was good to have him along. We pushed the pace slightly faster than normal, including up the big hill. It took us both a while to get going, and we were both plenty ready to stop at the end. The 9 miles I did yesterday at noon is a little more than I normally do at once, but Wayne ran 9 miles last night, so he had even less recovery time than I did. He's stepped up his training the last few weeks. He had 50+ miles last week and is running very well.

We had our relay team post-race party last night. Will and Kevin couldn't make it, but everyone else was there. It was fun. Afterwards, my sister-in-law who came with us told me I had a great group of friends. She's so right. 

AM. Wayne and I ran the water tank hills this morning. Larry was on his bike again, and brought along our neighbor James, also on a bike. Without speaking, Wayne and I both seemed to agree on pushing the pace a little faster than normal this morning. When we hit the hills, the challenge was to see if the runners could beat the bikers up the hills.

The first hill is pretty steep and the bikers seemed to struggle more than the runners. I was slightly ahead of Wayne at the top. I didn't want to run alone, but I also didn't want to give up any hard earned ground. Wayne encouraged me to keep going and not wait for him, so I did. I pushed up the remaining four hills. I finished about 45 seconds ahead of Wayne and never saw the bikes again until I'd run a half mile past the top of the hill and was on my way back.

My time from our start in the neighborhood to the top of the hill was exactly 27:00 minutes. The first mile or so only climbs about 100 feet, but then we climb over 600 feet in the next 1.5+ miles. This time isn't fast for many on the blog, but in our little world Wayne and I climbed the hill pretty fast today. We were tired coming back down, but still held a steady pace (not all out) the last 0.6 miles down 1600 N at 6:39/mi pace. Larry coasted this section and still beat us, but we had the satisfaction of having another quality run behind us. I'll find out at noon if I pounded my ankle too hard on the downhills.

PM. Ran the traditional Lake View route with Tom and Nathan. The temperature was in the lower 80's. We could feel the heat, but it wasn't really oppressive and there was a breeze. Tom turned back as planned after a couple of miles. Mile splits were 8:38, 8:17, 7:58, 7:50, 7:39. It was good to see Cory out running again today. Nathan and I were talking afterwards that we think he's not running with us because he doesn't want to slow us down. We all treat our Monday and Wednesday noon runs as easy runs, usually having run a tougher run in the morning. We need to convince Cory to start running with us again.

Things didn't go quite as planned this morning, but it was a good run anyway. Last week Larry, Wayne and I decided to start running 10 miles instead of 6 on Thursday mornings. I tweaked my ankle last Wednesday so I missed the first 10 mile Thursday run. I was looking forward to today's run.

I got up on time but my GI tract felt a bit off this morning and I didn't feel quite ready to run when I hustled to Larry's a little late. Wayne hadn't arrived yet and Larry was working on his bike. His hip is feeling better but he had decided to ride one more day before trying to run on it again. I asked to borrow Larry's bathroom and then finally felt ready to run. At first we thought Wayne had forgot we were leaving at 5:30am instead of 5:45am, but by 5:50am we realized he probably wasn't coming...very unusual for Wayne. Larry was still working on his bike but I decided to head out and let him catch up.

I ran up to Provo Canyon (about 3 miles) and then went another couple of miles up the trail. As I headed toward the canyon the headwind was pretty stiff. When I started on the trail I turned my hat around backwards so it wouldn't blow off. As I recall, I averaged around 8:50/mi the first four miles and just over 9:00/mi the last mile up. I felt a little GI distress during this mile, but it faded and never returned.

I finally ran into Larry on the way back down around Timpanogos Park. We had overlooked the fact that while Larry could catch up quickly on the bike, his dog Ozzie wasn't on a bike. Larry had to keep waiting for Ozzie. By the end of the run Ozzie was a living example of being dog tired.

It was great having Larry's company for the run back home. With the overall downhill and the wind at my back, I was able to pick up the pace. I ended up averaging 8:31/mi overall, with the last couple of miles being around 7:40/mi I think. My ankle held up well. I'm icing it anyway to hopefully prevent any setback.

My training and fitness is not where I hoped it would be at this point. I see Tom and Terry and Nathan and Josse and others training so hard and running so well and I must admit I'm a little jealous. I'm not afraid of the work and effort and pain. I'm afraid of blowing a gasket. If my body was a Ferrari I could just put the pedal to the metal, but I feel like I'm nursing an old Model T Ford. If I push too hard I'll find myself on the side of the road with steam boiling up from the radiator. But I feel pretty good about keeping the old car running and with the speed I am able to coax out of it. I'm grateful to be running as well as I am.

Wayne and Larry picked me up at 6:00am and we headed to the mouth of Provo Canyon. The wind was pretty strong (as usual) but the morning was cool and the day was beautiful for a run.

We ran up to Vivian Park then on up a half mile past South Fork park to get to 8 miles (16 miles round trip). Since Wayne and I were pushing a little faster, Larry turned around at 7.5 (South Fork Park) and we met back up with him at Vivian. Generally we averaged a little over 9:00/mi up and a little over 8:00/mi down. My overall average was 8:36/mi  for 16.2 miles. During mile 15 I threw in a tempo mile at 7:00/mi pace.

My right hip and left ankle were a little sore. The ankle is the one I twisted last Wednesday, so that's not too surprising after running 52 miles on it this week. I have some arthritis in my hip so that pain is not unfamiliar. Overall the old Model T held up well and I'm please with it's performance...no blown gaskets this week.