Every Race is an Adventure!

Larry was riding his bike with James and Lee again this morning (I saw them ride past as I was waiting for my Garmin to lock in) so I ran alone. I decided on an 8 mile run down to 800 S in Orem and back. It took me a while to get going. My splits for the first four miles were 9:01, 8:53, 8:18, and 8:18. I felt like I was pushing pretty hard but just couldn't seem to get under an 8:00 pace. I decided to try some mile intervals on the way back. Maybe I could push a little harder if I knew I could rest after a mile.

I ran four 1 mile intervals on the way back, with a 1/4 mile rest in between. My splits were 7:05, 7:36, 7:27, and 7:28. The first interval was mostly heading west, which was a slight downgrade with a bit of tailwind. The other three intervals were mostly northward, which was a slight uphill, with a pretty good headwind until I got north of 800 N. I finished with about a 1/2 mile jog to cool down.

I feel good about my efforts this morning, especially during the second half.

I ran the water tank road with Larry and Wayne. The company was enjoyable as usual, and the hills were steep as usual. I made the comment that I keep thinking someday those hills will seem easy. I can't remember which of the others said, "Maybe in the Millennium." Perhaps, but somehow I suspect it will require some effort and determination even then. It was a beautiful morning and a good run with good friends.

Repeated Tuesday's run up the water tank road with Larry and Wayne.

I came so close to staying in bed this morning. We were out late Tuesday night at my nephew's 30th annual July 3rd birthday party and fireworks spectacular up in Kearns. We then drove some chairs down to my young adult daughter who was camping out at the parade route in Provo with her friends. She was going to save enough space for us, too, but that didn't work out so I got up early on July 4th and went and found us a place.

After the parade I worked all day in the heat repairing the bathroom ceiling in our camping trailer. I barely finished in time to go down to Provo again in the evening to watch the fireworks. With all the traffic we didn't get home until pretty late.

I guess my alarm went off at 5:00 am this morning and I kept pushing the snooze, but the first thing I remember is looking at the clock and seeing it was 5:36. I guess the combination of not enough sleep and working in the heat for a couple of days caught up with me. I was supposed to meet Larry and Wayne at 5:45. I came so close to just staying in bed, but I didn't run yesterday (I kept wanting to all day), and I knew it would only be hotter later, so I got dressed quickly and headed to the corner. They weren't there so I walked over to Larry's. Wayne was there but Larry hadn't come out yet. We decided we weren't in a hurry so we rang the doorbell and got him up. Both Larry and I had a hard time getting up this morning, but at the end of the run we were both glad we hadn't stayed in bed.

On July 4 I was throwing a frisbee while waiting for the fireworks to begin. While I was traversing a hillside I stepped in a small depression and rolled my left ankle. It hurt quite a bit, but I walked it off and it didn't really bother me too much. The next morning I ran the water tank hill with Larry and Wayne and don't remember it bothering me much. However, as I got up to run Friday morning it was sore enough that I decided to give it a day off to be ready for Saturday's run. At bedtime Friday night, for some reason it was really sore. I tried jogging on it a little and realized there was no way I was going 14 miles on it as planned the next morning, but thought I might go a little ways if it felt better in the morning. When I got up Saturday it was bad enough that I decided to not run on it at all. I'll take it day by day, but I hope to be able to run on it again Monday morning.