Every Race is an Adventure!

There was no one at the corner at 5:45am. I decided to head to the track and do some mile repeats. It was still pretty dark when I got there but I thought I saw a couple of runners that looked a lot like Kent and Kurt. I was right. They had to get home early so they went over at 5:30am. It was good to see Joel there running, too.

I ran five 1 mile repeats with a one lap recovery between each. My times were 6:56, 7:03, 7:03, 7:12, and 7:00. Like Saturday, my focus was on trying to maintain form to maintain speed, and I think it went pretty well.

Once again I was left to run alone this morning. I didn't feel like running the normal Tuesday course through Lindon so I headed south for a flatter, better lit run through Orem. I worked my way to 800 E, down to Center, then worked my way back over to Main as I headed north and back home.

I had decided to wear the same shoes I wore on Saturday when I got the blisters. I love those shoes and have never had trouble like that with them before (ran St. George in them last year, and set a PR and won my age division at Strawberry Days 5K in them this year).

As I warmed up and then ran the first mile or two I noticed my feet seemed to be slipping a little inside my shoes each time I planted my feet. I stopped and tightened the laces slightly (down near the toe box) on one shoe to see if it made a difference. It did. I eventually stopped and tightened the other as well.

It made a real difference. My foot plants felt much more stable. My pace quickened significantly and I was able to finish the seven miles strong with no blisters.

I ran the Wednesday hills alone, to begin with anyway. I warmed up the 1.2 miles to the base of the hills. I pushed fairly hard up the hills (1.4 miles) in 15:58 against a head wind.

On the way down I met Kevin coming up hill four. I turned around and slowly followed him back up hills four and five. I haven't run with Kevin for a while and I enjoyed running back down with him.

At the bottom of the hills we ran about 8:03/mi for 0.6 mi. At 400 E we sped up as we went down the gradual downhill. Part way down Kevin saw me glance at my Garmin and asked what our pace was. It was 7:10/mi at the time and we were both running pretty easy. Of course, whenever you tell Kevin the current pace it gets faster. We ended up averaging 6:44/mi the last 0.6 miles home.

At noon I ran the Lake View course with Cory, Nathan, and Tom. Nathan had to turn back early to get to a meeting.

We ran the 2.6 miles out in about 20:37 (7:56/mi) and ran the return trip in about 19:28 (7:29/mi). The overall time was around 40:05 (7:43/mi).

I ran the Thursday run alone this morning. I got to bed late so I didn't get out early for the two extra miles. That turned out to be okay because I really didn't feel very well this morning. I had periodic stomach cramps throughout the entire run, and I didn't have much energy. I maintained a moderate pace and didn't push the speed. I only averaged about 8:30/mi on the flat sections and only increased to about 7:45/mi on the big downhill. I still count the run as a success as I really didn't feel like running but completed the run anyway, including the big hill at the end.

I had a great 20 mile run this morning with Kerry and Tom. We ran from the mouth of Provo Canyon up to Trefoil at the top of South Fork and back.

We started about 6:00am and the weather was great. There were some clouds that kept it cool for most of the run.

I felt like we held a pretty strong pace for the entire run. My watch had some trouble picking up a GPS signal, but excluding the time for water/bathroom stops, I think we averaged around 9:20/mi for the 10 miles up and 7:50/mi back down. We finished in around 2:51:33 (8:35/mi).

It was great running with Kerry and Tom again. It brought back positive memories of running St. George together last year. I think we're all in better shape than last year. Tom and Kerry both did well in the Provo River half marathon last week. The Hobble Creek half this Saturday we'll be my first real test since the Wasatch Back Relay.