Every Race is an Adventure!

Kent, Kurt, Larry, and I decided to run the Monday course backwards this morning. It was good having Larry back from Alaska and the group back together. We averaged about 8:32/mi overall, and pushed the last half mile pretty hard. It was a good run.

I started the normal Tuesday run with Kevin, Kent, Kurt, and Larry. It was nice having everyone out again...or maybe not. I tried to chase Kurt at the end of yesterday's run and pushed harder than I probably should have. This morning I chased Kurt and Kevin up the big hill at 2000 North. I felt a little tightness in my left calf, but didn't really think too much of it. On the way back down, however, it began to hurt worse even though I was backing off the pace. By mile three I was getting concerned. I finally stopped at four miles and decided to walk home to avoid tearing something.

I iced my calf for quite a while after I got home. I'll lay off running this week and hope I'm able to run Hobble Creek on Saturday. What a bummer.

I couldn't resist the urge at lunchtime to go to the fitness center and try a few miles on the treadmill. I started very slowly and gradually worked up to about an 8:30/mi pace. It felt good, but I didn't risk pushing the pace any harder. I may try a couple of miles again tonight with the compression sleeve on to see how that feels.

My plan for now is to run the Hobble Creek half tomorrow wearing the calf sleeve. I'll start out easy and see how the calf feels after a few miles. What I still need to determine is what "easy" means. I was originally thinking about running 6:45/mi or faster on the initial downhills, so is "easy" 7:15/mi? 7:30/mi? 8:00/mi? or even slower? I guess I'll just have to listen to what my body is telling me at the time.

Today was the Hobble Creek 1/2 marathon. I don't know official results yet, but according to my watch my time was 1:32:40. I'm very satisfied with that time, especially since I wasn't sure if I would be able to run at all because of my calf strain injury. I wore the calf sleeve and my calf didn't bother me during the race. It was a little tight after the race, but feels pretty good.

I felt really good the first half of the race. I started feeling tired about halfway. I stopped to relieve my bladder and took an eGel and felt quite a bit better. I probably went out a little too fast, but I feel pretty good about the way I held on the 2nd half even though at times I felt very tired. I would just focus on my form and try to shorten my stride slightly and increase my turnover rate.

Here are my splits (I missed a few):

Miles 1-2: 13:24 (6:42/mi avg.)

Mile 3: 6:29

Mile 4: 6:08

Mile 5: 7:09

Mile 6: 6:44

Halfway: 44:34 (6:48/mi avg)

Mile 7-8: 13:56 (6:58/mi avg)

Mile 9-10: 15:00 (7:30/mi avg)

Mile 11-12: 14:44 (7:22/mi avg)

to 12.1: 0:58

Last mile: 7:21

1st half: 44:34 (6:48/mi avg)

2nd half: 48:06 (7:21/mi avg)

Overall: 1:32:40 (7:04/mi avg)

According to Sasha's Utah Race Time Predictor I should be able to run about a 3:30 at Top of Utah, or 3:24 at St. George.

I was hoping for a little faster, but that still puts me ahead of last year.