Every Race is an Adventure!

AM. I ran 6 easy miles with Larry and Lyle this morning on the Lindon loop. I pushed up one short steep hill and the legs felt pretty good, but mostly we just ran easy and conversed.

PM. I ran the 5.2 mile Lake View route with Tom, Nathan, and Bill. The pace was a little faster than this morning, but still an easy conversational pace (around 8:30/mi).

I ran the 2000 N route with Larry, Wayne, and Kevin this morning. I ran most of it at an easy pace. I was surprised to feel some tightness (not pain) in my left calf. It must be from the 10 mile tempo run down Provo Canyon that was part of my 21+ miler on Saturday. My calf loosened up and never really bothered me.

I threw in a couple of fairly long fartlek stretches, one on some moderate uphill in the middle of the run, and the other on a level stretch near the end. Wayne had pulled ahead at the end and was running a 7:15-7:20 pace. I pushed to close the block or so lead he had on us and then finished up the last 1/2 mile or so with him.

AM. I ran the water tank hills with Larry and Wayne this morning. Kevin had said he would be there to charge the hills with me but he didn't show. We old guys normally start all of our runs with a few groans as we work our way through the aches and pains of getting started, but this morning I actually felt pretty good right from the get go.

After the 1.25 mile warm up to get to the hills I shifted gears and started the charge up the hills. I've gradually improved my time up the hills this year from around 17:00 minutes down to 15:15 two weeks ago and 15:05 last week. My goal was sub-15:00 this morning. I worried that I had started out too aggressively. I was working pretty hard right from the start. I just tried to keep my legs turning over as I pushed up the hill. The last hill I was breathing every step, taking small steps to keep my turnover rate up, and just hanging on. I finished in 14:21! Setting PRs is great...but it raises the bar and makes it that much harder the next time.

I also decided to push the last "fast mile" today. I thought I'd just open up and run a quick pace that felt good; I didn't want to push too hard and risk injury. It turns out I felt pretty good and ran it in 6:02 without feeling like I was pushing the limit.

I'm feeling strong and confident. That always scares me.

PM. I ran the 5.2 Lake View route at noon. The day was beautiful. I started out solo. About 1/2 mile in I was feeling pretty good, but didn't want to push it, so I decided on a medium effort run.

A little over a mile into the run I heard a helicopter and looked over my shoulder to take a look. When I did I noticed a runner that I didn't recognize not too far behind me, and he seemed to be gaining on me. I don't get passed all that often on training runs, and especially not on this out of the way route that is mostly just used by runners from Novell on their lunch break. I thought I knew all the Novell runners who were capable of catching me, and he wasn't one of them. I decided to not worry about him. If he caught me, he caught me. It was about half a mile before I finally heard footsteps, but then he didn't seem to want to pass me. I finally turned around and told him he could pass me. He said he would like to but he was giving it about all he had.

We ended up running the last 3 miles or so together to the turnaround point and back to Novell. His name is Ray Miller. He's a manager in Novell IS&T and was on one of their Wasatch Back Relay teams. He's been running for about 1.5 years, and started because someone in IS&T wanted him on their relay team a couple of years ago.

As usual the good conversation helped the time pass. I averaged 7:39/mi for the run.

I ran with Larry up toward the canyon. We were surprised that Wayne didn't show up. That's unusual. My Garmin complained about the lap database being full a little over 2 miles into the run and stopped timing. Larry ran a short loop while I stood under a street light and tried to figure my watch out. I eventually gave up and just finished the run. Based on Larry's watch (subtracting the extra distance he ran) I probably ran around 6 miles, all at easy pace.

Larry and I ran 4 easy miles this morning. We wandered over to the THS track and ran on it for a while. It was nice having a comfortable surface to run on and not have to think about where we were going.

We talked a little about our young adult children. We both have good children, but they don't always make the choices we might like them to make. All we can do is try to make sure we at least teach them correct principles, as we understand them, and then they're going to make their own decisions...kind of like we did when we were their age, and we turned out okay. It's that old circle of life thing.

Larry, Wayne, Kevin and I ran on the canal road, out 7.5 miles then back for a total of 15. I doubled back a couple of times and ended up with 15.6.

It was a nice cool morning and we didn't leave until 7:00am. It was just starting to get a little warm for running when we finished. We got rained on briefly a couple of times. The first time was a pretty hard rain that even included a little hail. Even with the rain, it was a pretty comfortable and pleasant run along the canal road. We passed a number of other people on the canal. Near the end we saw a large group of young male runners. A little while later we saw a slightly smaller group of young female runners. Both groups looked pretty fit. I think they may have been BYU runners.

At about 10 miles I double backed for a 1/10 of a mile or so, took a quick bathroom break, then pushed at around 7:00/mi to catch the others. It was much harder than I thought it would be. After running with them a bit I was feeling really tired and decided I needed to "lock in" and try to hold a good pace the 3-4 miles to the end. Wayne had already pulled ahead so he was my target, but I never caught him. I found it harder than I wanted it to be to hold even an 8:20 pace. That's when I started rationalizing: 1) it's gradual but steady uphill, 2) there's a good headwind, 3) I'm 11-12 miles into the run and I've had no water or gels, 4) I'm wearing my oldest and heaviest trainers, etc. At least it was good training to keep my legs moving when they didn't really want to.

I'm still optimistic about the chance for a good run at St. George. Time will tell.