Every Race is an Adventure!

I ran the Lindon loop with Larry, Kent and Kevin. We ran our usual mostly easy cold morning pace of 9:15 to 9:45/mi. As we turned to head south on a long stretch near the middle of the run I decided I needed to push hard and run fast for a while. I let out a grunt/shout and took off. I only managed about a 7:10/mi pace for the next mile or so to Lindon Park, but that was 2:00/mi faster than the current pace. It felt more like 6:30 pace effort, and it felt good to be able to expend that kind of effort. I'm obviously not in top race condition, but I feel like I'm beginning to make progress back in that direction.

I ran the 2000 N route with Kent and Kevin. We expected both Larry and Wayne this morning, but they didn't show. It's nice having Kevin back out again. This was three consecutive runs for him.

We ran a slightly faster pace this morning, but still at an easy pace, about 9:00 to 9:15/mi on the flat sections. A couple of times I felt the urge to maybe push for a while, but I was just tired enough to resist the urge. I decided to save myself and maybe give a good push up the water tank hills tomorrow.

I ran the water tank hills with Kent today. We expected Larry, Wayne and Kevin today. What's up? That's two days in a row that Larry and Wayne have been no shows.

We had a good run anyway. I pushed hard up the hills in16:29, not a PR but satisfactory. I pushed the last "fast half mile" at 6:34/mi pace. Again not a PR, but good enough.

After two weeks or so of taking naproxen twice a day as an anti-inflammatory to treat my sore hip, I stopped taking it yesterday to see how I'd be without it. I'm a little hesitant to take it for too long. My hip was a little more sore than it has been for the past two weeks, but I still ran pretty well and the pain wasn't debilitating. I think I'll see how things go the rest of the week. If it remains sore, I may go back on the anti-inflammatories for a while longer.

I ran the Cascade route with Kent. It's good Kent started running again or I would have run alone most of this week.

We ran the 2000 N route in the reverse direction this morning. Larry had to be back early so we left at 5:45am and only ran a short route. We had a pretty good snowfall during most of the run. There was about an inch of snow sticking to the road at the top of 2000 N.

When we realized we hadn't told Wayne about the swtich to 5:45am, we suspected he might show up at 7:00am. Larry and I talked after the run while we waited for him, but fortunately he didn't show up. I would have went with him, but after standing in the cold for a while my body was happy just to get home and be warm again.