Every Race is an Adventure!

6.1 miles @ 10:11/mi  Ye old Lindon loop through Lindon Park solo.

The angels had their leaf blowers out this morning. There was a strong wind from the NW. It was nice at 3 miles out when I hit the NW corner of my route and then had the wind to my back. At one point some leaves ran right along with me for a bit. There was a bright moon out. It was enjoyable.

I think my legs were still a little tired from all those uphills on Saturday.

6 miles @ 9:25/mi.  Murdock trail north with Kevin.

I was sure glad Kevin was out this morning. My legs felt dead as I started out into the cold and dark. I briefly considered turning back and not running, and seriously considered cutting the run in half. Fortunately, I didn't and endured far enough to meet up with Kevin. From then on I enjoyed the run.

6 miles @ 9:16/mi.  Murdock trail north with Kevin.

I've been feeling slow in the cold. After dropping off Kevin I decided to push the last 0.6 miles home, a mix of moderate downhill and flat. I averaged 7:10/.mi. I'll take it.

6 miles @ 8:56/mi.  Murdock trail north with Kevin.

The little bit of speed I did at the end of yesterday's run felt so good I decided to go a little more uptempo today. I didn't warn Kevin, but he hung right with me. Conversation was down a bit, but it was a great run.

The first and last miles were at an easier pace, but we ran marathon pace-ish for the middle 4 flat miles. Splits: 9:44 (up), 9:03, 8:44, 8:34, 8:35, 8:56 (down).

10 miles @ 8:37/mi.  Murdock canal north solo @ 3:30pm.

My running buddies were not available in the morning, and I wanted to get an early start to help Karen with some holiday preparations...and it was cold...so I postponed my AM run. About 3:00pm Karen and the girls went shopping so I decided to head out for a 10 mile run before the BYU football game at 5pm.

I decided to try to push the pace a little. After the first warmup (uphill) mile I held marathon pace effort for miles 2-5. This was mostly into a strong, cold headwind from the north. The key thing I wanted to do was to push miles 6-9 at threshold pace on the way back, before cooling down the last mile.

My splits were:
Warmup: 9:13 (uphill)
Marathon pace: 8:50, 8:55, 9:04, 9:26 (very slight downhill, headwind)
Threshold: 7:49, 7:58, 7:58, 7:49 (very slight uphill, tailwind)
Cooldown: 9:03 (downhill)

The cold headwind made the marathon pace miles a little more challenging. I was nervous about how much faster, if at all, I would be able to push miles 5-9. Turning around at mile 5 out of the headwind to a tailwind helped much more than I had anticipated. I feel good abaout hold sub-8:00 pace for 4 miles.

Part of the run today was to prepare mentally...and physically...for the 4 mile Earn Your Turkey run I signed up for on Thanksgiving morning. It looks like I should be able to run sub-8:00 pace if I work hard. I'm sort of hoping race day magic might get me closer to 7:30 pace and running the 4 miles in sub-30 minutes. Make it or not, I'm looking forward to the opportunity.