Every Race is an Adventure!

I started the Eagles View run with Tom today, but ended up running all but the first step or two alone. Tom's running 10+ miles per day now, so he put in a 4 mile warm up before I got there. As soon as he said his horses were feeling it today and asked if I was ready to go fast, I knew we wouldn't be staying together long. He wanted to try for a PR on the Eagles View course. I had no desire to hold him back, and have no problem running solo, so I encouraged him to go for it.

 Tom met his goal by running the five mile course with the big hill in something like 33:30 (6:42/mi). I couldn't even see him on the way back, but I feel good about my run anyway. I met my goals of 1) making it to the Eagles View gate before Tom got around the block and back to it, and 2) having him not beat me by more than a minute per mile. I finished in 37:33 (7:31/mi), which is actually pretty good for me. I've been trying to use Tom's improvement as motivation for my own improvement, but now that Tom has entered the world of the demigods I'm just going to return to focusing on my own improvement as a mere mortal.

The temperature was a little colder this morning, in the low 20's with a bit of wind chill. We started running toward the mouth of Provo Canyon but adjusted our course away from the canyon as we felt the cold winds increasing as we got closer. We ended up cutting the run a little short because Larry had to get home. I was going to run a little farther but then thought maybe I'd run at noon.. It wasn't until later I remembered my daughter has a choir performance at the school that won't allow me to run at noon. Oh well.

I was going to do a two-a-day today but then last night I was thinking that rather than running alone in the morning I could probably just run 10 miles with Tom at lunch,which is what I did. We left for the first 5 miles early enough that we could meet up with any others that might be going out at 12:10 for the normal Lake View run. We got back to the fitness center right on time, but no one else was heading out. Nathan was there but is still having trouble with his back. Bill was also there but was doing his normal noon class. We didn't see Will or Darin. So we headed out and ran Lake View with just the two of us again. It's been a while since I've done a 10 mile run, especially on a weekday, but we took it easy and I really enjoyed it.

According to my Garmin we ran 10.35 miles and averaged 8:33/mi. The slowest mile was 8:51 and the fastest was 8:21. I'm pretty sure this is slower than Tom would have went on his own, but I appreciate him running with me. It was a great run.

The temperature has dropped into what Larry refers to as "stupid" cold. It was in the teens this morning. I ran the Serpentine solo this morning at a very easy pace (9:39/mi). I don't know if it was the cold, the 10 miles I ran with Tom at midday yesterday, or a little of both, but I had a hard time getting up to speed this morning. Still, I had dressed well so I was comfortable and it was really not too bad.