I'm not crazy...I'm just bored!!

2 on the track with Amy (then 4 laps until she evened her miles)

Hit the TM - 4 miles in 34 min (8:30AP)

1+the last 7 laps from the warm up to round out miles - 1 lap fast/ 1 lap slow. Nice little push after some good average running paces. Felt good to get a little turn-over going.

A good 45 min of strength training, arms, core, lunges and bosu stuff.
 

Despite bad weather forecasts we hit the Tuesday Ten and the weather was actually nice! No moisture falling from the sky and wind at our backs up the corridor. We did get a head/cross wind on some of the donwhill, but you can hardly complain when it is that way and AT your back on the good uphills and downhills.

Hit a nice AP of 7:58 for the miles and had a great pace up the hills...no miles in the 9MM! That is a big deal for Slow Hill Rachel. Felt good about the run.

Spent the rest of the morning/afternoon walking around the Natural History Museum at the University of Utah with my 4th grader and his class. First time on an elementary field trip for me in MANY years. Totally worth it :)

Speed Work. Last week I did 13 repeats, but this week I knew I could do 20...it was just a mental hurdle. I convinced Amy to join me on the TM for some speed work - we were both plugged in and hitting it with having each other to be accountable to! I committed to 20 and I was going to do it.

I didn't get my normal 2 mile warm-up on the track, but I was hoping that would give me more energy :)

5 min warm-up at 7.0 and 1% - dropped the incline and went for it.

1 min on (10.0) 1 min off (6.2) X20

repeats 18&19 I did at 10.1 then decided to shoot for 10.2 the last one. I did and and after the recovery decided it was bonus round day. 10.3 for repeat 21. This put me at 46 minutes for 6.3 miles; an AP of 7:18, I'll take it. This means I ran 21 minutes at a sub 6mm...yes, it was all broken up, but that walways makes me feel like a rock-star. I ran a 19ish min 5K baby! If they'd just stop the clock between 1 min intervals so I could recover that would be great :)

I finished off at a progressive speed to 7.0 miles in 52:00 - an overall AP of 7:25, heck I certainly will not complain.

Then I chatted with ladies on the track to finish my last cool down mile. Ahh, a great day. So, why not do a little more? :)

Arms, core, and some stability and glute/ham work. I really feel good today! I hope this doesn't mean tomorrow will suck.

Shaggy Mountain 1:10...on course for faster than last week, until about .75 out from the end I was blinded by a truck approaching and stepped off the edge of the road and bit it hard.

The wind was knocked out of me and between that and my HR being high and then I stop moving I just couldn't get my bearings to stand up. I laid on the side of the road for 3-5 minutes until the world stopped spinning and I felt like I could stand up. I wasn't hurting on my body so much, I mean a few aches and pains, but mostly just needing to catch my breath. I was about 10 feet behind the group (we were all in single file as the cars came past us) and so no one saw me go down and I'm sure they just thought I'd ditched out to find a bush or something :) But, what was concerning to me was that THREE cars, including the one that was blinding me passed as I lay on the ground not moving a whole lot and not a one stopped to help. Now, I didn't want them to, because I knew I was fine, but what if I wasn't? Even the driver that saw me go down in his headlights didn't stop. I wonder how long it would've taken before someone stopped. At least my friends knew something was wrong and sent Chad to come back to look for me after I was much too far behind the group with no reason. It was just crazy to me that you see someone lying on the road and you don't stop...I had my blinky light and my reflector and everything, just strange.

I gathered myself up and slowly started running the finish. It certainly wasn't as good as I had been looking forward to :/ I wanted to chase Kim down and finish him off this time! But instead I took my long slow hobble back home. I still ended with 1:10 which, unfortunately, is faster than some of my other times, but I was excited to run it even faster. Poo. Next time.

So, I now have  skinned pinky finger (pretty sure I'll lose the nail, because the cuticle and the skin beneath the nail to the knuckle are gone), torn up L elbow and bruised and chopped up knees. I guess it all just matches my black eye now. Shoulder and chest are a little sore too, but not too bad. I just have a new theme song...RAD

9:01, 9:12, 9:24, 9:04, 7:52, 8:56, 7:01, 8:23, 8:08 (last .2) - that 8:23 for the last mile makes me mad, because I was running closer to a low 7 and hadn't hit the good downhill yet! grrr! But, the low 9's for the starting miles is good for me, so I can't complain I guess.

Now, since it is my anniversary today I'm done :) enjoying celebrating the 15 years I've been married to the most wonderful man for me!

I really need to keep up on my blog better. I get so far behind it become a task to record it all, then I download my garmin and can't remember the run anyway...sigh.

Well, this was a 6 mile run, early in the morning with Amy, because no one else runs with me at 5AM :) 8:23 AP

What an incredible day! Leslie Mitchell from Iowa flew out Friday to enjoy a weekend of running and exploring Utah. It was her first time here and so I suggested we plan on Canyonlands and she planned her trip around it. Marci Wood was pacing Canyonlands and so she hitched a ride with us and split hotel and we had an incredible girls weekend! SO much food...oh, the food intake was incredible, I think all we did was run/hike and eat. Nothing else. Leslie kept telling us that she never knew that food consumption was why we could run so fast. I kept trying to tell her we were on vacation and enjoying it, but I don't think she bought it.

Our hotel was walking distance from the start/finish so we got up, had breakfast and easily made the buses at 8AM. A 10AM start is good for sleeping in, but I don't think I've ever started a race that late. Crazy! It was chilly and breezy, but nothing horrible at the start. It was incredibly beautiful more than anything. We all sat and chatted, Marci ran warm-up miles, but Leslie and I were good to chat with Team Edward (a chuck sweatshirt she'd bought to stay warm in). The start seemed to take FOREVER! Plenty of time for multiple pop stops before lining up. When we were off, we were off and it felt great! Leslie was taking a good low 9mm pace which put us right on track to finish around 2:00 - her goal, but due to extreme cold this winter she wasn't sure she'd hit it due to lack of training.

The course was beautiful and the race well organized. Not a single complaint! The few hills weren't horrible, but the wind...oh, the wind! There was a point it actually blew SO hard into me I had to stop running or blow away. No joke. I've never been in wind that bad let alone run in it! The only saving grace was running at the bottom of a butte and then the wind was at our back the last couple miles in town along the highway to the finish.

Marci and I would get water/gatorade/gu for Leslie as needed and catch up to her so she didn't have to stop at aid stations and we took good care of her! Marci was loving the race so much (she got out of pacer duty thanks to Walter forgetting she'd signed up, so she just ran with us) she even stopped at one point and had half a brat! We were laughing non-stop at her antics and she was our paparazzi taking lots of pics as well.

Leslie finished SO strong. I was proud of her last mile+ push. Probably the fastest mile-ish she ran the whole race. I know she has a sub 2:00 in her, but the wind and elevation made this race a non-qualifier after around mile 4. I would keep pointing out people for her to push and pass. Giving her motivation to keep running and pushing and not stop and she responded so well! Once she even said "I feel like I'm going to puke!" I responded "good! That means you left it all out there, now push through to the finish and barf!" Later she told me there were moments she hated me :) But, she loved it in the end...that is what a pacer is good for! Make you hate them just enough to push you to the end! I did my duty well.

We visited with some other runners afterward and then walked back to the hotel while Marci ran some cool-down miles. We all showered, had chocolate milk and then took off for an afternoon/evening of hiking!

First up was Coronoa/bowtie Arch. A 2.5 mile hike, relatively easy. We just walked and chatted and enjoyed the scenery and company. There were people swinging off the Arch when we got there...so scary to watch them. We didn't want to witness a death!

Went to early dinner...Mexican Food, of course. Ate ourselves sick, then went into Arches to do the quintiscential sunset Delicate Arch hike. We timed it perfect and despite the wind still had an incredible time and the views and pics were unparallelled! Leslie said she'd never seen anything so beautiful and even got choked up a bit as she sat alone contemplating...yup. Totally worth the WHOLE trip!

Went back to the hotel, did some shopping then wanted to find some dessert. We'd seen a little Greek place by the hotel on the walk back from the race, but we kept trying to find something else. We finally decided we were just going to do the Greek place...cross our fingers it was still open. It was their GRAND opening day! SO many delicious stuff on the menu we didn't know what to choose...and we didn't do just dessert either :) We had dips/hummus with breads and a poached pear with Turkish cotton candy (holy WOAH! SO incredible!) a chocolate mouse and rice pudding. It was all SO incredible. Seriously. I said I'd give up sex for the rest of my life if I could eat there once a week. It was that good. Like I said, hiking/running eating. That was all we did.

After a good nights rest we got up, had an incredible warm breakfast at the hotel then after checking out went to Negro Bill Canyon. My favorite hike in Moab! It was a beautiful morning and we just loved every minute of the hike. I didn't want to leave so soon, but Leslie had a plane to catch and Marci and I had families waiting. So, we started home. We stopped for treats and snacks and well, we outdid ourselves again, but it was all good and fun. An incredible girls trip for sure! I'd love to run Canyonlands again. No complaints at all about the race, except it is over spring break weekend and the hotel prices are worse than St George marathon weekend!! by like $200!! Ugh. Anyway, totally worth it.

Leslie left early Monday morning. Wish I could've had another 3-4 days with her. I guess now I need to find a marathon near Quad Cities and have her show ME around!