Run RF

4.2 Run to pick up my car, because drinking and driving is not cool.

10.3 Ran City Creek Canyon with Collin, he pushed the pace. What a jerk.

14 Workout today and Wednesday to get an extra easy day in before the 15k on Saturday.  The plan was to run down to Sugarhouse and two miles in start the 10 mile tempo (58:30), six in the park and two miles back home with 2 miles cool down.  Went well the splits aren't consistent, but that's to be expected with a hilly course first two were net downhill 5:37, 5:44.  Then the next six in the park were 5:37, 5:51, 5:42, 5:53, 5:43, 5:59.  With the slow miles being net up and fast ones being net down.  Then the last two were 6:03, 6:18 both were about 100 foot climb and felt very hard.  The elevation adjustment thing in Strava puts all the miles at roughly the same effort so I'm pretty happy with this, but think I'm still feeling the weekend. The last two miles were probably a mistake and in the future I'll keep it with the rollers and just do a longer cool down.

The question of where Jon Kotter has been came up on the long run.  I have an answer today, flying by me in Sugarhouse while I'm doing a workout.

I will be celebrating James K. Polk's achievements today. Despite the fact that the State of Utah has declared today Washington and Lincoln Day to avoid support of an unnamed recently elected Executive Branch leader. Manifest Destiny son!

4.5 Easy run around the Aves. Feeling the Tonyburger from lunch, I don't know how the great Dane Rauchenberg does it.

12 Sugarhouse and Liberty, nice and easy. Every little up felt like a mountain.

Solid article on shoes, the best quote comes from the Altra guy. Basically you can tell when shoes are wearing out.

NYT Article

4.5 Around the Aves.

10.5  Everyone's favorite workout 16 by 400.  Limited venues to do it in so I went to the fieldhouse at the U.  My legs were definitely feeling it on the jog down and the first few intervals, but once I got into a groove it went very well. I ran 4 straights and three turns and then about 200m jog between each.  The first one was in 79 then 76 and just kept getting faster.  The middle intervals were in the 70-72 range and the last two were 69 and 68.  With the goofy distance of the track it's hard to tell the exact distance, but it was close enough.  Mostly I focused on form and once I figured out how to run fast again things went well.  It feels good (though it still hurts) to run fast like that again.  I think it's important, even in marathon training, to have a few hard track sessions to remind the body how to move quick.

4.5  Got the new Nike Flyknit trainers so took them out for a jaunt.  Ran into Bill and a few of his East kids.  Felt good, though that hill on Virginia still hurts.

Also got a speedsuit, can't wait to take it out in a race.

10.5 Sugarhouse and Liberty nice and slow like, the slippery surfaces helped keep the pace down in points too.  My left shin is a little off after yesterday, my legs just aren't used to banging around on an indoor track.

7 Fieldhouse run with Collin, mercifully flat.  Hungry now.

Fieldhouse run, avoided the snow except between my house and there.  Felt quite tired, and averaged about 7:45 pace there. Very relaxing. Threw in a few striders in at the end.  Weather looks interesting for the race tomorrow, with winds up to 40mph possible.  We'll see how it all shakes out.

It was pretty crazy day for a race.  Not a flake had fallen overnight and weather.com said the snow would hold off till at least 10:30.  But we all know that the weatherman likes to lie to us.  Right at the Saltair exit the snow started coming down, and I got there just in time to see the early star.  Met up with Fritz and "warmed" up 3 miles. Luckily we were both bundled up so only out faces were getting stung with little snowflakes.  When I got back in to put on my tights Jake and Rob Murphy and decided to take their leave of this race as conditions had deteriorated too far for their fragile bodies ;).  I made myself a makeshift face warmer out of one of my arm sleeves and some pins, and threw on my Brook Cascadias to get some traction out there. 

Like all the SLCTC races this one went off at exactly 10AM Mountain Time.  The wind had shifted and let up some so it acted as a tailwind going out.  From the Start it was BJ, Fritz, Chris (East High all-star) and me.  With about 1" of snow on the ground it ended up being pretty easy going.  The first few miles we stayed together then BJ started gaping up and Fritz went after him.  BJ then lost his glasses around 4 miles and stopped to pick them up being him back to us.  At the turnaround we were still close together, but then the wind started hitting us, and I went from being too hot to just about right (except my face).  The snow would melt on my face and obscure my vision, so I had to run with one eye closed on the way back.  BJ caught back up to Fritz then I caught Fritz too and ended up with about a 15" gap between us the whole way back.  My legs felt heavy the first two miles back, but started coming back the last miles of the race.  But there was nothing to be done, I ended up second in about 56:30, I didn't stop my watch immediately as I had no manual dexterity and the shirt was frozen around the watch.  Unofficially I am the winner of the Winter Series with the lowest overall time, due to a rough day for Fritz after a hard week of PT for him. 

I am disappointed by the weather today, this was supposed to be a good indicator of my fitness going into the last 7 weeks of Boston training and help set goals for the next few weeks.  I know I'm in good shape, but how good?  Right now my goals are at minimum sub 2:35, and best case sub-2:31 good for the American Development corral at Chicago.  The next race is Canyonlands in three weeks, and should tell me a lot about where I am.  This is the grinding part of the training cycle.

My plan for next week is to back off the miles a little bit and give myself a few extra days to recover from the 15k then hit a big long run on Saturday.  Back to back 106 mile weeks have felt surprisingly good, though the easy days have been as slow as I can manage.

Splits: 5:53, 5:43. 5:42, 5:46, 5:58 (turnaround at 4.65), 6:32, 6:31, 6:15, 6:14, ~2:00 (.321).

Meet tomorrow at Highland at 9AM for an easy 10!

Even the birds were flying away from it: