Everything Counts

AM: 12.14 miles easy on the Riverdale Parkway with Ken, Dave, Bret, and Jon.

PM: 5 miles easy pushing the kids in the jogger and with Amy.

AM: AEROBIC BUILDER

We had a good group this morning with Jace, Ben, Jon, and Albert. Jace did seven miles with me; I went one more to make it eight miles at a 5:22 avg.

PM: 4.1 miles easy around South Weber. 

9.46 miles easy with Dave and Ken. I had some tired legs this morning, but glad to still get some ok miles in.

PM: I jogged alongside Evelyn in her South Weber kids k race. She had a lot of fun and it was fun to watch her.

PROGRESSION LONG RUN

I met up with Jace way too early in the morning and got started on a progressive long run.  The goal was to just start slow and increase in the pace each mile until we hit the low 5:00s.  We both felt pretty sluggish the whole time, but it still ended up ok (but not great).  Progression through 14 miles and then easy cool down after that.  Splits 754 718 700 706 639 616 605 558 556 547 537 530 521 506

8.45 miles easy.  Another enjoyable "Furlough Friday" trail run with Dave.

AM: SOUTH WEBER DAYS 10K (RICHARD BOUCHARD MEMORIAL)

 I'm very happy with my race this morning. I didn't plan on running this fast, but I felt really good and went with it.  This is a low key race in my neighborhood, but it's very well organized for a small city of 6,000 residents.

The course is not an easy one.  The first 5k has about 250 feet of climb and drop and the second 5k is mostly flat with one quick, very steep drop (about 0.05 long but very steep).  I took the first mile out somewhat hard and was by myself within a tenth of a mile.  So it was just me and the sheriff car.  I tried to run behind the car to block the wind...haha.  But it didn't work as well as I was hoping it would.  First mile was 5:07 (mostly flat except last tenth is up).  Mile two has a lot of uphill and is probably the most difficult mile. I ran it in 5:09, which was almost 20 seconds faster than I ran that mile last year.

Mile three drops a ton and then turns around and comes right back up the same road.  So the first half of the mile I was rolling 4:30 pace and the second half like 5:35-ish pace for a mile three split of 5:06.  My first 5k was right around 15:52 I think.

Now the course gets substantially easier.  I was still recovering from the uphill push so mile four wasn't quite as fast as I had hoped for.  Mile four 5:00.  Now I was recovered and really getting in a groove.  Mile five, which includes the quick, steep drop was 4:52.

Now I just had 1.22 of flat terrain to the finish.  I continued to push as I weaved in and out of slower 5k runners and managed a 4:51 mile six.  Then I turned it on a bit more and averaged 4:30 pace for the last 0.22 (59 seconds for last 0.22).   Final time of 31:07.  

 Last year I was 32:13 and 32:4x the year before that.  So, this was a really good time for me and it's actually my best 10k since college (minus 10k splits of downhill half marathons).

So, I'm feeling good and the weight I've dropped is paying off.   

PM: 5.51 miles easy.  My goal this week was to hit 90 miles for the first time ever.  I came up short as of this morning and it just wasn't sitting well with me.  So, I headed back out this evening to get the 90 mpw monkey off my back!  Weekly mileage PR!