Running on Empty

10 easy watching Lord of the Rings Return of the King.  Then my in-laws, whom I love, came so I didn't get to finish.

7 at 8:30 with random incline to 1.5% incline. 6 at 6:48 at -3.0% decline. 3 at 6:42 at -3.0 decline to end. 16 total, then some foam roller for IT band.

7 easy.  Nothing special.

Foam roller for IT Band.  14 at 8:30 with randomly varying incline program up 1.5% incline.  (I was too tired/lazy to really push pace, so I just ran a bunch uphill.)  Followed with 30 minute core class.  Finished with more foam roller for IT Band. 

 p.m.  6 easy.

6 easy, short on time having to pick up daughter and nephew from Karate.

Foam roller before run. 2 easy at 8:30 at random incline to 1.5%, followed by 1 at 8:30 but constant 5% incline (to mimic Veyo), followed by 1 at 8:30 at random incline to 1.5%, then 8 at 6:53 at -3.0% decline. Foam roller to end.

1.5 mile warmup.  0.4 cooldown.

 3.1 at Tithing Hill Ward 5K. I blogged about this once before, but I'll repeat that the only 5ks I've ever "raced" our my neighborhood/ward 5k.  In the past I have always taken 3rd.  This year I tried to do better.

 Not having much experience pacing for a 5k, I decided to go out with the leader.  I purposefully did not wear my heart rate monitor because in the past when I see it getting high, I wimp out.  Well, after working our way past all the little tykes, 4 time defending champ Ian went out fast (for us non-elite runners) and I went with him.  We quickly left Marci, who in the past has finished ahead of me behind.  We went through the first mile split in 5:50 and at this point, I mentally said, "I want to finish" so Ian gapped me. He gapped me during the 2nd mile and I never made it up.  I did push him to his personal record 19:12 and I finished behind in 2nd at 19:30.  .

 Now all is not lost.  The course is first half way out on the Jordan River train, then back to the finish, so it is fairly flat with no net elevation gain or loss, so 19:30 is an honest indicator of where I am at.  Not too bad considering I decided to train seriously (for me) only about a week before Des News.  Also, I'm in the middle of my highest training volume ever, with no taper yet.  I need to race more to get experience racing, but this was a good workout.  I took off 21 seconds from my treadmill 5k August 8 (19:51), so that is also good progress.