Fly me to the moon...

It was another slow day along the trail, but there were dry spots in parts so that is encouraging.  With a few days of warmer temps and no snow this week, the trail should be in good shape soon.  It was the usual 5 along the trail with Sasha in 43:05 (8:37/mile).

Ran with a big group this morning.  We had Sasha, Mary Ann, Michelle, and Tyler.  I did the warmup with the group and then the first 500m or so with them on their speedwork.  Then I headed home.  Total time for the ~5.5 was 45:12 (8:13/mile).

I did 3.5 in the morning with Sasha and Mary Ann.  The time was 30:00 (8:34/mile) for the entire run.  I plan to do the New Year Run this afternoon so more on that later.

After the run in the morning at 9 degrees, I wasn't sure how warm it would be for the race.  I kept an eye on the temp and it still said 19 degrees at 12:30.  Then it jumped to 33 just before I left.  The sun was shining and it felt nice.  I drove over, registered and got my number.  After a quick wardrobe change, I set out for a bit of a warmup.  I ended up doing a little over a mile including a little bit with Sasha.  I did some stretching and some strides and got ready to race.  The start was a little bit delayed, but it wasn't too much of an inconvenience.  I just kept my warmups on and kept warm.  My goal for the race was to go somewhere around 5:50-6 minutes per mile.  The race started and Sasha took off.  I debated on whether to go with him and try to hang as long as possible, but decided against it since he was shooting for 5:20-5:30 pace.  Adam and Chauncy were right there so I thought maybe I could draft for awhile, but the pace was too slow so I took off.  Sasha was slowly pulling away, and I was building a small gap on Adam.  I hit the first mile in a respectable 5:45.  The course out to the turnaround was a headwind the whole time after about 600 meters.  It was a bit cold, but I kept pushing.  I was feeling good and passed Sasha going the other way.  I hit the turnaround and had about a 100 meter lead on Adam, but Chauncy was closing on Adam.  It was a little after the turnaround that I developed a nasty side cramp on my right side.  The same thing happened on my last race.  It was slowing me down and generally being annoying.  I didn't see the mark for the 2nd mile, but I got my split at the mile mark on the way back and figured my splits out that way.  The second mile was 6:24, so I slowed down considerably.  I expected Adam and Chauncy to go by any second, but there was no sign of them.  I finally got the cramp worked out a little bit with a half mile to go and tried to kick it in.  With about 400 meters to go, I could hear someone coming up behind me so I sped up a notch.  I didn't want to look behind me so with 200 to go I gave it all I had.  The last mile was 5:52 with the last 0.1 in 36 s for a total time of 18:37.  That is almost right on 6:00/mile pace, so I was pleased.  It is the fastest 5K I have run in quite awhile.  The last 5K I ran was the Cougar run in 2006 with a time of 19:28.  My training has been sporadic for the past couple of months and almost non-existent before that while working through an injury.  My time will drop as I get some more consistent training in.  I finished the day by running a cooldown with Adam.  We ran out to the turnaround of the course and drove his truck back while picking up the cones along the way.

I was pleased with the race overall.  It was small but adequate.  Having the registration, food and awards in a house nearby was nice.  Things didn't go as smoothly as they could have, but I enjoyed myself, and Mary Ann did a good job overall.  Things will improve as more people hear of the races, and the bugs in the system work themselves out.  I will definitely run more races in the series and will recommend it to my friends.

We were flying on the trail today.  It helps when it isn't completely covered by snow and ice.  There are still large portions with snow and ice, but usually there are dry spots along the edges.  I ran the usual 5 miles with Sasha and Mary Ann in a total time of 40:08 (8:01/mile). 

It was a good run.  I had a hard time getting out of bed this morning.  I was tired from staying up late and from the race yesterday, and my bed was nice and warm.  I just remembered what Sasha said yesterday morning running when you don't want to.  You need to learn to run when you don't feel like it, so I dragged myself out of bed.  I was surprised that my legs weren't really sore from the race yesterday.  The calves were a little tight, but they loosened up just fine during the run.

Another heat wave this morning with temps in the 30s.  We had Sasha, Mary Ann and James this morning for the usual 5 miles.  Total time was 44:00 (8:48/mile).  Sasha wanted to try some 30m sprints in the dry spots.  I didn't count how many we did, but I would guess it was about 10 times during the run.

Ran with the group this morning that included Sasha, Mary Ann, Jeff, James, and Angela.  It was pretty cold and windy, and under the bridges it was pretty icy.  Under the bridges for I-15 it was particularly bad with black ice nearly the entire way.  I hit a bad spot and went down.  It was the first time I have ever fallen on the ice.  I didn't really get hurt, and it was kind of fun sliding on my back for about 5-10 feet on the ice.  I had a nice big frozen spot on my sweatshirt by the end of the run.  We ran about 2.75 to the start of the 5K course from the New Years Eve run.  Then the rest of the group except James and I started some speedwork.  I don't know how far or how fast they went because it was pretty icy even on the roads.  I started to go with them for the first part, but couldn't get enough traction.  James and I did another 400m on the trail and then headed back for a total of 6.  Our time was pretty good considering the conditions at about 50:22 (8:23/mile).  I'm not sure how accurate the time is though because I stopped and started it a few times.  The tunnels under the train bridges were full of icy water so we had to go around a couple of times rather than run in frozen, wet shoes.  It was quite the adventure today.