My super kind wife and daughter took me up to Solitude in Big Cottonwood Canyon and dropped me off. Actually, it was just past Solitude at the Guardsman Pass turnoff. It was 8500 ft elevation. And I followed Dustin's advice to run downhill. The first five miles were at about 7:30-7:50 pace as I was getting warmed and before I went to the bathroom. After that, I blew through some quick miles around 7:00 pace or faster (the best was 6:33). It felt really, really good to do that. The rest of the way down the canyon, I was around 7:00 pace as well as for 2-3 miles in town. Most of this was downhill. Then I ran through Fort Union and up 1000 East and those miles were 8:30-8:50 pace. I was pretty tired by the end but not extremely sore. We'll see how it is tomorrow. Average pace was 7:25. It was great to get in a quicker long run, even if it was mostly downhill. It gave me more confidence in my goal pace for St. George. This week was supposed to be a recovery week. And it was other than two hard workouts. But somehow I still got my mile up to 60 again. That's the fourth time. So I'm elated about that. One more hard week and then the taper begins.
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