My wife drove me up the canyon again. I didn't see any other runners this time. I started at a campground about 10 miles up the canyon, ran 1 mile up a trail, ran back down, and then 16 miles home. Elevation start was 7450 ft. So I only dropped 3000 ft this time. I ran a relaxed pace all the way down. It felt comfortable. Through the first 9 miles (including the first uphill mile), my average pace was 8:00. Once I got out of the canyon, I threw in three tempo miles (it was still downhill) at 6:45, 6:40, and 6:50. Those were a little hard but not too bad. The rest of the way (mostly a slight uphill) I ran about 8:00 pace average, so better than last week. Average pace for the entire run was 7:47. I was tired at the end but not wasted. The first few days of this week I was just trying to recover from last Saturday's run and ran shorter mileage. I ran further than normal on Friday and then a good run today, putting me at 60 miles again. Now it's time to taper. Next week will be 45-50 miles. We'll see how that goes. | 