Every Run is a Great Run!

AM: Recover day for me. Decided to give Kim the character-building experience of running up/down Loafer mountain. Kind of a warm, muggy morning, we even felt a few raindrops right at the beginning. Had a bit of a headwind as we headed up the hill so that didn't help much. Usually runners really struggle and walk alot the first time running up Loafer but Kim did pretty well and seemed to get stronger as the hill got steeper. Saw a few deer and a bunch of hummingbirds. One hummingbird in particular seemed to want to help us up the hill as it would fly just out in front of us, seemingly there to lead the way and prod us to keep chugging away. We went as far as the gate then turned around and cruised down the hill, ending with 6.6 miles.

Ave pace: 9:51

Late AM: Core workout plus 10-minutes on the bike = 1 easy mile.

AM: After warmup of 2 miles or so I did some mile repeats. Was planning on doing these on a straight flat road close to home that is almost exactly a mile long but with the nasty canyon wind I decided to do them down in the river bottoms instead and take advantage of the slight downhill and no wind factor.

The goal was to do 5 mile repeats at 10K pace with 2-min recovery jog in between. While I would eventually like to see my 10K pace at close to 6 minutes even, I know I'm not there yet and since I've been in a bit of running slump the last couple of months I wanted to give myself plenty of leeway on pace so I wouldn't be tempted to end the workout early if things didn't go so well. So I decided to shoot for anything in the 6-6:30 range. By running in the river bottoms mostly with a slight tailwind and slight downhill I also hoped to set myself up to not tank the workout.

All in all feel pretty good about the workout. Not spectacular and not as easy as I would have liked it to be, but well within the goal and good enough to let me know I'm not far from where I'd like to be. My legs were also still a little fatigued from the Loafer hill runs on Mon/Tues and it was warm so I'll give myself a B+ on the workout.

Mile splits: 6:11, 6:11, 6:10, 6:19, 6:09.

All miles except for mile 4 were probably slightly downhill with a slight tailwind. Mile 4 had about a 1/2 mile of slight uphill and headwind. I think if I would have done these on flat with no wind they would have all been around 6:15.

PM: Ran a couple of miles with Paul. He was planning on going further but turned his ankle on the dirt trail so he wisely decided to turn around and head back. Not sure on pace probably in the 8:30-9:00 range.

AM: Nice and easy 6 mile recovery run with Kim after the hard intervals yesterday. Not feeling too beat up after yesterday but I was quite happy to take it easy and save some energy for the 18-20 miler tomorrow including pacing Kim to a likely 5K PR!

Ave pace 10:10. 

Late AM: 20 minutes on the bike and core workout. Counting as 2 easy miles.

Down in Manti for good ol' small town 4th of July festivities. Woke up around 5 and went out to do my long run for the week. Plan was for 20 miles with the middle 16 miles at under 8 min pace. This week and last week I notice it takes me a good 8-10 miles before I can get into a good rhythm and the sub-8 pace starts to feel nice and easy. I'm wondering with all the trouble I have running decent 5K races if I shouldn't try doing an 8 mile slow warmup before the next race.

The excitement of this run and what got me really pumped to finish the last 8 of the 16 miles closer to 7:30 pace than to 8 was in pacing Kim to another great 5K PR for her as she finished in 23:55 and broke 24 minutes for the first time. I was thinking with Manti being about 1000 ft. higher in elevation than SF and with Kim not getting a good nights sleep and with no taper that a PR might not be in the cards. But with all the great training she's been doing she totally smoked the last mile (around 7:15 pace?) to get the sub-24. Check out her race report for more details. Good job Kim!

Ave pace for middle 16 miles: 7:50.

Finished of the 20 miles with 2 easy cooldown miles with Kim. This is the best my legs have felt this year after a 20-miler. Hopefully this means good things await down the road... 

Kim and I joined the SF group for an easy 14 miler at 5am. Pretty good size group today with a few new people I didn't know. Legs feeling pretty good after the 20-miler yesterday.

Ave pace: 9:29

AM: Ran Loafer again. Legs seem to be getting their zip back as I thought I was running about equal effort to last week but my splits were quite a bit faster and easily the quickest ever for me up Loafer. Tacked on a little extra at the end shooting for 8 miles but I misjudged and ended up with 8.2.

Uphill splits: 8:24, 8:50, 8:56, 6:17 (.65 miles, 9:41 pace)

Downhill/flat splits: 5:54, 7:00, 6:57, 7:17, 4:23 (.54 miles, 8:04 pace)

Overall average pace: 7:49.

PM: Ran with Paul and Nate 5.2 miles easy out LakeView direction. Had an enjoyable run, not quite as hot as last week and maybe we're getting a bit more used to the heat. Legs feeling pretty good after Loafer this morning.

Ave pace: 8:15.

This will be a reduced mileage / recover week for me, probably around 50 miles. Most of the reduction will come at the end of the week and will probably include a 5K race/time-trial on Saturday.

I have the day off work today so we slept in a bit longer than usual and then drove 2 vehicles over to Payson so we could do a downhill canyon run. Ran 8 miles from the Grotto down to Pateetneet. I tried to keep Kim reigned in on pace but she kept ignoring Coach Tom's suggestions to take it easy. Actually it seems like lately when I suggest to slow down she speeds up instead! I may have to rethink my strategy of having her fast days be my recovery days as I don't know if I'm getting much recovery as of late.

Ave pace: 7:55 

AM: Did some mile repeats with 2 minute rests in between. Since this is a reduced/rest mileage week I cut back on the number of repeats and only did 3 instead of building on last weeks 5. Legs still a tad sore from the hill running the last couple of days but still fresh enough for a touch of faster running. Wanted to stay between my goal 10K pace (6:00) and current 10K pace (6:10-6:15?). Did good on the first 2 miles but kind of wimped out on the last one. Lots of other runners out today, passed a few bloggers and lost sheep but I wasn't very sociable since I was sucking wind big time finishing up the fast miles.

Splits were 6:00, 5:59, 6:06. Ave pace overall 7:59.

I found a race in Orem to run Saturday (Best Buddies 5K). Hope with a mini-taper and fresh legs I can hold around a 5:55 pace for at least a couple of miles and ideally all the way to the finish. But I really know nothing about the course, how fast it is, etc. Plus it's at 8am so it might be a bit warm. The only goal I have for this race is practicing mental toughness and better dealing with pain during the last half of the race. I don't really care what time I get, if I get to the finish line feeling like I was able to endure the pain well and maybe push just a little harder/longer than I have before I will be very pleased.

PM: Ran out 2 miles with Paul and Nate around 8:15 pace before turning back (they went 5 or 6) and finishing quite a bit slower since my legs were feeling a bit heavy and tired. Looking forward to lower miles and very easy pace the next few days. Ave pace 8:44.

AM: Ran with Kim down to the river bottoms then ran 3 x 1 mile repeats with 2 min. rests at around Kim's 10K pace or a bit quicker. She did great as usual but at least I was successful in finally making her a little sore after the 8 mile run down Payson Canyon on Tuesday. Not exactly sure on her splits since I don't have the garmin, plus there was a bit of disagreement between Kim's garmin and mine on our pacing. If I remember correctly the 1st 2 miles were right at 8 minutes and the last one was around 7:40.

Overall ave pace around 9:10.

Late AM: 10 minutes on the bike then core workout.

Yes that is correct. 2 easy miles with Kim this morning. It was nice to sleep in a bit and get some extra sleep. My legs/body are needing a little extra rest and this is supposed to be a reduced mileage week so I figured it was about time to actually get around to having a reduced mileage day. Also running a 5K tomorrow so hopefully I'll be a little fresher than I've been for recent races.

Ave pace 9:28.

Taking my son and nephew to a concert tonight at USANA. Journey/Heart/CheapTrick, hmm.... you think maybe I'm an 80's child or something? Actually my son Tyler is a big fan of 70's and 80's 'classic' rock and loves Journey and Heart so it was actually his idea to go. Should be fun.

Not a good day. Didn't get home from the concert until about 1am then couldn't sleep at all. Stomach churning and loud music hangover. The concert was pretty good (especially Journey) but as always the volume is louder than it needs to be and since I kind of fried my ears during my high school and college rock band days I don't handle the loud volumes so well.

So anyway I had already decided last night against doing the Best Buddies 5K. Adam had sent me an email showing the course. It looked short but also checking google earth it looked hilly. So I had decided to just do my own 5K time trial around SF on flat roads. Felt horrible during the warmup from lack of sleep and gunky stomach so I didn't have high expectations. Well I probably would have been better off just bagging the whole thing and just doing a long slow distance run since I quit after 2 miles and just had nothing in the tank and didn't care. I was just not physically, mentally, or emotionally in a state to try and doing anything race-ish today. So we'll just call this a decent 2 mile tempo run and leave it at that. Glad to not have any more 5K's planned in the near future and I'm looking forward to getting back to the longer, slower tempo runs of 4-12 miles that seem to suit me much better than the short speedy stuff.

Mile splits: 5:56, 6:00. Overall ave pace: 7:55.

AM: Kim and I met up with Bill and Jennifer at Pateetneet to run the Payson up/down run. I had high hopes of being able to do the 5-up/5-down in the same amount of time as the rest of the gang was doing the 4-up/4-down. Wrong! They went a bit faster than I thought they would and I was over 6 minutes slower overall. Obviously I'll need to work a lot harder to have any chance of winning this little game. I was also a bit irritated that I had some headwind both on the way up AND down. What's up with that?

Uphill splits: 8:10, 8:10, 7:55, 8:09, 8:38

Down: 6:45, 7:09, 7:21, 7:15, 7:11

Ave pace 7:40.

PM: Ran 4 miles easy with Paul out Eagleview direction. Also was it just me or was the blog down all morning?

Ave pace 8:36.

AM: Easy recovery with Kim. Ran our river bottoms 10K loop but with some add-on at the end to get to 7+ miles. Didn't wear the garmin today, just went off Kim's. Hopefully with taking it real easy today I'll have some zip for tomorrows planned 4.5 mile tempo run at 10K pace. I think I'll tempo the last 4.5 miles of the Speed Spaniard course.

Ave pace 9:45.

Late AM: Went to the gym and got in 10 minutes on the bike followed by core workout. The last few times on the bike I've been checking my heart rate every so often to see if it's really as hard for me to get the heart rate up on the exercise bike as I perceive it to be. What I find is that my heart rate gets up to about 110 within a minute after starting out but then just sits there and I have the hardest time getting it to move above the 110-115 range. Today I cranked just a bit harder and was able to get up to a whopping 120. I suppose the problem is that my quads are just too wimpy to really crank the pedals very aggressive as my legs get tired long before I work up much of a sweat and get the heart rate up.  So maybe counting 10 minutes of bike = 1 mile running is a bit generous. I'll have to run a 10 min mile sometime and check my heart rate to compare.

AM: Ran 3 warmup miles out to around the 1.5 mile mark of the Speedy Spaniard 10K course so I could do a 4.5 mile tempo run. It was a bit warm (for Utah, maybe not for you Arizonians), probably in the low 70s but worse than that it was quite muggy! We don't get much humidity in these parts, so on days when we do get any it feels pretty miserable. I was already sweating up a storm before I even started the tempo.

The other bummer thing was that the old reliable SF canyon wind that I was counting on to provide tailwind was non-existent, in fact there was actually a breeze from the opposite direction, giving me a headwind for the first part of the tempo run. Murphy's running laws in action! Since I've been in a bit of a slump anyway and with the heat, humidity, wind factors I didn't have great expectations and I gave myself a wide pace range (6:00-6:30) to help me resist the urge to quit the workout early.

I was indeed toward the slow range of the pace window and I did almost quit at 4 miles but was able to slop through the last .5 and complete the run.

Splits as follows:

1 - 6:11 (most of the downhill on this mile, but with slight headwind)

2 - 6:24 (very slightly downhill)

3 - 6:22 (very slightly downhill)

4 - 6:34 (I'm starting to wimp out, this mile was mostly flat but still probably slightly net downhill)

4.5 - 3:16 (6:32 pace, tried to catch the 6:30 guy but failed, glad to be done)

Ave pace 6:24

While I would have rather been around 6:15 or better for this workout, I'm still happy to have finished it out without quiting early. I'm really not sure what to expect for the Speedy Spaniard, perhaps I'll need to lower my expectations and just shoot for sub-40. I don't plan on doing any taper for the race.

I'm sure the heat and humidity played a factor, and the bottom line is that I just don't seem to typically be capable of running tempos as well in the morning as I do later in the day, but with temps in the 80's and 90's during daytime I don't think I want to do tempos then, do I?  I try doing a longer warmup in the morning and it helps, but often I find I need to run 8-10 miles before my running form starts feeling smooth and natural. Perhaps just for fun I'll try doing a noon-time or late AM tempo run sometime just for comparison.

Some morning I would also like to see if maybe Sasha can wire me up with the heart rate gizmo and pace me on one of these tempos and give me an idea if my limitations are more aerobic oriented or nervous system related. I also must confess that I still have lingering lower abdomen and groin issues that make it so I run with some degree of discomfort much of the time at any pace.

Late AM: Got in 3 more uneventful solo recovery miles at work. Ave pace 8:32.

AM: Ran easy with Kim out to gu corner then we turned around and ran the last 4 miles of the Speedy Spaniard course as a tempo run for Kim. She was fighting an upset stomach so I encouraged her to start out nice and easy and not do anything that felt too miserable. The goal pace range was 8-8:30 but once we got going she seemed to forget about the queasy stomach and ended up running each mile progressively faster than the previous one, even though the course becomes more flat as you go. We finished mile 4 at around a 7:45 pace with an 8:02 average pace overall. I think she has a real good shot at going under 50 minutes for the race.

FYI for anyone running Speedy Spaniard....I entered the course using the Course Tool. I notice the suggested pacing is much slower for the first uphill mile than I've usually run it so perhaps I may try going out easy the 1st mile and see if that gives more zip for the last 5.2. I also entered the 11 mile Payson Canyon route into the course tool starting at just below Payson Lakes and finishing at Pateetneet.

Late AM: Ran 4 easy miles out toward Lakeview and back. Just for kicks and for comparison to the exercise bike a couple of days ago I checked my pulse while running around a 9 min/mi pace. Heart rate was around 130. Compared to exercise bike at what I think is a perceived effort similar to a 9 or 10 min/mi run pace, my heart rate only gets up to 110, 120 if really start cranking the pedals.

Ave pace 8:55.

RHR 49 

AM: Ran 5 miles with Kim then a couple more solo. John A also joined us for about 4 miles, it was nice to chat with him a bit before he heads of to Oregon later today. Also today I need to hand out some big kudos to my boy Jansen and his city league baseball team the SF Red Sox. Division champs, city champs and now state champs after thrashing a Payson team last night 13-1 in the state championship game. Good job Jansen and go Red Sox!

Ave pace 9:20.

Late AM: 11 minutes on the bike then did core workout. By upping the resistance on the bike a couple of notches and keep rpms around 90 I was able to get my HR in the 120-130 range the last few minutes.

Ran with some of the SF faster group for about 11 miles then did just over 9 miles solo. We had a pretty good size group today, I started out with Hal, Kevin, Chad and another guy and high school kid from Chad's neck of the woods (Genola) whose names I don't know. After a mile or 2, the high school kid took off and we didn't see much of him after that. At about mile 5 I caught the high school kid walking but when he saw me coming he took off again. The young bucks seem to have a hard time pacing themselves wisely for a long run.

Ran with Hal and Kevin to the top of Harry's which was about the 10 mile point. I was feeling pretty good for a change so I decided to do a progression run for the next 8 miles, speeding up each mile and ending up at around my 1/2 marathon pace. Splits for the progression are as follows:

mile 11 - 6:47 (downhill mile so the pace is much faster than the effort I put into it)

mile 12 - 7:15 (also mostly downhill)

mile 13 - 7:18

mile 14 - 7:10

mile 15 - 7:02 (stopped for gu and drink after this mile)

mile 16 - 6:39

mile 17 - 6:24

Finished up with 3 easy miles. Very enjoyable run today. I'm pleased with this run, in particular I'm happy I was able to run the 6:24 on pretty much the same stretch of road where Wednesday I had trouble holding this pace over 4 miles. I felt like I could have held this pace for another mile or 2 if I had to. For whatever reason I just do a lot better on these longer runs in the morning after a 8-10 mile warmup. I most certainly must be a slow-twitch kind of guy.

RHR 52

AM: Kim and I were wanting to do a Payson downhill run this morning but we weren't able to come up with a cost-effective or time-effective way to get it done. So instead we decided to torture ourselves by running up/down Loafer - this time past the gate and all the way to the cabins so we could "enjoy" the insanely steep last mile. Once you get to a certain steepness it almost hurts as much going down as going up. At least if you make it to the top you get rewarded with a drink at a drinking fountain. I did probably 8-10 striders along the way during the uphill so that's why my miles are higher than Kim's. Ali L joined us for some of the the uphill and all of the downhill miles, it was nice to have her join us and chat a bit. Legs feeling pretty good after the 20-miler on Saturday. Overcast and a bit muggy today. Felt a few raindrops at the beginning but that was about it.

Ave pace 9:40.

PM: Ran 5-miles EagleView hills with Nate and Bill. Started out easy but then pushed the last couple of miles to get under 7-min pace so I'll count them as MP miles. Legs still feeling good so that makes me happy.

Ave pace 7:45.

RHR 49

AM: Ran 5 mile river bottoms loop with Kim then 1 additional solo mile. Also ran into the Lewis's and ran/chatted with them for part of the way. Lots of runners/walkers/bikers out today. Kept the pace nice and easy wanting to save our energy for the 10K on Thursday. No taper for me for this race but I will be keeping all the miles between now and then on the very easy side. Still have minimal abdomen and groin pains but better this week than last.

Ave pace 9:47.

Late AM: Ran Lakeview 10K loop solo. Pretty much uneventful. A bit hot and muggy. Didn't pay any attention to the garmin.

Ave pace 8:50.

RHR 49

Slept in a bit this morning as today is Lagoon Day at my work so we'll all be headed up to Lagoon shortly. Probably not the best thing to do the day before a race but hey we gotta have fun with the family too! Also since my employer is footing the bill we can't pass that up.

Ran 5 miles solo then 2 more with Kim. Taking it easy today with hopes that the legs might be a little fresher tomorrow for the 10K. Was originally going to go 8 miles but for whatever reason my legs felt like lead today so I stopped at 7. Hope I have a bit more zip tomorrow.

No big goals for the race tomorrow. I haven't tapered so I'll just be treating this one as a glorified tempo run. It's not typically a PR-type course so I'm not sure where I'll end up, hopefully a bit under 40 minutes. Kim has a chance to go under 50 minutes but she really hasn't tapered much either and has had a string of hard workouts in the last week or so so it may be more of a tempo/training run for her as well.

After the race we'll be watching the parade and in particular we'll be cheering my boy Jansen as he he'll be riding on the Icelandic Association float all dressed in native Icelandic attire. My Aunt made these outfits years ago and I've worn them on many occasions in years past including the parade so I was glad that Jansen could get a turn. My Aunt had initially asked if I could do it but with the race timing it wouldn't work so good this year. But I think it will be better with Jansen doing it anyway and the rest of us will enjoy sitting back, relaxing and enjoying the parade and other festivities.

Ave pace 9:25.

RHR 48

The race went better than I expected. A PR for this race by over 4 minutes but not a 10K PR, and it did feel more like a tempo/training run at times rather than a race, but that was the plan and I stuck to it. The good news is that I was still able to run sub-39 with no taper and on a not-so-PR-ish type course. So perhaps this 3-4 month slump I've been in is finally starting to fade and the 70+ mile weeks will start to work some magic.

Kim did a super job and got a huge PR and broke the magic 50 minute threshold with a time of 49:57, good enough for 2nd in her AG. Good job KIM!!!

I think maybe only in Spanish Fork can I run a sub-39 10K in a local race and still not place in the top 3 in AG. Top 2 in AG of course were my neighborhood nemeses Carl Hanson and Darin Cable. I didn't have a prayer against those guys as I think Carl ran 35 something (4th overall) and Darin ran around 37:30. Perhaps on my very, very best, tapered day I could stay close to Darin.

The biggest downer of the race was that 3rd place in my AG was a guy from Payson I don't know who beat me by only 3 seconds!!! Dang if could have just kicked like Tyler S (who ran most of the last 1/2 of the race with me then had a massive kick at the end) I would have caught the guy! I just had no kick in me today.

This was however the first time I've ever beaten lost sheep Pat Loss or Kent Wing. But man those 2 sure run great for being in their mid-50s. Tyler S (also a recent lost sheep?) also is running great and has great speed, I think once he gets a little mileage base and endurance he will be running marathons in the 2:45-2:55 range. Sub-3 this year should be pretty doable for him I think.

I went out a little conservative and drafted of Tyler, Pat, Kent and Scott N for much of the first 1/2 the race. Thanks for the lift guys! At that point Tyler and I went ahead and just tried to hold the pace around 6:15-6:20 until the last 1/2 mile then we picked it up. I measured the race at 6.15 but others measured 6.2 so I think the length is pretty close to true.

Splits were 6:47 (all uphill comes during this mile), 6:08, 6:15, 6:21, 6:19, 6:03, :58 (.2)

It was also good to see Paul T at the finish and see that he ran a great race right at 41 minutes (he was shooting for 42), beating Hal A by just a few seconds. Was planning on doing a cooldown run with Paul but lost track of him. Ended up finding Hal doing his cooldown run so I joined him for a mile or so.

After cooldown and picking up Kim's 2nd place medal we relaxed by watching the Fiesta Days parade. Jansen was looking pretty snazzy in the Icelandic outfit, albeit a bit warm. Looking forward to another couple days off from work today and tomorrow.

Day off work today so we slept in a bit after staying up late to enjoy fireworks and other festivities. Ran about 3 miles with Kim then 5 more solo. Legs feeling pretty good after the race, not really much different than any other day. Kept the pace very easy and relaxed so hopefully I'll have some pep for a 20-miler tomorrow.

Ave pace 9:37.

RHR 44 

Had a nice run today, although I'm pretty pooped. Still a bit tired from the 10K on Thursday I think. Drove over to Utah Lake and met Paul at 5am at the end of the Provo river trail. We then headed up the canyon, picking up Kevin, Kerry, and Scott along the way and eventually making our way up to Trefoil. We than ran down the river trail. From Vivian to the base of the canyon I decided to push the tempo a bit and ran alone for about 6 miles, backtracking at the 10 mile point to go back and hook back up with the group. Kevin, Kerry and Scott were only wanting 10 miles so at that point Paul and I said bye to the others and headed down to the lake. I haven't run the river trail for a while so it was a nice change of pace with some good downhill training for SGM. We passed FastRunningMommy Sarah, looked like she was running great even while packing a little extra "bundle" :-) It's always nice to run with Paul and the other guys from the WBR team. Everyone seems to be running very well.

Ave pace 8:05.

RHR 49 

AM: Warmed up for about 3 miles then did a 5 mile tempo run. Legs feel pretty good considering I ran a fairly hard race last Thursday and a 21+ mile run on Saturday. However mentally and on the nervous system side of things I felt drained. Also not good sleep at all last night with all the storm and wind commotion. I saw quite a few large tree branches and even a few small trees blown down and blocking the roads so I guess the winds got pretty nasty.

So anyway I decided to give myself a good size pace range so I wouldn't quit early. Decided to run anywhere in the 10K to 1/2 marathon range which I figured to be around 6:00-6:40. I ran the middle section of the Spanish Fork 1/2 marathon course which is quite hilly so I was unable to stay under 6:40 going up Zephyr and toward Harry's Hill, but at least I finished the run and was able to keep the overall pace below 6:30. So all-in-all I think it was an OK workout on a groggy Monday morning. Saw Pat Loss and Kent Wing as I was headed home and talked to them for a bit.

Splits were 6:13, 6:42, 6:52, 6:11, 6:22. Ave pace: 6:28.

PM: Ran 3.1 miles with Nate.

Ave pace: 8:03.

RHR 47

AM: Ran with Kim around the river bottoms. After couple of miles warmup I paced her on a 5 mile tempo run. She did great, averaging around 8:15 per mile and finishing strong as usual. My legs are a bit weary from my tempo run yesterday but not too bad.

Late AM: Just over 10 minutes on the bike then core workout.

RHR 48

AM: Had a hard time getting to sleep last night, not sure why. Wasn't so excited to get up at 4:25. Kim and I ran the Payson canyon downhill run. We were going to run this one Thursday but then we found out a group was running today so we volunteered our van as the transport vehicle and Neldon drove our van back down to Pateetneet (his knees are bad so he does and up/down run instead of all down). Pretty good size group, I think we packed 10 or 11 runners in the van. After a slow warmup mile I sped up a bit and did the rest solo as nobody else wanted to push the pace much. I had a stopwatch but no garmin so I just ran what felt comfortable and resisted the urge to speed up since this is the first time doing the all downhill run. I think most miles were in the 6:30-6:45 range. As the miles felt easy I'm counting most of them as easy despite the faster pace. There may have been a couple in there that felt like marathon pace. I'm feeling really good right now but I'll wait for tomorrow before getting very excited. If all goes well next time I'll remember the garmin and try running more 6-6:30 pace miles since this is the range I'll need to run most the downhill miles at SGM.

This run is pretty steep in spots and a bit risky as far as potential for injury, but if you can survive running if a few times before SGM it makes a big difference as far as being able to push the downhills good all the way to end without completely trashing your legs. The next day you are also the envy of the post-race runners at the hotel as you prance down the stairs while most other runners do the infamous SG-shuffle step.

Total time 1:15:00. Ave pace 6:45.

PM: Ran 3 miles real easy pace at work. Can feel tightness in the ankle/calf/shin area from the downhill but so far not too bad.  Ave pace 8:47.

RHR 47

AM: Ran 5.1 easy miles with Kim around the river bottoms. Slept better last night but it was still hard to get up this morning for the run. My legs are a bit stiff from the downhill run yesterday, mostly in the front leg muscles (quads, shins, ankles) as expected. But I certainly feel better than other years after the first run all the way down, I'm sure the high miles and doing fast workouts with running flats has helped prep the legs for downhill. Also Kim was kind enough to work my legs over a bit last night so I'm sure that helped as well. Thanks Kim! As usual she isn't hardly even sore at all, Coach Tom seems to really have to work her over good to get any kind of soreness or tiredness out of her. Maybe we'll just have to do Loafer one more time or something :)

Ave pace 9:59

Late AM: Ran Lakeview 5.1 mile out&back route. Decided to go earlier than usual to beat the worst of the heat. Right calf is feeling pretty tight today.

Ave pace 8:46

Looks like I ended up with just over 311 miles for July. This is my all-time mileage record. I suppose August will be 300+ as well. Hope my body will stay happy through this peak marathon training period.