Every Run is a Great Run!

Ran in the late afternoon, 3 miles with Kim then 5 solo including 6 x 8-10s hill sprints. Went later than usual because we were waiting for Tyler's phone call from the airport! Yesterday he left the MTC to head over to Denmark. We had a great chat with him and look forward to hearing about his experiences with the Danish.

Felt sluggish on most of the run. Oddly the hill sprints felt really good compared to usual. Taking a rest/reduced-mileage week this week.

AP: 8:38

Beautiful day today for January. A little breezy but I'll take it any day for this time of year. Warmed 10 min. XT (S/E), then did 7 miles outside including a 5K tuneup workout: 1 x .75m @ 5K pace, 1 min active recover (i.e. slow jog), then 6 x .25m @ 5K-3K pace with 1 min active recovery.

Felt ok but the repeats were harder than they should of and my HR reflected that. Perhaps the 2am call from the airport in Austria had something to do with. But I'll trade an off workout for a talk with my missionary boy any day!

Splits:

1) .75m - 4:42 (6:16 pace, ave HR 172), 1 min rest (10:14 pace)

2) .25m - 1:29 (6:03, 173), (1min rest 9:46)

3) .25m - 1:29 (6:00, 178), (10:10)

4) .25m - 1:31 (6:04, 179), (10:34)

5) .25m - 1:29 (6:01, 178), (10:21)

6) .25m - 1:28 (5:58, 181), (10:32)

7) .25m - 1:26 (5:54, 179), 

AP: 7:45, Ave/Max HR: 160/193 

20 min XT (S/B/E) warmup then 6 miles easy outside hills. Nice day again.

AP/HR: 8:09/151

No running today. Instead did 50 minutes x-train (10 min stairs, 10 min bike, 30 min elliptical).

20 minutes XT warmup (S/B/E) then 5 miles on the roads. Felt sluggish today, maybe it was the pizza party at work yesterday. Looks like we're going to bag the trip down to SG and skip Painters.

AP/HR: 8:24/145

Felt pretty good about the race, I'm happy anytime I'm under 20 minutes for a 5K and elated when I can sneak into the 18's. Kim also had a great race with close to PR time of 24:30 and 2nd in 40-44 women's AD.

We almost didn't make the trip to St. George when we looked at the weather forecasts. But then we looked outside and saw sunshine so we decided to take our chances - which proved to be the right choice, as we didn't really have any weather problems the whole trip. Plus we still had things to do at the condo to get it ready to rent out here starting in a couple weeks.

I had no real expectations for this race, especially since my speed workouts the last few weeks have been dismal. But in past years I've usually run well at Painters so I figured I'd go under 20 minutes and have a shot at under 19.

Probably went out a tad too fast but I was pleased that the close to 6 min pace felt as good as it did since lately in workouts I've been dying to hold that pace for a 1/2 mile. I'm sure being at 2500 ft and a touch of race magic helped.

I kind of wimped out the 2nd mile, I ended up in that situation I hate in races when I get stuck with nobody around to push me or key off of and I slack. But I was glad I was able to pick it back up the last mile and even pass a couple of runners (and manage not to get passed).

Felt really good shortly after the race and ran a few more miles including running Kim in at the end, so I suppose that means I probably could have pushed a little harder. But what the heck....I'll take the (barely) sub-19 when I can get them since they occur so rarely.

I thought Kim did a great job, near PR on only around 20 miles a week and a touch of speed work. She should have a great year this year.

Splits were 6:07, 6:17, 6:07, :30 (last .10, 5:55 pace).

I think the race distance was pretty accurate.