Every Run is a Great Run!

No firm schedule for this week or next week. Hoping for mileage in the 50-65 range. Plan is to do mostly all easy running (7:15 pace or slower, mostly slower than 8 min probably). Perhaps a few striders and a fast mile here or there toward the end of this week and next week if it feels good. We will be going to So Cal this weekend for a week of vacation. 

In 2 weeks we'll start up on the marathon-oriented training regiment. I'll be doing my harder runs on Mon-Wed-Fri so on Tue-Thu-Sat I can be Kim's slave-driver coach husband.:) Should be fun getting Kim on track for Sub-4 SG marathon.

AM: Went around 4.5 miles with Kim then another mile and a half solo. Fairly peaceful, mild overcast morning. Lucky for us the rain held off. Legs still fairly weary from Saturday race but feeling only 'good' aches not the bad injury-signaling kind of pains. Had a good time at Sasha's house last night, loads of informative running chat and food for thought (also some food for eating, thanks Sarah!).  Ave pace around 10.

PM: Got 6 more miles at work. I felt surprisingly good on the run today, averaged 7:55 but it felt more like what I'm used to 8:15-8:30 feeling. Perhaps it was because the sun decided to come out for most of the run.

AM: Got in 7 (6 with Kim) on a pretty cold, windy morning. I usually wake up before the alarm goes off but today that wasn't the case and I notice it seems like mornings when the alarm rouses me it takes me a while to fully wake. Today was like that as it seemed like I was sleep running the 1st couple of miles. But after that I felt pretty good and we had a nice run despite the cold and wind. Ave pace 9:40.

PM: 5 more at work. Ave pace 8:20. Did some circuit/weight stuff afterward.

AM: Mostly solo run on this rainy morning. Kim came down with a cold/flu so she wisely stayed in bed this morning. Part way into the run I ran into the Scenic Dr group and ran about 2 miles with them. Had a light rain for 2-3 miles of the run then it stopped. Since it was a "light" rain and there was no wind it wasn't so bad to run in. Ave pace 8:45.

Kim and I have decided to do the Run 4 Kids race Saturday in St. George since we'll be staying there Friday night on our way to So Cal. Kim's doing the 5K and I'm doing the 10K. Should be fun and we look forward to seeing some of the Dixie bloggers there. I don't plan on killing myself at this race since we just raced Saturday and this week is pretty much a full mileage week, I'll treat it like a glorified tempo run.

PM: Ran hill route at work. The weather wasn't my favorite I'm looking forward to the sunny days that are supposed to be on the way soon. Did a 4-5 striders in the middle. Ave pace 8:31

Sun good. Wind bad. Was hoping for a little nicer weather for my noon run today but the wind was the spoiler yet again. But the good thing was my legs felt pretty fresh so I went a little further than I had originally planned. Ran the 7 peaks hill loop route. Ave pace 8:20.

Hey where is that warm, sunny weather we're supposed to be getting? Went out for an easy 5 mile morning run in the cold and ending in the snow. Solo today as Kim is still recovering from her nasty cold and made the wise choice to not go out in the chilly, snowy AM conditions. Kind of a boring, lonely, uneventful run. Felt like going really slow so I did. Ave pace 9:09.

On the bright side we're headed to warm and sunny Dixie and So. Cal. for the week! Might today have been the last snowy run day of the season? We can only hope.

38:40 Dang! I can't believe I missed beating my PR by 2 measly seconds!!! I wish I would have been paying more attention to my overall time with a mile or so to go so I could have had the extra motivation to shave another few seconds to get the PR. As it was I was so dead running the stinking hills the last 2 miles of this race I don't know if it would have helped to realize how close I was to the PR. At any rate with this being a tough course with all the hills, even with the lower elevation I think I may have given a PR effort. I would have liked to have been more mentally tough on the worst uphill mile 5, but I felt like I at least stayed focused and didn't give up like I did last week. Also I was still feeling the effects of last weeks race so I'm mostly pleased with the effort.

Miles splits:

1 - 6:00 Net downhill but with more uphill than I was expecting. Playing cat and mouse with another obviously master age runner with no shirt. Also WildBull is not far behind. Clyde, Steve and Holt are up ahead of me as expected.

2 - 5:55 Mostly downhill, I pull ahead of the no-shirt dude

3 - 6:03 Mostly down but with some unexpected uphill. Getting a pretty good lead over shirtless master dude.

4 - 6:14 Mix if down and uphill, probably net flat, starting to get really pooped and nobody around for motivation.

5 - 7:02 Ugh I hate when I can't run under 7 pace. Worst mile of the race, all uphill, getting really tired, shirtless guy is closing the gap on me. I lose focus on this mile a bit.

6 - 6:26 Mostly uphill but finishing downhill. I regain my focus after getting to the top of the last hill and increase the gap on me and shirtless guy.

.2 (.17 on Garmin, 5:35 pace). I finally notice I'm really close to a PR (I had thought there was no chance earlier) so I get some motivation to speed up but I'm too little too late.

I notice in my last few races I seem to still have enough kick at the end to speed up to around 5:30 pace. I need to find a way to find more mental toughness and start the kick earlier in the race.

Kim had super blowout PR in the 5K finishing in 25:44 and 2nd in AD. This was all the more impressive given she has been sick all week. I certainly expect sub-25 within the next month or so. Check out her blog for more details.

It was nice to meet and chat with the Dixie bloggers: Dustin, Clyde, Steve, Bill. Everyone ran well I thought, as expected Clyde won the 10K and Steve was not far behind him. Bill was not too far behind me. Dustin has been nursing an injury so wasn't racing today.

Now off to SoCal for R&R!!!