Every Run is a Great Run!

AM: Paid a visit to my old friend/nemesis Mount Loafer. Wanting to get the hills out of the way early this week with Kim and I running a 5K on Friday. First time running Loafer in nearly a year and hoped it would feel a little easier than past years but it was still plenty difficult getting it going on the uphill. Only went up to the gate and skipped the ugly 10% grade last mile. I haven't looked at my splits from previous years but I think I do think the whole run was probably faster than I've ever done it before so that makes me feel pretty good about the run. I had heard there had been a group doing Loafer on Mondays but nobody there today except for some run/walk Salem folks that I passed on the way up. Ran from Loafer school down to Salem Canal road, up to the gate and back down, then tacked on enough extra to get to 8 miles. It's hard to know how to log these hilly miles, going off effort I decided to log as 4 easy miles, 3 marathon pace, 1 threshold.

Uphill splits:  8:28 (included a bit of downhill at the beginning), 9:07, 9:24, 6:40 (.66 miles, 10:07 pace)

Downhill: 6:17, 6:44, 6:56, 7:14 (added some flat), 2:48 (.34 miles, 8:14 pace on slight uphill)

Overall average pace: 7:57.

PM: Ran with Paul out Lakeview direction 5.1 miles on a nice hot day. We decided to be wild and crazy and go on a few roads we don't usually run on so we didn't have to go on some boring roads we're tired of. Paul was pretty good to keep the pace calm but he cheated on mile 3 or 4 and we dropped below 8-min pace (Paul you don't mind if I blame you do I?).

Ave pace: 8:11

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