Every Run is a Great Run!

Ran 5 with Kimi in the early morning on an overcast but mild day.  We avoided getting caught in any rain or snow.

9:09/135

Later ran 3 easy miles at work and once again was lucky to avoid the rain.

8:25/141

Getting excited about tomorrow! 

Warmed up with Kim down in the river bottoms after the kids were off to school. Then I did some mile repeats while Kim did her thing. Day off of work today as we are picking up our son Tyler at the airport this afternoon as he returns from 2 years in Denmark. Excited! 

Nice sunny day but a little chilly. Started out in the low 30's and a little breezy from the canyon but probably ended up around 40 degrees.

Plan for me was 4 x mile repeats at 5K - 10K pace with .5 mile rests.  I cheated a little bit and worked it so I had tailwind and slight downhill for the repeats, but I also shifted my goal pace accordingly and was shooting for 6:15-6:30 pace.

I felt pretty good today, best I've felt for a faster workout for a quite a while. Maybe the excitement of seeing Tyler has me all fired up.  Would have been a good day to race a 5K. I'm encouraged with how things went today.

Mile splits and HR info as follows:

1 - 6:16/172 (.5 mile slow jog rests in between each mile repeat)

2 - 6:15/182

3 - 6:18/186

4 - 6:14/186

Overall:  7:48/165 max 191

Nice easy recovery run just as it started to get light in the morning. Ran just over 3 with Kim then 5 more solo.  Legs feel great after the hard run but I've got a really bad kinked neck, can't figure out exactly what caused it. Started a few days ago but got much worse last night. Seems like as soon as one ache & pain goes away another jumps in to takes it's place. Oh well no worries, so much to be thankful for. 

Looking forward to spending the next few days with family and hearing all about Tyler's experiences the last 2 years in Denmark. So nice to get him home safe and sound.

8:47/138

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Having a great time with family up at cabin by Heber City. Haven't had the entire family all together at once for such a long time.  So great to see everyone enjoying (so far) each others company up here in the mountains. Weather is also cooperating and quite mild for late November.  Lots of deer near the cabin, hoping to maybe catch a moose sometime during our stay.

Went out with Kim and ran down the mountain just after it got light.  Kim's brother and Dad were great to pick us up down in the valley so we didn't have to run back up the steep uphill. It was tough enough to run down the steep stuff!

So much to be thankful for, could spend the entire day listing everything. But I think instead I'll spend the day hanging out with those I'm most thankful for.

Slept in a little bit and didn't go out until about 8am. Nice day today, sun shining brightly and not much wind.  A bit on the nippy side (around freezing?) but not so bad with all the sunshine.

Plan was to finish off this rest/reduced-miles week by throwing in a 5K time trial in the middle of my long run. Did a long, slow 5 mile warmup with a few strides at the end. Then did the 5K on the same course we did Kim's time trials last year. 

Not an entirely honest course as it starts with some good downhill the first 1/4 mile and usually tailwind with overall net downhill.  But we've noticed that your 5K time on this course is a good predictor of what you can do at St George Painters 5K on a flat loop course at lower elevation and (usually ) warmer temps in January.

Goal pace was between 6:15 to 6:30 and I was hoping to go under 20 minutes since I don't think I've done that for over a year.  Turns out I was feeling pretty good (notwithstanding all the Thanksgiving pie) and was able to run it in 19:49.  Nice to see my training starting to finally kick in and my legs/cardio able to hold the faster pacing a little better!

Overall time: 19:49, ave/max HR: 182/190  Splits:

1 - 6:18 (172)

2 - 6:28 (185)

3 - 6:26 (189)

.1 - :37/6:15 pace (190)

I think we put this course in the Course Tool so if I can find it I'll post the map/graph below.