Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

I'm a little bit under the weather today, so am laying low. Don't feel terrible, but I want to give myself a chance to race on Saturday so am being conservative. I guess running into a headwind  with driving snow for 8 miles last night was not good for my immune system.

Feeling better today. I ran home from work, and enjoyed a nice tailwind for once. Weather forecast looks grim for tomorrow. When I wake up, if it's snowin', I'm not goin'. Thankfully, I didn't ask for a comp for this race, so I'm free to enjoy a DNS.

I was signed up to run the Striders Half today, and felt ready to race, but I ended up with a big DNS. I got up at 4:30AM, checked the weather outside, then checked the weather in Huntsville via internet, then checked the road conditions on Sardine Canyon via internet, then went back to bed. I think I'm just getting mentally weak, today it did not seem worth it to risk life and limb to drive up to Ogden Valley for the opportunity to be miserable for 13.1 miles. Plus being miserable for the hour before the race, and the hour after the race. I did that and bought the t-shirt last year. All weather reports were indicating snow, 28 degrees, and 15mpw headwind. Bleh. Felt a little bad about wasting $45 on the entry fee, but at least I like Striders, so I'll consider it a donation, or maybe payback for the hundreds of dollars I've taken from them over the years in prize money.

Slept in until 8:15AM, a 2010 season-best.

Got up, ate breakfast, drank coffee, worked for a little while, and then headed out for a run. The snow was mostly melted from the roads, and weather was still cold but pretty decent for running. I was starting to regret not racing, especially when I felt pretty sharp during the whole run.

I needed to get a hard workout it, given that I missed a somewhat important tune-up race to Indy. So I took Hillside to Summit down to Center St, and then headed up Smithfield Canyon for some fun. First two miles of warmup were 6:40 and then 6:02. Smithfield Canyon was a winter wonderland, very pretty with all the snow, and I had the whole road to myself.

I picked up the pace when I started going up the canyon. Hit a 5:52 and 6:04 on my first two miles, which is really good for me in this canyon. Then a 6:15, which is about normal. And then the road started getting snowy, so I had to slow down in places, but still kept it brisk. 6:36 and 7:15 for the these two miles. At this point, there was about 6 inches of fresh snow in the road, much more than what was at my house. I had tire treads to run in, but it was still fairly slow. I was feeling a lot better about not racing, given that I was at the elevation of the race start line (~5400').

I got to the gate to the campground, and then turned around here, and started going downhill. 6:22 for the first downhill mile. The snow was pretty grippy, and good to run in. I was also getting some headwind on the downhill, which explained why the uphill felt so good. It was starting to snow too. Feeling increasingly good about not racing.

Once the snow cleared up, I started a short half marathon-pace tempo. First mile was 5:25, slowed partially by patchy snow. But the road continued to improve as I descended. Next three miles were 5:11, 5:09, 5:11. Felt absolutely great at this pace, and considered it a decent workout, especially combined with the earlier uphill tempo. I had to fight the headwind a little bit, but it was not very strong.

Made a pit-stop at the 7-11 on Center St at the end of the tempo, and then got some more miles by doing an out-and-back on the trail to Forrester Acres, then took the long way home on Summit. Averaged about 6:30/mile on these cooldown miles. Averaged 6:12/mile for the entire run of 17.5 miles, which I'm pretty happy with, and had plenty of spunk at the end.

I suppose one good thing about not racing today (beside not killing myself on Sardine Canyon) is that I don't have to recover from anything. I did 4 straight weeks of 70+ during March, and had an easier week last week. Now next week I'm ready to jump up to 80 miles, and hope to hold mid-80s until my half marathon in Indianapolis in early May. I would love to run 1:06-something there, and feel like I'm starting to get in pretty good shape. I'd still like to find a tune-up race sometime this month, maybe I'll do the USU track meet in a couple weeks. That would be interesting.

After I finished my run today, I found the Striders Half race results and also read Matt Rowley's reports. Sounds like I made the right choice. Teren running 1:14 is a pretty good indicator, as is Ben VanB at 1:15 (expected 1:11 out of him or so). And the list goes on. It looked about 5 minutes slow, and sounded very painful. I really wished I could have raced something (I've got the itch), but Striders would have just been frustrating to me, just as it was last year. So it goes.

AM - Met Carson at Mack Park, and ran up Smithfield Canyon and back. Kind of misty this morning, but nice for running. I was a little bit sore from planting trees all weekend, but ended up feeling good by the end of the run. Averaged 7:04/mile for 9 miles.

PM - ran up Dry Canyon in the rain. It was actually fairly pleasant. Eventually, the snow got too sloppy and soft, so I turned around. Slow. 4.25 miles.

Wanted to do 1600m repeats on the track this morning, but the 4" of new snow changed those plans. I met Carson at Skyview, and we ended up doing a few brisk miles on the west side of Smithfield. Not quite a tempo, but not easy either. Dropped Carson off, and did a few more miles. Averaged 6:31/mile for 12.5 miles.

Ran home from work. Found a new canal trail to run on. Then got on the upper canal trail, which was extremely muddy. Averaged 6:56/mile.

Did a workout on the Skyview track this morning, 6x1600m at LT pace, with 400m jog recovery. Ran down to the track (about 1 mile), then changed into flats, took a potty stop at the rec center, then met up with Carson and started the workout. I was hoping to hit between 5:05-5:10, and I did. It was a good workout, and I felt excellent the whole way.

Interval	Split
1	5:07
2	5:06
3	5:06
4	5:05
5	5:02
6	4:58

Cooled down for a few miles afterward.

AM - canal trail, 5 miles, 7:05/mile average.

PM - ran home from work. 8.25 miles. 7:03/mile average.

Met with Jon, Cody, and Carson at my house, then ran the canal trail to the BST to Logan Canyon, and then up Green Canyon a little ways for some distance, and then back down the road to the canal trail and back. Good to run with all those guys, but I was pretty tired by the end. I think we all were.

AM - met Carson at Mack Park, and then ran up Birch Creek Canyon. 7:20/mile average for 9.5 miles.

PM - easy 4.5 miles with Seth. Slow. 

Signed up for the Mark Faldmo Invite 5000m this Saturday. It will be my first track race in 9 years.

AM - easy 9 miles, out-and-back to North Logan. Left calf is still sore. 6:59/mile average

PM - easy distance. 6:50/mile. Got snowed on a little bit.

AM - had scheduled an interval workout for yesterday, but pushed back to today because of my sore calf. The calf is still sore, so I just bagged it and did a tinman tempo instead (don't have to get up on toes at tinman pace, so less strain on calves). It's probably for the better, so I'll get a V02Max effort at the race Saturday, so I tempo makes a little more sense anyway. Ran up Smithfield Canyon. 6:30s on the way up, 5:45s on the way down. Averaged about 6:15/mile for the whole run.

PM - ran home from work. 9 miles, averaged 7:01/mile. Feels like my calf is improving.

Ran home.

Ran home from work. Easy

AM - easy shakeout run on the canal trail. 7.5 miles, no watch. It's going to be a warm one today, 70+! The 5000m is at 3PM.

noon - mowed the lawn. Got on the roof to tinker with the swamp cooler.

PM - went to Utah State for the Mark Faldmo track meet. I had signed up for the 5000m as an open runner. This was my first track race in 9 years, so I was a little nervous. Fortunately, it's a pretty low-key invite.

Got there early in case the meet was running fast, and indeed it was ahead by about 30 minutes. I warmed up for 2 miles, used the potty, etc etc. The 200m finished, but then it took a while to get the women's 5000m going, and then finally it was our turn.

There were only 7 runners that ran the race, but one of them was Brian McKenna, Utah State's top runner. He's the WAC xc champ, and made nationals this fall. He recently ran 14:30 for 5K on the track, so definitely my superior at this distance. Fortunate for me, he'd already run the 1500m, so was not fresh. Unfortunately to me, I suck at the 5000m, and was at the end of an 80 mile week.

Chatted with Brian before the race, and we agreed to trade some laps and try to run 72s/lap. I was actually a bit dubious of my ability to do this, with lack of speed work, plus an intense sun with temps in the low 70s, and a decent wind going into the backstretch. Conditions were less than ideal for a distance race. But I figured my options were to run with McKenna, or run by myself, so I chose the former. I tried to alleviate the heat some by dunking my head in the steeple pit right before the race. Felt great at the time, but I was bone dry by the 3rd lap.

Gun went off and about 4 of us packed up quick for the first 200m, but then I managed to get around everyone and tuck in behind McKenna. First lap was a 74-75 or so, which was too slow, plus it felt awful. McKenna and I cleared out the pack on the 2nd lap, and were through the 800m in about 2:25, so about a 70s split. Quite a bit faster, but it actually felt good.

After 800m, I took the pacing duties for the next two laps, and we hit 4:50 at the mile. Pace was feeling hard, but sustainable for the time being. Brian took the lead back (and I was grateful to tuck back in and let him take the wind), and we hit a couple more 72-73's for the next two laps.

At just less than halfway through, I started feeling...less than good, and McKenna dropped me pretty quick. He kept running 72-73s laps, and I dropped back to 75s/lap. I went through 3200m in 9:46, so 4:56 for the 2nd mile. This drop in speed is the 5K equivalent to a death rattle.

McKenna was soon on the verge of being long gone, and I was fast wilting from the heat and from fatigue. Man, it was hot! My left calf, which had been giving me trouble for the last 10 days, decided that 2 miles was enough, and started misbehaving with 4 laps to go. It hurt, but not too bad, and I was able to deal with it. So it goes.

Lap 9 was a 76, and then a 77. Things were going downhill, but at least I was close enough to sense the finish and find some hope in that. McKenna now was approaching a 100m lead on me, and no one was close to me from behind. I was about to lap a couple runners, though. I didn't grab splits for the last two laps, but they were about the same as the previous two, in the 76s range. I just gritted to the finish the best I could. 15:27 was the finish time (McKenna was 15:05), which means my last mile was something like a 5:05. I was never great at finishing track 5K's.

So it wasn't an amazing race or anything, but I came out of it fairly satisfied with both the time and the effort. It was good for me to try to run with a national-caliber collegiate runner, and the heat, wind, and elevation certainly tinkered with my time some. I would have liked to have been in the low 15's, but I have to take what I can get on the given day. It was a little discouraging to run slower than my solo First Dam Run effort last November, but I know I'm actually way ahead of where I was then. I still think that sub-1:07 is still worth going after in Indianapolis, and hopefully the next several weeks of training, plus sea level, plus better conditions, plus a little more moxie will allow me to click off 5:05/mile for 13.1 miles. We'll see.

Went to the Logan Zoo with Stacy and Seth afterward, and then I grabbed 5 more miles when we got home to finish out my week. The calf hurt, but was runnable.

The next two weeks of training are big for me. I plan on two 85 mile weeks, with two good workouts each week. I hope it's all worth it, because training is hard work.

AM - Met Carson at Mack Park, and run up Birch Canyon. Made it to the single track, and ran up a bit past the first creek crossing. Pace was slow, but I didn't feel too bad. Still some soreness from the race Saturday, but Stacy was kind enough to massage my calf the last two nights so it was feeling a bit better.

I'm sitting in my den right now watching the Boston Marathon on Universal Sports (KSL-2), with the laptop on my lap. It will be a good morning of telecommuting.

PM - Forrester Acres with Seth, 5 miles

AM - canal trail, about 6:45/mile. 8.75 miles.

PM - Forrester acres with Seth. 7:04/mile for 5.25 miles.

Ran home from work, and did an 8-mile tempo. Unfortunately, I had to fight a headwind and a cold rain the whole way. One big downfall about running point to point. Still managed a good workout, despite getting very cold and angry, since I was woefully underdressed. Splits were 5:52, 5:53, 5:48, 5:43, 5:46, 5:54, 5:52, 6:26 (uphill). Probably would have been worth 5:30 pace without the wind. After I got home, I changed out my shirt, grabbed a hat and gloves and headed out for a few more miles. Was nice and toasty by the end, and much cheerier.

AM - Smithfield Canyon with Carson. 9 miles. My garmin battery died, so no time.

PM - came down with a sore throat/cold. Likely my immune system got beaten down from doing a tempo into a cold wind and rain yesterday, and then I picked up whatever is going around. Rest now, and it will pass.

still sick, seems to be garden-variety cold. No activity.

Finally turned the corner with being sick, and had quite a bit more energy today. But to be safe, I didn't run. However, I did mow the lawn, finish hooking up the swamp cooler, and sprayed for weeds. Nice time in the sun.

AM - congestion has finally cleared, and now I'm draining. Disgusting. Wanted to do a track workout this morning, but bagged it because I could tell I wasn't ready. Met Carson at the track, and did 6x100m strides while he did the workout. Tried to jump in one interval with Carson just for fun, but dropped after 400m (he was doing 1000m's @ 3:11 pace). Felt very rusty and not quite right. But 6:30/mile pace nice and easy felt fine. Did some distance on the roads afterward. 9 miles, averaged about 7-minutes/mile.

AM - met Carson at Mack Park, then headed up Birch Canyon. We went up to the trailhead, and then headed back down. Decided to explore a little, so we veered off and crossed the creek, and ran along the hillside on an ATV trail. I had seen this roadcut for a while, but hadn't tried running it until now. It was actually really good. Eventually we popped up out of the canyon, on the ridge. Then we ran toward Dry Canyon on an ATV trail along a farm field up on the hillside. Then we saw an old ditch, and hopped up there and ran along it until we got to a barb wire fence. The old ditch was pretty cool, despite many stickers and burrs. Found an opening in the fence and resumed along the ATV trail we started on. Had to cross overland through an alfalfa field at one point, but eventually reach Dry Canyon. So there is indeed decent access between Birch and Dry. So that was fun. Added a couple miles afterward. 9 miles total.

I'm still not quite over this cold. Congestion is gone, but I'm still coughing a little bit. Running at normal feels pretty good (clears me up, actually), but I'm trying not to exert myself until this is gone. Bad timing; I wanted last week and this week to be "big", but it's been more of a whimper.

Found an open window in the weather and went for it, around 11AM. Did the Planet Walk - Landfill Loop from work, 8 miles of tinman tempo. Didn't push it too hard, still recovering from being sick, but averaged 6:05/mile for 8 miles. Then did an extra 4 miles to finish out the mileage. It was snowing pretty good by the time I finished. Today was one of those days where it's nice to have a shower at work.

AM - easy 8 miles on the canal trail. 6:53/mile average. Not snowing or raining, and slightly above freezing, which is awesome.

PM - Forrester Acres with Seth. 5.5 miles.

AM - Met Carson at Mack Park, and ran up Smithfield Canyon. In the snow, of course. 8-minute pace going up, a bit faster going down. Averaged about 7:20/mile for the run.

PM - ran home from work. No watch.