Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

Great Salt Lake Half Marathon

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15% off for Fast Running Blog members at St. George Running Center!

Location:

Fort Collins,CO,

Member Since:

May 15, 2003

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

Unaided PR's:
5K: 14:48 (Track - 2001)
10K: 30:45 (Track - 2001)
10K: 31:32 (Bolder Boulder - 2013)
Half Marathon: 1:06:09 (Duluth - 2013)
Marathon: 2:17:54 (Grandma's) - 2014)
Marathon: 2:19:47 (Indianapolis Monumental - 2013)
Marathon: 2:19:49 (Indianapolis Monumental - 2010)

Aided PR's:
10K: 29:38 (Des News - 2011)
Half Marathon: 1:05:30 (TOU Half - 2011)
Marathon: 2:18:09 (St George - 2007)
Marathon: 2:17:35 (Boston - 2011)

Short-Term Running Goals:

Diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis in June of 2008. Started taking Enbrel in March, 2009.

Run as much as I can, and race as well as I can. Make the most of however much time I have left as an able-bodied runner.

Training for the 2018 Colorado Marathon

Long-Term Running Goals:

  Run until I'm old, and then run some more. Stand tall.

Personal:

1 wife, 2 kids. 1 cat. Work as a GIS Specialist/Map Geek

Endure and persist; this pain will turn to your good. - Ovid

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. - Romans 5:1-5

 

 

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Saucony Trail Shoe Lifetime Miles: 247.50
Hoka Clifton Lifetime Miles: 491.50
Saucony Type A6 Lifetime Miles: 186.50
Saucony Zealot Lifetime Miles: 478.75
Saucony Kinvara 6 Lifetime Miles: 433.50
Saucony Kinvara 6-2 Lifetime Miles: 358.75
Brooks Pure Connect Blue Lifetime Miles: 337.25
New Balance Trainers Lifetime Miles: 314.50
New Balance 1400 Racers Lifetime Miles: 65.00
Brook Pureflow Lifetime Miles: 99.50
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
393.659.0028.100.000.00430.75
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
15.750.000.000.000.0015.75

AM - Easy run with Cody on the Planet Walk, then some with the dog. 7:41/mile average pace.

(Adrenaline orange: 441 miles)

PM - 10 miles with Jon. We ran out on the canal trail to the river trail and then back. The Bear River Range is burning. Lots of fire trucks, gawkers, and excitement. So it goes. 7:07/mile average pace.

(Adrenaline blue: 282 miles)

Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
14.000.000.000.000.0014.00

Today I woke up and decided that I really didn't want to do a Big Workout. Legs were feeling tired, and all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. But I rolled out of bed and hit the road. I figured I would give myself a couple miles of warmup, and then either start a tempo or defer it until tomorrow, and just do a couple easy runs today. I managed to hit 7-minute pace on my second warmup mile, and figured I was feeling good enough to do the tempo. I completed an 8-mile tinman tempo on the Young Ward - ICON loop.

Mile splits were 5:55, 5:52, 5:51, 5:48, 5:51, 5:50, 5:57, 5:53. Woof. Fortunately this loop is pancake-flat. I initially intended to do the Millville Hill Loop, but when I was talking myself out of bagging the workout, this was the compromise. I cooled down for a few miles on the Planet Walk at about 6:45/mile pace, and made a pit stop at the Logan River Golf Course bathroom along the way. This is a great bathroom, because it's actually open at 7AM and there's music playing inside. It should definitely be the centerfold of Jon's "Emergency Toilets of Cache Valley" guidebook.

Also did 4x100m strides on the Planet Walk. They felt like bung, like my shoes were bricks with lead shoelaces. 

Averaged 6:19/mile for the entire 14-mile run. Good workout day, and I'm glad I talked myself into doing it. I'm pretty beat now, and need a few very easy days to recover from the workouts this week.

(1120: 141 miles)

Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
13.500.000.000.000.0013.50

AM - Providence Loop, 6.25 miles easy. 7:16/mile average pace.

(Adrenaline orange: 447 miles)

PM - out-and-back to First Dam via canal trail (7.25 miles). Didn't wear watch.

(Adrenaline blue:  290 miles)

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
19.000.000.000.000.0019.00

Long run with Cody today. We drove up Blacksmith Fork and parked at Hardware Ranch. We then ran up Ant Flat, which is a well-graded gravel road that goes all the way to the road that the Ogden Marathon starts on (SR-31?). But we did not go that far, and turned around at 9.5 miles to get 19 miles total. The first half was uphill (about 1300' total gain), but the upshot was running downhill for the last half. 7:30-8:30/mile on the uphill miles, and 6:30-7:00 on the second half. 7:36/mile average pace. I'm tired and quite glad to have this week in the books.

(Cascadia: 273 miles)

Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
4.000.000.000.000.004.00

Nice easy 4-miler on the Planet Walk. Felt pretty good, and just relaxed and enjoyed myself. Didn't wear watch.

(Adrenaline orange: 451 miles)

Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
15.000.000.000.000.0015.00

Big Workout this morning. 15 miles total, with 8 miles of Tinman tempo on the Millville Hill Loop and 4x200m barefoot strides in the grass at the LHS rec fields. Warmed up a couple miles, and hit 7:00 on the second mile, which has become the sign that I can start the tempo (ie - my body is finally awake). Miles splits were:

MileSplit
Notes
16:03
Uphill
2
5:56
Rolling
3
6:01
Rolling/Uphill
4
6:34
Steep Uphill
55:53
Rolling
6
5:48
0.75 downhill, 0.25 uphill
7
5:38
Downhill
8
5:38
Flat

I felt pretty good during the tempo, although the big gravel hill on Mile 4 is always a killer. Sub-5:40 pace on the last two miles felt very pleasant, though, conversational even. After the tempo, I held 6:40/mile pace to the LHS fields, were I did 4x200m barefoot strides in 36-38. Just tried to stay nice and relaxed. Finished up by running a few blocks with the dog. 6:18/mile average pace for the entire run. Another workout in the bank.

(1120: 156 miles)

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
15.500.000.000.000.0015.50

AM - ran the TOU course backward and met Cody near Mile 22. From there I joined him to the TOU finish during his Tinman tempo. He was moving pretty good. My mile splits during the tempo were 6:17, 6:16, 6:22, 6:18. I felt pretty good for having just run a hard workout yesterday. Ran home afterward and finished up with the dog. 6:45/mile average pace for the run (7 miles).

(Adrenaline orange: 458 miles)

PM - 8.5-mile run with Jon. Did the canal loop with a little out-and-back to the pipeline trail. We had to stop for a short time a First Dam, as a helicopter was filling up with water at the lake for fighting fires. 7:16/mile average pace.

(Adrenaline blue: 298 miles)

Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
16.500.000.000.000.0016.50

AM - 9 miles on the Logan Loop. 7:09/mile average pace.

(1120: 165 miles)

PM - River Trail with Jon. Almost 7.5 miles. 7:53/mile average pace.

(Cascadia: 280 miles

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
10.500.004.500.000.0015.00

Big Workout. Warmed up 2 miles, and hit 6:40 pace during the second mile. Time to go. My general route today was the modified North Logan-USU-Boulevard loop. I started with 1 mile of Tinman tempo at 6:22 (3.7% uphill grade). I intended to do 2 miles of tinman, but got pretty wiped by this hill (going from Main Street up to USU Stadium). Recovered for a couple minutes then started a 6x4-minute CV fartlek (2-minute rest). The route was very rolling, and virtually all intervals had pretty equal amounts of uphill and downhill. I figure St. George has hills and the Oly Trials course in NY has tons of hills, so I better hammer the hills in training!

RepTime
Distance
Pace
1 4:010.79 5:04
2 4:01 0.76 5:17
3 4:01 0.76 5:18
4 4:00 0.80 5:02
5 4:00 0.74 5:26
6 4:00 0.77 5:11

Rep #4 was a little fast because it was 3 minutes of downhill and 1 minute of uphill. Rep #5 was slow because...I don't know! It felt terrible though. And then Rep #6 felt great.

But since this was a Big Workout, it didn't end there. After the fartlek I ran easy for about a mile and then did a 2-mile tinman tempo. Splits were 5:54, 5:58. After the tempo, I ended up on the LHS rec fields to do 4x200m barefoot strides in the grass. After the first rep, my feet were FREEZING because the wet grass was so cold. It was about 50 degrees this morning in Logan, by the way. My arms and hands were pretty cold most of the run (but I loved it!). It didn't feel as good on my feet though. I ended up putting my shoes back on and doing the last three 200's on the track. The strides were 36, 36, 36, 35. They are mostly for form and not for killing myself.

Another workout in the can. 15 miles total; 6:23/mile average pace for the run.

I had a dream last night that I was trying to get to the starting line of the Great Salt Lake Half Marathon. I kept wandering around Clearfield and ended up in someone's house, and I was pretty sure the race didn't start in their house. But I couldn't even find my way out of the house, and I only had 15 minutes until the race started to check in. Hopefully that will not happen to me in real life, but the Great Salt Lake Half is usually a nightmare in itself. Maybe this year I will redeem myself there.

(Burn: 205 miles)

Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
13.000.000.000.000.0013.00

AM - easy 5 miles on Planet Walk. Bumped into Cody and ran with him for awhile. Legs tired from yesterday, but that's what easy days are for. 8:14/mile average pace.

(Adrenaline orange: 463 miles)

PM - easy 8 miles to First Dam and back. Didn't wear watch.

(Adrenaline blue: 306 miles)

Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
18.502.000.000.000.0020.50

Ran around the block with the dog, and then drove up to Hollow Rd with Logan and Cody. We ran the TOU course in reverse - 10 miles up (just past the park in Blacksmith Fork), and 10 miles down. At first we faced a nasty head wind and were averaging about 7:20/mile on the uphill, which I was actually pretty happy with, all things considered. The canyon wind died down (plus we picked it up), and our next four miles before the turnaround were averaging just under 7:00/mile pace.

On the second (downhill) half, things turned into a progression run. We fooled around with 6:30s then 6:15s. Around mile 16 things got even more interesting, as the canyon wind picked up and now gave us a nice tail wind. It's like in the movie Die Hard: "Now I have a tail wind!" er... machine gun, whatever. We did a 6:07 and then a 5:54 as we came out of the canyon. I could tell Logan and I were feeding off each other a bit and simultaneously pushing the pace. We hit 5:51 as we entered Hollow Rd. Then things got crazy for some reason on Hollow Rd. Mile 19 was 5:24. Mile 20 was 5:08. This last mile is pretty much flat, plus the tailwind was gone by then, so I was pretty happy to hit that kind of split at the end of a long run and still feel in control. I wouldn't say that pace was conversational or anything (although Logan and I would grunt something to each other occasionally), but it didn't feel faster than threshold pace either. This is good, as I hope to hit sub-1:09 at Great Salt Lake Half next Saturday. We'll see.

6:38/mile average pace for the entire run. 

99.5 miles for the week. I'm not ready for 100 yet. Not for a couple more weeks.

(1120: 185 miles)

Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
0.000.000.000.000.000.00

Scheduled day off. 

Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
16.000.000.000.000.0016.00

AM - easy 9 miles. Did the Landfill Loop with Cody, and then some on my own and with the dog. 7:18/mile average pace.

(Adrenaline blue: 315 miles)

PM - easy 7 miles on the River Trail with Dan, Jon, and Cody. Nice evening. 7:45/mile pace.

(Cascadia: 287 miles)

Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
10.500.005.000.000.0015.50

Big Workout today. I warmed up about 2 miles to the end of the Planet Walk, and then did a 2-mile tinman tempo to the LHS track. I was a bit sluggish on the tempo, and averaged around 6:10/mile.

On the track I did 5x1600m @ LT pace, with 200m rest.

Rep Split
1 5:09
2 5:10
3 5:10
4 5:11
5 5:07

 

I was pretty happy with these, and they all felt fairly smooth. It's pretty intimidating to think about running an entire half marathon at this pace, but things always seem easier during races. Race-day magic, right? The last time I did this workout was during my Ogden Marathon taper. My splits during that workout were 5:18, 5:18, 5:19, 5:11, 5:11, and recovery intervals were twice as long (400m). Plus I was in the middle of a taper. Taking all that into account, I think I have gained significant fitness since Ogden.

After my intervals, I worked with Cody during his last interval and hit 5:50, which is my tinman tempo pace. Cody and I "cooled down" to his house afterward, at about 6:25/mile pace. After I dropped Cody off, I continued home and resumed tinman pace (5:55-6:00/mile) for the next 1.5 miles or so. Finished out with a mile with the dog.

15.5 miles for the entire workout. I managed to stay ahead of the 6-minute guy. 5:59/mile average pace for the entire run.

(Burn: 221)

 

 

Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
14.250.000.000.000.0014.25

AM - easy 8-mile run with Cody. Took the Planet Walk to the end and crossed the highway to Blackhawk, and then into Providence and back to Logan via the TOU course. 7:25/mile average pace.

(Adrenaline blue: 323 miles)

PM - easy 6-mile run with James and Cody. If I believed there was such a thing as "junk miles", today would certainly qualify.

(Adrenaline orange: 469 miles)

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
11.250.000.000.000.0011.25

Ran the North Logan-USU Loop with Cody this morning. We kept the pace honest on the rolling hills, and threw in 6x100m strides as well. 6:55/mile average pace.

(1120: 196 miles)

Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
6.000.000.000.000.006.00

Easy run on landfill loop. 7:18/mile average pace. Tomorrow should be interesting.

(Adrenaline orange: 475 miles)

Comments(2)
Race: Great Salt Lake Half Marathon (13.1 Miles) 01:10:22, Place overall: 3, Place in age division: 1
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
6.400.0013.100.000.0019.50

Great Salt Lake Half Marathon today. I've been gearing up for this race for a while. Not because I love it, but because I hate the course so much. It is painfully flat and straight, smells bad, and has a tendency to chew me up and spit me out. So I felt like I had something to prove on this course, and I knew any time I put up would be 100% earned. It would also give me a good benchmark for my chance of OTQ at St. George. I figured sub-1:10 is worth an "A" qualifier at St. George. My best time on this course are 1:14:00, from 2004.

I drove one hour to the start, picked up my packet, and warmed up 2 miles by myself. I bumped into Sasha before my warmup, and he mentioned that Teren Jameson was here. I decided that if he went out under control, I would try to hang with him.

Temperature was about 70 degrees, with overcast skies. Very little wind at the start line. So pretty decent conditions for an August race along the Wasatch Front. I'd prefer 20 degrees cooler, but I'll take it.

At start, I spotted plenty of strong competition. If my somewhat risky plan of starting with Teren went haywire, Joe, Dennis, and Sasha would be there to eat me up. The race started close to on time. Teren and another guy who I didn't know got out hard, and after a moment of indecisiveness (do I really want to do this??) I got on their heels. Pace definitely felt harder than what I was used to, but not out of control. During races, I set up my Garmin to just show total time and lap time, and have auto mile splits taken for me, so I only receive pace feedback once per mile (if I kept my usual settings, it would distract me to no end). I would only be using my Garmin for splits, as the GSL mile markers are notoriously bad. First mile split was 4:50. Yikes! I hung in there behind Teren and the other guy (who turned out to be Patrick Smyth, a current Notre Dame runner), and waited to see if they would settle down. Second mile was 5:03. Third mile was 5:07. Doing some mental math, I realized I had just run a 15:35 5K on a pancake-flat course at elevation, just barely slower than my Draper Days time. Stupid. At this point, I knew that: 1) I certainly couldn't hold this pace; 2) Teren and Patrick were NOT slowing down.

I let them go after Mile 3 and tried to settle into my race. My goal was to hit 5:15 pace and establish a good rhythm, and hopefully finish with a 1:09 or under. To an extent, I was successful in doing this over the next 5 miles. Mile 4 was 5:16. Mile 5 was 5:11. Mile 6 was 5:20 (approx 10K split of 32:00). Mile 7 was 5:16. Mile 8 was 5:16. So after 8 miles I was still on pace to run a low 1:08. Unfortunately, I still had 5 miles left. Plus, the stench of the Great Salt Lake was starting to get to me. And I was getting very sick of the causeway.

Mile 9 slowed to 5:25. I was okay with this. 5:25's the rest of the way would still yield a killer time. Unfortunately, the causeway started turning southwest, and we picked up a crosswind, that soon turned into a headwind. Fatigue + headwind = slower running. Mile 10 was 5:36. Mile 11 was 5:43. Teren had dropped Patrick some time back and had gapped him. Meanwhile, no one seemed to be approaching me from behind. I figured everyone else was hating the wind as much as me, so I wasn't overly concerned.

I found myself actually wanting to get on the island and hit the uphills, just to get some variety and more importantly to get out of the accursed wind! The course finally entered the Antelope Island at the 11.5 mile mark, and I proceeded to climb the first little hill. It actually felt pretty good, helped by the fact that I no longer had a headwind during the climb. Mile 12 was 5:38. There would be no heroics here. Just finish the darn race. The last mile featured a pretty big climb (into the headwind) followed by the a nice decent. The climb just killed and I felt like I had slowed to a crawl. But just over a half mile left! I hit the downhill and worked it well. Mile 13 was 5:39. The course made one final turn, and then the finish chute! Hurrah! I was glad for that one to be over. My final time was 1:10:22.

Teren won with an absurd 1:07-something. Patrick was 1:30 ahead of me with 1:08:50-ish. Joe and Dennis were about 3 minutes behind me with 1:13:30-ish.

My Garmin measured 13.19 miles. I'm prone to believe this could be GPS error, but if several other people measured long as well, I may be prone to believe the course was a little long. But for now, I'll assume it was legit.

Cooled down 4 miles afterward.

Despite missing my goal of breaking 1:10, I felt pretty good about the race afterward. I think without the headwind, I would have actually made my goal, despite running stupid the first three miles. But I even felt pretty good about running stupid. I would like to be as fast as Teren someday, and running with him for three miles showed me what that was like, and the amount of work it would take to reach that level. But I see no reason why I can't run at that level someday. Work work work. Keep dreaming, keep striving.

And frankly it was exciting to average 5:00/mile for the first quarter of a half marathon...and still survive to finish decent. If I could run the race all over again, knowing how everyone finished, I probably would have run it the same way. Today was a good learning and physical experience. My time, even with dying off a bit and the headwind, showed me I am still on track for at least a "B" qualifier at St. George. I am about to enter my last training cycle before St. George, and it will feature some 100-mile weeks, and oodles of MP and LT running, all uninterrupted by races. (I will run some more races, but only as workouts, no tapering). Lots of hard work ahead; the taper is still long ways off!

(1120: 198 miles)


Comments(16)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
4.500.000.000.000.004.50

Easy shake-out run today. Ran around the block with the dog and then did the Planet Walk. Didn't wear watch. I felt little better than I thought I would today, considering the race yesterday. My calves are not very sore, a good indicator for wearing flats at St. George. Both adductors are fairly sore, which I've never had before. But nothing is today bad, and today was an enjoyable, slow run.

(1120: 202 miles)

Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
15.000.000.000.000.0015.00

AM - easy 7 miles on canal trail loop. Groin in still very sore from yard work. 7:48/mile average pace.

(Adrenaline orange: 482 miles)

I'm heading out to Montrose, CO for meetings later this morning, so will be running from there through Thursday. This time I will have my car, so will probably check out Black Canyon of the Gunnison Natl Park and see if there are any worthwhile trails to run on.

PM - stopped at Sasha's house in Provo on my trip south. We ran about 8 miles on the river trail. Today was my first time ever in Provo. I always drive by on I-15, but have never actually entered the town. Rough place.

(1120: 210 miles)

I finally arrived in Montrose at 9PM. What a long drive. Early meeting tomorrow, but I should have time for a few miles before, and then a good quality run in the evening. Lots of miles this week.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
15.000.000.000.000.0015.00

AM - easy 4 miles in Montrose. 7:27/mile average pace. Nice, cool morning.

(Triax: 4 miles)

PM - 11 miles at Black Canyon National Park. I was disappointed when I got there to find that none of the trails are over 2 miles long, so I mostly stayed on the scenic driving route...er...scenic running route. The world looks better from foot anyway. I did diverge on a few short trails though. Definitely a beautiful area. Altitude ranged from 7800 to 8300 ft and the road was very rolling and challenging. I was surprised to hold sub-7's on most of the uphills, despite the altitude. Mostly I relaxed on the downhills. 6:44/mile average pace for the run.

Adductors are feeling much better today, almost normal. I would say I'm 95% recovered from the race. I'll try a big workout tomorrow. I've eyeballed a potential route in the National Park that could be a lung-buster. 

(Cascadia: 298 miles)

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
16.500.000.000.000.0016.50

I got up early this morning and drove north to Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area. It took awhile to get to the place I wanted, as nothing seemed to be clearly marked. On the other hand, I didn't see a single other person the entire run, so that was an upshot. I parked my car just off the main road, then started running up Dinosaur Rd, which was a 4x4 jeep trail through badlands. My Forester definitely wouldn't have made it, and my legs had some problems too, as I had to walk a lot of the uphills. Finally I got to the ridge and ran south on the ridgeline trail. Sweet views of the gorge, but the single-track proved to be very tough too, to the point of walking some uphills again. Once I got to a real trailhead, I looked at a more detailed map and realized that I wanted to be a different trail, so then I backtracked north to where I started on the single-track, and then kept going north a couple more miles on the ridge trail until I got to the Ute Trail trailhead. This was where I wanted to be.

Once on the Ute trail, I descended from about 6300 ft down to the Gunnison River at 5300 ft over a little less than 4 miles. I finally got the river just as it was time to turn around. It was beautiful and well worth the effort. It was getting pretty warm by this point and I had gone through half my water, so I jumped in the ice-cold river to cool off and get all my clothes good and soaked for the return trip up out of the gorge. I could have stayed there on that beach all day, but I had things to do. Like write this blog. And work.

Running out of the gorge wasn't too bad, and the gradient in most stretches was quite manageable and even fun for running. I managed to average sub-9:00 out of the gorge and got a good workout in doing so. Not much walking here, just a little. Once I was on top of the ridge, I got on Ute Road and descended down about 2.5 miles out of the NCA. Pretty steep downhill here, and I was doing about 7-minute pace. Finally I got to the "main" road and had to run about 1.5 miles south back to my car at Dinosaur Road. Averaged about 6:15/mile pace on this last rolling gravel section. It was a good run, but I'm glad to be done. I'm beat. 9:22/mile average pace for the entire run.

Kind of a quasi Big Workout today. A lot of distance and a fair amount of effort, but not as controlled and formal as my normal workouts. That's probably a good thing, as it provides a mental break. I'm using this week mainly to build mileage, and most of my speed focus is being put on my Big Workout this Saturday.

(Cascadia: 314 miles)

Comments(10)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
16.250.000.000.000.0016.25

AM - did a nice 12-mile loop on the west side of Montrose. Felt pretty good. I found out last night that my morning meeting is canceled, so I am heading back a little early. That will be nice. 6:56/mile average pace.

(Triax: 16 miles)

PM - got home from my trip and did the Planet Walk to shake out my legs. I didn't wear a watch, but my legs felt fresh and the pace felt snappy, maybe 6:20-6:30 range. Odd.

(Adrenaline orange: 486 miles -- retired)

Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
15.750.000.000.000.0015.75

AM - Logan Loop, 8 miles easy, plus a block with the dog. It is chilly here this morning, cold enough for long sleeves. 7:13/mile average pace.

(1120: 218 miles)

PM - River Trail with Jon, to Spring Hollow and back. Easy pace, no watch.

(Cascadia: 321 miles)

Comments(3)
Race: Top of Utah Half Marathon (13.1 Miles) 01:09:33, Place overall: 1, Place in age division: 1
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
8.507.005.500.000.0021.00

Today was an interesting day. I did a Big Workout within the Top of Utah Half Marathon. I've been wanting to run the TOU Half for awhile, but figured I needed a workout more than an all-out race, so I decided to combine the two. The other idea was to add "race day magic" to a workout, which would make the workout a lot more fun and easier to complete. My Big Workout today was:

4 miles @ MP (2 minutes recovery)

3 miles @ MP (2 minutes recovery)

2 miles @ LT (1 minute recovery)

2 miles @ LT (1 minute recovery)

1 mile @ LT

The course layout for the TOU Half is a good one. The first 7 miles or so are a gentle downhill in the canyon. The next 3 miles flatten out a bit, but are still a gentle (but imperceptible) downhill. There is a relatively long uphill through Millville from Mile 11 to 12 or so, and then gentle downhill to the finish in Providence.

Weather was absolutely perfect. I mean perfect. 50 degrees at the start line, with promise of a tail wind coming out of the canyon. If the weather is remotely like this for the TOU Marathon, people will qualify.

To warm up, I ran from my house to the busing area (about 1.75 miles). We bused up to the start line up Blacksmith Fork, and I did some more jogging and got my porta-pot stops in. Ready to go. They started the race right on time.

My workout/race went as follows:

Workout Segment
Mile
Split
Comments
4-mile @ MP
1 5:13 out a bit fast
4-mile @ MP 2 5:16 settled in
4-mile @ MP 3 5:15
4-mile @ MP 4 5:16
2-minute recovery
0.35 5:52/mile pace
faster than expected
3-mile @ MP 1 5:10 starting to get tailwind
3-mile @ MP 2 5:09 this is fun
3-mile @ MP 3 5:10 tremendous fun
2-minute recovery 0.33 6:00/mile pace

2-mile @ LT
1 5:05 Hollow Rd
2-mile @ LT 2 5:09 Hollow Rd/Hwy 165
1-minute recovery
0.16 6:08/mile pace

2-mile @ LT 1 5:09 Hwy 165
2-mile @ LT 2 5:37
Millville; uphill; yuk!
1-minute recovery
0.23 6:15/mile pace
1:25 rest
1-mile @ LT
1
5:00
nice downhill

The first 10 miles of the workout/race was quite a bit of fun, and I felt fantastic. The cool morning and downhill start really made things fast, and then picking up the tailwind on my second MP interval made it feel like some sort of weird video game. 5:10 was effortless in those conditions. I was having a ball, and the MP sets went great. The first LT 2-mile interval went very well, and I held a good pace. The second LT 2-miler was a bit harder, mostly because of the long uphill through Millville. This was the only point during the workout where I felt like I was struggling. By the end of the uphill, I managed to find a good rhythm, and hit 5:25/mile pace, but the first half of that mile was a lot slower. I knew I had a downhill mile to end the workout/race with, and I was looking forward to it. I waited to the race's official 12-mile mark to start my last interval, which gave me a little bit extra rest. I ended up running the last 1.1 at LT to compensate, and was happy to hit 5:00 pace for it.

So that was my workout. The race itself was interesting too. I was a bit ahead of Logan during the first 4-mile MP interval, but I could hear him, so I figured he was just 10 meters behind or so. When I eased up for my 2-minute recovery, Logan went by, and looked as though he wasn't working at all. I was inwardly cheering for all my friends to hit big PR's, so I was happy to see him zoom by. Logan pulled away a bit on my recovery, but then when I started my next interval I really didn't close on him at all, so I knew he must be doing 5:10's. I hoped that everyone else was enjoying the tailwind as much as Logan and I.

This trend continued for the rest of the race, until Logan's fatal wrong turn: he would pull away on my recoveries, and I would gain nothing on the intervals. In fact, I think he was pulling away on the intervals as well. By Mile 10, I was so far ahead of my own schedule, that I thought breaking 1:10 would be probable, and Logan was a good minute ahead. He clearly had 1:08 in the bag. The left turn into Millville was around Mile 11. Logan was so far ahead of me that I didn't see him miss it, but did see him up around Main St. I was a little confused, as there was no volunteer at the corner, but I was pretty sure the turn was at 100 W (it is for the marathon). Plus the sun was directly in my eyes, so I couldn't see the course markings. I actually slowed down a bit and looked behind me as I entered the intersection, and then saw the marking to turn. Logan was too far away to yell at, plus I was breathing too hard to yell, or talk for that matter. And I sure couldn't catch him. I figured he would turn at Main St., which would give him the same distance, and all would be good. Alas, this was not the case. I finished the race, and started asking everyone where the winner was. I seriously thought he was just that far ahead of me. Everyone looked at me as though I was hallucinating. "You're the winner, you idiot." I was pretty bummed, because Logan had such a sweet PR going.

I ended up about 10 seconds off my own PR, which I was quite happy with. Had I tapered, worn flats, and raced all-out, I think sub-1:08 would have been in the works. But that was not the goal today. Jon, Cody, and Walter all got sweet PR's, and I was really stoked for them. Big things coming at TOU and St. George for all those guys.

Cooled down with the guys afterward, sat around for awards (didn't win anything in the prize drawing, and then ran home. 21 miles total for the day, capping off a 104-mile week, my first 100-mile week since 2004, and my most mileage in a week ever. 6 more weeks until St. George. 4 weeks of good, hard, quality training. Every week of training gives further opportunity to grow stronger and get faster.

(Burn: 242 miles)

Comments(16)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
4.500.000.000.000.004.50

Planet Walk plus a block with the dog, easy. No watch. Legs feel okay after yesterday. No soreness, but they are tired.

(Adrenaline blue: 327 miles)

I thought yesterday was an outstanding performance by bloggers in the half marathon. By my count, we had 2 people under 1:10, 10 people under 1:20, 16 people under 1:30, and 19 people under 1:40. Not to mention the PC marathoners. I have probably missed some performances in there. Now can you imagine if we get everyone to run the same half marathon the same day? The race director's head will spin, wondering how their race got so fast!

Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
16.000.000.000.000.0016.00

AM - ran the canal loop (6.5 miles) with Seth Wold and Vance Twitchell. The USU guys took it easy on me. 7:17/mile average pace. Did a mile with the dog afterward.

(1120: 226 miles)

PM - River Trail (8.5 miles) with Jon, Cody, and Dan. 7:59/mile average pace.

(Cascadia: 330 miles)

Comments(10)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
15.500.000.000.000.0015.50

Big Workout today. Sort of. I did a 9-mile tinman tempo (15.5 miles total for the run) on the Millville Hill Loop, plus 4x200m barefoot strides in the grass at the end. My tempo pace was about 10 seconds slower per mile than usual (or more), mainly due to still being a bit tired from Saturday. I decided to back off and complete the entire tempo at a reduced pace, rather than try to force things and risk blowing up. I have another workout Thursday, so today should help that rather than hurt it. By the time I got to the end of the tempo, I found a good rhythm, and was pretty satisfied with the workout. It was a good endurance-builder. The barefoot strides felt pretty good afterward too.

MileSplit
Comment
1 6:11 uphill
2 6:02 rolling
3 6:13 uphill
4 6:44 big uphill
5 6:03 flat/rolling
6 5:55 little bit uphill, then downhill
7 5:53 all downhill
8 5:58 flat
9 5:55 flat

200's were pretty mellow. I hit 37-38 for all of them. The grass was nice and soggy, but not too cold. 6:34/mile average pace for the entire run.

(Triax: 32 miles)

 

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
16.250.000.000.000.0016.25

AM - Logan Loop, plus a mile with the dog. 9 miles total. Easy pace. 7:29/mile average pace.

(1120: 235 miles)

PM - Out-and-back to First Dam via the canal trail 7.25 miles total. 6:57/mile average pace.

(Adrenaline blue: 334 miles)

Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
16.000.000.000.000.0016.00

I did a little bit different of a workout today to keep things fresh. I ran from my house to the canal trail to the Bonneville Trail to Green Canyon, and up Green Canyon a couple miles, and then back the same way. The rule today was that I had to surge up every uphill, so sort of a hill fartlek. Obviously this got tough up Green Canyon, since it was all uphill, but it was a bit more fun on the rolling BST. Coming down Green Canyon I hit 6-minute pace. After I got off the BST on the way back, I did about 3 tinman miles at 6-minute pace as well. 7:05/mile average pace for the entire run.

(Hardrock: 50 miles

Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
14.250.000.000.000.0014.25

AM - landfill loop via planet walk with Cody. Easy pace. 7:39/mile average pace.

(1120: 243 miles)

PM - went up Center Street to Providence via River Heights, down 100 N to Golf Course Rd, and back to my house on Main. I don't have a name for that loop, hence the long description. Started out slow and sluggish, but hit low-6 pace on the last half and ended up feeling very good. 6:50/mile average pace.

(Adrenaline blue: 340 miles)

That gives me 431 miles for the month, a new all-time high, and first time over 400. My previous high was around 370, back in 2004. Looking back at my mileage from previous years and comparing to this year, I am doing about twice the volume per week this year on average. And it's much more consistent. More fun facts: of my first 8 marathons from 2002-2005, 6 were over 2:40 (including a 2:47 at TOU), and the other two were both 2:35. My half marathon PR through 2005 was 1:14. Looking at these trends, and then around the Blog at guys like Cody, Logan, Clyde, and others, a pretty obvious fact emerges: you get faster by running more, doing it with quality, and doing it consistently. Inconsistent training yields underperformance, at least in the marathon.

 

Monthly Mileage for 2003 - 2007
  2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Jan    62 101 149 274
Feb    114 131 228 268
Mar    177 140 277 339
Apr    143 223 187 339
May  94 220 230 53 258
Jun  191 299 177 39 319
Jul  239 234 188 25 333
Aug  345 373 223 81 431
Sep  154 142 191 87  
Oct     27 135  
Nov     0 175  
Dec     23 251  
Total 1022 1763 1652 1686 2560
Month Average 204 196 138 141 320
 




Best 5K 15:38 15:52
17:22 15:23
Best Half 1:14:37 1:14:10
1:12:54 1:09:27
Best Marathon 2:35:20 2:45:09 2:26:35
2:26:24






Notes:




2003: Didn't start recording mileage until late May

2004: Didn't record mileage from Oct-Dec, but didn't do much either
2005: Grand Slam year. Injured from Oct - Dec

2006: Injured from April - September; some mileage represents x-train
2007: Year not complete yet!




Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
393.659.0028.100.000.00430.75
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