Everything Counts

MILE REPEATS

We had a good group to ring in the New Year with early morning mile repeats. Jason, Steve, Bret and I met at Smith's on 42nd and Harrison and warmed up just over three miles over to the tempo loop. The plan was 5xmile with 2:30 jog for rest. I ended up with more like 2:45-3:00 rest since we re-grouped after each one and made sure everyone got their 2:30 jog at least.

The first rep was more laborious than I anticipated. My goal was to average 4:50 and the first one was 4:50 right on the money, but it took a good effort. The second was a bit better in 4:47. Third rep was 4:50 and felt better than the first for the same pace. During the fourth my stomach showed up and slowed me down a tad in the last quarter mile 4:53. Luckily it wasn't quite as bad during the last one and allowed me to finish the workout. I ran 4:47 again for the last one.

With the close of 2013, I decided to do a just-for-fun 2013 Utah road racing awards. These are totally scientific and official ;-) Feel free to disagree with me and share your thoughts too. Just don't anybody take these too seriously if I overlooked somebody.

The criteria is based on racing inside the state's borders only and quality of the performances takes on a bit more weight than quantity of good performances.  There are four categories: Best overall runner, Best single race performance, Breakthrough Runner of the Year (this is someone who was good but just jumped up to a whole new level), and finally Comeback of the Year (someone who experienced a setback but came back stronger than before).

So here they are, the Riley Cook Utah Road Racing Awards for 2013:

Runner of the Year: Male - Bryant Jensen Female - Kassi Harmon. This was a tough call for both genders. When looking at a full year of racing results there are several runners that had some great races. But, Bryant had quality victories at the Strider's Half, Ogden Marathon, Utah Valley Marathon, and St. George Marathon. At first glance this makes you think this is a no-brainer. But looking at head-to-head against other top runners in the state makes it a lot less clear. Bryant was 0-3 against Jake in-state (1-0 out of state), 0-2 against Josh McCabe, 3-3 against Riley (1-0 out of state), 1-0 against Jon Kotter, 1-0 against Fritz, and 2-0 against Brett Hales. But, in the end the quality of Bryant's performances versus the rest of the guys puts him on top. Kassi had a crazy amount of first-place finishes, which also made her look like the shoe-in, but looking at head-to-head it got less clear as well. She was 1-1 against Devra, 1-1 against Christina Perrry, 0-1 against Emily, 1-0 against Sariah, 4-0 against Allie, but never faced Amber Green or Rosy Lee, which makes it tough. It was hard to count out Emily as, she only got beat at St. George Marathon I think. It's also hard to count out Amber Green who had wins at Utah Valley and Bryce Canyon and a quality runner-up at STG. But in the end the head-to-head and the quantity of big wins gives the nod to Kassi (who had an impressive non-aided 1:18 at St George Half as well).

Best Single Race Performance: Male - Bryant Jensen Female - Rosy Lee. Once again, a very tough call. Bryant's STG performance was challenged mostly by Miles Batty's Des News 10k. But in the end, the fact that Bryant broke the course record at a race that has deep fields year after year gives him the slight edge. For the women, (which I admittedly am much less knowledgable) Rosy's STG win over elite company in a crazy fast 2:37, beats out Allie's near-course record TOU win in 2:44. I think STG is a lot faster than TOU, but it's hard to say it's 7 minutes faster...like I said feel free to debate this politely. I'm interested in others' thoughts.

Breakthrough Runner- Male - Mike Nelson Female - Marilee Blackham. We knew Mike was a good runner, but knocking that much time off his STG Marathon to run 2:25 was impressive to say the least. Matt Paulsen was also strongly considered for this award, but the Thanksgiving 4-mile race in almost 20-flat put Mike over the top. For the women, it was a tough call between Marilee and Rachelle (there could be others I'm overlooking...fill me in if so), but Marilee really showed she is now a force to be reckoned with. She had good showing at Striders with a 3rd place finish (one ahead of Allie), 3rd at Ogden Marathon, 5th at STG, and 2nd to Kassi at Hobble Creek.

Comeback Runner of the Year: Male - Ben Van Beekum Female - Emily Jameson. It came down to Fritz and Ben in my mind. Both came back for PRs in the marathon at STG. But Ben's PR improvement was larger than Fritz's and he also PR-ed in the half. So very close call here and both very impressive comebacks, but nod to Ben. For women, yes I am counting pregnancy as a setback. That has to be hard to get back in shape from and Emily made it look easy with a win at Des News Half and 3rd at STG Marathon (next year the clear frontrunner right now looks to be Andrea).

So there you have it. Feel free to argue and enlighten me! But please like I said don't anyone get offended or take this too seriously. It was just for fun and I came up with it on one run without a ton of analysis.

AM: 11.05 miles easy in Ogden. I met up with Bret, Ken, Ben, Jon, Albert, and Bryant. After two miles though, Bryant took off on an aerobic builder and Albert started mile reps. The rest of us just ran easy and enjoyed the company.

PM: 4.8 miles easy from home in South Weber. I had to swing back by my house after two miles to use the bathroom. When it comes to me and afternoon running, I'm like a small child and a long car ride:

Dad: Can you go use the potty before we go?

Child: Dad I don't need to.

D: Ok, but can you please just try. I don't want to have to stop 20 minutes into the trip k?

C: Dad...ugh...all right.

two minutes later...

C: I tried to go but I couldn't.

D: (Sigh) All right let's go.

20 minutes later...

C: Dad I have to go potty.

D: What? I just asked you to go and you said you didn't need to.

C: I have to go bad. Can we stop please?

D: (Sigh) Yeah. This is why I asked you to go before we left though. Next time listen please.

C: Ok Dad sorry.

10.6 miles easy in Pleasant View and North Ogden with Ben, Albert, Bret, and wait for it...Dave. Yes, Dave was ready for an easy run coming back off his calf injury and he got through the run with no setback, so that's a huge plus for him. Great run with the guys.

LONG RUN: UNPLANNED PROGRESSION RUN

We didn't have any plans for what we would do today. We just met at the pond with Ken, Jon, Ben, Dave, and Jason all showing up. We started out pretty decent and I decided I wanted to at least get some miles in at low-6:00s. Well after some low 6:00s, Van Beekum felt great and pushed the pace. We let him get out in front a bit and running alongside Dave I said, "Well I better go up there and get him".

So I caught up to Ben and just let him dictate pace and ran alongside him. Dave caught back up briefly before Ben dropped it again. Then BV needed a pit stop. This allowed Jason to catch up and once we got rolling again, I convinced Jason it was all mental. From that point on he stayed with Ben and me as we continued to increase the pace until mile 14. At that point we shut it down and jogged (6:30 pace) it in for the finish. 

Everyone looked good today. Dave in his second day back to running was crushing 5:40s. Good stuff.

First 14 miles progression: 718 642 635 616 613 610 608 625 (pedestrain bridge was very icy; we were 6:00 flat pace minus the bridge slowdown) 553 550 540 540 533 522

Hit Wal Mart after for a delicious and much needed chocolate milk!

11.2 miles easy with Dave, Ken, Bret, Jon, and Bryant. Windchill of 0 but can't complain when Midwest has -30 windchill going on. Plus Albert sent me this link too: http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/siberian-man-runs-coldest-marathon-in-the-world-in-minus-38c/

4.3 more miles at lunch with Dave.

Some quick stats from my 2013 running season, which I didn’t get around to blogging until now:

2013 total miles: 3,772 (up from 2,611 in 2012 or 44% increase). Of the 3,772 miles, 913 miles were run at 6:00 pace or faster (24% of total mileage). Of those 913 miles, 699 miles were run at 5:30 pace or faster (18.5% of total mileage). And finally of those 699 miles, 189 were run at 5:00 pace or faster (5% of total mileage). Those same numbers in 2012 were 603 (6:00 or faster), 343 (5:30 or faster), and 130 (5:00 or faster).

20 races: 10 half marathons, 4 5ks, 3 10ks, and 3 marathons

PRs accomplished in 2013: Half Marathon PR at SLC Half (lowered it from 1:07:44 to 1:07:13), Half Marathon PR at Bryce Canyon Half (lowered from 1:07:13 to 1:06:15), Half Marathon PR at Top of Utah Half (lowered from 1:06:15 to 1:05:16), Marathon PR at Phoenix Marathon (lowered from 2:29:22 to 2:27:13), Marathon PR at St George Marathon (lowered from 2:27:13 to 2:22:56), Road 5k PR at Turkey Leg 5k (lowered from 14:55 to 14:49), Road 10k PR at SLCTC 10k (lowered from 32:11 to 31:46), and Road 10k PR at South Weber Days (lowered from 31:46 to 31:07).

If you’re into using conversions and calculators to compare races, here were my top five races of the year (using calculator at runworks.com to convert to flat, sea level races using garmin distance and elevation data, which admittedly isn’t accurate, but it is at least used consistently):

1. Top of Utah Half Marathon

2. Salt Lake Half Marathon (Garmin had the race over ¼ mile long, which helped this one look better than the time would indicate)

3. Strider’s Half Marathon

4. St. George Half Marathon (this one would move up to 3rd if you subtract quick bathroom stop)

5. Turkey Leg 5k

My best race in 2012 would’ve tied for fourth on the 2013 list.

Worst five races with number one being the worst and five being the fifth worst:

1. Ogden Marathon

2. Thanksgiving Point Half Marathon

3. Freedom Festival 5k

4. Phoenix Marathon

5. USA Half Marathon

That’s about all of the geeky stats for 2013 that I got. Goals for 2014 are coming soon.

AEROBIC BUILDER

It was just Jason and me this morning for the AB. This was the coldest temp I've run a builder in this winter I think and I had a hard time going the first three miles. After that I finally got down to the paces I wanted and felt decent the last five miles. Overall avg for 8 miles was 5:14 (5:12 for last 5). Driving to work after with no heat in my car was less than pleasant.

11.9 miles with some of the Ogden Crew: Ben, Jon, and Albert. We met at the pond and ran a new loop route into West Haven and Kanesville. Very pleasant run minus my lack of a brimmed hat, and hence little icy snowflakes piercing my eyeballs and temporarily blinding me about once a minute.

10K CONTINUOUS FARTLEK

I met Dave at the base gym for a hard workout, since the roads would be too slick. We warmed up three miles on the indoor track (a square track with nine laps to a mile, too sharp for fast running), hit the bathroom really quick, and then we hopped on some treadmills.

I decided to do the 10k fartlek. It's a year almost to the date since I last ran this. At that time I ran the workout in 32:23 but at 0% incline. Today I ran at 1% incline and wanted to see how far I'd come in a year for this workout.

Here is how it went:

1.25 miles in 6:00 (4:48 pace)

1 mile "easy" in 5:43

1 mile in 4:45

.75 easy in 4:12 (5:36)

.75 in 3:31 (4:41)

.5 easy in 2:46 (5:32)

.5 in 2:17 (4:34)

.21 in 1:07 (5:19)

.25 in 1:08 (4:32)

Total 10k time of 31:31 or 5:04 pace.

I'm very happy with this workout, as it gives me confidence heading into next weekend. It was hard, not going to lie. I was pretty spent at the end. But it was basically a 10k tempo at 5:04 pace the hard way!

10 miles easy with Ben on the Strider's 10-mile course. It was nice to sleep in a bit and run later in the morning. I needed to catch up on some rest, as it's been a rough week with my family being sick and my girls getting up in the night every night this week. I may double if the opportunity presents itself later this evening, but I'm not going to set time aside.  So if it happens great, if not, that's fine too. I wanted close to 80 miles this week going into race week, and a double would put me about right at 80 after tomorrow, but 75 will suffice too.

15.25 miles at a moderate pace (6:35) with Jon, Steve, Bret, Jason, and Dave. Great morning for a run with warmer temps, some sunlight, and a nice course through West Ogden out into West Haven and finishing up with a loop in downtown Ogden. Great turnout and run for the Ogden Crew. I'm still waiting for the day that we get everyone out on the same day. I think eight is the most we've done so far, but have the potential for 11 if you include people who come at least a few times a month (yes Jace that means you)!

8.1 miles easy with Ken and Dave. Well, that was a miserable run! I got sick Saturday night and felt horrible when I woke up this morning. But, of course being the stubborn runner that I am I was determined to not miss a run (what compels us to run no matter what?). I had zero energy and either Dave or me was stopping every few minutes to hack up a lung; we felt bad for Ken as we kept him running quite slowly.

The timing for this cold sucks, again. But I have almost a week to get rid of this cold and try to get back to full strength for the race! Come on EmergenC! If I had no choice but to get sick, I guess this is the right time, since I didn't miss any key workouts and only had a primer scheduled this week.

I got my first shipment of shoes from Brooks, complete with feeze-dried ice cream, because yeah Brooks is cool!

No run. I am quite ill. This isn't a regular cold man, it's really wiped me out. So far I've stayed on top of fluids and haven't lost too much water weight, so that's a plus. I'm holding out hope I can get well in time for the race...fingers crossed.

No run. Still sick, but I got plenty of rest last night and today. I may attempt a run tomorrow as long as I don't feel any worse. I don't have a fever anymore and haven't had cold shivers in over 24 hours, so that's a huge plus. I think I still have enough time to get well and get strength up for the race!

8.1 miles easy with Dave, Ken, Bret, and Jon. Still feeling fatigued and run down but this run was substantially better than Monday. As long as I kept my breathing light and shallow I was fine. But anytime I took a deeper breath it led to a coughing fit.

Right now the thought of racing 13.1 miles at 5:00 pace seems undeniably daunting. But I have three more days and I will just take it a day at a time and do whatever I can to get my strength up and my airways cleared.

ENERGY/STAMINA TESTER

I ran around South Weber in the late afternoon. I feel quite a bit better than yesterday. Still not 100% but maybe 70-75%. I did three half mile pickups to test my energy levels. One each at MP, threshold, and vo2max. The first two were harder than I expected or harder than it would normally feel. The first especially was discouraging. But then the third one felt pretty decent. Splits were 2:37, 2:29, and 2:15. The best news was no coughing fits, until after the run was completely over. So with 36 hours still I am more optimistic than I've been all week.

4.25 miles easy with some strides. I had a pretty rough night with several coughing fits. I felt horrible that I was waking Jason up...sorry buddy. Today my head has ached all day but the coughing is minimal again. Who knows what will happen tomorrow, could be great could be ugly. Either way it's always a fun atmosphere at these national champs! I'm happy and grateful to be here.

USA HALF CHAMPS

Well I think I need to implement a no racing when sick policy. I've done it a few times now and am just miserable the whole time. I just didn't have the energy I needed today. I went out hard shooting for 1:04:59, which has been my goal for this race for quite sometime. First three miles were 457 457 451. And then I just hit a wall, yes I hit a wall at mile three! It got ugly very quickly and I just wanted to quit the whole time. It was like the last ten miles of a bad marathon experience, just nothing in the tank. Oh well, not much I could've done about it so I won't beat myself up. Sometimes we get sick and sometimes the timing sucks. Full report will come later.

Meanwhile huge shout out to Ogden Crew Member Jason Holt who threw down a 1.5 min PR today in 1:07:02 and was top Utahn. I am bugging him to put a report on the blog here as he is a lesser known member. So look out for that and give him a big congrats..very well deserved.

Ok, I'm home and have a computer now so here is the report.

If you followed my blog in the last week, you saw that I contracted a bad cold/flu with a high fever, chills, headache, cough, fatigue, and runny nose. It was miserable. I hoped to get well in time to race and the fever did go away as did the chills, but the rest remained. I went back and looked up my UV Half report from last summer when I raced with something similar and it brought back memories of how awful it was. I tried my best to convince myself this would turn out better. I tried to believe I could still run to my ability level.

Race morning I sat next to Jon Coyle on the bus (Jason was assigned another bus) and then we met Jason at the start line. Port a potty stop, warm-up, port a potty stop, strides, and I was ready. Or was I? I felt terrible. I was sitting there staring off into space and Jason asked if I was all right. I snapped back to reality and told him I thought it may be a long, ugly day and that I didn't feel well. The warmup was taxing at 8:30 pace. But I tried to stay positive and push all that out of my head.

Right before the gun, I think I kind of had convinced myself I could still run fast. Maybe it was getting caught up in atmosphere/moment. So I went out hard and thought I'd hold high 4:50s as long as I could. A half mile in a kid yelled out "65 pace group right here for whoever wants to work together". So Jason, another Brooks ID guy, and I joined that group. It was a good group 8-10 guys. We ran as a pack for the most part for the first 5k. The first mile felt terrible and got me worried, but mile two felt actually pretty good and I thought maybe I just didn't warm up enough and that's why mile one was tough. But then mile three got really hard (the group did drop the pace 6 seconds a mile here and I fell off the back of the pack running 4:51, they must've been 4:49-ish). Miles 1-3 4:57, 4:57, 4:51.

So I fell off the back of the pack and thought that's fine, just stay at 5:00 pace. But with no one around I fell off pace much more than that. I ran mile four in 5:04. During five Jason passed me, he had fallen just a tad back off the pack before I fell off the pack. He encouraged me to go with him, but I was content trying to stay at 5:05. Because I wasn't even certain I could hold that and was pretty sure I couldn't go 5:00. I just didn't have any zap and I was working really hard (burning fuel/energy at a quick rate it seemed).

So already I was kind of solo. It's hard to believe but just like that after a 457 457 451 504 start I was toward the very back of the race, maybe 10 guys behind me including Jake and Coyle. It was crazy how fast even the back half the race ran especially at the start.

Mile five was 5:10 and I knew I was in big time trouble. I was bleeding a lot of time with more than half the race to go. I started coming up with excuses in my head why it'd be ok to drop at the next medical tent. Mile six was 5:14, still bleeding time and working so hard, so much harder than when I average 5:14 for 8-mile aerobic builders at altitude. I realized I wasn't even half way and I chuckled so as not to cry. Amazingly my 10k split wasn't terrible it was like 31:38 I think.

The first half of mile seven I looked down and saw that I was running 5:28 pace, I knew I couldn't slow that much of else it was really going to be a disasterous result. So I tried my best to speed up and hit another 5:14, so for one mile I had finally stopped the bleeding. If only I could've kept it at 5:14!

Mile eight was 5:19 despite my best efforts. Just after eight I heard footsteps and thought for sure it had to be either Jake or Coyle. Sure enough it was Jake. I wished him well and he was gone in no time. I didn't even attempt to hang on with him, as I was already hanging on the best I could to avoid 5:20s.

In the next mile I could no longer hold off 5:20s despite my efforts and ran 5:23 for nine and then 5:22 for ten. Mile 11 had some on the only downhill in the race and it was barely even noticeable but it helped and I ran a 5:19. But 12 had the uphill offset of 11 and I barely held off 5:30 and ran 5:29. During 12 some guy passed me running probably 5:00-flat pace. Not sure what he'd been doing all race until then but he was moving very quickly.

With one mile to go all I could think was 6:00 and I can roll over and die and lay down and whatever. Just 6:00 more minutes, hold on! I ran a 5:25 and then right before I was about to make the final turn for the last 0.1 I heard footsteps behind me. Right then the announcer also said, "we should see the top female turn that corner any second now". So I thought I was seconds away from getting "chicked". And just like that I went from 5:25 pace to 4:40 pace for the last tenth. As I approached to finish I saw the tape being held for her to cross and finished hard and just held her off. Or did I? Actually it was just another guy in the men's race and she was another two minutes back. I don't know why they thought she was ready to turn that corner, but it did help my time by 4-5 seconds running out of fear...haha us men and our egos.

After I finished I found Jason and found out he ran a monster PR. A few minutes after me Coyle finished and he did just manage to hold off top female by 15 seconds. He said at one points she was ahead of him after he took a pit stop and that he had to really work hard to get back in front of her, it was pretty funny listening to him tell the story. Then I had a terrible coughing fit and basically coughed up a lung. My chest was on fire and my throat was raw. I kept dry-heaving on all the mucous from being sick. It was a miserable five minutes after the race.

I didn't do a cooldown as I had no energy and I didn't want to experience another coughing fit. My throat couldn't handle much more coughing, it hurt pretty bad.

So, fun experience minus the actual race! It's so frustrating, but what could I have done differently? I just need to not worry about it and move on. My fitness is still very good, best it's been. This race doesn't reflect my fitness and I just need to remember that. I hope to kick this illness soon as I really need some sleep and just can't get any lately with waking up with a cough every 2-3 hours.

5.19 miles easy around South Weber. I felt pretty blah! Jason has his race report up, head over and give him a congrats http://jaserun.fastrunningblog.com

11.8 miles easy in Ogden with Dave, Jon, and Bret. I felt very sluggish and worn down still but they kept the pace easy for me. Still a decent amount of coughing during and after the run. I did sleep through the night for the first time since last Thursday...so thank you Nyquil.

20.2 miles easy and early with Jason, Dave, and Ben. Nice combo of our new West Haven loop and the aerobic builder course. Saw Bryant and Bret doing mile reps out on the course too. Coughing was very minimal and only occurred during first two miles and after end of the run. Energy levels are coming back too. Two or three more days I think this cough may be gone...fingers crossed.

400 METER REPS

I wanted to get some turnover this morning but not tax my body too much as it's coming off a race, sickness, and long run. So, I settled on just a handful of 400s, nothing too serious or taxing.

I met Dave, Albert, Bret, Jace, and Jon at the pond. We warmed up just over four miles and then Dave, Albert, and I did eight 400s while the others just continued on an easy run.

I felt really sluggish early on and it felt harder than it should but it got easier as I went.

Splits: 70.9 70.6 69.8 65.8 69.3 67.2 67.6 62.2 avg 67.9 with 400 meter jog for rest.

7.5 more easy at lunch with Dave on base.

11.65 miles easy with Bryant, Bret, Jon, and Dave in Ogden and Marriott-Slaterville. One of the colder mornings we've had recently. Looking forward to tomorrow's 5k despite having heavy legs.

SALT LAKE TRACK CLUB WINTER SERIES 5K

Amy and I dropped the girls off at my parents' house, where my brother Denver was kind enough to watch them for us. Then we met Steve, Albert, and Dave at the Park 'N Ride and were on our way to SaltAir. We checked in, use the bathroom and did our warmup (3.5-ish with 0.5 at 5:40 pace).

At the start line I did a few strides and wasn't feeling so great. But, I figured I'd be fine once we got going. The body knows what to do when it's racetime even if it doesn't feel up to doing it. The gun went off and I got out quite quickly. Jason was right on my heels and we came through the 1k in 2:54. That was a bit too quick, so I slowed it down some. We came through the mile in 4:44. Still a tad quite, but most of it was from that first 1k so I tried to just keep that speed. 

A bit after the mile Jason's breathing became more faint and I could tell he'd dropped back a few meters. At the turn, I had an ok-sized lead, but there was TONS of dudes within striking distance. So, I knew I needed to keep at it. I ran mile two in 4:50. I could no longer hear Jason and figured as long as I didn't slow down the race was mine. With about 1/4 mile to go, I turned and saw the chase pack but had enough distance to where I could coast in a tad and be fine. So, I kind of gave in to the pain and slowed a bit the last quarter. I know, that's kind of weak-minded and a bad habbit. Mile three was 4:52 and the last tenth was at 4:58 pace.

At the finish I turned and saw that Jason, Scott, and Bryant were closing like freight trains and were closer than I thought they'd be considering where they were with a quarter to go. I wished I had be able to watch their last half mile; it sounds like it was a good battle.

After Jake finished he asked if I wanted to do some 200s. I said, "Sure". Then Rob said, "Riley if someone asks you to do 200s right after a 5k race you don't say sure"! Dave and Jason joined us as well and we ran four 200s off one minute rest. Mine were 31, 30, 30, 28. On the last one Jason showed off his wheels and I'll tell you what I don't want that guy anywhere near me with 100 meters to go, because he can straight fly!

Nice cooldown after with same guys and also Keate and Poulsen. 

Great day for the Ogden Crew with five of the top eight spots (Me 1st, Jason 2nd, Bryant 4th, Steve 6th, and Dave 8th) all under 16 minutes. And my dear wife ran fantastic today with 19:04, another 20 seconds faster than her 5k in November. She's making great progress and I'm super proud of her.

LONG RUN

I met with Jason, Bret, Bryant, and Dave for a very early morning long run before I fly out to Ohio this morning. The weather is supposed to be 25 below zero with windchill out there this week, plus I will be working 7am to 10pm, so I may not get much running in. So, I figured I'd get a lot in this morning.

4.25 more easy miles on hotel treadmill before fitness center closed for the night.

12.25 miles easy on the hotel treadmill. The first run in Eastern time zone always feels terrible, but I'm happy to have gotten it in.

3.25 more miles easy on hotel treadmill after a long day of work. My legs feel very heavy; I think it's a combo of the long run yesterday and the lack of sleep the last two days. I had a workout scheduled tomorrow, but I may push it to Thursday unless I wake up feeling very good.

8.25 miles on the treadmill again this morning. I tried one mile at 5:20 pace to see if the legs were ready for the scheduled workout, but decided my body was too tired still. I will give it a go tomorrow instead.

Looks like SLC Marathon changed the courses substantially from previous years:

http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/1077229/d8cfad9b61/521259849/5b711c7219/

AEROBIC BUILDER

I had planned on doing a 4-3-2-1 but it just didn't happen. I woke up and it was super cold out (10 degrees feels like 0 with windchill), but I couldn't stomach another treadmill run. So I headed out with the intent to do the workout. But then it was so cold running into the wind and I had a hard time moving my legs in the first warmup mile that I decided to bag it and just go easy. But, then I warmed up a little and decided to do it again.

Anyway after all the back and forth, I ended up starting the workout. I had mapped out a loop (2-miles long) yesterday that looked low traffic and safe. It was very hilly and had ice patches in a few places, but mostly it was good. I did four miles there at 5:21 avg and then three miles at 5:19 avg. At that point I realized I was out of time and had to get back. So I didn't get around to the 2-1 portion.

I didn't feel great and the paces felt hard, but I'm hoping that was the cold, wind, and hills.

7.15 miles easy before my flight home. Long travel day ahead, boo!