Everything Counts

10.6 miles easy on the canal path, up Badger Mtn, over to Little Badger Mtn, and back to Amy's Mom's house, avg pace 7:40/mile.

20.8 miles from my Mother-in-law's house to the Badger Mtn parking lot, two ascents up Badger, and then back, avg pace 6:05/mile with 2,300 feet of elevation gain.

I'm feeling fit again for the first time since late September or early October. I felt quite strong on the run and was holding pretty quick paces up the steep climbs.

The weather was pretty dang frigid with some cold windchill.

15 miles easy with Ken, Ben, Denver, Bret, Jon, and Manny, avg pace 7:08/mile. Towards the end I started feeling the long run from Saturday and the 10-hour drive yesterday in my legs.

11 miles easy with Denver, Matt, Ben, and Ken in Central Ogden, avg pace 7:09/mile.

FARTLEKS: 3x3,200 METERS

I met Ken, Ben, Denver, Matt, and Jon at Skyline Walmart. We warmed up three miles and then did differing workouts. I did three sets of fartleks, alternating 400s with one fast 800 thrown in. The workout went reasonably well. It was quite a bit faster than last month, but just shy of matching my pre-Chicago times for the same workout.

Set 1: 69.1 86.7 69.8 86.0 71.4 70.6 82.2 70.3 (10:06)

Set 2: 69.5 84.8 69.2 86.4 70.5 72.0 85.0 70.1 (10:07)

Set 3: 68.5 80.5 69.7 82.3 70.7 85.2 72.7 77.7 (10:07)

11 recovery-paced miles in a slushy ice rink which was the roads of East Ogden with Ken, Matt, Denver, and even Dave, avg pace 7:27/mile.

MALAN'S PEAK

I met Denver at his place and we drove to the 36th Street Trailhead and then ran from there to Taylor's Canyon, up and down Malan's Peak, and back, avg pace 10:41/mile.

13.5 miles with Ben and Jon in North Ogden with a 2-mile downhill pickup, avg pace for whole run 6:49/mile. Two mile pickup was 9:11 (4:44, 4:27).

12.1 miles easy on Monday Funday with Denver, Ken, Matt, Ben, Jon, and Bret, avg pace 7:05/mile.

10.4 miles easy with Ben in the Terrace and South Ogden, avg pace, 7:26/mile. Cold!

11.05 miles easy with Denver, Ben, and Matt, avg pace 7:22/mile.

7.65 miles with two pickups, avg overall pace 6:09/mile. First pickup was 1.25 miles at 4:59/mile and then another 1-mile pickup at 4:50/mile.

6 miles easy in 3 inches of fresh snow, dodging snow plows, avg pace 7:50/mile.

2 miles easy at the hotel, avg pace 7:15/mile.

ROCK N ROLL ARIZONA HALF MARATHON

I decided to take one last shot at an OT-qualifying time, even though I didn't feel quite ready. But that's what happens when you run out of time. I knew going in that it'd be a long shot to qualify here. The course is not ideal for a PR. It's not crazy hard, but it's a gradual uphill for 9.5 miles and it's not quite at sea level. Ideally, you'd want pancake flat and sea level. But, I procrastinated and by the time I decided to give it a shot, Houston was no longer accepting elites. So, Rock n Roll Arizona it was.

I made it quick, fly out Saturday, hit the Expo, eat food, check into hotel, wake up, race, shower, check out, and fly home. They had places to park at the start line, but I was paranoid it'd fill up and I'd have nowhere to park, so I got there pretty early. I reclined the seat and napped for 30 minutes before getting out and doing a short warmup.

The race got out quite quickly. There were several 1:03 or faster guys in the race. I was ranked 18th according to PRs. I wanted a bit of a conservative start, as I seem to race better that way. I turned the autolap off on my watch and manually took splits at the mile markers. This turned out to be a mistake as the markers were all over the place! One of them said I was running 4:09/mile pace and another 6:25/mile pace, just totally unreliable. So, I'll post the Strava splits instead.

I got out in probably 20th place with a 5:03, and it felt harder than I hoped it'd feel. I got behind Nick Hilton and another guy and tried to find a groove, we hit mile two in 4:57. That was the pace I needed. The two guys I was drafting behind slowed in mile 3 as we hit 5:03. But I wasn't too concerned yet. Mile 4 was 5:07. Now I was worried. We had dug quite a hole. Hilton surged and I went as well, but not as hard as he did (I think he ended up running 1:05:07). I hit mile 5 in 5:00. All these miles are uphill so far. Nothing too serious 5-25 feet per mile. But enough to slow you down 3-5 seconds a mile. In mile 6 I said, "It's now or never". So I surged up the hill here trying to hit a split under the required 4:57 pace. I ended up with a 4:58, just couldn't quite get the pace and wouldn't again the rest of the race.

That surge kind of did me in. It was just holding on as best as I could after that. I did pass quite a few people from 5k to 10k, but after 10k I only passed two guys and got passed by three I think. But I did beat a few guys that are already qualified with sub-1:05s. Mile 7 was 5:11, still up hill. Miles 8 and 9 were the biggest climbes, though still nothing outrageous, just 40 feet per mile, but at that point it was just draining. At one point I thought the hills were finally done and then we turned into the biggest one of the race and it just crushed my soul! Miles 8 and 9 were 5:16 & 5:17. At 15k you turn back down after a 180-degree turn and it's mostly downhill to the finish with one small hill along the way. But I was too tired to take advantage of the downhill. I ran mile 10 at 5:08 and 11 at 5:07. Miles 12 and 13 I had all but given up, just running very weak mentally. I split 5:12 and 5:14. At the end there was one guy just ahead of me and two guys trying to pass me, so I mustered up a kick and ran 4:18/mile pace to the finish to pass the guy ahead of me and hold off the others for 14th place.

I grabbed some food, grabbed my gear, walked a half mile back to my car, and drove back to the hotel immediately without lingering at all after the race. Despite all this, the OT time wasn't the only thing I missed by two minutes, I got back to the hotel at 10:02 with breakfast ending at 10:00. Dang! Since I missed breakfast, I decided to cool down afterall from the hotel.

So, no olympic trials for me. That's ok. It was fun to chase. I feel like the only real shot I gave myself was Chicago though. That was the only sea-level race where I was really on point fitness-wise and weight-wise. Today I was getting into shape, but not quite there. I am also 4-5 pounds overweight right now (holidays man!). But I feel I have unfinished business in the half marathon. I wanted to run 1:05 to qualify, but even more I just wanted to prove to myself that I could. And I still think I can, so I will keep trying for that goal.

6 miles easy, avg pace 7:14/mile. My left leg is a little jacked from yesterday, but the right leg feels totally fine. I will try to foam roll tonight.

11.2 miles easy on black-iced-over Ogden with Ben and Ken, avg pace 7:22/mile.

AM: 12 miles easy from the 21st Street Pond out west with Ken, Ben, and Jon for part of it, avg pace 6:40/mile. The time flew by as we (mostly me) were discussing the Netflix show"Making a Murderer".

PM: 6 miles from my house, avg pace 6:09/mile. I didn't have a workout scheduled this week, but I was feeling good so I threw in 6x30 seconds pickups around 4:40/mile pace with 1:30 float around 6:00/mile.

AM: 12 miles easy from my house with Ken, avg pace 6:50/mile. The South Weber wind was a tad a chilly toward the end there.

PM: 6 miles easy in South Ogden with Ken and Matt, avg pace 6:57/mile.

MALAN'S PEAK CATCH ME IF YOU CAN CONTEST

Striders Running Store and Altra are putting on a free contest this month to see who can run from the top of 27th Street to Malan's Peak and back the fastest. They had a similar contest in Aug of 2011 and the record was 42:17. It's 4.45 miles and you gain 2,250 feet. The top three get prizes, I think Altra shoes. They also said they'd give an added bonus, likely a gift certificate to Strider's for anyone that could break the CR from 2011, since it'd be tough to do in the snow.

So, I decided to give it a try. I've never been so glad that I recently bought microspikes, because without those I would've been substantially slower I think (especially on the descent). I was about 90 seconds behind at the summit, but I cruised down and beat the CR by 5 seconds in 42:12! And I only walked four times on the way up ;). It's a fun constest for anyone that wants to give it a try here's a link to the contest page.

Here's a link to my Strava upload.

17.25 miles out on Antelope Island with Ben, Ken, and Bret, avg pace 7:57/mile. The trails were bare in some parts and very runnable, but snow-covered and icy in other and were treacherous. I almost went down; I was horizontal with my face 20 inches above a rock and somehow without even touching my hands down recovered and stood up. Ken was behind me and was blown away at the recovery. We both laughed so hard for like the next ten minutes, while Ben and Bret (who didn't see it) rolled their eyes and left us behind!

14.35 miles easy on slick roads with Ben, Denver, Ken, Matt, and Jon, avg pace 7:26/mile.

AM: 12 miles easy with Ben and Ken (Denver and Matt met us as well but went shorter and slower), avg pace 6:52/mile.

PM: 6 miles easy before dinner when I got home from work, avg pace 6:46/mile.

12.55 miles with Ben, Denver, and Matt, avg pace 7:21/mile. We were scoping out a potential route for aerobic builders that somewhat simulate Ogden Marathon.

11.55 miles easy in South Weber, weaving all over to best avoid direct confrontation with the canyon wind, avg pace 7:05/mile.

10 miles easy on the South Weber-Uintah loop, avg pace 6:37/mile. I ran just after 8:00 a.m. and I will say running in sunlight is kind of nice.

SLC WINTER SERIES 5K

AM: I had a terrible attitude going into this race. I didn't want to drive an hour on snowy roads to get there, and I didn't want to try to run fast on snow-covered roads in a blizzard. But, like a good soldier, I went anyway. I drove down with Amy and her friend Angie road back with us.

We got there pretty early (we left early to ensure we'd make it on time with the snow). I warmed up a little over three miles with a few strides. I exchanged greetings with Fritz and the Pachevs, and before I knew it we were off. Garek, who I'd never met before, and I were side by side leading the race. After 400 meters or so, I couldn't hear footsteps behind us, so I assumed it was a two-man race.

My number one goal coming into this race was to negative split. I  have been absolutely terrible the last two years at going out way to fast in 5ks and then holding on for dear life at the end. Today, I was quite pleased with my pacing, just not with my finish (but we'll get to that later).

We came through the mile in 4:59, which wasn't bad for 1-2 inches of slick snow. At the turnaround I slowed to almost a complete stop and STILL slipped and almost went down. After the turn we could see the others, and we had a pretty decent lead on Nathan Peters in 3rd and Fritz in 4th. Mile 2 was also 4:59. Garek, got about 2-3 seconds on me just after mile 2. Then there was a guy coming the other way and running on the wrong side of the road. He was headed straight for Garek. Garek tried to dodge him without making too drastic of step that would cause him to slip. But the man also dodged the same direction. Result? Collision. The man went down. Garek stopped and helped him up. I managed to pass by without running into anyone. I slowed down and waited for Garek to catch back up. This cost both of us several seconds on time. Looking at my run on Strava, I ran a slower pace here for 25 seconds or so before getting back to sub-5:00 pace. But I didn't want to keep going without Garek. Sportsmanship is more important to me than winning.

I could tell that Garek was a little shaken up by the collision and felt bad. I said, "Don't worry about; he shouldn't be running there". We both finally got back up to speed and the race was back on. I thought about throwing in a surge but felt kind of bad doing so right after all that, so I didn't. With 0.4 miles or so to go Garek sped up and I didn't match it. I ran mile 3 in 5:01 (but I assume it was closer to 4:55 effort minus the slow down waiting for Garek to catch back up). Then I ran 30 seconds for the last tenth to finish 2nd in 15:31.

After I cooled down with a good group of guys.

PM: Once I got home, Sariah Long called me asking if she could borrow my microspikes to attempt the Malan's Peak Catch Me If You Can Contest. I told her sure, and actually ended up running it with her. She broke the women's record in 51:57 after taking first in the 5k, pretty impressive.