Everything Counts

13.3 miles easy with Matt and Sariah, avg pace 7:13/mile.

6x3-MIN PICKUPS

I met Bryant, Jason, Jared, and Wolpert at Farmington Station for a long run with some 3-minute pickups during it. I ran 6 3-minute pickups at 4:40/mile avg with 2:30 rest. The remainder of the run was at a very easy pace on a beautiful morning with good company.

AM: 12 miles easy with Jared in Roy & Clearfield along the Rail Trail and back along Main Street/1900 West, avg pace 7:10/mile.

PM: 6.05 miles from Fernwood Trailhead to Adam's Canyon Waterfall and back, avg pace 9:18/mile and 1,600 feet of elevation gain.

11 miles easy with Ben, avg pace 7:55/mile. We were dragging from yesterday's festivities and the late night.

I met Jason at Kneaders for a Parkway tempo run. I felt pretty crappy the entire warmup and we struggled to get under 8:00/mile pace. I started the tempo and was running 20 seconds slower per mile than normal, so I bagged it after two miles. Then I just ran around waiting for Ken and Ben to finish up their workout. I need to focus on getting some sleep these next few days.

AM: 10 miles easy in South Weber, avg pace 7:02/mile. I got a good nine hours of sleep last night, so hopefully my body can get some energy back.

PM: 6 miles easy on Centennial Trail in Riverdale/Ogden with Ben, Taylor, and Jared, avg pace 7:19/mile.

6.9 miles easy with four strides at the park, avg pace 6:50/mile. I got another 9 hours of sleep, so hopefully I'll have full energy levels for tomorrow's half marathon.

BRYCE CANYON HALF MARATHON

Ben and I went down and ran the Bryce Half this weekend. The race is unbelievably beautiful and it's fun to get out to a part of the state we don't often see. We stayed in Panguitch and they bussed us to the start line, but we got there with 15 minutes to go. So, we found secret bathrooms, ran to the start line, dropped our bags, and then basically started without a proper warmup. I did get almost a mile in between all that, but would've preferred more and strides!

The race was quite stacked, you had Brett Hales (two-time defending champ), Kyle Perry (All-American at BYU a few years back), Ben, Jason Holt, Tyler Jermann (I found this out once I uploaded to Strava, but he's a pro runner based in Flagstaff), and then some other guys I don't know who went out FAST!

The race starts at 7,600 feet and is flat-ish for two miles and then mile three is bombing downhill, four through six are also quite steep, seven and eight are rolling but net down, and then most of the rest is more of a gentle downhill with another 15-foot rise in mile 11, but nothing too bad. So, tons of downhill (finishes at like 5,900 feet?), but at a really high elevation.

I planned on running the first two miles very conservative no matter what happened in front of me. I ran at Flagstaff a few times in college and understand how easily you can get into oxygen debt at that high of an elevation if you aren't careful and respect the altitude. The gun went off and at least 10-12 guys literally sprinted off the line! I was probably in 10th place a half mile in and I was already maybe 15-20 seconds back of the leaders. It was crazy. I have no idea what these guys were thinking! Ben and I stuck to our plan I ran 5:23 and 5:14 for the first two miles and he was a bit behind me.

By the end of mile two I was at least 40 seconds back of top three guys (unknown kid, Brett, and Kyle), 20 seconds back of 4th (another unknown guy), and maybe 5 seconds back of Jermann (again I only know this now from the Strava flyby feature, but at the time didn't know who he was). I started moving at mile three with the downhill, here I passed Jermann and started gaining on 4th too. The leaders continued to run insanely fast and by mile 4 were at least a minute up on me with Kyle out in front, Brett 10 seconds back with unknown, and then me likely 50-60 seconds behind those two. I was a bit shocked, as I didn't expect this competitive of a race. But I had a really good feeling most, if not all of those guys were coming back. No way were they all going to run 1:03-1:05. So, I kept working through miles 4-5 and passed the guy I didn't know around 5-6 miles in and was now in 3rd place. Splits for miles 3-6 were 4:30, 4:40, 4:45, 4:45.

I looked up after mile six and Brett had passed Kyle and Kyle was coming back quickly. But, Brett was also coming back. I got quite encouraged and kept pressing forward. I passed Kyle in mile 7 and at mile 8 I clocked Brett at a 20-25 second lead. So I had made up likely 20-30 seconds over the last few miles. This was encouraging. Miles 8-10 were 5:01 5:14 5:06.

At mile 10 I measured the gap again and it was 19 seconds. I may, just may be able to win this! But Brett held on very well. I expected to keep decreasing that gap, but at mile 11 it was only down to 17 seconds. I had only made up two seconds and at that rate I wasn't going to have enough real estate to catch him. I tried to move faster, but my legs were shot! My calves were screaming from the downhill pounding and blistering pace. At mile 12 the gap was 15 seconds, only gained another two seconds. I pushed hard the last mile, but Brett did too and he beat me in the end by 12 seconds. He ran 1:04:55 and I ran 1:05:07. Mile splits 11-13 were 5:01 5:11 5:02.

I was thrilled to see Ben finish 3rd with a very solid 1:07:07 (though he'll tell you he ran 1:07:03). The cool down was a joke. I could barely even shuffle. My quads were blown! My calves killed! But man oh man what a fun race. Technically a PR for me, but it's so much more downhill than TOU where I ran 1:05:16 in '13 that it feels dirty to count this.

AM: 11.5 miles of shuffling my feet and grimacing on the downhills with some serious soreness, avg pace 8:12/mile. Awesome, cool weather this morning and great company kept me going.

PM: 5.85 miles easy with Ken on the trails, avg pace 8:25/mile.

12.15 miles easy with Dave, Jared, Matt, Ben, and Moss, avg pace 7:53/mile.

13.9 miles in Ogden & Mariott-Slaterville with Ben and Ken, avg pace 7:23/mile. My legs weren't nearly as sore, but they certainly lack life still!

11.15 miles easy from the South Weber Park n Ride with Ben, Bryant, Sariah, and Denver, avg pace 7:24/mile.

10.75 miles easy with Ken, Jason, Dave, and Matt, avg pace 7:33/mile. I was really dragging the first few miles; think the first mile was 9:00!

AM: DRAPER DAYS 5K

I ran the Draper Days 5k this morning. I rode down with Ken, Ben, and Wolpert. I have felt pretty terrible all week long, and just since Thursday my lymph nodes have swollen up and I have had a substantial amount of fatigue. So, I wasn't sure how well this morning would go. Turns out the first two miles went about as I would expect, but I was simply out of oomph in that last mile and just really felt blah!

They changed the course since the last time I ran it in 2013, and I think I like the old course better. But the elevation profiles are pretty simlar. I finished first in 15:22, Ben was 2nd in 15:36, Ken 3rd in 15:46, Wolpert won the master's in 16:52. So our car left with the max amount of money we possibly could! It was fun to have the Ogden Crew sweep.

Splits: 4:53, 4:47, 5:04, and 5:02 pace for last tenth.

PM: 7 miles on the Parkway with Ken taking turns every half mile pushing Hannah and Everett in the double stroller, avg pace 6:45/mile. It's the first time this week (including this morning) that I actually felt decent; maybe I'm turning a corner and getting my legs and energy back.

15.3 miles easy with Ken and Bryant for whole run and Dave, Matt, and Jared for the first six miles, avg pace 6:53/mile. It was one of the hotter mornings of the summer so far.

PM: 3 miles on he treadmill before we headed to North Shore Aquatic Center for family night.

13 miles easy with Dave, Ben, Jared, and Denver (for first few miles), avg pace 7:05/mile. It was another warm morning so we headed down into Uintah to loop up toll road; it's a bit cooler down there.

AM: 7x2,000 METER REPEATS

Another Wednesday and another workout. Same routine: met Ken, Ben, and Dave at Ken's office and warmed up to Skyline. I did 7 by 2k reps with 1k rest (at roughly 6:40/mile pace) on mostly downhill route. Splits: 6:24, 5:58, 6:17, 6:11, 6:06, 6:07, 6:12 for a 6:10.7 average or 4:58/mile. I was hoping for closer to 4:50 avg, but it was quite warm and I'm overweight. I gotta drop the 4-5 pounds I've gained since Ogden if I want to run any times worth writing about!

PM: 5 miles easy with 6x8 second hill sprints, avg pace 6:42/mile when you take out the hill sprints/rest.

AM: 10.25 miles in South Weber with Jared, Bryant, and Jason, avg pace 7:17/mile. It was cooler here in the river valley at 72 degrees!

PM: 4.3 miles in 100 degrees, avg pace 6:50/mile.

20 miles moderate with Ken up in Morgan Valley, avg pace 6:30/mile. It was ten degrees cooler up there, which helps. But that's still a long ways to run without water!

9.35 miles on a moderate progression on the South Weber-Uintah loop, avg pace 6:37/mile. I woke up this morning with a sore throat; hopefully I don't get too sick. I am racing Des News Half on Monday, so I have a couple days to try and cut this cold off at the pass! While my throat hurt this morning, it didn't seem to affect my energy levels. I felt pretty decent actually.

I got my goal of 95+ miles on the week, which is the most since late April/early May.

DES NEWS HALF MARATHON

I've been a little sick the last few days with a sore throat and some fatigue. I knew that Brett Hales was racing and also Ben. So, I figured I couldn't take first; even with full energy and my A+ game Brett would've beat me (he ran 1:04:17). So I started the race conservatively. I felt terrible in the early miles. So I eased up a bit and let Ben, who was 5 seconds back, catch up. I told him I'd help pace him to his sub-1:07 goal for as long as I could, but that likely I'd drop back or drop out at some point. So I paced him to about 9.5 or so. At that point he fell back a bit, but we were well ahead of 1:06:59 pace, so I figured he was good.

I was starting to feel a bit better, best I had in the race, so I pushed the last 5k and finished decently in 1:05:53, which is better than I could've imagined at mile 3 when I felt so terrible. Ben got his goal and PR in 1:06:47, so that was awesome. I don't have splits as my watch didn't charge properly last night, but the splits are basically same as Ben thru 9 miles and then 15-20 seconds faster per mile for last four.

PM: 5.1 miles on the Centennial trail after work, avg pace 7:08/mile.

12.05 miles easy with Ben, Jared, Dave, Wolpert, Matt, Henry, and Jake, avg pace 7:18/mile.

10 miles easy on the South Weber - Uintah loop, avg pace 6:57/mile.

6 miles easy before heading to airport early a.m., avg pace 8:03/mile.

9 miles is New York City on the Highline Park (a 1.5 mile long park on top of what used to be a railway, elevated about 30 feet above the ground) and along the Hudson River, avg pace 6:45/mile with two miles around 5:15 pace.

10.4 miles in Central Park for 8 of it and back down to Mid-town and our hotel in Chelsea, avg pace 7:03/mile.