Everything Counts

LONG RUN WITH 11 MILES STEADY STATE

I met Jon and Denver at the 21st Street Pond at 6:00 am. Denver ran the first 4-5 miles with us on Monroe Your Boat then turned down to get 10 miles. Jon and I continued up to Mountain Road, to the top of North Ogden and then came down 2700 N. We stopped at Lee's for a quick drink from the spring and to take a Gu. Then we were back to it and headed out West. 

We got moving pretty good in the middle there. Jon did 7 strong miles under 6:00 and I continued on for 11 miles. Then I turned and looped back to Jon and we cooled down together.

My watch died at 19 miles, but the pace for 19 miles was 6:13/mile. The pace for the 11 steady state miles in the middle was 5:40. 

Solid run today for Jon; his fitness is coming along nicely.

13.65 miles on the trails with Ben, Jon, and Bret, avg pace 7:42/mile. Jon and I added on 5 sets of up and downhill sprints at the end.

12 miles easy on the Keene Road Trail in Richland, WA, avg pace 6:54/mile.

MILE REPS

I did 5xmile down by the Columbia River. I took a 2:30 jogging rest in between. Splits were 4:45, 4:49, 4:46, 4:49, 4:45.

You gotta love doing a workout at near-sea level; it gives ya a few extra seconds off your rep times.

11.25 miles easy in Kennewick, avg pace 6:50/mile.

LONG RUN

I ran 20 miles along the Columbia River, avg pace 6:18/mile.

This run was simply unpleasant. I had serious stomach issues the first seven miles and was constantly looking for restrooms. Then I just didn't have legs today. I had wanted to get a good chunk of mileage in the 5:40s, but I just didn't have it today. I managed 7 miles under 6:00, but they were a struggle. This was easily one of the harder feeling long runs I've done since Ogden Marathon. I was so happy to be done, just spent.

I usually take two days after a hard run to go hard again or to go long, but this time I only took one day in between and I think that played a role. But at least the long run is out of the way and  I can just go easy tomorrow morning.

10.05 miles easy, avg pace 7:25/mile. Nice and cool weather this morning up here in Coeur d'Alene.

14.05 miles easy on Monroe Your Boat with Ben, Jon, and Bret, avg pace 7:03/mile.

We got chased by a kid and his dog in the dark in the underground tunnel beneath Washington Blvd and then saw a dude scoping out what was in our cars as we finished the run. The dude played it off when Ben saw him and left.

10.35 miles easy on the trails with Ben, Jon, Denver, and Manny, avg pace 8:36/mile.

AEROBIC BUILDER

I met up with Ken and Ben at the pond for a builder. 3-mile warmup with a few strides and then into the workout. I felt good cardio-wise, fitness-wise, but my stomach was upset. I had to visit a quick secret bathroom in mile two, but after that got back into rhythm and really had a pretty good workout.

Splits: 507, 512, 508, 513, 514, 506, 511, and 507 for a 5:10.3/mile avg pace. This is my second best builder ever, but just barely (I've had two other higher 5:10 builders in fall of 2013)

AM: 10 easy trail miles with Bret, Jon, and Moss. We met at 5:10 at the Wheeler Creek trailhead and ran a loop into Snow Basin and back. Half the run was dark, but once it got light it was beautiful up there. We saw two moose about 100 meters off the trail.

PM: 3-on-3 Soccer Tournament at Syracuse High. We won the adult division despite being on average a decade older than every other team. We played three 20-minute games, so I'll count that as 2 miles.

6.3 miles in the hot afternoon sun along the Weber River Trail in Uintah, over onto the single track trails in Narnia, and back along the parkway to Weber River Trail again, avg pace 6:46/mile.

DAVIS DART CHALLENGE 5K

Corbin Talley, the Davis XC coach and my former teammate at Weber, called me a few days ago and asked if I wanted to come out and run his race today. I decided it would be a decent tune-up for TOU next week and besides that I haven't raced a non-aided 5k yet this year. So, I agreed to come and run.

I showed up about 45 minutes before the start, grabbed my bib, used the restroom a few times, and warmed up just over two miles with a few strides. I got out quickly at the gun and was in 1st place by 50 meters and led wire to wire. I got out a little too fast in the first mile. I ran a 4:36 for mile one. But it felt pretty good and I thought I could hold it. I came through the halfway point, which they had marked, in 7:17. But shortly after that I started to feel the oxygen debt from the quick start and I slowed substantially. I ran mile two in 4:50 and mile three in 4:54. I ran the last tenth in 4:32/mile pace for a 14:56 finish. It was the second fastest time ever behind Jared Ward's 14:43. Davis High's top runner was second and broke the high school course record in 15:30.

I feel pretty good about the time, especially since I haven't done any 5k-specific workouts. I think if I trained for a 5k for a few weeks I could run 14:30s at altitude here. But, for now the goal is sub-1:05 in the half and that's what I'll keep training towards.

Overall, a fun race. Corbin and his people do a great job of organizing the race. The course is well marked and is fairly flat and USATF-certified. The t-shirt was a good tech tee, but the cool thing is they keep the running list of top 50 overall men and women times ever on the back of the shirt. So, next year if you're looking for a good 5k, come try this one and see if you can get your name on the shirt!

12 miles easy on Monday Funday, with a healthy crew of eight guys, avg pace 7:01/mile.

PRIMER WORKOUT

I met Ben, Jason, Jon, and Manny at the pond for a light, primer workout for Saturday's half. We ran four miles up the Ogden Parkway and the turned around and did a two-mile pickup at goal half marathon pace (the grade is very similar to first two miles at TOU). Jason, Ben, and I ran 4:54, 4:57 with Jon merely seconds back.

After that we did 4x400 meters with 400 meter jog the rest of the way back to the pond. We ran those in 71, 67, 68, 65. Everyone seems super fit and ready to roll Saturday.

8 miles easy with Denver, Ken, Ben, and Jon in South Ogden, avg pace 7:10/mile

7 miles easy with Denver, Ben, Jon, and even DAVE on the Riverdale Parkway, avg pace 7:21/mile.

4.1 miles easy with two 30-second pickups, avg pace 6:49/mile.

I think I'm ready for a pretty good race tomorrow. My nose has been pretty stuffed up with all this smoke in the air, but it hasn't seemed to affect my running. Besides that I feel healthy and strong, and am excited for tomorrow. I'm excited to see how well I can run, but I'm almost just as excited to see how well the rest of the crew can go...I could easily see Ben, Jon, and Jason hitting PRs.

TOP OF UTAH HALF MARATHON

I was pretty excited for this race. The previous two times I've run it ('12 & '13) I PR-ed. I thought maybe I was ready to hit another PR. It would take a huge effort, since two years ago I ran 1:05:16. I felt fresh and ready to really put down a good race going into this.

Ben, Jon, and Jon's brother Kory stayed with Ben's cousin, Todd in Logan. It's always great to have a place to stay up in the valley so you don't have to drive or book a hotel. We met Ken at the buses. I mentioned to Ben on the way up that the trees did not appear to be swaying at all from wind at the mouth of the canyon; I said we may not have the wind today. We got up there and ran into Jason at the start area along with Mike Hardy (an All-American this spring from Weber State in the steeplechase). We warmed up just over two miles and did a few strides.

The starting line had a large quantity of really good runners. It was great to say hi to everyone and chat a bit before the start. The gun went off and Jason and I took the lead, running side-by-side. I could tell early in those first two miles that it probably wasn't going to be a PR day. The effort I was putting in for the splits I was getting was greater than I needed it to be if I wanted to run a low-1:05. But it was still early and maybe I'd warm up more and ease into faster paces as I went. Miles 1-2 were 4:57, 5:00

Jason started breathing a bit heavier during mile 3 and just after that split he started to slowly lose a few steps. I was trying to focus on my form on run efficiently in these middle miles. I got through mile 5 and was hoping the tailwind would show up soon. For those that haven't run this race, it's famous for a strong tailwind from miles 5-8; it literally feels like someone is lightly pushing you on the back. But, this year it just wasn't there. I think usually that tailwind is worth 30 seconds. I looked down at the halfway point on my watch, 6.55 miles, and saw 32:27. I knew there was no way I was PR-ing today, with the second half being substantially slower than the first half. Miles 3-8 4:56 4:59 4:51 4:52 4:54 5:00

Now I'm running North on Hollow Road and there's a few people here and there cheering. I passed Jason's entourage and they were kind enough to cheer for me, despite Jason being only 20 or so seconds back. There was the lightest of winds coming from the North; not enough to slow you down but nice enough to cool you off a bit, so that was kind of nice here. My brother Denver was at mile 8 or so waiting for our cousin to run the last five with him. He cheered for me and told me I had 20-30 second gap. I kept pushing and got to the hills in miles 11-12 with some still left in the tank. Miles 9-10 5:07, 5:05.

Mile 11 is slight downhill for half mile and decent uphill the second half. I powered up it quite well though, I think about as well as two years ago. I split a 5:09. Mile 12 however I'm certain was a tad slower than previous years in 5:22. It has the most uphill and is uphill the whole way. 

One mile to go and I had a pretty good lead, but the air quality was really poor and I had a huge buildup of mucous in my esophagus that was now causing me to gag. I tried to spit it out, but couldn't really get it out. So the last mile was me just trying not to allow the gagging to turn into vomitting. I still managed a decent split though on this last mile, which is pretty good downhill. I ran a 5:02. And the I was elated to be done and win another TOU Half! I ran 4:48 pace for the last tenth and finished 1st in 1:06:03. They didn't have a clock up and I thought I was closer to 1:06:15, but had I known I was that close to sub-1:06 I probably could've shaved 3 seconds. But it doesn't really matter.

Jason finished second, Mike Hardy third, Ben fourth, and Fritz fifth.

After the race Ken, Denver, Ben, and I ran 6+ miles of cooldown.

All in all it wasn't as fast as I wanted. Some of that was the course being a tad slower today and some was not having someone up with me after three miles (in '13 Jake and I were competing side-by-side for 10+ miles, which definitely makes it easier to run faster than being way out in front alone). But some is probably also, me not quite being as fit as I had hoped. I will keep pushing and training and hope I can shave another minute off. I ran 1:05:21 at Des News Half last month, but that has three times as much downhill as today (1800 vs 600), so I still think this is my best effort of the year, even if it's not a seasonal best.

Top of Utah is a top notch race. If you've never run it and live in the area, you really should add it to your list next year.

Here's another photo and the newspaper article in the Herald Journal:

AM: 12.65 miles easy on Monroe Your Boat with Ben, Jon, Manny, Denver, Bret, and Ken, avg pace 7:10/mile.

PM: 4.1 miles easy in my neighborhood, avg pace 6:52/mile.

11.2 miles trailrunning in the dark with Jon, Denver, avg pace 8:07/mile.

Lunchtime: 5.45 miles easy, avg pace 6:33/mile.

I'm looking for some feedback...I am currently registered for St George Marathon, but am considering switching to Chicago and doing TOU three weeks before Chicago as a final long run, shooting for 2:30 or so (similar to what I did at Morgan Marathon-good effort but not a "race effort"). What do you all think? Stick with STG, and do a half at sea level in late fall or go for an OTQ now at Chicago and if I come up short go for a half in late fall (or if I get it, take a break before resuming training). Or I guess option three could be bag a fall marathon altogether and go for a sea level half in 1-2 months...decisions...

AM: 12 miles in Central Ogden and up through Washington Terrace with Ken and Jon, avg pace 7:07/mile. I weighed in four pounds low this morning which means dehydration. Boo. I was dragging this morning as a result. I need to do better today.

PM: 4.9 miles moderate around the neighborhood, avg pace 6:05/mile.

12 miles easy on the Riverdale Parkway with Jon, Denver, Manny, and Dave, avg pace 7:20/mile .

Lunchtime: 5.2 miles with one-mile fast finish, avg pace 6:14/mile and 4:48 last mile.

8 miles easy on the parkway with Ken and Jon, avg pace 7:09/mile.

Here's an article on the Ogden Crew in the newest edition of Weber State's Bleed Purple Magazine, page 14 on the magazine pages or 17 for the online slide deck.

PROGRESSIVE LONG RUN

I met Jon and Ken way too early in the morning out in West Haven at a park. It worked out quite well. We had bathrooms there and looped back there at miles 9 and 17 for water, gu, and bathrooms along the way (and to drop off headlamps at 17). The plan was 2-mile warmup, 5 @ 6:15, 5 @ 6:05, 5 @ 5:55, and 5 @ 5:45 and finally a 3-mile cool down.

2-mile warmup: 7:16, 6:22

5 miles: 6:16, 6:08, 6:02, 6:07, 6:03

5 miles: 6:04, 5:55, 6:00, 6:04, 5:56

5 miles: 5:54, 5:54, 5:48, 5:44, 5:46

5 miles: 5:31, 5:39, 5:25, 5:29, 5:30

3-mile cooldown: 6:34, 6:33, and then final mile barefoot on grass in 7:44.

Great run, and this is my first ever 100-mile week! So I can mark that off my bucket list. I'm feeling strong. My main concern is the mucous buildup that I get on these long efforts that cause me to gag (and this morning throw up after the 22 progression miles). I think I will experiment with Muccinex next long run. I probably need tiny amounts of water more often too to keep the throat more moist. I have a few weeks to try and figure it out.

15.1 miles easy with Ken, Ben, and Denver, avg pace 6:59/mile.

Lunchtime: 5.45 miles moderate, avg pace 6:27/mile.