Everything Counts

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!