Starting at Providence ball field up to Deer Fence and over to Millville canyon and back. Lots of hills and half dirt. Time to change the batteries in my headlamp. I was seeing things...Spooky.
T-1:05 (8:07) 1200' vert
Retiring my shoes (615 miles). I wore them last monday and it hurt my leg and today it felt the same pain (after the run, not during) so I am pretty sure it was the shoes.
Up willow to the cut-off and over the pass. That hill was bigger than I remember. Once at the top the maze of trails tricked me and I ended up "exploring" more than needed. I paid homage to Old Ephraim's grave, but I was eyeballing the small trail heading up that hollow. I checked it out and was rewarded by 2 huge moose eyeballing me. They were about 100m away, but very wary of me. Of course, no camera today. Figures. I only saw one person (hunter) the whole time, so I ended up winning the large animals versus people count. After bailing on my exploring trip, I followed the road all the way to Ricks and took that trail back to the car. Tired, but satisfied.
T- 2:40 (9:42) 3,300' vert
*Weekly total 54 miles 6000' vertical
** On a more important note, Paul got his marathon trials qualifying time today. 2:18:48!
My son was up much of the night with croup and therefore we were too. I feel less than 100% so its an easy day. spent my lunch break at the doctors getting steroids for him. I am thinking I could use some of those as well.
Did a bit of a fartlek workout today. 2 mile warmup, then 4 miles of 1 min on 1 min off followed by 2.5 easy back home. Enjoyed the light snow. Much better than rain.
Up early and out the door long before sunrise. Busy day, so had to sacrifice a bit of sleep. No worries though as I made it home before long before 8 (new record I thing). House to the Island to Sumac Drive cutoff to first dam up the shoreline trail and a bit up green (just to the bathroom at the campground). 63:30 to the turnaround. Same path home.55:20
Saw 5 deer, one with a sweet rack. I told my wife I was checking out a rack this morning and she got mad.
I found out that I will be in SLC for thanskgiving so I decided to sign up for the cottonwood heights 5K after-all. My first 5K in a year and actually my first race on a road in a year. I have not been training for either a 5K or a road race, so I decided since I have a week, I had better do something about that.
~3.5 mile warmup on planet walk and over to Logan high track. I did 4x20 sec striders en-route. Once on the track, I immediately went to work on my ladder workout. Goal pace was 5:20 pace (didn't happen). Each recovery was 200m jog very easy (i.e. full recovery).
200m - :38
300m - 1:00
400m - 1:23
600m - 2:05
800m - 2:48
600m - 2:07
400m - 1:23
300m - 1:01
200m - :35 (all out)
Ran home at 7 min pace.
Thoughts: Um, not that great of a workout, but its what you would expect with 0 speedwork and not really focusing on my running lately. I definitely have my work cut out for to break 18 mins on this tough course and more importantly not get beat by allie!
Got dressed in the dark while half asleep and somehow ended up with 1 cumulus shoe on and 1 launch on the other foot. I didn't even notice until mile 5.
I felt lousy this morning as I woke up. There was a storm raging outside so the morning run turned into a mid day run. The storm wasn't any better, but I survived. The first 5 miles weren't too bad as I was running with the wind but the next 5 back into the wind was brutal. 14 rough miles. Providence canyon over to Dry and up for 2 miles before the snow was over my shoes then back past the car to Millville Canyon.
Cottonwood Heights Turkey Trot 5K (3.1 Miles) 00:18:30, Place overall: 3, Place in age division: 1
Slow miles
Fast miles
Total Distance
8.00
3.00
11.00
Cottonwood heights turkey trot 5K -
18:30 - 3rd place
This race is one of tradition, I have run it numerous times mostly as a kid when I lived in the area. This year, it was my first and only road race. I figured it would be fun to run a 5K and be done with a race in under 20 mins. To be honest, I was really hoping to be under 18 mins, but it didn't happen. This course is tough with 220' vertical climbing. Tough for a road 5K. Its amazing it has become so popular. It continues to nearly double its participants every year. This year a reported 1800+ people had sign up (only 1250+ actually ran it). The race is not really that special. The course is cool, but that is about it. No turkeys for prizes, they ran out of shirts and have to order more (including mine). I won my age group and third place overall and all I got is a ribbon. Actually 2 since they give you a ribbon for beating the mayor (who got about a minute or 2 head start).
The race itself turned out fine and I was happy with how things turned out. It was scary cold and the roads were far from dry and clear. That said, it could have been much worse. The race began and I quickly found myself in 20th place or so. I picked up the effort to near 5 min pace and was still in 15th or so. Crazy. I settled into 5:30 pace for the first third of a mile and was slowly passing a few more. Once the first hill hit, I really started to pass people. I found myself moving real well on the uphills this race and hanging around for the downhills. Right before mile 1 I found my family outside my childhood home cheering and taking pics. (I will post some later). Mile 1 was over before I knew it. 6:01 I was in 5th place at this point. It took until the next hill at 1.4 to pass the next 2 guys. Once I hit the end of the loop at mile 1.5, I was glad to feel the wind at my back rather than in my face. The only problem was that now the 2 guys in front of me picked up the pace on the downhill and I didn't have a faster gear. I just maintained my position and worked on staying as warm as possible. My hands were totally numb even with 2 layers of gloves on. Somewhere in there was the 2 mile marker, but I missed it so no split. The third mile has one more hill than downhill to the finish. I was close enough to watch the battle for first, but didn't have a chance to mix it up with them. I hit the 3rd mile marker and was amazed I was almost done already! Crazy. I could get used to these short races. 11:59 for 2 miles :30 for the final sprint to the finish. Pretty even splits I suppose.
The highlight of the race was catching up with an old friend who ran the race as well. We ran the course again as a "cooldown". I spent the majority of the time getting life back into my hands. Turned out my "injury" wasn't a factor and my head cold didn't mess me up too much either.
