Training for Top of Utah 2011

Overcast and 57 degrees- Nice, Nice running weather. High School track for this one after 4 days off just to give the body a break. It's really boring running the track but easy on the legs. Some wind that was switching up at times but not too bad. 3 strides at 3 miles 3.5 and 4, just real easy ones...nothing really fast.

Mile Splits 8:50, 8:44, 8:42, 8:39, 8:45

I'm planning on running a 10K race this Saturday but not sure what kind of running I should do this week to prepare for it.

7 Easy miles @ the ridge. Overcast and about 56 degrees, beautiful for running. 

Took on the "Hill" of about 1 mile on the parkway since I haven't done anything with effort for some time. Felt good and stayed at a decent HR.

Splits 8:30, 8:51, 8:39, 8:51(big hill), 8:29(downhill), 8:50, 8:19

Avg. HR 143 and avg overall pace 8:38

Race plan for Sat. Morning Fall city fun run 10K.

Will be meeting Mark and Sommer(ran the marathon with them) and hope to keep up. Going to try to start at and stay at 7:00 pace the whole way and sprint the last bit if possible.

My first race ever as an adult was exactly 2 years ago at this race and I did better than expected for myself. I believe it was around 48 ish minutes. I stayed with Sommer for about 2 - 2.5 miles last time then told her to take off as I was running out of gas.

10k pr from last year is 45:01(7:15 pace) @ Snoqualmie Railroad days which I'll be running in mid August also.

It was raining very hard last night when I hit the sack. Was hoping it wouldn't be this morning. Woke up @ 7 am and had a banana then a power bar @ 7:30 with water.

50 degrees with partly cloudy skies. Another perfect morning for running. Got to Fall city and immediately saw the Reynolds clan. Got in line for my packet and then saw Mark and Kim Howard. Was planning on running with Mark and Sommer(all shooting at 7:00 pace) so that worked out well. Saw Snoqualmie and chatted with her and told her we were starting toward the front so we don't have to dodge a gazillion people to get our pace. It worked out very well that way. Planned to go @ 7:00 pace evenly the whole way till the end.

Mile 1  6:59  Had to dodge a few people but not too bad at all. Mark jumped out ahead after about .5 miles...he just can't run any slower.

Mile 2 7:01 Sommer and I were staying steady.

Mile 3 7:03 Stopped at the turnaround and drank water(only stop for water)

Mile 4 6:59 Just trying to keep the pace...Mark is way out so I didn't even consider trying to catch him.

Mile 5 6:55 Here is where Sommer and I started reeling in a lot of people. We got running with a girl from the high school(we think). She did NOT want us to pass her and kept speeding up.

Mile 6 6:47 Tried to keep this mile around 6:45 and was close but was getting tired. Lungs felt good but my legs were starting to turn to jelly. I had been following a tall guy with a red shirt who was the only one even close so decided I needed to pass him if possible on the last stretch. Left high school girl/ and Sommer here.

Mile .2 I screwed up by not turning off my garmin when I passed the finish line so not sure the pace but passed tall/redshirt guy. Felt great to sort of sprint to the finish. Killed my PR of 45:01 from last August by almost 2 minutes. Very happy with this race as I thought it would be hard since I hadn't done a lot of running since the marathon.

Mark is an absolute beast...he's 6 years older than I am but just keeps getting faster- he finished in 42:21

Sommer finished in 43:22 just 11 seconds behind me and she beat high school girl. She's pretty competitive so it's fun to run with her. I did get revenge on her for beating me at the marathon :-)

Talked to Snoqualmie after the race and she said she did really well also. Very happy for her.