dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

Good day at church today.  I also slept in and made up for some lost sleep from the last couple of nights

 I ran with Sasha this morning and we ran 10.1 miles in 1:17, followed by two more miles with Benjamin to finish up the run in 1:33:35 for 12.1 miles.  Sasha and I did run a fat mile in the middle of the run, and I got excited and started to chase the guys on bikes in front of us.  We caught the first guy while running an 85 second first quarter.  I was going to back off a bit, but during the second quarter I saw a guy on a tricycle up in front of me, and there was no way that I was going to let a guy on a trike beat me.  So, I sped up to a 77 second third quarter, and then coasted in with a 78 second last quarter for a 5:25 mile.

PM:  4 more miles in about 30:30.

I ran 10 miles this morning with Sasha.  We ran a tempo run of sorts, as the goal was to alternate 83 and 77 second quarters for as long as Sasha could hold it, and then tempo until we hit 5 miles.  Our plan worked out pretty well, as we hit quarter splits of 83, 78, 82, 76, 84, 76, 84, 74 to make it to 2 miles with a time of 10:37 (5:19, 5:18).  The 74 second quarter was accidental, but it killed Sasha and we slowed down to run a mile in 6:10 as a recovery of sorts before speeding up to run the 4th mile in 5:52, and the last in 5:28.  Total time for the run was 1:05 and some change.

I ran 10.1 miles with Sasha this morning in 1:16:10.  We were joined by Rich Borget for just under 4 miles during the second half.  We also ran a fat mile during the second half of our run in 5:48.

PM:  I ran home from work as the car was in the shop getting new brakes.  2.9 miles for the run (at least that is what my car measured it at before) in 22:31.  I also ran about 1 more mile to pick up the car from the shop about an hour later.

PM-2:  My third official run of the day.  I can almost count it as my fourth run, but I can't count the one mile to the car place as a run.  I ran 4 miles in 29:51.  I felt pretty good, but I had a stiff wind in my face coming up the hill back to my house.

I ran 10.1 miles with Sasha this morning.  He was doing quarters, and I ended up running the last quarter with him in about 68.5.  We also ran a fat mile.

I ran 10.1 miles this morning with Sasha and Rich.  We finished in about 1:13:23.  We also ran a fat mile in 5:50.

PM:  6 more miles alone in 44:46.  I felt good.  This is the most miles I have ever ran from Monday through Friday.  With tomorrows long run added in it will be the longest I have ever run in one week.  So far the week has gone well and my body hasn't felt too worn out.  Hopefully tomorrows run goes well also.

The race I ran today was the Mark the Great 5k that Susan here on the blog was putting on in memory of her brother Mark, who passed away recently.  It was a nice event that had a real close knit feel to it, as most of the people there were at the race to support Mark's family.  About 400 people finished the race, which is quite a few for a first year race.  The race course is pancake flat, making a loop through some country roads in Benjamin, Utah, and finishing at basically the same place as it started.

My goal for this week had been to hit my first ever 90 mile week.  As such I had run 16 miles on Friday, 6 of the miles coming after 8:00pm.  This is not what you would usually would want to do the day before a race, but I am thinking more of the big picture here.  I also decided that in order to make this more resemble a marathon training workout that I needed to get in a long warm-up, so I ran 10 miles before the start of the race.  A few miles into the warm-up I was feeling great, and I was ready to start the race.  However, by the time I had run the entire warm-up and had already hit 80 miles for the week I was feeling tired, and I didn't really know what to expect for the race.  Since I wasn't sure what to expect I decided to go out hard and try to hit splits just under 5:00 for the beginning of the race, and then try to maintain the pace as best I could.

So, the race starts, and I fall in behind a couple of guys that I coached at Springville high last year for cross country.  After a little over a quarter mile I decided that I needed to speed up, so I came around the outside and took off.  A high school kid from Maple Mountain tried to follow me, and he held on until just before the mile mark.  4:57 for the first mile.  Right where I wanted to be.  The second mile was more of the same, except I was completely alone and I was starting to hurt and feel uncomfortable.  4:58 for the second mile, 9:55 for 2 miles.  At this point I was still right on pace, but being so far out in front I started to loose concentration a little bit, and the next thing I know the pace is no longer hard.  I realized my mistake and picked up the pace again, but it resulted in a slower third mile, 5:02 (14:57 for 3 miles).  I then sped up a little more to a pace that somewhat resembled a kick and finished in 15:26.

So, considering the conditions, having run a 10 mile warm-up, having run 16 miles the day before, and running this race at the end of my first ever 90 mile week, I am rather pleased with the time.  It is officially the fastest I have ever run a non-aided 5k (although the 15:30 I ran at the minuteman 5k last year is probably a better quality based on terrain) and I was doing everything I could to make sure that I was not 100% at race time.  If I would have been keying in on this race, and if I would have tapered, and ran with a faster field I think that I could have come close to breaking 15:00 on this course, which is exciting because even though the course is flat it is still at altitude.