Slow to fast

For some crazy reason I'm in St George this week. It was 80 degrees F when my brother, sister and I went out this morning at 6am.

Hot. It was 80 degrees F at the 6:30 am start time. My wife, brother, sister and Mom all ran this race with me. We got there around 6:05 to pick up our packets which took a little longer than expected. This caused the race to be delayed by about 5 min. The first packet I was given didn't have any safety pins. No one seemed to know where I could get some. I brought extras from home but lost them somewhere. I ended up grabbing another packet after I realized that it didn't matter which bib number I had. There was no chip on the bib. This packet also didn't have any pins. The third packet had some pics and I was off on my warm up. There wasn't much time now so I just got in a mile with about 4 strides.

The course was an out and back along the parade route in downtown St George, Utah starting at the Dixie Bowl Stadium.

At the starting line there were about 6 high-school cross country boys that were going to be hard to beat. They went out fast and I was only able to catch a couple of them by the end. I stayed consistent for the first two miles (6:04, 6:05) but felt like I couldn't go any faster because of the heat. Not too far in front of me was probably the only other older guy near the front of the race. During the last mile (5:55) I sped up a bit to overtake him. I passed him with about a quarter of a mile to go. The course was a little short (3.05 mi) based on my watch. I'm not sure of my place because the high school kids probably did around 17:00.

6:04, 6:05, 5:55, 11

At Bear Lake for the weekend and did some miles in the hills.

Did a few miles around home this morning.

I've officially started my training cycle for the St George marathon in October.

5mi tempo

6:55, 6:47, 6:48, 6:44, 6:44

I had planned to do 6 miles but I just wasn't feeling it on the sixth mile so I cut it short. The plan was to do 4 to 6 miles so I'm fine with 5.

These 4 miles were a little slower than usual. Around 9 min pace. I was feeling a bit tight.

12x200m

37, 37, 35, 34, 35, 35, 35, 35, 34, 34, 34, 32

I did these at the Alta track as per usual. It took me a couple intervals to find the right pace and then things just kept steady.

A quick run this morning over to Lone Peak Park.

The plan was to do 14 miles, but I tried a new route and didn't really spend much time mapping it out. At just over halfway I started to realize this loop was going to be a bit long. I went up to Highland, to Creek Road, to Wasatch and down Dimple Dell road. It took 2:10 and I averaged 8:25.

A medium-long run this morning.  It took me 1:21:00 at 8:10 min pace.

6x800m

3:06, 3:07, 3:02, 3:01, 3:02, 3:01

I wwent a little faster than my goal pace of 3:05 but I felt good throughout and at the end. I only did the minimum slow miles so that I don't go too far over 40 miles for the week. I stay on 40 miles for 2 more weeks then bump up to 45.

I went camping in central Utah (Boulder Mountain) over the weekend. The entire plateau is at 10,000 ft. I was excited to get some good trail running in, but this run turned into somewhat of an overland run. It was beautiful but not much trail to follow. The woods are sparse and there are a lot of meadows so it wasn't too bad. Just a little rough on the ankles.

I decided to stick to a graded dirt road for this run. The road had a lot of rolling hills and at 10,000 ft the hills were tough. My total elevation gain was 1000 ft. For the last 3 miles I sped up.

Total Time: 1:54

3mi Finish

6:54, 7:03, 6:59

6 mi Tempo

6:53, 6:51, 6:45, 6:50, 6:52, 6:51

I got really wet this morning but my times were good. It was nice to get back to a reasonable elevation.

8x300m

1:00, 1:04, 1:01, 1:00, 0:58, 1:03, 0:59, 1:00

Good workout at Alta High, but I don't think I did exactly 300m for each of my intervals. I think the 1:04 and 1:03 laps were long. I need to figure out the markings on the track.