Chad's Runs

Well, I was 5 miles short last week.  I hope I can keep my slip-ups to the occasional one miss per week.  Today I got up and was running by 5am.  I ran 8 and felt really good; relaxed, strong.  My pace was 8:47.  I always try and run the second half faster than the first and I easily did that with a 8:10 last mile.

Ran relaxing 6 this morning at 5am.  I ran into a little surprise where the JRP goes under Lehi Main Street.  It was a lake.  Funny, because yesterday was dry.  There has been some flooding in Lehi, but what a difference a day makes.  The flooded area there was glass smooth.  There was a red warning light on the bridge that looked like two because of its reflection.  It looked as if a set of lights identical to those in the ceiling of the tunnel where placed in the middle of the floor.  It was a perfect mirror.  I meant to check my crawl space this morning for flooding, but I don't think I will have a problem.

Holy Hills Mount Goat!  I went running with a fried that lives up Traverse Mountain by Cabela's.  He is running the Wasatch Back here in a couple weeks and has been training in the hills behind his neighborhood.  We gained 700 ft in less than 2 miles.  It's been more than a year since I've ran any hills.  I used to run from the north end of the Thanksgiving point golf course to park north of Camp Williams.  That is quit the clime as well.  Any way, my quads are a little sore this morning.

Ran a nice easy 6 at a 9:30 pace.  I ran with the same friend as yesterday but instead of the hills on Travers Ridge we ran the flat roads of south west Lehi.  Last night the wind was howling but this morning it was just strong enough to keep us cool.  Although it is quite humid from the clouds and thunder storms.  I am going to run 11 tomorrow which will be my high for the year.  With Saturday's 5 the weekly total of 40 will tower over my previous high of 29.  I'm actually excited about putting in more miles and getting ready for the Top of Utah.

I originally had a 10 planned here.  I missed a mile earlier in the week so I decided to add one here and make it 11.  It rained a lot today and I thought I was going to wimp out.  Getting wet for 45 minutes while working hard and generating some heat is enjoyable.  Getting soaked and cold on a long slow run is miserable.  Well, I got lucky and it cleared up this afternoon and turned out to be a beautiful run.

 So, I started of with 11 planned but felt wonderful so I decided to run 12.  I was trying to take it slow and easy but was still running 8:45 - 8:50.  So I kept running down through Saratoga Springs with some beautiful, after rain views of the north end of Utah Lake.  My splits were staying under 9:00 so I decided on a 1/2 marathon under 2 hours.  As it shows on my short term goals, I want to run a marathon under 4 hours.  I wanted to do this last year at the Salt Lake Marathon.  I month or so before, I ran a 1/2 marathon at a 2 hour pace to see how it would work for a marathon.  I made it, but barely.  I was exhausted and winded and there was no way I was going to run a 4 hour marathon.  I ended up running 10 minutes back of my best time.  So with things going well about half way threw my run today, I threw cation to the wind and decided to test myself an see how I would do with 13.1 miles.  I ended up with 1:57:33.  I am pleased and encouraged.  With all the training miles I have planned (probably 3 times the training miles of Salt Lake), I should have a shot at it.