Sunday - Went out for a few trail miles in the morning. Legs felt a little tired after yesterday's hard 5K. Thought I would end up not seeing anyone out there. Ended up seeing Matt and Sharon Klar and Bj. Ran back from the turnaround with Bj. Good run. Felt good, not super fast, but good and steady. Worked the uphills, took it easy on the downhills. Miles - 9.1
Monday - Did my usual lunchtime run but ran the roads from work instead of hitting the t-mill. When I do that I can get an extra mile in since I don;t have to drive up to the gym and back. Nice day for the run too. Low 40's and sunny. Tried to sucker some people into running after work to no avail. Maybe that was a good thing. Ended up running north from Rainbow by myself. Doing that allowed me to push as hard as I wanted, plus I didn't stop to chat. The run felt great, I felt light on my feet. My legs were a little tired, but I felt like I had plenty of reserves anyway. Ran the fastest average pace I can remember for this chunk of trail. Miles - 13.0
Tuesday - Only managed to get in a run on the t-mill at lunch. Miles - 4.0
Wednesday - Didn't get any running in today. Bummer.
Thursday - Got my two runs in. The usual t- mill run at lunch, then went out north of Rainbow to the canal road. Turned around there, and ran back until I met with the crew, then turned around again to get some bonus miles in. Miles 12.75
Friday - Nothing. Spent the afternoon driving to Moab for the Red Hot 55K.
Saturday - Moab Red Hot 55K. Wow, gorgeous day for a little run on the slickrock. Started out in the upper 20's, sunny, no wind unlike last year. Warmed up to the low 50"s by the afternoon. By about three miles I shed the hat and gloves and by mile 18 I shed the jacket. How did my race go? Last year I ran a 6:35, so my goal this year was to go under six hours. I felt better trained and faster. I intentionally started out slow. What I've discovered is that when I bolt, my heart rate soars and doesn't settle down for awhile and people just pass me later anyway. And that kinda sucks. The actual race was pretty uneventful for me. I blew thru most of the aid stations, stopping to fill my water bottle as needed, but otherwise relying on the 1st Endurance Liquid Shot I had with me. Since I was wearing my HR monitor, I wanted to try a couple of things. First, I wanted push some and see what my HR would get up to, and second, on the flats and downhills, I wanted to keep my HR rate up by going faster. What I've found out during training is that I can push my HR higher than I thought and still run decently and for a fairly long time. Typically when I'm running a trail, my HR averages around the 120-130 range. What I wanted to do was keep it nearer to 140. This means I run faster, which means a faster time, duh! What I didn't know was how long I could keep up that heart rate. I know that as a race progresses, my HR will go down as I get more and more tired. By wearing my HR monitor, I could see this happen and hopefully keep the heart rate up. Ok, enough of the HR crap and on to the race. It was fun. I had a great time the entire race. The scenery was beautiful, clear blue skies, awesome red rock, cool people to run with, and best of all, lots of great friends and beer at the finish. I could comment on my eating and drinking and all the other technical aspects, but in the end, it was fun. So, did I meet my goal of sub 6? Nope, I ran a 6:07, still 30 minutes faster than last year, almost a full minute per mile drop in the pace. Still a mid pack finish (91 out of 200, and 27/71 in the masters age group). I'm happy with that. I wasn't concerned with where I finished, just that I have a good time and do well.
Here's the link to my Garmin stuff. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/150993192
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