Welcome

Plan was six easy. With the race yesterday, I wasn't sure how I would feel. I decided to go with the Highland crew which included Jake and Kevin and newcomers White and myself. We did an easy loop to Kevin's house and around liberty park. I was thinking of turning around at three miles but I felt fine. I was sore but not fatigued. It is also nice to run in a pack. Makes you almost forget about the running part. A bit warm toward the end but overall a nice fathers day run. Now to sit around for the rest of the day! I didn't have my watch going for the first .15 because I was three minutes late, but bringing the 7:38 pace out to a round 10, that's 76:20 or so.

Happy Fathers Day to all the fathers out there. 

5:45 am

9 easy with White formerly and currently of the blog. Met up at the mouth of memory grove and ran up city creek. Legs are still very sore but not fatigued. Felt good. Beautiful morning.

69:50 with 900 ft of climb.  

Lunch. 10 minutes on the bike and then 45 minutes of stretching and core. I needed it. 

5:30 am

Goal marathon pace tempo. Met up with White at the BST lot across from the zoo. Warmed up 2 going up the canyon into a headwind and then did a nice tempo down the canyon. Idea was to reacquaint myself with some faster turnover. Splits were 6:12, 6:00, 6:06, 6:06, 6:19 (on east high track) and 4:38 for the last .75 on the track (35:21 total or 6:09 avg). White did a different workout but we met up at the east high track and returned to our cars. Nice morning. 72:33 total with 700 ft of climb. Accumulating sleep deprivation.

Lunch

Plan was 9 easy. I decided to sleep in this morning and did a lunch run on the treadmill at work. I love that I am giddy when I get up to go on my run. Its hard for me to go steady on the treadmill, so I decided to do a progression similar to one I hope to do outside next week. 60 minutes at a 1 incline as follows

Mile	Pace
1	7:30
1	7:15
1	7:00
1	6:45
1	6:30
1	6:15
1	6:00
1	5:42
0.36	5:27
0.49	5:13
0.15	5:00
0.25	8:00

The treadmill died right around mile 9 and I finished the last two minutes at an easy pace. In retrospect, I think I've been dying to run fast for a bit so it felt to good to be back in the 5s. I felt strong throughout - even in the low 5s. I generally find it easier to run on the treadmill and my HR check was a high of just over 160 some time in the low 5s.

5:30 am

I was able to get up and get out but I never felt any mojo. I ran to the West High track and tried to get warmed up. Its cold. I need to go to the bathroom. I am feeling slow and tired. Weak self finally won and I went back to the house to go to the bathroom That did me in. 23:35 total. It was 6:00 and my wife and son were already up. I took care of Colin for a bit and then just crashed for 45 minutes before getting ready for work. I am an 8 hour guy - if I get up at 5:30, I need to get to sleep by 9:30. Its hard to wind down by then.

Also, I have some workouts in my schedule that I don't think fit in very well. I may need to adjust rather than continuing to postpone and change things on the fly. I will try to do something at lunch but I haven't decided what. With Ragnar coming up tomorrow, not sure how hard I should push. 

Lunch

Did my Wasatch out and back. Warm up 2 in 14 minutes then 80 seconds hard and 55 secons easy (but not slow). I ended up doing 13 of these for a total of 4.5 miles at 6:18 pace (I didn't look at my watch or do splits but hard averaged about 5:35 and easy averaged about 7:40). Then cooled down 2.3 at a 7:30 pace. Warm and cool were more brisk than usual. 59:39 total with 600+ ft of climb. Started in the low 60s but warmed up quickly to 70.

Crocs gave me their first blister a day before Ragnar :(

Ragnar Day 1

I ran Ragnar this weekend with James (runmehappy) and some of his family and friends. We were in van 1 and I was the fourth runner. We had only five total runners, so I shared some of 4 and 5 with James. The weather was a bit on the cool side which was very welcome.

Leg 5 - I got the Avon Pass uphill. I felt ready to go after waiting for hours to run and charged up the mountain at a decent clip. With the 2:30 pm start and the dusty roads, I still manage a 7:25 pace over 7.7 miles with an elevation gain of 1216 (and a loss of 53). 54:58 total (my watch had the distance as 7.4 but I will use official).

Legs 16 & 17 - I doubled these legs because they totaled just over 8 miles total. I started near 10:00 pm so it had cooled considerably. The headlamp I wore was sweaty from the guy I borrowed it from (I've never owned one) and so I just carried it the whole way.  250 up and 80 down for elevation. This was also the most traffic I ran in weaving around runners and cars. Felt strong but tired a bit toward the end as the only real hill is at the very end. 55:19 total (just 21 seconds longer than the first run).

Ragnar Day 2.

Leg 28 was my last. This is the leg that descends from Jordanelle to Midway. 941 feet down and most of it in the first 2.5 miles. I wanted to go out fast but I didn't warm up much. I think there was also some cumulative fatigue setting in with the 3 hours of sleep and the most I've ever run in a week through Saturday (83.5 miles from June 15-June 21!). First splits were 5:49 and 5:22. Then, about 2.8 miles into the run, I hit a dead stop at the major intersection with the 40. I had to wait 60-90 seconds for the light to change while I just stood there. Major momentum killer. I still managed mile 3 in 5:41 due to some fast running earlier in the mile. Then 6:40 avg for the remaining miles which was equivalent to my flattish pace from the night before. 36:58 total not counting the wait at the stoplight. Probably 20 seconds longer since I didn't start my watch right away.

The team finished in just under 30 hours. Allie said it best a year ago and I echo her sentiments fully: 

although i had a lot of fun, i don't think this is really my thing. it's just not smart for me to do this. i felt vulnerable to injury the whole time, and i'm not a big fan of the overnight sleeplessness and messed up nutrition 

During the downhill dash, my right hamstring was a little tight. It can be early in a run early in the day, but it lingered longer and some groin pain eventually accompanied it. I was just praying not to get hurt much of the time. All that being said, I am kind of interested in doing an ultra where I have time expectations and we are gunning for a competitive finish.

A big thanks to James for inviting me and introducing me to some of his friends and family. They are a great bunch all around. I particularly enjoyed reviewing Constitutional Law questions for his upcoming bar exam. 

Total racing time: 2:27:25. Total Distance: 22.1. Avg pace: 6:40. That's slightly below marathon pace. I felt like I was running fast, but never pushing the pace. If I was to average a 10-k pace, I obviously didn't come close.