Hurt so good.

Slept in today which made for a solo run around North Ogden. Got out about 9:30 and it was warm.

Met up with Logan today in Huntsville. We drove to the Dirt parking lot Up monte and ran back to Huntsville park. 

Workout went as followed. 10 miles @sub 6:20; 3 miles alternating 1 min on/off @5K, 1 mile recovery @6:20; 2 miles @sub 5:30; 4 miles @sub 6:20. 

Workout went really good. No stomach issues today which is always a blessing. Logan switched his workout and did what I was doing and nailed it. Fun to see a good friend. 

Overall pace was 6:04 min/miles

Splits for today race. 5:25; 5:01; 5:03 and 22 seconds for last .11.

Race went somewhat well for the most part.

Legs were pretty tired from Saturday's run. So today I was just going for the win and not worrying much about the finishing time. 

Gun went off and Jake Lee jumped out to the quick lead. I came up from behind and sat for a second but realized that I wanted a quicker pace for the first half mile so I took over the lead. Came to 2600 and started heading up the hill. I kept the same effort and made a slight gap. By the time I hit mile 2 the gap was even bigger so I rolled the same effort into the finish line. No need to pick the pace up and no need to have a quick finish. Good solid effort today and even on tired legs glad to see sub 16 on a tough course.

Happy Independence Day everyone!

Just Riley and I this morning for the run. I guess everyone else partied to hard for Indenpendance Day, or just forgot to set their alarms. Let's just say they forgot to set their alarms.

We headed up to the east bench and did some trails down to rainbow gardens. Saw a snake on the trails, it almost bit and killed me I swear! Riley might say other wise but that's my story.

From rainbow headed down the parkway and and then back to Smiths on 42nd.

Workout|Wednesday

Man what a brutal way to start the day. Met Ken at his office around 510. Proceeded up to the top of 46th to start our workout.

30X400 @ 5:00-5:10 pace off 400M recovery @ 6:20 pace.

Splits

Overall Avg was 78.4/95.4

Again what a tough workout. When I was deep into the workout I thought hey this is going to be okay, I'm tired but should be able to manage. I hit repeat 22 and the canyon headwind and the slight uphill took me for a loop hit 92/106. From there it was hard to get back down into the 70s for the on portion. From there I was fighting between 80-85 and the off portions started feeling like a workout on there own. 

Overall good gut check. Mr. Starrett said I would bonk but I didnt want to believe him.

So for now Starrett- 1; Ben-0

Recovery run from Smith's with Jared. Legs were way heavy this morning from yesterday.

PM

Easy running from the 31st parkway with Jared, Riley, and Taylor.

Easy out and back on the canal.

~Solid race considering my workouts this week. Was aiming for sub 1:07 but just barely missed it. Will write a full race report tonight. Congrats to Bret and Riley for awesome times!

Okay so its been a couple days and I finally have some time to get a solid write up in for Bryce Canyon. What a fun race it was! Pretty much decided Thursday night that I would head down with Riley to run this race, even still I didnt know how I was going to do with my Wednesday workout of 30X400m with floating 400s at 620. Legs were pretty tired but I thought I might as well give it a go, plus there was good money on the line and it is always fun to compete and try to take some home.

Morning of the race was sort've of fiasco with bussing. We didnt get to the start until 545, race started at 6. Only gave us enough time for a quick bathroom break and about a 1 mile warm which wasnt enough. Next year I think I will just drive to the start so I dont have to worry about it again.

Show to the start line and man it was a loaded field. Brett Hales, Riley, myself, Kyle Perry, Jason Holt, Tyler Jermann(Pro Runner), a couple other pro's from flagstaff. Jermann and the other guys I didnt know them until after so knowing at the begining of the race I thought well I'm competed for 4th and 5th.

Gun goes off and my plan was to hit around 5:25-5:30 for the first 2 miles and then work into the race. But as the gun went off I stayed back and even ran with Riley for a bit. He and I were in 10-11 place, and I was like what the heck is going on u there. It was like 9 guys ahead of us were out for blood and were sprinting towards there last meal! Haha.

I roll through mile 1 and 2 at 5:29 and 5:25. Perfect couldnt have gotten any better. I roll into mile 3 where is some major downhill and I am getting gapped like crazy! I even had a flagstaff guy blow by me like I wasnt even moving and I hit a 4:54 split! Now I'm thinking how I am going to explain to my wife that I spent money this weekend and I am coming home with ZERO. Best thing I did here was to stay calm and hope for the best. Miles 4-6 were 4:56; 5:01, 4:55. Finally at about 10K mark I caught Arizona dude who blew my shorts off at mile 3, and also picked off Jermann too. Both tried to attach with me so I kept the pace honest and at mile 7 I hit 4:57 and dropped them out the back door. I looked ahead and saw Jason Holt, kept my eyes on him and finally caught him around 8.5 miles(splits for 8 and 9 were 5:07; 5:17). I thought okay I caught Holt, now I think I am in 5th so thats $100 right there, into some money. Looked ahead and saw another guy up so I set my pace on him and hit mile 10 at 5:14, and 11 at 5:06. I paced this guy around 10.5 and was well thats another $100 so I am positive on my trip now. Well now around 11.5 there is about a 40 foot climb and I could see Kyle ahead and I thought no way am I catching this guy, to big of a gap. But as soon as I got to the top and rolled the down he was coming back fast! I hit mile 12 at 5:16 and still not quite on him yet. But around 12.30 miles I made the move to go for it, came up on him around 12.50 and pushed to the finish with a 5:07 split, and last .10 pace was 4:59 average.

Plan worked out perfectly. Goal was to hit sub 1:07, but came up a little short of it, so next time I will give it a go. But rolling in for a 3rd place finish against some tough, tough dudes was a great feeling. Wouldnt have ran the race any differently.

Congrats to Bret and Riley for some fantastic, fast times!

Legs were hurting so good this morning! So sore!

avg pace 8:14 min/miles

Fun group this morning though, and sort've cold. Some cold front moved in and it was below 50 degrees. Just a little excited for Fall, but not ready yet.

PM
Treadmill run during break at work. Love having a gym at work, should have no excuses to be running 100+ mile weeks right?

Legs were a little better but still sore.

avg pace 7:31 min/miles

Easy as it goes with the Crew in South Ogden. Still pretty sore, but pace was somewhat quicker today then yesterday. Should be ready to roll a hard workout on Saturday this week.

PM

4.11 miles on the TM during lunch break at work

Met Ken and Riley early at Kneaders. We headed out West on the River Trail and then connected on to our aerobic builder route. My legs were super tired today. Little bit of soreness but for the most part that is gone. Last couple miles felt like the end of the marathon.

Nice windy run from the South Weber Park n Ride with Riley, Denver, Bryant and Sariah.

Solo run thru North Ogden and Pleasant View. 

Headed down to Draper with Ken, Riley and Matthew. This was my 4th race of the Utah LDR Circuit. 

Did 3.7 mile warm with strides

Race started out with a big group about 12 people in the pack which quickly dwindled to Riley and I about a half mile in with Ken close behind. My plan was to go out as long as could with Riley thinking hey you never know what will happen. I came thru mile 1 @ 4:58 about 5 seconds back from Riley.

Mile 2 Riley made the gap bigger, I kept the same effort and was 4:57. Riley had to of been sub 4:50. 

Mile 3 was the hardest for sure. Gained all the feet you lost in mile 2 not to mention a couple rollers and some sharp turns between some gates. I could feel the fatigue coming into play from last weeks half marathon. Mentally I was about to give up and settle. I took a quick peak around 2.85 miles to see where Ken was and he was right on me. Easily only 2 seconds back. I thought crap, I'm going to have to earn this one. So I took off, hit 5:12 last mile and 32 seconds for last .11.

My time was 15:36 which is my fastest non aided 5K time and is a 5:14 sea level adjusted. So I am happy with the results.

Ogden Crew swept 1-2-3 and Matthew won the masters so we all came home with the max amount of money that we could've possibly earned. 

Cooled 5.90 miles

Solo run thru pleasant view and north Ogden.

Solid run on a warm morning with Dave, Jared, Riley and Denver.

Headed to old post, dropped down Combe to Uintah. Came up the toll road into South Ogden.

PM

Treadmill run at work

Salvaging a workout

Met Ken at Kneaders to drop a car off then headed to his office to meet Riley and Dave.

2.50 mile warm to Skyline Drive. Workout today was supposed to be 14X800 @ 5:00-5:10 on and 6:20 floating for the off portion.

Got into my first 800 and I could tell I was off hit 2:41 and it was a struggle off portion felt fine and hit 3:06. Decided to give it a go for the 2nd set it 2:53/3:04. Again sloppy! Body was just off. Could feel some deep soreness when I tried to hit anaerobic effort, and the legs just had no zest or pop in them. I decided from there to try to salvage the workout and shoot for 10-12 miles @ sub 5:50 pace.

Splits for miles 3-10 were, 5:36; 5:53; 6:05; 5:51; 5:39; 5:45; 5:41; 5:51.

Still a good effort to salvage some type of workout. Ran about 6:20-6:30 pace  the last 4 miles to the car.

PM

Double on TM at work. 4.10 miles

Legs felt like garbage today. Just couldnt get things going. So I just settled and enjoyed the nice and relaxing pace

avg pace 8:03 min/mile

Legs were better today than yesterday, but still not 100%. Decided to add in 5X8second hill sprints in around 8 miles into my run. That opened the legs up a bit and felt a little better the last 3 miles coming in. Hot one again this morning. 83 degrees at the start of my run. 

Waited til the evening to run. It actually felt nice. Little chill up on the mountain side, which made for a great run. Can see the difference in the evenings already. Starting to get dark fast!

avg pace 6:56 avg/mile

DES NEWS HALF

Headed down to the Des News Half with Riley basically in the middle of night. Left my place at 3am, picked Riley up at the park n ride and headed to SLC. Hopped on the bus around 4:30 and got to the start with with a little over an hour before gun time. Met up with Bret Hales talked with him for a bit. Then the 3 of us did a 2 mile warm hit some secret bathrooms and headed to the start.

Beginning of the race sort've felt like Deja Vu from 2 weeks ago. We know what the outcome was going to be as long as we just went through the motion of the race and ran to the best of abilities.

Well gun went off and Hales jumped out to an early lead and that was the end of it! haha. He nailed a 4:36 first mile or around that. Riley was 4:53 and I was 4:56. By mile 2 Hales was long gone. Riley still had about a 3-5 second gap on me then he slowed just a tad and let me catch up. He had been sick all weekend and still was sick. He said that he was going to pace me for a bit to help me to my goal of sub 1:07, then most likely drop out of the race. I said stick with it as long as your in the money even if you have to slow.

Mile 2 was 5:04. Riley said that is too slow. Haha. We need to be sub 5 as long as possible. Next 2 miles were 4:58, and 4:59. Mile 5 was a tad slow at 5:04 but we bounced back at mile 6 and 7 with a 4:56 and 4:53. Now we were rolling! Mile 8 was a tad slow, we took a hard right then headed to the U of U. We hit a 5:10 and I could feel the legs starting to tire. I held on to Riley for the next mile and hit 4:58 so made up the difference again. Mile 10 had a good down and then a solid up before turning West on to North Temple, Riley kept the same pace but the hill cost me some seconds and hit 5:12. Watch still showed a 4:59 avg/pace. So I figured if I didnt completely blow up I should hit my goal. Mile 11 was 5:06 which I thought was a good rebound mile. I figured mile 12 should be somewhat quick because it was down hill. But right before I took the left turn on to the parade route my watch band broke and my fell of my wrist. I had to stop and turn around and grab it. I honestly shouldve left it, but oh well. Mile 12 ended up being 5:18 and shouldve been sub 5:10. Came into mile 13 feeling optimistic but still had some work to do. Now we are heading back West with a slight have mile uphill finish. Hit mile 13 in 5:20 and then clock was at 1:05:57. The last section measured at .16 and I hit 50 seconds or 5:09 pace. Came through in 3rd place with a time of 1:06:47.

Finally nailed the sub 1:07 half time! Riley did some awesome pacing for me, and got me to run out of my comfort zone for alot longer then I wouldve done on my own. So I am grateful for him for doing that for me.

Cooled down for 1.50 miles and called it a morning

Congrats to Riley for 2nd place overall! Fritz for 2nd in the Marathon! Justin Park and Matt Poulson for taking 4th and 5th in the Half and everyone else on the blog that raced. Congrats!

Met the guys at Smiths. We had Jacob Lee and Henry Hall show up, nice to have them with us. My legs felt okay for the first 6-7 miles then the heaviness of the race set in and it felt like a death march the last 5-6 miles.

Nice thing is that I dont half as bad as Bryce Canyon made me feel. Praying recovery will be quick.

Very rare for me to take an extra day off of running. But yesterday I was so sore from the half on Monday that my body was just craving rest! So I did, and I enjoyed it. Plus it was my wife's birthday so I took the day off and celebrated with her all day.

Ran with Jared from Smiths and it was slow moving today. Avg pace 8:08 min/miles

PM

5.21 miles on the TM at work. Legs felt alot better during this run.

Monday Funday route from the pond with Jared. Little faster than yesterday. 

PM

A little over 5 on the Canal. 

Headed to the Ogden Valley for some cooler weather. 60 degrees felt fantastic. Ran into Eden and towards Nordic Valley with Jared.

Avg pace was an easy 7:40 min/miles