4 is better than 2

Ran an easy 2 with a client this morning, and then went out with Taha and Mike for an easy 10 miler.  The pace was slow, but I am pretty stiff from Saturday's 20, so I did not mind running slow.

Met at Sugar House park for the usual 10x2 minutes.  Other than being a little stiff to start, I felt ready to run hard.  I purposely pushed the pace hard on the first couple reps to force the rhythm, Taha hammered the middle part of the set, and we both finished the set pretty tired, but much better than last week.  The last couple laps all ended with climbs which I felt better about this week than last week.  I will not taper at all this week prior to Hobble Creek and just hope for the best.  I have one more tempo run I want to do on Thursday, and then Hobble Creek Saturday should make for another solid week of training for me.

Easy run on BST, pretty beat-up today, felt better as I got going, but man was it a slow start.  Nice to get out and run easy on the trails.

Met Taha at Liberty Park for a 5k tempo run.  I was a little iffy about this run because I was feeling completely trashed this morning when I got up.  After a couple laps warm-up I actually felt a little better.  We took off and Taha opened a gap on me in the first mile, I was ok with this because I did not want to beat myself to death on this run.  Over the course of the next 2 miles I reeled him back in and closed with a 5:30 last mile.  I felt good after the run, and my legs are actually feeling much better now.

4 miles easy just to loosen up the legs. I was pretty stiff, but better towards the end.

I had some concerns before starting that I might pay for a harder last couple weeks of training, but I also knew I could only do what I could do.  Realistically I thought I could run around 1:13 on a good day, but the late start did not help my chances.  The heat may have contributed a little, but not enough to hurt the performance by more than maybe 30 seconds.  After my third time warming up, the race finally started.  I went out with Chad for about the first mile - 5:20, I felt good and thought I might be able to hang for a bit, but he continued to put time on me in the second mile.  I at least wanted to keep him in sight for most of the race, and I did until about the 8 or 9 mile mark.  I did have someone run up on me about 3 miles in, and we ran together until about mile 9 and then he started putting a little time on me.  I felt solid until about 9 miles and then I was starting to hurt a little, by 10.5 I was just surviving.  I was on track to run 1:13 through the first 10, but quickly faded.  Steve H, caught me with about a mile to go and I just tried to pick up the pace to stay close, but he put 20 seconds on me in the last mile.  I finished feeling pretty spent and only managed to cool-down a couple miles.  I would have hoped for a little better day today, but all things being said, I will take it.