4 is better than 2

A fair day, but course was very hilly and windy, The course reminded me of the Striders 10 miler fo those of you who ran. I ran much better the second half than the first. The course starts pankcake flat for the first 3 miles, and than has some short steep climbs. About the four and half mile mark you start the climb to the Golden Gate Bridge, it is a pretty long climb and steep. You keep climbing until the half way point of the bridge and then decend down to the turnaround. On the way back across the bridge you are climbing back across into the wind and then decend hard off the bridge followed immediately by an aggressive one mile climb to just past the 10 mile point. Another hard decent to mile 11 and then 2 miles of steady climbing with the last .2 miles down to the finish.

Race start is 5:30, an early start. I warm-up about three miles with hopes of also getting some mileage in. At start, I felt a little sluggish just hard to get moving, but I figured it would pass. Came through the mile in 5:48 a little slower than it felt but not bad. The wind was in our face the entire first 4 miles, not blowing hard, but enough to feel you were working to push through it. The next couple miles proved to be the same, not really moving well. After the first of the climbs I was a little demoralized but kept at it. As I started the climb to the bridge I started to move a little better and by the time I got to the other end of the bridge I was moving well. I powered my way across the bridge into the wind and started the hard drop toward the water. The climb to mile 10 is brutal, but I never felt horrible. Decending to mile 11 felt great, but the climbing for the next few miles felt like I was going backwards. I finished hard and felt good at the finish. I finished feeling like I could have run much harder than I did and that frustrates me. I know I was way to conservative at the start and could have run the first 5 miles much faster, but got comfortable and lazy.  Overall I feel ok about the race, but I had expectations of running 1:18 or better and I think if I had been more agressive from the start I may have had a chance, but this seems to be the pattern of my racing right now.

Mile1	5:49	5:49
Mile 2	5:51	11:40
Mile 3	6:11	17:51
Mile 4	6:07	23:59
Mile 5	5:57	29:56
Mile 6	6:55	36:52
Mile 7	6:00	42:52
Mile 8	5:52	48:45
Mile 9	6:16	55:01
Mile 10	6:35	1:01:37
Mile 11	5:44	1:07:22
Mile 12	6:42	1:14:04
Mile 13	6:38	1:20:43
.2	1:05	1:21:49

Very slow run, everything was pretty stiff, but at least I got to run a little.  Nothing hurting too bad today.

Still in San Fran

Going to take the day off, I feel like I am coming down with a cold and I want to keep it from getting worse. Planning a tempo run tomorrow if anyone is interested. It won't be until mid morning but....

Started with an easy warm-up, and attempted a 3 mile tempo.  I was a little tight from the start and out of sych, so after the first mile I stopped stretched and jogged for a bit.  I took off with Taha for the last 1.5 miles and felt much better.  As I got closer to the 3 mile mark I was running a lot smoother.  Easy cool down.

An easy 9 miler through the trails above red butte.  A beautiful evening for a run, I ran nice and relaxed with no watch and no concern for time.  It was a good night to just lets the thoughts flow and roll with whatever came my way.

I am happy to read of the great success everyone has had with their long runs today :) My run however was possibly one of the most demoralizing runs I have done. I met Taha at his house in Farmington this morning for a run up Farmington canyon. It has been a couple years since I have done this run, probably long enough to forget how bad it was the first time. Essentially the entire run is done on dirt, uneven dirt, but dirt none the less. The first couple miles were nice and kind of a downhill roll towards the mouth of the canyon, this plays an important part later in the run. The first mile up the canyon is paved and ridiculously steep. After that, it is a steady grind for the next 7 miles to the turn around. The pace was not fast, but I was struggling with the climb. Total elevation gain for the 8 miles of the canyon was close to 2400 feet. It was a little warm when we got started but not too bad in the canyon, we happened to find an unopened water bottle on the road which was great, we were not smart enough to leave water out today. By the time we turned around my legs were pretty hammered and the uneven surface on the downhill was not helping. We ran pretty consistent until about the 17 mile mark and then I bonked -huge. I still had another mile of brutal downhill left with shaking legs and then 2 more miles of rolling uphill to the house. As we transitioned to the uphill, I was done. I had to walk up the first hill, my hands had gone numb, my legs were hollow, and my ears were ringing like crazy. I managed to run walk all the way back, but by the time I reached Taha's house I could barely stand. I knew I was extremely dehydrated by the shear fact that my lips had dried and were caked with crap, and my mouth was like a desert. I walked into the house, took a drink out of my bottle and promptly threw up. This was the perfect ending to an already brutal day, I hate throwing-up more than anything! None-the-less, I am at least partially functional now and trying to rehydrate my badly demoralized ego.