Same Time, Same Channel

Easy run. Average pace: 9:45.

Weather at 6:30 am: 42°F, 21% humidity, wind 6 S.

I'm was still feeling pretty good this morning. There's no seminary this week until Friday because of CSAP testing (that's the statewide standardized test in Colorado), so I slept in a little bit. It's been getting light early enough in the morning now that I'm able to leave my head lamp at home most days. However, with the switch to daylight savings time next week, I'm going to be plunged back into darkness for a while.

While I was out running this morning it occurred to me that I'm about to turn 40 and I'm in the best shape I've been in in my life. That's a nice feeling.

Happy March everyone!

Fartlek Run. ~10 miles easy w/30 sec. @ 5K pace every 3 min. Average pace: 9:30.

Weather at 6 am: 53°F, 27% humidity, wind 20 mph SW. It really was unseasonably warm but fairly windy this morning.

I was a little tired this morning because I did a new Jillian Michael's DVD called No More Trouble Zones last night. It's an hour long and is pretty tough.

This run was an exercise in 3 times tables. When my total time hit 3 minutes, 6 minutes, 9 minutes, and so on, I ran faster for 3 seconds. That only worked up to 60 minutes and then the total time doesn't show seconds any more, so I had to switch to lap time, which worked for about a minute and then the auto lap feature threw me off. So then I turned auto lap off and was okay for the rest of the run. But that little mixup is the reason I ran 10.23 instead of just 10.

I think I might have a friend to run with tomorrow.

Easy run + 10 x 8 sec. hill sprints. Average pace: 10:23.

Weather at 6:30 am: 53°F, 28% humidity, very WINDY.

Too long since 3 day rest + not eating so swell the last few days + not enough sleep + wind = tired legs. I really struggled through today's run and went slower than the average pace would indicate for the first half or so when I was going into the wind. Of course the wind was from the southwest, and a huge portion of my run was going south and then going west. I did speed up a little once I started heading north and had the wind behind me, and that brought my average pace down a bit.

I went out and bought the March issue of Running Times yesterday. It has an article by Brad Hudson about hill sprints. Because of what it said in that article, I walked down the hill between hill sprints today, whereas I used to jog down. And I wasn't terrifically fast on my hill sprints. I was tired. I need to decide whether I really want to do ladder intervals tomorrow. I've never done ladder intervals before, and I don't want to skip them. Maybe I'll do them, but do them slower than prescribed.

Ladder Intervals. 2 miles easy, 1 min., 2 min., 3 min., 2 min., 1 min., 2 min., 3 min. @ 3K-10K pace with equal duration active recoveries, 2 miles easy. Average pace: 9:38.

Weather at 6:30 am: 50°F, 13% humidity, wind 20 mph sustained SSW.

I'm a creature of habit and I've been doing slight variations of the same route most days for the last while. So I decided to change it up a bit this morning and head out going a different direction and run a stretch that I haven't run in a while. Now I remember why I don't run this stretch very often. It has some significant uphills in the first 2 1/2 miles or so. My first two intervals ended up being uphill and into the wind.

I didn't feel particularly strong this morning, but I didn't feel sluggish either. I got feeling better as the run progressed. My paces on the intervals were: 8:45, 8:23, 8:13, 7:46 (I think I had the wind behind me at this point), 8:00, 8:21, 8:16.

I've really got to sew up the bottom of the arm band for my mp3 player. I don't normally run with the mp3 player, but I did today because it was too warm for my normal winter ear covering, but too cold and windy for nothing on my ears (my ears are very sensitive), so I used the headphones to give myself just a little ear covering. In any case, I started one of the intervals just after I crossed the street that the high school is on and that had a lot of traffic right then. As I started that interval, my mp3 player fell out the arm band. I had to stop and look for it for several minutes before I found it. I worried that I had dropped it in the cross walk, but I found it in the grass. It still works okay, but I did lose a tiny screw on the back of it.

In other news, my 6-year-old daughter made my bed for me this morning while I was out running. She also left a cute note on the bed.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:03.

Weather at 5:30 am: 25°F, 52% humidity, wind 6 SSW. The warm air we've had the past few days has blown out of here. At least wind went with it.

Not quite two years ago when I started running, I got a small notebook and started writing down my workouts. Even after I started this blog, I've continued to record each workout in the notebook. I normally fill 2-3 lines per workout. Well, yesterday I used up the last 2 lines in the notebook. I will now retire the notebook since I am keeping this blog, as well as a spreadsheet, and data from my Garmin. Looking back, my first entry was on May 9, 2007, and that day I ran/walked 2.84 miles in 41 minutes. I've come a long way since then.

I've got a crazy fartlek + progression long run tomorrow.

Fartlek + Progression Run. 6 miles easy, 5 miles of alternating between 90 sec. @ 10K pace and 90 sec. easy, 2 miles easy, 3 miles hard. Average pace: 9:38.

Weather: 27°F, 53% humidity, wind 4 mph gusting to 10 mph, SSW.

I ran on the Highline Canal trail again. I use it for long runs when I'm aiming for a specific pace or when I don't want too many hills. The trail was nice and flat today. The park service must smooth it periodically or something. I had to get a fairly early start because I had to be done in time to take my son to work.

I was feeling okay, not fabulous today, but I made it through the run. Average pace for the first 6 miles was 10:22. For the next 5 miles I ran the fast 90 sec. intervals at about 8:30, and the easy 90 sec. portions between 10:00 and 10:30, for an average pace over the 5 miles of 9:10. I ran the next 2 miles at 10:18, and the last 3 at 8:33. I really had to push on those last three, but it was supposed to be hard. I found myself slowing down and then focused on really swinging my elbows back, which helped me keep up the pace.

I've said this before recently, but once again, this is my highest mileage week ever. But I'll probably beat this week just slightly next week. Then it's a lower mileage week, including the half marathon.

Specific-Indurance Intervals. 2 miles easy, 4 x 1 mile @ 10K pace w/3-,min active recoveries, 2 miles easy.

First 2 miles were at 10:54 pace. Interval splits were 8:50, 8:28, 8:47, 8:27 (the first two were downhill and the second two were uphill). Last 2 miles were at 9:47 pace.

Weather: 44°F, 21% humidity, wind 12 SSW.

Darn that daylight savings time. I sure had a hard time dragging myself out of bed this morning. I let myself kind of oversleep because my kids don't have school today, so that eases up some of the morning rush. However, I still need to work today (will work from home since the kids are home). Tomorrow I've got to obey the "don't think, just go" mantra because I've got a 12 mile easy run and I do have to get kids off to school and myself to work.

It was relatively warm this morning, but is supposed to get colder as the week progresses. I was actually overdressed this morning. I stopped at the midway point for a restroom break and took off one of the two shirts I was wearing.

"Easy" run. Average pace: 10:04. Note that "easy" refers to the pace, not to the length of the run or to the conditions.

Weather at 5:30 am: 16°F, 85% humidity, wind 3 ENE. Snowing for the first hour, slick thereafter.

I manage to pull myself out of bed 5 minutes after my alarm went off. When I went out side there was just a trace of snow on the ground and it was snowing lightly. 20 minutes later it was snowing pretty hard. 20 minutes after that it had stopped snowing, but there was about an inch or so of snow on the ground by then. It was very cold. I was actually okay with the cold until the last couple of miles. My face was getting cold at that point, but I couldn't pull my neck thingie back up over my face because it was frozen solid. There was nothing to do at that point but keep running and get home. When I was almost home and was in my neighborhood, I encountered a couple of houses where people had shoveled their walks. I wished they hadn't. It was very slippery in those areas and I slipped pretty good and nearly fell on one of them. Running on the snow was much easier and not nearly as slick.

This was really a long, cold, dark, wet run. I was covered in ice when I got home. My daughter commented that there was ice in my eyebrows. Brrr. I've got to get warm now.

Easy run + 10 x 8 sec. hill sprints. Average pace: 10:38.

Weather: 17°F, 62% humidity, minimal wind, clear sky with a full moon, dry streets/sidewalks for the most part.

When I left the house to drive the kid to seminary, the moon was small and white and high in the sky. A little later, on my run, I watched it set in the west, at which point it appeared yellow and quite large. After that, I watched the sun rise in the east.

I ran the easy part of this run a little slower than I have been lately because I was tired from yesterday's run. But I've been reviewing what Hudson has to say about hill sprints lately, and so when I got to that point I really pushed it on the hill sprints, and then walked back down the hill for recovery between them. And once again, I encountered a bunch of middle-schoolers walking down my hill while I was doing the hill sprints. I guess that's what I get for running on that particular hill at that time in the morning. My paces for the hill sprints were 7:17, 7:36, 7:56, 7:44, 6:33, 7:27, 6:55, 6:35, 5:41, 6:24. Hudson says that the hill sprints should be at maximal effort but very short duration, so that's what I tried to do.

P.S. I'm tired of being cold.

Progression Run - 10 miles w/ last 15 min. moderate. Average pace: 9:53. Pace for furst 8.3 miles: 10:11. Pace for last 1.78 miles: 8:26.

5:45 am: 21°F, 60% humidity, wind not a factor.

About 5.5 miles into my run (so as as far away from home as I get on this route) I was running on a crude dirt trail across an open space along a main road. I had just gotten across the open space to the point where the dirt trail ends and the sidewalk picks up. My left toe caught on the edge of the sidewalk and I went down hard. I lay there face down on the sidewalk for a minute, then slowly rolled over and got myself up. I looked myself over, walked a few steps, and then started running and finished the run. I had taken my gloves off at that point, and I scraped up both hands, my left knee, and my chin. I drew blood in all those places, but only a little bit. Throughout the rest of the run I periodically had shooting pains in my right hand, and at one point I tried to put my gloves back on and really had trouble getting my right glove on. I can't lift anything with my right hand now. I think I might need an x-ray. I'll call my doctor in a little while. I banged my left knee too, but I think it is ok. I'm having a hard time typing. It's the ring finger and pinky on my right hand that are really hurting, so I'm typing normally with my left hand and hunting and pecking with the index finger of my right hand and making lots of corrections.

*Update*

My hand is feeling a little better. I can make a fist now, which I couldn't do before. I think I'll hold off for a while on calling the doctor and see what happens with my hand.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:15.

Weather at 6 am: 24°F, 54% humidity, no wind.

My right hand still hurts a little but is much improved from yesterday. My left knee is a little wonky, but it didn't hurt to run. I was very careful about watching my step whenever I switched between sidewalk and road.

It actually felt a little warmer today than it has the past few days. When the temperature is around the upper 20s, lower 30s, I always struggle to know whether to wear my hoody or not. I wore it Tuesday-Thursday this week and was glad for it. But it turned out to be too much today. But I did manage to take it off while running, which was a neat trick since I had my reflective vest on top of it.

I've got 17 miles scheduled tomorrow. I won't be able to do it early in the morning because I've got to get thing 3 to the solo/ensemble festival at 7:30 am and there's no way I can get 17 miles in before that. I'll have to run afterwards. I'm not used to running at any time other than first thing in the morning, so I'll see if that makes a difference.

Long run. Average pace: 9:42.

Weather: 44°F, 17% humidity, minimal wind. Blue skies, sunny, perfect weather for running.

I went with my son to the solo/ensemble festival this morning. We left after his performance because he had to go to his youth orchestra rehearsal and I went on my run. After his rehearsal, my husband took him back to the festival and picked up his adjudication sheet. He got a superior rating. He called me when I had about 3.5 miles left on my run and the news made me excited and I ran faster for a little while.

A friend ran the first 5 miles with me. She has been on a treadmill all winter and it was a bit of a challenge for her to run outside. She's going to run the first part of my long runs with me some more.

Once again, I am declaring my highest mileage week ever. I'll have a low mileage week next week because I'll be resting up for the Canyonlands Half Marathon on Saturday.

Threshold Run. Average pace: 9:15.

Weather at 6:00 am: 39°F, humidity 30%, wind 11 SSW, waning crescent moon.

I felt remarkably good today considering my long run last Saturday. I did walk about a mile yesterday afternoon. I guess that was my recovery. I will do easier runs the rest of this week to taper for the race on Saturday.

I was supposed to do 2 miles easy, 6 miles at marathon/half-marathon pace, 2 miles easy today. I wasn't sure what pace to target for the 6 miles, and I knew that the fist mile or two would be harder because they would be up hill, so I decided to shoot for about 9:30 for the first of the threshold miles and then speed up from there. My splits were: 10:36, 10:13, 9:23, 9:04, 9:13, 8:41, 8:14, 8:11, 9:25, 9:30. I had to consciously make myself slow down for the last two miles.

Does anyone have any advice for how I should pace myself in the half-marathon on Saturday? I figure I should do a couple of miles slow and easy, maybe with some strides, before the race starts to get warmed up, rather than using the first two miles of the race as a warm up. But then should I try to run the whole race at a steady pace, or should I divide it into sections and try to run negative splits, or what? Any suggestions are welcome.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:02.

Weather: 46°F, 23% humidity, wind 7 W.

We are really having marvelously warm weather this week. I didn't even wear gloves on my run this morning. It's the first time I haven't worn gloves for at least part of the run in a very long time.

I've got 10 miles on the schedule tomorrow, but I've got to be home in time to drive my son and a string bass to school at about 6:30 or 6:40. If I don't get up early enough and because I'm kind of tapering, I might knock it down to 8 miles. I'll just have to see what time I'm able to pull myself out of bed tomorrow. I should try to go to bed early tonight. That will be a challenge.

I was thinking this morning how much better shape I'm in now than when I ran a half marathon last August. When I ran that half marathon that was the furthest I had ever run. It was really a struggle. The only reason I got the time that I did was because I was running with a friend and she refused to leave my side the last couple of miles even though I kept telling her to go on ahead. She made me keep going.

Fartlek Run, easy w/2 min @ 10K pace every 5 minutes. Average pace: 9:10.

Weather: 40°F, 37% humidity, minimal wind.

I decided that sleep would do me more good than miles would this morning, so I didn't get up early enough to do 10 miles, which is what the planned workout was. I still got up pretty early because I had to be done in time to drive thing 1 and a string bass to school, but not freakishly early.

My paces on the 2 min fast parts were 8:20, 8:06, 8:20, 7:57, 8:15, 7:53, 7:48, 8:00, 7:49, 8:03, 7:52, 8:07. I was shooting for around 8:00, so I was fairly close, give or take a little bit.

I'm feeling pretty good for the race on Saturday. Today was my last hard workout. I'm supposed to rest tomorrow and then do 4 miles easy on Friday. I'm really looking forward to this race.

In other news, I still have just a little bit of pain in my right hand since my fall last week. It's not debilitating, but it just doesn't seem to be going completely away.

Rest day. I still had to get up early so that I could take Thing 2 to seminary at 6:00, but when I got home I went back to bed until 7:30. Ah, the bliss. In imitation of Bonnie's posting from yesterday, and because I don't have a run to write about this morning, I'm going to make a list.

Things I love about running in Colorado (at least my part of Colorado):

1. Lots of trails, both paved and dirt.
2. Ample, well-maintaned sidewalks with working street lights.
3. Three words: hills, hills, and hills.
4. Lots of other runners.
5. Early sunrise (at least compared to more western parts of the time zone).
6. Dry weather.
7. High altitude.

Easy run. Average pace: 9:58.

Weather: 44°F, 49% humidity, minimal wind.

I had a nice, pleasant, easy run this morning. I felt strong and prepared for tomorrow's race. But I've been crazy busy since then, trying to help Thing 3 get his homework done, which he should have done before now but didn't manage to do, giving Thing 1 a ride to school because he overslept, getting Thing 4 to the school bus in the nick of time, and going to the grocery store to get milk because we were out. I still need to get myself showered/dressed and finish packing. Also, I want to run a few errands before leaving for Moab. Dang this is a busy morning. It will be nice to get on the road to Moab in a little while and be able to relax.

Official results are in.

Clock time - 1:52:03

Chip time - 1:49:34 (it took me a long time to get to the start line)

Overall place - 719/3284

Gender place - 228/1920

Division place - 43/342

Pace: 8:33

I am wasted right now. Driving for 6 hours the day before the race, and then driving for 3.5 hours shortly after the race is not a very good idea.

I drove by myself to Moab on Friday and went to the race expo. I met up with Lori, which was really great. We had a nice talk while I ate dinner. She had already eaten but was kind enough to come sit with me so I wouldn't be total dork sitting there all by myself.

My husband and three youngest kids drove separately from me and left after school was out. They got there about 10:30 Friday night.

My legs were feeling kind of yucky from the drive to Moab and then I didn't sleep well because of being in an unfamiliar bed and anxiety about the race. I woke up with a headache. But things went fairly well once I got to the race. I rode the bus up to the start, and it was cold, but really not too bad. I've been to much colder races. They had hot chocolate, which I enjoyed. I think I burnt my tongue a little. You were supposed to take your sweats off and load your sweat bag on to a truck a half hour before the start of the race. I tossed my sweat bag on the truck about 40 minutes before the race and then ran the opposite direction from the start line for a 2 mile warmup. It much preferred spending that time running and getting warm rather than standing around in my shorts at the start line being cold. And then I felt like luck was on my side (I thought of felix felicis, or however it's spelled, from Harry Potter) when I stopped my warm up run 15 minutes before the start and was actually able to get to a port-a-potty before the race started. It got really hot once the race started. It was a very warm day. I was wearing a singlet and shorts and I was dripping sweat by the time I was done.

I tried to run around 9:30 pace or just under for the first two miles, on Bonnie's advice, but I was worried about making up that time later on if I wanted to do an 8:15 average pace in order to get the 1:48 that Bonnie predicted. I guess I took 1:48 on as a challenge. After the first 2 miles I tried to speed up and keep increasing my speed in small increments for the rest of the race. I didn't quite get the 1:48 that I wanted, but I was close. My splits, according to my Garmin, were: 9:24, 9:17, 8:57, 8:21, 8:21, 8:03, 8:08, 7:57, 8:00, 8:03, 8:08, 7:50, 7:44, and 7:48 for the last bit. Of course, my Garmin says I ran 13.18, not 13.1, so the average pace from the Garmin is a little different than the official results say. The Garmin says my average pace was 8:18, while the official results say 8:33.

People were passing me the first few miles, but then I started passing people for the rest of the race. I tried to really pore it on the last couple of miles and it nearly killed me. I really had to dig down deep to keep the pace up at the end. When I got to where I could see the finish line and people were lining the sides of the course, I was wondering how in the world I was going to get to that finish line. I was so glad when I finally did.

If I had worn my fuel belt and had drunk my own water/gatorade while running, instead of walking through 3 or 4 of the aid stations, like I did, I might have gotten that 1:48. Oh well.

I talked to a guy from the blog named Mark before the race. I was wearing a FRB singlet and so he stopped and talked to me. I'm not sure what his blog name is, so Mark, if you see this, please comment.

In Utah on the Provo River Trail with Sasha and others. This is not the workout I would have done if I had been on my own today. I guess I would call this a tempo run. Average pace: 8:14.

I neglected to turn my Garmin on until we actually started running and it took a quarter of a mile to find satellites, so my mile splits were offset from where they should have been. I don't have the pace for the first 1/4 of a mile accounted for in my average, but it was close to the average, so no big deal.

Sasha wanted to see what I could do, so we started out around 8:15. He and the others were kind enough to stay with me for the whole 8 miles (so I wouldn't get lost) and push me to a faster pace than I'm used to, but I was able to be conversational until the very end when Sasha had me run faster for a half mile. Some of them went out for more miles after I was done.

Splits were 8:20, 7:54, 8:03, 8:24, 8:19, 8:25, 8:51, 8:39 (this wasn't a whole mile), a half mile at 6:40, with the last 100 yards all out. (My splits are slightly different from what anyone else who was running would have gotten because of the .25 offset on my laps.)

I got some good advice from Sasha about training pace. I think maybe my biggest weakness right now is the confidence to run faster than I have been. A lesson I learned at the race on Saturday is that I need to have the confidence to line up closer to the front. It took me 2 1/2 minutes to get to the start line on Saturday. And now today I heard from Sasha that he thinks I can run a marathon faster than I thought that I could.

6 miles with Josse on the Provo River Trail, average pace 8:45, followed by the same 6 miles again by myself, average pace 9:01.

Weather: 34°F, 80% humidity, no significant wind.

I had a good time running with Josse this morning. It was fun to talk with her and get to know her a little bit. I'm having a challenge this week running with people who are faster than me. It's a good thing for me to do since I normally run by myself and don't have any one to push me.

On the Provo River Trail with Josse and her dog. Average pace: 8:38.

Weather: 35° F, 93% humidity, light mist.

This wasn't really an easy run, but not a really hard run either. I guess I would call it moderate. It's a little hard for me to start out at that speed, but I felt better after the first couple of miles. I am a little tired from the increased intensity of my runs so far this week.

Splits were 8:53, 8:17, 8:47, 8:32, 8:43.

I'm having a good time this week meeting fellow bloggers.

Easy/moderate run. Average pace: 8:50.

Weather: 32°F, 78% humidity, wind 20 NNW, light snow.

I ran around Holladay with jun (Craig). We had a nice visit about a variety of topics. He was kind enough to slow down a bit for me.

This makes four days in a row of running 9:00 pace or faster. I think I'm going to need to slow down for at least part of my long run tomorrow. And I wonder what I'm going to do when I'm home next week. Maybe it's easier for me here because it's lower elevation and not as hilly.

It looks like we've got big snow in Denver today and I'm missing it. There's a little snow here in Salt Lake, but not too much.

Long tempo run. Average pace 8:07.

Weather: 19°F (I think maybe it was warmer than that by the end), 73% humidity, no significant wind.

I'm dead. Sasha killed me and then he killed me again. We did a mile and a half warm-up at about 9:00 pace, then he wanted me to do an 8-mile tempo at 8:00 pace. I managed to hit just under 8:00 pace, but I was pretty beat by the end. He let me cool down, again around 9:00 pace for a mile and a half, and then I had to run fast the rest of the way, because the virtual 8:00 pace girl was chasing us with a knife. Sasha encouraged me to relax and be like a car that was low on gas and was trying to make it to the gas station. Later, he told me that the stop sign was a magnet and was pulling me, and then it was a corner, or a car, or different things until we finally got back to his house. At various times during the run he would be ahead of me a little ways and put his hand down and I was supposed to run up to him and give him 5. Some of the times it took me a while to get to him, but I eventually did it. Other times he would ask me to pick up the cadence, particularly when going up small hills. From my performance in these exercises he concluded that my leg strength is good and it's my aerobic conditioning that is limiting me. He says I just need to keep running and my aerobic conditioning will improve.

Mary Ann, Jeff, and Matt were with us, though they each peeled off at different points. Thanks to everyone for carrying my hoody and fuel belt that I was foolish enough to bring with me.

After the run I got to go hang out at Sasha's house a little bit, meet his kids, and have a banana and some really yummy raw coconut pie that Sarah made last night. I got to hold their baby. He's a really cute, smiley guy.

I didn't hit my lap button when we started the tempo, and we started it after 1.5 miles, so the mile splits recorded by my Garmin are offset by a half mile from what they should be. In any case, here they are: 8:56, 8:32, 7:54, 7:53, 7:47, 7:51, 7:42, 7:41, 7:47, 8:42, 8:58, 8:02, 8:01, 8:09, (for the last 0.64) 7:54.

I mentioned the running camp idea to Sasha.

Thus ends my fastrunning week. I am beat. I plan to do a really easy, short recovery run tomorrow morning before getting in the car to drive back to Colorado.

One more funny thing. When I got back to my inlaws' house after the run, my mother-in-law asked if I walked with those people again. I just told her that it wasn't walking. She really doesn't understand what I'm doing. Nobody in my family does. That's why I need the blog.

**Update**

Sasha and his brain kept better track of what I did than my Garmin did. The following is copied and modified slightly from Sasha's blog: I ran a mile in 7:57 and then picked it up to around 7:40-7:45 range. I finished 8 miles in 1:02:13, average of 7:46.6. Then I jogged a mile in 9:12 and a little more at about 9:00 pace. As soon as the 8:00 girl caught us, Sasha had me go after her and PR in the half. I ended up running 1:45:20 for the half, a 4 minute PR on a slower course beating my Moab time 6 days ago.

Recovery run. Average pace: 9:41.

Weather: 26°F, 74% humidity, no wind.

I ran by myself for the first time this week. It was nice to relax for a change. I didn't really monitor my pace with my watch. I just ran by feel. Now it's time to drive back home. I hope the recent storm is gone and that the roads are clear.

**Update**

I'm home. Roads were dry but there was really heavy stop-and-go traffic for about 40 miles on I-70 just east of the Eisenhower/Johnson tunnels. I'm glad to be off the road.

Fartlek run - 3 miles easy, 8 x 3 min. @ half-marathon pace/2 min. easy, 3 miles easy. Average pace: 8:52.

Weather: 27 °F, 89% humidity, wind 8-18 mph ENE, light snow. I'm glad I ran when I did. It started getting pretty nasty as I was finishing my run and then the snow got a lot heavier after I was done. All I can see outside my window right now is white.

I think that running here at higher elevation and lots of hills is harder than running the Provo River Trail in Utah. Still, I tried to stick fairly closely to the new paces I discovered last week. My average pace for the 3 miles easy at the beginning was 9:12, and for the 3 miles easy at the end was 9:09. I was targeting 8:00 pace for the 3 min. @ half-marathon pace intervals. My pace on them was: 7:44, 7:56, 8:10, 8:13, 7:56, 7:54, 7:36, 7:39.

I'm hoping that I can get used to a faster pace over the next few weeks so that I can run the Ogden marathon at a good pace.

Easy run + 4 x 8 sec. hill sprints. Average pace: 9:41.

Weather: 27°F, 36% humidity, wind 10 mph WNW.

I took it a little slower today, especially for the first few miles, which were generally uphill. I sped up for the second half, which was generally downhill. Splits were 9:51, 10:01, 9:53, 9:55, 9:33, 9:32, 9:18, 8:58. Pace for the hill sprints was 7:37, 6:56, 7:04, 6:05 (I really tried to go fast on the last one).

I fell again at the same spot where I fell last time, but it wasn't nearly as bad of a fall this time. I kind of rolled to my right as I fell and just bounced right up and kept running. My right knee is a little scraped and will probably be bruised, but it's no big deal. No injuries other than that. I've got to quit daydreaming and pay attention when ever I'm running in that place. It's where a dirt trail ends and a sidewalk starts. I keep catching my toe on the edge of the sidewalk.

Today is my husband's birthday. Now he's old like me.