Pre-run: Well, this is not what I wanted to have happen with 2 1/2 weeks left to train hard for Utah Valley, but my hip just got slightly flared up in the past few days and now my lower back (back right side, above the hip) is pretty tight. I haven't had any pain whatsoever in my back or hip, but the tightness is obviously problematic. I'm going to go in for a deep tissue massage today and, if that doesn't work, I'll see a chiropractor on Monday. This is a very bad time to back off the mileage and I think I'll still be OK to run on it, but I don't know that it would be wise to do the workout I had planned for this evening. We'll see after the massage I guess... 3:00 update... It's loosened up somewhat already, which is nice. Let's hope the massage will take care of it the rest of the way! Run: Got a massage and actually felt about 75% better. Decided that most of my running should be on trails for the next few days to avoid pounding, so I went up to Mill Creek Canyon with Holly. A bit of a warmup, then ran up Church Fork Road. Started my watch again at the big yellow trail gate and ran Grandeur in 38:44. Effort felt pretty casual and my hip didn't really bug me at all. The one thing that made it non-casual was the fact that the weather started to get pretty bad about halfway up. I really wanted to see what type of time I would run on an average day right now, otherwise, I'd have turned around with a mile to go when it started all out hailing (keep in mind I was wearing 1" inseam shorts and a very light singlet). I was focused on getting to the top (with the mindset of "it's all easy and downhill from the top", not really thinking about the fact that crazy winds and hail hurt whether you're going up or down). Got to the top in 38:44 without really pushing it effort wise (honestly a hair easier than a typical tempo effort), didn't even pause for a second, as the last few minutes up were extremely painful weather-wise, turned around, and started running down. Of course, the trail was very slick at this point, so I couldn't run down fast without risking slipping and injuring myself. The thought of dying in the spectacularly terrible storm up there crossed my mind a few times (say, if Holly suddenly refused to run and I couldn't make her continue, if I tripped and broke a leg, etc, basically if anything happened that prevented me from running and therefore not freezing as much, I was pretty sure that the consequences would be pretty bad). I was in pretty rough shape by the time I got to the more sheltered part of the trail, about a mile from the top, but the weather let up with about a mile to go, at which point I started to notice my hip a little (steep downhills seem more aggravating than anything, and grandeur is, on average, at a grade of mid to upper teens, percent-wise), so I just jogged it in. Now that I'm done, everything feels pretty good, but still a little bit off. Still, it's much much better than earlier today. As for climbing stats, the FKT for my route is 33:40. I think I could do a sub-36 pushing it race-effort right now, but I almost certainly could not get sub-35 at this point and I'm really developing some respect for that time. Still, I'm going to put in a few high efforts up this mountain this summer and try to see if I can get my legs into at least sub-35 shape before the summer is over. Oh, and I'm relatively certain that Holly is the fastest dog ever up the mountain (none of the other guys running sub-40 do it with dogs), and she was off leash the whole way, so she didn't get an unfair advantage of being dragged up. :) Going forward, I am going to be exceedingly cautious with my hip, but I'm optimistic that it's already getting better and won't prevent me from getting in a little over 2 more weeks of good training. I'll probably do a flatter trail run in Mill Creek tomorrow (Pipeline?), and just take it from there.
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