20 miles with Sasha Pachev, Chad Robinson, and Steve Ashbaker. We did the first 2 miles at about 8:00 pace with a few of Sasha's younger kids, who are pretty fast (Jojo had a nice kick at the end). After that, we went 9 miles up Provo Canyon, hitting mid 7s pace, gradually getting a little faster. We turned around at mile 11 of the run, ran 12 still pretty easy (6:50 ish on the downhill), and then ran a bunch of faster miles. From 13 to 18, gentle downhill, slight head/crosswind we hit as fast as 5:57 and no slower than 6:20 (~6:10 average), and then I really started to feel the big mileage in my week. Mile 19 was mostly flat, but net slightly uphill, which I hit in 6:33, and then mile 20, with tons of uphill, was a massive struggle and I barely hung on to sub-7 pace. It looks like a blow-up, pace-wise, but more than anything, it was a product of increasing grades. I should mention that Steve and Sasha took off at mile 18, whereas Chad, who had picked it up around 11 rather than 12 and gapped us, was behind after about 16. Overall, this is about what I expected from myself today. The last couple miles were quite difficult as a result of all the mileage in my legs, but I managed to hang on somewhat well. Now it's time to have an easier week. Still on the fence, but I'll probably race Provo River half on Saturday. | 