Per Aspera Ad Astra

Easy shakeout, legs are apparently moderately sore after all (who would have thought?), but I just felt good out there tonight.  It feels like something changed in me yesterday.  I only went out for 5 miles at 7+ pace tonight, but I just felt a supreme confidence about my running that I've never felt before.  I'm feeling extremely motivated and ready to throw down some big workouts.  I'm really excited to count down the weeks until Utah Valley, as I know I'm going to knock my recent marathon PR out of the park.

Oh, and I'm calling it right now that I'm going to be coming home from BOSHO next year with Karl Meltzer's course record.  I'm going to be stronger, fitter, and I know that it's within my reach after another solid year of putting the work in.  Karl's record is stout, but I want it and I'm going to have it.

Easy run with Holly after doing some skiing earlier in the day.  Legs still in recovery mode, probably will need one more easy/short day.  Still not even sure what to say about the whole Boston thing except that it really sucks and it makes me sick to think that someone would bomb such a positive event.

9 miles, mostly easy, except 1 mile (the 6th one) at marathon effort.  Up to the U, to Sunnyside, lapped research park, and back.  Didn't actually get out the door until 11 tonight, so it was freezing cold and super windy.  It sucked at the time, but I'm glad that it wasn't more pleasant, because I probably would've run farther out if it had been.  My legs just felt a little stiff and tired during the last 10 minutes or so, so I'm glad that I finished when I did.  My marathon effort mile was mostly coming down foothill and partially on 1300 east, so I had a bit of an angled tailwind for 80% of it and a bit of an angled headwind for the last 20%.  Still, the downhill carried me nicely and I somehow split a 5:59 mile with ease.  Everything else was slow (maybe a 6:55 next fastest mile with a 7:58 slowest mile running up foothill into a headwind).  Very tired now, time for bed...

11 miles, easy, 79 minutes.  My place in the aves to 3rd east to 33rd south, to 7th east, back to my place.  Cold (mid 30s) and quite windy, not super fun, but legs are feeling better everyday after the marathon, so I'll take it.

17 miles in 1:46:40, treadmill.  First 4 on one treadmill with a fan behind me, felt super easy (essentially treadmill + tailwind), but at about 3.8, the belt started slightly skipping, so I hopped on another with a fan in front of me after 4 miles, which felt only marginally harder, but noticeably so.  First 8 miles at average 6:20 (~MP), alternating 6:18 and 6:22, next 2 at 6:00 flat (just a hair slower than tempo), next 3 alternating 6:18 and 6:22, 1 at 6:00 flat, and then 3 more alternating 6:18 and 6:22.  Really freaking hard workout, but I probably had 2 or 3 miles worth of MP left before the wheels would have come exploding off, and even on mile 17, I felt in control.  What makes me happiest about this is that it came 5 days after the BOSHO Trail Marathon race.  I had felt like that race wasn't quite at the same effort level as a road marathon since it's hard to gauge effort perfectly with all the varying grades and footings, and it took until yesterday for my legs to feel pretty normal again, but today, they felt great.  Yesterday, I felt like doing a long workout today would be a gamble, but I definitely made the right call.  If I can hit 5 more super clutch workouts like this before Utah Valley, keeping my average mileage at roughly 80mpw and, most importantly, not beating myself up, I will be ready to rock.  I will go pretty easy tomorrow and then do a long run Saturday.

After skiing at Brighton, 7 miles easy, with Holly, to, in, and from City Creek.  About 3 miles worth on trails.  Legs felt pretty good after yesterday's workout, but I had a pretty typical altitude reaction (not feeling all that great, energetically) while running after spending time at 10,000'.

18 miles.  2.99 miles to get to Jordan River Parkway, 6.01 miles down the path, and then back the same way  First 9 mostly around 7:10, with one 6:45 thrown in (mile 8, just shy of marathon pace at altitude, sort of by acciden).  On the way back, I split 6:29, 6:23, 6:21, 6:19, 6:21, 6:21 for my miles on the parkway (10,11,12,13,14,15).  The intent was to run about 6:35-6:40 for altitude adjusted marathon pace, but I kind of just got into a groove faster than that, so they wound up more on the tempo side of the tempo / MP continuum.  Hence, I've logged mile 8 as MP and the 6 miles between 9 and 15 as 2/3 tempo, 1/3 MP (4 tempo, 2 MP, since there's no in between pace on here).  Did the last 3 back in 21:1x, all uphill, but not feeling hard.  Legs felt great for the whole 18 miles, although a pretty heavy rain (with a slight bit of hail at one point) opened up a few times (maybe 3 times for about 10 minutes each time), once at the start, once near the middle, and once near the end of the hard miles.  Not super fun in super short shorts and a technical heat gear muscle shirt, but I dealt with it.  Nutrition was one gel right before the turnaround, no water, no anything else.  Pretty cold out, so I was OK without hydrating.

Overall, a good week for having just run a 4 hour race the day before this week started, especially considering that 62 of the 73 came in the last 5 days.