Dave's Addiction

Great run with Toni, Matt, Mike, Spencer, Reed, and others. Why do they have to be so far away? Matt did an uphill tempo at Provo Canyon, we had gone ahead so when he passed us I glommed on and held on for dear life. It felt good, but I could feel the lactic reservoir gradually filling and by the time I had gone .6 or so it was at the top so I dropped back. He's amazing - 5:40s and 5:30s uphill? Yoinks. I can't believe I actually beat him at HCH last year. I will be shocked if he doesn't go under 1:11. I ran a 2:20 880 with Reed on the way down, that was nice. Everything else was 6s, 7s, and one 8.

Pre-race strides with an extra mile thrown in there while waiting for Abigail to drive me to her driver's ed class. But since it's GG, instead of 14 MPH on the TM I did 15% and 7 MPH for 70 seconds.

I thought sure I had a rock in this race based on last year's times. But then we had a few track teams show up and Toni and Karl. So I switched to my original strategy - stick with the leader no matter what, then when I recover consciousness, jog it in to the finish.

So I jammed it in there with the lead pack and sprinted up the first switchback, in about 10th or so. They were already pulling ahead, but they all missed the turn! Hee hee. I was momentarily in first again but they only lost about 50 feet or so and so they all passed me in short order. I maintained distance until the grizzly hill, then they all began to pull away and I was passed by Summer and Amber and somebody else. But the top came soon enough and I began to grind forward at 6:10 on the flat, first picking off the guy that passed me and then Amber with another guy, putting me into 8th or so. About half the people missed the turn to the Mario Kart and ended up running though the weeds, they got redirected for a short extra loop after the meadow to make up distance. I got waaayy ahead of  Amber and the other two guys, and started getting close to the next group so I really jammed it on the final downhill but could not quite seal the deal. 1:27 PR though! (from 2010)

Then Toni dragged me on a nice easy run down-canyon to the water fountain. Then he decided we should run sixes back up it. Ow! No master! Please have mercy! I almost made it but not quite :) Maybe I'll go on a short run this afternoon to make it 50 for the week.

EZ run except I did HM+ on the Hobble Creek course uphill portion and a nice stride down 1600 . First time I have been at 100% since Timp, that was brutal. Felt great.

Now here's a workout I haven't done in forever. I had to get a baseline for my secret weapon on Thursday, so I ran the old 4x1 on the Maple Street square. Got the record, 5:39 average (5:32,5:40,5:57 uphill, 5:27 downhill) 3 minute rests. Now I know why I am not breaking 17:30 on the 5k but at least I am getting so very tiny gains down at that distance. At least for now :} 

8 EZ around the town, then 5 quick hill sprints. First two felt kind of sluggish.

Nasty little tempo workout, caught some brutal wind in the fourth mile. Splits were 5:48, 6:07, 6:05, 6:27, 5:58

Terrible sleep last night so not surprised at the mediocre performance.

Secret weapon test, day 1

I tried to run easy on my standard 8 mile course that intersects the gym. The weapon's neural feedback is extremely funky, but I found that when I just forgot about running things would work well. Usually I would look down and see a 6 where I would ordinarily see a 7, and a 7 for an 8. I also had enough energy left at the end to do a 5:42 up the short hill without too much effort. Course time as 3:05 faster, for a gain of about 22 seconds per mile. But I might have just been excited to try it. The real test will be next Tuesday's speed workout :)

Everyone on that run this morning is crazy. Just so you know.

Secret weapon test stage 2 - long run

Met up with a huge group, Toni, Brandon, Matt, Mike (we need a Luke and a John I think), Spencer and 5 or so others - mostly shirtless and getting well deserved catcalls all the way up the trail. The goal was 10 up, then a tempo of whatever you want down. Mile 9 was once again oddly magical, running at a 7:15-7:30 pace up South Fork and barely breathing. Not sure if it was the secret weapon, my good attitude, or some odd uphill mile 9 magic. Really nice weather, great running team, could have gone til sunset.

But it was not to be, for the Provo River Half had started while we were getting ready to turn around and here came Sasha! And it was on for Matt, Mike, and myself. We tried to catch Dave Holt but he was uncatchable at tempo pace, even when I pushed it a teeny bit faster (5:21 mile). Sasha eventually caught up to us and I was worried about pushing it to stay with everyone so I let them go a little bit, almost catching them again at Vivian Park. He was looking really strong too. I hope he passed but I doubt it :) Got 17:28 for the 5K. I figured I would go 5 at tempo because I was feeling pretty good, even with the cold that has been trying to attack me for 2 days now. So I got 5:32, 5:43, 5:39, 6:31, 6:01 and then I slacked off. Or tried to. I couldn't slow down! The weapon wouldn't let me. So I got 6:13, 6:08, 6:29, 6:48 (including the gas station hill, check that out) and 6:42. I was getting pretty tired though so I don't know if I couldhave finished the marathon today.

Then just now I was at WalMart and unconsciously ran from the parking lot to the door. I had forgotten about the 20! That never happens. I think the energy return is really helping recovery. Trippy.

Longest week ever, woohoo!

EZ 8 route, control run for last Friday. 34 seconds slower per mile without the secret weapon.(7:26 AP) That seems a little outside of psychological, but tomorrow will tell all.

Secret Weapon Test Stage 3 - VO2max 4x1

I was kind of dreading this one, because there's no psych component to it - it can't be faked. I always push my hardest on this one and the standard deviation is only about 2 seconds with a gradually declining trend. With last week's test at the all time record (and 1 standard deviation away from the running mean) there would be no hiding the results, and I wanted the dream to not die.

Mile 1 would set the tone, so I pushed it to max, and got 5:28. 4 seconds faster and all time PR (for mile 1)! OK, looks like we might have something. Mile 2 was 5:40, same as last time, but a slightly weaker push and some headwind.Mile 3 was 5:46,another PR and 11 seconds faster! Mile 4 felt slower but ended at 5:23, 4 seconds faster. Overall average was 5:34, a complete smash and almost 3 SD south of the mean.

I am forced to conclude that these shoes provide a significant advantage across the speed range with the smallest improvement at the highest speeds. Lower bound at any speed is 5 seconds per mile and likely faster due to sickness during the test period.  Downhill tempo test follows later in the week. Weapon deployment for HCH is approved :)

Not feeling it today, 5 EZ

I hate camping so much. From here on I think my wife can drag the kids herself. I don't think they like it either though...

After getting about 45 minutes of sleep, I got up and ran about 2.8 miles up Diamond Fork and then played on the downhill so I could determine if short quick or slow long strides were better for the secret weapon. It turns out that long quick strides are better. OK then.

Sleep now.

Feeling much better all around, got a solid 6 hours of sleep last night. Hip alittle sore so I just ran easy with no strides. Ready for tomorrow!

I had hoped for top 10, but this field was way too deep. Amazing race. I saw everybody at the start, but only wanted to do 1 or so for warmup so I left them to it and adjusted the Spingblades so there would be no rubbing on the top of the feet. I did find the perfect comfort zone, so that was cool. I was worried about cutting people up at the start so I blew out the beginning as quick as I could, then hung with Zak and Jacob for the first half mile so I could get some more great running pictures of me for Facebook. Thanks for the photo op guys :) Even with the big jumpback in the start position I blew past the mile 1 marker at 4:45, looked like the secret weapon was putting in an appearance.

 But then my thingy didn't dingy until 5:02 so I wasn't sure. Whatever. I was still feeling pretty fresh so I pounded mile 2 decently hard for a 5:27. But now I am 4 seconds behind last year. I lost another 8 seconds over the next four miles, 5:35,5:38,5:40,5:45 and one second on the flat seventh mile, 5:59. It was there that Scott passed me showing Brandon how to use his new superpowers. They invited me along but I was maxed. Scott stopped and tied his shoe and passed me again at mile 9, just so he could be sure to be in front mentally :)

Miles 8-11 were 5:48, 6:04, 6:00, and 6:09 - 1,4,4,and 5 seconds slower than last year. The final miles were at a 6:12 pace, but I made up significant ground from last year's last mile.

This year's GPS is about 0.6% slower to grab miles than last year's - I have noticed this on all my workouts. That was good for about 2 seconds per mile. The heat was somewhat significant, but probably only grabbed 6 or 7 seconds during the last part of the race. The move of the start line was good for at least 20, that was over 100 meters back. Overall I think I actually did a little better or just the same as last year, so not too bad. The secret weapon, however, does not do well on downhills. It is magnificent on uphills and good on flats, especially when you are accelerating strongly (even downhill for that). However, I have essentially no muscle damage from the race because of the shock absorbing it gave me so now I am not sure if I should bring it to the calf crusher (Nebo) or not. Probably not St George, the added weight of the shoes would become a definite drag by mile 16.

I totally blew out masters by like 6.5 minutes, kind of surprising. But I know I have fondled my last HCH masters plaque, unless Scott takes up hang gliding or something.

We had a huge group cooldown on the reservoir loop afterwords, got the awards and bailed. Fun day!

Surprisingly little damage from the HCH, did anEZ run today but I might be ready for speed tomorrow. If so I think I will do uphill intervals at Maple canyon.

Super fun speed workout alert!

Rode 3 miles to base of Maple canyon

10x90 seconds uphill VO2Max with 65 second rests (.22 miles avg)

.8 downhill on trail at 5:50, .5 on road at 5:40, 1.5 ramping from 5:10 down to 4:10 pace at end (strong downhill)

Practicing for Nebo!

Rode 3 miles back home

Relaxing 8 EZ to the gym and the canyon, 69 quarter at the end just for fun, grabbed a nectarine from the tree on the way in. Dang those things are big this year.

10 hard Springblade Megasuck.

OK so maybe my mind is waaay more powerful than I thought. I figured I would do my 10 hard route, but try it with the Springblades. Now that I no longer thought of them as a secret weapon, my body reacted in a neutral fashion and I was 15 seconds per mile slower! Good grief, makes me wonder what I could have done at HCH with the Kinvaras. I think next Tuesday I will have to have an uphill 660 with 3 in the Kinvaras and 3 in the Springblades.

Mcdonalds loop through a park I never knew existed in Springville.I am thinking powerhouse 16+4 tomorrow.

Bill got me to come up to Murdock to run the soul killer, but he didn't show! Urk. That's OK, I was sick of running in Hobble Creek canyon anyway. Started at 5:30, the first mile was 7:04 (decent) but the next one was 6:26 (yeek, better slow up a bit) and then 6:21 (your other slow, maybe) I finally got myself to relax a bit and settled into the 6:40s, then at 6.5 I saw Chad and Chris Pusey coming the other way so joined them for their out and back for about  5 miles. That was nice. Then I ran to 800 north, past the parent's house tp get some OJ, and a grass loop for the even 20.New weekly mileage record!

Nice EZ8 by the gym to shake things out, still can't believe how easy that 20 was on Saturday :)

OK, another Springblade test. This time I ran uphill intervals, switching the Kinvaras and the Springblades each time. I have a hill that rises 115 feet in 0.28 miles - a perfect test. So I put on the S and ran 1.83 WUat 8:03, then got

(S) 1:46

(K) 1:52

(S) 1:56

(K) 1:56

I kind of overdid the first one, so results go niether way. So I decided to try a new experiment - run up the hill at HM effort, then bomb down it. I got

(S) 2:33/1:10

(K) 2:26/1:10

So I don't see a real difference, and now that 4x1 I did two weeks ago is way more impressive. But I was running a 4:11 pace on those downhills so Nebo watch out :)

8 EZ and gym, I think I had a breakthrough today. I figured out why I go fast sometimes and slow others, and why the first mile is so much easier than the last. It's lazy ankle. When I focused on that, my breathing stayed much more constant and predictable for a given pace. But the ankles were complaining! So now I need to vastly strengthen my ankles and then I won't drop off so badly after mile 1 or 2 because I am shifting effort to large muscles.

I was so not in the mood to run this morning. So I started off plodding in a random direction. After about two miles my body suddenly wanted to have something more aerobic, so I threw in a MP 6:30. Then I went a few more EZ and it asked for another solid effort so I did a 5:58 uphill, feeling really good on that one. Now I was getting excited and it asked for 10x10 so I did a great series of hill sprints and headed home.

15 moderate to intense on the bike, really. I was a bit sore.

Then 5.5 more really easy at the night to drop the car at HCGC

PR on mile 19 of Hope to Hobble! 4:45! I was feeling a bit sluggish and tired after running low and slow for so long so I did a 1 mile pickup and holy smokes did that make the rest of the run go easier. It was a total rejuve. The rest of the run was great like usual, nice to change things up a bit. Of course I have killer long runs for the next three weeks with Nebo Half, Big Cottonwood Full, and high altitude training, so lots to look forward to.

Hey I just noticed I was .05 short of my all time weekly volume record! I am going to go run an eighth :)