Last long run

9/27/08



Had a great trail run on Thursday evening with the DTR at South Valley (Ken Caryl) with me feeling very, very strong on the uphills and very strong up the long grinding path going from south to north between the 'hogbacks', out to main road leading into Ken Caryl.


Saturday morning Scott, David and I ran an easier 15 mile run along the Cherry Creek bike path. Started from the Bed Bath and Beyond in Cherry Creek and ran down to Parker Road (made slight mistake at about 6.5 miles and ended up running down to Iliff and then to Parker). David hasn't been running many long runs lately so wasn't feeling up to a fast pace so Scott and I broke away around 8.5 and ran harder back to the beginning of the run. Only ran an average of 7:17 overall with the last 2 miles around a 6:00 pace. Still felt pretty good, even after the run and later into the evening. Gonna be running at Buffalo Creek tomorrow morning. I've never run there so am looking forward to it but will be taking it fairly easy.



Running results:

Incredible job by Boulder's Tera Moody, placing 12th overall at the 8K championship held during the Road Runner Akron Marathon venue. Time? 26:56! Other Colorado runners faired very well.


1. Sara Slattery - 25:54
8. Elva Dryer - 26:28
16. Nicole Aish - 27:30
18. Carrie Messner-Vickers - 27:49
22. Lucinda Hull - 28:15




9/20/08


The Chicago marathon is three weeks away so today was my last long run of any real distance. Met Ryan and Scott at the Goodsen Rec center and ran the Highline Canal - 22 miles. Sure it get a little montonous running there week after week but I love the fact that I can use the mile markers to see how I'm progressing. Two weeks ago I ran there, alone, in the afternoon when it was pretty warm. The pace I set seemed difficult to maintain and I had to continue pushing it just to keep consistent throughout the entire distance. It's amazing how much easier it seems when you have other guys to run with that are your pace or faster.


Ryan is still a tad sore from last week's hard 20-miler but I felt completely recovered by today. Scott and I were planning on just running a 7:30 pace which Ryan agreed with since his legs were still feeling the effects of last week. But wouldn't you know it? We kept flirting with a low 7:00 minute pace the entire time and it felt easy. At least it did for me. The other guys were OK running it so I figured we'd just continue as we were, and so we did. Made the turn around and came back the same pace as we had on the way out, but the last 1.5 miles were run at 6:00 pace just to push the last portion of the distance. Worked out pretty well and I ended up only taking two gels. One at :45, and the other at 1:31. I was going to take another at 2:15 but since we didn't have that far to go beyond that I decided not to eat the last one and see how my body would handle the workout. Fortunately I had no issues at all and I didn't need to eat the last one.


Came home, ate lunch, iced my legs, and threw laundry in the washer. Legs feel pretty good so I'm feeling positive about events yet to unfold.