Gaining more than you lose

Provo Freedom fun run. Part of the 10K part of the 5K, just messin' around and having a good ole' time. 

Flag Rock course.One of the worst runs on record (not the course, just the run!). Once I got into it it was easy to see why - I'm just dumb for not being prepared - 300 calories 6 hours earlier was all I had eaten all day, forgot to bring a gel or two along (or just eat something beforehand). It was at least 100 degrees which just sucked the energy out, and subsequently I was practically out of water after only a couple of miles. Ran the first hill too hard and with the heat could never really get my legs back. Stopped at any running water to cool down, was able to refill at Farmington Pond and then just plod my way back to the beginning. Luckily race day will be in the morning and temps should be much cooler. Bleh

Ran from Fernwood home on the BST, hot and humid, like usual, but felt decent. 

Flag Rock Race in Farmington - Got my brother to sign up and join in the fun. Saw Twinkies and MattVH beforehand. Tried to take the first climb nice and easy. Passed a couple people once the trail started climbing, and had one guy pass me as you start to climb in earnest. I wasn't climbing super fast, but was moving OK and MUCH better than I had the other day when I ran in the heat. Hit the flag in about 42 minutes, then just kept moving to finish out the climb and start the downhill. The ground was nice and soft and a little sticky from the rain last night, so trail conditions were good. Unfortunately, theres about 25 hairpin switchbacks that make it really hard to get in a good downhill rhythm. Hit the firebreak and had to stop twice to tie each shoe...caught the 1st place female just at the bottom of the BST and cruised down the Lagoon Trail. I thought she was hot on my tail and then realized it was just my water bottle sloshing around. Ha. 

Felt really good on the road running down Farmington Main street and figured I could just cruise on in. When I got to the intersection, there was a sign for Half marathon and 10K runners to take a turn east. I had thought that we just went straight through, but couldn't see anything about the Flag runners. For some reason I thought I had remembered reading to run in with the Half Marathoners, so I took the turn and followed that course. As I got close to the finish I see Twinkies in front on me...What? How did that happen? Then from my right I hear my brother say "Hey, you take a wrong turn?" Just as he was turning onto the road. What the...I had added almost a quarter mile adding the extra block. I sprinted hard trying to catch Twinkies, but ran out of time - results have him 3 seconds before me. So it cost me a couple minutes and a couple of spots, but thats the way it goes! Gotta pay attention. Had a good breakfast with my bro, VH and Twinkies and hung around a bit to see VH get his 3rd place award. 

Mad about the turn, but this was a fun local trail race that I plan on adding as a regular event.  

Dinner run with the family. I'd been sick all week but was feeling pretty good today and wanted to see how my legs felt. Me and my brother and brother in law ran up part of Baer Canyon. Its a pretty decent climb, but the first two miles are really the easy part. While I did feel a little energy depleted overall, my legs felt very well rested and quite good. 

With the Barigutsman this week I figured I better start getting after it. Ran Baer Canyon from the trail head to just below the last climb. I gave myself 1:30 to get as high as I can and then I'd have to turn around. I didn't push it super hard, and felt pretty good most of the way. Legs started to get fatigued just before I turned around, but thats pretty normal. Cruised on down, but didn't really push it too hard - Not that you really can on this trail, it's so steep and overgrown you can really only move so fast. Took about 50 minutes to get down. 2:21 total. The actual race is about a half mile longer on the top of the trail (steep) and about 2 more road miles, so that puts me pretty close to last years 3 hour effort. Plan on working some hills this week and hopefully that will give me enough to at least best last years time.  

Quick little afternoon run with Jun on the BST above the Avenues. Felt like we ran a nice little clip, but nothing crazy. Wind was pretty strong with a little rain, both of which felt quite nice for the most part. Cruising back I caught a toe and turfed it, bit of a sore shoulder now (had to keep my face from hitting a rock :)). Not looking forward to trying to navigate my way into work around the parade closures. 

Downtown BST, was hoping for more but ran out of time. It was HOT. 

Mueller Park with the brothers. 35 minutes up, 24 minutes down - 59:30 total. 1500 vert.  

Couple miles up Baer canyon and back. Of course it was hot, but wasn't as bad with a decent amount of shade. Felt pretty good. 

At a family reunion at the Spruces for the day, so I hit up Wasatch Crest with my brothers and Dad. Spent a lot of time waiting around for pops, and finally me and one of my brothers had to just take off and run back to the reunion because we were in charge of the program. Ran the second half fairly quickly once we got movin' .Dad and the two that stayed back with him were almost 2 hours later...he was pretty spent. I really probably should have just told him this might be a little past his ability level, at least for the schedule we were on. I do love that trail. 

In the morning we also ran over to Speedgoat and caught the front runners finishing - Kilian, Ricky, Max, Tony K, etc. Lots of Solomon guys in that front pack. So cool to see these guys coming in strong - and about 50 people (if that) there for the finish. Almost funny - people just don't know what they're missing! Had my dad with me and so I introduced him to Jay Aldous, who is clos(er) to my Dads age and I think really gave my dad some inspiration - and probably what made him really want to go run with us. Ha. So cool to see those guys, such a chill environment. 

Couple miles up Baer Canyon. It's a big climb anyway, but tried to push the steeper sections since I wasn't going very far anyway. I've got the last section pretty well memorized, which should help coming down on race day.