Stew's Corner

Been a while since I've been on here. Ran the Summer Games 5K today. Been trying to stay consitent at 30 miles or so a week since about January/ February. Thought I'd try this race on for size since it's been over 2 years since I've raced. The course is USATF certifed now and they moved the start back about 100 yards from where it usually is. Head wind most of the way and not much competition which which meant I was able to get the "W" luckily. Good to see some old faces I hadn't seen in a while. Splits were 5:13, 5:27, 5:21 with the last .12 at a 4:55 av/mile. Over all I felt pretty good. I felt like the effort could have been a little better but I'll take this one for now. Looking forward to more miles and more speed work.
 

Panguitch Balloon Festival 5K today. Elevation was 6600 ft. and the course was completely level. I felt pretty good most the way. Feel good about my time as well. Collegiate runner was out in front most the way and I didn't feel like chasing him down much. He ended up with a 17:06. Looking back I should have tried a bit. Splits were 5:29, 5:51, 5:49 and last .1 in 23 sec.Overall I feel great about this. Good measure of my fitness level. I still need to step it up a bit on the speed and longer runs, but there's plenty of time for that. Right now I'm just enjoying running.

Ran the Main street mile today. Showed up to the start and didn't see much competition except for a high school kid I had beaten earlier this year in the USG 5 k. Ran this race 5 years ago in 4:35 with about 40+ a week for mileage. Right now I'm lucky to get 30 a week. Gun went off and it was me and the high schooler from start to finish. I got a little over zealous and took it out a little to hard from the start. I thought I lost the high schooler but he passed me with about .25 left. I was so gassed I couldn't even keep up. Crossed the mile mark at 4:30 which I was very pleasantly surprised about considering the lack of speed and miles. Fun little race. Hope to continue to improve.

Was looking to try something different today so I decided to shuttle a car up to Dammeron valley 13 miles from the church on bluff and run down some of the St. George course with Keller. We kept it pretty chill and relaxed most of the way down. At mile 10 I decided to take off for a little bit of tempo and ran the last 3 in 5:55,5:37,5:30. Felt really good today. Felt like my "old self" from when I was training hard a few years ago.Hopefully this more quality vs. quantity approach will pay off for next months half. 6:36 average for the 13 miles.

Ran the Cedar Canyon Half and was pleasantly surprised with how well things went considering my training at this point. Really I haven't been hitting the miles too heavy, right around 35-38 mpw on average. Goal for today was to try and go somewhere between 1:15 and 1:17. Got up to the start and did a Mile warm up and a little strecthing before they had us walk up to the start line. Race had just over 800 runners in it this year which is crazy considering they have struggled to keep it increasing from 400-500. Gun went off just a little after 7 am. No one really went out to crazy at the start which was a good thing. I kept the pace nice and relaxed and sat in about 5th place until mile 4 roughly. From there I moved into 4th. I kept the pace pretty chill at the start, high 5:4x's nothing too crazy. I know how this race plays out from running it in years past. Guys will try and kill it the first 4 and then die after that so I decided to just run my race and hang back. At about mile 5 I started to drop into some 5:30's and caught up to the leaders. I ran with them for roughly a mile and felt good enough to take the lead. Miles 6-9 and even into 10 I felt really good and was actually surprised to be where I was at that point in the race. Once we hit the trail though just before you came into town it really became a struggle. I started to feel like I was really laboring and that my form was going to crap. The last 2 miles they have you run up a couple hills which every time I get to that point I think what the heck am I doing? I maintained the lead right up to the last 0.5 miles or so where one guy I passed at mile 7 comes by. He was a nice guy and came right up next to me and said, "lets finish together", I told him I was spent and said just go, but looking back on it I should have at least hung on better. I missed the win by roughly 8 seconds, and crossed the line at 1:15:00, so goal met! Overall I feel like this was one of the better races strategically speaking that I have run. I didn't blaze through the first few miles, just hung back, relaxed, and ran my own race.  Mile splits were. 5:48, 5:47, 5:46, 5:25, 5:34, 5:30, 5:47, 5:33, 5:38, 5:44, 5:59, 6:03, 6:08, last .1 5:38 av/mile. Once again overall I feel great about today. It was a course PR, and having done this will the little speed work I did through the summer, I feel that if I can get back to regular speed work and up my miles again good things are in store perhaps!

Mall drive loop at 5 am before work.

Washington fields road loop. Nice temps are starting to show up finally.

Ran down riverside up over the new mall bridge. Nice to have that open to run some new routes. Threw a tempo mile in there in 5:57 mostly uphill. 7:01 av/mile

Just an easy clip around the neighborhood today. 6:50 av/mile.

Ran up around the mall to river road down to the trail. Just kept it chill. Nice morning. Really enjoying the cooler temps.7:19 av/mile

Wanted to do a longer run but woke up too late in order to watch the marathon. 6:57 av/mile.

Up at 5 to get an easy one before work. No watch.

Up around the bridge today on riverside over to the fields. Nice and easy. Need to sign up for a race. Almost didn't have motivation to get out of bed this AM.

10 miles around the fields over to stone cliff and back on the trail. Nice morning out. 7:06 av/mile

Easy run. No watch.

3.13 miles to work via river road. 3 miles home via foremaster and riverside. 7:10 and 7:01 av/ miles.

Washington loop 5 am. No watch.

Washington city loop. No watch.

Washington bridge loop. Felt great. No watch.

Just over 3.5 miles with one mile at a quick pace (5:26)

5 miles easy. 7:04 av/ mile

Felt pretty good today on my extended Washington loop. Kept it smooth and relaxed. 6:50 av/mile

Washington loop. No watch.

Riverside to Mall drive bridge, Washington around to home. Easy pace. No watch today.

easy day today with one mile in 5:27

Easy pace today. Ran a bigger loop up around Costco over to mall drive and down across riverside over to the bridge into Washington back to the house. 7:02 av/ mile.

Easy run at 6 am. Temps starting to cool off.

Mall drive bridge loop. Nice to run in daylight and not have it so hot.

Beautiful afternoon run today. Temps were perfect. Love this time of year.

First run with gloves and ear warmers at 5 am.

Easy day with a quick mile in there (5:33).

Nice run this morn at 8:45 am. Temps and weather were perfect.

4 miles up around the mall and home.