#WolverineWay

Pretty good run today. We went up the trail to the top of the private road then down to main street on 6400 then we started down towards MVC. When we got to MVC we were told by our coach to race it back to Monarch. So thats what we did, when we got to the stoplight at 13400 I made the decision to just cross and I guess just Tommy decided to come with me, while everyone else stayed on the corner and waited to cross. Our average pace was around a 6:45 but our last mile was definately in the 5's because it felt like I was hauling.

Just an easy run with Christian and Mckay (other guys went further) before our races tomorrow, I am doing the Honeyville 5k and Mckay and Christian are doing the Riverton Country Mile 10k. I felt pretty good just a little beat up from yesterdays run but other than that I feel really good and I am hoping to run a 15:10ish to beat Braden Perry's course record from 2010. 

My strategy is to take off and leave the lead pack as there will be no-one that will be going that fast at this race this year (Box Elder's XC team is doing the Brigham City 5k the same day) and then at around 5 minutes I am going to settle in and keep trying to open up a gap on #2 if I feel good enough. With this I should be able to finish safely in the low 15's and will probably get me the win even if I tire a bit at the end. 

Got to the race about 45 minutes early so I got out of the car and went and walked around. Then I went for a mile warmup and scouted out the competition but the only one who would give me any pressure would be Adam Hendrickson from Box Elder because two of the Terrible Three were up at Blacksmith Fork 15k. Got to the line and started to talk to some of the competition and I met a girl from Box Elder (who actually won the girls race) and I talked to Luis Vidal from Logan who confirmed that Jerrell Mock, Conner Mantz (two of the Terrible Three) and Adam were not going to be here.

The gun sounded and I took off but the course was kind of confusing at first so I kept looking back to see if I was going the right way. I was moving pretty good for the first mile to try and open up a gap on the second place guy (Luis) which but me at least 200 meters ahead of him and 500 meters ahead of the rest of the people. The race was on a true cross country course which was super cool because I got to wear my Kilkenny flats for the first time. I got a side stitch at about 1.7 miles to go and it didn't go away till the water stop at mile 2.

After the water stop I was super bored and I just wanted to get this race done with and win so I started my kick and came  in 1st to finish at a 17:03 which was terrible for me. I wasn't in any kind of shape to beat Braden's course record of 16:09, but oh well I will do it next year. I got a huge jar of honey for winning (which is really good) and a gift certificate to a local grocery store so I went and got some ice cream.

I went on a lengthy cool down after I got home which turned out to be another 5k so I should be safely in my weekly goal of 34 miles. It was a well put on race by such a small town (population of about 1500) whose population nearly double this time of year. I'm going to turn all my focus on the half marathon on the 14th so I can have a shot at winning it.

I was planning on going just 3 miles today because I felt so beat from yesterdays race and last night but when I got to a quarter mile left I decided to make it a 5 miler. Then when I got to the lake I decided that I felt pretty good so I went to the temple and I kept making it just a bit longer. Mostly because the rain felt really good and I needed some thinking time. I ended up going 7 and a half but I felt like I could go way more which is kind of odd considering I raced yesterday. I need to start upping my miles this week in preparation for the Farmington Half Marathon on the 14th but I don't want to hurt myself so I think I'll just get my miles up to 40-45 this week and hopefully my body will respond positively.

I am beginning to understand why people blog, it helps me to get things out that I wouldn't normally say. 

Easy run with some of the guys, we decided to cut it a bit short because of our longer run yesterday and my 10 miler tomorrow with the coaches. I should be at about 40 miles this week so thats good I guess. Felt like pushing it today so I started to push the pace at the last mile and when I hit 1/2 to go I started to go as hard as I could because I wanted to practice going fast so i can get comfortable with it. Finished about 15 seconds ahead of Tommy who was surprisingly close considering how hard I was pushing it. 

Didn't get much sleep last night so I woke up way late and missed the 10 miler with the coaches so that kinda sucked. I went out and did the Mav route and then remembered that Connor's Half Marathon was today so I ran down to the district to see him finish. By the time I had gotten there he had already finished but he was second with a time of 1:25 which is pretty good for a first half marathon. The winner was Dave Rasmussen with a 1:21.

I got Connor to come with me for a cool down for about 20 minutes and we talked for a bit before I had to get running again. I went up to 4000 west I think and took that to 12600 and then up to Maverick (for the second time this run) to poo and then home on the trail.