9/17/11 (Saturday) Activities

Today I ran about 4 miles.  I say about because I ran a 5k in Salt Lake City, partly sponsored by my work.  I then ran back to where my wife was in the race and ran with her to the finish.  So it was roughly 4.0 miles.  It is called "Run for Recovery" and I am on the run committee so I figured I better run it : )  However, other than my marathon work, I have done no specific preparation for it.  I felt my marathon training too important and that whatever I did on this 5k would be good.  I knew the first half is a steady uphill but I was not going to go at race speed and risk unnessarily tiring myself out.  Nothing too bad, except in one spot less than 1/2 mile into it, but all downhill coming back.  I figured I would let loose on the way back.  You might think it does not make sense to take it easy on the way up and then pick up the pace on the way back.  But for me, running downhill is something I love to do and it affects me much less than running uphill.  The turn around for the race course, unfortunately, was not marked properly.  It was a tenth of a mile too short.  But, at least everyone got the same advantage.  My finishing time for the 5k was 21:04.  I came in seventh place overall and first in my age division.  The course was only 2.91 miles long.  For the final nine-tenths of a mile I averaged a 6:08 mile pace, and even had a short-lived burst of 13.2 mph.  I was very pleased with this run because I just ran 24 miles yesterday and that 13.2 mph came AFTER the course leveled out within a quarter mile of the end.

My wife and I stayed for the award activities and then I biked home from SLC.  My total cycling mileage was 36.04 in 1:59:56.  This only averages out to be an 18.0 mph average, but I was please with the ride.

Total running miles for week = 53
Total cycling miles for week = 52.42

Hmmm, not bad...my first 100 mile activity week : )