Mine & Todd's 13

At The Starting Line

Today Todd and I set out for 13. Tom is living it up in Bear Lake. Hopefully he will get a run in one of these days.

We did a route that was a favorite of mine and Tom's last year. We started at the top of 89 and ran all the way to Stacey's via Gentile & Bluff. I knew I was in trouble when at the beginning Todd just took off down the road. About a block in he turned to me and yelled what was the matter because I was so far behind. I told him I was just adjusting my gear but really I didn't want him to know I couldn't keep up that early in the run. Finally I got my body warmed up and we got in a rhythm. But I knew it was still too fast. I wanted to try and push myself so I didn't say much. I just focused on trying to keep up. But every time I looked at my watch we were running between 7:30 and 8:30. At the 6 mile mark we stopped to take off our jackets and then took off again. Todd started pulling away from me. By the time we crossed over the railroad tracks on Gentile, around 6.5, I told him to just go ahead. I knew I needed to let him go or I would end up suffering too much. He pulled away and I was so grateful. Finally I slowed down to a pace I was more comfortable with, just over 9:00, and my side ache finally went away! I had to refocus on me and just getting to the finish. I told Todd how to get to Stacey's house but I never know if he is listening so I wasn't sure he would go the right route or not. But within another mile or so I had actually caught up with him. We ran the rest of the route at about a 9 min pace and kept with our 5:1 ratio. By the end I was completely drained and there is no way I could have done more or gone faster. Todd felt really strong other than his knee started bothering him around mile 10. I am thinking it is his IT band. He could barely walk at the end. I told him I know all too well how bad it hurts so he needs to start figuring it out now or it will just get worse. But I have to say this was probably his strongest run. He kept saying how good he felt.

**STATS**

(Todd finished 12 seconds ahead of me)

Distance: 13.14 miles
Time: 2:03:12
Pace: 9:23/min/mile
Temperature: 21 degrees
Time of Day: 9:30 a.m.

Gettin' Back in There

Our training is a bit screwed up. Well actually I'm right on schedule but Tom and Todd are behind. Tom's had injuries and Todd leaves on the weekends. This week I pulled my team together and told them we had to do at least 8 today because we need to jump to 13 next week. This means they will have skipped their 11 mile run. We'll see how it goes. We have a lot of stuff going on it is gonna be hard coordinating these runs but I don't know if I trust them to do long runs on their own. Todd revealed a few runs back that he doesn't run during the week. The only running he does is with us during our long runs. He says going to the gym and doing sports conditioning and lifting weights is just as good. I say that's great but it's not the same. You have to muscle train and get used to using your running muscles for long periods of time and maintenance runs are important. He basically rolls his eyes when I tell him this stuff but after today I think he just might start listening. If not it's gonna get harder and harder on him with the long runs.

Tom did really good today considering he has had some injury issues.

We did a route that was similar to the one we did a few weeks ago. Starting at my dad's we head to McKay Dee Hospital and go around but instead of going all the way around we headed up Harrison Blvd and then weaved the neighborhoods until we hit Glassman Way. We headed up and over 89 to the neighborhoods around there. Then we made our way back. Just after hitting 7.55 Todd announced he was done so he headed home while Tom and I put in another mile. The route was good and hilly other than we had to dodge ice on the roads. It takes a lot of energy when you are jumping puddles and ice chunks.

**STATS**

ME & TOM
(Todd called it quits about a mile prior)

Distance: 8.5 miles
Time: 1:26:37
Pace: 10:12/min/mile
Temperature: 27 degrees
Time of Day: 10:45 a.m.