PV = nRT

today I ran a 20K race in Madison Wisconsin. This is a beautiful course that runs around Lake Monona, the second largest of the four lakes in Madison, and conveniently 12.4 miles around. The race map is on line here. The race starts in Monona at Winnequah park, then loops through some neighborhoods before crossing the Yahara river at  about mile 2. At mile 5 you run along the lake along the John Nolan drive lakeshore trail, by the Frank Lloyd Wright Monona terrace, this is a great flat stretch right on waterside, then onto the isthmus before turning east, then south and through rolling hills back to the park.  The race started at 9AM and it was already pretty warm, about 70 degrees and sunny. there was a 20mph southwest wind.  The first couple miles had some rolling hills. I probably went out too fast again running the first two miles in 6:08 and 6:09. I thought maybe I could sustain that pace for the race but I was wrong. I ran the first 10K in 38:24 then the second 10K in 40:32. The second half was tougher than the first with more rollers and more wind in your face, but I think I should have paced myself better, just a chronic problem I have. Thee or four guys passed me in the last four miles, I hate that.The age group I was in was 40-49,  The winner came in in 1:08:08. I was 21st overall of about 900 runners.
A nice feaature of this race is they age grade the finishers based on whatever the formula is. In the age /sex grade I took 10th overall, and got a little plexiglass trophy for tenth place. My age grade time was 1:10:56 based on a 78.91% handicap.

I am not sure how to interpret this race performance. It was a loop course so neutral, but it was hot, windy, and there were more hills that I was expecting. The winners pace was 5:29. For the SLC half, the winners pace was 5:17, but the course was aided and at altitude, but my read is there are faster runners in Utah than Madison in the elite category, and I think I probably ran a better race at the SLC half than I did here. Paul would have easily won this race. I thought I might get an edge coming from altitude, I had hoped for a 1:17 but it was not to be. Still, it was a very fun race, incredibly scenic and a very nice course.

Treu to the Madison culture, the post race beverages were either water or three brands of beer on tap. No gatorade. And the post race food was- get this- greasy chicken wings from a restaurant called- and I kid you not- "quaker steak and lube. the line for the beer got to be several hundred yards long. I just drank some water, got my llittle trophy, and went downtown for gyros with my mother. Here is a picture of us at the starting line before the race:

7.6 miles 7:50 pace parents house to pheasant branch nature conservancy loop and back

did a west side of Madison Wisconsin loop passing all three houses I lived in in Madison from when we moved there in 1964 when I was three years old.

PM- drove to iowa city iowa

Sheraton in downtown Iowa City through University of Iowa campus to U of Iowa track. 6 x 1000 meters, 3:37, 3:33, 3:33, 3:33, 3:33, 3:25

madison wisconsin west side-shorewood hills loop. 7:45 average.

back in Cache valley. 8 x 200 USU track 40 seconds each. The USU track is in really sorry shape compared to the excellent track at University of iowa-worn out, cracked, bulges. kind of an embarassment to the track team and university, especially considering we have such an outstanding track team including the best 10,000 meter runner in the WAC, who just set an alltime school record at 10,000 meters. 

on the other hand, we have really nice football facilities for probably the worst football team in division 1A football over a 15 year average. it's always nice to run by the huge Stan Laub indoor practice field- the most underused facility on campus, but it sure looks nice sitting there empty and unused waiting for 8 weeks of indoor practice for football in the fall.

local 10K up Smithfield canyon and back down, starting and ending at mack park. It is a challenging course because the first 3 miles are a continual uphill climb up canyon road with an elevation gain of about 450 feet. Then you turn around and rip back down the canyon, taking a loop around upper canyon road. I mapped the course here.  It was a cold morning, maybe 38 degrees at race time (7:30 AM) but no wind and the sun was coming out. I ran a carbon copy of this race from the last time I ran it (2008) hitting the turnaround at an average 6:47 pace. then I let it rip as fast as I could back down again. I ran the whole way down with Keith Anderson. We came down the steep hill off upper canyon road back onto smithfield canyon road side by side and then went into a sprint for the finish 0.2 miles away. I got lucky today and help him off by 0.9 seconds. . 

Unusually strong field this year with  Steve Anderson, Carson Campbell and Trevor Ball running, with Carson taking first Steve second and trevor third. A guy from Vernal I don't know rounded out the top 4 and then a 13 year old kid finished 0.4 seconds ahead of me.My time this year was 4 seconds faster than 2008.

merlin olsen park to spring hollow via river trail 8:10 average

USU east bench 5 miles 7:32

very tough interval workout alone on the USU track in the pouring rain and a chilly 45 degree temperature.   4 x 1 mile with 400 recoveries. Hoped for 5:45 average but that didn't work out, probably not helped by being completely soaked to the skin and frozen. 5:45, 5:52, 5:55, 5:58. I guess I should be glad I kept them under 6 minutes in this weather. I would love to have a nice day to do some of these intervals without dealing with rain, snow, 20 mph winds, this "spring" just won't cooperate.

5 easy no watch

2.5 mile warmup 7:33

some fartlek intervals on the island with ~1 minute recoveries:

0.13 miles@5:27 pace
0.15 miles@5:33 pace
0.24 miles@5:39 pace
0.25 miles@5:19 pace
0.34 miles@5:51 pace
0.36 miles@5:36 pace
0.49 miles@5:41 pace
0.47 miles@5:53 pace
0.31 miles@5:42 pace
0.36 miles@5:32 pace
0.28 miles@5:39 pace
0.18 miles@5:28 pace
0.15 miles@5:42 pace

2.4 miles cooldown 7:42

USU river trail 7:37 pace

Davy Crockett Ave to spring hollow via river trail. 8:20 average.

4 easy 7:40 average

4 x 1 mile on the track. was thinking of doing one more but it started pouring rain on me on the fourth interval so I called it quits. it rained hard all the way on the run back to my office then mysteriously quit raining.

 5:47, 5:48, 5:46, 5:56

 I tried a new pair of extreme minimal shoes that I found pretty cheap on clearance on line. Asics piranha sp2. very light and low profile, about as close to barefoot as you will probably find in a shoe. I am not sure I would be brave enough to run a race in these things but I will try them out for some interval training to emulate barefoot running.

easy 7.1 home prov millville about 7:50 pace.

planned an interval run today. this thin  band of heavy rain decided to push right through Cache Valley today and shows no signs of letting up so I had to go into the dreaded fieldhouse and the wretched 220 yard track. I really hate that but what can you do? If I have any chance to stay even close to Nan on Memorial day I am going to have to punish myself.

did a ladder of intervals (these are yards not meters) with 220 yard recoveries:
2 x 220, 38, 38 seconds
2 x 440, 76, 80 seconds
2 x 660, 2:03, 2:03
2 x 880, 2:52, 2:53
3 x 440, 83, 83, 81 seconds
2 x 220, 39, 41 seconds

cut my cooldown short at one mile as I literally felt I was going to throw up. Those tight turns on that little track really make me ill. and I was pushing too hard too I guess.

Today is my wedding anniversary by the way so I guess I will take my wife out to dinner. The early bird special of course.

USU river trail 7:48

TOU course miles 19 to 14,  7'29" average

USU east bench, 7'30" average. rain and sleet.

5 x 1200 on the track with 300-400 recoveries. finally a nice day.

4:13, 4:13, 4:16, 4:17, 4:18

which I guess works out to about a 5:43 average pace.  about 10 seconds per mile slower than where i would like to be but at this point there is nothing I can do about it. My training for the BB is done for better or worse.

USU river trail about 8:05 pace

USU track 8 x 200 39, 40, 39, 42, 37, 39, 36, 36 seconds

In Boulder Co visiting my brother. today I ran with the local running group led by Darren and Colleen DeReuck. They have two groups, Boulder striders, which my brother runs with, and Running Republic, which Nan runs with. Arrived at the park and met Nan for the first time, nice to finally meet her in person. I was going to run with striders, but Nan graciously invited me to run with the republic group so I jumped in as a bandit and no one kicked me out.we ran a warmup, then some stretches, then 5 x 2 minutes, I think it was supposed to be at race pace. I dogged the first four because it was hot and I didn't really feel like running fast, then I ran the last one faster with Nan at maybe a 5:45 pace. It was a fun group. Then we had the motivational pre-race talk from Renee Metivier Baillie who is running in the elite women's race on Monday. Great group  of runners. Had a nice time talking with Nan, looking forward to meeting Aaron Monday. Today we're off to picnic and hike with the kids.

no running but biked over to the Bolder Boulder expo and creek festival with the family. Ryan Hall was siging autographs at the Nissan booth, I had him sign my bib. He is very friendly. Had my wife take my picture with him then got a souvenir shot superimposed next to him on a fake running world magazine, shot in front of a green screen by the nissan people. Cool. kind of like the ones Riverton Paul makes.

ran the Bolder Boulder 10K, the world's best 10K (according to Runners world) and one of the biggest (if not the biggest, with about 54,000 runners). this is a seriously well done race, with very organized wave starts, great staff, great entertainment, best expo, this is the one I look forward to each year. My brother lives in Boulder so we have made a tradition of visiting and running this together every year.
The course is point to point, net elevation gain of 50 feet, ending in Colorado's stadium. Lots of turns and lots of hills- not big hills, but hills nonetheless, and I am none too good on hills.

My PR for this race is 38:00 at age 46 in 2008. Last year I ran it for fun to pace my brother on his 50th birthday so didn't race. This year I was hoping to go 37:15-37:30 but things didn't work out as I had planned. I got to the start a little late, but managed to meet Aaron and Nan at the start and lined up with Nan in the A wave. My plan was to hit the first mile in 5:55 and then run 6 minute miles. But I just didn't have it.
Mile 1 was 5:50. downhill, little faster than I wanted but I thought I was OK.
Mile 2, 6:00, just where I wanted to be.
Mile 3- this is where I always get in trouble in this race, the hills are subtle but they kill me. 6:08, still decent pace, but now I am wiped out already and know I am in trouble.
Mile 4- 6:08, but there is some downhill here, I needed to run this one faster for the trouble ahead, but I am struggling.
Mile 5- 6:09. Now my sub 38 is in trouble.
Mile 6- up hill at a bad time. 6:16.
last 0.2 (0.24 in my garmin). steep climb into the stadium, ran out of gas. 6:30. ouch.
missed my BB PR and sub 38 by 3 seconds. But that's OK, it was still a fun race and given the circumstances (higher altitude than Logan, big hike on Saturday with the family where I think I messed up my calf, not enough sleep, etc) I will take it. You can never be disappointed at the BB, it is a good time no matter what.

The highlight was Nan's 35:50 breakthrough, just amazing, i am still in awe. Got some great pics with her and Aaron after the race, great to meet them in person finally. They are way cool.
The only downside of the day is I tweaked my right calf again- I think hiking Eldorado canyon Saturday- and now it is pretty aggravated, hurt pretty good at the end of the race. May have to take some time off or cross train, we will see.
After the race we packed up, drove to Rocky Mtn National park, hiked around Bear lake (kids liked that with the snow and 70 degree temps), drove through the park reaching 12,100 feet, then to Steamboat Springs for the night where the kids are swimming and I am blogging.

Happy Memorial day!