May

May is off to a pretty good start. Inspired by Molly's impromptu 10 miler last Saturday w/ the Westside Runner's, on Sunday I went for a 10 miler of my own. I did the same 10 miler I did last fall when training for the Denver half, up to Rocky Mountain Lake, down Tennyson to Sloan's, around Sloan's and up Stuart to 35th, then over to Zuni and back to 40th.

This time I ran by myself. It was a perfect day - I started just after 8:30, and there was some cloud cover. I started out at a nice slow pace (which turned out to be 10:00/mile) and took a 1 minute walk break after 20 minutes. I took another 1 minute walk break when I got to Sloan's lake (46 minutes) and ate a gel. Whatever flavor it was (I can't remember) was pretty awful. I set into a nice deliberate pace around Sloan's - it was nice to be running on flat terrain) and did the 2.6+ mile loop in just over 25:00 minutes. I ran up Stuart to 35th and Perry, took a 1 minute walk break, had another gel (lemon lime - much, much better) and then headed for home. My goal was to break 1:45, and I was already at about 1:26. I was actually feeling pretty good and did the last 1.7 miles in just over 15 minutes (close to 9:00 min pace) and finished in 1:41+.

This was actually probably the best I've ever felt after a long run. The only issue was a huge blood blister on the inside of my right heel. Luckily I know someone with a large needle, and she drained it (this time I didn't squeal like a little girl - no offense Audrey).

This morning I woke up early and went out to Lookout Mountain. I was out here two weeks ago, but could only do the first 2/3 of the trail because of snow/ice. This time the trail was clear. My splits were 13:00 at the first road, 25:10 at the first bridge, 33:30 at the Windy Saddle parking lot, and 51:30 at the top. Rested for about 2 minutes at the top - there was a herd of deer there just meandering around. Had a gel, then started down. Passed several mountain bikers coming up, and made it back to windy saddle in 11:00. Hit the bridge in another 6:00, then something funny happened w/ my back and it kinda seized up, slowing me to a jog. Kinda took it easy the rest of the way, hitting the road in 25:00, and finishing in just under 35:00 for a total round trip of 1:26:30.

I probably could have finished in sub 1:25 w/o the back issues, but that's neither here nor there.

I'm encouraged by my progress - last year I was able to run the whole uphill, but had to take breaks at both roads and finished in 58 minutes. 3 years ago I did it in just under 52:00, but power hiked almost all of it.