Running With LeMire

Met Rhett out at SARA Park to run the Watershed Trail again this Saturday. It was a bit warm the first 4 miles with temps rising quickly with the sun coming up. Once we made the climb up the mountain and got into the valley on the west side the wind changed. We ran out in the wind then climbed and made basically a 180 around the mountain and the wind shifted and was blowing even harder but at least it was shady in the valley. We ran some really quick miles from 4 through 7 and finished strong. Overall it ended up being a 1 minute PR on the course making it to the gate in 1:14:02 averaging a 7:51/mi.

Great Run and the shins did not hurt at all on the run and I have been icing today along with swimming with the boys, made lunch, and off to a birthday party to wrap up the afternoon.  

Easy 6 mile run out McCulloch Blvd and back. It is definitely heating up here in Havasu I didn't check the temperature until after I showered and was getting ready for work it was already 90 degrees by 7am.

Kicked off my Birthday with a nice 6 mile run on McCulloch Blvd in my new shoes my wife bought me for my birthday. I have been battling shin, calf and other lower leg issues over the last year and hopefully these unique shoes will help me get these issues under control. I have read about the Hoka shoes in the past and have had others recommend them to me but I have never wanted to fork out the money for them. My wife definifetly suprised me with these. The first few steps in any new shoe feels good but these felt ten times better then any other shoe I've tried. These are like running on pillows tied to your feet but did not modify or vary my stride. I would say these are a very good purchase!   

Took today a little bit easier on the pace side but still felt good even though it was very hot out this morning at 5am.

This past weekend I ran the Gaspin in the Aspen 15K Trail race in Flagstaff Arizona. We headed up to Flagstaff Friday morning with the family and made a stop at Bearzona, which is a Wildlife Park of sorts that you drive your car through the enclosures of the animals which range from different types of sheep, beers, wolves, and buffalo. If this sounds familiar to some it is because it is owned by the same people that created Bear Country USA in Rapid City South Dakota. Both are great places to stop at with kids of any age. We then continued to Flagstaff checked in & met up with friends for some dinner, I ate pancakes. We then went back to the hotel and the kids went swimming while I started getting my race gear together for the 8am start Saturday morning.

Saturday morning arrived we (my wife & I) packed up the kids and headed to the Nordic Ski Center where the race is held. The race information has 8,000' as the starting elevation for the course and maps show this race topping off around 8,300'. I would tell you actual elevations off of my Garmin but I forgot my Garmin in the hotel room. Not a big deal I just stole my wife's little cheap watch she had on. The plan though was to try and not go out to hard but still keep the average pace around 7:30/mi but without a watch I wouldn't know where or how far I was into the race through all the twists and turns. The plan changed to run by feel since I have only raced this course once before which is my only other altitude race 2 years ago. I went for a short warm-up with Doug and made the usual port-a-potty stop before heading to the line. Jacob and Nathan gave me hugs and last little bit of advice which only a 4 year old can do, Run FAST DAD! 

For some reason the Flagstaff runners didn't want to get up to the line so I started right on it knowing I would get past but that would give me an opportunity to see who's in front of me and gage others in the race. Within a half mile of the start the long climb to mile 3 began, yes this course is uphill for the first 3 miles with a few little downhills and flat areas inbetween. I ran by feel and made sure that I was in sight of others so I did not have to depend on locating trail markers myself. This strategy worked well and I made sure that I stayed in touch with the runners ahead of me but made sure not to push the hills to hard at the bigging of the race. Right after mile 3 there was a very long downhill section that I passed 3 people on. From that point on I did not pass or get passed on the course but the two guys I was trailing kept me on course with a great pace even up the hills. I hung right onto these guys until approximately mile 7 and what felt like the steepest hill on the course. They opened a pretty good gap on me and it stayed at that for pretty much the rest of the race. I finished with a time of 1:05:10 on my watch. My bib did not register at the finish so the results show me at 21 place in 1:06:00 behind the two ladies that I passed which made me really 19 place. Those two ladies must have battled each other the entire race because it came down to the last 5 meters to determine who was going to win.

I have been debating if I should email the race director and get my time and place fixed but it truely doesn't matter because I know what I  ran. What I ran was better than expected at 8,000' coming from Havasu at 500'.  The goal was to break 70 minutes and I thought the absolute fastest I could run was maybe 65 minutes and I did that feeling pretty comfortable at 8,000+ feet of elevation.  We rapped the day up with a trip to see cliff dewllings at Oak Creek Canyon with 250+ stairs to climb up an down and a great dinner with friends. On our way home we stopped at a Deer Farm and lunch in Williams that the kids loved!!

All in All it was a great Adventure!!

Today the wife and I used her swim trainer in the pool and did 4x5min intervals for a total of 20 minutes of swimming. We performed this with equal time rest as the other swam. It felt great to get some swiming in. 

This morning I actually got up a little earlier than normal and made it out of the house in good time so I added a half mile out & back on McCulloch. I didn't know how I would feel with swimming yesterday for the first time in awhile but it ended up pretty good. My average pace for the 7 miles was 7:14/mi with the first mile being 8:16. In reality Rhett has been making feel bad that I haven't been increasing my miles so I figured why not start today since he was planning on running 10.

This morning I ran 7 miles on the same out & back McCulloch route as usual with a bit of wind coming out of the south. I was feeling pretty good this morning even after starting this run with an 8:16 first mile up to the top of McCulloch. The wind was warm also adding to the already warm temps of mid 80's at 5am. Mile 2, 3, and 4 felt good and were all below 7:10 per mile. Then the two toughest miles 5 & 6 which are climbing back up McCulloch on the hills flew by and always do when there is someone to catch up in front of you. I caught the person at the end of mile 5 in which I had just laid down a 6:58 mile and followed up with Mile 6 which continues to climb with a 7:04 mi. The last mile is almost all down hill so it was the fast mile I ever ran on any out & back run on McCulloch. Miles 5 & 6 this morning were also the fastest miles I've ever laid down on this stretch of roadway also which had been 7:09 & 7:14 prior.  Hopefully, I can keep this kind of fitness through the rest of the summer as 124 degrees is our forcasted high Friday & Saturday of this week here in Havasu.     

Just an easy 7 miles this morning on McCulloch. The heat is definitely here because at 5am it was 90 degrees and it felt even warmer than that to me!

Swam in the backyard using the swim trainer for a total of 26 minutes. The pool felt really good at 6am. My workout was 5 minutes on with 1 minute of in between each rep. I was timing myself so that is how on of those ended up being 1 minute longer than the other reps.