Met my team at Four Mile Creek trailhead in NoBo, the local slang for "North Boulder." If I'm ever going to even hope to become a 'local' I better get the slang down, right? The weather was humid, overcast, and 29 degrees....no snow though. I forgot my watch this morning but it was okay because with the my flu recovery and laryngitis, I suppose it was better for me to go by feel rather than caring what my pace was. Renee and her husband, Austin joined us for the warm-up since they were in NoBo serving at the homeless shelter all morning and finished up just as our group was meeting. Sarah Slattery also joined in a little late. It was nice to finally "meet" Sarah even though I had actually already met her over ten years ago during our Senior year in high school at the Great Southwest track meet at ASU. This is back when Sarah was an Arizona high school standout and "Team Utah" went head to head with "Team Arizona" in the 4X800M relay. We beat their socks off AND set the meet record despite Sarah's effort to catch us. Sarah went on to win the 3200 M later than day. I on the other hand, secured a nice stress fracture in my right fibula which made a subtle popping noise during the final 200 meters of that race sending me into limp mode after the race and setting me back in my training the summer before I started at BYU...but that is a story for another day. Sarah did say she remembered meeting me, though there is a slim chance she was just being nice. ;) Anyway, back to the workout. We did a 20 minute warm-up, stretching, and strides, as usual. 12 minutes at Half Marathon effort on the dirt trail above the park. Don't know my pace here...probably just barely sub-6:00 pace. 3 minute jog to the grass field and where people put CC spikes on (I still don't have a pair). 4X4 minutes steady hard, 1 minute rest, 1 minute hard, 1 minute rest (with 10 push-ups during the second rest). Without actually knowing my pace per Mr. Garmin, I'd guess my 4 minute repeats were between 5:35-5:45 pace and my 1 minute surges were closer to 5:25 pace. The repeats were out on a nice bum-kicker loop with one decent sized hill and another long gradual incline (gotta love Cross Country!) 10 minute cool down Fun/challenging workout with a great group of runners! Maybe one of these weeks I'll actually get over 45 miles now that moving and being sick are behind me. I was talking to Renee and she said she took a down week last week. "What is a down week for you?" I asked. 75 miles. "Oh.....okay. So what will you do next week?" "93ish", she says. Haha. In my head I'm thinking, oh good, thats over DOUBLE what I've been doing. She also mentioned to Coach D that 5:10 pace was feeling "easy" to her yesterday. I'm pretty sure she is going to have no problem kicking ALL our bums at CC Club Champs. I'm just honored to be on her team. Go Renee! Now I'm off to cook some Butternut Squash soup for our friends and their five kids who are coming for dinner tonight. First dinner guests in our "new" (old) home!
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