Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - Mad dash across the MSP airport to make our connection after sitting on the runway in Duluth for way too long. Probably my fastest half-mile of the weekend.

PM - 6 miles. Easy jog while Andrea biked along. Was inspired to run really slow after watching the Men's 5000m. At least Ben True had the balls to make something of a race out of that. I suppose it would have been Lagat/Rupp in some order no matter how the race played out, though.

AM - 7 miles. Started off the morning running 2 miles with Andrea! Yahoo!!! Then I went down to the gully and ran 5 with the Alta XC team. 

PM - 5 miles w/ Andrea (bike). 

Been thinking a bit about the second half of the year, and where I want my big focus to be. A month or two ago I was toying around with the idea of trying to go after the TOU/STG double. Luckily, that idea only remained interesting for a few weeks. Over the weekend I started thinking about the USA Championships (Twin Cities), especially since they'll cover my expenses and championship races have a certain allure to them... but I don't really want to start a marathon buildup as early as August. Too soon. And with Andrea getting back to normal, we want to travel and go on fun vacations during the summer. So I think CIM is the likely long-term objective for a fall marathon. I want a fast marathon on a legal course. I'm not putting the pressure on myself to start chasing the OT standard this fall (its a long qualifying window!) but I really want to run under 2:20 on an honest course and start moving in that direction. For July/August, though, I'm going to run the local races, and then decide how to move forward based on where I am at that end of the summer. One step at a time. I'd love to somehow fit the TOU Marathon back in the picture, but I don't know if that is realistic, without compromising my chances at accomplishing some of the other goals I have.

AM - 8 miles. Met the Alta XC boys up at Alta. Ran the road up to Albion Basin, a couple loops around the campground, then back down (I got dropped hard on the descent by Kramer!). Other than a few random snow drifts, its all clear up there. The rest of the snow will be melted by the weekend. First run of the summer at 9000 feet is always less conversational on the way up :-)

Afterwards, since I was already up in LCC, I decided to make a little jaunt (hike-jog) up to Red Pine Lake. Ate some breakfast and then headed back. [~6 miles r/t, 2000']

PM - 5 miles w/ Andrea (bike). 

AM - 9 miles. Easy Liberty Park grass loops w/ Kevin, James, and Nate.

PM - 5 miles w/ Andrea (bike). 

HEY! Sign up for the Sugar House Relays! Only 3 days away. 

AM - 9 miles. Dimple Dell gully. Upper section w/ the xc team and then Kevin and I added on a few more miles in the lower section.

Skipped the PM run and hiked up to Lake Blanche. [~6.5 miles r/t, 2500']

AM - 11 miles. JAJAK run! With Andrea on the bike, but close enough. Kevin and I finished on the track with 4x100, 4x200, 4x100. I did manage to break 16 seconds for one of the 100s. Legs felt good, nothing was sore/stiff. I've been kind of sick this week, and last night it finally kept me up since I couldn't breathe. I had a good book to read though (Merle's Door). Luckily we never run faster than 8:00 pace so being sick doesn't really affect me too much at that effort level.

PM - 4 miles.  

Sugar. House. Relays. Register. 

The Sugar House Relay Carnival is the best event of the summer, everyone who wasn't there missed out on a good time! Allie and James did a wonderful job setting this up again... hopefully next year the turnout will be bigger.

I ran 15:59 for the 5000m and then 4:54 for my 1600m leg of the DMR. My goal as the anchor leg was to not let our team GARMIN BELIEVERS get lapped by the BYU team. I had to kick (for 50m) with 450m left as we almost got lapped, but I held off their anchor leg, dropping the baton in the process! Ah what a blunder... it was pretty funny though. Only cost me a few seconds. Our total time for the DMR was 12:15 so its not like we were qualifying for NCAAs anyway :-)

PHOTO GALLERY 

Good workout - I wanted to get in one session between Duluth and the July 4th 5K so today fit the bill perfectly. And we had a awesome group cooldown that included Andrea! Yay!

Team Garmin Believers (Rob, Me, Fritz, and Kevin (60.2!!! ahh so close))

5000m start

DMR Start

I dropped the baton like 3 seconds after this...

Allie and James had the course marked very well

AM - 10 miles [3 up, 3 race, 1 easy, 1 race, 2 down]

PM - 4 miles.