Craig's Running Blog

Emigration Canyon. This will be my last long run before St George. I haven't been keeping up on the blog, but let's just say the training has been going average. I think I'm in decent overall shape, but I have 2 concerns: I'm about 5 lbs heavier than I usually am this time of year, and the achilles are flaring up after every run. I have been icing every morning after the run, which is working, but I'll be sure to take 3-4 weeks off after Oct 3. I've been cross-training a lot more this year and keeping weekly mileage average (about 45/week). So we'll see what that does. 

We met up as a group at 5:30 near Hogle Zoo. The plan was to push the pace at times around race pace, but keep the group together the last 6 miles. That's more/less what happened. I found myself pushing it the first 2 miles with Jeremy, then I backed off the next 4 miles up to the bend at mile 6. Miles 6-7 get the big hill to the top, so we pushed that a bit. Then we went down the other side to the bottom, near I-80. Coach was telling Andrea and I some great stories about his running days in high school. Very inspiring. That got us back up the big hill at the bottom to mile 13. Miles 13-14 were the hottest of the day back up to the summit. I pushed that once again with Jeremy, running it at race pace. Then I stuck with him down the hill to mile 16. Again, race pace. Things were feeling tight at that point, but not bad. We all took some recovery drink then pressed on. Jeremy, Mark, and I ran the next 2 up to race pace. I backed off at mile 18-20 and looked for a restroom. Found one near mile 20. I ran mile 21 with Andrea, then picked it up once again to race pace and finished strong.

I'm feeling pretty good after the run. No injuries, and no real flaring of the achilles tendons. These are good signs. This week will be a normal training week, followed by a much lighter run next Saturday. I would say at this point I'm ready for a 2:50 at St George, but I would obviously like to break that.