Lost on Prune Hill

Sunday was a day off for me. So I took a nice long run in the morning. I decided to use this opportunity to explore the top of "Prune Hill." I have some out and back runs that I do there occasionally but I was trying to make a loop by starting up the hill and coming down to the Heritage trail that I usually run on my long days. I got a little lost in the neighborhoods a couple of times but made a nice loop around the hill and the views of Portland and the Columbia river from the top were fantastic to behold. Eventually I made my way to the golf course and back to the trail. By the time I hit the trail I had done 8 miles and from that point I knew that I was 4 miles from home. Perfect! As 12 miles was my goal for the day. Even with the getting lost and extra hills I was happy with the pace. I finished the 12 in 1:49 or 9:04/mile according to Garmin. I was really happy with the pace as I felt like it was slower, so my "slow" is actually faster than I thought. I have hope yet that I can break 4:00 in the marathon in October.

I will be in Ellensburg at Lazy F camp most of this week. Opportunity for some serious hill training, but really I will be happy just to get in some decent runs.

Easter Week

I took Sunday afternoon off of running in order to spend time with the family. Did the long run on Monday morning and it felt great. Ended up doing 10 miles in 1:27. Knee felt good, felt light and strong pretty much throughout. Great feeling, 8:42 / mile pace with heart rate average of 163. Weeee.

Tuesday weigh in: 157

Ran an easy 3.2 miles today at an even 9 minutes per mile pace. Knee hurts. Ugh.

Elevation

Boise, ID 2,700

Salt Lake City, UT 4,200

Twin Falls, ID 3,700

I ran on treadmills in hotels at each of these places the last few days. Basically I did 5k setting the pace around 8:30 miles. I was just looking to get s a quick workout in before driving some more. It didn't occur to me until the final day that I was also running at some elevation. That made me feel better about the short distance. It was also a lot of fun to have Brianna with me either walking on a treadmill or using one of the other machines. (she had to check them all out of course.)

This morning I went out and felt GREAT. The legs felt light (although by the middle I noticed my right knee again, don't know whats up with that yet.) I came in after 6 miles to find my average pace was, yep 8:30 per mile!

Wow, that occasional speed work helps.