Leprechaun Lope 10K Recap

 

Saturday was my first race of 2012.  

Leprechaun Lope 10K by the State Capitol in Salt Lake. 

I went early to Park City on Friday to spend some time 

with my brother that I rarely get to see. 

Saturday morning woke up, had a banana and nut butter, little bit of water, and I was off to the race.  This was a smaller race so I had it in my head I was going to PR and get top 2 female.  Coach Teresa and I had decided this is was going to be a 'C' race to test out my fitness before Salt Lake Marathon.

Got to the capital and it was WINNNDYYYyyyyy! Did a 1.5 mile warm up with a couple strides.  Teresa had me take a 1/2 a GU 5 minutes before the race started to 

test out how my stomach fared.

Race started out great! Legs felt wonderful and ready to run.  

Miles 1-3 was ALL uphill gaining 761 (to be exact:D) feet up 

City Creek Canyon.  

I thought that it was going to be rolling hills, I was wrong, so I zoned in and pumped up to mile 3 the best I could.  

The rest of the race was flat and gradual down hill.  

All of mile 4 my noes was bleeding... then just stopped - never have had that happen before.  

Around 4.5 this guy in the red had pulled in front of me and I just held on to him the rest of the way.  I kept looking at his strong calf muscles thinking I want mine to look like his one day:):)

8:14, 8:37, 9:32, 7:39, 7:19, 7:09, 6:40




- Side and front wind the entire race was not fun at all.
- I need to learn to run the tangents better! (Ended up with 6.25 miles)
+Legs never felt fatigued, I felt like I had plenty of energy, and heart rate was in control for the most part.
+Taking the 1/2 GU never bothered my stomach and gave me an extra kick 
+I have never done a warm up/cool down after a race until today.  Liked this, but next time do a couple more strides before race start. 

If not for the hills, I really think I could have gone sub 45 for a PR. 

NEXT TIME!! 

After my cool down I had no soreness in my legs and 

completed a 2hour recovery run this morning :)

Finished

6.25 Miles

49:40:12

Avg Pace 7:56

2nd/55 Age Group 

5th/130 Female

Blurry cell phone picture!

5 Weeks to SLC!!!!!

Recovery Week, St George, Crazy Hike

Last week = RECOVERY week.

Started like this ---

Couple runs in the windy cold

Snow decided to finally arrive in UTAH

I was close to 500 miles in my old shoes so I picked me up another pair of these >>> 

Found out I got to go to sunny St. George for a work weekend!! Yippyyyy

Got a fabulous morning run in... in shorts!!!!

 

 Found this new drink. absolute FAV!

Went on what was supposed to be a 'easy' hike.  Turned into 16 miles of  

canyoneering fear!

(For those that know the St. George Area) 

We started at Tuacahn, climbed up to the 3 ponds, went in and out of Snow Canyon, then climbed up on the ridge, then descended down that main gorge in Ivans. 

The arrows signify death wish territory :):)

My dad and I have experienced some scary stuff... both nothing compared to this. 

At some points I was shaking so bad and could not make it stop. 

 Making it to the top (ALIVE) then back down gave us such a sense of  

accomplishment and confidence.  

We both wore the biggest smiles the rest of the weekend - 

along with our war wounds of cuts, bumps and bruises :D !!!  

We don't have many photos of the scary stuff... but here are a few from the day:

Recovery week meant 

a cut back in intensity... 

a lot of compression gear wearing...

a couple ice baths...

foam rolling...

Feeling super refreshed and READY to hit it hard again! :D