I got called into work at about 2:30 this morning. Some fucking douche bag hit a fire sprinkler in the parking garage with his truck, so the fire alarm was set off.
I went on a nice long run today. I headed up to Crouch to enjoy the beautiful day and get in touch with some nature. I parked at the entrance to the Boise National Forest and took off. The temperature was awesome and I was in one of my most favorite places on earth. The first half of the run is basically all climbing. It's pretty gradual for a while, so it's not to difficult to deal with, but I don't care who you are, 9 miles of straight climbing is rough. Especially when the last 2.5 miles are on snow. That was probably the worst part about the run today. My ankles are a little sore from trying to run on the unstable surface. At the halfway point, I stopped and ate a cliff bar and just enjoyed the scenery. The water is very high right now, so the sound was almost deafening. Part of me wished that I had packed a tent and extra food and just stayed up there. I could really use some unwinding.
The descent was pretty easy. I picked up the pace a bit just to stretch out my legs and put a little extra effort in, since I took Wednesday off from running. I felt pretty strong through the entire run, which compared to last week's 20 miler, is a nice improvement. The last couple of miles last week were pretty rough. I feel like I could have gone farther with little difficulty, but I decided that I should just stick to my plan and not overdo it. I don't need to be getting injured with all of my races coming up. I should be ready for the Bear Lake Marathon in June, and I am hoping for a good result. 3:47 just isn't good enough for me. I know I can do better. The question is... how much better? I am shooting for sub 3:30, which would be an 8 minute/mile pace. The course is pretty flat, so I am optimistic. I am going to take walk breaks during this marathon for at least the first 16 miles. After that, I will adjust my plan as necessary. I really need to get some longer tempo runs in at faster than race pace.
I'm tired.
