This morning I was to do 12K. I e-mailed Sue to find out if she'd like to go with me on the Porter Rockwell Trail in Draper. I haven't racewalked there in a while and it sounded fun. I haven't seen Sue in a while, and so I was happy to get to RW and catch up with her at the same time. Sue and I did a lot of long days together on the Jordan River Trail last summer when I was training for the Portland Marathon, and she helped me coach the Team in Training people as well. She's a good runner, but willing to slow her pace a little to go with me :).
The weather was perfect shorts and T-shirt weather at 55F (12.8C) and sunny (though the sun hadn't peeked over the mountains when we started at 6 am). The Porter Rockwell Trail has a 7-mile loop that we decided to do, and then to get the 7.4 miles (12K) we did just a little in the park at the end. The loop is gently rolling hills; my Garmin said that it was 40m up and 40m down along the way. While there is only one steep hill on the loop, you really do notice the hills quite a bit.
When we started I felt a bit tired and kept looking at my watch to see my heart rate --- only in the low 130s to start, and I had a little trouble pushing to get going a little faster, probably because I was chatting with Sue. Once I got going, though, I felt pretty good until 8-9K, when I got a bit tired and was glad for a couple water stops we made on the way back (there are some water fountains along the trail). Still, nothing was sore at all, and I didn't have to push too much to keep a 6:30/k pace despite the hills. The time passed quickly as we chatted about everything from art (Sue is a graphic designer and artist who is looking for work, if anyone knows of something) to music to running/marathons to camping in the Grand Canyon.
Total time: 1:18:11; ave pace 6:31/km; ave HR only 140! I'm getting fitter :). My legs still feel pretty fresh!
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