Use it or Lose it

morning tm. warmed up a mile, then laddered from 6 mph (tempo'ish pace) to 6.5 mph (5k'ish pace), then back to 6 mph, changing the speed a tenth mile at the start of each song.  Then ran at a slower pace until I had 6 miles total.  I felt pretty good for this workout, even though I did stop twice for a few seconds to catch my breath and grab a quick sip of water.  incline at 1.5%

Morning run a little past city creek picnic area 8 and back home, slow pace.  A coyote crossed the road about 50 yards from me, which was pretty cool.  Gorgeous outside!

Evening: went to a free yoga class at the main library.  I was hoping it would be a nice easy stretching type of class, but it was pretty kick butt so I'm hoping what doesn't kill me makes me stronger!

Okay, didn't run for a few days because I took off with a couple of my kids and went exploring Arches National Park.  A most enjoyable trip with some awesome hikes, but now I better start running again!  Shook a bunch of sand out of my shoes, then did the following workout:

tm 1.5%, warmed up about a mile, then ran 3 mile repeats @ 6.5 mph (9:13 pace), with 1/4 mile recoveries between @ 4-5 mph.  Then ran a bit more to end up with 6.25 miles total.  The mile repeats were harder than I thought they'd be - needed to stop a couple times for a few seconds to catch my breath.

I was reflecting a bit last night about not only my fitness, but my general flexibility and agility.  My legs have lost a lot of springiness over the last few years, and I noticed on my trip (& on previous hikes last summer) that when I jump off rocks and stuff, I tend to land on "wooden" legs and that it jars my back a lot.  I think I need to do more stretching, and also try exercises that involve jumping on and off things to see if I can get my knees to remember how to bounce again.  I'll see how it goes.

Evening: went to my 3rd "yoga class for runners" - a free yoga class put on by the Salt Lake Running Company every Monday night.  I'm getting a bit better at my balance, but discovered just how weak my abs really are!

Late afternoon:  4 fairly quick miles towards Capital Building and back home - had to rush because I needed to give someone a ride.  Pretty hot out, and wishing I had some water!

Evening: did some stretches and tried to do some abdominal strength training (that's going to be hard because my abs are so weak it's hard for me to do anything.  going to take baby steps...)

Jumped up 5 steps and back down; it's a start.

Morning run to City Creek gate and back home, threw in a handful of short strides on the downhill sections.  I was hoping to find the water fountains turned on at City Creek, but still no go - it'll be really nice once they get turned on!

Nice morning run to City Creek picnic area 8 and back home.  Nice cool temps this morning after last night's rain; the air smelled so sweet!  

68

I've had a cold all this week that flattened me like a steam roller -  fever, chills, night sweats, aching kidney, dehydration, blah.  Started getting sick on Monday, then spent all day Wednesday and all day Thursday in bed, then most of Friday in bed as well.  Haven't been this sick in a long long time . . . I originally thought I'd be able to run on Wednesday, then Thursday, then Friday, then Saturday, but it just hasn't happened.

Well, today I'd planned on cheering on the Salt Lake Marathoners and figured I should still at least be able to do that.  Dragged out of bed, grabbed my olympic cow bells, parked on 500 South, then ran to a spot just before the 25 mile mark.  Ends up I was worse off than I thought and seriously felt like I was going to keel over and faint, so I grabbed a couple very full cups of powerade at the aid station a block away.  (Felt bad taking the powerade since I wasn't running the race, but really felt it was the smart thing to do.)

I went back to my spot and shook my cow bells for all they were worth and cheered lots of runners - recognized lots of frbrs flying by, including Andrea, Fritz, Allie, Rad & others.  My favorite part was seeing two marathoners (maybe in 4th-5th place at that point?) running strong, one on the outside of the half marathoners, and one on the inside of the half marathoners.  I shook my bells and whooped at them and then they gave each other a thumbs up and smile and took off like crazy!

It's always fun cheering on racers - all of them:  the fastest ones, the older ones, the younger ones.  It's interesting - many of the racers seem oblivious to me, but others give nods to let me know they really appreciate the cheering.   Being there to cheer is probably the next best thing to being in the race myself!

Dragged myself home after three hours of cheering, got some soup and some gaterade, and am going to rest now for a while.  Hope none of the rest of you frb'rs get this virus!

Short early morning run to city creek pa 4 and back home.  It was nice and cool with a cloud cover.  It felt good to get out running again, but I was sweating way more than I should have been (still sweating out those nasty virus germs I'm sure . . .).  Legs felt nice and rested, but my head was pounding on the final hills towards home.  I'll try for short easy runs the next few days before trying to ramp my volume back up.

heyho, the city creek drinking fountain is finally turned on! :)

Short run to city creek picnic area 5 and back home.  Got pretty warm on the way home. (still seem to be running hotter than I should based on the outside temps).

Ran up to city creek one mile marker and back home.  high noon - hot, sunny, breezy, and hilly.   (If Burt can do it, so can I!)     :)

nice morning run to city creek one mile marker and back home.  finally felt like pushing the pace a bit - based on breathing it was a good tempo effort so I'll put one mile faster running.  very very very nice cloud cover this morning!   :)

mid day run to city creek one mile marker and back home. 

I left my phone charger in Reno when I was visiting my dad . . . grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr