Andrea's Running Page

Speed work at the Oval with Natalie.  4x200s, 2x400s, and 4x200s again.  Busy night at the Oval and difficult to navigate through the track traffic/ice skaters. 

Hill Kills in Murray with my buddies (and Murphy).  I got to hang out with and get to know some cool new people, too.  I can't stand how beautiful this weather is.   

Great casual run with the group in preparation for the Moab Half.  Out-and-back from the Capitol to the post office on Sunnyside. 

Fun workout on the elliptical machine -- and some added weight training (upper body).  I officially have another cold now.  I'm hopeful that it will leave me along in time for Moab. 

Gearing up for the Moab half, a few of us met at Murray Park to run a couple miles.  Nice evening; finally, no snow/ice on the sidewalks and road.  It seems that most of the residents around Murray Park are unfamiliar with this invention we call a snow shovel. Getting really excited for Moab this weekend.  :o)

Ok, Craig, this race report is for you.  I, too, was one of the lucky suckers who had the privilege of riding in the Ragnar Chariot of Sweetness -- we arrived in style with Craig heckling anyone he could with the loud speaker.  Honestly, I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard or had so much fun. 

On the morning of the race, I felt good and well-rested (and I NEVER sleep the night before a race).  I had a cold that I was still battling from earlier in the week -- I wonder if that was why I just felt gassed out and lead-legged through the majority of the race.  I feel like I trained successfully during the winter and I'm disappointed that my finish time didn't reflect that -- that just means I gotta work harder now. 

The weather conditions at the start of the race were perfect.  Something I'll keep in mind for the next race with a later start time: eat a big enough breakfast.  I started to get hungry around the start time of the race.  Clif Blocks just don't satisfy. 

I can't give a mile by mile run down like Craig did (just 'cause I don't have the time right now -- maybe later).  Ultimately, I realized that the course is as tough as the others had told me.  I felt like my left leg was about two inches longer than my right.  This as a result of my chiropractor appointment/back adjustment a few days prior to the race.  But on a good note, I finally feel like my right hip is on the mend.  I just have to learn how to run with a normal spine again.  Props to Dominique to finishing the race on a broken foot!  I promise I tried to convince her to stop.

Some of the highlights of the race: a smooth, controlled start with Coach and ma girls, running with Dominique most of the course, the massive drums that echoed for miles, running into Lander around mile 12, running into Maggie's husband, Scott, at about mile 12.5, of course the reunion at the finish line.  I'm super-proud of my husband for completing his first half-marathon without me by his side! 

Now, I just can't wait for another chance to show 'em what I've got!! 

Hmmm, I wrote a great big long race report yesterday and it seems to have disappeared.  Oh well!  When I have more time, I'll write it again.  But for the meantime, I'll just say that I'm content with the 20:58 finish time.  Last year I finished this same course in 20:13 -- gotta beat both of those times next year! 

I'm proud of my whole team -- everyone showed a great effort.  And the results prove it!  Congrats to Craig for taking first place OVERALL!  

More later...

Although my quads were still a little tender from the 5k on Saturday, I was anxious to get back out on the track for some speed work.  I met up with Natalie at little after 5:30 and we started with a 1 mile warmup.  While we were warming up, we chatted about what distances we wanted to do; we decided on 4x200s, 2x400s, 1x800, and another 4x200s.  Natalie is a great athlete so it's nice to have her there to make me push myself (too bad Dominique is out for a while -- she's another speed demon).

We started our 200s with a medium effort just to ease into it.  It had been 2 weeks since we did speed work (Moab taper the first week and recovery the second).  We finished our 200s in around 32-37 seconds.  On our last 200, I seemed to have done something to my left hamstring.  Whoa!  What was that pain all about?!  We stopped to stretch for a bit in hopes that the pain would subside -- never fully went away.  Walter showed up about that time so we ran another few laps at a casual pace with him while he was warming up.  The hamstring started to feel a tiny bit better.  Uh-oh, I hope this is something that will heal overnight -- I hate not being invincible!   

We ran a 400 (1:--), then an 800 (3:15), followed by another 400 (1:--).  I don't remember what the times were.  Natalie was in charge of the stopwatch and I was in charge of the total distance.  At that point, we decided to call it a night so we ran 1 mile to cool down and stretched for about 15 minutes.  We wanted to ease back into things after taking a couple weeks off from speed work. 

When I got home, I iced my left ham and put some topical Sore No More on it.  Seems that I had a bad reaction to something because I have a big ol' rash on my leg this morning.  That'll look really nice at the gym tonight -- maybe I'll wear capris.  My ham didn't heal overnight but it's not as sore as I thought it would be either. 

I ALWAYS have a great time at Wednesday night Hill Kills!  Tonight, we had a good turn out: Coach Bill, Tracy1, Natalie, Walter, Traci H., Esther, Murphy, and me.  A few miles in, we did 6 short sprints to really get the blood flowing.  We took on 6 hills for a total mileage of about 5.75 (all of our GPSs had a different distance).  Overall, it was a great quality workout.

It was good to catch up with Coach about the race last Saturday and the passing of Jude's father.  I chatted with Walter and some of the fast girls about the WBR female speed time; I'm interested to see how that pans out.  Unfortunately, the pain in my right hamstring hasn't subsided yet.  But it isn't debilitating either -- I can just feel it gently nagging in there, especially when I try to attack a hill.  Fortunately, Murphy was right by my side the whole way keeping the pace.  I gotta say that he's the best running companion -- never has any complaints.  Cardio-wise, I feel the best I've felt in a long time.  Maybe I'm finally kicking this cold!

What a great day for a run!  I ran with the group today in Bountiful -- we had a small turnout (likely due to Easter weekend).  All 9 of us took the big Bountiful/North Salt Lake hill by storm -- our progress and improvement on that hill are already evident!  I ran all 1.8 of it without stopping.  I felt great cardio-wise today; my body still feels a little beat up from a hard training week (left hamstring is still a little tight).

We met at Coach's house and warmed-up for a few miles along Davis Blvd.  Then we stopped in the school parking lot for 6 quick sprints to really get the blood flowing.  Then, on to Orchard Ave. for the stretch out to the refineries.  Of course, Coach wasn't going to let us off easy with the small hill.  No, we had the big hill on tap for the day.  We missed Craig who usually passes the rest of us up like we're standing still!! 

We made it up to Bountiful Blvd. and ran back to Coach's house with a hurry-up pace.  I always love the Bountiful run, such a nice view of the valley!  It was great to see Dominique who was sagging for us.  Overall, this was a great workout! 

I met up on Easter morning with Amie, Christin, Carol, John, Shari, and Ryan -- a little different crew than I'm used to.  They all run with headphones/music so it was a really quiet run.  We met at Draper Park for an out-and-back to Cabella's on the Frontage Road.  I was only expecting to go about 4.5 miles out (9 miles round-trip) at a nice, leisurely pace.  Carol has been nursing a knee injury so I was expecting to hang out with her and take it a little easy. 

Fortunately, Carol was feeling well enough to go out 5.5 and then turn around to head back.  We really picked up the pace on the way back because Carol and John had family plans at 11:00.   I was pretty tapped after the full-out effort on the way back.  Next time, I'll be sure to back it off a little more on my recovery day.  Still can't beat this weather!  :o) 

It's such a beautiful day that it's a shame we're running inside!  Fortunately, there was hardly anyone at the Oval.  It was nice to have the place pretty much to ourselves. 

Natalie, Amie, and I met up at 5:30 for some good quality speedwork.  During our 1-mile warm-up, we decided to do another pyramid this week (4x200s, 4x400s, then 4 more 200s).  After chatting with Coach Bill on Saturday and finding out that he hasn't increased to 800s yet, we're going to hold off until he does. 

We started chatting with another girl who showed up for some track work.  She was super-fast.  Her name is Amy.  I think we'll try to see if she's interested in running the WBR.  We also saw Tracy C., Tracy A., and Walter a little later.  It was great to see everyone! 

Overall, I was very pleased with our performance today.  We finished our 200s between :33 and :39 seconds.  We finished our 400s between 1:21 and 1:28.  Speedwork with Natalie always keeps me on my A-game.  And I was proud of Amie, coming out for speedwork for the very first time.  She was able to hang with Natalie and me, for the most part.  Next week, I'm going to take a notepad so I can accurately record the time for each lap.   

WOOHOO!!  Another great time at Hill Kills tonight!  The same 6-hill course as usual and the weather cooperated with us (rain was forecasted but it didn't rain).  So, it seems like when I have a Slim-Fast drink after work, I perform much better during my evening workouts. 

Have I mentioned yet that I love this run?  Great company on a nice course.  Plus, Johnny ran with Murphy so it doesn't look like I'm cheating all of the time with the dog pulling me by the waist!  :o)

What a perfect day in Emigration Canyon!  And a great turnout with 16 people and 1 dog.  I had intended to run all 20 miles with the rest of the group but Johnny and I were stopped by the watershed patrol.  Thank goodness he didn't cite us, but Johnny, Murphy, and I had to turn around and go back through Emigration.  Fortunately, it allowed us time to run the switchback hill twice!  And pass the back-of-the-packers in the 10-mile race a couple of times.  Johnny, Murphy, and I got in a total of 17 miles.  I'm so proud of Johnny and Murphy -- this is the longest distance they have ever run. 

In fact, Johnny decided to try his hand at the St. George Marathon.  I entered us as a team.  Now, we'll leave it up to fate.  Let's hope we get picked!!  :o)

Johnny and I met up with Craig, Tracy C., Tracy A., and Walter tonight at the Oval for some good speed work.  Wow, when the weather is nice, the Oval is darn-near empty.  It was great to have the track mostly to ourselves.  Craig definitely has a full-blown cold and he sounds terrible (I'm bound to catch the cold from him).  Johnny and I ran 3x200s and 5x300s.  Unfortunately, since I didn't have Natalie running with me, I didn't get a time-check on my intervals.  Oh well!  At least I know they were a big effort.  This speedwork seems to be aggrevating my hip a little bit.  I'd better another visit to the chiropractor.

I think we're going to take next Monday off from speedwork since Natalie, Craig, and Walter are shippin' out to Boston! 

Hmmm, I'm trying to decide what the highlight of my Saturday was: the Kearns workout or the Boston send-off party later that night!  It's a toss up. 

Saturday morning, Johnny, Murphy, and I ran with the group out in Kearns.  We had a pretty good turnout (~17 people and 1 dog), especially considering that Boston and the Salt Lake Half are next week.  We ran a bunch of drills: 10x50 meter sprints, followed by 6x~600 meter intervals, then 6x~300 meter intervals, and in case we didn't get enough, 6 hill kill repeats.  Coach suggested that we run a 1-mile tempo but I took it easy on the tempo (as did almost everyone else -- we were exhausted from that killer workout!)  Now that was good quality training, a total of 16.2 really tough miles.  And it was great to have Walter running with us this week -- a good running comrade for Craig. 

Later than night, we hosted a "Boston Tea Party" to celebrate the 5 runners who are Boston-bound (and Esther who is running her first marathon in Salt Lake)!  I was amazed to see how pretty everyone looks when they're all cleaned up and wearing civilian clothes (all the girls actually have long hair).  It was a pleasure to meet all the spouses, too.  Johnny mentioned how prompt everyone was.  The invite said 6:00; almost everyone was there by 6:05.  A bunch of punctual runners -- maybe a little hungry, too!  And the party wrapped up by 9'ish.  I think we all were so tired from our Kearns workout earlier that morning.  I'm already looking forward to another Boston Tea Party next year!!  You're all invited. . . and we'll have Boston Creme Pie in addition to the Boston baked beans.   :o)

So, I'm just going to pretend that I have posted a journal entry within the last two months -- I've been running during the journal entry dry spell -- but I've just kept a written record of my miles.  I'll try to pick up right where I left off.... 

I got together with a group of friends for some good ol' fashioned speed-work at the Cottonwood track.  The weather conditions were ideal: mostly overcast with a few raindrops, and the sun peeking out on occaison.  I was impressed with the turnout last night -- there were 8 of us (Tracy C., Traci H., Tracy A., Natalie, Jason, Kat, Johnny, and me - plus, Craig showed up as we were wrapping up our workout).  Craig, those are some silly-looking shoes!!  Maybe I'll get some to try 'em out. 

 And now for the important part -- the speed work breakdown:

We warmed up for a mile and a half around the track and stretched out a bit before we began the tough workout.

6x50s -- Natalie and I hung together on these and we were right around 8-9 seconds.  I love these short quick sprints!  Next week we're gonna warm up with some ladders on the cushy Astroturf -- FUN!

4x800s -- Natalie and I hung together on these, too. She's awesome!  She keeps me motivated to push harder (gotta love that friendly competition).  We ran them between 3:05 and 3:13 (obviously, the first two were faster).  And we didn't throw-up, but felt like we should!

1x400s -- this was just for good measure.  It was fun at the end of the workout to give it all we had left.  Jason and Tracy A. were clippin' at our heels the whole time.  It was fun and painful at the same time! 

We cut our cool-down a little short (only a half-mile).  And I stretched a bit while I was watching TV. 

SNOW!!!!  What is up with that??  What was supposed to be a nice June run up in Big Cottonwood Canyon was hampered by the white stuff.  But we still loaded the team up in the big van and headed up to Brighton for some Brighton Loops. I was pretty well shocked by the number of people that showed up (and stayed for the whole workout!).  There were at least 15 of us (I'm trying to remember everyone that was there; Coach, of course, Craig, Jason, Marie, Natalie, Alicia, Amber, Maggie, Tracy C., Tracy A., Christina, Alan, Jennifer, Traci H., and Miriam -- sorry if I missed anyone!). 

Coach Bill had planned between 8-14 intense loops around Brighton (~9000 ft) but due to the road conditions, we cut it short.  I think we went a total of 8 loops, including our two lap warm-up.   Natalie and I started out really strong on the first two or three intense loops, pulling ahead but always to be passed by Craig -- finishing around 6 mins on each loop.  After we both felt a little bit sick'ish, we pulled back a little bit and stayed with the group.   Oh wait, we might have done more than just 8 laps because we went once or twice around for a cool down, too. 

The snow was brutal -- it caked up on my eye brows and lashes.  Can you believe I actually wore shorts under my pants because I thought I'd get too warm?  It makes me laugh to think that I brought sunscreen and bug spray to share with everyone.  Thanks to the person that placed licorice on the road -- that was my motivation to keep running!  

And the highlights of the run were the red-headed woodpecker that we saw (staring back at us), and our conversation about MMA on the ride home.  We had hoped for more miles but the snow just wouldn't have it. Great times!!

[Insert Pitch Fork here!]  Since our "long" run yesterday was cut short by the snow, a small group of us decided to get a few more miles in this morning (being sure not to interfere with anyone's church schedule).  In order to protect the anonymity of the other sinners, I won't name names.  We even had a good conversation about why God would want us to run on Sunday since it's something we enjoy, it relieves stress, etc.  :o)

We met at Wheeler Farm at 7:00 for a little trail run through the park (complete with a geese attack -- I have to laugh because I had never before encountered a mean goose).  Then we ran along Vine Street to the amphitheater-side of Murray Park.  Hardly any traffic along the course.  We finished the run with another lap around the park; this time avoiding the geese.  This was a beautiful run -- so serene and calming.

Highlights of this run: chilly morning with lots of sunshine, Murphy and Jaxton playing, exploring new trails, seeing the baby geese (I know; they're called gosslings), Yoga class afterwards to stretch my muscles, a two-hour nap.  Could it get any better than that!?

Monday night speedwork, woohoo!!!  What a nice evening for speed -- a little chill in the air but clear skies.  Although, I gotta admit that I was already tired even during the warm-up laps.  Let's see, who else showed up: Natalie, Jason, Tracy A., and Tracy C.  As a group, we decided to take it a little easy (thanks, guys, for not making me do 800s) so we would have some energy for our races this weekend. 

Instead, we decided to do some fun drills on the turf (skips and high-knees).  As silly as we probably looked, we really had fun!  We did 4 skips and 4 high-knees to the 50 yard line and then we started out workout.  That turf is so nice and cushy -- you can really catch some air when you're doing the skips! 

For the main workout, we decided that we would do 6x400s.  Natalie and I hung out together again and finished each of our 400s right around 1:36 (or was it 1:26? -- I can't remember).  Anyway, we felt sufficiently beat up when we were done so we knew we were working hard.  It's funny because when she showed up, I said "I'm glad you're here, otherwise I would have slacked off tonight."  She said the same.  We cooled down with another mile and called it a night.

Highlights of this workout: stretching on the turf, silly drills on the turf (I'm glad I'm at a point in my life where I really don't care if people think I look silly!), Natalie's cute, innocent remarks.