Going With The Flow

AM - EASY 4.4 miles horsepark loop. Ran about 8:15 pace this morning, but I feel like I deserved it. I've decided that I like my Asics Speedstar shoes better than the Saucony Getgos. The Getgos seem to be more rigid and not as cushiony.

PM - 2 miles on the treadmill and 10 min on the elliptical.

My massage was good, still wished they would work on my back more!

AM - Early morning workout. 3 x 1600m with 400m jog between. 5:58, 5:55, 5:41. I was aiming for 6 min miles, so I was happy with that. I probably could've set my target pace faster, but this was my first workout in a long time and I had no idea where I was at. Jake joined me in the workout, although this was more of a jog for him.

Quick rant - It is really not that difficult to keep one lane open for runners. The cheerleading team and football players were out on the track this morning (not sure what they were doing, besides standing around looking at each other). Despite the fact that a track is an oval, they never seemed to understand that runners would be coming through every 2 minutes or so. It came to them as a total shock every time! We weren't really asking for much, just one lane to be clear. If those kids really want to get in shape for their respective sports, they should've been doing laps with me!!

PM - 4.6 miles easy around the roads and such.

Anyone interested in running 10 miles with me tomorrow morning somewhere around SLC or Sandy around 6am??

AM - 10 miles up in the Millcreek area. I was just trying to go a comfortable pace, which turned out to be ~7:05 pace. Hopefully that means I'm getting in better shape!

PM - 20 min on the exercise bike while reading Runner's World.

AM - 5 miles with the Alta XC team. 8x200 at ~38s w/ 2 min jog between. Two strides were barefoot, which actually felt better than shoes. Wish I could've gone to their annual breakfast, but I had to get to work :o(

PM - Easy 2 mile jog around the track.

AM - Didn't sleep great last night. My back was tighter than it has been the last week or two, so that was probably a factor. Ran easy horsepark loop with Jake. I'm trying really hard to get excited about the race tomorrow morning!

PM - 1.8 shakeout, trying out my new Saucony flats.

My last race was two months ago at Utah Valley, so you could say that I was a little rusty in terms of the racing scene. Expectations weren't too high, but I definitely wanted to have a relatively comparable time to my spring times.

 I was very happy with 17:57. This was a tougher 5K course, with about 40 ft of net uphill and a significant hill for the last 1/2 mile.

First mile was 5:30. Good pace, mostly gradual downhill. It was good to have Emily there so I didn't go out too slow or too fast. Mile 2 was 5:43 - overall pretty flat. At this point, I figured that if I could run a 6 min mile for mile 3, sub-18 was possible. That hill at the end was pretty brutal! I hit the third mile at 6:05. In the final stretch I saw 17:50 on the clock, sprinted to hit 17:57 at the finish line. 

It's good to know that I haven't lost too much fitness in the last two months. I took it pretty easy with running for about a month to heal my back, but did lots of cross training to maintain the workload. My core was the first thing to tire this morning. I'm going to focus on strengthening that and get some more long runs in. Then it's TOU half marathon time!

Warmup 2 miles and cooldown 4 miles with Stefanie Talley, Emily, Susannah, and Jake. Fun group - the best part of the morning. Worst part - there was no more Chick-fil-a when we got back!!!

 PM - Mountain biking out-and-back to Dog Lake ~1000ft and 6 miles. The trail was very smooth and gradual, which made for a nice ride. The best part, though, was seeing the cutest Vizsla puppy (I love dogs but can't get one right now, so keep me in mind if you need a dog-sitter)! On the way down the canyon, stopped at Pipeline trail and ran about a mile out, then saw a rattlesnake!! Turned around immediately after that. 2 miles for the shakeout.

AM - 15 miles on Jeremy Ranch Road. Goal was to go a nice, sustainable pace. Went out a little slower this time on the way out, and it made the run much more enjoyable on the uphill back. Ended up being about the same as my 14 miler last weekend - 7:17 pace overall. I thought about going a little further, but one step at a time. I think it was actually harder to ride 4 miles on the bike while he finished his run!

Afterwards, I took my first ice bath in 7 years. About as terrible as I remembered! 

AM - 4.4 miles horsepark loop. Feeling some soreness from the race and long run back to back = easy runs today.

PM - 5.6 miles with Jake, flat and easy.

AM -9.5 miles total, great workout this morning! I felt strong.

2 mile warmup
2 mile tempo  (5:50, 5:38)
4 min recovery jog
8 x 400m (all ~80 seconds, 5:20 pace)
1.5 mile cooldown.

If you're in the market for a puppy or just fostering http://goo.gl/8A9Ju

PM - 2.2 miles at Wheeler Farm. Decided to stop here on my way home since I had never run there before. Pretty nice ~1.5 mile loop, just a little smelly from all the animals!

AM - Legs needed an easy day, so this run was more about time on my feet for a medium-long run of 10 miles. My running felt "off" - stride didn't feel smooth, ground felt too hard, just one of those days. 7:50 pace.

On a positive note, I haven't had five days in a row of 10+ miles in a long time - I'm just glad that the increased mileage isn't having much of an effect on my back (probably steady at 85%). Stretching and abs every day is working! I am also a firm believer in the exercise ball at work now too. Going to take the rest of the day off.

 PM - Okay, I know I said I was going to take the rest of the day off, but I ate a bunch of junk today and also wanted to be outside for a little bit. So I just ran 2 miles easy!

AM - Met up with Allie this morning for a nice 7.3 miles around Sugarhouse area. Hopefully she didn't hate it and will run with me again next week!!

PM - 1.5 miles on the grass in Sugarhouse. Was planning to do some 200s, but after two pathetic ones I realized that the legs didn't have it in them and stopped. Definitely for the better - I've done a lot this week.

On a side note, I made it to the gas station with only 2 miles left on my car's gas meter today (very nerve-racking situation). I am notorious for taking the fuel tank way lower than I ever should, not really sure why except that I hate putting gas in my car. Anyway, it always makes me think of my first date with Jake. It was after a soccer game, and when we got in my car I had one mile to go with the closest gas station at about a mile from us. Made it, luckily, but I'm pretty sure that first impression is what made Jake fall in love with me :o)

AM - 4.4 miles easy. 15K Trail Race in Park City tomorrow. Get to wear my new bright pink Saucony Hurricanes uniform for the first time!

Best part about my job  - Half Day Fridays from Memorial Day to Labor Day!

AM - Jake and I got a free entry to the 15K for helping out at an aid station in the 10K. Since we are planning on running the XTERRA National Championship in Sept, this seemed like a good idea. What I really enjoy about trail races are that the times/paces are irrevelant, distances are approximate, and they are typically low-key. All three were true in this case.

This course has about 600 ft of elevation gain and stays between 6300-7000 ft. After 1.5 mile warmup and some strides, the race began and we were off. Splits were all over the place, from 6:05 to 7:25 min/mile. Definitely some big hills and very windy. For much of the downhill sections there was a switchback every 40 ft or so which made it pretty tough to get any speed at all. The uphills destroyed me a little bit too (I blame that on the altitude). I should probably run more hills in training. I decided that this race would be a pretty awesome mountain biking course, so that's now on the list of things to do.

Overall, the race was exactly as planned - a hard tempo run. It wasn't as fast as a typical tempo I would do, but definitely the same effort level. The best part of the race was wearing my new bright pink Saucony uniform!

Got a quick massage after the race and won some Smartwool socks in the raffle. Cooldown for 2 miles. Fun morning!

PM - 12 mile bike total. Rode up to the Tour of Utah race. Wow - those cyclists are FAST.

From August 2011

AM - Back-to-back hard days. Goal of today was to get my legs used to running downhill in preparation for Top of Utah Half.

Ran relatively easy pace up Emigration Canyon for 6 miles (7:45 pace), then 6 mile tempo down the canyon (5:41, 5:45, 5:43, 5:36, 5:33, 5:39). This run is ~2% downhill gradient, but I was very happy with this effort. Especially after the race yesterday! Cooldown at probably 10 min/mile pace :o)

Got home and took an ice bath. Laughed at Jake for being a baby and taking 5 minutes just to get in the ice bath. Now time for some relaxing by the pool!

PM - Rode the bike while Jake ran his shakeout 4.5 miles.

AM - I am TIRED. The combination of my biggest mileage week ever and two really tough workouts caught up to me. Ran 4.5 miles very slow and easy.

PM - 40 min of strength class (only about 50% effort). Went to Sugarhouse to run 3.5 miles, but hit the wall at 3.1 miles. My body is exhausted. Hopefully I'll have my legs back under me in time for workout on Wednesday.

AM - I think that 9.5 hours of sleep and wearing my Saucony Amp Pro2 recovery tights made me feel better this morning. Still a slow 4.5 miles, but I should be ready for a hard workout tomorrow.

PM - Went to Sugarhouse to do 3-4 miles, but started running and my right lower leg immediately cramped on me. Weird. I have been having some soreness in my arch to the point where pronation of my right foot causes some pain. So I've tried to be extra careful with lots of icing and massaging. Maybe the posterior and/or anterior tibialis muscles, hard to know. Once I iced my leg, I did a mile jog to see if it would still cramp, but seemed okay. I was wearing an ankle brace all day, so maybe that irritated it somehow. So workout tomorrow is on, but if I feel any discomfort then I'm stopping.

AM - Woke up around 5:15 and started grumbling about how it's too early, then realized I still got 8 hours and need to get over it! Is it sad that I'm 24 years old and go to bed at 9pm? Don't answer that.

Jake and I headed up to Liberty Park and met up with Emily. Warmup 2 miles. I could feel a little tightening in my right leg, but after stretching it seemed fine. Workout was 3 x 2 x 1 mile w/ .5 mile jog between. Splits were 18:25, 11:55, 5:40 (or close to that; I had to make up for cutting a few tangents).  I was well under my target paces of 19:00, 12:20, and 6:00, probably due to the fact that Emily was there and I was rested from the last two days. Workouts are so much better with a partner! I felt very strong today.

The rest of the week is easy - YAY!

PM - Easy 2 miles while getting new tires on my car.

AM - 10 miles easy around Millcreek with Allie and Jake. 7:40 pace.

AM - Horsepark loop 4.4 miles. Slow and easy 8:10 pace.

I decided to run the Dart Challange 5k up in Kaysville tomorrow. Since this is a very flat, fast course, my goal is to break 17:30. That's a 24 second PR! I don't think this is too far of a stretch - I ran 17:57 at the Charitable Trust 5K with a significant hill for the last 0.5 mile. We'll see.

PM - 1 mile shakeout.

In short - I hit my goal! 29 second PR feels great.

Warm up was worrisome. I ran about a quarter mile and then pain from my ankle to the area around the top of my fibula. It's so hard to explain (definitely not shin splints, I've had those before). I stretched and massaged for a few minutes and then tried to run again. After 4-5 steps, the pain got increasingly worse and so I stopped again. More massaging and stretching, longer break. I found that if I ran in a circle counter-clockwise the pain was very mild, so that's what I did for about 5 minutes. Luckily no one was around! I ran on the grass and that seemed to help too. So I was finally able to finish a 2 mile warm-up. I decided that if it was still acting up during strides, I would not race.

Once I put on my racing flats and ran to the start line, there was no pain. I'm wondering if the shoes I warmed up in are the problem - the last three times I have worn them, the pain developed. But could it be something more?

Okay, so now the race recap. Before the race, Corbin (Davis XC Coach) informed me that I might have some good competition this morning - Morgan Haws from BYU was there (PR 5000m 16:14, 10000m 33:39, All-American, etc). I was hoping that she would be close and we could work together!

I went out a little fast (those high schoolers really like to gun it off the start). I finally eased into a good pace by the half mile and Morgan was right there with me. Mile 1 - 5:31. Not bad. We ran together through mile 2 - 5:35. We were both running a steady hard pace, working together. It was great. I made it to about 2.7 miles with her, then she threw in a surge. She made it look so easy! I didn't have that extra effort in me. Mile 3 - 5:40. I pushed it through the finish about 5 seconds behind Morgan with a time of 17:25.

I am very happy with my performance. Part of me is disappointed that I couldn't push a little harder to stay with Morgan, but I have to put it in perspective. I ran hard, ran a new PR, and felt strong while I was racing. Hard to beat that.

Cooldown with Allie and James (Fiddy). I wanted to get 12 in for the day, so 6.9 miles. Talked with Corbin and Janae (other Davis XC Coach) for a while. They have 70-80 kids on their team! That's awesome, and overwhelming. Janae is 8 months pregnant, about 5' tall, and her stomach is sticking out about a foot and a half! She is so cute.

Anyway, great local race. I definitely recommend it for a fast time. The course is very flat, with several turns (making tangents very important).

AM - Ran Jake's warmup and cooldown with him, 5.5 miles total. 

PM -  Went up to Snowbird with Jake and his dad for a nice tram ride and Oktoberfest activities. It was really nice to take the leisure way up to 11,000 ft instead of hiking (benefits of having family here!).

Ran 2.5 miles around the block before dinner. Jake's family dropped off their dogs at our place and are heading up to Jackson Hole. We debated calling in sick for the whole week so we could go with them, but that seemed a little much :o) At least we get pups for a week!

AM - 6.1 miles, to Sugarhouse and back. I was really frustrated that every bathroom was locked up this morning! It was 7am!

 TAPER WEEK! I love easy taper weeks!

PM - 2.6 miles easy around the block.

AM - After a mile of running, my right lower leg locked up on me again. So the shoe theory is incorrect, unfortunately. I sat around and stretched for 5 minutes or so and then was able to run again. Only 3 miles this morning. Maybe I need to stretch more before I go out and run - I'll try that and see how it goes. If it keeps happening, I'm going to have to take some time off before I cause major damage. This is the first time that I've been able to feel a residual dull pain after the run.

PM - Stretched before the run, and my leg felt fine after running a mile. So the short workout was on (despite the 95 degree temp). 2 x mile on 1% downhill gradient with mile recovery. Jake and I did this before Utah Valley and decided to copy it since we both had such great races there. 5:20, 5:15. Back in June these times were 5:30, 5:34 at 65 degrees. Hopefully this means I'll be faster at Top of Utah this weekend!

AM - Ran to Sugarhouse and back home. No leg cramp today! I realized that I accidently grabbed the pool key instead of the house key this morning! Luckily I was able to use my engineering skills (haha) to unlock the door and get inside. The dogs were going nuts barking the whole time - I'm sure my neighbors were really happy about that!

AM - Met Allie for 5 miles around Millcreek. 7:30 pace. Easy days today and tomorrow! I usually feel nervous before races, but TOU hasn't gotten me too anxious. Yet!

AM - Easy horsepark loop. 

My work is sending me to Lake Geneva, WI for most of next week. Luckily, Hamdog Alum on the blog lives within driving distance of where I'm staying, so I'll get to meet up with him to run! Between that and the 75 degree temperatures, I don't think it'll be too bad :o)

Goals for this race were to race equivalent or better than Utah Valley Half (1:17:54). I thought that this would be a good challenge, given that I have only been ramping up the mileage and workouts for 5 weeks or so (lot of cross training for 6 weeks for my back after UVH). I knew that the biggest factor would be endurance because I've only done 3 runs over 10 miles since May.

We got up to the race start and did the usual pre-race activities of stretching, bathrooms 3-4 times, warm-up, etc. Then the START.

I don't think the start truck realized how fast Jake and Paul are - the driver had to gun it to get out of the way! I realized after the first mile or so that my legs just didn't have it today. The effort felt hard no matter what pace I was going and my splits in the canyon were all over the place (5:37, 6:00, 5:44, 5:54, 5:37, 5:44, 5:47).

At this point, I really wished that I had someone close to me. I couldn't see anyone in front and couldn't hear cheering for anyone behind me either (at the finish the closest peron in front and behind were 3.5 and 1 minute, respectively). It didn't help that it was a little country road that would have been perfect for the nice 8 min/mile pace :o) Ran 8-10 in 5:56, 6:04, 6:09. I really thought these miles would be more downhill, but they felt flat compared to the canyon!

10-12 flat to uphill miles were as expected - slow and hard. I've always felt that hills should be at the beginning of a race, not the hardest part of the half! It was a good challenge, and I think the hill beat me (6:19, 6:35). Luckily I was able to turnover for the last 1.1 miles in 5:54, :32.

It was good to see that I PRed! Even if it was only 2 seconds, I worked hard for it. Temps were warm too, making the race a little more challenging. I felt amazing at UVH and felt tired here, so that seems to indicate that I'm in better shape. I just need to get in some more 13+ mile days under me and I'll be good to go!

Race recap from the Herald Journal.  

Award trophies were rocks with a running dude on the top. Jake's rock was 6 lbs and mine was only 3.8 lbs, so I feel a little gipped! Between those, my Stanley cup from UVH, and Jake's buffalo trophy from Antelope 50k we are finally starting to get some decorations in the condo!

AM - Easy run around the Millcreek neighborhoods - 7:45 pace. My legs didn't feel too sore, but I can tell that the delayed onset muscle soreness will get worse as the day goes on. My chest and lungs hurt, indicating that I worked pretty hard yesterday!

I forgot to mention yesterday that I got huge blisters on my forefeet that made for a tough last few miles in the race. That is the worst place to get blisters! They didn't feel too great on the run this morning either. I put them in epsom salt after the run so hopefully they will magically disappear by tomorrow.

AM - 2.6 miles around the block before my flight to WI. 9 min/mile pace - I must've been tired! Didn't sleep well at all last night - the storm was LOUD. Somehow water started leaking substantially from the top of the bedroom window, so that was a fiasco. I'll have to figure out how to fix that.

PM - One of the best trail runs I have had in a while. Met up with Erik (Hamdog Alum) this afternoon at Kettle Moraine State Forest in Wisconsin. First, I have to say that it was awesome to have a connection in WI to run with - that's why I love the blog! And Erik was great company. We ran on the nordic trails for about 10.8 miles with lots of rolling hills. The time flew by - it was just one of those runs when I remember how much I love running! I'm hoping that he will come visit in Utah, and I can return the favor.

 Here are the tracks - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/110473213

AM - Woke up starving! Managed to get in 3 miles, but felt like I had no energy. 8:40 pace.

PM - Well, I think the race and subsequent runs finally did me in. I actually had a great route - apparently you are allowed to walk/run right by the shore of Lake Geneva thru the backyards of multimillion dollar homes. The homes were gorgeous. I ran easy pace, which turned out to be another 8:40 min/mile for 5 miles. I feel totally worn out...might need to do short, easy single days so I can recover.

AM - Ran on the trails around Lake Geneva again, this time going the other way. There was one part where the trail was heavily wooded and I freaked myself out a little that someone was following me. This is why I hate running by myself! Other than that, a beautiful run. Managed 8:20 pace this morning.

Here are a lot of the houses I've been running by on the lake. The trail is between the houses and the lake - MANSIONS!
http://www.seemoredomorelivemore.net/Lake%20Geneva%20homes.htm

PM - 4.5 miles easy. Legs coming back slowly.