Bob's blog

Finally back in town and training with the team. The guys have a srtong front runner (Luke) and a solid 2-3-4-5-6 in the other guys (40 second split).

I spent 1 week training in the high Uintahs, came back for 3 days and went to the Wind Rivers (Wyoming ) for some REALLY high altitude training (10000+) for 2 weeks, came back for 1 day and went down to Cedar Mtn with the team for another week at 8000' + training. Ran with Pat S. and Luke mostly. Average milage in the 70's.

Most of my altitude training was just distance and hill oriented but the stuff at Cedar was speed (me dying trying to keep up with Pat and Luke). Got in 84 miles that week. Wanted to race the GSL 1/2 but had the boy.

Today I ran 2 x 10 min cruise intervals (Daniels style) at Liberty park with Luke. Was hoping for 5:20 pace but ended up at 5:25. I was ok with that as it was in the heat of the day, as all of my training through next June will be. First interval took a great deal of focus and the second felt much better.

Warm up and cool down in park.

Ran a zoo loop BV with Luke today. We planned on an extended version but a reproter wanted to speak with him thus our time was limited. He deals with publicity well.

The run started out way too fast as always with young runners. By the time we had climbed up to 11th ave the pace cooled off a bit and was very comfortable through sunnyside. Down sunnyside we picked it up a bit and did some strides back at Judge.

Entire loop was 1:02.

Ran an extended U loop with Luke and the other varsity boys. Did the 5 mile loop as a warm up for a 200 workout.

When we got back to the new JM track we did 8 x 400. Building from my marathon pace in the first half lap we ended with a fast 200 on each 400. These felt great on my legs. My 200 splits were all over the place but at least I felt fast. Splits were 33, 35, 33, 34, 33, 33, 32, 31.

Cooled down 2 miles around JM.

Ran on pipeline today. Burch to point and back. Took it nice and easy. Race tomorrow.

PC 1/2 marathon today. 

Started the day out with 2 miles warm up. Included strides , drills, etc.

Race started uneventfully. My goal was to run the entire race at tempo pace. At that altitude and with the uphill first half I had no idea what a true pace would be so I wore a HRM and kept it below 165. I figured I could keep my overall time in the 1:16 range.

First few miles were fine. Traded leads with Sasha and Jeff?. Once my HR bumped up to 163 I backed off and tried to keep an even effort.

Eventually Chris R. caught me and we ran together for a few miles. The HR kept creeping up on me so I decided to back off more.

I don't know what my finishing time was but I know I was much slower than anticipated. Although I was a bit disappointed I was very happy that my calf held together and I finished in one piece.

After a tough week I can't be too upset.

Cooled down 2 miles. 

Easy run on pipeline. Burch to rattle and back. Legs feel fine.

Ran a 1200 workout with the team today. The goal was to run I interval (see Daniels) pace 1200's. My pace was supposed to be 3:40. 

Warmed up 3 miles and did strides, drills, etc.

Started the 1200's and the first one was really tough. Legs felt heavy and breathing was vigorous. 3:42. 2:00 active rest.

Next 4 got easier by the interval with the last one feeling great. 3:41, 3:40, 3:40, 3:38. Was late for daycare so at $1/minute my last interval was a mad dash to get back and pick up the boy.

Luke was impressive to watch on these.

Ran a progressive run today. Started the extended zoo loop at a pedestrian pace. Once I got up to 11th ave the pace picked up a bit but not much. Rolling hills through the university to the zoo saw some surges, but still a relaxed pace. The run finally came to me on the descent from shoreline and down sunnyside. Ran the last 3 miles (slightly downhill) in 15:35.

Ran an easy 10 miler on pipeline. Went Burch to point and back. Took 1:10 with a couple water stops for Bandy. I think she finally recovered from our Windriver trip. I don't think she was ready for 2 weeks of nonstop training at that altitude.

Saw 2 bikers trying to pass a lady jogger with an ipod on. They almost knocked her off the trail after asking her to move over half a dozen times. I actually felt for the bikers for once. 

Ran accelerator hills with the team today. 

Warmed up from JM to top of penance and back down. Ran the accelerators from the gate of the cemetary halfway up center st (where the gradient gets steep after the bathrooms). The goal was to accelerate on the gradual part of the hill up to the bathroom and then reach full R interval pace up to the turnaround. Ran 6 intervals. No watch, effort based pacing.

The first interval was ok. Takes my legs a bit longer than my young athletes to rev up. The next few got better and the last one was hard. I guess that is the point of R intervals.

The team looked good, especially varsity runners. They really gave the workout a good effort and did not seem to lose focus halfway through the intervals. JV needs work. They can't seem to figure out that there is a difference between pain and injury.