track fan

1:15:17 ... probably a little longer than 8, but not 8.5.  Felt ok, tried to run as slowly as possible.  Liberty park + 3 laps on the outside of the park on the grass.

1:18:24. Easy run from my office up to Wasatch Drive and back. I had to run later than usual because of meetings and whatnot this morning. I had a 5 x 2` min fartlek workout planned, but I decided not to do it. I have not had a "good" run all week and worse yet, feel really run down right now. I feel like I am walking a very fine line and did some probability modeling in my head and decided that the workout would not add that much benefit, but at this point could be what tips me over the wrong side of the line ... in hindsight I should have backed off the mileage last week, but I was feeling so good, that I thought I could back off the "intensity" and keep the mileage the same and still have a "recovery week". I guess 8 weeks of 50 or more miles with 3 "hard" days (including long run) isthe most I can handle (right now). It is hard to follow my brain (despite statistical evidence) and not my heart today -- after Wednesday's disappointment my gut reaction is to work even harder today; in reality, because of Wednesday (and my general fatigue this week) taking it easy is more conducive to maintaining whatever fitness I have developed. Besides, I have a VO2 max workout planned for next week that I don't want to compromise - that workout will have much more long term benefit than a 10 min fartlek workout. Sigh.

Weekend goal: NO work! I am going to work as late as I have to tonight so I can take the whole weekend off ... rest, eat well, and think positive thoughts, that is my work for the weekend.

Happy Friday Bloggers.

53:49 -- ran to Liberty Park did 2 inner laps on the grass.  I think the Marines were doing a fitness test in the park today.  As I got to the park I saw a group of guys running on the sidewalk, there was one guy who was behind this group of three, going a little slower than the rest, but he looked comfortable and had a good stride.  We were running pretty much in line with eachother (although I was running farther - about like lane 1 versus lane 10 if there were a lane 10).  The group ahead of him fell apart after about 800 meters, and "my" guy kept going the same pace.  After about a mile he was hurting - but the other guys had stopped and walked and couldn't even jog (even though a couple of them tried) so he passed them.  When there was about 400-600 to go I got onto the cinder track right next to him and picked up the pace -- told him to pick up his arms and we sprinted into the finish!  It was pretty cool - he was steady and patient and it paid off!

For the first time since last Sunday I felt pretty good today! yea.  My right quad is hurting bad (seems to hurt at the beginning of every run and then again after about 5-6 miles) -- probably similar to Michelle's "niggling".  Pinpoint pain though.  It did not hurt when I got up in the  morning, but after I stretched it hurt like crazy.  Despite this, I was a lot happier today with my run.  I think getting a full 7 hours of sleep helped a lot.

Today I am going to putter around the house and then we are meeting up with a friend of mine from work for an hour long dog walk and then dinner.  She is very funny, and interesting, she is a pediatric critical care physician (works with very very sick kids) and has a unique outlook on things.  It is going to be fun!

Happy weekend bloggers. 

2:06:30 - long 14, but not 14.5.  Ran to Sugarhouse park 27:14, 4 x 1.9 mile laps on grass on outside of park + .5 miles (to bathroom and back) and then long long painful uphill home (25:33).  Felt really bad the last uphill mile, probably because I must have been running too hard the first 2 miles uphill!  I tried to take it really really slow today -- my quad did not hurt!! yea!  But running on the grassy hills at the park just sucked all the energy out of my legs ... I was glad to get home!

55:28 - long 6.  Today is my usual day off, but because the race two weeks from yesterday this week is a little different.  I will have Friday off, with Wednesday an option day off depending on how I feel (I am hoping not to take it off but I will if this week is anything like last week).

Felt ok -- I was supposed to run between 40-50` felt pretty tired when I started so I was planning on doing 5 miles -- but then I started to feel better and ended up deciding to just do 6 - added on about .2 because of the change of heart (laps are different for the two runs so I ended up running the first lap in the outside loop and then one inside loop).

So -- can I just tell you how much fun it was yesterday to "watch" (via Let's Run) the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational.  WOW - a new American record in the woman's 10K - every one of the women's 3000 steeplechasers made the Olympic Trials Standard (3 making the Olympic A standard, and all of them making the USA Olympic Trials A standard).  On the men's side Bernard Lagat tearing it up again -- with an awesome run by Brent Vaughn for 2nd place in the 5000 (both of them making the Olympic A standard!).  Craig Mottram won the much anticipated 10,000 m race -- even after having to aqua jog for some time because of an injury.  I can't wait until June 27th -- when I can watch these on TV and not on Flotrack (though these guys are great to make this available) -- the livestream works great from my office (T2 line), but is a pain over the wireless at home.

Happy Monday bloggers.

1:14:01 - ran to Liberty park did 1.5 mile lap on the grass then did 10 x 1` w/1` recovery 1.5 mile lap cool down and then ran the 1.5 uphill home.  Felt really good at the start - the fartlek workout was good and legs were only moderately tired afterward.  I am getting pretty tired of these hill though bloggers ... cover ears while I whine for a moment!  I was actually thinking bad words on the way home ... these are not little rolling hills guys, but 200-300 ft gains, I am just tired of them.  Ok, I am done now ... it is beautiful to live in the foothills, and I am very lucky to have this amazingly beautiful place to live and run.

Have a good day bloggers. 

36:10.  Easy run on Bonneville Shoreline Trail in the rain -- beautiful, I had missed this run.  Hills were mercifully short and my legs felt pretty good today.  I am beginning to see some hope after all ... we will see how tomorrow goes!

Stay dry bloggers.
 

1:22:22.  Went to the track today, it was windy as all get-out.  Had a cross wind on the straightaways a head wind on the back turn and a tail wind on the first turn.  There were kids from the PE class all over the track and at least one lap I almost fell over a football - very exciting.  

The workout was not very good. I did  6 x 800 w/400 recovery slower than last November (3:31, 3:34, 3:33, 3:34, 3:36, 3:35).  It seemed that I lost 2 seconds on the second lap pretty consistently since I went through the first 200/400 at :53/1:46 every time ... after a 400 recovery after the last 800 I did 3x200 w/200 recovery (:52 every one) -- pretty odd that my 200s are about the same pace as when I run my 800s.  I would think that suggests that I really have not developed any leg speed what so ever in the past couple of years.  I wish I could say it is because that is not what I have been focused on ... but I am not sure.  I seem to be pretty good at the steady state (just at or below LT pace) - but I am just not very good at the AT pace workouts (tempo/5K pace). 

This workout would translate into a slightly slower than 22 min 5K right now -- how this is going to affect my 1/2 marathon is not at all clear ... but it is clear I have lost quite a bit of leg speed in the past couple years and need to get back to the track if I decided to run any 5-10K's anytime soon.

Have a good day bloggers.

30:26 ... easy run down to Liberty park and home.  My legs were a little dead from the day off yesterday - but they felt remarkably rested!

My Mom is visiting this weekend, so today we are going on a hike!

Happy Mother's Day Mom bloggers! 

1:52:14 ... got a late start because my Mom's plane left late this afternoon.  It was hot and windy.  I ran 6 x 1.7 mile laps on the grass at Liberty park, and then 2 inner 1.5 mile loops with the last two miles at 7:50 pace (1/2 marathon effort).  I am tired.  We were up late talking and singing (we had a BBQ and some friends of ours brought their guitars, drums and violin -- it was so fun!) - I think my Mom really enjoyed it!

47:04 -- probably a little longer than 5, though I tried to go really slowly.  Ran an easy run on the muddy Bonneville Shoreline trail ...

It was chilly when I started out today.  As usual, the wind was blowing at the track.

5 x 1000 w/200 recovery + 3 x 200 w/200 recovery @ cruise interval pace (about 10K to 1/2 marathon pace)

(4:30, 4:33, 4:34, 4:34, 4:31 + 49, 48, 49).  The first two were actually faster than the stated pace because I had to run out in lane 2 every lap for a couple meters - there was a class there and the students seemed oblivious to the fact that there were runners (there were some women doing 400s out there too) on the track and were laying around in lane 1!  Then in my final lap this guy decides to run in lane 1 with his dog! wow.

I guess I felt ok today - I have no speed in my legs at all - but I do seem to have ok stamina.  I am waiting and watching the weather - as it looks like my race this coming weekend might be a bust.  They might even have to cancel the race (but even if they don't I won't go if the forecast holds) - they are expecting record highs starting tomorrow and lasting through the weekend.  Lows about 77 and highs in the 100's -- this would not be good for a 1/2 marathon.  I am bummed, but ever hopeful that this wind that seems to follow me around at the track might blow the expected weather out ;-).

Happy Tuesday Bloggers.

 

43:52 - easy run to Liberty Park, one lap on grass and home.  It is "official" no race on Sunday for me.  My main focus now is to maintain fitness through the month of June (a heavy travel month for work - added benefit is that we will take a few days of vacation as well) ... I am looking towards either some shorter distance races this summer with a 1/2 in the fall (before a trip to Taiwan in October) -- or a half in July and them some shorter distance racing before October ... sigh. 

1:18:46

Good luck tomorrow bloggers.

56:43 - easy, sad run to Liberty Park and home. 

 
Great job bloggers -- and to my friend Anna who ran a 3:13:20 (I think she was 7th woman finisher)!!  I was disappointed I could not make it, things are tough here on the home front right now.

Tomorrow there is great track on ESPN -- the Adidas track classic (2-4PM).  Lot's of folks trying to get the Olympic Standard, will be very exciting. 

Rest on your laurels everyone!

1:56:09 ... ran to Sugarhouse park did 5 laps on the road and then ran home (29:05, 12:20, 11:47, 11:48, 11:50, 11:49, 27:28).  Amazingly consistent for how badly I feel when I am running right now.

Congratulations again bloggers!

52:20 - ran on the Shoreline trail up Dry Creek Canyon.  It has been almost 8 months since I have run this route!! wow.  It was harder than I remembered, and I took a "wrong" turn on the way back to my office, but I found my way back (just took an upper trail that dumped me out in a different spot). 

1:22:25.  Ran to Liberty park did 3.5 laps and came home.  This weather is my second least favorite (second to speed work in 90-100F), the temp was fine until I was soaked, in which case it was cold ;-).  Nice to be able to run, despite the fact that I am so bone tired I can't see straight (it has been a problem for a couple weeks now - and getting worse).

58:10 ... 

 bagged a workout today -- things are not going well.  I think a couple down weeks running how I feel might be in order.  This is just one more in a series of workouts that are not going as they should. Pretty depressing.  I am hoping things get back to normal after Spain.
 

55:52 - Liberty Park + 2 laps +run to bathroom.

1:39:46 -- ran to Liberty Park and did 5 laps around the perimeter on the grass and then home (somewhere between 11 and 11.5).

Have a nice couple of weeks bloggers. I might be able to log on while we are gone, but there is chance I won't be able to ... I will be running, but most likely no more than 6-7 miles a day. My goal is to take some down time, enjoy the trip and see if I feel better when I get back.

Take care!

44:47. After 20 hours of travelling we checked in to our hotel in Girona and went for a jog (it was about 3PM in Spain -- 7AM in SLC). Felt horrible at first (especially since I did not sleep on the plane, but did take an hour nap on the train from Barcelona) -- but felt pretty good after the first 20 mins. We went looking for a dirt trail we had run here a couple of years ago, but there were workmen blocking it ... so found went and discovered a couple of shorter trails and ran around the park. Very humid, but not really hot here right now (about high 50's low 60's).

1:07:01. Ran by myself today - Dean went to the conference in the afternoon -- I went a little later, but did not feel like spending the whole afternoon there. Rained all morning, so by the afternoon it was very humid, it is going to take a while to get used to the humidity again. We were able to stay up until 11PM the night we got into town (not easy as we both were pretty tired), and were able to sleep most of the night, or at least until 5AM Spain time (9PM SLC time).

Ran out to the outside of town and found a nice packed sand/dirt trail -- well muddy actually -- just did 30 mins out and then did a loop of the park on the way back to make sure I was out for more than an hour.

Tricky thing about this trip - as with our last visit here - is finding vegetarian food. Most resturaunts don't open until 10PM, so we end up eating a lot of the time in Tapas places - the selection for me consists of a Spanish appetizer sandwich called a bocatillo - the vegetrian options have either an omelet, potato, or cheese and tomato on a roll. When the conference folks go out to eat the places generally don't have any vegetarian entree's - so I usually end up with a salad and hopefully a side of a vegetable (they really don't eat a lot of vegetables here). Breakfast is the big meal, for me, lots of fruit, really good granola and yogurt. I should drop quite a few pounds on this trip!

I am still working this week, but looking forward to more sightseeing next week!

Funny thing, yesterday I was working and from outside my hotel window I heard a bunch of people talking. It took me a while to notice they were speaking English! I looked outside an there were about 30 people on bikes (very fit looking people) - a group that were doing a bike tour through Catalunya - well, they were introducting themselves in the group and about a 1/3 of them were from Park City!! pretty funny to come all this way only to run into a bunch of people from the same place as you. Later on I went and talked to a few of them - they were quite nice and someone even told me about a cool run they had done in the part of the city I had not been to yet ... it is a pretty tough climb but I will have to check it out sometime this week.

Hope all is well bloggers.

55:01 - ran 2.5 laps on the gravel path around the park (Parc de la Devesa) + 10 x :25 strides.

There were a group of people running pretty fast at the park today - they looked to be part of a running club. The 2 women in the group were running pretty quick, one of them about 3 stride lengths ahead of another one - probably the fittest running people I have seen here since the race we ran the last time we were here (though the cyclists yesterday were pretty fit too).

No matter how hard I try I can't sleep past 4AM here ... makes me feel very zombie like during the day! Probably just as I start getting used to the time here it will be time to go home.

Still cool, but humid. It is supposed to rain again today - dreary, but easier to work that way.

1:01:54

I found the best route today -- I followed the advice of the cyclists and ran up some hills past the Cathederal (1000 something AD !) and about 12 minutes from the center of the city is a series of trails that actually go over 100 km to different cities in Catalunya (including the fishing village we will be heading to on Saturday for the rest of our stay). The trails are pretty nice - almost roads. Today I climbed pretty high and could look down into the City of Girona - which lies in a valley surrounded by fairly high hills (I hesitate to call them mountains - but they are kind of low foothills that lead up to the Pyrenees (which are definately mountains and are still snow-capped).

Run well bloggers.

1:22:42

Ran a different route on 'my' trails today. This time I ended up running a little lower than yesterday - in the valley on a road that turned out to be a dirt road leading to some really old farm houses (some of them still habited, some of them abandoned). It was very nice, the earth smelled old out there, you could almost imagine seeing some of these farmhouses in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Yesterday the conference took a tour outside of Girona proper to some natural areas that were created from eruptions of a series of vocanos that surround the area. We saw a beechwood forest and some interesting geologic formations (many of the people here at the conference are geologists that use a certain type of statistical technique that Dean worked on for his dissertation). Then we went to a city that has been referred to in documents written in 1052 AD. The city is called Besalu, and as in many old cities in Spain once had a very large (relatively, it is estimated that there were about 2000 inhabitants of the city proper in the 14th century) population of Jews. These Jewish residents were forced to move into "Jewish quarters" (read, slums) in the late 12th and early 13th century until they were expelled from Spain (or killed) in the late 14th century. Most of these old cities have incredible Jewish quarters that are still preserved, including their ritual bathhouses. Usually these quarters are also attached to very very old Cathedrals and town squares. After our tour we had a dinner (there were about 45 of us total) at a very nice restaurant in the old city - it was my first real dinner in almost a week - they made me a very nice grilled vegetable platter (no starches). I am getting a little tired of potato sandwiches! Next week we will have a refrigerator and stove so we can cook our own meals.

Well, I am off to get some work done so I can relax next week. Have a good weekend bloggers. I might not be logging in next week - it is likely I won't have internet access again until we get back to Barcelona next Friday. Happy running.

42:51

Ran with Dean this morning - showed him the trail I had found ... it was a fun run, hot and humid but clear and the valley was beautiful.  Today we leave for el Port de la Selva, about an hour from Girona, 15-20 miles from France on the ocean. 

We are renting an apartment, so we can cook our own meals!  The town is very small (probably 3,000 year round residents) and the apartment is  up on a mountain about 1 mile from  the center of town and 1 mile to the Parc de Natural with tons of trails to run along the sea!