Elite Jogging For Dummies

Skate skiing at mountain dell.  it was warm and the snow was soft and slushy. The snow was incredibly thin and places. At one point I was snaking my skis across a 10 inch wide swath of snow on the asphalt golf cart path trying not to destroy my bases on the gravel. Until we get snow, I am going to keep my skis at home. Still, it was nice to be out.

What a great morning to run, 43° and overcast skies. It feels like late March or early April. I did not do a good job of time management and had to settle for a short run.

Workout (yes, workout) with the Black Sheep this morning. We met at 15th/15th and ran down to Sugarhouse Park. We ran three loops of the park; alternating hard on the flats then easy on the hills for the first two and then reversing that (hard on hills, easy on flats) on the third loop. this was followed by four hill surges that got the legs moving.  I felt kind of slow as I watched Josh ditch me on every interval, but so it goes. 

Met up at Foothill with a big group of about 12 or so.  At the turnaround, there were about 6 of us, the others having done shorter routes.  Josh was running 20 and had already been out for seven miles, as had a few others. I felt surprisingly decent today--probably because I was so light on miles most of the week.  With the legislature in session, Heather has lots of early meetings to cover and that requires me to be home earlier. Plus, I just need to get out of bed sooner.

Neighborhood tour, short on time.

Workout with the Black Sheep.  We met up at Red Butte and ran multiple hilly intervals with some easy running in between.  More or less a fartlek-style workout, now that I think about it.  I woke up with a sore throat, but it didn't slow me down too much.

I met Josh at 5:45 on South Temple. We ran a loop that took us up to TiTP and then back through Research Park and the U.  I felt like complete crud.  The cold that came on unexpectedly really took the life out of me this morning.

No running--trying to get some extra sleep to get over the little cold I've picked up. 

I had a nice run up through Federal Heights and then the big climb up to the meadow on the shoreline trail. It's clear up there now and the trail was frozen, so good for running.

Easy run with the JoHo crew from Foothill, out and back. 

This morning I decided to run up to the Shoreline trail and see if I could create a loop from my house that would be about 8 miles long and include a decent amount of time on the trail. It took me about 30 minutes to run up to the meadow trailhead and then I ran east on shoreline over to the Terrace Hills access point and I started to head downhill from there. I limited some of the downhill brutality by switchbacking on some of the residential streets, but it still felt a lot like a straight shot from the mountain down to my house ... not something I would necessarily want to do every day. But nice to mix it up. I even added some strides at the end. 

Workout with the Black Sheep. We met at 15th/15th and ran north to East High track. We did an 800m with speed changes and then the workout was 13 x 400m. These were broken up in sets so the first 400m was at marathon pace, then half M, then 10k, then 5k, for three sets (plus a bonus lap). It was a fairly gentle workout, with Josh getting ready for Canyonlands and all.  Nice to move quickly on the track, though. 

Met up w/Josh and Megan at 5:45 on South Temple/N Street.  We ran the "old fashioned" loop, up through the U, Federal Heights, Avenues, Memory Grove.  Legs were slightly stale, but we ran easy so it was ok. We watched three young buck mule deer cross 11th Avenue at about H street, heading back toward the hills. That was interesting. 

I ran up to shoreline trail above the University but didn't have much time to go very far before I had to head home. I need to wake up earlier. 

Short run again, this time an out and back up to Ensign for a couple of loops around the asphalt trail around the soccer field--which is 1/3 of a mile around, provides a great view and is a nice place to run.

After thinking about it for two weeks, I finally ran the Cucina loop on Shoreline this morning.  I met up with Johanna, Mark and Kim at 6:30.  Johanna took it easy on us on the run up to the trailhead, but after that she was running with a vengeance I haven't seen in a long time. She dusted me completely and I was running pretty hard.  If it were race day, I would have been scared for any of her competitors. 

Weather was great and we had terrific trail conditions. It should be muddy up there still, but it's really dry.  Makes it great for running, not so great for the state's water supply.

Wow, incredible winter conditions this morning.  The wind was blowing me all over the road. I literally had to turn around on 11th Ave as a giant wind gust smacked me in the face. 

I had a 7:30 am meeting, so I headed out at 5:45 with the hope of running 8 miles in less than an hour. Since I couldn't make the black sheep workout, I figured I would do a fartlekesque run, out and back to Bonneville Golf Course. It worked well. There was a little snow on the course, but not enough to slow me down. I ran some solid surges and kept the easy pace sections honest.  Finished in 57 minutes and change, not too bad for this hilly route.

Five miles ... that's what happens when you leave the house at 6:45 am instead of 5:45 am.  I ran into Adam RW on 11th Ave, it was good to catch up with him a bit. We talked for a second about whether the "blog is dying" and the discussion thread on that subject. I have to agree with Adam's comment that St. George 2008 was a very tough race and may have zapped some motivation from some folks, me included. I never thought that would happen.  Anyway, I'm still blogging semi-regularly but am a terrible blog friend to all of my buddies that I have enjoyed getting to know and run with over the last couple of years.

Woke up to wind and blowing snow, about an inch on the sidewalk.  Met up with Josh at 5:45 and we had a sloppy run up to Bonneville Golf Course and back. The conditions were pretty ugly, so it was nice to have company. Props to Josh on his 3rd place finish at Canyonlands Half this past weekend. 

I need to get out of the house earlier.

Small group this morning. We ran a twisty variation of the run to the firehouse on 11th ave that included trips up and down Red Butte, as well as lots of other hilly fun.

It was snowing like it was December and blowing like it was March.  Surprisingly I made it out the door in time to run 8 miles and actually did so.

Met up with the Black Sheep for the first official workout on the track this season.  Fortunately the track is clear notwithstanding the storms. We ran a ladder as follows: 2 x 1000m, 2 x 800m, 2 x 600m and then 4 x 400m.  Times felt slow, 3:30's for the 1k's, 2:43 for the 800s, 2:40 for the 600s. The 400s were 78,77,76,75.  That shows it is early in the season and my pace sense is still hibernating.