Elite Jogging For Dummies

From 15th/15th with the 5:30 a.m. crew.  Easy pace at first, but gradually a little faster to the hight point of the run at HCI.  I split off from the group at Foothill and added an additional mile via Steiner.  Still monitoring the SI closely but it is certainly improving.

It was very nice out when I got home from work, so I added another 2.5 in the meadow before coming home for some dinner.

Workout with the Black Sheep this morning. It was a big group, probably 20 people. Must be spring. We met at Sugarhouse park, ran a warmup loop on the road,then headed to the track at Highland HS.  We continued the warmup with an easy 800.  

 The meat of the workout was 8 Yasso 800s w/200m jog recovery.  It's a little too early in the season for me to pick and stick to a marathon goal time to parallel the times for these 800s, but I figured anything below 2:48 would be ok--particularly given my recovery status. I don't have my watch in front of me, but I think I can remember our interval times:  2:50 /2:48 / 2:46 / 2:45 / 2:43  2:45 /2:46 / 2:45.   Next we ran 2 x 400, both in 77 seconds.  Then 1 mile cooldown.
 

I ran from my house down to the new Caffe Niche at 3rd So / 8th E to meet up with Josh, Amy & Megan. We ran a loop up through the University, to 15th E, 21st South through Sugarhouse, then winding back via 11th E. Surprised by all the commercial activity on 11th E; many old houses converted to businesses. Lots and lots of hair salons and day spas.

I ran back home after finishing with those guys back at Caffe Niche (which was still closed even though it was supposed to be open at 7am. It does looks very cool though).

 A couple blocks from home I ran into my wife and our neighbor Emily out for their run.  Heather looked great . . . 7 months pregnant and going strong.

Run with the Radda crew.  First 4.5 easy, then a 2 mile tempo on the rolling hills of Wander lane at 6 min pace.  I was a little concerned about going too hard too long but this felt fine.  Kept the pace medium spicy with Jan for the last bit.

Today I ran a solo route on the same course that I ran on Wednesday, only in reverse. I enjoyed almost all of it--it's a nice loop.  On 11th East, I counted ten hair salons/day spas between 13th So. and 17th So.  Next time I will count gift shops.  The only thing that felt a little tedious was the long slog on 15th East from 21st South up to Sunnyside (8th So.). After that, the finish was basically my golf course loop finish and I could do that in my sleep (and have done so a few times). Time was 1:09:59, 7min pace.

We're up at the Bear Lake cabin for the weekend with the family. This morning Heather and I drove out to the east shore and ran on the road that parallels the lake.  Very scenic; nicer than the west shore and much less traffic.  I ran 6 miles and Heather ran about 5. When we were done with that, we drove back to Laketown and Heather drove home and I ran from there to Garden City, (exactly 7 miles from the Laketown Sinclair to the Pickleville Playhouse).  I decided to run it as a tempo because I felt fairly decent.  First couple of miles were strong, but then a biobreak, gu break, etc. So I wasn't able to run it uninterrupted.  I also realized that it wasn't quite as flat as I thought it was going to be. Anyway, when the dust settled, the pace for the 7 miles was  6:16, with the fastest mile at 5:55.

I had to drop off my car for inspection/emissions this morning at a shop out on 4800 So. in Murray so I decided to drive it out there and run home. This worked fine. I was there right at 7am when they opened and on the road a couple of minutes later. I ran mainly on 5th East until I got to Liberty Park, then I just took my usual 6th E. route home from there. The Garmin had teh distance at exactly 9.0 miles. Running time was 1:01, which included some stoplight downtime. What a pleasant morning to run.

Added 2.5 tonight running back to my office.

I had an early meeting this morning and couldn't hook up with the Black Sheep for Jan's workout.  Instead, I went out and stumbled around the neighborhood for an hour--aimlessly trying to decide if I wanted to go to the track, run easy, or do a tempo run.  Big mistake waiting until I woke up to try to decide what to do.  In the end, the SI was sufficiently vocal and the legs sufficiently stale that I more or less ran something that resembled a fartlek. The one thing of value is that I worked on pushing my legs at pace on some gentle downhills which has been a weak spot in my recovery regime.  It has required some changes in my form that I'm just getting comfortable with. I'm going to try to get out this evening for a few, hopefully more redeeming, miles.

After work and a visit to the chiro I ran another 3.5 through the hood.  These miles felt better than this morning.  I think the chiro appt helped.

Liberty Park / Avenues route. These miles were easy and felt good.

Holladay route with the Radda crew.  First four miles were easy, to the

bottom of Casto, and then I started a 3 mile tempo run.  It's a long

uphill followed by then rollers, so the times are slow,but the effort

is hard.  First mile, 6:20, then 6:00, and 6:15.  Sasha's course

analyzer always makes me feel better, as it projects 5:45 for a flat pace on this route. After puking, I turned around and caught with the main group behind me and we finished the run together. 

From my house, I ran two miles up to the Legacy Bridge to get a glimpse of the marathon/half marathon start. I wanted to run some of the half marathon course, but running on Foothill during the morning commute is asking for trouble so I ran up through the Bonneville golf course to Wasatch Dr. and ran south to 21st South--where the course turns west. This is the biggest downhill section in the half marathon and I was curious to see how my legs would handle it. My SI recovery has gone well except for hard downhill running. I just can't get the forward lean with fast leg turnover that is important to fast downhills without some weakness and discomfort on my right side. I can do a couple of tricks with my form to compensate, but they are slower. So, it's unlikely I'll light it up on this part of the race. The gradual downhill past 23rd. E. down to Sugarhouse Park felt much better. From there, I just ran around the park and then through the Hidden Hollow natural area below 1300 E. and down to 11th E. for the now-standard Salon/Gift Shop return toward downtown and home. Overall time was an easy 1:34.

I haven't been running with my iPod much recently, but today I did. I listened to podcast interviews from the website TheFinalSprint.com I listened to interviews with Dr. Jack Daniels, Brian Sell, and Scott Jurek. The Scott Jurek interview was best and would be very interesting for vegetarian runners or those interested in that topic.

The Final Sprint podcasts are also available as a free download on iTunes.

From a cabin in Teasdale, I ran out and back to the end of town. Elevation is just under 7000'.  Miles were mainly easy, but the last miles on the return had a nice downhill grade and I picked it up for miles of 6:00 and 5:32.  Also did 5 x 100m striders at the turnaround point. SI was slightly more vocal than it should be.

Easy tour of Memory Grove/Downtown.

Zoo/Golf Course loop.  On the return, at the intersection of Sunnyside and Guardsman, I saw a  fox milling around on the grass. I decided to approach and get a closer look.  He got a wild look in his eye (obviously frightened of the alabaster white presence approaching him) and actually charged me for a few seconds! Then he ran across the street to the Rowland Hall grounds.  I escaped without any fox bites.  Unrelatedly, the inside of my right thigh is very sore and tight today.  I'm sure it has something to do with the little tweaks in my form that have caused me to overcompensate with different muscle groups.  

Black Sheep workout at Sugarhouse Park/Highland track. I was extremely concerned about running the workout because of the new pain in my right interior quad. The warmup around the park went fine though so I thought I would test it out on the track a bit. We ran 4 x 100m strides and then an 800m of speed changes. The meat was 5 x 1000m w/ 200m recoveries which has a certain elegant simplicity and is not too harmful the week of a race. I started these cautiously, still convinced I wasn't going to finish the workout, but I kept going and only having 5 to do was comforting. Times were 3:30/3:29/3:28/3:26/3:20. Since the pace was modest, each interval felt better than the one before it. The quad held up fine--not great, but fine. Then we did another 800m of speed changes, followed by an easy cool down around the park.

University of Utah/Avenues route. The Uvenues run, if you will.  I had a massage last night that really helped open up my right hip and helped with my right quad.  Virtually no complaints about the quad today which is quite an improvement from Monday.  These were easy miles, but I felt a little sluggish.  I'm sure I could benefit from more sleep. 

Tour de Holladay with the Radda crew. Kept the whole run at mild pace, just adding a little spiciness toward the end to hold Casey's interest and assure Aimee Larkin that she still has some fast twitch muscles. Jan was with us, which was good to see as he recovers from shin splint problems.

Six easy loops in the Morris Meadow.   This is also the starting place for the Bonneville Shoreline Trail Marathon, which is tomorrow.  Sam is running that race and the trail looks like it will be in decent shape if the weather holds.  There will be some mud, for sure, but hopefully not too much. 

Good luck to all the runners in the Salt Lake Marathon events!

Salt Lake City Half Marathon. I know that I can only race to the limits of my training and my training has been much spottier than I wanted it to be, so I had very mixed expectations for the race.  My strategy was to try and feel good throughout the race, and finish having run 5:45 pace.  I didn't know whether the injuries I've been battling would re-emerge in force because of the intensity of a long race. I'm pleased to say I had nothing to report from the race on that front. I felt very good. In fact, I felt outstanding for much of the race.  At the finish, I was not doubled over in pain, but was conversing calmly with my wife (who ran the 5k).  So I left a lot out on the course.  I know now that I could have pushed harder, but I don't think I knew it during the race.  This race was significant in one key respect; I learned I can trust my fitness. Next time, I will actually try to use it. 

The pre-race did not go well. As I was packing up my drop bag to throw in the truck, I realized that I didn't have my timing chip on my shoe! Nice. Fortunately, the race folks were able to take down my bib number and name and log my finish time manually, but it created some unwanted drama.  The pace at the outset was way too fast for me; I think the leaders ran 5:02 or something. I settled into my own pace, knowing I would have to run my race.  I'll add splits later, but I hovered around 5:40 in the early miles, dropping a few slower miles later in the race. 

The downhill on 21st South was no problem on the SI.  Fortunately, there were aid stations more frequently this year than last year.  Unfortunately, they were passing out whole bottles of water with the caps on them that required more thought than I care to put into that kind of thing.  A dixie cup with tap water is fine and much easier to handle.  At one aid station, I thought this little girl was offering me a cup of water, but it was actually a thing of peanut mix.  Boy, I couldn't get my mind around how that might taste good.  Maybe in an ultra.  Oh, and no mile markers.  But everyone has a Garmin these days, right, so who needs them?  There were clocks on the course, though it wasn't clear what mile markers they were attached to.  At the finish, they had 7-11 passing out pizza slices and buffalo chicken wings for recovery food. It was 8:25 a.m.  I left before picking up my drop bag because waiting seemed hopeless.  I love the course, however, just not the organization of it.

I didn't pass Albert Wint at the end, something that seemed to bother Sasha when I spoke to him briefly after the race.  It's fine, I felt good about this race for reasons that transcended the race itself.

Easy run from my house to points including Federal Heights/Univ Utah/Ft. Douglas/Research Park/Zoo/St. Mary's neighborhood and then back from below This is the Place Monument via Governor's Grove. Miles were easy and smooth. Slow, but easy and smooth. Gorgeous morning after the rain to be up in the green foothills below Emigration Canyon. Every yard looks well-manicured on a morning like this.

For anyone interested in reading about Ryan Hall's stellar performance at the London Marathon, click here.

Black Sheep workout at Red Butte/Research Park.  1 mile warm-up followed by 4 x .40 mi Brutal hills (2:16/2:06/2:07/2:06).  Then 4 x VO2 max-slaying hills (approx 200m, times were in the low 40s).  Then 4 x Brain Damaging hills up through the (new) entrance to Red Butte.

Once the disorientation subsided and some of the oxygen returned to my head, I ran another mile cool down with the group on the trail and then another 2.5 easy on my own.

A variation of Monday's route, but with more wind at the bottom of Emigration Canyon.

Run with the Radda crew. First four miles were easy. Jwood told me about having seen the movie Powder and how it changed his life forever. Anyway, since I have been somewhat sleep-deprived the last couple of days, I very nearly talked myself out of doing the tempo run. In fact, while running with Aimee Larkin shortly before the turn from Holladay Blvd onto Casto where I start the tempo run, I told her that I wasn't going to do it. I changed my mind when I turned the corner, though. When it came down to it, I didn't have any reason not to do it other than being lazy. So I ran the 3 mile Wander Lane tempo in 18:15 with splits of 6:13/5:59/6:03. Sasha's course analyzer calls this about 5:40 pace on a flat route. For a bonus, I didn't even puke a little this time. After the tempo, I ran back and hooked up with a couple of my Radda brethren and then added another mile on my own at the end.

After work, I came home and ran a quick 2 miler because it was so nice outside.

Sugarhouse loop (out on 15th E, return via 11th E).  Nice and easy except for the last three miles, which climbed more than I had planned so that I could add a little extra distance to the loop. 

Alta Club 5k. Sam and John Straley gave me the heads up on this race recently and I thought I would give it a shot. Since I'm not running Ogden Marathon and haven't been running over 15 miles recently, I thought a 5k would fit the bill for today's run.

The race is near my house, so it was a short drive to the start, northeast of the Capitol, at the start of Gravity Hill. I did a little 5 mile warm-up around the area. I saw Scott Browning while I was out there and I knew this little 5k was going to be interesting. He excels at that distance much more than me. I continued my warm-up with Sam when I saw him.

The course runs north on Bonneville Blvd ("up" Gravity Hill), past the horseshoe at the top of Memory Grove, continuing south toward 11th Ave, with a 180 turnaround about .30 before 11th Ave. Then return to the horseshoe at the top of Memory Grove/bottom of City Creek and its a glorious 1.3 mile downhill grade to the finish down beyond the gates at the entry to Memory Grove.

Both Scott and I agreed the first mile wouldn't be very fast because gravity hill is tricky, but I went out ahead from the start to see what we could do. First mile split was 5:29. Second mile acutally climbs for the first .35 or so, and then a faster return toward Memory Grove. Split was 5:20. The last "mile" was a downhill cruise to the finish and felt good. Split was 4:42, but a little shy of a mile unfortunately. Finish time was 15:32, so too bad it wasn't a full 5k, I could have been close to 16 minutes. Fun race, though.  My Garmin had 2.95, Scott's had 2.93.

Scott was 2nd in just over 16 minutes. Dude being pulled downhill by Baby Stroller was 3rd (still impressive, though). Sam was 4th, in about 16:30, I believe. John Straley was also in the top 10, I believe. All looked strong.

Pipeline trail in Millcreek Canyon with most of the Radda crew.  Easy, easy, easy.  Beautiful morning, very warm. 

St. Mary's loop.  Legs felt fresh and the miles were easy and smooth.  Just a gorgeous morning.  However, when I got home, I got the same knotting/cramping pain in my left quad that I previously had in the right quad a couple of weeks ago.  I was able to massage out the right side over a couple of days, and will try to do the same with this one.