Elite Jogging For Dummies

Big Workout with Josh. Or, should I say, Complete Sufferfest.  Josh had one more big workout on the calendar before Boston and I agreed to provide moral support, if not actual training support.  Luke, our 9mo, was up literally all night and I spent most of the hours between 1 and 4 am fighting that loss of rationality that sometimes accompanies late-night parenting, when even seemingly benign questions like "where is his binky?" come out sounding like the words of a madman.

 But I did sleep well between 5:00am and 5:20, when the alarm went off.  I met up with Josh at 5:45, barely conscious.  It was windy and snowing and looked like it was only going to start snowing more. We ran a 3 mile warm up over to 900 South and then began the tempo run.  For the meat of the workout, Josh had a 10 mile progression run planned, with a total of 16 miles overall. I had a strong suspicion it wasn't my day for a hard 10 mile run, and given the awful weather this morning, it was hard to think it was a good day for anyone to do it.  My goal was 7, see how it felt, and then cool down.  Well, I'll tell you it felt like crap. I struggled to maintain 6:30 pace. Most miles (I don't have my splits) were in the 6:40+ range. By mile 7, I was struggling with 7 minute pace, and also struggling with a fierce headwind and snow.  I think I ended up with about 7.5 miles of tempo before it was time to jog.  The thing was there wasn't much of a difference in my pace at that point, the transition from "fast" to slow was non-existent.  Josh, however, ran more and faster. 

 The upside was just getting it done on a tough morning.

This morning I ran most of Ye Olde Loop, just trying to shake out the cobwebs from Thursday's punishment.

We're up at the Bear Lake Cabin for the weekend. It was way too cold, snowy and windy to run early so I didn't get out until about 1pm.  I ran out and back on the highway that circles the lake.  The run out was colder and a little snowy but on the way back I actually warmed up enough to take off the jacket.  With the snow overnight there was a lot of fresh snow all around and the view of the deep blue lake was memorable.

I ran (slowly) out and back into the upper St. Mary's neighborhood.

In the snow, I ran Ye Olde Loop with some spicy fartlek action thrown in for fun. 

I ran out and back to my old 'hood trying to work out a new loop with less climbing.  Unsuccessful. Still uphill both ways.

Hoping to avoid a repeat of last weeks Tempo Meltdown, I decided to scale back from the 15 mile run and do a shorter run overall with fewer tempo miles. I ran 4 miles of tempo and actually that felt like just the right amount, times were in the ~6:15 range with the last mile 5:56.  Still not moving the legs very well, I need to work on turnover because I just feel sloppy -- more drills perhaps?  Probably what I need is core work to hold my body upright. 

Another pretty long night had me pushing snooze for 45 minutes past my goal wake-up time.  For that reason, I didn't quite hit the 10 mile goal, but was close. I ran Ye Olde Loop with a couple of extensions, including a trip around the Capitol. 

Semi-long run, didn't feel that great.

Ye Olde Loope Deluxxe.

Easy treadmill miles  . . . the best I could get in before an early flight to Las Vegas.

All the running today was done with the head, none with the legs.  

Decompression run, a little bit on Shoreline trail. Lovely.

Decompression run, a little bit on Shoreline trail. Still Lovely.

I ran the Cucina Deluxe route with Sam. Weather was great, trail was great. Scones at Cucina after the run were completely awesome. 

Ye Olde Loope Semi-Deluxxe.

Black Sheep Workout; "Up and Overs" through the Avenues. Pain!