Elite Jogging For Dummies

AM: Black Sheep Workout at East High.  After the 1.2 mile warmup, we ran 5 x 300 m at increasing pace with 100 m jog between.  Then we did John Straley's famous "Penny Run," the goal of which is to stagger runners so that everyone finishes more or less together, regardless of pace.  For me, this meant running a little less than 700 m while most ran 600m or so.  We did this about 8 times.  I was running in the 2:12-2:14 range. Then some cooldown. 

 PM: Ran home from work, 2.25 miles. 

I ran "Ye Olde Loope," slowly. 

AM:  I ran with Emily Bates from my house. We did a 3 mile warmup and then 4 "spicy" tempo miles.  Just spicy, not very hard.  Times were in the 6:30s, except for the last one at 6:14.  It was good to move my legs a little more quickly, but honestly 6:30 should feel much easier than it did.

 PM:  I ran home from work, 2.2 miles.

I ran "Ye Olde Loope" this morning, without the Ensign Elementary extension part.  I don't know how to express that fully in Olde English, maybe something like: 

 "I have runneth over Ye Olde Loope in the Morning, but over the Ensign Elementary route, have I runneth naught."

This morning I ran out and back up Emigration Canyon, just past Ruth's Diner. I saw Jed flying down the canyon at a rapid clip just before I hit my turnaround point. 

This morning I ran basically out and back to 1300 South with a little bit of neighborhood wandering in the middle.  Nice little route, actually, total time 1:03. 

Workout with the Black Sheep at Miller Park (approx 1500 E., 1100 So.). I arrived late and had an abbreviated warm up.  The meat of the workout consisted of 3 x 600 m on the entire single track trail that climbs west to east, paralleling the creek. Beautiful place to run.  Then we ran 3 x 400 m along the same trail, just cutting out the first section. These are hard, but rewarding.  Because the recovery back to the start is so long, it's hard to get in as much running as we would normally get on the track or the road but it is worth it.

No running.  I came down with the cold that everyone else in the house had already been enjoying.  

Still with the cold.  I didn't run, but I did go get a massage from Mark Oftedal. He spent an hour and a half working almost entirely on my left hamstring. What a huge difference it has made. I was having a hard time sitting for a long time without getting hamstring pain and Mark's work solved that, at least for now.  I really need to get on the table more regularly. It's probably the best thing I can do to maintain my training while minimizing injury as I get a little older. 

Still with the cold, though a little better. I ran 4 miles out and back through the U campus.  My head was stuffy and I didn't feel great, but my left leg was moving better after yesterday's massage.  

 I am planning to run the Bear Lake Half Marathon tomorrow.  The weather forecast is cool and wet. Cool is fine, wet is not so great.  With my cold and all, I'm not expecting a whole lot but I am looking forward to running for its own sake. 

 I ran the Bear Lake Half Marathon this morning. I chose this race since we have a cabin up here and it made sense to mix a race with a little getaway.   The plan was to run as well as I could given the limitations of my training and fitness.  The fact that I topped out at about 63 miles last week and then came down with a cold this week suggested that I may not have a whole lot to draw from if the going got tough.  The 6000' elevation wouldn't help.

The weather forecast was worse than the actual weather. It was in the 40s and cloudy, no rain during the race though it has continued to rain off and on throughout the day since. 

The race is pretty low key and although attendance is pretty good (about 400 I'm told), it's not a terribly competitive crowd.  At the start there was maybe one or two runners that were doing a pre-race warmup that I could see.  A few guys looked fit but I didn't recognize them.

It turned out not to be the guys that I had to think about.  After the race started, I was out in the lead right away and a woman named Jaclyn LaBell (spelling is likely off), a former Idaho State runner now living in Seattle, joined me almost immediately. Pace was easy--in the 6:15-6:20 range and I wasn't worried about running much faster than that if I didn't have to since I knew my fitness wouldn't let me push much hard later in the race.  We ran together for about the first 4.5 miles. This part of the course covered from the east shore of the lake, through to the main highway that leads into town.  We had a one mile stretch of dirt/gravel road which would normally be great but the road was totally soaked and very muddy.  I got very muddy myself.

Once we hit the main road, Jaclyn dropped back and I just sort of shifted into autopilot and tried to keep running pretty hard without having my legs blow off.  My cold was not doing  all that great and I was coughing pretty regularly. Thecourse is mainly flat, but there is some moderate climbing between miles 6-9.  Around mile 7-8 I started to catch up to the 10K runners and  spent the remainder of the race sort of meandering in and out of those groups of runners.  Said hi to my friends Keli & Helen who were running the 10k with about a mile and a half to go.  In the last couple of miles I had some calf cramping, which is the sign that my fitness won't permit me to go all that much longer.

I finished in 1:23:02 for the win, which is great, but a long way off of a great half marathon time for me.  Ultimately though, I think I ran exactly the race I could and should have run taking everything into consideration.

Most importantly, it was a pretty fun race.  I wanted to race for running's sake, rather than race for racing's sake, if that makes any sense. I'm in a pretty transitional period as far as my running goals are concerned and doing it for the right reasons is important to me.

Got a  great big sandstone plaque for the win, which should be right at home here at the cabin.

Drove home from the cabin today.  I ran 1.5 on the treadmill just to move some lactic acid to different parts of my legs.  I'm not very sore, but a little sore. 

No running, I decided to treat myself to a swim. Since it's been three months since I've been in the pool, a half mile was all I could log today.  Felt nice to be in the water, if completely inefficient and bordering on near-drowning. 

Easy little run with Casey in lieu of the Black Sheep workout.

I swam 3/4 of a mile at Steiner. Somewhat of an improvement over Monday's swim.

Out and back to 1300 South, nice morning. 

I swam a mile at Steiner.  It was a bump up from Monday and Wednesday, but it felt pretty good. 

Cucina loop with a group of six. Great run, amazing how green the hills are after all the late spring precipitation. 

Out and back on the 1300 So. route. It's a nice little run and it only takes an hour since there is less climbing than Ye Olde Loope.

No running, but I did go up to East Canyon Reservoir at 6pm for an open water swim clinic.  There were about six of us in the clinic, with two instructors.  I got some helpful tips, but most of all got to spend a lot of time (more than an hour) in the water doing various drills and basically doing about as much swimming as I am comfortable with right now. 

Jed was kind enough to loan me his bike for a little while.  I had it tuned up and this morning was my first chance to take it out. I rode up to the top of City Creek canyon.  Most of the canyon ride was pretty easy, but I did have to get out of the saddle a couple of times towards the top of Rotary Park.  It didn't seem very steep at those points, I was just out of granny gears and couldn't keep pushing without standing up.

The ride down was thrilling, top speed was over 30 mph, which feels pretty fast on the bike.  I know a lot of guys that ride 40-45 mph quite regularly, so I know I'm not breaking any records, but it felt fast to me. The twisty canyon road adds a little fun.  The ride was 17 miles. Took just over 1:10.

 Happy Birthday to my littlest guy, Luke, who is 1 year old today.

Yes, actual running today.  I ran Ye Olde Loope, with a little bit of tempo for some added spice. First pickup was on Wasatch Blvd, about 1/2 mile at 6:15 pace.  Then I ran a 2 mile tempo on 11th Ave down to Memory Grove, splits were 6:12 and 6:00.  My legs feel heavy and slow overall, so I tried to concentrate on keeping my turnover rapid, rather than trying to use legspeed.  Overall time was 58:45.

No running. I swam a mile at Steiner.  It was slightly easier than the mile swim I did last Friday.

Cucina loop with the gang. Beautiful morning. 

Adventure run with Josh. Started at Popperton Park, ran up Dry Creek, past the hairpin turn and  further up the canyon.  Ran through about 1/2 mile of stream trickling through the trail -- felt great once we resigned to getting soaked. Then a scramble up the mountain to our destination.

No running. I swam 1700m at Steiner.  That additional 100m has been hard-won.

Workout with the Black Sheep.  We met at Popperton and did the world famous "up and over" workout.  That was preceded by minute on/minute off for a couple of miles. Trying to keep up with at 5 min pace with Josh = Painful. It's his 15k pace, my 1 minute pace.

I rode 20 miles on the bike this morning: from my house over to the guard shack at the entrance to Millcreek Canyon and back. Total time: 1:17.