Elite Jogging For Dummies

Bonneville Shoreline Trail--a short out and back from Morris Meadow. Warm this morning!

Hooked up with Amy and Josh S. for a run from the Avenues up into City Creek. Nice run, especially because the sun wasn't yet blazing down.  Drove up to Steiner afterward and swam 550m. I'm sure I will continue to make real swimmers wince for a long time to come, but I am getting slightly better. 

 The ankle is doing better too. Not healed, by any means, but less troublesome overall.  I've been fairly consistent with stretching and strengthening exercises.  Also, I've switched back to running in the Kayano for nearly all of my easy runs, and back to the PowerStep insole. (I had been running in the lighter DS Trainers a lot, with stock insole). Also, the I think the wobble board has helped as well. I can't say swimming has helped improve the ankle, but it's given me something to do in place of getting in all the miles I would like to run.
 

Black Sheep workout at Sugarhouse/Highland track. Ran a 1 mile warm up loop, then 5 x hill repeats with 3 of them bounding.  Next we ran speed changes for two loops around the park; alternating various race paces. Then moved to the track for 3 x 800.  I kept everything very slow and reasonable today. Mostly because I plan to race tomorrow, but also because I was tired.

 I have an old road racing bike (about 10-15 years old) that a friend gave me years ago. It has mostly sat around collecting dust.  So I decided to try to turn it into a solid commuter bike and usse it instead of my mountain bike. So I took it over to Wild Rose and had them make some key modifications. I replaced the aero bars with drop bars, added a new seat, and most importantly, put on some wider tires that can handle city streets better.  The most important aesthetic change is in the color.  It was a very vivid purple.  Last night, I pulled the wheels off, taped up all the components, and went to town with a can of primer grey spray paint.  Now it has this really nice flat grey color.  I let it dry overnight and put everything back on after running this morning so that I could ride it to work today. It took me about seven minutes door to door--less time than it would take me if I drove because I don't have to mess with the parking garage.  Should get me home a little faster too.
 

Murray Fun Days 5k. Definitely the most competitive field I've raced against this year. Just looked at the final results, I managed to hang on to a spot in the top 10, barely.  My effort was better than at the Art Attack, and my time was not terrible considering this is a tougher course, but I did expect a little more.

No running, but I have a good reason.  My wife Heather delivered our first baby--a boy-- in the morning.  Both mom and baby are doing great. His name is Jack. 

First full day of fatherhood. Plenty of running around, but no running.

I slept relatively well last night. At least compared to being up all night at the hospital on Wednesday night and sleeping on a cot in the hospital on Thursday night. Heather got up every time the baby made a noise and I got up to change him, but it was relatively restful, I suppose.  I had hoped to be timely enough to meet up with a few of the black sheep for a 6am run, but baby duties didn't allow it.  I did get out around 6:25 and ran an 11 mile loop on the Shoreline trail south to Red Butte (up and down), then south above This is the Place, then dropped into the Park and returned via my normal Governors Grove/Research Park/Ft Douglas/Federal Heights route.  I saw Zuzana and Alexander on the trail and chatted for a second.  I was rusty from the start of the run, but managed to ease into it after a while.  I ran a few pickups of 300m or so, just to test my leg turnover as it was feeling like I had not run in months. Overall, a nice re-entry into running after a couple of long days.  Thought a lot about fatherhood, no surprise I'm sure.

No running. Swam 500m at Steiner. 

Man, the haze this morning made the January skies look good by comparison. 

I parked at Steiner and ran a loop up on to the BST, and down through This is the Place.  Nice run, no time for the planned swim at the end though.  

Black Sheep workout from Popperton Park (Virginia St. and 11th Ave.). After .75 warmup, we ran 1min on/1 min off from the Fire Station to the Capitol. Then easy down into Memory Grove and over to the stairs at 4th Ave and A St. From there, we started the traditional "up and over" from 4th Ave and C St. up to 11th Ave. and L street. Easy on the flat, hard on the hills. It never fails to kill me. I wish I could say the same for Casey, who was flying up those hills, leaving Josh and I in the dust. Ran 2 mi cooldown at the end.

Drove to Steiner after the run and swam 500m.

ALSO, I'm thinking of hosting a little gathering for bloggers and friends at my house after the Des News 10k if I can rally some support for that.  Nick will be in town and it might be fun to get a few folks together for a bite and a chat.  It's just a concept at the moment, but I hope it will work.  If others read this, let me know if you're interested. We live just about 2 miles from both the start and finish of the race, so it should be pretty convenient.

AM-4.5 miles. Will try to get more later.

Also, I talked with my friend and neighbor Mark Oftedal this morning about his son Eli's performances at the USATF Youth Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Eli is 10 years old, racing in the Bantam boys division. He finished second in the 800m in a time of 2:23:86, missing first place by a tenth of a second. In the 1500m, he finished second again to the same kid, in a time of 4:49:28. He also made the final in the 400m, finishing 7th. Eli is already a great runner, I look forward to many more good results ahead. He'll get another chance shortly to race against the same boy (he's from CA) at the Junior Olympics.

 PM--managed to squeeze in another 4.5 before Sam & Kelli came over to visit us and the baby.
 

Run from Radda. It was humid this morning, felt like Texas. I noticed that it looked like there was some dirt from rain on my car but I didn't see any other evidence that it actually rained at any point. Man, we need it though.  

Anyway, the group ran the canal route. On the return, Sam and I backtracked on the Heart of Holladay course, weaving up to Wander lane and the standard return route from there.  No energy this morning for any spicy miles. Just glad to get some solid time in.

From Steiner, I ran four miles solo and then ran 3.5 with my old HS friend, Dan.  His background is as a competitive swimmer and he's just getting into running. We agreed to swap tips.  Of course, there's much more to swimming technique than running technique for the most part, so it was a pretty one-way operation. After the run, I swam about 500m at Steiner; improved a few things, but recognized far more that still needs improvement. 

Canyon to Canyon Half Marathon.  I signed up for this race last week because I wanted to have a reason to stay consistent with my running through the arrival of the baby and also so that I could have a reason to get in some faster, longer miles. Fortunately, Heather is very supportive of my running, even as she has the biggest share of responsibility for our baby.  We're working on finding the right balance. 

The race started at 7am from East Canyon resort in Morgan County, which meant a long but scenic drive to the start.  I warmed up for two miles. I didn't really see any other competitive runners that I knew, but there were a couple of guys with a speedy look. There is both a 10k and Half M race and I didn't know who was doing what. 

The first mile of the course is on the road, but then it heads south on the dirt road that connects East Canyon with Jeremy Ranch. Technically a "trail race," I suppose. I have trained on this road many times but never raced on it.  "Rolling" is probably the best word I can use to describe the terrain, but that's a bit of an understatement.  There are a lot of hills, none very long, but a few rather steep.  The course is out and back. 

I went out from the start with a guy named Steven Ault, who just finished running for the U. of Portland. He was doing the 10k and took off within the first half mile.  No problem. Then another guy passed me, who I also figured was doing the 10k because he looked like he was chasing Steven, but when we got to the 10k turnaround after some steady climbing, he kept going. (My splits to that point were 6:13, 6:33, and 6:37).  Ok, so we had a race! (He had Clyde's build, but not his speed). I kept a pretty close watch on the gap between us-- between 20-25 seconds until the Half M turnaround. (splits for 4-7 were 6:41, 6:36, 6:26, 6:15). On the way back, I noticed that the leader was slowing a bit on the hills and not getting much turnover on the descents. Mile 8 split 6:03.  On a steeper descent at around mile 9, I let gravity pull me past him and worked on building a lead.  Mile 9 split 6:05. By mile 11, the lead was about a minute.  My splits for 10-13 (where I earned back some of the time I lost on the slow hills on the way out) were 5:55, 5:46, 5:37.  So, a bit negative split. I think I won by 2-3 minutes or something close to that, but I'll have to look at the resultswhen they're posted. 

It's no circuit race, but I'll take the win.  It's a challenging course and if I could borrow Sasha's intuitive course calibration sense,I would say my effort today was about 1:16 on a flat course.  I also realized that I have kind of missed racing something longer than 5k. The 5k has been good for speed, but I feel like I can make better decisions in a longer race. 

This was a Sports Am race and James always does a good job of putting together a fun event. Plenty of food, shade, and live music at the end at the East Canyon resort.

No running. Swam 1000m.

I ran on the Shoreline trail up into Red Butte, connected back onto the Shoreline trail, and return via Research Park/Federal Heights.  The trail running helped keep the pace easy. My legs are still shaking out Saturday's race, but I felt ok. 

Black Sheep workout at the East high track. John Straley coached today with a "retro" theme. So many of us wore the most old-school gear we could dig up. For me, that meant an ugly silky singlet and Dolphin shorts in size Youth Medium. I could have been arrested for wearing them and if  lived in Utah County, I probably would have been :)

Anyway, the retro theme for the workout included a timed mile and some 400m repeats.  We warmed up on the streets, 1.2 mi.  Then more warmup on the track with an 800m of speed changes followed by another 800m at easy intensity (3:01).  Next, we ran a 400m at the pace we wanted to run for the mile.  Josh, Adam and I agreed that a sub 5:00 mile was a worthy goal and we ran the 400m in 76.  After a water break and 200m easy, it was time to give the mile a shot. Straley had measured it out so we were adding the correct distance to the track, an extra 30 feet or so.  We started very fast, but within 150m we were slow, split was 1:20:69, way too slow.  Second lap better, but still slow, 1:16:48.  Third lap still better, but not quite enough, 1:13:95. Final lap, time to go hard, but I didn't start kicking early enough, 1:11:70.  So I finished in 5:02.  With a faster first lap it wouldn't have been a problem and I still had plenty in the tank for the rest of the workout.  Josh finished in 4:59, nice work.  Adam was 5:12, I believe.  I look forward to running a smarter mile next time. Perhaps I still had some of Saturday's race in my legs too, but whatever.

After an easy 400m, we did 6 x 400m, with 100m recoveries (except after #3, 200m recovery).  On the first one I was still getting over the mile, 81 seconds.  After that they evened out a bit and improved: 76, 77, 73,71,63 Adam and I both pushed the final interval.  Then 1 mile cooldown on the track. Not much mileage in the workout today, but plenty of intensity.

Reverse Bonneville Shoreline Trail route so all the climbing happened toward the middle and end of the run rather than the beginning.  I ran into Bob Adler and Brian Kamm on the trail and we chatted for a few minutes. Brian is gearing up for his second Wasatch 100 this Sept. Both Bob & Brian paced me during my WF100 in '01. 

I ran a loop from Steiner Aquatic Center that included a long climb up to the shoreline trail. Added some surges in the middle of the run, but nothing noteworthy.  Legs mostly felt like mashed potatoes. Swam 500m after the run. 

Easy loop from Steiner to the old 'hood where I grew up for a nice trip down memory lane. Swam 500m.

Didn't get out the door until almost 7:30am and it was already very warm. I needed the extra sleep. Anyway, I wanted to run the Cucina loop on the Shoreline trail, which is 10.4 miles, but also wanted to get in 15 total. So I ran out to Red Butte on the road and connected with the trail. Saw a strange looking man passed out asleep in the brush. I circled him for a moment to make sure he was living. He sort of lifted his hand in a way that suggested he was aware of his condition. So that I would have the sun at my back, I ran the usual loop in reverse, first ascending Dry Creek, then running the BST over to City Creek and descending. Then down through Memory Grove and on to home. It was warm and I felt slow. I enjoyed being on the trail instead of the road, however. Would have been way too hot to run long on the road.

Good job to the Draper Days 5k warriors. I would have loved to have joined you, but I'm saving up whatever effort I can muster to blow out my quads at the Des News 10k.

No running. Swam 800m.

Easy loop around Federal Heights, Avenues, Capitol.  Took me three miles to feel somewhat warmed up, but after that, it was not bad.  Looking forward to racing tomorrow and seeing if I can crack 34 minutes for the 10k.

Deseret News 10k.  My only real goal was to run sub-34 min. I ran 34:29 at this race last year, and that didn't feel great, so I just hoped to improve. 

Paul and James, part of the FastRunningBlog/Logan Division, stayed at my house last night and we got out the door about 5:10 and to the race at about 5:20 for the 6am start.  Sasha also stayed with us too, but since he was running the marathon he had to get up at 3am and I didn't see him this morning.  Ran a warmup of about 2.25, including a few striders in the Ft. Douglas Cemetary. 

At the starting line, many familiar and unfamiliar faces.  The high school element in the race is strong and there lots of speedy looking kids (many of whom beat me soundly).

Chatted it up with Josh and Adam at the starting line.  When the gun went off, it was a free-for-all; bodies flying around as everyone runs 4min pace for the first 200m.   I knew I would just have to run my race.  First mile in 4:53.  Darrell Phippen, manager of Wasatch Running Center, was right there with me going into the second mile. I haven't seen him run this quickly before, but was glad to see a familiar face holding a pace similar to mine.  Mile 2 in 4:56.  Mile 3 flattens a bit, and has one little roller, split in 5:24 according to the Garmin.  I didn't see the mile 3 sign, but caught a glimpse of my watch at mile 3.12 and saw a time of 15:53, which would be a 5k pr. I concentrated on trying to hold on as Darrell and I traded places a few times, with Mike Kirk also right in the mix with us.  We were also starting to pick off  a few high school kids.  Mile 4 includes South Temple and then a bit of 200 E, the parade route. Starting to hurt; split in 5:21.  At mile 5, Darrell surges ahead and it looks like he's gone.  It then dawned on me that I really could pick it up if I just wanted to badly enough.  So I did, picking up a few seconds in what was about to become a real tanker of a mile. Split in 5:29 for mile 5.  The last mile of this race is hard.  Last year I described it in my blog as the Alp d'900 South, in honor of the climbs in the Tour. In reality, it gains maybe 20 feet over .60mi.  So,it's a matter of perception, really. And I generally perceive that it hurts badly.   I decided to try to kick and see if I could catch Darrell, and I did,  finishing just .9 seconds ahead.  He ran a great race, the best I've run with him. I was spent and drenched owing to the race, the heat and humidity.  The result exceeded my expectations.

Cooled down five miles back to the car with Cody, James, Adam, and Paul (all of whom ran awesome races).  We tried to catch some of the marathon leaders, but blew the logisitics (aka we didn't know where they were).  We saw some mid-packers around the zoo, however.  Then we went back to my house and had some food and chatted for a while.  Great to get better acquainted with these good folks.

It's official, I'm sore! But when I started to run this morning, it felt pretty good, actually. I think I'll recover fine. Probably time for a masasge some time soon, though. I swam 500m at Steiner after running. I was really looking forward to the pool.

Eight miles this morning, easy, with a small Radda crew. Lots of folks on vacation or tapering for the Spudman Triathlon this weekend. Nice and cool for a change.

I rode my bike to work and brought my running gear in my pack with the plan to run-commute home at the end of the day.

 p.m.: I ran home from work, 2.3 miles.

Variation of the Federal Heights/Ft. Douglas/Research Park/This is the Place/Zoo route.  It was (almost) downright cool at the bottom of Emigration Canyon.  A welcome change. 

This morning I ran Emigration Canyon with Connor Kamm. He's the son of my friend Brian. Connor is about to start his second year at Williams College (where he runs XC and track) , and he's home for the summer. We started at This is the Place and ran an easy pace up over the top of little mountain, eight miles in 1:07. We picked up the pace a little on the way down. At mile 12, we decided to run 1 mile on/ 1 mile off and get in a couple of quicker miles, 5:24 and 5:14.

No running. Swam 800m at Steiner. 

Out and back from home to Donner Park and beyond. Felt smooth this morning. 

Workout with the Black Sheep from Sugarhouse Park and at the Highland Track.  Warmup around the park. 4 x hill repeats on the road.  Then to the track for two sets of intervals 800/600/600 and 800/600/600/600.  Times for the 800s were 2:40. the 600s were all around 1:58, except the first was at 2:03.  Then one mile of speed changes on the track. After another easy lap, Adam W and I ran another loop on the road around the park.  Big group today, about 30 people (including BSRools)