Elite Jogging For Dummies

That's right, I'm cracking the double digits for the first time in I don't know how long ... but it has been a long time. I actually felt really good on this run, all things considered. I hooked up with several people over at Foothill Sbux and we ran the "south" loop out to the Millcreek area and then back up through the neighborhoods of sugarhouse.  Virtually no knee pain, which was a welcome relief.

The plan was run and swim, but I ended up just doing the run. I headed out from 15th and 15th and did the Huntsman Cancer Institute loop, which is the old Monday standby. Of course, I was running at 6:45 and those guys ran at 5:30, so I didn' have any company.  Somewhat typically, I had some twinges of knee pain in the first three miles, especially while climbing. It was enough of an issue for me to stop a couple of times to stretch out the hamstring and IT band.  On the return route I really concentrated on keeping my form correct, and this extra attention meant that I was virtually pain free for the last few miles and actually felt quite good, though still out of shape.

Out the door by 5:30, arrived at Steiner and in the pool by 5:50. It was still dark but the pool lights were on so it was like nightswimming until the sun started to come up.  I had a good swim, 1700 meters with about 400 meters of "hard" swimming spread out among the swim. Well, it's all hard for me, but usually I don't kick much and I was kicking on those harder efforts. 

I had a 7:30 am meeting, so had to get out the door early.  I ran up to This is the Place Monument.  I made the executive decision to run a couple of tempo miles in the middle of the run. The first one began at Fort Douglas and continued up into TiTP.  On the flat section I felt good, but the little grunt climb at the south end of Research Park was tough, resulting in a 6:06 mile. After recovering for a mile up to the end of the monument, I started another tempo. This one began slightly downhill for the first half mile but then climbed for the rest of the mile, including the long dirt road to the north gate and more of the grunt section at Research Park.  I was doing this old dude shuffle as I suffered in agony trying to finish the mile. I did so, in 6:18. All things considered, that was not a bad effort. It was good to reach beyond the comfort zone. I ran easy to recover my sanity for a while and then did another surge of about .70 to the steps on the Legacy Bridge.  

The run made me seriously consider, for many reasons, changing the title of my blog to "Shuffling Through the Blackness." 

I swam a mile at Steiner.

Goose egg. I have excuses but they're not very good. 

Another double digit run ... that's two weeks in a row! I felt good during the run but had some residual knee soreness afterward. That seems to be the cycle: the knee warms up nicely during the run and then the hamstrings and glute get all knotted up in the hours after the run.  Stretching and massage do help, but there seems to be no magic bullet other than ... um ... not running.

I swam about 1/2 mile at Steiner; concentrating mostly on drills. 

Arrived at Steiner at about 6, parked the car and did a 4.6 mile route around the U and Research Park.  This was my first run in my Ecco Biom shoes I picked up on Saturday. These are a minimalist trainer.  Despite their techy-looks, it feels like a racing flat with a stiff sole. The last is made of polyurethane that is supposed to last a long time. The shoes did support a more neutral position.  They lack any meaningful cushioning, which I am apparently willing to pay a premium not to have. I will continue to give them a try and report appropriately.

After the run, I swam 1000m in the pool at Steiner. My form was much better than on Sunday. 

This morning I ran my first workout with the black sheep since probably early May.  It was retro day, meaning everyone was sporting old school shirts from as far back as their wardrobes could take them, i.e., John Straley's 1982 Salt Lake Classic shirt and his brother Jeff's 1977 East Cross Country shirt. I was sporting an American Apparel reissue of a vintage design--a white tank with red piping. But it was made of cotton and that was plenty of retro for me. 

 I was pretty concerned about running hard on the track since it's been a while. We warmed up 1.20 miles and then did a timed mile, with each lap accelerating.  My watch died before this so I didn''t have a split. Josh ran 5:15 and I was close to 30 seconds behind him, so I would say 5:40-45 or so.  It felt ok.  Then we ran 8 x 400m with 200m jog recoveries.  These I ran in 75-77.  Again, these felt ok and I am glad that we didn't do more than eight because I just don't have the fitness for much more than that right now, not to mention concern about aggravating the knee.

 Part of my objective in doing this workout is a test of where the knee is at in terms of recovery.  Right now it feels ok, but we'll see how the day unfolds. I plan to swim tomorrow to give it a break.

 

I swam a mile at Steiner. The last 400m of this swim felt as good as any bit of swimming I have done. I also picked up a wetsuit yesterday so I can hopefully get into the open water a bit more.

I pulled myself out of bed at 5:05 and drove my body to Holladay to meet at Divas to run with the group that meets there each week.  It's basically a few dudes like me and 6-10 of the fastest women on the Wasatch Front.  They are relentless. It was a good run with several long surges. Overall pace was in the neighborhood of sub 7 minutes.  The knee, per usual, felt unstable in the first few miles and then loosened up and didn't bother me the rest of the run. I did quite a bit of massage on the hamstring when I got home. We'll see how it holds up the rest of the day.  Two speedier sessions in the same week is something I haven't done in a long time and I am wary about boosting mileage and intensity at the same time. Tomorrow I'll likely hit the pool again.

I swam a mile this morning in the pool at Steiner.  This was the most relaxed effort yet for this distance. I could have gone another 400m or so but was a little short on time.  I almost enjoyed it.

Met up with a group of 6 or so at Foothill at 6am. We ran an out and back to B street and 11th Avenue.  The weather was hectic but overall pretty nice. Not too windy and not too rainy--but definitely a little of both. It felt like late October.

 I wore the Biom's for the first time over 5 miles.  They felt fine, but the toebox is a little roomy and I didn't close the laces as tightly as I should have. I can't say that these shoes are going to solve my hamstring/knee problems on their own but I do appreciate that they make me pay more attention to what my feet and legs are actually doing while I run.
 

I ran 5.2 from Steiner and then swam another 600 or so in the pool. I was only concentrating on developing the freestyle stroke and not on distance today.  It is amazing how much of the ability to swim well depends on very specific technique. I wish I could succeed at it by just getting in the pool and windmilling my arms and kicking my legs wildly for an hour but it doesn't work that way. I have a lot to learn but I feel like I am making progress. 

Workout with the black sheep--that's two weeks in a row, folks! I was a little late and ran my warmup (1200m) on the track with Bruce H while the rest of the group was on the road. Once the group arrived, we ran an 800 m of speed changes (easy on the curve, accelerate the straights) for additional warm up.

The meat of the workout, courtesy of coach Josh Steffen, was 20 x 400m with 100 walk/jog recoveries. It sounds like a lot of running and it is -- especially for a runner on the mend. The goal pace was "somewhere between 5k and 10k pace." The first few were a little slow, between 84 and 88. After that, the pace settled down for the next 7 or 8 intervals to a pretty consistent pace of about 80-81 seconds. For the last 7 or 8 the pace dropped again, averaging about 78-79 seconds. The last two were faster, 76 and 72. Then a mile cooldown.

I felt good overall--I kept the pace moderate and just tried to be consistent in term of the effort over each interval. This worked in the sense that I didn't die in the middle of any of the intervals. I had decent closing speed on the last interval which was encouraging.

No problems with the hamstring or knee during the workout, but things are a little tight now. We'll see how it goes.

No running--I did play golf with a client, using a golf cart. I will count it as .005 of easy running. 

I had big plans for a run/swim this morning. However, yesterday the power went out and took my alarm clock down with it. When I reset it I somehow fell into the ol' AM/PM trap.  As a result, my alarm should be going off at about 5:30 this evening.  When I did wake up the room had that "it's a little too light in here to be 5:30 am" feeling. In fact, it was 7am. This was a problem for my running plans.

Without much time, I got out the door and ran a little route around the Avenues and Memory Grove. It was a nice morning, but my knee hurt a fair amount -- particularly climbing the stairs up to 4th Ave.  It made me think I shouldn't be running much. 

 I've taken a little IB and I think I'll try the run/swim option tomorrow and see how things feel.

I parked at Steiner and ran an easy 4.6 miles around the U campus and Research Park.  I had no knee pain, due perhaps at least in part to the masking effects of ibuprofen.  After the little run, I swam 1200m in the pool. That felt really good -- I wish I had time to swim the full mile.

Met up with a group of 5 at Foothill Sbux and ran the north route to 11th Ave and B.  That's the turn around point for 10 miles, but being eager to tax  my injured leg further, I decided to head down Memory Grove and up 4th Ave w/ Derrick and Megan.  It's a long slog up 4th Ave. 

All in all, a decent run. My leg/knee felt decent overall--just some warm up pain in the beginning of the run.  It was nice to run a little more than 10.  Would be nice to run 15 again and not think much about it. 

No running today, but I did hike up to the upper meadows and ridges above the U hospital/JCC. I imagine the climb was greater than 2000 feet over a couple of miles--it's quite steep.  On the way up I could hear the Pretenders doing their sound check over at Red Butte Ampitheater.  

This morning I was actually looking forward to swimming. That's a fairly significant change in outlook.  I swam 1800m, which is the longest swim for me so far.  It's not much compared to my friends that swim 3 miles in a workout, but it's a start. 

Workout with the Black Sheep.  After a 1 mile warmup we did 800m of speed changes and then the meat of the workout designed by our own Bruce Herman.  Here are the results:

1 x 1 mile (5:55); 4 x 400 m (84, 83, 81,81); 2 x 800 (2:50; 2:45); 8 x 200 (all at 39, one at 38); and then another 1 x 1 mile (5:34).  The recoveries were minimal within each set (15-30 seconds) and about a minute between sets.

Josh was blowing everyone off the track and was a half lap ahead of me the whole time. I ran with a guy named Kevin who is new to the Black Sheep this week, a former DIII runner from New York.  It helped to have someone to push with, particularly on the last mile.

One mile of cool down followed at the end.

Wow, 7am meeting meant I had to get out the door at 5:15. Josh and Megan didn't have a 7am meeting but decided to join me anyway. That's commitment. We ran around Federal Heights and 11th Ave and Memory Grove. We saw Senator Bob Bennett on 11th Ave out running. Perhaps he was ruminating on the loss of his senate colleague Ted Kennedy.

OK, so here's the deal, you can easily enter to win a Madsen cargo bike by clicking this link:

These bikes are locally made by Jared Madsen and co. Jared's wife Lisa is a diehard member of the local running crew. They are good people and this is a very cool bike. Check it out!

I got up at 5am, but not to run. Instead I met up with some other freaks at the mouth of Parley's canyon and we drove up to East Canyon Reservoir for an open water swim. This was my second open water excursion and the first in a new wetsuit I recently obtained.  The wetsuit fit a little big, with some pockets of water in the shoulders and in the small of my back. Those aren't great things to have and I may need to return it.

 The swim was enjoyable but unlike last time I did have a couple of minor freakouts where I started to think a little too much about the fact I was far away from anything that could save me in the event I got into trouble.  This is a part of the learning curve in open water, I think.  The important part is just to keep calm and keep swimming.  It turned out fine. It was a beautiful morning and what a nice way to start the day.
 

I started this morning with a little six mile tour of memory grove/avenues on my buddy Casey's bike (a very nice Specialized Roubaix with Dura-Ace components). Then I practiced taking on and off his cycling shoes and getting on and off his bike.  Then I put on my running shoes and did a little 1.5 mile route during which my legs felt like cement pylons even after such a short bike ride. Why am I riding a bike and then running? Good questions -- ones I hope to answer tomorrow.

This past Wednesday night I mentioned to my brother (in town from So. Cal.) that there was a triathlon going on at Bear Lake this weekend. I mentioned it for two reasons: 1) he is a triathlete; 2) we were planning to go our cabin at Bear Lake this weekend.  More or less on a lark I agreed to race the triathlon. I have never done a triathlon before. I guess my recent swimming gave me just enough confidence to think I could survive the swim and make it through the rest as well as I could.  We signed up for the Sprint, which seems like a logical place for a newbie like me to start -- the distances are 750m swim, 20k bike ride, 5k run.  

I spent the last couple of days picking the brains of my triathlete friends about how to do handle the transitions and some other basic triathlon etiquette.  Perhaps most importantly I borrowed a very nice bike from a good friend.

The nice thing about this event is that I had absolutely no expectations at all and thus no pressure.   My goal was just to get the feel for doing the events back to back. I have had such an unfulfilling summer for running training that at least this gave me something a little different to try.  Just jumping in blind rather than focusing on training for a triathlon for months on end seems like a more fun way to get the experience. 

And it was fun.  One consistent word of advice I received is that if you're not a great swimmer that it's best to start in the back of the pack. So that's what I did.  When the horn sounded the start, I waited on the beach as everyone  pushed out into the water. I was just chuckling to myself at the fact I was actually beginning a triathlon.  The swim went well enough for me, though very slow compared to the leaders. It was 17:53 for the 750k.  The lake swim was not too bad--there was some jostling but nothing awful.

My first transition seemed to go quickly but actually lasted 2 minutes. I don't know where that time went. On my way out of the transition area, I saw my family that had just arrived to watch my brother and me race.

When I got onto the bike I felt pretty good and kept feeling pretty good.  In fact, although my run was the fastest leg, I felt strongest on the bike. This was a surprise because my little six mile ride I did  yesterday morning constituted the whole of my bike training for this event.  It was only 12 miles, so not really long enough to reach any of the fatigue that accompanies a long ride and really requires the endurance that true cyclists develop.  Surprisingly to me, I didn't get passed during the bike ride -- but I did pass several people. It was fun to race on the bike, a totally new thing. Total time was just over 34 minutes which compared relatively favorably to others in the top 15.

The second  transition was quicker than the first. I downed a gel and got on my shoes and took off.  The run itself felt alright, but not that great. It's really weird to go run after getting off  the bike.  The legs just don't feel right.  I guess that is the challenge of the triathlon and what makes it different from a running race.  I passed many people.  There were no mile markers and I didn't have my Garmin on so no idea of pace. It ended up as 19:09 for the 5k (which was run mostly on dirt roads)  This seems acceptable all things considered, but I can't say it felt like a normal road 5k. 

To my great surprise, I finished fifth overall.  My time was 1:14. I'm searching for explanations for this result and I think this must mean (with all due respect to my fellow competitors) that it wasn't a particularly deep field in the Sprint event (as opposed to the Olympic and Half Ironman distances). It sounds like a good result though, and I'll take it -- it's certainly not a bad showing for the first triathlon, particularly given my lack of training.

 Most importantly, it was a lot of fun. It was a great change of pace from road racing.  The effort overall seemed equivalent to a hard 10 mile race, maybe a half marathon.  But I wasn't completely toasted the way I would be after a hard half marathon. My brother had a good race too--though he had some bike problems that slowed things down--but it was great to be out there with him. 

So would I do it again?  I don't know, but it seems likely.  I am getting comfortable enough swimming that it is almost fun now.  I know nothing about the bike and I need to get one, that's probably the biggest impediment right now.  All of those things would trade off with the running, but right now I think my body could use a little change.   

I ran an easy five miles with my brother JD (of FRB blog fame) along the bike path paralleling Bear Lake--from the Pickleville Playhouse to Garden City Park and back. Nice easy pace and a good conversation.

Headed up to Steiner this morning for a little swim. After fiddling with my goggles and swim cap for the first few laps it was basically uneventful until I smacked my head into the head of another swimmer who was heading in the opposite direction in my lane.  She had started swimming with the assumption that we were splitting the lane. I had been the only one in the lane before she got in and was circling but she didn't wait to jump in before figuring out what I was doing.   It was a direct collision and it kind of hurt, but was more of a surprise. I thought I might have hit the wall at the end of the pool! She was ok as well but she terminated her swim at that point--I don't know why, I don't think it was because she was hurt.  Probably just because it was startling.

 Anyway, I ended up swimming about 1700m, and included some fast laps that felt pretty good.