Elite Jogging For Dummies

It has been a long, long week that has decimated training plans! I did get out this morning for a little 3.5 mile jaunt that felt pretty good in the cool autumn air. At least I was out the door.

Ten miles at ~7:01 pace from Foothill Sbux out and back to 11th Ave and B.  

Though my knee does not do well with big climbs these days, I could not resist the urge to run up to the meadow for a little early fall post-storm circuit.  It was a glorious morning, 34 degrees.

Workout with the Black Sheep at East High.  After the warm up we did some drills: skips, knees, & butt kicks, then an 800 m of speed changes. The workout consisted of 4 x 400, 4 x 800, 4 x 400.  Times were unspectacular in the first set of 400s: 89, 87, 86, 86. The 800s were 2:51, 2:49; 2:46; 2:43.  The last set of 800s: 81,81,81, 72.  I could have (and should have) run the last set of 400s sub 80--I clearly had the energy to do it. Then we ran a bit of cooldown. 

Three days of running in a row.  I think that's a record for the past few months.  It's cold enough now that the outdoor pool at Steiner doesn't sound quite as appealing.  More importantly, my knee hasn't been giving me any real trouble this week. I know it can come back at any moment but I'm enjoying the break in the action.  I'll try to keep it loose with the foam roller and The Stick and see if I can handle 10 miles in Holladay tomorrow.

This was my fourth day of running this week and it felt pretty good. I had planned to drive out to Holladay but the 5:30 start time and 5:00 am wake up time just loomed too large.  I ran 8 miles, out and back to This is the Place Monument. I ran several fartlek surges along the way. Running time was was 59 minutes which isn't bad for this hilly route.

This was an interesting run. I met up at 5:30 with Josh, Megan and Aimee. We ran from Foothill toward my old 'hood.  Along the way we saw a charter bus being loaded onto a big flat bed tow vehicle.  Above the tire on the passenger side was the residue of what looked to be a very hot fire that had either melted or blown out the window. We asked the tow guys and they said there was some kind of brake problem and the tire locked and caught fire from the heat and friction.  Yikes. No one was hurt.

 We circled back to Foothill to pick up some more people at 6am.  We ran out and back to the fire house. On the return, one of our buddies was running on the sidewalk next to Bonneville Golf Course on Foothill. He was moving at a good clip as we were in the last mile. It was still dark and he didn't notice a large tree branch extending over the sidewalk.  He smacked into it with incredible force.  No blood other than the gash on his knee from the resulting fall.  He was pretty out of it for a couple of minutes but ultimately resisted our efforts to take him to get checked out since you don't really want to mess around with that kind of trauma.  But he had a plane to catch in a couple of hours and didn't want to go. That's sort of the last place you want to be after a shot to the head, but I digress. I hope he's ok--haven't yet heard anything to the contrary.
 

Eight miles on the U/Avenues loop. Not terribly eventful, which is just fine. 

Due to a variety of factors (laziness chief among them) I didn't get out to run in the morning. I did take my running gear to work and got out for a run at lunch, doing a six mile out and back up Memory Grove and City Creek Canyon. It was a gorgeous autumn day, made me want to do a mid-day run more often. I even had a Walter Brown sighting at the bottom of City Creek canyon.

Due to a variety of factors (laziness chief among them) I didn't get out to run until 7am. This only gave me time for a 45 minute loop of Federal Heights/11th Ave/Memory Grove.  What a spectacular fall morning, 55 degrees and a nice post-rain mist.

Due to a variety of factors (an 8am meeting being chief among them) I got out the door for a run at about 6:15.  I did an out and back to the gate at TITP. I did several fartlek-style surges ranging from .25 to a mile.  It felt really good to move the legs relatively quickly and the knee has been pretty cooperative as I've picked up the miles a bit. 

After running 1.25, I met up with Johanna, Sue Nielsen & Andy R. to run the Pipeline Trail in Millcreek Canyon. It was a beautiful morning, near the very height of the leaf season in Millcreek.

I managed to dodge lightning for 8 miles, running the U/Avenues/Memory Grove loop.

Workout with the Black Sheep at East High track. We had a group of 12 which is pretty good for this time of year.  After the customary warm up and 800m of speed changes, we ran 4 x 1 mile with each 400 within the mile increasing in pace -- ideally, M, HM, 10K, 5k pace.  I struggled and felt slow the first mile, 5:58.  Then picked it up a bit for the last three, 5:41; 5:37, 5:29.  The last 200 of the final interval was a good effort.  It took me back to running the 200m when I was a kid and would get that nauseating feeling turning into the home stretch knowing I had to run as hard as I could.  

Short loop around the Avenues.

Although I was out the door at about 5:40 am, I only had 45 minutes to run. The reason? So that I could get to the SL Health Dept and stand in line at 7am with our 2 year old for an H1N1 vaccine shot! After four and a half hours of waiting in line, we were rewarded with a needle poke and a band aid.

My brother James, aka JD, came to town and we ran a variation of the short avenues loop with a little extension around the Capitol. It was cool and sunny, nice running weather.  Good to catch up with him, he's running great these days.

This morning I decided to run to Liberty Park for a couple of laps around the park. This was a small victory in the sense that I was able to break out of my typical route and do something slightly different.  In this case, the challenge is that the last two miles are all uphill.

 I should have run downtown and then up to the park so I could get some extra mileage since it is only 2 miles to the park.  But I went directly to the park and ran two laps before heading back. 
 

No running, caught a 6am flight to Denver, returned at 11pm. Long day. 

Very late out the door this morning so I ran the Avenues loop.

I brought my running gear to work and headed out the door at lunch. I thought it was going to be pretty cold but the sun was out and I overdressed with tights and a long sleeve shirt.  I ran from downtown over to the Marmalade neighborhood and then ran the long uphill mile on Victory Road up to the Capitol.  I then headed north on gravity hill (the obviously uphill direction) and then down Memory Grove back to the office. It was a nice change of route from the usual out and back up City Creek from the office. 

Avenues tour.

Cucina Run, "Halloween Edition."  A big group, probably 12 or so, met at Cucina at 6:30. About half of us were in costume. At least one of the costumes worn by a certain male runner could have resulted in an arrest, or at least a large fine. 

I was an early '90s grunge runner, rocking a black wig, ball cap, Nirvana t-shirt (that I bought in 1991), and black dress socks. I ditched the wig for the actual run, which was a good idea.

 The run on Shoreline was challenging as usual, made more so by the fact I have not run a hilly trail route for about four months. I handled it ok, but felt out of shape, which makes sense because I am. But it was a really fun run for many other reasons.