Elite Jogging For Dummies

Workout with the Black Sheep on the U campus.  We ran lots of long uphill surges, ~2:25.  Then we ran 5 x 1 minute uphill surges.  In short, we ran uphill a lot. I was dead tired from trying to coax Jack to get back into his own bed in the middle of the night, and am sort of amazed I actually got out of bed to go run.

Today I decided to run home in the evening, rather than run the morning. I left work around 6 PM and headed North on Main St. through the cold and windy downtown air. I escaped the city lights when I hit the gate at Memory Grove. From there, I proceeded to run in the dark on the Canyon Road up to the entrance to the Shoreline Trail to make the climb up to the meadow. Yes, it was dark,but I know the trail very well. There were a couple of icy spots that I didn't anticipate, but nothing major. It was a beautiful evening run.

After traversing the meadow for a lap, I headed East on 18th Ave. to begin making my way home. I encountered a house so overwhelmed with illuminated plastic Santas and Frosty the Snowman figures and Christmas lights of all kinds thatI was virtually blinded. They put the Griswolds to shame. If you're into this kind of thing it is worth a side trip.

today I ran at lunch from work.  I headed north on West Temple through the marmalade neighborhood and up Victory Road and up above the capital.  From there, and headed north on gravity hill above Memory Grove and up to the one mile mark in City Creek before turning around to head back downtown.  It was a nice run, but it felt a little bit like a treadmill run since I still had work on the brain and I felt slightly like I was going to the motions.  I think I prefer morning runs for that reason.

This morning I did something I have not done and probably a couple of years, I joined the group that meets at Foothill for the epic climb up 21st South to the H Rock.  It was nice having Josh and Megan to drag me up the hill.  Oh, by the way, it was 17°. 

after the hill and the brief trail section, it is a nice gentle cruise through the upper St. Mary's neighborhood, down through Bonneville Golf Course and back to Foothill Village.  I added an extra mile with Megan and Lee.

This is a little race held out in Copperton each year in honor of Nick Yengich, who was my wife's uncle. One of her other uncle's, Ron, is the charismatic figure behind the event. It has been going on for 20+ years. The focus is much, much, much more on the cameraderie amongst the families of those honored and people who run it every year than on the race experience (it would no doubt fail every one of Sasha's criteria, and almost intentionally so). But it is a race nonetheless. I've run it just once before and it was cold, snowy, and very windy. Just like this year! 

The race had a lot going for it, however, including an 11am start time which is very generous and kind if you're going to hold a race the first weekend of December.  Also, there is a unique opportunity to literally run in the shadow of the worlds largest open pit copper mine.  I think Runner's World did a "Rave Run" piece on that several years ago, or maybe that was Sequoia National Park. Anyway, it is unique. It is the near the former site of Bingham Canyon (from whence the Yengich clan spawned), which has been obliterated and is now part of the mine. I wish the town were still there and inhabited as that sounds like it was a world of its own that created some of the heartiest, liveliest, and most hardworking people this state has known.

 So, yeah, there was a race and I was the only guy wearing shorts, which pretty much singled me out as the guy that was taking way too seriously a race that all but a few others were doing as a pleasant diversion from getting on a ladder to hang Christmas lights from the rain gutters. But it was a nice tempo run.  Although billed as 5k, the course has never been properly measured and has shrunk as the gate to the mine entrance that marks the turnaround point has moved closer to the start each year or two.

Unfortunately, I didn't start my Garmin at the beginning of the race so I can't say how short it is, and I don't really care. It was probably 2.6-2.7.  It was long enough for me to be glad when it was over.

 I received two prizes, one was a figurine of Lou Gherig delivering his famous "luckiest man" speech.  (The race was run in honor of two people that died from ALS this year). I also received a copy of Judge Andrew Valdez's autobiographical book about his life growing up and the many challenges he overcame. He was in the field of runners, along with federal judge Dee Benson, so I felt it was my duty as an officer of the court to try to run reasonably well.

 I cooled down on the course, enjoyed the cold cold morning.




 

Man it was cold this morning! And windy! Footing wasn't great. I did feel alive.

I aspired to run this morning.  Circumstances dictated otherwise.

Slow getting out the door this morning, so only time for a short run around the Avenues and Memory Grove.  It was quite cold, 11 degrees, but I was dressed for it so it wasn't bad.  

When I got dressed to run this morning, I planned to head up on to the Shoreline trail for a little snow run, and a chance to test my new micro-spikes.  Once I got on the road to head up to the trail, however, I realized that the roads were pretty dry and that it would be good to take advantage of that while I could.  So, I ditched the spikes under a bush and ran a loop out beyond  Sunnyside to 900 So. and back through the U.  Picked up the spikes on the way home.

It was 8 degrees, but it didn't feel too cold since there was no wind and I was dressed warm enough.  

So, it was 6 degrees out this morning, the coldest all week.  But I dressed well and had a nice run around Federal Heights, Avenues, and Memory Grove. I think I saw Adam RW on 11th Ave but he was running in the opposite direction and so bundled up that it was hard to tell.  The coldest part was running toward the mouth of City Creek canyon; there was a steady wind blowing out of the canyon and I thought my chin was going to freeze and break off my face. It didn't, fortunately. 

This morning was the Third Annual Holladay Holiday 10 Miler -- an officially unofficial "race" and general excuse to run with a bunch of friends and have a good time.  This morning we had about 35 runners, which I think is the most in race history.  So what was there? Well, there were multiple costumes, some mildly inappropriate. There were people wearing random race numbers from other actual races. There was a cowbell start.  There was a tricky course that was well-marked but required some detailed knowledge of the backroads and neighborhoods of Holladay.  There was my buddy Sam, who graciously hosts the event and sets the tone for everything good about the event.  There was Josh, Adam and Fritz -- three runners that could seriously hurt me if this were an actual race. There was much frolicking and, as Josh would say, "slap and tickle."  There were many motorists inconvenienced by our merry bunch.  There was the traditional kick to the finish line, running backwards. There was an awesome apres run spread at Sam's house. It was a good time. I hope we continue to grow this little tradition. 

This morning I ran a slushy and icy 8.6 miles. Yesterday I read an article in Running Times advising runners to "mix up" their training routines and routes, etc.  I can't tell you how many times I have gone to bed thinking that when I wake up to go run I am going to go run [insert X new destination] and then promptly dismissed that plan as inconvenient when I actually woke up.  With that, I must admit that I ran the U/Federal Heights/Memory Grove loop.  My concession to "mixing it up"was running up through Ensign Elem to 13th Ave rather than running entirely on 11th Ave. 

Workout with the Black Sheep. We ran a hill workout in the St. Mary's neighborhood that basically ran us up every hill between 1300 So. and 1700 So., probably a total of 12-15 hills overall, varying in length from 40 seconds to about 90 seconds.  I ran a little cooldown on my own after, along Wasatch Blvd. 

Well, I finally did get off the beaten path today and ran an unconventional loop through the U, up 900 South to 1300 E, up through Bonneville Golf Course, then back through This is the Place and followed the standard route home from there.  I didn't plan to run as long as I did, but it's a good side effect of switching things up a little. Best moment of the run was running across this field of fresh snow at This is the Place, taking in the grand city view, listening to a song from Bon Iver. 

U/Avenues/Memory Grove Loop. 

No running today. Instead I got a massage at 6am from Mark.  Worked great.

I ran the Cucina loop on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail with Sam. It was an icy climb up to the meadow, but nice hardpack snow most of the way after that.  We were up above the valley gunk which was refreshing.

Wow, it was really foggy out this morning. I am sure I inhaled more than than my share of fine particulates.  The fog did help shroud a VPB stop, so there was that upside. I ran the U/Avenues/Memory Grove Loop.

Black Sheep workout. We met at Popperton Park. After about a mile of warm up on 11th Avenue, we started running hills. And then we kept running hills ... up, up, up until there were no more hills to run, just the dead end at the top of Terrace Hills Drive. Then we ran down a bit so we could find some more hills and then we ran those.  Eventually, gravity required that we return to our cars and go home. 

My legs felt a little heavy from yesterday's hill overdose. I trudged around for 6.6 miles enjoying the winter conditions. 

It was chilly out this morning and felt colder than the reported 19 degrees. There was still a dusting of new snow as well.  I ran out and back to This is the Place. I like to run out there close to Christmas because the Pioneer Village is adorned for the season and early in the morning when there is no one around it feels nearly genuine.  The village is a little hokey (perhaps it reminds me of a Thomas Kinkaid painting), but its setting is a convincing reminder that the world of abundance and sensory overload that we inhabit today is something new and different. There were people here long ago, including my own relatives, that endured much more to survive and make a living than we can fully appreciate today.

After taking Christmas off I was looking forward to running.  I ran a southern loop that took me just about to 2100 South and 2300 E before circling back up through my childhood neighborhood up on to Wasatch Boulevard, and returning home through the U.  The air was not great and it was very cold, but it felt good.

I am shooting for more than 45 miles this week -- maybe even 50 miles if I get super ambitious.  To take a 1/5 chunk out of that goal, I ran 10 miles this morning. I have been trying to mix it up with a new route and today's run was a bit of an experiment. It turned out almost exactly 10 miles which shows how precisely calibrated my internal sense of distance must be. Or whatever.  This route goes through the U, over to Guardsman, over toward Foothill Village and then crosses Foothill, heads up to the golf course, past the zoo and then returns home via This is the Place, Fort Douglas and Federal Heights. Plenty of climbing overall, but that's a benefit. The weak link is Foothill Blvd, which is far too busy of a street and requires a wait for a traffic light. 

Black Sheep Workout. This was, by far, the most sisyphyean workout I have ever done. After our warmup along Wasatch Blvd, our small group (5) did 1 minute intervals climbing up toward Devonshire.  The catch is that after running hard a minute up, we turn around and recovered a minute down -- essentially backtracking against progress we had made on the way up. And then repeating, repeating, repeating so that we were inching our way up these hills.  John S. described as a way to "savor the hills."  That is true, the same hills just kept on giving, and giving, and giving. I was spent by the time we reached the top. 

U/Avenues loop.

Three miles on our new treadmill that felt like five miles. The calibration seems all wrong, 8:30 pace felt like 7:00 pace. 7:30 pace felt like 6:15 pace. Anyway, I don't know if I will use it much but it is a good option to have in the house.

 After the treadmill romp I went skiing at Snowbird with my buddy Dave. There was plenty of powder if you were willing to hike a little bit for it.