Elite Jogging For Dummies

Happy New Year! We were up at the lake house last night and returned early this afternoon. So, this was an afternoon run, a rarity for me. I ran from home to the Capitol and up to the 1.5 mile mark up City Creek Canyon, then return via 11th Ave, and down the Cemetary to home. Pace was easy, except for a tempo pace running down City Creek. My system has grown accustomed to running in the morning and without a lot in my digestive system and I felt a little heavy. Still, I was glad to get out the door.

Black Sheep workout. We ran a 1.15 mile warm up from Foothill Village to the end of Wasatch blvd between the zoo and Bonneville Golf Course. We ran 4 hill repeats on this section, with plenty of cold canyon wind blowing in our faces. These were about 75% effort. Then we jogged down to Wasatch, just south of 1300 South (Village Cir.). From there, we ran .53 mi repeats out and back to Skyline Drive. The way out is hilly and we were about 15 seconds slower than on the return; just under 3 min. On the return, faster; 2:49. Then 2 x 1 mile on Wasatch, from Village Rd. to Broadmoor. On the way out, Josh Steffen and I ran 5:49, the return was 5:27. Then a one mile cooldown back to Foothill.

Bonneville Golf Course loop.

Radda run.

City Creek Canyon route, from home. The road was a little icy, but the snowy canyon was gorgeous on this chilly, clear morning.

I showed up at Foothill Village at about 5:35 and ran about 2.5 out and back to meet up with the group at 6am. We ran a south loop out to 3300 South and then back. I gmapped the run here. On the return along 2100 East, Aimee Larkin and I pushed pretty decent 1.5 or so.

No running today. I did go skate skiing up on the Mirror Lake highway in the Uintas, though. A group of six drove up in two cars. It was cold, cold, cold. The thermometer in the car read -8 degrees on our arrival at the trailhead. My fingers are still recovering from the chill. The snow was too cold to get much glide and it was generally very tough. We covered between 6-8 miles total, so not too much. Because I am so inefficient, I definitely taxed my aerobic capacity, however. On the way back down Parley's Canyon, Mtn Dell looked like it was in great shape and nice and warm. Not the best call on where to go today, but I'm glad to have been out. It was beautiful.

HCI loop with the usual cast of characters. I ran a harder pace on the first half, ran 4 x 80-90m strides in the middle, and then ran a consistent but slower pace toward the end. I stretched and used the TP Massage tools last night and I think that helped loosen things up for today's run.

After hovering in the 50 mile range for the last several weeks, I'm going to try to pick it up a little this week, and try to get in at least 55--keep the mileage increase gradual.

Black Sheep workout at Liberty Park. Josh Steffen coached today. We ran the 1.4 mi loop for a warmup and then ran 6 x 1000 meter repeats with about 1-2 minutes rest between. My slowest was 3:11, the fastest was 2:55. Then 2 more loops to cool down.

I ran a couple of miles through the avenues (zigzagging from 4th Ave up to 11th Ave) before heading east to run the Bonneville Golf Course loop. Easy pace. I have some obnoxious pain in my left foot that I am icing as we speak.

Cool addition of the word processing tools, thanks Sasha.

I met up with the group at 6am to run the Radda route.  About 3 miles into the run, Aimee Larkin and I started a series of 2-3 minute fartlek-style surges at between 5:55 and 6:10 pace.  These felt decent.  My left foot is still sore, I have no idea what is going on there.  Ignoring it doesn't seem to be helping.  The pain is no worse; just still very present.  Iced again when I got home.

These tools are cool, I hope I make use of them. I just noticed that using the minimize/maximize tab you can fill up your whole screen with white space to complete your entry.

 Today I ran an out and back loop (nice oxymoron, eh?) to 15th and 15th, return via 17th E, and then over to Guardsman.  On 17th E, the snow was falling off of the tree limbs and I was getting pelted with snow every few feet as I ran in the street.  I kind of enjoyed that.  Just easy pace today, watching the ankle issue I described yesterday.  It was slightly more sore after the run, but feeling decent right now.

Thermometer read 9 degrees before I head out the door. This was at 8am, so I guess it had warmed up.  It was chilly, but if you dress properly, you get used to it. Like running in extreme heat though, extreme cold can zap a bit of your energy, or just make you feel like you're working harder than your results reflect. I ran from home, through the U, to Foothill, then zigzagged down through the Harvard/Yale neighborhoods to 9th and 9th, then continued to Liberty Park for a couple of laps, and then 6th East through downtown, up Canyon Road toward Memory Grove, and then east on 4th Ave. to home.  My left foot didn't bother me at all until the last mile when I started to feel it. I iced when I got home.  It's manageable, but I should probably have it checked out to be on the safe side. 

A mile into this run my left knee started to hurt seriously enough that I thought I need to turn around right away and go home.  Except for the fact I had some knee pain in a different location while skate skiing the other day, this was a total surprise.  It felt like IT band, but hard to say.

Testing the knee. I iced yesterday after running and used all of my massage tools to try to isolate tight spots around the knee. The IT band didn't feel much tighter than ususal. I do have a tender spot right on the outside of the knee, which can occur with ITBS. I also took two advil. On the run, the knee didn't talk to me at all for the first four miles, but then I heard the thing start whispering as I climbed up from 1500 E. to 900 S. When I started to descend through Federal Heights, I could hear it loud and clear. It's the increased discomfort on the downhill that continues to make me think it's IT. I did some 3-5 minute surges during the run and the pain didn't increase with the increased pace.

Well, at least the pain in the left knee is making me forget about the pain in my left ankle--which seems to be improving. These are kind of surprising developments; I haven't' had any big spikes in mileage and I haven't changed the terrain I've been running on. Perhaps its time to get refitted with a new orthotic, as I stopped wearing mine several months ago when the felt like they had broken down too much. I had started using PowerStep insoles after that for a long time and I liked them, but they weren't so good on the instep of my right foot. For the last several weeks I have been using the insoles that come with my shoes; Asics Kayano--the model of shoe I have been wearing for 9 years. However: This article says studies show biomechanics may not be a major factor. Interesting.

Six easy miles this morning to test the knee again. I ran with a group that included Lee Dibble, who teaches in the physical therapy dept. at the U. We talked about my knee and he looked at it and his spot diagnosis was ITBS. Well, at least I know what I'm dealing with. He thought it was probably a result of skate skiing, which emphasizes hip abduction in a way that is different than running. He thought that probably explained my ankle issues as well, with the pushing motion straining the ligaments. So, I'll hang up the skate skis for a while and get back to skiing downhill! (I sold my tele gear, thinking I would buy a Dynafit setup, but haven't yet; so I'll stick to the resorts for a while).  And I'll work on strengthening the hip abductors.

The upside is that I had little to no pain in the knee running this morning. I attribute this mostly to the aggressive use of the Quadballer, one of the Paul Peterson recommended TP Massage Products. I have found it much more useful than the foam roller in really isolating, though with great discomfort, the tight parts of the IT band.  I may run another mile or two tonight to test it again, we'll see.

Radda run. It's still cold. I rolled out the IT Band last night and again this morning. It's still a bit tender to the touch with hard pressure, but I didn't notice it on the run at all. I'll keep rolling it and hope the improvement continues. Did notice the ankle issue more today, however. I think I have isolated how to stretch that ligament, though, and that provides some relief. I don't have any real pain, just some noticeable discomfort. I just don't want that to turn into pain. Besides, I don't think that's the kind of pain that Sasha was talking about in his entry about the beauty of suffering.

Bonneville Golf Course loop.  No problems with the IT band today, even when I pushed it harder on the downhill.  Ankle is still bothering me, but who needs ankles for running?  I think my stretching is helping somewhat. It also feels like a biomechanics issue, as I can manipulate the discomfort while running through small changes in my gait.  

I'm planning to run 12 tomorrow and that should give me a good indication about where I'm at on both the IT and the ankle.   

Starting at 15th/15th, the first five miles of the run looped through Foothill and Sugarhouse neighborhoods, then nine miles out and back up to the fire station on 11th Ave.  I pushed the pace in a few spots. No IT band problems, ankle still an issue.

Thinking that the morning would be warmer, I had planned to run up City Creek Canyon, but the thermometer read just 12 degrees at 6:30 am, so I ran the Bonneville Golf Course loop.   The air was cold and sharp, but was entirely gunk-free!!  The lack of gunk seems to have increased the circulation of oxygen, as I was able to run a fairly aggressive pace; alternating in the middle of the run with some fartlek, mixing sub 6min pace followed by 6:30pace. 

 Still wary of my ankle issues, I busted out a new pair of shoes before running this morning, and put in my Sorbothane insoles, which are soft and offer moderate support (nothing close to the PowerStep).  The new shoes seemed to make a difference, I didn't really feel the ankle for much of the run. But it's still talking to me.  The discomfort has migrated up my foot a bit. I iced when I got home.
 

The little ankle problem is not improving much.  Since the discomfort appears when my foot rolls through the push off, I decided that it would be good idea to go to the gym and try the elliptical machine.  It worked fine, I used it for 30 minutes, and it said I went 3 miles. Ankle felt fine. Then I decided it was ok to do at least a little bit of running, so I got on the treadmill and ran two tempo miles back to back: 6min and 5:45.  Then one cooldown mile as the ankle started to talk to me. Afterward, the ankle felt fine and no pain yet.  The discomfort seems to emerge later in the day for some reason.  

Liberty Park run, from home.  I didn't have my footpod today, so I gmapped the run here to get the right mileage.  I felt fairly spry once I reached the park.  I ran 2 loops (2.8 mi total) in sub 17:45, and I didn't feel like I was working too hard.  Ankle was fine for most of the run, until the last 25 minutes or so, when it started talking to me.  I iced when I got home.  It hurt quite a bit once I stopped running and even after icing.  I am afraid that I am only aggravating it with more running and I should probably lay off, but I also have a serious case of SAS (Stupid Athlete Syndrome) that prevents me from doing the right thing.  If only I were a better swimmer . . .

Radda run, small turnout.  Pace was easy, which was good because I'm still wary of this ankle.  Since I had very little pain during the day yesterday, I figured more running would be OK (symptom of SAS).  And it was.  Virtually no pain or discomfort. I am tempted to say that it's improving. In fact, I think that the improvement is the result of not trying to stretch and manipulate it so much throughout the day, and just let it heal.  

Easy stroll through the 'hood in some of the gunkiest gunk I have ever had the pleasure of inhaling. 

Winter Series 5k. They started the race at Saltair--I have only run the winter series races from the Marina, but it's a decent change. It's a big indoor space, which is nice when it's 14 degrees out.

I ran an easy warm up of 3.1 on the course with Mark Holland (running bandit) and Julia Cassidy (who would go on to win both the women's and masters divisions).

I had three goals: 1) finish in the top 5; 2) run as close to 17 minutes as I could muster in the cold, and 3) meet the two other goals while still using this as a training run that I use to gauge where I'm at right now.

Went out fairly fast but at a pace I was comfortable with. I didn't recognize any of the other runners that I went out with in the lead group, except BJ Christensen, who won in 15:20. First mile was 5:28 and I was satisfied with that. I was in 5th, but just a few meters from the 3rd Guy and 4th Guy. In the second mile, I got sidetracked thinking about these other runners instead of concentrating on pace. With the 180 degree turnaround thrown in (which sucks at least 3 seconds off), I ran the second mile in 5:42. Too slow! I picked it up in the third mile, catching 4th Guy and then 3rd Guy. So then I was 3rd Guy, but it didn't last. About 150m from the 3 mile sign, the former 4th Guy passed me and then the other fellow did too. My split for mile 3 was 5:36. I know that I had another gear to drop into, but I couldn't find it right at that moment. So I cruised in a few meters after 4th Guy, finishing in 17:23.

So here are my thoughts on this first race of 2007: First, I am not disappointed with my effort today considering what a strange week of training I have had and the effects of my little bouts with injury. The ankle felt fine today and I have every reason to believe it is healing normally. The IT band has not bothered me for several days. Also, my overall training foundation feels fine. That's not where I need the work at this point. I have plenty of base miles under my belt. Although I can hold a decent pace, I need to work on the top end speed so that I can summon that extra gear when I really need it. I need to concentrate on adding more strides into my weekly runs to get the feel of fast turnover. Also, I need to mix in longer tempo work that will push my aerobic threshold. I have tended to treat a lot of these winter runs as just fun, easy miles and if I feel good enough to run hard for a mile or two, then great, but otherwise, no big deal. Assuming I have proper rest, it's time to start picking up the pace for some real tempo work even when it's not comfortable.

Five easy miles to cool down afterward; mostly with Julia, Mark, Scott Browning and Taha.

The air is so bad out right now that I knew I had to run indoors, but I knew I couldn't run more than 6 miles on the treadmill without going out of my mind.  So my compromise plan was to run two miles from home to the gym, run on the treadmill for five miles, and run home.  The run to the gym was easy and the transition to gettting on the treadmill was easy.  I have a little pocket of soreness in my left hamstring from Saturday's race, so I didn't want to push it too hard, but I knew I would get a little bored if I didn't keep it somewhat spicy.  So I ran progressively quicker miles 6:52/6:45/6:35/6:30/6:22, adding 1% incline every other mile. The running itself felt fine, but I am not accustomed to the treadmill experience.  So much of life is like a treadmill already, I prefer actual movement when I run. The hardest part of the morning was when I got off the treadmill, suited back up for the run home, headed out the gym door, and experienced a kind of vertigo from suddenly moving while running after five miles of being stationary.  This lasted almost a mile.  

Black sheep workout in the Avenues.  We ran the usual 1 min on 1 min off from I Street to the Capitol.  Then easy down to 4th Ave, where we began the hideous "up and overs" (easy on the flat numbered streets, hard on the uphill lettered streets).  I felt slightly better than a couple of months ago when we ran this workout.  Then we cruised down from 11th Ave through the cemetary down to 4th Ave for a long surge to Virginia.  I added another couple of miles for cooldown. 

Woke up to snow!  Nice to see something different.  Since I figured that most of what was falling from the sky was smoggy particulates, I ran to the gym and ran 5 miles on the treadmill, then ran home.  Treadmill miles were 6:55/6:36/6:27/6:18/6:00.  Less post-treadmill vertigo while running home today than on Monday. 

Radda Run.  At about mile 4, I picked it up into a 2 mile tempo surge.  Miles were on rolling hills.  I didn't get the split for the first, second was 5:45.  Then about 3/4 mile easy, followed by .5 surge at 5:35 pace with a gradual climb.  

Easy, sleepy miles over most of my Bonneville Golf Course loop, except for the actual golf course part--too much snow! There's now way I'm going to complain about that given the recent lack of air quality and the shoddy skiing. 

I left home at 5:35, running a 3 mile route meet up with the group at 9th/9th at 6am.  We then ran a 9.5 mile route. We ran through downtown, then ran the first surge all the way up Memory Grove to the bottom of City Creek Canyon.  Easy from there up to 11th Ave/B Street.  Then the big push up to the fire station on 11th Ave.  Casey K. and I were both going anaerobic by the end of this one mile push.  Didn't get a split; didn't need one.  My gasping for air was all I needed to know it was a decent effort.  

 Then easy most of the way back until Casey decided to go hard with about 1/3 mile left, and we finished with a hard but fun push at the end that left us all laughing.  After a hot chocolate milk and a banana, I ran home 1.5 miles.
 

Zoo / Golf course loop.  Easy pace.  I thought I would feel a little more spry following some rest and a massage this weekend, but I actually felt a little sluggish. 

Black Sheep Workout at Liberty Park. I coached today's effort.  With the weather warmer today, I thought it would be safe to try to work on core speed.  Started with a 1.4 mile warm-up loop, followed by 5 x 100-110m strides.  The workout itself included three loops around the park.  The first one was broken into 8 segments of about 200-300m each that we ran at a hard pace; what I've called VO2 max pace here.  Recovery was about 30-45 seconds of rest.  Then we ran two loops of 4 segments each, at threshold pace, same recovery.  These were hard. We all had problems holding the form in the last 30-40 meters of each interval.  This was a hard workout today, but necessary to get the feel of fast turnover again.  Two more loops for cooldown.

Easy miles from 15th/15th. 

Radda run. The pace was generally easy; topping out in the 6:35-6:40 range. Added some strides at the end.

Bonneville Golf Course loop.Warm enough again to wear shorts.Very little snow on the first fairway. This seems horribly wrong. There should be a foot of snow--it's early February. On the other hand, at least it's not 8 degrees out like it was during most of January.

Strider's Winter Series 5k.  I arrived at about 8:10 am, enough time to check in and get in a 4.75mi warmup before the race.  I ran the course, and I'm still debating whether that was  good idea, but I think it was.  With substantial climbs throughout the first two miles and just as substantial (and steep) descents, it was a wacky  course to say the least.  Paul Peterson's elevation profiles tell at least part of the story. Looking back, I believe the course must have been designed with the purpose of showcasing Ogden's trophy homes, because I can't figure out any other reason why you would design a 5k route like that. 

My goal in this race was to stay mentally tougher than I was a couple of weeks ago, and run sub-18 minutes at all costs.  The pace was fast from the start, with a very strong pack of runners  leading the way out of the Dee Events Center parking lot.  Of course, this is as close as I would get to the front pack, as I settled into the third chase group at about 1km mark.  First mile was 5:42, not too bad considering the climb, but I knew the worst was yet to come.  The second mile has a couple of long climbs, which I tolerated well and made up a little ground and a place or two. On the descents that followed, I just tried to keep my form together and lean forward, let gravity do the work.  The mile 2 split, which comes right at the top of another hill, was 6:11.  The third mile is slightly more forgiving, but has a longish descent where maintaining a fast pace is difficult.  The last .35 mi or so are run back to the Dee Events center parking lot, and around to the finish.  I held pretty strong, finishing the final 1.1 in 6:02 (I missed my 3mi split)--10th overall, in 17:55.

 You can read the entries from others, but the bloggers had a great race overall. Bob Thompson was 2nd behind Corbin Talley and Paul Peterson--making a comeback with a vengeance--was 3rd.  Sasha was 5th, I believe, but I may be wrong.  Ted had a good race as well. It was fun to put some faces with the blogs and we all put in some cool down miles at the end of the race.  After the awards, I ran another 3.25 through the trophy homes.

 I feel good about this race because it made me realize I'm not very far off of where I was on my better 5k performances last year, at least in terms of effort.  If I can concentrate on continuing to develop speed, I think I can improve my 5k PR.
 

"Easy" miles that were not very easy on the Research Park/Fort Douglas loop.   I just wanted to move the legs a little after racing.  

Bonneville Golf Course loop.  It was very slick out, with lots of black ice throughout the run; makng for a very slow morning.  I very nearly spilled a couple of times, and busted out some sweet dance moves trying to keep my balance.  I was awating for applause, cheers, or at least some name-calling from people in their cars and homes, but heard none (I was wearing my iPod). The air was clear, however, and I enjoyed the mountain views with some new snow.  

Pace was, in a word, slow.  

I had an early meeting this morning, so I had to skip the Black Sheep workout and do my own thing before heading into work.  From home, I warmed up through Federal Heights and over to the University.  I ran an interval at 5k pace from the golf course to the Legacy Bridge.  Then I dropped down into campus where they had demolished a dormitory and built a parking lot. I'm usually against that kind of thing, but this parking lot is a great place to run at 6am: great surface, traffic-free, and well-lit.  I ran 6 x 100m or so strides.  The meat of the workout was 10x repeats at about a 2% grade in the parking lot. Each repeat was about 45-50 seconds and left my lungs hurting. The area was just steep enough to provide some resistance, but not steep enough that I couldn't run fast.  Cooled down back home, but threw in some surges to make sure I wouldn't be late. 

Six miles this morning, easy: Avenues to Capitol Hill.. I'm going to try to get in a few more after work.

I read today that there is a documentary in the works that follows several of the U.S.'s best distance runners (Meb, Dathan, Culpepper, et al) through to the US XC Championships (the race Nick got to watch last week). Here's a little trailer for the show--slightly on the cheesy side, but kinda cool.

Continuing with that theme, here is a good segment on youtube with the highlights from the USATF XC Championships 

After work, I went over to the gym and ran 4 easy miles on the treadmill: 7:30/7:00/6:53/6:53.

Radda Run. First 4.5 were easy and conversational. Then I did a 2 mile tempo run along Wander Lane, which is generally flat with a slight uphill grade (I was running north) and it has enough rollers to keep your attention. I botched the timing and ran based on the pace information from my footpod. I was at 5:45-5:55 pace throughout. It put me in the mindset I wanted to be in: uncomfortable but in control. After about .30 of easy running, I did a series of pickups from streetlight to streetlight, concentrating on form and turnover. Then easy for the last mile back to Radda.

No running. The cold that I felt coming on all week hit me on Thursday afternoon. I knew my body needed full rest.

On some runs, you feel like you have all the energy in the world and could run forever.  This was not one of those runs. I woke up this morning feeling much better, but not good enough to go meet up with any running friends early.  By noon, my energy was pretty good and the congestion had subsided considerably so I thought it was ok to go run.  The first few miles were awful; slow and uncomfortable.  After a long bio break at the Top Stop at about halfway, I felt somewhat better, but still lethargic.  I phoned in the rest of the run, except for the last .7, which I ran at a decent pace because it was downhill and I was almost home. 

The weather was outstanding and I felt better today, so I decided to check out the conditions on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.  The conditions were muddy.  Felt like I was wearing a pair  of Sasha's ankle weights for much of the run. Still, it was a gorgeous day for an easy run with a little climbing. 

Decided to sleep in a little bit, woke up at 6:20. Had to shovel some snow when I got out the door. I ran a funky loop past the law school and through the middle of campus, up through Federal Heights, and over to 11th Ave. While running east the snow was not bad at all; but while running west, I was really getting a lot of wind and snow in my face. Not a great morning to be out very long while still recovering from a cold, so I cut it a little short. I plan to get in a few more miles this evening.

Video interview with Ed Eyestone here. (I haven't watched it yet; mainly posting this link to remind myself . . .)

In the evening, added 4.25 more; running a nice route up around the capitol; easy pace; legs felt fresh.

Black sheep workout in the St. Mary's neighborhood above Wasatch Blvd.  This is the same workout I ran with the group in the fall, only longer. After a 1.25 warmup; we ran 6x steep hill repeat (40-45 secs).  Then 6 x steeper hill repeats on a different street. These were lung burners, Casey's specialty.  Then 6 x half n' half loops.  These are about 500 meter loops that are half flat and half uphill. The form felt good on the flat; always a struggle to hold the speed moving into the hills.  But that's what I need.  We cooled down back to Wasatch blvd.  The group headed back to our Foothill Village meeting spot, but I continued up into Bonneville Golf course for some more easy running, followed by 6x strides of about 60-100m.

Added another 3.5 tonight, up through the campus at the U.

Zoo/Golf Course loop, easy, under a gorgeous sunrise.  Last night I downloaded a few podcasts on thefinalsprint.com and I listened to a couple of them on the run.  Last night, I listened to an interview with Alan Culpepper.  Today, I listened to interviews with Todd Williams and Billy Mills.  I loved that movie "Running Brave" when I was a kid. 

Radda Run. This was my first outing with the Garmin 305, which arrived yesterday (purchased through the Fast Running Blog Store). Yes, I finally had enough of the Suunto t6 and have jumped onto the GPS bandwagon. (I feel a little guilty getting a new one when Clyde just destroyed his, but what can you do?)

I spent a little bit of time last night sorting through the features, which I was pretty impressed with. It is much more oriented toward running performance than the Suunto. The Suunto's strength is in the training effect analysis, but on a daily basis what matters more to me is accurate pace and distance information. I found that the Suunto's foot pod system was unreliable over time.

I like the size of the display on the Garmin, so I can see lots of data at once. I found that the pace information does not necessarily adjust in real time (unlike the Suunto), which is probably a function of waiting for satellite info, but on the other hand maybe I just wasn't speeding up as quickly as I thought.

I had the AutoLap set for 1 mile splits, and after 4 easy miles with the group, I did a two mile tempo run on Wander Lane. I started the run a little after the beep went off and I went through the hillier first mile in 6:07. The second mile has some rollers too, but it was 5:58. I felt like the effort was right even if the times were a little slow. I blew timing the tempo on this last week and reported faster splits, but I don't think they were faster. The GPS doesn't lie, which is why I got it. I'm ready to add another tempo mile to this workout, the only problem is that the half mile preceding my start point is pretty steep, not a great place to take off from, and the roads at the end aren't much better. I'll have to figure that out.

Snow!! Lots of heavy, wet snow. The new snow made a nice running surface, but there was plenty of slush after the snow plows rolled through the neighborhood.  Just meandered around the Avenues and Federal Heights, very easy.

Strider's Series 10k. Perhaps a better name is Sadist's Series 10k.  The first half was very ugly, the second half was generally fast.

It was cold on arrival at 8am; just 22 degrees according to my car. Warmed up 4 miles around the neighborhoods near Dee Events Center. I avoided running the course during the warm up. I was already familiar with the first couple of miles and I didn't want to know what lay beyond that. From Paul's profile, I only knew that it would be ugly. 

By start time, the weather had warmed a bit and I went with shorts, long sleeve shirt, gloves, and headband.  It was the right call for me. Fortunately, the pace at the start was reasonable.  No one seemed to have any illusions about trying to make a big early move.  It was a solid pack of lead runners up ahead of me and I tucked in behind Dennis Simonaitis.  The first mile had one notable climb coming out of the Dee Events Center parking lot, and then some flat.  Split was 6:01.  The first big climb begins early in the second mile. I felt pretty good on the climb, but kept it conservative. Opened up a little on the downhill. Split was 5:54.  The third mile climbed and climbed. Split was 6:40.  I lost sight of the leaders and focused on Dennis up ahead of me.  I thought maybe I had a chance to catch him, until I realized that he was just executing a strategy; when the course began to descend, he took off like a shot and started hunting down runners on his way to 5th.  Well done. With Dennis gone, I focused on Lion Gallegos.  The fourth and fifth miles are actually great; a very runnable downhill grade on long, relatively straight roads. Fourth mile was 5:33. 

At the end of the fifth mile my split was 5:25.  At that point, the I was gaining on Lion as the Dee Events Center also came into view.  Unfortunately, Lion followed some kid who was not in the race into the Dee Events Center parking lot.  There was a cop right there at the turn and the cop didn't even say anything. When I got to the turn, I saw the course marker arrow pointing east (uphill), but Lion was running north. I stopped briefly, asked the cop if Lion was going the right way or if I was supposed to be running uphill and the Cop kind of shrugged and said the race goes uphill and didn't know why "that guy" (Lion) was going that way.  (Well . . . maybe it's because you didn't correct him, officer?)  So I yelled to Lion and waved him back on to the course, having taken over his place in the mean time.  I debated whether it would be more sportsmanlike simply to wait for him to catch up to me than to keep running, but I was at the bottom of this hill and I just wanted to keep running.  It's not like the race victory was on the line, but I did question whether I was making the right call.   

The rest of the race was uneventful, except that I managed to continue running in control and feeling pretty good.  Last mile, with the climb, was 5:47.  My Garmin 305 calculated the distance at 6.35.  I know others had measurements between 6.25 and 6.3 as well. I guess I blew running the tangents. 

Overall, not a bad day of racing for me.  I am still racing a tier below the top runners (many of whom are our fellow bloggers), but I am glad to be competing against them and I look forward to improving.  My effort overall was a little better than in the 5k.  I felt more in control of my race today; probably because the 5k doesn't give you the chance to do anything but hurt. The hills were not fun, but everyone had to run the same course so no one had it any easier than anyone else. 

It was also another strong showing for the Wasatch Racing Team and the Fast Running Bloggers, a few more of whom I got to meet today.  Congrats to everyone.

Easy seven mile shakeout up through Research Park. Legs felt pretty decent.

Woke up to more snow! So, I shoveled the walk and driveway for my pre-run warmup.  I ran the  Zoo/Golf Course loop, primarily to check the GPS mileage with the Garmin 305.  I ran the most standard version of this route, and the final result was 9.98, which is longer than the 9.75 I was getting the Suunto.

 The roads were in decent shape mostly, but there were a few very slick spots and I did my usual dancing to try to stay up.  I had my iPod on shuffle this morning, and it played a couple of old REM songs with fitting titles: "Fall On Me" and "Stumble".  Once again, I'm sure I provided some nice entertainment for passing motorists. 

Workout with the Black Sheep crew.  Jan designed today's workout and his selections reminded me of this weekend's 10k with its emphasis on climbing. We met at 15th/15th and warmed up down to Gilmer Drive. Part A was 4 x .55 mi loops that starts with gradual climb for about 300m, then climbs steadily for about 300m, and then flattens out for the last 200m.  Josh Steffen and I ran these very closely.  He's training for Boston and is in very good shape. The times were descending, but not by much:  3:10/3:08/3:07/3:06.  I got a little dose of going anaerobic.  For Part B, we ran did some easy running before running 4 x .25 repeats up a long hill between 1300 E. and 1500 E. Again, the times were descending but not by much. 87/87/86/84.  For part C, we ran up to 1500 E. and did another set of hill repeats on the little street that parallels Miller Park.  These are 200m hills.  Times were 45/37/37/36. There is a nice grunt climb in the last 50m of this hill that made me feel like I was pulling about four different muscle groups on the last repeat.  Then a cooldown back to 15th/15th.  We managed to finish the workout before the snow started to fly, which is a good thing because it's really coming down out there right now.  

It was just 17 degrees when I went out this morning with plenty of snow on the ground. I guess that means its still winter.  I ran the Zoo/Golf Course loop and added a couple of small spurs to see a few different streets.  

Met up with folks at Radda for the loop through Holladay. Roads were in really bad shape generally from the overnight snow and cold temperatures. Ran the first four miles at easy pace. Decided I was going to try to add a third mile to my tempo workout by starting at the bottom of the hill at Casto Lane and Holladay Blvd and then running up to Wander Lane for the remainder. This was really tough from the outset. With the ice and some general fatigue, it was very difficult to get any kind of real momentum. I was continually looking for sections with consistent footing. That first hilly mile was slow: 6:35. Then the other two miles were really slow too: 6:17 and 6:18. That's not terrible in these conditions on this route, but not fast. Nevertheless, I suppose I got out of it what I wanted to get out of it. I ran some strides at the end of that and then backtracked to hook up with the rest of the group and then cooled down back to Radda.

Assuming I have used Sasha's course tool analyzer correctly,I figured out that running this tempo route at 6:25 pace is equivalent to 6:00 pace on a flat course, so I feel somewhat better.

More snow! It basically looked like a mini-blizzard outside when I woke up so my plan was run 2 miles to the gym, run 4 miles on the treadmill, then run home. Once I got outside though, it wasn't too bad. The snow was very light and not too much slush or ice yet.  The traction was mostly decent. So I ran down to Memory Grove and basically did a couple laps up Memory Grove to the bottom of City Creek, then south on W. Bonneville over toward the Capitol and back down to Memory Grove.  Not much traffic out (human or vehicular) and it was quiet and enjoyable running in the new snow. 

Easy run with the group. From Foothill Village, a group of four of us started at 5:30 am and ran a 7.3 mile loop.  We returned to our starting point and picked up another four people. Then we ran a ten mile loop together, up to 11th Ave and back.  Cold this morning, but an enjoyable run. 

After coming home and napping a bit and eating a little, I went up to Snowbird and skied for a few hours under bluebird skies with some very nice snow.

I originally planned to run down to Liberty Park for a couple of loops, but once I got to Memory Grove, I headed north instead of south and that plan went out the window. Once at the bottom of City Creek, I headed back toward Capitol Hill and then dropped west into the Marmalade District. I meandered around there for a few minutes, eventually heading north to Warm Springs Park. I knew that there were hot springs in this area,but I had never seen them. However, when I followed a couple of paths, I soon saw steam rising out of the reeds and could smell sulphur in the air. It was pretty cool; there are 4 or 5 little pools where a determined bather could soak in some healing waters from the earth if they wanted. Too bad it's a largely industrial neighborhood; it kind of takes away the charm. My friend David who lives in that neighborhood said that homeless guys like to bathe there.  Makes sense. Anyway, it was a fascinating to see something a little different. I dipped my hands in the water and it was very pleasant.

On my way to the workout with the black sheep this morning, I realized I forgot my watch, so no split times today or exact distances. We met at Sugarhouse park and began with a warm-up loop.  We ran 4 x 110m strides to perk things up.  Then we did 6 x 400m on the more or less flat section on the north side of the park.  Following some easy running we then ran 4 x 600m starting at the flat stretch over by the entrance to the Highland track  and heading south then up the hill on the southeast corner of the paved road. No splits, but intensity was decent. The push up the hills were manageable.  I have had a little taste of pirifomis pain for a couple of days and I actually didn't push to hard today. I'm concentrating on trying to open that up a little.  It can be a tricky area to target though I've had some help with a few good stretches.  We were next going to run on the track for a bit, but it was a little icy and still had some snow on it at the corners.  So we did some more strides at a higher intensity and then did a cool down lap.

How about that goose egg up there? After Tuesday's workout, I felt pain in the piriformis area all day long. I have seen a few good runners go down with this injury and knew to play it safe. So instead of running, I went and had Mark Oftedal give me a massage.  It was an excruciatingly painful experience. It was helpful, though. My hip and glute muscles on the right side are all kinds of tight. I was in mild pain the rest of the day; as much from the massage as the pf injury.  I have some good stretches that I have been doing consistently.  The TP massage ball has helped a lot too.

It was beautiful out and so hard not to run.  It was nice enough that on my drive home from work I saw all kinds of "joggers" that come out of the woodwork when it is nice out.  I wanted to join them, but knew I shouldn't.  I would wait until Thursday. . .

I ran an abbreviated Radda loop with Casey and Katherine.  I was very watchful of the piriformis.  I did have some discomfort, but not too serious.  I think the pain may have something to do with the SI as well; all that nervation seems to be connected. I don't like the shooting sciatica pain.  Mostly, it was just a localized ache, though.  I may run a little later today to test things again. Or I may not.  I'm glad I wasn't planning to race this weekend.  

Easy five miles just to test the glute muscles after a day off.  It was mentally tough more than physically painful.  There was some sensation of discomfort with almost every stride and it was thinking about that discomfort throughout that was more difficult to manage than the discomfort itself.  When I ran with what felt to be my "perfect" form the discomfort was minimal, but the discomfort re-emerged when I let myself get a little sloppy.  The pain was not referring down my leg so much today; it was staying local--just a pain in the butt.

Lots of stretching and some core work through the day.  My right hip/glute region is so much tighter than my left.

Congrats to all who ran the Strider's 10 miler. Another excellent showing from the FRB crew. 

I'm still planning to run Canyonlands next weekend and I'm trying to think of this injury maintenance as a taper. 

Running five miles seemed like a reasonable proposition.  After  stretching for a while, I put on my shoes and went out the door.  Within about 10 minutes it was clear that I wasn't doing myself any favors.  The piriformis/SI discomfort was consistent.  To avoid another two steps back, I cut the run short at 2 miles.  Then I decided to go to the gym and see what I might be able to find there that wouldn't cause too many problems. I found that the elliptical trainer allowed me to "run" with virtually no discomfort. This is probably because the pain was firing on impact with the ground and this is low-impact.  I did that for 30 minutes, then did some core work.  I'll call it 3 miles worth of "running."

At least this may give me something to do for the week while I continue to try to stretch and heal.

35 minutes on the elliptical trainer at the gym.  What a shame on such a beautiful morning!! There  can be no doubt that winter has loosened its grip.  I would have love to run outside, but I am hopeful that taking it a little easy for a short period will mean that I can run throughout the season and not have to take off a long period. More important than to me than racing, racking up miles, or any other competitive aspect of running is just the joy of being able to get out the door each day and do what I love to do.

Another deep, painful massage from Mark. It's worse than the last 5 minutes of a 5k, I swear.  I do feel some relief, but I am sensing that the problem is somehow structural.  Perhaps it's time to look into some chiropractic adjustments.  I should also get in touch with my PT acquaintances and get their thoughts. I ran up and down the block a little to test things out and with "perfect" form, the discomfort was minimal, but still present.  I have avoided taking any anti-inflammatories because I have been concerned about pain-masking, but I may start that just to keep down any swelling and, hopefully, let things heal.

What a long strange week it has been.  From a training perspective, one of the most discouraging weeks I can recall in a long, long time. Frankly, I am amazed I am writing about a race at all.

I have had no entries in the last few days because I simply had nothing to report.  I basically had pain consistently in my lower back, upper hamstring, and glute all week.  After a couple of massages that should have done something, but didn't, I started to get fairly discouraged.  I started to think about the two words that no runner wants to think about . . . stress fracture.  More specifically, pelvic stress fracture. I seemed to have the right ingredients, an increased training load over the last couple of weeks accompanied with an increasing in overall intensity.  The fact that nothing was resolving with the body work contributed to my thinking.

So I didn't run.  What I did do was get an appointment to see Dr. Jim Macintyre, who has received excellent reviews from other runners I know.  He couldn't see me until Friday.  Now, the thing was that the Canyonlands Half Marathon was the next day.  That has been a goal race for me this season.  I wanted to run well down there, something I have never really done. I have thought about it a lot and tried to tailor my training in preparation.  By mid-week, however, I had essentially abandoned the hope of running the half marathon.  How could I think of running 13 miles when I couldn't run 100 meters without pain?

Dr. Macintyre ran through some diagnostic tests with my legs and pelvis and concluded, quickly, that I didn' have a stress fracture.  What I had was a pelvis that was torqued forward and up on the right side.  He thought I might have had some acute issue; but I don't remember anything like that. He and his assistant then ran through a series of manipulations and exercises to try to get things back in order. It didn't take them long.  Suddenly, I felt a whole lot better. Whereas I couldn't stand on one leg and lean forward without pain when I walked in, I could do that now.  They also showed me the exercises to do to get things back in line. So I talked with him about my running and racing this weekend.  He figured I was good to go for the half and that I should just stop and walk if I hurt.  After explaining that I didn't really view that as an option, I told him that they do offer a consolation race--the five mile run.  He thought that would be fine.  I told him I was unsure about racing it fast; he said it should be fine to run how I felt. 

Okay.  Things were looking up.  I went in hoping for the best and expecting the worst and I came out alright. However, since I had already mentally checked out of racing this weekend, I had basically logistically checked out of doing so as well.  Even if I wanted to go, I still had a full day of work ahead of me and would then need to get to Moab by 9pm so that I could get to the race expo in time to change from the Half to the five mile option.  I worked efficiently enough that by about 2:30 I made the game-day decision that we would head to Moab.  I coordinated with Heather to get our stuff together.  We would have to be on the road by 5pm if we had any hope of getting to Moab by 9pm.  I got home at 5:10 and we were on the road by 5:20.  That little time gap would prove significant. 

We hurried toward Moab as swiftly as we could, stopping just once.  It didn't look good for time, however.  When we rolled into Moab at about 9:05, it became clear to me that all the effort could be for naught.  We got to the expo at 9:10.  There was a race worker out front waving people away and blocking the entrance to the parking lot. I persuaded him to let me pass, but he didn't think I stood much of a chance of getting in. He was right. The doors were locked. After standing out front for a minute or two hoping someone inside would notice me (knocking was futile), a more kind-spirited race worker came and unlocked the door and let me in. Everything was in shut down mode, but amazingly I managed to pick up my packet and get them to switch me from the half to the 5 miler.  Whew. 

I still had not had a chance to run after seeing the doc.  I did that first thing in the morning. I went out and ran about .5 of a mile, just testing out various paces and forms.  It felt ok. Not amazing, but decent. Good enough to race.  Next thing I knew I was up the canyon hanging out at the starting area for the race waiting to go.  They don't let you warm up on the road because of the bus traffic, but you can head up Negro Bill Canyon, which is the staging area for the 5 mile race. I had not been up there before and it was gorgeous on this morning.  I went about 1.5 miles out and back total. 

Now it was time to line up for the start. I didn't recognize any runners except Mike Evans.  There was a large contingent of runners from Dine College in Shiprock, New Mexico.  They appeared to be young and fast.  I was correct.  The race itself was a bit of a blur.  I pushed through the first mile in 5:21. The pain in my glute came back almost immediately but didn't really get worse and the discomfort was manageable. I knew it was a short race.  Although my first mile split seemed promising, I couldn't hold it. At mile 2  you have that big hill that comes at mile 9 in the half marathon. I decided this year to call it "the Dragon."  It sounds adequately dramatic.  After that, my miles were all slower.  I just couldn't get my legs to turn over faster! Maybe it was a loss of sharpness from the lack of running all week.

The places shook out by mile 2 and didn't really change from my perspective.  A few of the Shiprock runners, Mike Evans and a couple other youngsters were ahead.  I was in 7th and stayed there.  The last two miles; which are no fun in the half marathon, were no better in the 5 mile. That is to say, they are interminable.  But I finally found the finish line.  I was pretty spent, even though I don't feel that I ran very fast. My time was 28:46, a pace of 5:45 per mile.  I was seventh, holding off at least one or two of those Shiprock kids. It's funny, if I ran this time at this race last year, I would have finished third.

I cooled down with one of the kids who beat me, a high school runner from Denver, Matt Bell. 

It felt good to be running, but I have mixed feelings about the race. I would have preferred to do the half, but was not ready for it on race day. I am glad I got to do something, however.  I look forward to finding my way through this hiccup and seeing what I can do on the other side. 

Easy miles with Heather in Moab, on the scenic by-way paralleling the Colorado river, going toward Potash.  We stopped and looked at the petroglyphs, which are endlessly fascinating.  Heather drank all of her water and got kind of dehydrated so I ran back to the car and came back to pick her up.  I can't blame her for being cautious; she is six months pregnant. 

Well, at least I'm running.  I'm certainly not fully healed, but I felt good enough to get in some training miles. I no longer have any pain when I'm just walking around, but running is still not entirely comfortable.  Things felt better in the last couple of miles.  I have a long post for my Saturday entry in the works that I'll post tonight. That should provide an update on my recent disappearance from the face of the blog.

I felt good enough to try a little speed session so I showed up for the workout with the Black Sheep. We met at Sugarhouse park, warmed up for one loop. Then we did 1 minute on/1 minute off for another loop. My little pelvis issue was nagging at me, but it seemed the more I ran the better it felt. We moved over to the Highland track after the second loop. We ran 6 x 800, with the goal to pick up the pace a bit in the second lap. I ran these with Josh Steffen, who is coming off an awesome run at the Canyonlands Half Marathon (1:16:40, finishing 8th overall). Times were modest but consistent: 2:52/2:52/2:50/2:50/2:49/2:48. Then one mile to cool down.

I found that concentrating on my form and keeping my pelvis tilted forward and my alignment centered seemed to help a lot; "like a needle wrapped in cotton," as the ChiRunning advice goes.

This afternoon I have an appt. with a chiro.

It was raining steadily when I woke up, so I decided to go to the gym and run on the treadmill. In addition to not getting soaked, I thought running on the treadmill might help me to keep a closer eye on my form so I can work out the SI issues.  Of course it stopped raining by the time I started running and I could have enjoyed a perfectly nice run outside, but I stayed on the treadmill anyway.  Miles were gradually descending; starting at 7:30 pace, finishing at 6:30 pace; the middle five were huddled in the 6:45 range. 

The SI pain is certainly still present, but I am less afraid of running on it since I have a better idea of what is going on.  I went to the chiro last night (Dr. Wimmer) and he took xrays. I have another appt today to look at the pictures and figure out what precisely needs to be done.  He spent quite a bit of time talking with me about my running and how the pain occurs. I am looking forward to seeing what we can do.
 

Easy run through Holladay with the Radda crew.  The SI was much improved today.  I still had some discomfort in the beginning, but it seemed to subside more quickly than in the last couple of days.  A chiropractic success story?  Hard to say yet.  I have another adjustment tomorrow. 

Cucina Loop with Sam.  We call it the Cucina loop because the standard meeting spot is at  the Cucina, a cafe/deli on 2nd Ave.  We still call it that even though we sometimes start at my house, as we did today.  We start with a zigzag up through the Avenues to 11th Ave, west to B street, and then down to the bottom of City Creek, where we climb east above the canyon on the Shoreline trail, then just follow the Shoreline trail over to Dry Creek, down that canyon, and then zig zag back home through Federal Heights.  We started at about 5:50 so it was dark for much of the run on the trail.  I need to upgrade my headlamp, which is lightweight but a little wimpy (Petzl Tikka w/ one LED bulb).  I did fall once, but it was when it was already light so I can't really blame anyone but myself for that.

 
The SI held up pretty well.  I am noticing a pattern; discomfort for a couple of miles at the start and then it kind of fades into the background as I become more warmed up.

The trails should be a muddy mess at this time of year, but it was quite dry, no mud to speak of.  Last year at about this time, there was a legitimate "creek" running down Dry Creek, this year . . . it's just dry.  All things considered, this was a great run. 

We were up in Sun Valley, Idaho for the weekend.  Since the plan was to ski, a long run wasn't in the cards.  Nevertheless, I did a loop with some spiciness; though not quite a tempo run.  I ran from the Sun Valley Lodge, up and over Dollar Mountain, through the Elkhorn section and down Elkhorn canyon, back to S.R. 75, back into town, and back to Sun Valley road. 

It was a nice day and nice temperature.  I didn't feel great though; I had plenty of SI discomfort to think about. Frustrating.  It certainly takes some of the fun out of the run. It also didn't do really well skiing.  On the groomers it was fine, in the bumps (which I didn't ski much) it was worse. I really did try to avoid them.  But I can't complain too much. We had a great time and I kept my SI concerns to myself.

Bonneville Golf Course loop. This felt like two different runs. The first part not so good, the second part not so bad.  

The Black Sheep group was running hills today and I didn't feel up to that with my SI issue. So I warmed up with the group and then Kathryn and I ran a few more easy miles.  We connected back up with the group for the flat part of the workout, which was 6 x 400m, half flat/half hill.  Fortunately the rest of the group, i.e., Josh, were already wiped out from running the hill repeats before this and it at least appeared that I could hold my own.  

The SI followed the typical pattern today; pain in the first couple of miles, and tapering off after that.  It's actually not so bad once it warms up but it's no fun at the beginning.  I'm trying hard to run with my pelvis tilted forward, and really work the forward lean. ChiRunning, basically.

From 15th/15th with Josh, Megan, and Amy.  Josh and Megan are running Boston in a few weeks and gradually winding toward the taper.  Josh says sub 2:50 would make him happy, but he's running with sub 2:40 fitness right now, I think. 

We ran the HCI loop, with fog, snow, hail, and a little rain at various points.  It was never coming down hard, though, and was actually a great morning for running.

 The chiro told me to track closely how long the SI pain lasts in my run.  Today, it was at about 2.5 miles that it started to dissipate.  That was after stopping and stretching for a minute to wait for the light at Foothill to turn.   It was still talking to me for about another mile after that, but the rest of the run was not bad at all.

A small ray of hope in the run with the Radda crew this morning.  Whereas I have typically had real pain in the first few miles of a run, today the SI felt much more stable right from the start.  I could still notice it, but it wasn't something I had to think about with every step. I ran comfortably for the first 4.5 and then Sam and I added a couple of "spicy" miles on Wander lane, 6:20's.  Not quite ready for the full tempo burst yet, but feel like I'm able to put a little more stress on my legs with less risk.  I also had a chiro adjustment after the run.  So, we'll see how it goes day-to-day.   Saturday I may be up for 12-15 if things feel ok.  I have an appt. with Dr. Macintyre tomorrow also and could use his additional input.

Bonneville Golf Course loop.  Another fairly encouraging run.  Definitely aware of the SI at the start (but no "pain") and if I stretch a bit after a few miles I don't have to think about it too much.  The one thing that's proving to be a challenge is running at pace downhill.

Today's run was the longest in a few weeks, at least since I've had the SI problems.  Things held up really well today.  I had a hard time chasing Casey up to Wasatch at the end of the footbridges while we were heading south, but overall I found I could run with little discomfort. This actually turned out to be a decent week of training, all things considered.  Dr. Macintyre saw a lot of improvement in the movement of the joint yesterday and said I shouldn't need to go back to him for now.  I will continue going to the chiro, however.  I think that has helped the SI and probably improved my running economy overall.

From 15th/15th with the 5:30 a.m. crew.  Easy pace at first, but gradually a little faster to the hight point of the run at HCI.  I split off from the group at Foothill and added an additional mile via Steiner.  Still monitoring the SI closely but it is certainly improving.

It was very nice out when I got home from work, so I added another 2.5 in the meadow before coming home for some dinner.

Workout with the Black Sheep this morning. It was a big group, probably 20 people. Must be spring. We met at Sugarhouse park, ran a warmup loop on the road,then headed to the track at Highland HS.  We continued the warmup with an easy 800.  

 The meat of the workout was 8 Yasso 800s w/200m jog recovery.  It's a little too early in the season for me to pick and stick to a marathon goal time to parallel the times for these 800s, but I figured anything below 2:48 would be ok--particularly given my recovery status. I don't have my watch in front of me, but I think I can remember our interval times:  2:50 /2:48 / 2:46 / 2:45 / 2:43  2:45 /2:46 / 2:45.   Next we ran 2 x 400, both in 77 seconds.  Then 1 mile cooldown.
 

I ran from my house down to the new Caffe Niche at 3rd So / 8th E to meet up with Josh, Amy & Megan. We ran a loop up through the University, to 15th E, 21st South through Sugarhouse, then winding back via 11th E. Surprised by all the commercial activity on 11th E; many old houses converted to businesses. Lots and lots of hair salons and day spas.

I ran back home after finishing with those guys back at Caffe Niche (which was still closed even though it was supposed to be open at 7am. It does looks very cool though).

 A couple blocks from home I ran into my wife and our neighbor Emily out for their run.  Heather looked great . . . 7 months pregnant and going strong.

Run with the Radda crew.  First 4.5 easy, then a 2 mile tempo on the rolling hills of Wander lane at 6 min pace.  I was a little concerned about going too hard too long but this felt fine.  Kept the pace medium spicy with Jan for the last bit.

Today I ran a solo route on the same course that I ran on Wednesday, only in reverse. I enjoyed almost all of it--it's a nice loop.  On 11th East, I counted ten hair salons/day spas between 13th So. and 17th So.  Next time I will count gift shops.  The only thing that felt a little tedious was the long slog on 15th East from 21st South up to Sunnyside (8th So.). After that, the finish was basically my golf course loop finish and I could do that in my sleep (and have done so a few times). Time was 1:09:59, 7min pace.

We're up at the Bear Lake cabin for the weekend with the family. This morning Heather and I drove out to the east shore and ran on the road that parallels the lake.  Very scenic; nicer than the west shore and much less traffic.  I ran 6 miles and Heather ran about 5. When we were done with that, we drove back to Laketown and Heather drove home and I ran from there to Garden City, (exactly 7 miles from the Laketown Sinclair to the Pickleville Playhouse).  I decided to run it as a tempo because I felt fairly decent.  First couple of miles were strong, but then a biobreak, gu break, etc. So I wasn't able to run it uninterrupted.  I also realized that it wasn't quite as flat as I thought it was going to be. Anyway, when the dust settled, the pace for the 7 miles was  6:16, with the fastest mile at 5:55.

I had to drop off my car for inspection/emissions this morning at a shop out on 4800 So. in Murray so I decided to drive it out there and run home. This worked fine. I was there right at 7am when they opened and on the road a couple of minutes later. I ran mainly on 5th East until I got to Liberty Park, then I just took my usual 6th E. route home from there. The Garmin had teh distance at exactly 9.0 miles. Running time was 1:01, which included some stoplight downtime. What a pleasant morning to run.

Added 2.5 tonight running back to my office.

I had an early meeting this morning and couldn't hook up with the Black Sheep for Jan's workout.  Instead, I went out and stumbled around the neighborhood for an hour--aimlessly trying to decide if I wanted to go to the track, run easy, or do a tempo run.  Big mistake waiting until I woke up to try to decide what to do.  In the end, the SI was sufficiently vocal and the legs sufficiently stale that I more or less ran something that resembled a fartlek. The one thing of value is that I worked on pushing my legs at pace on some gentle downhills which has been a weak spot in my recovery regime.  It has required some changes in my form that I'm just getting comfortable with. I'm going to try to get out this evening for a few, hopefully more redeeming, miles.

After work and a visit to the chiro I ran another 3.5 through the hood.  These miles felt better than this morning.  I think the chiro appt helped.

Liberty Park / Avenues route. These miles were easy and felt good.

Holladay route with the Radda crew.  First four miles were easy, to the

bottom of Casto, and then I started a 3 mile tempo run.  It's a long

uphill followed by then rollers, so the times are slow,but the effort

is hard.  First mile, 6:20, then 6:00, and 6:15.  Sasha's course

analyzer always makes me feel better, as it projects 5:45 for a flat pace on this route. After puking, I turned around and caught with the main group behind me and we finished the run together. 

From my house, I ran two miles up to the Legacy Bridge to get a glimpse of the marathon/half marathon start. I wanted to run some of the half marathon course, but running on Foothill during the morning commute is asking for trouble so I ran up through the Bonneville golf course to Wasatch Dr. and ran south to 21st South--where the course turns west. This is the biggest downhill section in the half marathon and I was curious to see how my legs would handle it. My SI recovery has gone well except for hard downhill running. I just can't get the forward lean with fast leg turnover that is important to fast downhills without some weakness and discomfort on my right side. I can do a couple of tricks with my form to compensate, but they are slower. So, it's unlikely I'll light it up on this part of the race. The gradual downhill past 23rd. E. down to Sugarhouse Park felt much better. From there, I just ran around the park and then through the Hidden Hollow natural area below 1300 E. and down to 11th E. for the now-standard Salon/Gift Shop return toward downtown and home. Overall time was an easy 1:34.

I haven't been running with my iPod much recently, but today I did. I listened to podcast interviews from the website TheFinalSprint.com I listened to interviews with Dr. Jack Daniels, Brian Sell, and Scott Jurek. The Scott Jurek interview was best and would be very interesting for vegetarian runners or those interested in that topic.

The Final Sprint podcasts are also available as a free download on iTunes.

From a cabin in Teasdale, I ran out and back to the end of town. Elevation is just under 7000'.  Miles were mainly easy, but the last miles on the return had a nice downhill grade and I picked it up for miles of 6:00 and 5:32.  Also did 5 x 100m striders at the turnaround point. SI was slightly more vocal than it should be.

Easy tour of Memory Grove/Downtown.

Zoo/Golf Course loop.  On the return, at the intersection of Sunnyside and Guardsman, I saw a  fox milling around on the grass. I decided to approach and get a closer look.  He got a wild look in his eye (obviously frightened of the alabaster white presence approaching him) and actually charged me for a few seconds! Then he ran across the street to the Rowland Hall grounds.  I escaped without any fox bites.  Unrelatedly, the inside of my right thigh is very sore and tight today.  I'm sure it has something to do with the little tweaks in my form that have caused me to overcompensate with different muscle groups.  

Black Sheep workout at Sugarhouse Park/Highland track. I was extremely concerned about running the workout because of the new pain in my right interior quad. The warmup around the park went fine though so I thought I would test it out on the track a bit. We ran 4 x 100m strides and then an 800m of speed changes. The meat was 5 x 1000m w/ 200m recoveries which has a certain elegant simplicity and is not too harmful the week of a race. I started these cautiously, still convinced I wasn't going to finish the workout, but I kept going and only having 5 to do was comforting. Times were 3:30/3:29/3:28/3:26/3:20. Since the pace was modest, each interval felt better than the one before it. The quad held up fine--not great, but fine. Then we did another 800m of speed changes, followed by an easy cool down around the park.

University of Utah/Avenues route. The Uvenues run, if you will.  I had a massage last night that really helped open up my right hip and helped with my right quad.  Virtually no complaints about the quad today which is quite an improvement from Monday.  These were easy miles, but I felt a little sluggish.  I'm sure I could benefit from more sleep. 

Tour de Holladay with the Radda crew. Kept the whole run at mild pace, just adding a little spiciness toward the end to hold Casey's interest and assure Aimee Larkin that she still has some fast twitch muscles. Jan was with us, which was good to see as he recovers from shin splint problems.

Six easy loops in the Morris Meadow.   This is also the starting place for the Bonneville Shoreline Trail Marathon, which is tomorrow.  Sam is running that race and the trail looks like it will be in decent shape if the weather holds.  There will be some mud, for sure, but hopefully not too much. 

Good luck to all the runners in the Salt Lake Marathon events!

Salt Lake City Half Marathon. I know that I can only race to the limits of my training and my training has been much spottier than I wanted it to be, so I had very mixed expectations for the race.  My strategy was to try and feel good throughout the race, and finish having run 5:45 pace.  I didn't know whether the injuries I've been battling would re-emerge in force because of the intensity of a long race. I'm pleased to say I had nothing to report from the race on that front. I felt very good. In fact, I felt outstanding for much of the race.  At the finish, I was not doubled over in pain, but was conversing calmly with my wife (who ran the 5k).  So I left a lot out on the course.  I know now that I could have pushed harder, but I don't think I knew it during the race.  This race was significant in one key respect; I learned I can trust my fitness. Next time, I will actually try to use it. 

The pre-race did not go well. As I was packing up my drop bag to throw in the truck, I realized that I didn't have my timing chip on my shoe! Nice. Fortunately, the race folks were able to take down my bib number and name and log my finish time manually, but it created some unwanted drama.  The pace at the outset was way too fast for me; I think the leaders ran 5:02 or something. I settled into my own pace, knowing I would have to run my race.  I'll add splits later, but I hovered around 5:40 in the early miles, dropping a few slower miles later in the race. 

The downhill on 21st South was no problem on the SI.  Fortunately, there were aid stations more frequently this year than last year.  Unfortunately, they were passing out whole bottles of water with the caps on them that required more thought than I care to put into that kind of thing.  A dixie cup with tap water is fine and much easier to handle.  At one aid station, I thought this little girl was offering me a cup of water, but it was actually a thing of peanut mix.  Boy, I couldn't get my mind around how that might taste good.  Maybe in an ultra.  Oh, and no mile markers.  But everyone has a Garmin these days, right, so who needs them?  There were clocks on the course, though it wasn't clear what mile markers they were attached to.  At the finish, they had 7-11 passing out pizza slices and buffalo chicken wings for recovery food. It was 8:25 a.m.  I left before picking up my drop bag because waiting seemed hopeless.  I love the course, however, just not the organization of it.

I didn't pass Albert Wint at the end, something that seemed to bother Sasha when I spoke to him briefly after the race.  It's fine, I felt good about this race for reasons that transcended the race itself.

Easy run from my house to points including Federal Heights/Univ Utah/Ft. Douglas/Research Park/Zoo/St. Mary's neighborhood and then back from below This is the Place Monument via Governor's Grove. Miles were easy and smooth. Slow, but easy and smooth. Gorgeous morning after the rain to be up in the green foothills below Emigration Canyon. Every yard looks well-manicured on a morning like this.

For anyone interested in reading about Ryan Hall's stellar performance at the London Marathon, click here.

Black Sheep workout at Red Butte/Research Park.  1 mile warm-up followed by 4 x .40 mi Brutal hills (2:16/2:06/2:07/2:06).  Then 4 x VO2 max-slaying hills (approx 200m, times were in the low 40s).  Then 4 x Brain Damaging hills up through the (new) entrance to Red Butte.

Once the disorientation subsided and some of the oxygen returned to my head, I ran another mile cool down with the group on the trail and then another 2.5 easy on my own.

A variation of Monday's route, but with more wind at the bottom of Emigration Canyon.

Run with the Radda crew. First four miles were easy. Jwood told me about having seen the movie Powder and how it changed his life forever. Anyway, since I have been somewhat sleep-deprived the last couple of days, I very nearly talked myself out of doing the tempo run. In fact, while running with Aimee Larkin shortly before the turn from Holladay Blvd onto Casto where I start the tempo run, I told her that I wasn't going to do it. I changed my mind when I turned the corner, though. When it came down to it, I didn't have any reason not to do it other than being lazy. So I ran the 3 mile Wander Lane tempo in 18:15 with splits of 6:13/5:59/6:03. Sasha's course analyzer calls this about 5:40 pace on a flat route. For a bonus, I didn't even puke a little this time. After the tempo, I ran back and hooked up with a couple of my Radda brethren and then added another mile on my own at the end.

After work, I came home and ran a quick 2 miler because it was so nice outside.

Sugarhouse loop (out on 15th E, return via 11th E).  Nice and easy except for the last three miles, which climbed more than I had planned so that I could add a little extra distance to the loop. 

Alta Club 5k. Sam and John Straley gave me the heads up on this race recently and I thought I would give it a shot. Since I'm not running Ogden Marathon and haven't been running over 15 miles recently, I thought a 5k would fit the bill for today's run.

The race is near my house, so it was a short drive to the start, northeast of the Capitol, at the start of Gravity Hill. I did a little 5 mile warm-up around the area. I saw Scott Browning while I was out there and I knew this little 5k was going to be interesting. He excels at that distance much more than me. I continued my warm-up with Sam when I saw him.

The course runs north on Bonneville Blvd ("up" Gravity Hill), past the horseshoe at the top of Memory Grove, continuing south toward 11th Ave, with a 180 turnaround about .30 before 11th Ave. Then return to the horseshoe at the top of Memory Grove/bottom of City Creek and its a glorious 1.3 mile downhill grade to the finish down beyond the gates at the entry to Memory Grove.

Both Scott and I agreed the first mile wouldn't be very fast because gravity hill is tricky, but I went out ahead from the start to see what we could do. First mile split was 5:29. Second mile acutally climbs for the first .35 or so, and then a faster return toward Memory Grove. Split was 5:20. The last "mile" was a downhill cruise to the finish and felt good. Split was 4:42, but a little shy of a mile unfortunately. Finish time was 15:32, so too bad it wasn't a full 5k, I could have been close to 16 minutes. Fun race, though.  My Garmin had 2.95, Scott's had 2.93.

Scott was 2nd in just over 16 minutes. Dude being pulled downhill by Baby Stroller was 3rd (still impressive, though). Sam was 4th, in about 16:30, I believe. John Straley was also in the top 10, I believe. All looked strong.

Pipeline trail in Millcreek Canyon with most of the Radda crew.  Easy, easy, easy.  Beautiful morning, very warm. 

St. Mary's loop.  Legs felt fresh and the miles were easy and smooth.  Just a gorgeous morning.  However, when I got home, I got the same knotting/cramping pain in my left quad that I previously had in the right quad a couple of weeks ago.  I was able to massage out the right side over a couple of days, and will try to do the same with this one.  

Workout with the Black Sheep at the East High track (or the U track on East's campus, as Mike Kirk would note).  Started with 1 mile warmup on the road, which included two hill repeats in the middle of it that were steep and hard. Then to the track. John Straley was coaching today and he had a relay planned. We ran a 800m to determine the teams, pairing slower runners with faster runners based on finishing order in the 800m. The relay involved the first team member running  600m, and passing off the other team member, who would then run 600m.  While the other one was doing the interval, the other would jog 200m to the exchange point.  We did this five times, so 5  x 600m.  I kept my splits based on the first 400m and the second 200m, which were all 72-73 and 37-40, respectively. Marilee and I came in second and it was fun.  Then 6 x 400m with a progressive pace at each 100m, so the first 100m was easy, the last 100m was close to 95%mhr or so.  Then some cool down miles.  Special guest appearance from Darrell Phippen today and he was strong, particularly on the last 100m of the last intervals; good kick speed.

Three miles into the run, I stopped to stretch because my SI joint on the right side was acting up just a little bit. In the process of leaning over and stretching, with my right stretched out onto a fire hydrant, I suddenly felt a very strange sensation on the left side of my lower back, like muscles that shouldn't be touching one another were suddenly best buddies.  I knew this was not good.  When I put my foot back on the ground and tried to stand up straight, I couldn't.  I tried again, and with real effort, stood up straight. Ok, I'll just stretch it out a little, right? Nope. I hobbled three miles home, knowing I wouldn't be running for a few days.

No running, back troubles. And also a cold that came on over night.  Chiro visits not helping much.

No running, back troubles and a cold.  Slightly less discomfort in the low back. Ice helps most.  The big internal debate is what I might do in the Law Day Run

Law Day Run 5k. Knowing that this race was coming up today has made this week much more challenging. For most, this would just be a little 5k that could be skipped without consequence. It's a little different for me. See, this race has a "Speed Team" division that includes a team of 5 runners, at least 2 of them women. Total times from the runners are added together to get a team score. My law firm, Manning Curtis Bradshaw and Bednar, has won the Speed Team trophy (which is a very nice glass traveling trophy) every year since 1998. I have been on those teams since 2001. In the last several years, the role of recruiting the team has been my responsibility. I draw from the talent pool in the Black Sheep, which includes both fast men and women. The race is about 500 people, and usually our runners perform very well. The course is fairly brutal, a long climb from the front of the law school up through the middle of campus to North Campus drive up to the golf course, south on the flat section through the golf course, and then the downhill section back to the start. The tricky part is there are many, many twists and turns along the way and it is difficult to develop and keep momentum.

Coming into the race this year, I thought I had a decent shot of running well. Last year I won the race in 17:42. Then when I threw out my back on Wednesday, I knew it would be a different story. When I woke up with a cold on Thursday, I knew it really wasn't looking good. I didn't run for a couple of days, hoping that I could give my back some time to heal, and also get over this cold. Both were still bothering me this morning.

I would typically have warmed up at least 4 or 5 miles for a 5k like this, but I thought I would be better off playing it safe with my back and only ran a mile. I think that was a mistake. I should have run longer, particularly with the first mile being uphill. I agree with John Straley that a race with an uphill start requires thorough warmup, otherwise, you just start out wasted and can't recover until its too late.

Surprisingly, the back felt ok during the warm up, just gentle "thud" feeling in the low back, no radiating pain. Things looked up slightly.

When I saw that BJ Christensen was on the scene with a speedy looking buddy, I knew it would be a much different race. I would like to think I could give BJ a chase on the best day, but this was not the best day. When he told me he was running on a speed team for the Paralegal Division, the team trophy race looked more interesting too.

I recruited two teams for this year: Josh Steffen, Mark Holland, Megan Call, Aimee Larkin, and I were the first team. Sam, Casey, Kim, Lindsey and John Straley were the second team. CORRECTION: Sam was on the First team, Mark Holland was on the second team. 

I didn't know the othe runners on BJ's team. I think they were Westminster runners.

From the start of the race, I just couldn't get it going, and had a nasty anaerobic feeling through the first mile. My energy level was just dismal. It wasn't my back that was hurting, it was my low energy from the cold (and lack of warm up). BJ and friend were 1-2. Josh was 3rd. Another runner was 4th, I was 5th. That was the order much of the race and that's how we ended up. BJ's time was an outstanding 16:23 on this challenging course. Aimee Larkin was 1st woman, Megan was 3rd. Between the two teams, we had about 10 runners in the top 20.

I shouldn't have been racing today, but I'm glad I went out. Not just for myself, but because we did manage to win the Speed Team competition. In the end, our women made the difference. So, I get to keep my job for another year.

After enough little setbacks in the past couple of months, I thought I had finally broken through and got back on track. Now, I'm in more challenging circumstances than I was in before! At least, the back injury is not necessarily running related. A cold, I think I can endure.

No running. I did walk a couple of miles with my wife and she smoked me. I can run faster than her, but can't keep up when we're walking.  Sore, congested.

Easy run in the meadow to move the legs and test the back.  Still getting over the cold.  Beautiful morning, but I didn't feel so hot overall.

Easy run back to the spot in Research Park where I tweaked my back a week ago.  I guess you could say I was facing my demons, but the demon was a fire hydrant, so . . . there wasn't a whole lot of drama.  But it's cool, that hydrant and I are friends now.  I promised to chase away any suspicious looking dogs if I'm ever in the area. 

 Felt 70%.
 

Run with the Radda crew.  My energy level was still a little dim and I still have some congestion, but feeling much better. No problems with the back, just a very light, dull ache on occasion.  Not sure if the electric stim and ultrasound have helped, or just time and ice.  Nice to run again. 

Climbed from my house up to the Shoreline trail behind the JCC and into Red Butte Canyon.  Stunningly glorious running; everything is so green now! I remember the dismal days of January when I was running in 7 degree weather everyday and it really wasn't that long ago.  Guess you can't get too hung up on the permanency of these things. 

 Lungs and sinuses still clearing out, but much better now. The back is just a little stiff, but not sore, and no issues while running. 
 

Cucina loop (Bonneville Shoreline trail) with a group of 10 -12.  Sam & I added an extension on the trail over past Red Butte for a total of 15.  The various sights this morning included wildflowers, tanks, and chanting zen monks.  This was my longest run since March 3rd, the week before the SI problem kicked in.  Man, that seems like a long time ago. No problems with the back today; still a little lingering congestion, but nothing significant.

This morning I ran a fairly hilly loop with the lowest point at Bonneville Glen/Miller Park (off 15th E) and the highest point up above the zoo.  Nice mix of terrain today. 

Black Sheep workout at Sugarhouse Park.  We ran one loop warmup (1.4 mi), then the workout started: 4 x 4 min, 4 x 3 min, 4 x 2 min, 4 x 1 min, at threshold/sub-threshold pace, with 1 min recoveries between intervals.  It added up to a lot of running this morning. 

Limited time for running as I am in a seminar all week.  Managed to squeeze in 8 this morning.

Still seminar-ing.  Ran 8 miles this early morning, added 3.5 miles of spiciness in the middle. 

Still rockin' the trial seminar lifestyle.  Eight miles early to Governors grove.

Still only had an hour to run this morning before the final day of this seminar, which is over now.  Congrats to all of the Ogden Marathon & Half Marathon runners, especially the victorious Paul Petersen. 

Got out the door at about 10:30 am and it was HOT! I ran up Dry Creek Canyon to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.  Loved the shady parts, cooked pretty much everywhere else.

A little rain falling as I headed out the door, but it didn't last long.  Under the overcast skies, I ran through Research Park and up above the zoo. I saw an elephant over the fence.  On the return, I ran through This is the Place park (I usually stay on Sunnyside) and then up through Governors Grove for the return. 

Black Sheep workout at the East High track. John Straley figured out a way to incorporate decorated pennies, Sponge Bob Squarepants, and tremendous pain into this workout. It would take me a long time to explain the way the workout was structured, but here's the bottom line:

1.2 mile warmup on the road

800m speed changes on the track

7 x 700 averaging about 2:14, with most of the quarters in about 72

1 mile of accelerating 300's (jog easy 100, then accelerate each subsequent 100 for 300m)

then 1.2 mile cooldown back on the road.

I was sort of sluggish today, couldn't really get it into a rhythm. I don't think I ate enough carbs last night for dinner. Josh Steffen was on fire, however. Sam was a maniac in the 300s.

 Added another 3 miles tonight after work, easy, up through Memory Grove to 9th Ave.

Emigration park loop.  A peacock squawked at me through the fence at the zoo.  Didn't see any elephants today.  Return via This is the Place, which I have decided beats Sunnyside hands down.  Took the secret trail beyond Governors Grove back into Research Park.

 Pretty slow today, though the Garmin died at the turnaround so I can't tell you exactly how slow. My mid-quads were also sore from yesterday's track workout. That's a good thing. It shows I was actually working as hard as I felt like I was working.

Ran from Radda, but different route. Met up at  5:45 with  Sam & Aimee Larkin. We ran Sam's Haven Lane route, which covers about the first half of the Heart of Holladay route, but then detours even deeper into the woods for a veritable mansion tour.  My favorite part was this section where we ran along the shaded canal banks behind some 20k sq. foot homes.  Nice run.

Easy, glorious miles in Federal Heights/11th Ave./Memory Grove/City Creek/4th Ave.

Magna Classic 5k. I am continually impressed that in a race of only 100 or so runners, the field could be this strong.  Bill Cobler chalked it up to respect for Demetrio.  That may true, as well as the fact that the course is fast, on the Circuit, and money on the line.  Teren Jameson ran 14:10 for the win, a road PR for him for the distance, which says a lot about the race.

I got in nearly five miles for a good warm up.  The start of the race was fast--as expected.  I went out with the lead pack, but didn't hang on long.  I was 10-15 seconds off their first mile, hitting my split in 4:51.  From that point on, I was entirely on my own: the two leaders, a group of five, then me, and so it stayed.

I hit the second mile in 10:08, which meant approx. 5:20 for that mile.  Third mile is much tougher than the first two, there is something like a "hill," but more of just a gentle "rise," but enough to feel substantially slower.  Running on my own with no real prospect of catching the runners ahead, the most I could do was just stay strong, keep running my race, and try to keep making a run at a PR.  I don't know what my 3rd mile split was, but I finished in 16:16., a 24 second improvement on my PR here at last year's race. 

They had pancakes at the awards ceremony.  I rocked a couple.

The plan was just to run an easy 5-6 mile shakeout, but once I made it to City Creek Canyon, I decided I wanted to see this, that, and the other thing, so I ended up adding a few unexpected miles. Plus, it was a gorgeous morning.  Pace was just easy, easy, easy. 

Cucina loop (Bonneville Shoreline Trail--City Creek to Dry Creek).  I expected heat this morning, but it was actually overcast and nice.  The clouds cast a shimmery silver light on all the new leaves. This must surely be the greenest part of the season.  

Black Sheep workout. Warmup from Steiner over to the U campus and more warmup on the Golden Mile. Then 1 x 1200m (4:18), 2 x 800m (2:44/2:33), 1 x 400m (1:18) on different parts of the Golden Mile (some flat, some hills).  Next was 3 x 2 min hill repeats on the main hill running down the center of campus.  Then 6 x 1 min hill repeats on the same hill.  Cool down back to Steiner.

Emigration Park loop. 

Run from Radda at 5:50 am with Sam, Aimee and a buddy of Casey's named Frank. Frank actually meant to meet up with the 6:00 am group, but since he was new and didn't know better, took off with us. Frank's a fit guy, a triathlete, but I think the pace was not agreeable and he turned back about 4 miles into the run. He found the main group after they finished their run and they all had a good laugh about how we (Sam, Aimee and me) were trying to inflict pain on him. Of course not!

Anyway, we ran the Holladay Mansion Tour. We doubled back on the shady canal section for twice the shadyness and ran up to Wander Lane. We threw in some spiciness, but not much. Temperatures are great, running in the depths of Holladay is fun.

From home to the gate at Red Butte Canyon.  

Salt Lake 10 Miler. This race was in April last year. I somehow had in my head that I ran 56 something, but I just looked and I ran 58:03. So, I was looking to improve my time, and it seems I took off more than I expected.

The race start was a little late, which allowed a longer warmup than I had planned; Sam & I got in 4 miles before the start of the race.

The goal in the first couple of miles was not to go anaerobic on the climb. All my splits here are from the Garmin, rather than the mile markers. First mile was 5:46, felt fine. The steeper second mile was 6:41. Albert Wint was leading at that point (with a bandit triathlete surging as well), then Mike Kirk, Chris Rogers, and me. I saw Mike overtake Albert and knew that he would be tough for anyone to catch with all that downhill. When I hit the downhill, I tried to lean into it and put the gas pedal down to the extent I could. Mile 3 split 5:22. In mile 4, I managed to sneak by Chris Rogers and I neither gained or lost places after that. Mile 4 in 5:11. Then just tried to roll down the canyon. Splits were 5:17 and 5:22 for miles 5 & 6. At mile 7, I felt like I was starting to run out of gas, slowing to 5:34 (a flatter mile, too). Mile 8, still feeling a little flat in 5:33, but at least the barn is within reach. Mile 9 in 5:29. The last mile I kicked a bit and my watch says 5:00 flat (but that mile was counted as .95 on my watch).

Bill Cobler dragged me up the canyon for a mile after the race for some cooldown. Both Scott Browning & I thought that was enough. Bill was adding another 8.

The temperatures were getting pretty warm by the end of this race and I'm glad it didn't start any later.  Still, this is a fun race with a good course and a low-key atmosphere. Afterward, I headed up the canyon to the Sun & Moon Cafe with Sam (Stoic) and his lovely wife Kelli. I love their Huevos Rancheros. Nice morning for breakfast outside on the patio.

Easy 7.5 around the Avenues/Memory Grove this morning.  Last week I ran 70+ miles for the first time since last fall.  I have been unable to reach 70 miles so far this year without some body part complaining about it. Last week's miles felt good, but my ankle is sore. I may have a minor sprain, it's basically the same issue I was blogging about a couple of months ago, for those keeping track at home.  Ice and compression have helped.

Workout with the Black Sheep group at East High track.  We ran the standard 1.25 warmup through the neighborhood. Then 800m of speed changes.  The centerpiece of the workout was 12 x 400m.  We ran these in three sets of four each.  Straley decided we've been "over-recovering" and so we ran 100m of easy jogging after each interval for recovery.  That had the effect of toning the pace down a bit, but still keeping things fairly spicy.  Josh was out and running strong and Adam Wende joined us today (he's been recovering from injury for months and is now ready to  run workouts).  He trained last year with the Wasatch Athletics guys, but I think our workout may provide a nice re-entry point. Plus, I know he's reading this and he should just sign up for the blog already.  That's right, Adam--I'm calling you out!!  

 Ok, anyway, the three of us agreed that 75 seconds seemed like a reasonable goal for each 400.  We more or less kept it in range.  First set was 77--77--73--74  Second set was 76--75--75--75.   Third set was 74--74-73-72.  These felt good, even with the short recovery.  For the next 400m workout, I'm thinking a goal of 20 400's at sub 80 pace. I know that would make Josh happy.

 We ran some stairs, I did an easy lap solo and then we ran a cooldown mile together.

The mileage goal this week is mid-50s and try to get a handle on the sensations in my ankle.

 

Eight rainy miles. I was soaked by the end, but the air temperature was mild and I didn't get cold so it wasn't so bad. Actually enjoyed the change for the most part.  

Run from Radda at 5:50 am with Mark Holland and Aimee Larkin.  We ran the Holladay Mansion Tour in reverse, which we agreed is the better option.  It was basically like running in Oregon this morning, with the light mist, overcast skies, and green everything.  When we got up to Wander Lane on the return, I added two spicy miles in 12:05 (6:15/5:50), then 3 x 200m (40,39,39).

Red Butte Canyon loop (on the road).  Skies have cleared, it was quite nice out. 

Four miles easy on my own and then 11 miles with Jwood and Ingunn (for part).  Great morning to be out.  I had to wrap up running early to get to Liberty Park for the British Field Day and show the LBC.  It was a good time. 

Relatively easy miles through Holladay with Sam.  That makes three runs in Holladay in the last week.  Such a great place to run; few cars, many trees, interesting neighborhoods. 

My ankle is hurting consistently now.  It's not bad while running, but after running it really kind of hurts all the time.  I also turned it again on the run this morning.  Man, I feel like all I've done is whine about nagging little injuries for months, but that's just the way it's been.

Emigration Canyon/Zoo route.  Average pace was just over 7min, which is not bad considering the elevation gain on the way out.  Of course, it makes it easier to run 6:45 pace on the return, too.  

Workout with the Black Sheep at Miller Park (approx 1500 E. and 1000 So.). This is a shaded urban nature trail with nice single track that runs for about a half mile on either side of a creek.

We warmed up through the park and then did 5 x 220m hill surges, gradually increasing pace from 70% to 80% to 90% to 95%. We then moved back onto the trail for pace line drills. Our group was Josh, Sam, and me. We traded leading each interval, which is about the only way to do a workout on a narrow single track trail. We ran 2 x .5mi uphill (2:26 for both). Then 6 x .25 up (77/79/85(we ran a hillier section on that one)/77/75/74). The recoveries were long but active.Added some more mileage with Josh and Megan on the road after the workout.

 Also, I keep meaning to post that I didn't get into the St. George Lottery. Nor have they let me in based on the emails I have sent them.  No one likes a beggar, I guess.  I did put my name into the New York Marathon lottery a few weeks back and learned today that I did get into that race.  It's Nov. 4th, which would give me an additional month of training than if I were running St. George.  I think I would just run it for the experience and to put in a good effort. It's not a fast course and none of my PR dreams are likely to come true in that race.  I still hold out some possibility I could get into St. George, though. 

Sugarhouse Park/Hidden Hollow Loop.  I didn't plan the return route very well and the last few miles felt like a long slog. 

On a more interesting note, Sam emailed me a New York Times article about the "Marathon Monks" in Japan.  It's an interesting read, sure to embiggen the soul.

Run from Radda. We ran a modified Canal trail/Mansion tour. On the return, I ran a couple of spicy miles (5:48/5:41).  Enjoyed a cheddar rosemary apple scone at Radda afterward.  It's good. 

11th Avenue loop.  I got more sleep than usual and was surprised at the energy I had.

 Yesterday I went to see Dr. Macintyre about my ankle.  He took some x-rays.  Good news is no sign of a stress fracture.  The not so good news is that I have tendonitis in my ankle.  Specifically, it's tibialis posterior tendonitis Apparently, if I were a race horse and not named Secretariat, Dr. Macintyre said I would likely be off to the glue factory.  But the injury is somewhat less dramatic in humans.  Aggravating it further could lead to a rupture or many other bad things, however.

 So physical therapy, reduced volume and intensity, etc.  I don't know if I have the physical and mental strength to back off.  I suppose I know I should, I also know that it means the likelihood of returning to top fitness during this training season is not so hot.

Red Butte/Shoreline trail. Ankle not so hot. 

Parked at Steiner with the plan of swimming after my run.  I ran a short south loop, returned to Steiner, and swam for a few minutes.  I'm a terrible swimmer, the equivalent of an out-of-shape, duck-footed, back of the pack runner, but it felt great. Then I rode my bike to work, completing the trifecta. 

Workout with the Black Sheep at Highland track. After warming up around Sugarhouse park, we went to the track.  Before beginning the workout, we had a moment of silence for our friend and fellow Black Sheep Christine Brimley, who died this past Friday just 10 months after being diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. She was a fighter to the end and was out running with her friends until barely two months ago. She came to a baby shower that the Black Sheep/Radda crew folks threw for Heather and me at the end of March and she looked great. It is overwhelming how that disease can ravage otherwise healthy bodies in such a short time. In addition to being a great athlete, Christine was also involved in the organization behind the Ragnar Relay series. She was great fun to be around and she will be missed greatly by all who knew her. 

 It seems trite to describe the rest of the workout now, but here goes.  We ran 800m of speed changes and then 10 x 800m.  I wanted to do these at 2:40 steady throughought. It took me a few to get warmed up, but it finally clicked.  2:42/2:43/2:44/2:40/2:39/2:39/2:39/2:39/2:40/2:37.  Cooled down a mile on the track after. Ankle pain at 2-2.5. I put the PowerStep insoles back in my shoes and that may have helped control the foot movement slightly.

Swimming at Steiner. When are as inefficient as I am, it feels like a good workout. Back to running tomorrow.

 Last night, Heather and I were out for a walk at about 10pm.  We stopped and chatted with another couple from the neighborhood who had stopped at the top of the street to try to catch a glimpse of the space shuttle and the international space station crossing through the sky.  After a couple of minutes of sky-gazing, along came these space travelers, moving quickly from the northwest sky, heading east. It was a cool sight.
 

The Black Sheep group assembled at Foothill Village this morning for a memorial run for Christine Brimley.  We ran the H-Rock loop, a route I ran with her several times in years past.  It was very cool, there were at least 30 or more runners out--most all of the folks I have run with regularly for the past six or seven years.  Lots of different fitness levels, so something for everybody.  The loop most of the group ran is just under 6 miles, Sam and Aimee and I added an extension over by the zoo to get a little more.  Afterward, we all congregated over a beverage and tried to make sense of it all.

Parked at Steiner acquatic center and ran a loop through the U, Fort Douglas, This is The Place, Golf Course, etc.  So, much like my typical routes, but with a different starting point.  Ankle pain not so bad during the run, but bothering me since a little bit.  I went for a quick swim after the run.

Even though I was cutting my mileage back this week, I decided I could handle a 5k.  After all, I was going to run 10-12 miles anyway, so why not throw in a little tempo? I didn't have high hopes for a great time, but I did want to run hard nevertheless.

Got to the start early, ran a 5 mile warm up from the start and around Liberty Park a couple of times.  The race has an aid station in the park and the volunteers had set it up past the turnaround point.  I persuaded them that it might be better to have the aid station before the turnaround point and helped them move the table and water.

Today was a new course for this event and it was good.  Started on the east side of Library Square, running south from 500 So. to 900 So., then up 900 So. to Liberty Park. Those that have run the Des News races know that 900 So. section as the last .5 miles of the race. It's much harder at the end of a 10k or marathon than in mile 1 of a 5k.  Anyway, at Liberty Park, the course makes a little out and back loop along the west side of the park.  Then it's just back to the start, same route.  More or less completely flat when it's all said and done. 

At the start I saw Neal Gassman and knew that he would be tough to hang with, let alone beat, given the awesome season he's having. He's also won here before at least once or twice.  Anyway, from the start, Jose Martinez was out in front through the first .75, but then Neal caught him and I caught him.  Another runner was with me through the turnaround, but I managed to pull away at about mile 2.  Neal was long gone by that point, and building a lead. I also didn't have anyone too close to me so I wasn't pushing very hard in the last mile--at least not as hard as I could have pushed with some external motivation.  Neal was first in 15:56, I was second--a full minute back in 16:55.

After the race, I cooled down with Neal and a few others, another trip on the course.  Also got to meet Brent and Syliva. Great to put faces with blogs.

The ankle was pretty much talking to me all morning.  Pain at level of 2-3. It is difficult to describe how conflicted I feel about running on it.  It is slightly better, but not much.  I don't much like the very idea of not being able to run and compete right now.  I'll keep trying to manage it as best as I can--and try to be fairly intelligent about it. Hard to know if I'm better off in the long run by taking time off completely or by cutting back to 40-50 miles for several more weeks. The ankle has not yet provided a great answer to this question.

Sugarhouse loop from Steiner aquatic center.  No ankle discomfort until about 2 miles into the run, which is a good development.  Swam for a few minutes after the run. 

Workout with the Black Sheep at East High track.  Started with a 1.2 mile neighborhood warmup.  Then 800m of speed changes.  The heart of the workout was a modified pacing ladder. 2  x 800,  4 x 600, 5 x 400.  800s were: 2:51, 2:44. 600s were 2:08/2:02/1:57/1:57 400s were: 81-79-77-70-74-64.  Cooldown on the track afterward. 

From Steiner, I ran a loop through the U/Research Park/This is the Place/and the Zoo.  Felt a little sluggish.  Ankle pain was at 2-3, but much more sporadic.  I think that's a good thing. I swam after the run. 

Radda run.  I showed up at 5:50 and ran a solo mile before hooking up with others at 6am. We ran the Mansion/Canal  tour.  Things got mildly spicy toward the end, with JWood leading the charge. I was struggling a bit today.  Avg. pace was 7:17 for the run. 

From Steiner aquatic center, I ran a loop similar to my Wednesday route (U/Ft Douglas/Research Park/GovernorsGrove/This is the Place/Zoo), but with the added excitement of an extra mile running east up through the golf course and then back down Sunnyside to Steiner. Windy at the base of Emigration Canyon and that added effort to the climbing, but overall I had much better energy today. Swam for about 20 min after the run.

Also, I've been trying to ride my bike to work at least once a week, and today was the day for that.

 My wife just gave me the heads up on a story in the Des News today about Christine Brimley and the WBR.

Sam and I ran from the Mill D trailhead in Big Cottonwood Canyon up to Guardsman Pass.  Some buddies of his were mountain biking down from Guardsman and they dropped us off on their way up.  We drove their cars back down.

It was a really gorgeous run--slightly cool at the start, but that felt good.  Plenty of climbing today, at least 2500 feet.  I don't know how to get that info off my Garmin, though.  We were slow, of course, but it was a very high quality run.  And gloriously beautiful along Red Lovers Ridge.

On my way home, I stopped at Steiner and swam for 500m. 

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.