Elite Jogging For Dummies

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.