Elite Jogging For Dummies

"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.