Elite Jogging For Dummies

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.