Elite Jogging For Dummies

I ran .25 barefoot on the treadmill. 

I ran a southern loop including U / Guardsman /900 So. / Foothill/ Wasatch Blvd / Bonneville GC / Zoo /TiTP / Research Park / U to home (henceforth "Foothill Loop" since waiting to cross Foothill is right in the middle). I was so slow and my left glute and hamstring were tight.   But I did run.

Black Sheep workout on the Highland track. We ran 1.4 warm up loop around Sugarhouse, followed by 800 m of speed changes on the track. The workout was a ladder, 3 x 400, 2 x 800, 1 x 1200, 2 x 800, 3 x 400.  All went well through the 400s, 800s and 1200. On the first 800 on the "other side" of the ladder, I had problems. I felt a bit lightheaded and my arms had the sensation of not being attached to my body. I bailed after the first lap, emptied some of the contents of my stomach (fluids), then jogged a bit. I started to feel better and joined again to finish the 400s (82, 78, 76).  Then we cooled down around Sugarhouse.  

I don't know what happened in the middle of the workout but I'm glad I stopped rather than push through it.  

Foothill loop with Josh and Megan.  I was lacking energy and the weather was not great.  Pretty much my entire left leg above the knee has some kind of tightness.  Things loosened up when I massaged it after the run, however. 

Big Workout with Josh. Or, should I say, Complete Sufferfest.  Josh had one more big workout on the calendar before Boston and I agreed to provide moral support, if not actual training support.  Luke, our 9mo, was up literally all night and I spent most of the hours between 1 and 4 am fighting that loss of rationality that sometimes accompanies late-night parenting, when even seemingly benign questions like "where is his binky?" come out sounding like the words of a madman.

 But I did sleep well between 5:00am and 5:20, when the alarm went off.  I met up with Josh at 5:45, barely conscious.  It was windy and snowing and looked like it was only going to start snowing more. We ran a 3 mile warm up over to 900 South and then began the tempo run.  For the meat of the workout, Josh had a 10 mile progression run planned, with a total of 16 miles overall. I had a strong suspicion it wasn't my day for a hard 10 mile run, and given the awful weather this morning, it was hard to think it was a good day for anyone to do it.  My goal was 7, see how it felt, and then cool down.  Well, I'll tell you it felt like crap. I struggled to maintain 6:30 pace. Most miles (I don't have my splits) were in the 6:40+ range. By mile 7, I was struggling with 7 minute pace, and also struggling with a fierce headwind and snow.  I think I ended up with about 7.5 miles of tempo before it was time to jog.  The thing was there wasn't much of a difference in my pace at that point, the transition from "fast" to slow was non-existent.  Josh, however, ran more and faster. 

 The upside was just getting it done on a tough morning.

This morning I ran most of Ye Olde Loop, just trying to shake out the cobwebs from Thursday's punishment.

We're up at the Bear Lake Cabin for the weekend. It was way too cold, snowy and windy to run early so I didn't get out until about 1pm.  I ran out and back on the highway that circles the lake.  The run out was colder and a little snowy but on the way back I actually warmed up enough to take off the jacket.  With the snow overnight there was a lot of fresh snow all around and the view of the deep blue lake was memorable.