Elite Jogging For Dummies

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.