Elite Jogging For Dummies

The plan was run and swim, but I ended up just doing the run. I headed out from 15th and 15th and did the Huntsman Cancer Institute loop, which is the old Monday standby. Of course, I was running at 6:45 and those guys ran at 5:30, so I didn' have any company.  Somewhat typically, I had some twinges of knee pain in the first three miles, especially while climbing. It was enough of an issue for me to stop a couple of times to stretch out the hamstring and IT band.  On the return route I really concentrated on keeping my form correct, and this extra attention meant that I was virtually pain free for the last few miles and actually felt quite good, though still out of shape.

Out the door by 5:30, arrived at Steiner and in the pool by 5:50. It was still dark but the pool lights were on so it was like nightswimming until the sun started to come up.  I had a good swim, 1700 meters with about 400 meters of "hard" swimming spread out among the swim. Well, it's all hard for me, but usually I don't kick much and I was kicking on those harder efforts. 

I had a 7:30 am meeting, so had to get out the door early.  I ran up to This is the Place Monument.  I made the executive decision to run a couple of tempo miles in the middle of the run. The first one began at Fort Douglas and continued up into TiTP.  On the flat section I felt good, but the little grunt climb at the south end of Research Park was tough, resulting in a 6:06 mile. After recovering for a mile up to the end of the monument, I started another tempo. This one began slightly downhill for the first half mile but then climbed for the rest of the mile, including the long dirt road to the north gate and more of the grunt section at Research Park.  I was doing this old dude shuffle as I suffered in agony trying to finish the mile. I did so, in 6:18. All things considered, that was not a bad effort. It was good to reach beyond the comfort zone. I ran easy to recover my sanity for a while and then did another surge of about .70 to the steps on the Legacy Bridge.  

The run made me seriously consider, for many reasons, changing the title of my blog to "Shuffling Through the Blackness." 

I swam a mile at Steiner.

Goose egg. I have excuses but they're not very good. 

Another double digit run ... that's two weeks in a row! I felt good during the run but had some residual knee soreness afterward. That seems to be the cycle: the knee warms up nicely during the run and then the hamstrings and glute get all knotted up in the hours after the run.  Stretching and massage do help, but there seems to be no magic bullet other than ... um ... not running.