Elite Jogging For Dummies

Twelve miles this morning, via the U/Federal Heights loop with a major uphill detour to the Morris Meadow for a loop around the meadow, before heading down to finish the run via Memory Grove and 4th Ave. Slow today, but steady enough to feel like I was actually running.

 PM: I ran home from work, via the west downtown route.

I ran a little workout this morning. I headed out the door at about 5:35 and warmed up four miles to the U, Ft. Douglas, and This is the Place. At TiTP, I started the workout, 7 x 3 minutes at CV pace. For me, that pace should be around 5:30-5:35 per interval. I ran 2 minutes easy between intervals.

The first one--starting at the bottom of TiTP was uphill into a major headwind blowing out of Emigration Canyon; 6:21 pace and it felt hard. Second had some downhill by the golfcourse, heading onto Wasatch, 5:21 pace . Third was flattish with a little rise on Wasatch, 5:36 pace. Fourth was still on Wasatch, heading toward Foothill Boulevard, 5:25 pace. Fifth one, past Christine Brimley's water fountain on Foothill, heading toward the footbridges, very slight uphill with a headwind, 5:38. Sixth one, heading back north from the footbridge, slight downhill, 5:17. Seventh one, back up on to Wasatch Boulevard, 5:17 again. Then a five and a half mile cooldown back to the house.

I felt pretty good about the workout overall, even though it seemed to go by very quickly. I wore a new pair of Asics flats (the Hyperspeed) that I am considering racing in at SGM. Overall, they felt light and quick but I wonder about wearing them over 26 miles. I'm fine wearing flats on the half M, but haven't worn them on the marathon. I have always worn the Asics DS Trainer instead. I think I will use these new shoes a couple of more times in workouts to get more information from my body and then I can make up my mind.

 PM: I ran home from work, 2.6 mile version.

Easy run with  Josh and Megan, around the U/Federal Heights/Avenues/Capitol etc.  I don't know why I call it "easy" as it was actually really slow and hard! 

Workout with Josh this morning. We met up on South Temple and ran up through the Avenues to the U, Fort Douglas, then over to TitP, and headed up into Emigration Canyon.  Our plan was to run a seven mile tempo, with five of the miles being downhill to get a little taste of St. George.I thought it would be pretty good if we could keep 5:30-5:35 on the downhill miles.

After two miles of easy running up the canyon (just past Ruth's Diner), we started the uphill portion of our tempo run. The first two miles, up the canyon with a little headwind, were tough but felt workmanlike.  First mile was 6:19, second mile 6:25. Not bad, all things considered.  Then we made the turnaround to head back down the canyon. 

We both knew the first mile after the turn would be tough because we would have to change gears quickly, and we were right!  Mile 3 was 5:31.  The fourth mile still felt a little rough, but improved slightly, 5:30.  We eventually settled into a better groove, mile 5 was 5:24. We were about a mile from the mouth of the canyon at this point and we just kept on rolling down, 5:19 for mile six. For the last mile, we headed out of the canyon and through the lower parking lot at TitP, then made a right turn into Research Park, 5:15 for mile seven. We picked it up a little bit there at the end, but it didn't feel like we were pushing too hard. 

Then we had about four miles of cooldown back to the house for a total of 17 for the morning.

I got to bed a little late (11:40) and slept a little late this morning (6:15).  So I ran nine easy miles on the ol' Avenues/U/Federal Heights/Ensign/Memory Grove loop. 

 Tonight we're planning to drive to Moab. My buddy Sam is running a 50 miler in Moab tomorrow and we're going to make sure he gets enough to eat and drink when he is done.

We left Salt Lake for Moab at close to 6 pm last night.  It took a long time to get down here, having stopped in Helper for 40 minutes to feed Jack and get a bite to eat for ourselves. We didn't eat very well, just sandwiches etc. Arrived in Moab at 10:30 pm.  Sam and Kelli and their daughter, Samantha, were already asleep.  Sam got up at 3:45 to head out to catch the bus to run the 50 miler today.  His race started at 6am. So, as we speak, at 10:45 am, he has been running for 4.5 hours and probably has another 4-6 hours to go.  They have a massive climb in the beginning and then the last half is fairly flat. I can't wait to hear his report.

For myself, my plan was to head out for 18 miles, the last "long" run before SGM.  The house where we're staying is out near the road that heads up to the Slickrock Trail.  So, I ran out on the Mill Creek road, heading south, wondering how far I could go before running out of road. Turns out I could have gone a lot farther than I did. I had lots of company on the road since there was a 100 mile supported bike ride on the same road. I saw a couple of people that I know out there on the road.  

The run itself was fun. The road out had a nice little uphill grade that was easy, but still a climb.  I finished the first nine miles in about 1:10.  Then I turned around and had a nice cruise.  The pace was faster but still easy. The last few miles were in the 6:20 range, with mile 18 in 6:04.  

Overall, I think this was a pretty quality run, not just because of the distance, but because I kept the effort more consistent over the distance than I have in my last couple of long runs. Ok, so time to start a little taper action.  

Hope the TOU runners had good races, I look forward to the reports.