Elite Jogging For Dummies

Easy trail run with Heather, heading east from Deer Valley resort; out and back.

Research Park loop. It was a really pleasant morning for a run; cool and misty and dark! While running up through Federal Heights, I passed a guy in a dark hooded sweatshirt and dark pants carrying two backpacks that looked stuffed to the seams. It was early and he wasn't walking toward the University. It dawned on me later when a cop was driving slowly through the neighborhood on my return that maybe this suspicious fellow was engaged in some criminal mischief!

The run felt much better today than anything last week. The legs have finally loosened up enough that my form feels natural again.

Heather and I added another 3.75 down through Memory Grove and back home tonight.

Not quite ready for speedwork with the Black Sheep yet, so I decided to just run easy and throw in some pickups. From home, I ran through the U over to East High track where I ran an easy 7:23 mile to recalibrate my Suunto t6. On the way back, I ran .75 hard/.25 easy. My last mile was right at 6 min.

Having read many of the blogs here about the Garmin 305 and seen the Garmin in action with friends, I'm definitely considering making the leap over to the GPS-based system, rather than the foot-pod based system that I have with the Suunto t6. For the most part, I love the watch and the training-effect information it provides, but I am also interested in the speed/distance precision that GPS affords. I've been hesitant so far because the Garmin models have traditionally been too bulky--like wearing a garage door opener on your wrist-- but I think the 305 is pretty moderately sized considering what it does.

Foothill Village/Research Park/Steiner loop with a few of the Black Sheep. The pace started easy; we finished with a couple of miles at 6:45 pace.

Easy run up to the University where I did a series of lite-tempo surges over 3.4 miles around campus. It wasn't marathon pace, but it wasn't easy pace either. I was running 6:25 pace at best. Felt alright for my first effort at quicker leg turnover since the marathon.

H-Rock loop with the Black Sheep. There is a 600 foot climb from Wasatch Blvd. to Skyline Drive in about 3/4 of a mile, but otherwise this run is very mellow.

A group of about 10 of us met up at 7:15 off of Bear Hollow Rd. near the Canyons resort in Park City. We ran a very cool loop that hooked together a few trails I had not run before. I'll have to go back and piece it all together, but we ran sections of the Mid-Mountain trail, Holly's Down, Rob's Trail, and a couple of others. We looped back to our starting point from one of the lodges on the north section of the Canyons.

It was 28 degrees when we started, but we warmed up quickly with a 3 mile climb, gaining 1500 feet. We reached a saddle and then had a very gradual and winding 5 mile descent on some great single track through pines and aspens. Not many leaves left, but still very pretty. The views on this run were great.

I put a little bit of effort into the climb, but for the most part it was just easy and conversational. It was a good group of folks to hang out with for this autumn run.