Elite Jogging For Dummies

Bonneville Shoreline trail from the Morris Meadow trailhead. Easy on the way up, gaining just a little less than 900 feet in the 3 miles out. Picked it up on the way back, but kept it in control. Another beautiful fall morning.

From 15th and 15th at 5:30 with a few Black Sheep. We ran the route to top of the med school campus. The pace got somewhat aggressive from Research Park to the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI), with me and Casey K. running pretty hard for a marathon pace mile to the turnaround point. Easy for the first couple of miles on the way back, and then picked it up to marathon pace for the last mile home. This is supposed to be an "easy" day, but this particular group today, including Mark Holland and Aimee Larkin, makes it into more of a tempo effort.

Speedwork with the Black Sheep on the roads around Red Butte Garden. We did a mile warm up and then 4 hill repeats on the entrance up to the garden that are pretty steep. Then 4 laps of a one mile route that includes about .70 of hard running, and .30 of recovery, and includes a mix of flat and hill running. Then a long hill surge, followed by an easy recovery.

Glad to have survived today's run. Sam, Jan and I started at Cucina on 2nd Ave at 6am, with the plan to run the loop on the Bonneville Shoreline trail from City Creek to Dry Creek and back down to Cucina. Jan turned back a few minutes into the run because of a nagging achilles problem. Sam and I continued on toward City Creek.

Now, the last couple of runs Sam and I have done together included getting hung up behind some skunks in Millcreek Canyon and then getting caught in a September blizzard up on Shoreline. Today, it started fine, we had a nice ascent up City Creek, through the meadow, and up past the turn off to Terrace Hills, following the ridgeline trail. There was some lightning in the distance, but we didn't think much of it. That is, until we were suddenly blinded by a tremendous flash of lightning right in front of us, accompanied by a huge crack of thunder. We both hit the ground immediately. Sam swears the bolt was less than 50 feet from us. I have never seen a flash of light so bright that wasn't plugged in to something. It was just freaky--we were way too close to getting fried! Since we had about 4 miles of ridge running ahead of us, we decided, without any discussion, to turn around and head back. On our way down toward Terrace Hills, we had another jolt just a bit behind us; again we both hit the ground. After a few minutes of running for our lives, we got to the relative safety of the Terrace Hills road and ran back down to 11th Ave., Virginia, and to Cucina from there. Crazy morning!

Met up with Amy S. at my house at 6am. We ran up to campus at the U. I wanted to run a tempo-like run on the Run Like Health 5k course. The course is like a maze that weaves all around campus. Very difficult to follow. Lots of quick, sharp turns that are hard to navigate. I doubt there are any straight stretches more than .25 mi. Also, there is construction in the middle of campus and I can't tell at all where the course is supposed to go. The race should be an adventure for that reason. Sasha would have a field day with the course certification issues. Both times I have run the course, I have had 3.4 mi on my Suunto, but I'm sure I didn't follow it exactly. The RD is a friend of mine and he's a great runner and a careful guy, so I'm thinking he should have it figured out and well-marked, but it will be a challenge. Did my little 3.4 mi "tempo" run in 20:22, slow, slow, slow. I would be surprised if I break 18:45 on Saturday.

After the little course navigation, ran a couple more easy miles back to my house with Amy. Oh, also, it felt a lot like winter out there today.

Finally, I would like to get some feedback from the blog on my new running nutrition plan. The front desk at work has a jar of candy corn and I have made it my mission to eat a handful everytime I walk by. I just know I'm going to see some amazing results if I can just keep up that kind of discipline through the holidays.

Research Park loop. Pace was comfortable.

Run Like Health 5k This is a small race on the U of U campus. I mentioned in an earlier blog this week that it's full of twists and turns, and also includes about 150 feet of climbing and an equal amount of descending. So, not really fast. The course marking was great, though, and the RD rode out in front on a bike to lead the way. I started out way too fast. Looking back, it feels like I took off the way that you see kids take off when they run their first road races. You know, full sprint for 100m and then suffer for the rest of the race. Well, I went out fast enough that I was out in front right away. There were a couple of other strong runners in the field that are friends of mine, and a few former high school runners that are students at the U. Anyway, I got out in front and just tried to hold it. The first mile has a gradual descent and then a bit of climbing. I hit the first mile over at Rice Eccles Stadium in 5:16. Way too fast given the technicalities of this course. I feel like I spent the rest of the race paying for that first mile. The second mile retraces the second half of the first mile and then continues north through campus. Second mile split was 5:47. I was about 200m in front at that point. Just wanted to hold on for the last mile, which is basically flat for the first .75 and then descends for about the last quarter. Third mile in 5:45, and then whatever the change is for the last .1 After the race it took a few minutes to get my breathing back. I had that nasty 5k feeling in my lungs, if you know what I mean. So, I finished first in 17:22, average pace 5:38. Kevin Tuck was second in 18:02. He's a strong runner and a solid guy. Hope I can hook up with him for a few runs in the coming months. I got a gift certificate to the Runners Advantage store for my effort, which is great because I dropped a pair of gloves in the toilet after the race. Before the race I ran an easy 2 and after the race an easy 5.5.