cheryl

I ran for 30 minutes outside on the canal road.  It was a pretty nice day today.  Then I went back inside to the treadmill and did a little more running.

The group met at Daybreak today, actually at Country Crossing Park.  It looked like a big group met at 5:15 when I pulled up for the 5:45 part.  Aaron was in charge today, but it turned out that we kind of divided into groups and just kind of ran with them for the most part.  I spent part of the run talking with Mike and Peggy and Lisa, then  I spent the last part talking with Debbie about her kids, especially her older son.   I felt too tight today in my upper body.  I keep thinking I'm getting better about running more relaxed, then I have a day like today where I just feel tight the entire time. Something's gotta give!

Two workouts today.  My main priority right now isn't getting in a lot of miles, but getting my form more efficient, smooth and relaxed (like Sasha says an Ethiopian looks like when they run).  So the first part of the workout I spent on my treadmill doing one minute runs where the main idea was to feel "efficient, smooth and relaxed."  If I started feeling too tight, I had to adjust until I felt relaxed or I had to stop.  That went pretty well.  If I could just feel that way for more than one minute, though, that would help a lot.

Then, for part two:  I promised my ten year old while he was off track that we would do something different and fun.  He decided he wanted to go to St. George for a few days.  So we headed down there this afternoon, and arrived about 5:30.  Very nice day in St. George, I was able to walk around outside in the evening in a short sleeve shirt and felt fine.  I can see why people become snow birds, I may very well become one in  a few years, when I officially reach senior citizen status.  Anyway, I got on the hotel's treadmill, and I was able to see my reflection in their windows so I was able to see my form better.  I felt like I was running with the correct form for once because I was able to see how I looked.  It looked right and it felt right, so I was happy about that.  Now to duplicate that when I run outside and can't see how I look.  I need to run only where there are mirrors all around. 

Ok, now that I'm going to be more consistently running, I'm going to more consistently blog.  Today the group met at Centennial Park in Riverton.  We warmed up together for a little ways, then we broke up into two groups, the ones wanting to do real speed, and the others who wanted to ease into speed.  I chose the ease into speed group.  We ran for a while, then threw in some faster pick-ups.  We made it back to the park, then ran the loop again, this time just running, no faster pick-ups.  I was running along, enjoying talking with Michelle and Kelli, then here comes Eric running fast, so I took up with him and we pushed it back to the park.  It was kind of fun to kind of open things up.

Because my main goal now is to get my form "smoother and more efficient," I think I'm going to give myself a grade on that each time.  When I first start out running, things feel tight and not very smooth and efficient.  But as I warm up, things get better.  Today I concentrated on keeping my upper body relaxed.  That is a constant struggle because I've programmed myself over years to be way too tight there.  I would give myself a B for that, not as tight as I've been lately, but it still needs work.  I also worked on the feeling of gliding back on the "kick-back" part of the stride.   It felt better as the run went along, and by the end was actually pretty good.  Higher knees still needs work.  Overall a B for form for today's run.

Today I did a rolling hill workout on the treadmill.  I changed the incline throughout, going up to 12% at times, then down to a decline, then back up to whatever incline I felt like.  I read in Running Times that some coach out there thinks rolling hills are the best workout for marathon runners, so that's what gave me the idea to do what I did today.  I kept the speed very slow, it was overall a good run, not too demanding.

Today the group met at Julie's house.  It was raining a little when I left my house at 5:30.  I was tempted to just drive to the Rec Center and do a workout there, but I knew I wouldn't get as good of a workout as I get with the group, nor would it be nearly as much fun, so I drove on and met the group.  I made the right decision, the weather was very nice, if it was raining at all, it wasn't very much.  After the warm-up, I ran in shorts and a t-shirt and was very comfortable.  We ran three miles for the main workout.  Cheris said she was going to take the first mile fast, the second slower, the third fast, so I decided to do that.  My times were:  7:32, 8:09, and 7:20 for the three miles.  I was pretty happy with those times, because I haven't really done any big time running for a couple of months, so to have two miles in the 7 minute range I thought was pretty good.  Now if I could just get my times closer to 7 minutes flat, I would be quite happy because that would show real progress.  It was fun, I felt pretty good, felt like my form was good, the relaxation part is going better, plus the working on the extension feeling more like gliding felt pretty good today, after the warm-up.  Things are always very tight at first, then I loosen up as we go along.

I got up early for Lisa's class at the Rec Center.  I really wanted to stay in bed, but that's what I did last week, and I felt bad all day about doing that.  Once I got to the Rec Center, I'm glad my less lazy side won.  The class was fun, as always.  I like that we do things I normally don't do, always feel like it's a good workout.  Later I ran for 15 minutes barefoot on my treadmill.  I kept the speed slow and enjoyed it.

I was having a delivery of appliances sometime between 8 and 12 today, so I thought I would meet some group members at 7:00 and run for about an hour, then go home and wait for the delivery.  We met at Dean's house, I ran  5 miles, made it home at 7:57, found out the delivery came at 7:30 but they couldn't set anything up because I wasn't there, so called them back up and they came back and took care of everything.  Why do they say between 8 and 12 and then come at 7:30?  Later I put in a few more easy miles on the treadmill.

The day started at 5:30 with going to Lisa's class at the Rec Center.  We biked and then did cardio on the step and bosu ball.  I liked doing the balance work.  Then we did upper body and core stuff, and it was done.  Good workout as always.  Then I came home and ran a little slowly on the treadmill, then it was off to my running technique session at TOSH.  She worked me hard today, in fact, I semi fell off the treadmill.  That has never happened there for me before. I have fallen on my home treadmill once or twice. Fortunately, I was just a little skinned up, nothing too major.  Still working on getting the running form right; it may be a life long process.  It's getting better though, more important it's feeling better.

The group met at Bingham High today.  I decided to walk/run there as my warm-up.  I ran into the group doing the early miles as they ran by my street, so I just took up with them.  I was in charge of the group today, the first time in a long time it seems like.  My plan was to do half mile repeats in Prospector Place.  It just happened to turn out that's what Peggy and Mike wanted to do for speed work, so it worked out.  Today I concentrated form-wise on feeling a push off as my foot hit the ground, keeping the knees high.  So here are my times and paces for the 5 just slightly longer (.52 miles usually) than half mile repeats.

1.  3:47 (7:25 pace)

2.  3:36 (6:59)

3.  3:42 (7:05)

4.  3:40 (7:07)

5.  3:49  (7:16)

The first two were run south to north, #3 north to south, #4south to north, #5 north to south (I think I remember these correctly, somebody from the group let me know if I am wrong.)

I was pretty happy with this workout, especially feeling like my technique is getting better, especially the knee drive with the foot pushing up and then pulling (that's what I worked on at TOSH yesterday).  I was running pretty fast but things felt pretty comfortable, which is the most important thing.  The upper body can still be less tight, but it's coming along.  It's been a while since I've seen anything in the 6 minute range, so #2 being a 6:59 pace (barely made it) makes me pretty happy.

Tough 30 minute run on the treadmill today.  I was just too tired to run, maybe I should have cross-trained instead.  I did play some basketball in the afternoon, that went much better.  Running while you're playing a competitve sport is much more fun than just running sometimes.

The group met at Parkway Palisades today.  I had read in a Running Times article that rolling hills are the best training for marathoners, as opposed to just uphill or downhill.  So we ran that main hill street a little differently today.  After a warm-up and 3 one minute hill sprints, we ran from the base of the big hill, up to 1300 W., back down, repeated three times non-stop.  We tried to "own the hills" instead of the hills owning us, if that makes any sense.  I worked on my push off and pull up technique.  I realized when I concentrate on that I definitely go faster and the running feels easier.   After our rolling hills, Curt led us on a short about 15 minute run thru the streets around there, to the cemetery hill, which we had to run, then back to the parking lot.  Aaron said whoever planned today's workout should be fired, so I felt like I did a good job today.