cheryl

We met at Riverton High to do our workout with Steve.  He had us warm-up, and then we ran a 200 with a 600 recovery, then a 1600 with an 800 recovery, and then we repeated that for 3 repetitions total.  My first two 1600 times were right about 8 minutes, and then my third was 7:22.  Probably a little too fast but I was glad I could hit that time.  It's been a while since I've run a 1600 or a mile that fast, so it tells me my recovery is progressing.  Those there were Peggy, Debbie, Cheris and Michelle.

We met with our So. Jordan group today at Bingham High and ran an easy warm-up of about 2.5 miles.  Then we went into the main workout of doing a similar run to last week, about 6.5 miles, except the opposite direction of what we did last week.  I ran a little slower this time, probably close to 9 minute miles.  I felt a little fatigued, but basically ok.  Then it was yoga class at the Rec Center, I think I need more stretching.

I needed a sleep-in day today, so I didn't get up early to run.  Then when I saw it raining at 10am I wished I had gotten up early.  Managed to get in two 30-minute runs working around the rain.  I ran easy and tried to practice better form that Steve told about, running more on the toes and lifting the knees.  They were enjoyable workouts, except I started out in a jacket, hat and gloves and thought, this is June in Utah, what is wrong with this picture?  Must be global warming.

I came home from today's run singing that well known show tune "Running in the Rain."  We met with our group at 5:30am and ran an easy probably 2.5 mile warm-up.  Then for the main workout we ran about 6.5 miles on some hilly terrain in the Parkway Palisades area.  It rained the entire time and I really wished I had gloves.  I could barely turn the key to start my car at the end because my hands were so numb.  As far as the workout goes, I ran easy to moderate.  It was enjoyable; I never thought I'd say that after a Parkway Palisades run.  I then went to yoga class and enjoyed the stretching, as always. 

I had an early wedding to get to this morning, so I had to run a little earlier than I wanted to.  I left my house about 5:45 and ran to the SJ Rec Center to meet Peggy, Debbie and Alan.  From there we ran on the canal road.  I had to leave early to get ready for the wedding, so I just ran home.  Total running time was 55 minutes, and I'm figuring that was about 5 miles.

Some in the group had planned to run up Butterfield Canyon today to help prepare us for the WBR.   Eric, Debbie, Alan, Greg and I drove up at 6:30 and met Cheris and Michelle who had already been up and down once.  We all took off together.  Cheris, Michelle and I turned around at mile 3 and ran back down, the others kept going up.  At the bottom Cheris and Michelle left, then I ran back up to meet the others.  I made it about 1.5 miles before seeing them, then ran down.  So I figure I got in at least 9 miles.  We saw the sole sisters group just starting as we were finishing.  It felt good to be done.

Met with some of the group at 5:45 and ran about 8 miles up to Glenmoor and back.  We advertised it as an easy run, but for me it was more of a moderate effort--not easy, not hard.  The pace was probably about 9:15 per mile.  It was a nice morning to run.

I could tell this was going to be a tough day when I tried to warm-up on my treadmill and I quit after about 3 minutes.  Usually I'm able to get in a pretty good warm-up, most times I don't want to stop the warm-up, but today that wasn't the case.  I then met our group at Bingham at 5:30am and we ran easy for about 2 miles, then we went to the one street close by that has a hill and ran around there.  Peggy had a fast and slow option for us, for me it was no choice; I was going slow today.  Dragged myself thru about 5 miles, then done.  These early mornings may be catching up with me.  I went to yoga class and dragged thru that too, just did not have my usual enthusiasm for the fun poses.  Oh well, if Big Brown can have one of those days, so can I!  Tomorrow will (hopefully) be a better day.

Treadmill day.  I know some people call it the "dreadmill" but for some strange reason I like occasionally running on a treadmill.  Today I did two miles easy, then two miles where I threw in some faster one minute intervals.  Felt much better today, I was happy with the workout.  Went to the chiropractor today also, trying to get that piriformis muscle loosened up.

Busy night last night, my kids were preparing for youth conference and had friends over late, I guess the night before party, so I slept a bit fitfully.  I therefore did not get up early for my group, missed the 5:30 run but met them at the church on 3200 W. and 102So. at 6am.   We ran just under 7 miles; I ran with Kris and Lynette and tried to keep the pace fairly easy because of our second run tonight with Steve.  Of course, I always run a bit faster than I probably should.  One of these days I'm going to run a truly easy run; hopefully tomorrow!

PM--We (Michelle, Cheris and I) met with Steve at Alta High at 7:00 and we ran up I guess it's called Bell Canyon road.  It was very pretty.  We did 4 miles up and then down, throwing in a few faster surges along the way.  It was fun.  If we do something like that regularly, we'll be well prepared for St. George.

I was a little afraid to run today because of the big day yesterday.  I don't know, I just have this fear of injuries.  So I power walked for 30 minutes on the treadmill.  I felt it was a good workout, but should I have run very easily instead?  Not sure what to do in this situation.

I have not had a truly easy day of running in a long time, so I decided today would be the day.  I was going to run slow, slow, slow, I didn't care what the pace was.  So I started out on the canal road slow, slow, slow I felt, but would find myself speeding up periodically, so I just worked on slowing myself down.  The goal today was to run for two hours.  After the first hour, I took my shoes off and ran barefoot in the grass (sounds like a movie title) in the fields by Bingham for about 30 minutes.  Now let me tell you, that was fun!   It even felt liberating, so liberating that I felt like joining NOW (I was going to say I felt like burning something, but didn't know if that was appropriate.)  I felt like I could go really fast on the grass.  Watch out, BBK group, I know what I'll be planning for you soon.  After that, I put my shoes back on and finished the run on the canal road.  I'm not sure how far I went, but I'll estimate that I averaged 5.5 mph, so I'll put down 11 miles. 

We had decided to just run easy this morning because of  Steve's group tonight.   So met at 6:30am at the Jr. Parkway Trail at 9800 So.  Debbie, Michelle and Alan were the others there.  We just ran nice and easy along the trail.  I was practicing being less of a heel striker and more of a running on the toes, picking up the knees runner.  It seemed to help, I felt a lot less stress in my hamstrings and the run was definitely more enjoyable than usual.  I got out my book on Chi Running afterwards, seeing what tips I could glean from that.  I think that is the perfect way you should run, it's just a matter of learning how to do it correctly.   Any Chi Runners out there?

And then this evening we met with Steve at Riverton High and ran some 1000's.   I kept my times and then erased them accidentally, but I think they were 4:31, 4:41, and then 4:34.  We did a 400 and I remember my time on that was 1:47.  I checked my running journal from last year and last August I ran 1000's at one of our workouts in 4:07, 4:05 and 3:56.  So obviously I've lost a lot since last year.  I'm not quite sure why, but I hope to get it back.  We'll see.  Besides the heat, it was a fun workout.  We talked with Steve after about various running things and that was fun.  I could tell you his max heartrate, but I won't.

Because of the workout last evening, I did not want to meet with the group at 5:30am.  Made it at 6:00am and we ran a basically continuous run around the neighborhood just south of the high school, to Canterwood and Rustic Rds., back to the neighborhoods and then back to the high school.  Steve told us to run easy today but I found myself running just a little faster than I probably should  have run.  Oh well, we can't be perfect all the time.  Later on I put in some faster strides on the treadmill (16).  That was fun.

Met with Alan, Debbie, and Peggy  and we ran along the canal road for about an hour (1:02 to be exact by my watch.)  That was 6 miles according to Alan's GPS.  It was a comfortable pace, but I could have run slower and been more comfortable.  Bothers me somewhat that 10 minute miles doesn't seem super comfortable.  And I'm hoping to run 8 minute miles in the marathon...Hmmm....  Anyway, my legs were feeling kind of stale so I went to the pool later on and pool ran, hoping that would revive them.  I'm not sure yet if it worked.  I "ran" for 30 minutes, but I'm not logging any of that as mileage. 

Well, my legs, specifically my calves, were sore this morning, so I skipped my group run, thinking it was better to rest my legs for the WBR.  I did go to the gym and pool run for an hour, which was very enjoyable.  I've decided I'll convert my pool running into 15 minute miles, so that's how I came up with 4 miles.  If anyone else thinks I should do it differently, let me know.  Hopefully I'll feel strong and well for the relay.

I ran the Wasatch Back Relay with my Bingham Glute Kicker group.  I was the lead-off runner in van 2, so my first leg began about 3:15 in Liberty.   A guy passed me right off the bat, but I eventually passed him back.  I passed several other people who looked to be mainly recreational runners.  I ran that leg in 32:32, so if it was really 4 miles, I was happy with the time.

My second leg began about 11:00pm when I took the hand-off in East Canyon.   This leg was rated moderate, but I felt it was pretty difficult with a lot of uphill.  It was dark so I couldn't really tell that well, but it felt very uphill.  Two guys passed me during that leg.  My time for 3.9 miles was almost 40 minutes.

After everyone was done, we went to the middle school in Heber to spend a few hours.  I had a great shower, then probably slept for just over an hour.  I took the next handoff about 7:45am.  And then the big event of this relay happened.  I knew Sasha's team was starting at 5:00pm (our team started at 9:20am), and as much as I couldn't believe a team that started over 7.5 hours behind us would beat us, I knew we would eventually be passed by a Fast Running Blog runner.  So out of 12 people on our team, I was the lucky one who got passed by Sasha's team.  I felt so proud!  He was very friendly and we exchanged a few words, then he was off, a speck in the distance.  I finished that leg in 34:05; it was 4.1miles.  So I was done with my running early and got to watch my teammates run their legs and got to enjoy Ragnar from the van.  We finished in 26:50:10, with an 8:53 per mile average.  I thought finishing under a 9 minute mile pace was a great accomplishment.  Good job team!!

Met with some of the group at Cheris' house and we ran about 8 miles.  I said I was going to take it easy but ended up running faster than I probably should have, coming off of the WBR.  I need a recovery run from my recovery rn.

Met with our BBK group at 5:30 and we ran easy around the So. Jordan park area for about 25 minutes.  Then we kind of broke up; most ran our SJ 5K route, and Alan and I ran barefoot in the grass park.  Wanted to try some barefoot running and it was fun, except our feet got cold after about 15 minutes.  Then we met up with the rest of the group and ran around Canterwood and Rustic Roads for about 34 minutes.  Felt pretty good today.

I ran on the treadmill for about four miles, throwing in some fast one minutes along the way.   It was a lot of fun.

We met at the church by 9700 So. and 2200 W. and ran thru the neighborhood west of there for our warm-up.  Then we ran about a 6 mile tempo run, starting running downhill down 9800 So. to the Parkway Trail, south until 106th So., up there until 1000W., then back up 9800.  I ran with Nancy's daughter Christine, a young fast gal.  I wasn't sure who was setting the pace, but I seemed to be breathing harder than she was.  I was glad I was able to run a good pace, but I think I would have enjoyed the run more if I had run just a tad bit slower. Overall I felt it was a good workout.

Easy day of cross-training because my legs were a little sore and I thought it best to lay off the running, plus I wanted to be somewhat fresh for Saturday.  So today I rode my bike for about 45 minutes and then pool ran for about 45 minutes.  I'm listing it as 4 miles because that seems fair.

We met with Steve this morning at 6am at Alta High and ran south until the Draper trail and then kept on that until the road that leads up to Suncrest, I believe (maybe I'm wrong about that, it was a big hilly road anyway, maybe called Travers Ridge.)  Then we turned around and ran easy until about 126th So., then picked it up.  I thought it was good to finish a long run strong instead of the other way around.  It was a fun workout, I'm sure more than I would have done on my own, and more fun than on my own.  With Cheris, Michelle, Debbie, Alan and Steve, you're bound to have some interesting conversations.

Some of us from the group met at Michelle's house at 5:45 and ran 8 miles.  Those there:  Julie, Cheris, Peggy, Debbie, Lisa, Nancy, Aaron and his friend Siddaharta (I guess that's his real name, that's what he told us. He goes by Buck also.)  And of course Michelle was there.  We split up pretty early and I ended up running (or trying to run) with Peggy and the guys.  I kept thinking I shouldn't be running Peggy's pace, it's too fast, but I couldn't help but try.  I'm sorry, I guess Steve's right, I just try to push it on every run when it would be better to take things a little slower.  Anyway, they gradually pulled away from me, but I was able to keep them in sight.  We ran by Peggy's house to see her new sod; it looked really good.  Peggy was nice enough to slow down and run with me the last two miles or so.  Total time for the run was 1:13:04; we did stop for a light for at least a minute it seemed, so maybe total running time was really 1:12, which I would be very happy with.  Great morning to run!