cheryl

Treadmill hill sprints.

Still not feeling it, didn't meet with the group.  I did go to the canal road and run with the schnauzer.

I ran 4 miles very slowly on the treadmill, but on a pretty good incline, not all out, but not just a little like I usually do.  Then I rested a few minutes, then got back on the treadmill and ran 3 more miles at a fast pace, but this time on a decline.  Enjoyed the workout.

Whoa, two days in a row of no running.  I guess I'll consider this my drop back time before the BIG workouts come.

I typed up the details of the run, then it all mysteriously disappeared.  I don't feel like typing it over again, so let's just say we had fun on the hills of Parkway Palisades.  If I feel like it, I'll add more detail later.  Thanks to everyone in my group for the well wishes about my father.

I met with the Bunners, the biking group.  We had a great ride up to the temple and back down.  Then it was to Lagoon.  I got my courage up and went on all the scary rides, except the Rocket, which I would have gone on, except my 10 year old didn't want to and just wanted to go home, so that's what we did.  A year ago I watched the Wicked and said there was no way I would ever get on that.  This year, it was actually easy to get on and it wasn't overly scary, it was actually fun.  I'm glad I was braver this year.

The group met at Bingham.  I read about a workout in Runner's World where you run 4 minutes fast, then 2 of recovery, so we did that for 30 minutes, mainly running around Canterwood and Rustic Roads.  We then did a tempo run, down North Forty Way to Rustic Roads, over to Canterwood, up to 2700 W., and back down Rustic Roads.  That was about 2.3 miles.  I averaged 7:33 per mile on that.  Then we ran strong back to the high school.  I was kind of wheezing on that one, something I haven't done in a long time.  Then looked at my avg., it was 7:05, so a little fast for me, even if just for 2 minutes.  That probably explains the wheezing.  I figure I don't have to do any races this year, running group kind of turns into race effort (for me) each time.  It was fun as it always is.

Treadmill work with some hill sprints thrown in.

It has dawned on me lately that I have not run a race since the St. George marathon.  So I wanted to do something that would require race effort, but would be low key, in other words, no one there I knew so that I would not feel extra pressure to do well.  So I decided to do Sasha's 5 mile race down in Provo.  It was a fun, low key race.  But now I remember why I've been dreading doing a race--they are painful!  These are my splits:  7:28, 7:33, 7:40, 7:45, 7:51, total time 38:19.  This was an unusual race for me, because usually my slowest mile is the first, and fastest is the last.  I think this is the only race I've done where I've gotten slower every mile.  But I was able to keep everything under 8, so I was happy about that.  By mile 4 I had had it, I was ready to quit and I would have quit, except it was a race, so I kept going.  Seems like I need more aerobic endurance so I don't fall off pace.  Thanks Sasha, I enjoyed running this race.  The trail was very pretty.  But why do flat races sometimes seem harder than hilly races?

Later my husband and son and I went out for an hour bike ride.

I spent about 50 minutes on the treadmill, doing fast one minutes, then recovery minutes.  It was very fun.

The running group met at Bingham.  After a warm-up, in which I learned about Melanie's career running track at BYU, which was very interesting, we ran some 800's on the track.  My times were:  3:38; 3:32; 3:33; and 3:29.  We then ran our tried and true 2 mile loop, from the back of the school parking lot to Temple View, Bonanza and then Prospector.  The time was 15:04, which was a 7:39 avg.  Then back to the track for a mile.  We took  it fairly easy the first three laps, then hit it on the fourth.  Time was 7:19.  So I tried to not kill myself today, and felt I succeeded somewhat, although I was still quite tired after.  I think that's more from getting up much earlier than I wanted than from the actually workout.  Later, I did some biking, concentrating on hill repeats.

I met the biking group at 6:00.  Last week, Debbie was on her mountain bike and got way behind.  I let her use my road bike today,and I used Michael's, and she was able to keep up and even finished before me.  It's amazing what a difference a good bike makes.  I don't think anyone really believes it until they experience it.  Anway, that was fun to do.  Later I did hill sprints on a treadmill.  That is never fun, but I'm always glad I did them "when they're done."

This was a run I've been wanting to do for a while--up the Suncrest road.  Whenever I've seen this particular road, it has intrigued me, wondering what it would be like to run up.  So today was the day.  We met at 5:30, explored the neighborhoods around there, then at 6:00 started our long trek up.  I just kept thinking, keep things easy and relaxed, just complete the workout.  There were parts of it where I thought we were crazy for doing this, but overall I didn't really hate it like maybe I thought I would.  I was very happy to see what I considered to be the summit, by the information center.  However, Jameson told me he and Peggy went a little higher and it was a lot steeper there.  I heard later that that was probably the real summit.  It was amazing to watch Peggy and Jameson pull away from the rest of us, I think they get the award for best climbers (I've been watching a lot of the Tour de France lately).  I would call them the "mountain goats" of our group (that is a compliment).  Anyway, I was glad to complete the run without too much damage.  The pace up was 11:25.  I obviously need to work on downhill running, because on the way down, I was afraid of falling or possibly twisting an ankle that I put on the brakes too much.  My pace there was 7:58.  On a more gradual downhill I would be able to pace faster, but not on a 10% grade.  Overall, it was a good run, I would like to try it again sometime.  Everyone who ran up, good job, I think we deserve something special for taking on such a tough run.

So after several days of feeling tired and sluggish, today I felt great.  I felt like I could have run Suncrest again, I barely felt sore or tired from that run.  Why did I feel so good?  I figured it out--I finally got some sleep!!  I've been up every morning between 4:30 and 5:30 this week.  Today I slept until about 8:00.  That extra time does make a difference. I had a good run running  sprints on the treadmill, and then did hill sprints on the bike.  Later I went to the new Harry Potter movie.  I'm not really into Harry Potter, but I think I'm finally going to start reading the books, just so I can understand better what it's all about.

I started out by running a recreational 5K down at Parkway Palisades and the Parkway Trail.  I went in thinking being in the 22's would be great, 23 would still be  really good, 24 Ok, 25 not so good, and so on.  I'm hoping the course was long because I only hit a 25:38.  Or maybe it was the 81 degree temperature.  Whatever it was, I was glad I did the run because I haven't done a lot of racing lately, but I was disappointed in my time.  Oh well, we just keep plugging along anyway.

Then I started feeling like I definitely needed more miles, so I spent about an hour on my treadmill from 10pm to 11pm.  I ran slow and easy.  It all felt really good.

Six pretty easy miles on the treadmill.

I had pretty much decided last night that if I woke up in time on my own, I'd go to early miles.  If the alarm had to wake me up at 5:10, I'd only go to the 6:00 running.  Well, I woke up at 4:50, so what should I do?  I decided to bag the 5:30 thing.  Probably the wrong decision, but oh well.  Anyway, got to the track at 6:00.  There was a pretty good sized group today.  I was mad with myself because I forgot my Garmin, and today would have  been a great day to know what pace(s) I was running.  We ran to the entrance to the SJ park off Redwood Rd., then ran some 3/4 and 1/2 mile repeats.  I felt a little sick after that and wondered if I was done for the day.  However, I just decided to run whatever was next and just try to get thru it. What was next was a  run thru Canterwood and Rustic Roads.  I drove the course later and to the entrance of the high school, it was 2 miles.  My time on that was about 15:15, so not too bad of a pace, especially after feeling that I might have been done.  Then a few of us "diehards" I guess you could call us ran 3 400's with 30-second recovery between.  My times were 1:40, 1:39 and 1:35.  It was a fun workout.  I wanted to go to Provo to help with the movie Eric was making, but I had a 10 year old who would have been alone all that time, and I just couldn't feel good about that.  Hope everything worked out well with the movie.

I wasn't sure I would get anything in today because most of my time was taken up with getting ready for book club at my house.  However, around 6:00 I felt motivated to do something, so I power walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes, then I ran for two miles, pretty fast.  That was fun.

If I had known what we were in for today, I would have pulled the covers over my head at 5am and gone back to sleep.  As it was, I naively got up, looking forward to a nice run with the group.  Peggy had mentioned something about a hill up 114th So. she wanted to run, but that didn't really compute.  We did some warm-up miles from 5:30-6:00, then it was a run up 114th from State Street to 1300 East.  It was pretty much a steady uphill the entire way, until the mother of all hills from 10th East to 1300 East.  It was tough.  It took me 17 minutes flat to run that about 2 mile route, with an 8:38 avg. pace.  Not too bad, I think, for all uphill.  Our group has gotten so fast that even though that was a good time for me, I was one of the ones bringing up the rear.  Where did all these fast people come from?  We then ran from 114th So. to 11000 So. (I think), down to 10th East, back over to 114th So., and then you guessed it, the mother of all hills again.  It was just as lovely the second time around.  That run took 15:35, avg. pace 8:14.  Once again that was a good time for me, but once again, I brought up the rear.  It was during this run that I recognized the hill--it's one we ran last year with Steve Ashbaker.  I really liked the hill back then, thinking it was a great hill to run up.    For some reason, I liked it a lot less this year.

Then it was back down from 1300 East to State St.  I ran that in 14:38, avg. of 7:27, which, you guessed it, was a good time for me, but I still brought up the rear.  At least that avg. was a lot better than the Suncrest average of 7:58.   I knew I could go faster on a more gradual downhill.  All in all, I really liked what we did today and would like to try it again.

It's funny, after running Suncrest last week, I wasn't sore at all.  Today, on hills a lot less extreme, I was a lot more beat up.  My left lower knee hurts and my right shin hurts.   I wonder if it's because I went a lot faster today, especially on the downhill?  Or maybe it's cumulative, this is soreness that has built up over the last few days?  Beats me, just hope I feel better tomorrow so I can get in another fun run.

Seven miles of treadmill running, some fast, some slow.

Ran for 30 minutes in the heat of the day, then ran inside on the treadmill for 60 minutes, some of it very slow, some of it very fast.  Enjoyable day of running.

I ran 30 minutes on the treadmill at a very slow pace, easy, easy.  Then I took a short break, then ran for 30 minutes at faster paces, going fast, slowing down, going fast again.  That is always a fun run that I enjoy.

The group met at Bingham today to do mainly a track workout.  Peggy had us do a broken 5K, so we first ran a 400, which I ran in 1:42, then an 800, which was 3:34, then 3 1000s.  Peggy said to keep the times consistent.  My times were 4:20, 4:25, and 4:23.  Was that consistent?  I was doing addition in my head as we ran, and I knew that to make 5000 meters that we had 800 meters left to do.  I convinced myself I'd be able to handle that.  Then Peggy sprung on us that we had to do a two mile tempo run.  I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle that.  I don't know what it is, when I'm in charge I can handle the tough workouts, when somebody else tells us what to do, I'm convinced I won't be able to do them.   But you have to do them, so we headed off on our tried and true two mile route, thru Temple View, Bonanza, then Prospector.  I was pleasantly surprised to see my final time as 14:38.  The last time we ran that same route, a few weeks ago, my time was 15:09, so I'll take that improvement.  Then back to the track to finish those 800 meters.  We did a 400, time 1:36, then two 200s, times were 43 and 41.  It was all very fun.

Later I ran two very easy miles on the treadmill.

Hill sprints on the treadmill.  Really enjoyed it.

We are on vacation down at Mt. Carmel Jct.  For those of you who have never heard of this great little town, it is really just a junction of two roads, the road coming out of Zion heading east, and SR 89.  There are two of everything there--two motels, two restaurants, and two gas stations.  But only one golf course.  It is a very nice place, relaxing, and beautiful scenery.  For my run today, I ran up the road going to Zion.  I call it "running up the mountain" because that's what it seems like.  I ran up a pretty good way, then back down, then up for five minutes, then down, then up for three minutes, then down, then up for one minute, then down.  I wanted to get in lots of hill work, which I did.  I have no real idea of mileage, I just know I ran for 53 minutes, so we'll call that 5 miles.

Today for my run I ran on a little dirt road that is off the main road on the way to Kanab.  I went down it a little way, then found an uphill trail, so I ran that several times to get in more hill work.  I ran for 36 minutes, so we'll call that 3 miles.  Later in the evening, we went to the sand dunes that are just north of Kanab and I ran in them some.  Have you ever run in sand?  It's pretty tough.