cheryl

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.