cheryl

My workout today was a fast 5K on the treadmill, then some hill sprints. For some strange reason I almost always enjoy that workout.

The main part of the workout today consisted in running six 800's with 30-second recovery between each.   I was looking back at past training the other day and noticed we did this workout about a month before SGM in 2007, and I noticed that the times for the 800's were all around what I eventually ran SGM in that year (if you throw out the first warm-up 800.)  So I wanted to experiment with that again today just to see if what I did today will coorelate with how I run the marathon in 11 days.  So here are my times today, and in parantheses are the times I ran back in '07:  3:37 (3:46);  3:32 (3:39); 3:29 (3:38); 3:26 (3:36); 3:26 (3:33); 3:20 (3:32).  So it's interesting, all my times were faster today, so that says I should run a faster marathon this year.  However, my training this year, I feel, hasn't been quite as good as it was two years ago.  Then, I ran several half marathons leading up the marathon, which I haven't done this year.  I've never been good about getting in long runs, so it's no different this year.  We have done some "big workouts" as suggested by Paul Peterson this year that I don't think we really did two years ago.  Another thing different this year is that I've been working on a more efficient running form, so maybe that has made a difference in being able to run faster 800's today.  I don't think having a better form will make up for lack of basic endurance, which is what I feel I lack this year as compared to 2007.    It will be interesting to see how it all plays out in a week and a half.

Treadmill hill sprints, work on running form.

Today we met at the SJ park to run our 5k's--only two this time.  It felt a little like a vacation after we ran four the last two times we've done this.  My goal going in--actually my goal all summer--has been to hit in the 22 minute range on these 5ks.  Just some history:  last winter, when I think I was at my all time low with running, I barely made it under 30 minutes on one of these.  I wanted to blame the cold and the snow on the ground, but I knew it went deeper than that, so to speak.  I knew I had some problems that needed to be corrected if I ever wanted to run these 5K's well again.  Eventually some things got taken care of, the most important being my thyroid, and the times came down.  However, I still was not able to hit that magical 22 number despite what I thought were my best efforts.  My best time before today was 23:09 which I did in June.  Lately, all the times have been in the 23 to 25 minute range.  Today we started south, and I tried to keep things relaxed and fairly comfortable, focusing on keeping my form good.  I ran that in 23:30.  Good, but still not where I wanted to be.  The second we ran north, and this time I ran with Nancy R. the entire way.  I think having her by me kept me going strong, and, what do you know, I finally made it into the 22 range, 22:31 to be precise.  Nice to reach a goal.  The best part is I didn't feel totally wiped out at the end, I felt like if I had to, I could have done two more 5K's.  However, I'm glad I didn't have to.  Tapering is nice.

Another day of working on my form and treadmill hill sprints.

I ran the Steeple to Steeple race today--from the Oquirrh Mt. Temple to the Jordan River temple.  They said it was 5 miles, and at first some of us were thinking that it wasn't that far, but then it turned out to be a little over 5 miles.  I started out with no warm-up--looking back I wish I had put in a little warm-up, but oh well.  I took off and there came Michelle M. and Dean running the wrong direction, then they turned around and joined the race.  My goal was to stick with them or at least not let them get too far ahead, which I did pretty well.  I would say they were no more than 10 seconds ahead of me at any point before the last mile.  Becky Christensen was close behind me pretty much the whole way, so I was trying to keep Michelle and Dean in reach and keep ahead of Becky.   I got stopped once at 9800 So. and Redwood Road by the traffic for maybe 5-10 seconds; Michelle and Dean did not get stopped, and it was then they opened up a gap I was unable to close.   They seemed to get faster once they turned onto 1300 West, so there was no hope of catching them.  I think I finished about one minute behind them.  In my mind, I thought the finish was a church south of the temple, when it really was a church north of the temple, so the finish was there before I expected it.  I wasn't able to put on a finishing sprint like I wanted to.  I think my time was 36:50 (started my Garmin late, one of these days I'll get that Garmin right).  I was second female, behind Michelle.  Becky was third, and I think the BBKs can claim her, so we finished 1-2-3.  Walter won for the men, so we swept this race.  Avg. pace was 7:09--that may sound pretty good, but remember this was a nice downhill race.  I really liked it.