Met Jon at the Planet Walk and headed out on the Young Ward loop via the landfill. Traffic was light and the roads were clear so it wasn't too bad of a run. Still pretty chilly, but manageable. We hit 7 sub 6:50 miles with some 7:10-7:20 stuff thrown in too. I ran Jon home and added a bit to get 15 miles. I ended up with 15.25 by the time I got home. I looked at my overall pace at Jon's house and it read exactly 7 min ave so I made sure to stay under 7 min pace the rest of the way home. I was tired by the end, but not dead, so the pace was pretty appropriate for the season. Another good week of solid mileage. I am starting to see the HR drop more so all indicators show progress is happening. This January, I ran about 250 miles while last year, I ran 160 so I am starting off the year in the right direction. Now, if the snow would stop falling, things would really be nice....
So, it has snowed for over 24 hours straight now. Still going.....I said I would never buy a snow blower, but I am pretty tempted right about now. 6.5 miles on the treadmill
T-46:30 (7:09)
Treadmill for round two tonight. Watched Jackie Chan First Strike. Usually I end up reading lips more than listening to the words as it is hard to hear due to the noise of the treadmill. However, for this movie, that is just not possible as it is dubbed. Weird movie. Dialogue is lame, but the action is worth it. That man is incredible with his stunts. I was feeling tired and full of dinner for the first 4 miles. Then I bumped up the pace and I felt better. 5.5 Miles total
Decided to sleep in today and run my bigger run later in the day. 3 miles on the treadmill, just so I wouldn't be gone all night out running. I would have to say that 3 miles is the perfect distance. Just long enough to think you did something, but too short to get tired and bored.
T-22:00 (7:20)
PM: Jon met me at my house and we ran the Planet Walk 5 miler. The trail is somewhat slow as it is covered in lumpy snow in many places. After a pit stop for Jon, I ran him home then ran home from his house. I picked it up the last mile as my hands were frozen. Hit a 6:34 mile accidentally.
AM: Was going to run outside this morning....I swear. That is until I looked outside and saw the blizzard..again. So it was treadmill again. I did 2 miles warmup at 7:30 pace then did 4 miles between 6:15 and 6:40 then the last mile at 7:00 pace. I was sweating up a storm in a 40 degree garage.
T-54:05 (6:45)
PM: Treadmill for a quick jaunt. Felt pretty good.
Woke up to a light dusting of snow from last night. No big deal. I wouldn't live down the ribbing from Jon if I ran on the treadmill again today. So I went outside and sweated. I was way over dressed. I was feeling pretty run down today so I took it easy and listened to the body. Providence - River Heights Loop (8)
Young Ward loop in the morning. It was a pretty nice morning. Light winds from the south, upper 20's, no snow. Not too bad. Kept it under 7 for all miles other than the slippery Planet Walk.
I am in SLC for the weekend. Thought briefly about doing the 10K but I race enough and didn't want to compromise the training. I needed to get some brake work done on the car so I drove over to Big-O by my parents house and dropped the car off. I then hit the streets for my run. I did 13 miles including some of the nastiest hills ever. East bench is all hills. I was hitting 8 min miles going up and 6 coming down. I was back on my old stomping grounds so I ran one of my favorites. "Animal" 8 miles of hills. Brighton High school up to Big Cottonwood Canyon to Top of the World drive to the "La Calle" sign down danish rd and back to Brighton. Back in high school, I was pretty happy to break an hour for this run. Today that 8 mile portion was 56 mins. Sweet. After 13 miles, I stopped off at my parents house for a drink and to check on the car. The car was done, so I ran over to pick it up. 2 miles. On the way, I helped push a truck out that was stuck in some deep snow. I am beat now. Better take a nap. 70 miles for the week. Mission accomplished.
AM: Easy 6 on the Landfill Loop. The body was not wanting to go fast, so I didn't. I did throw in 4 20 second striders and it seemed to wake me up.
T-44:04 (7:21) 150
PM: 8.25 with Jon most of the . He came and picked me up a half hour into his run. We ran the Providence Hills Loop. I dropped him off at his house on the way home so he could take care of some pressing matters. Pretty comfortable pace most of the way. I wore shorts as it was about 35 degrees outside. Blistering heat. Good chat, good pace, good way to unwind after another crazy day at work.
AM: Easy 5 miles on Planet Walk 5'ver. Ran Na....errr without a watch.
PM: 8 Miles by myself on Providence River Heights Loop. Legs felt better this evening than this morning. I wore shorts again since it was a whopping 36 degrees. It looks like snow tomorrow so I will be back to freezing.
AM: I was sure dragging today. 7 very easy miles. Probably close to 8 min pace, but I am not sure as I ran watchless again. Too many miles on Mon and Tues to go hard, so easy it was. (Landfill loop plus 1)
PM: Snow Storm kept me indoors tonight. 3 miles on the treadmill plus an hour of shoveling.
Striders 5K (3.1 Miles) 00:18:00, Place overall: 4, Place in age division: 2
Slow miles
Fast miles
Total Distance
12.65
3.10
15.75
Striders Winter Racing Circuit 5K
Jon drove me down from Logan and we met up with Andy and ran the course. Slight change on the last mile over last year. More gradual downhill with two extra uphill sections (short). The finish was one of those. I would guess that the course is slightly faster over last year, but only by a few seconds max. As the race was getting started, I noticed all the big boys were not there this year like last so it would be a very different race. I started out with the lead pack about a step or two behind for the first mile. We dropped the first victim by mile one and the pack was down to 6. Chad, Jon, Walter, Tim, and Ben. 6:00 first mile. Net gain of ~100 feet. I felt good just cruising along up the first big hill, but couldn't get the turbo going on the downhill. Everyone slowly pulled away on the downhills. Second mile was 6:03. I had to do some math to figure out my splits after the race as for some crazy reason the Garmin was messed up. It showed me running 2 min miles at 30K feet. I was within 3-4 seconds of the leaders but couldn't close. The downhills in mile 3 were sure nice and that helped me drop Walter and then I got Tim on the final uphill to move into 4th. Mile 3 in 5:24. Nothing changed over the last icy .14 miles. 32 seconds and it was all over. I was shooting for breaking 18 mins and just did it. I got 17:59 on my watch but the official results show 18:00. I am happy with it as it is almost a minute faster than last year and I felt like I could hold the same pace for another 5K (as I will have to do in two weeks). I can tell that my strength is there as I felt good on the uphills, but was not able to get the turnover on the downhills. More striders are in order I suppose. Good ideas for next race.
Good blog turnout. 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th,and 10th. Results are Posted HERE
T-17:59 (5:43) 177 ave max 186
I enjoyed a nice cooldown with Andy, Chad, Walter and Jon. After getting home, I wanted to get in a few more miles so rather than showering and running later, I immediately left and ran 6 more miles. I was out of fuel and dragging, but not sore. Good week of running (70 miles) despite a stressful week of work. Horray for the weekend.
No work today so I slept in and then left for a long run. As I left the house and started running, I took inventory of what was sore from the striders 5K. All I could complain about was a pain in the rear. Weird. (Insert joke here....)
Today's run was lonely and cold. The bank in Providence read 5 degrees..brrr. I ran from the house to Mile 24 of the TOU course and ran the course backwards to mile 18.5 and back the same way. I hit one fast mile of 6:12 into Providence, but most of the other miles were between 6:50 and 7:00 pace. Good run, and nice to have time to run when the sun is up. Too bad I went when it was still freezing outside. I looked like a snowman with the icicles all over me.
AM: Easy 5 on the treadmill. Sluggish to say the least.
T- 37:30 (7:30)
PM: 5.25 with Jon. Pretty Random route through the neighborhoods. Stopped at Paul's house briefly, then ran into Paul walking home, then pushed a broken down truck, then actually ran. Yep, pretty random. Watching Idol while blogging.
PM: Treadmill so I didn't have to run in the dirty air and so I didn't have to wear 12 layers. Easy pace for most of it. Included 5 striders at 11mph for 20 seconds each.
AM: It was time for a workout of some sort as I felt I needed some tinman tempo pace to push me a bit. I ran the Providence Hills loop in the dirty scum we call air. I was ticked that I counted close to 40 cars idling in their driveways with no drivers in it. I am sure that is not helping the air situation.
I started out with 2 miles of warmup at 6:54 and 6:56 pace then hit the next two miles of uphill hard. 6:47 and 7:57. That hurt. The second mile is lots of climbing with a section of steep uphill. I tried to recover while coming down the backside hill, but a sideache slowed me for a bit. 5:44 and 5:57. The Final 2.2 miles home is mostly flat and I hit them in 6:24 and 6:28. The idea was to hit tinman tempo effort and try and survive. I might have gone too hard on the uphill, but overall I think I hit my goals. Now I can enjoy the easy pace for the next few runs...
T- 54:25 (8.2 miles) (6:38) 168 ave
PM: Ran with Jon on the Planet Walk 5 miler. We both took a spill on the bridge while walking across the ice. Pretty funny.
Long run with Jon. We finally had shorts weather as it was around 40 degrees. Super hilly run! We ran into North Logan then up Green Canyon to the Shoreline Trail and over to First Dam. The trail was slippery but pretty fun to run on. If you stepped off the snow-packed trail you would sink past your ankles in slushy snow. We then ran down the canyon road to the canal trail and home via the Blvd. I am cooking up a batch of spaghetti for food as I am starved right now. Got another week of 70 miles in (Had to round up to 15.55 from 15.53 so I could round out my mileage for the week). We will keep it here for a while still.
AM: Easy 5 on the Planet Walk...sort of. I made it about 3 feet onto the planet walk and bit it. It was a pure ice rink from all the rain and then freezing last night. I shuffled/skated to the first bridge (100m) almost falling multiple times. I decided it wasn't worth it and turned around. I ended up running randomly around the neighborhood instead. Had to take a pit stop at Jon's favorite port-o-pot by the golf course. Pretty eventful for only 5 miles I suppose.
T-36:36 (7:19) 147
PM: Ran with Jon again. It is getting out of control. We ran in the rain-sleet-snow-rain-wind combination. We got soaked. Providence River Heights loop. We started picking up the pace as we went. Probably to try and stay warm and get it over with sooner. Felt good. ITB is a bit sore during the run and now afterward.
Workout day. Young Ward Loop (10.1). No rain/sleet/snow so it was a good sign. Started out with two warmup miles with a slight downhill. I was surprised how easy the sub 7 pace felt. (6:44 and 6:35). The goal of the workout was 6:10-6:20 Tinman tempo pace for 5 miles. It went pretty well with a 6:16,6:17,6:17,6:20,6:15. I was tired by the 6:20 and pushed harder on for the last one. I jogged to recover and within .25 I was back cruising at 6:40 pace easily. It was surprising how good 6:40 feels after 6:15. Weird. I was only planning on staying below 7min pace to finish but I hit a 6:40 and decided to try and stay under 6:30 average pace for the run. My next mile was on the slippery planet walk and things went downhill quickly. 6:56. I kicked it back up once I was back on the road to catch the 6:30 guy and took care of him pretty easily. 6:22 pace for the last 1.1. I need to check my garmin history but I believe this is a course record or at least close.
T-65:20 (6:28) 166 ave
PM: 2 mile shakeout on the treadmill late in the evening. Slow
Rough night of sleep. I wasn't feeling well and my daughter was down with a fever thingie. Poor Beth had to put up with us both. I got up today and stood next to the bed for a good 5 mins trying to decide whether to run or not this morning. I finally gave in and went. Slow and easy 6 on the landfill loop. Visibility was about 20 feet due to thick fog. Was pretty neat except for the cars swerving at the last second.
