Last morning in Denver so I took advantage of the bike trail for one more day. The goal was warmup - 1 mile tinman tempo then 6x3 min at CV pace (estimate at 5:40) with 1 min rest in-between then finish with 1 more mile of tt. It didn't go as well as I hoped due to major fatigue, but I did my best. I went:
5 miles warmup (7:20-7:37 ave)
1 mile tempo - 6:22 rolling up
Rep 1: 5:43 pace - rolling
Rep 2: 5:53 pace - rolling up
Rep 3: 5:55 pace - rolling up
Rep 4: 5:50 pace - rolling down
Rep 5: 5:57 pace - flat
Rep 6: 5:58 pace - flat
1 mile tempo- 6:15 rolling down
As you can see, after the first rep, I knew I was in trouble and wasn't going to hit my times. I decided to finish the workout and at least try. It ended up being mostly MP miles, but that is better than nothing. Oh, well, at least I got to sit in the car for 9 hours and drive home as a recovery. Fun stuff.
Good news of the weekend was that our house that we are selling went under contract! We now have 3 weeks then we are homeless until sometime in December when our house is finished being built. Hmmm, should make life interesting...
AM: Back to the frozen tundra now. Easy 8 on 4th West route. Had to wear gloves for the first 5 miles. The scooter ride to work was worse though.
PM: Perfect running weather this afternoon. Met up with Jon and Paul between apartment hunting. "easy" 5 with them. Something was wrong with everyone to cause us to run a blistering 7 min pace.
Young ward loop via landfill. It was not a fun day out running. It is hardly worth mentioning. I should have stayed in bed, but I had no choice but to get my run in this morning. Blah.
Half Marathon today by myself. I ran up to just past the Stokes Nature Center on the River trail and back via the canal trail. Nice afternoon for a run. I kept the pace honest up to the canyon (7:20 ave) then turned it on for 5 miles or so coming down (between 5:58 and 6:30). I was working pretty hard (for the pace) but got 'er done.
Easy miles on the Jordan River Parkway. I ran into Brent biking and chatted for a min. It was a nice day out. Now off to see my little sister get married.
Long run today. I ran to Paul's house and picked him up and ran to the end of the canal trail and back to his house. He woke up from his zen/zombie state and became coherent by mile 4. Needless to say it was an easy pace. I dropped him off then returned back to the canal trail and continued up Logan River Trail to about second dam and returned home. On the way home I hit some faster stuff when I hit the downhills. However, I seemed locked into an easier pace today and couldn't really get moving. When I passed Paul's house again on the way home, I witnessed an accident right his intersection. A car didn't stop at the stop sign and got T-boned. Everyone is ok.
Up at 5, drove to the top of Hollow Road at the mouth of Blacksmithfork Canyon. Got out of the car and 15mph winds were blasting out of the canyon. Mixed feelings about that. Headwind at first, but then tailwind when I would need it. Sweet!
Here was the plan. 4 miles warmup (I went about 7:30 pace uphill into the wind). Then the workout part. 4 miles at MP then 3 min easy, 3 miles at MP then 3 min easy, 2 miles at MP then 3 min easy, then 1 more mile at MP then cooldown. Goal MP is ~6 min/mile
Set 1
Pace
Terrain
Mile 1
6:21
Up the canyon
Mile 2
6:24
Up the canyon
Mile 3
5:54
Down (opposite of 2)
Mile 4
5:57
Down (opposite of 1)
Set 2
Mile 5
5:59
Down - no wind
Mile 6
5:53
Down - no wind
Mile 7
5:48
Tail wind kicked in
Set 3
Mile 8
5:46
Good wind
Mile 9
5:51
Out of the canyon
Set 4
Mile 10
5:49
Hollow road
For my 3 min rest in-between sets, I turned around and ran back up the canyon to maximize the time in the canyon. My last set put me just over a mile from the car so it was nice and easy for my cool-down. I think overall, it went pretty well and was able to simulate SGM pretty well. The effort was there and once I got into a groove, I was able to keep the pace going pretty well. The breaks were sure nice though. Another big workout in the books.
AM: Nice and Easy 8 on the Providence - River Heights loop. Body wanted to go slow, so we went slow. Not timed
PM: ~5 with Paul and Jon pushing the kids in the stroller. I didn't wear a watch, but it was pretty slow. Still trying to get life back in the legs. Probably won't happen this week.
Rest of the way home was at about 7 min pace. I felt pretty good today until about mile 13 then I felt a big bonk coming on. I could tell that I had ran out of fuel. I got all light headed and dizzy, but survived the rest of the run.
Providence River Heights loop with Paul in the morning. Nice and easy pace. Great to have company on my morning runs. That hasn't happened in quite some time (not counting Saturdays).
Long run with Jon, Paul, and Ruth with Jon's work running group. They had water and Gatorade/Powerade every 3 miles. We stopped at most of them. The route was sweet (Blacksmith Fork Canyon), but the cars were especially frequent today. Before we started, Jon and I ran ~2 easy miles in the dark. Jon and I were dropped off at Mile 3 of TOU course and we ran up to the start. Paul and Ruth started at the top and gave us some "roadkill" to go after. They held us off pretty good until they waited for us at the first "aid station". From that point on we ran together down the canyon. Jon and I ditched them at mile 12 of the course and hit some faster stuff. I wanted to work on running MP while super tired. This fit the profile perfectly. We went 5:49, 5:48, 6:04 (we went up the big hill (1/3 mile long) instead of turning onto hollow road, so this mile included going up it then recovering on the way down). Then we backed off to Tinman Tempo pace 6:22, 6:16, then practically sprinted to catch Ruth and Paul at the finish. Overall, it was an excellent run and one that should help the body be ready for the big dance.
T-2:21:10 (20.6 miles) (6:51) 152 ave 183 max (big hill)
T-16:22 (2.15 miles) (7:40) 142 ave - Early run with Jon
** Longest run this year (not counting Ogden Marathon) at the end of my highest mileage week ever including 2 big workouts and a quality long run. Great week of running!
Or at least I tried. Wasn't feeling great today. I should probably have postponed it until tomorrow. I had a tight hamstring all day yesterday and today. It wasn't letting me really get the legs moving today. The workout today was 8x3 min at CV pace (5:40) with 1:30 rest in-between then some Tinman tempo miles after. I ran the Millville hills loop the correct way then continued on TOU course.
3.5 mile warmup @ 7:20-7:30
3 mins at the following paces -
6:52 pace (up-hill)
5:30 (down)
5:49 (rolling)
5:24 (down)
5:47 (rolling)
5:47 (flat)
5:45 (slight down, then flat)
5:46 (mostly flat)
That put me at mile 21 of TOU so I ran to 23 trying to go 6:20 pace. I went 6:17 then 6:24. I half-heartedly ran one more but ended up at 6:35 so I was done and ran home with cooling down at ~ 7 min pace.
Overall, I am sure the long run Saturday affected me quite a bit. The hammy loosened up a bit, but it will take a few days to work the kinks out. Another workout in the books even if it felt like I was just punching the clock and not doing anything special. Easy day tomorrow is in order.
Actually this is the last big one before St. George (there will be small and medium workouts but no big ones) so I wanted to make it count. I repeated the workout I did Aug 27th of this year. It consisted of 5 warmup miles on the TOU course to mile 18, 2.5 miles on the course at tinman pace and then turning around and running the whole way home at Tinman pace as well. 10 miles at the faster pace. I ran it in 1:39:15 on the 27th so that was the time to beat.
Warmup miles - @ ~6:55
Tempo stuff - 6:22 up, 6:33 up, 6:18 up/down, 6:12 down, 6:13 down, 6:31 millville hill, 6:31 rest of the hill, 6:04 down, 6:11 flat, 6:13 flat
I might have pushed it into MP for the last 3 miles, but I got the job done. 1:30 faster today. Overall, a great workout that I am happy with.
Ran to Paul's and joined him on a loop around the TOU 5K course (slowly). Looks fast and fair. PR worthy course. The only problem is that my foot hurts! I felt a twinge in it during the last mile yesterday morning and it never went away all day. I didn't run last night in hopes of a fast recovery, but it was still hurting today. It got worse through the run. Grass helped. I will have to play tomorrow by ear and see what I can do.
The foot pain is at the highest point in the arch. Tender to the touch. Putting weight on it causes slight pain. I would rate the pain very low, but very worrisome.
Top of Utah 5K (3.1 Miles) 00:17:08, Place overall: 2, Place in age division: 2
Slow miles
Fast miles
Total Distance
15.40
3.10
18.50
TOU 5K Goal for the day was to break my PR (17:08) set last year at the Draper Days 5K. That course is a point to point with an aided first mile. Today's course was a loop, mostly flat, but slower than Draper Days. A PR today would be worth more (15-20 seconds ?). I got there early and got in 4 miles of warmup, some with Paul. The race looked pretty small (~200 runners?), with Paul being the obvious favorite. One other runner looked serious and I was introduced to him in the first 200m by Paul. His name is Joe Furse and he is on the blog as well. He recently moved to Logan and is attending USU. He will be a good addition to our Logan group. The first 1/2 mile I more or less ran with Paul and Joe with them putting 12 seconds on me or so on the second 800. We quickly gapped the rest of the field.
I hit mile 1 in 5:21 (176 ave HR). I tried to keep the pace going but mile 2 had a short but steep hill that took some juice out the legs. I was slowly catching back up to Joe and we pulled even by the mile marker.
5:35 for mile 2 (185 ave). I kept the intensity up the best I could and was able to drop Joe on another small hill at 2.25. From then on, it was my goal to do the best I can to get close to 17 min.
Mile 3 was 5:32 (188 ave). Too slow to break 17, but I will have to kick hard to get close. :39 for the final bit (190 ave). No juice in the legs as I was only able to get to 5 min pace on the kick. (Mile splits are based on Garmin miles)
17:07 by my watch. 17:08 officially. 3.13 miles. 5:28 average Overall, a successful race even though I officially tied my PR. After a LONG wait and some miles cooling down while waiting, we got our awards. They were very impressive for a 5K. It is hard to describe so I wont try, but it was cool. Paul, Jon, Joe and myself then ran the TOU course backwards to meet up with Andy. While doing so, we saw the leaders and enjoyed watching the race unfold. We caught up with Andy as he had just passed mile 20. He got blown away by the wind, rained on, all while the sun was shining. Crazy weather day. Andy ran well, and was in the 7:30 range for his final 10K. He was pretty worn out and was saving some for SGM, but overall he ran well beating a 3:05 goal he had. He passed a good amount of people while holding off everyone behind him. Good Job Nick, Sasha, Steve Cuttitta, Bill Cobler, Ben Vanbeekum, and of course Andy (all people we saw racing) and others who I didn't see. I ended up running 11.5 miles between the cooldown and running with Andy. 18.5 miles for the day. * Foot was sore during the warmup, but didn't hurt during the race. It was achy, but not too bad for the rest of the running. A good sign that it is nothing serious.
AM: New route from our new apartment. I ran a shorter Young Ward Loop via the landfill. It was pretty quiet out this morning. Wasn't sure if it was the rain or all the local runners are crippled from the marathon and didn't venture out today. Today's run was slow and easy. Foot is 95% better. I think I am out of the woods with that one.
T-63:10 (8.25) (7:40) 140
PM: Easy miles with the Guys (the group now includes Joe). I wasn't feeling too spectacular today. Oh, well. I did hit the pool and hot tub at the Crystal Inn afterward.
5x4 minute at CV pace (~5:40) with 2 min recovery. I joined Jon and Paul for this workout on the North Logan Loop. Not much to report other than it was an average performance considering the tired legs I have.
Leg 1 - 4 mins at 5:10 pace (good downhill, pretty much ran all-out to stay near Jon and Paul)
Leg 2 - 4 mins at 5:46 pace (good split considering it was rolling up-hill)
Leg 3 - 4 mins at 6:09 pace (all uphill, but it was ugly)
Leg 4 - 4 mins at 5:46 pace (flat/slight down) My body is telling me I am done.
Leg 5 - 4 mins at 5:53 pace (flat/slight down) Don't know why I even bothered with this one.
Young Ward loop with Tinman Tempo. 2 mile warmup then 6 miles at 6:15 pace, followed with 2.5 miles cooldown. I went 6:13, 6:15, 6:14, 6:13, 6:15, 6:12. Average HR during that time was 168. Felt better today than on Tues, thankfully.
Easy miles on Planet Walk loop. I followed it up with a run to Logan High to do some strides in the grass. I had the brilliant idea of doing them on the astro-turf on the football field. It was perfect. Springy, not cold and wet and exactly 100m long. Did 8 of them.
On Vacation in Park City for the weekend. I got up early and drove to Willow Creek park and ran on the dirt/gravel trail back into Park city. It changed back into asphalt, but was still a nice trail to run on. I followed it all the way up to Deer Valley and exchange 35 of WBR. (~500 feet of climbing). I retraced my steps back to the park and added a bit on beyond that on the trail. a fair amount of the run was on the Prak City Marathon course. I may give that one a shot next year. Cool course. Pretty hilly though. I hit some slow miles on the uphills, and hit some faster stuff on the downs. Back to enjoying my weekend...
I got a little carried away with the miles today. I guess it will just make my wed or thurs that much easier. I ran over to the fairgrounds and did 6x100m striders while waiting for Jon. They were pathetically slow, but the did get the body warmed up and ready to go. When Jon came, we did mostly easy miles with 2 faster miles with full recovery in-between. I was shooting for 5:30 range and got a little excited the first one and went too fast. I made Jon give me a 10 second head start with the idea of me holding him off and he trying to catch me. It worked well to pull us to a fast time, but probably too fast. I went 5:25 then 5:29 for the second. We ran back to his house and checked on the progress of my dirt pile. They have actually been working hard on it all weekend and have gotten the foundation poured today. After dinner (thanks for feeding a starving batchelor), I ran home (hence the extra miles).
