Per Aspera Ad Astra

December 2013

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Location:

Salt Lake City,UT,United States

Member Since:

Dec 08, 2012

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

13.1: 1:09:58 (2018 Des News)

26.2: 2:37:45 (2019 Mesa Phoenix)

Short-Term Running Goals:

Stay healthy!

 

2019 Running Schedule

Feb - Mesa Phoenix Marathon (AZ): 2:37:45. Lingering flu didn't help, but I still got a PR.

April - Bonneville Shoreline Trail Marathon (UT). Mostly just going to be a training run. Finally got myself into the sub-4 club last year, so I'll just have fun with it this year.

May - Stillwater Half Marathon (MN). Goal race for Spring. Looking for ~1:12.

October- Chicago Marathon (IL). We'll see where I'm at in Fall, but probably will be looking for low 2:30s.

Long-Term Running Goals:

Stay healthy, make improvements, maximize my potential.

Personal:

I am a bioengineering PhD currently working as a post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of Neurology at the University of Utah, where I design and improve neurosurgical approaches for treating movement disorders.


Summer 2018 update: I'm lazy about copying over from Strava, so find me over there for day-to-day runs until I eventually get around to copying everything over here.

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Skechers GoRun 4 Blue - A Bit Too Big, But Free Lifetime Miles: 105.80
Saucony Grid Type A Lifetime Miles: 94.20
Saucony Fastwitch 7 Blue Lifetime Miles: 132.40
Saucony Fastwitch 7 Red Lifetime Miles: 135.90
New Balance Vazee Summit V2 Black Lifetime Miles: 121.90
Skechers Go Med Speed 4 Lifetime Miles: 36.70
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
256.2024.0020.004.00304.20
RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 172.60RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 40.10RETIRED Saucony Kinvara 3 Red Miles: 28.50RETIRED New Balance 1010 - Just Awful Shoes Miles: 40.10RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 23.20
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 159.80
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.002.500.000.0012.50

I wish there was an option for steady state pace on here.  The first 10 miles were definitely not marathon pace, but they were harder than just a run of the mill easy day.  In any case, I did a hilly 12.5 miles (just under 500' gain, 500' loss according to the FRB course tool) at 6:57 pace, which would be 6:36 pace on a perfectly flat sea level course.  Actually, I suppose it was a hair more.  I noticed about a tenth of a mile in that my Garmin had accumulated a grand total of 0.00 miles, so I reset the watch and lost that first bit.

In any case, I kept it pretty steady state pace for the first 10, but ran harder for the last 2.5 miles, which I ran at 6:55 pace (slightly faster than average) despite picking up over half of my total overall climb in that 20% of the run, with almost no downhill to counteract it.

Once again, I didn't run until 11 PM, despite having had absolutely nothing going on after 4:30 or so. I don't know why I keep doing this, but I suppose that if I'm going to run in the dark, I'm better off doing it later when there's next to no traffic.

Oh, also, that hill on 3300 S going up to 1300 E (especially the last 2 blocks) isn't very fun!

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 12.60
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.500.000.000.0011.50

Snagged a pair of these today for $22 shipped a couple minutes before they sold out:  http://www.joesnewbalanceoutlet.com/detail.asp?style=MT1010SA They're quite ugly, but I was in need of new trail shoes and the 110s used to get the job done for at least 500-600 miles before falling apart, so I figured I'd give the 1010s a try.  As long as they don't literally rip in half after 278 miles like the MT00 or have the heel collapse upwards through the insole on a long run and give me a blister that nightmares are made of like the MT20, I'll probably be OK with them.  I always thought the MT10 was the ideal trail shoe for durability (I have a pair with over 2500 miles that is still in great shape and I only no longer wear due to the now horrendous scent that comes off of them when they get wet) and the MT110 was the ideal shoe for fit and comfort; this 1010 seems to combine the durable sole ideas of the 10 with the rockplate and fit of the 110, so I imagine I'll like it.  Probably should've bought 2 pairs, but oh well.  Sorry, Jake, for not buying Saucony, but $22 shipped is unbeatable!

 

Actually started my run in daylight today!  Did 11.5 with Holly, easy pace (7:45 average over a course with 1400' of elevation change, ie 700' up, 700' down, with high point 550'+ above low point and non-negligible roll).  Ran up over to and up Memory Grove and ran into Nate Krah about 1.5 miles in, so we ran with him to the end of Canyon Road, turned around, headed up to 11th, dropped down Virginia and then up Federal Heights, and then up to his lab on campus (mile 7), where he stopped.  Holly and I ran a loop of part of upper campus, came down South Campus Drive, looped the football stadium lot, took University to South Temple, and ran home.  Holly's runs are typically in the 6-10 mile range, so this was a pretty long run for her, although she didn't show it at all.

 

Also, weight's down about 2 pounds in the last week.  I honestly haven't been eating all that carefully, but I've been avoiding things that are completely ridiculous (only had Cafe Rio once this week!)

RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 11.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 159.80
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.006.001.000.0012.00

2.5 miles up to the gym in a winter wonderland (read: on very snowy/icy sidewalks), easy, 7:50 pace uphill.

7 miles on treadmill.  First 6 at roughly MP (6:11), last 1 at roughly tempo (5:48).

2.5 very cold miles home, extremely easy, 9:00 pace downhill.

 

My attire was probably not smart tonight.  Temperature was 20 degrees F with a windchill of 12, but I wanted to run fast on the treadmill, so I needed a thin singlet and light shorts (galaxy print, obviously).  I didn't feel like carrying a bag on the way up to the gym, so I just threw on thin gloves and a light fleece, in addition to a baseball cap, a headlamp, and the massive super reflective triangle that I've belted to the backside of my waist on all my night runs lately.  In any case, on the way home, my legs got cold, and that was fine, but my face froze and my I was slipping all around in my flats.  I had taken 5 minutes to dry the sweat off my singlet, so that helped, but the wet hair under my hat sucked, and the overall remaining dampness made things colder.  I'm not sure what the best solution is in the future if I decide to do warmup up to the gym, run there, and then run home.  Maybe I should wear a super light pack with flats and singlet to change into, along with a baseball cap (I'm weird and don't like to run without a hat), and then I can wear beefier shoes, tights, another shirt, and another hat on the way up?  Running with a backpack is annoying, but so is slipping around and getting cold.  IDK.  I guess today's road/sidewalk conditions were pretty close to as bad as it gets for running out here.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 12.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.500.000.000.0010.50

10.5 miles, suuuuuper slow (literally an 8:25 average), because a) I felt like going really easy, b) people in Salt Lake are inconsiderate and don't de-ice the sidewalks in front of their houses despite being legally obligated to do so, and c) Kinvaras don't grip well at all on ice, especially when they're not brand new, so I had to run even slower than planned.

The route was my place up to 9th East, down to 27th South, up to Elizabeth, onto Highland, up to to 21st, down to 7th east, up to Liberty Park, through there to 6th South, up to South Temple, and back home.

It was 7 degrees with a windchill of 0 when I finished.  Thank science for Rupp-esque ski masks that keep your face toasty.  I'm glad that I didn't go running even later, as right now the windchill is down to -5.  When the windchill is 0 or above, it's not a big deal with tights and a mask.  Below -10 is generally pretty miserable, and anywhere in between varies based on how I'm feeling that day.  Hopefully we'll get some typically brutal Minnesota weather while I'm back from the 20th to 30th so that I can toughen up for the rest of the winter like usual.  For now though, single-digit temps with a nearly sub-zero windchill are surprisingly not bad.

RETIRED Saucony Kinvara 3 Red Miles: 10.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.500.000.000.0012.50

Same loop as Sunday.  Easy 7:45 pace average, althought it varied a lot based on amount of ice.  Salt Lake is full of a bunch of jerks that don't de-ice their sidewalks.  Ever heard of salt, folks?  You would never see this kind of disrespect from people in the midwest.  People there don't just de-ice their own driveways and sidewalks; they also do it for their neighbors in need as well.

 

When I finished the run, the windchill was -4 F.  Thanks to layering up, it really wasn't bad except that my eyelashes on top and bottom kept freezing together when I blinked.  Fun!  Apparel for tonight's run:

I can't tell if I look more like Bane or Galen Rupp.  Sadly, it's probably the latter.

RETIRED Saucony Kinvara 3 Red Miles: 12.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.000.000.000.0011.00

Great evening.  Had a couple drinks and played pool at a bar with some of my colleagues from work, and then got out for a run around 10:30.  I brought Holly for the run, but after a little over half a mile, I noticed that her feet were getting really cold with all of the snow and ice (she was running on 3 paws, alternating which one didn't touch the ground), so I unfortunately had to bring her back home.  So, she got in 1.25, and then I ran down to 5th East, down to 27th South, up to 9th, up to 21st south, back down to 5th east, and home.

Unrelated to running, I was gifted a pretty amazing fur coat today.  My mother's aunt randomly bought a men's sheepskin coat in my size 30-40 years ago with the intention of giving it as a gift, but never found the right person to give it to until now.  I've grown to dislike the modern mentality of repeatedly buying junk goods and replacing them, harming the environment with both their production and waste, so I sort of have a thing for older Americana style clothing that's made to last, especially denim and leather (such as my jeans and boots below, both constructed entirely with early 20th century techniques and machinery, the boots being only 6 months old, but designed to be repeatedly resoled so that they'll last a lifetime, and the jeans having been worn in over many hundreds of wears), so a built-to-last vintage sheepskin jacket is just the sort of thing that resonates with me.

 

 

Yes, it's the warmest jacket. Of. All. Time.  And yes, I realize that I can be a ridiculous human being sometimes.

RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 11.10
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
17.000.000.000.0017.00

Today's run was, in a word, wild.

I skied at Snowbird earlier in the day.  I knew it was going to be snowing hard up the canyon, so I left my car at the park n ride and bummed a ride up with a couple folks.  Turns out the guy that was driving was a pro skier, so I spent the day riding with him, which was a blast, as he skis a lot harder than most of the people I usually ride with.  Anyway, I was getting a ride back down to my car when I noticed that I had lost my keyring.  House/car/lab keys all gone.  I crashed once and I guess my pocket had become unzipped, so they got buried somewhere in powder way up on the mountain.  Anyway, they gave me a ride back to my apartment and then I ran back from the avenues to Little Cottonwood Canyon.  Of course, right when I got home, it started snowing really hard.  I mapped the route and figured out enough diagonal streets to get it down to 17 miles and almost entirely avoid Wasatch (until the last 1.25 miles).

 

Anyway, the conditions were super super gnarly.  I started out at high 7s pace, but as more and more snow fell and I started to get into the uphill second half, my pace got slower and slower.  Route was my place to South Temple to 9th East to 21st South to Highland to 6200 South to 2300 East to Bengal to Danish to Wasatch/LCC road to the park n ride.  My pace going up the icy sidewalk on 2300 East from Fort Union to 6200 was literally 12:00 flat.  I was just barely able to run at all with the sidewalk as it was (deep snow with ice on the bottom).  Wasatch/LCC Road was nearly otherworldly.  The snow was coming down insanely hard and the road was a ridiculous mess.  Any time a car was anywhere close, I walked 10 feet off the side of the road into very deep powder to avoid getting hit.  I was planning on 20 tonight, but this took 2:21, which is longer than it would have taken me to do 20 on a treadmill, so I'm not going to complain.

 

Driving home from the bottom of LCC to the Aves took a full hour.  At times, I was reduced to 15mph on I-215.  Absolutely crazy!

RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 17.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Didn't intend to take the day off, but I had to work on lab stuff extremely late, to the point where I only got 2 hours of sleep.  Not ideal, but it happens.  I suppose this wasn't the worst day to miss after having that 87 mile week, which is my biggest since before the hip flared back up at the beginning of May.  I feel really fresh, despite finally getting some consistent mileage going again, and I think actually going really easy a couple times a week is helping substantially with active recovery.  Still, one day off occasionally won't kill me.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.001.000.000.008.00

8 miles, treadmill, since it was 5 degrees with a windchill of -5 when I got out to run.  I'm going on 2 hours of sleep, so I wasn't up to the cold weather.  Did 7 of the miles at 6:40 pace, and 1 at 6:10 pace.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 8.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.000.000.000.007.00

A little over 7 miles with fellow grad student Koren and her friend Megan.  Ran at 5:30 AM.  I have to say... it felt great to get some mileage out of the way that early.  They're training for Salt Lake Marathon and I'm trying to make sure I keep a couple runs a week pretty slow, so I said I'd so some easy mileage with them.  Today was East High to 3rd West to South Temple to 13th East, back to East.  Pace was about 8:40, so it was a nice mellow (very early) start to the day.  I got in my New Balance 1010s last night (trail minimums amp) and decided to try them out this morning, given that half of the sidewalks are iced over like trails. The felt OK.  Calling them a minimalist shoe is kind of ridiculous.  There's a ton of shoe there, but they actually gripped the snow and ice really well, which is uncommon among lighter (sub 8 oz) trail shoes.

 

PM: Was planning on another run, but didn't have time.  Bummer.

RETIRED New Balance 1010 - Just Awful Shoes Miles: 7.10
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
4.002.000.000.006.00

Last really busy day with my research proposal.  Just got in 6 miles tonight.  Ran 2 downhill miles in 6:02 and 5:58 on the way back.  Looking forward to getting some real mileage going again after the presentation tomorrow!

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 6.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.000.000.000.007.00

No watch, Garmin was dead.  About 7 miles, no idea how long it took  I figure I was going a hair over 7:00 pace.  I was planning on running again later, but I was generally exhausted this week after spending nearly every waking hour preparing for my Research Proposal Presentation/Examination, so I didn't.  Both my document and presentation passed unanimously with no required revisions and I'm finally all but dissertation, so I'm really pleased about that.  Having one week of lower mileage won't kill me, but I have to be careful to cap it at this.  Every other week in my build-up needs to be better than this.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 7.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.502.507.001.0013.00

AM: Ski Day #7 for the 2013/2014 season.  I'm going to ski a lot this next week.

 

PM: First workout for Phoenix.  I realized after last week that I felt super comfortable with 80+ miles in a week, so I figured I'd start workouts a couple weeks earlier than initially planned.  This was a little on the short side for a workout, but the paces were solid and I felt really good about it.

Tonight was 2.5 miles uphill to the gym (6:45 pace, probably a hair harder than marathon effort, in horrendous air), then 8 miles on a treadmill hard (first 7 at 5:46, ie half marathon pace, last 1 at 5:21), then 2.5 miles home, very easy (8:30 pace).

The 7 at 5:46 felt hard but smooth, although the 5:21 finisher was very hard.  One of my key workouts last build was a 10 mile treadmill tempo at 5:51 pace on the exact same treadmill, and I'm already in better shape than that in my first workout of the season, so that's a really good sign.

I'm not sure if it was the Saucony Jake Krong Pro Model shoes I was wearing or the King Crimson I was rocking out to in my headphones.  Without a doubt, King Crimson is the greatest rock band of all time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmwiqBJOzBg

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 13.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
9.000.000.000.009.00

Lunch time to early PM: Skied at Snowbird.  Had a rather bad crash in the double black chutes in Silver Fox that tweaked a muscle on the outside of my calf in my left leg (probably the Soleus?)  Fortunately, while it was noticeable while running, it didn't affect my ability to run.

Later PM: Went out for a run with Holly.  A mile in, the salt in the roads must have been bugging her paws, as she suddenly refused continued running.  It took a little while to get her back home, as she would stop every 30 seconds or so.  Poor girl. :(  Anyway, I dropped her off at home and went back out for a few laps of Liberty.  In the process, I nearly got run over by a cop in an intersection in which I had the right of way (he gunned it after making eye contact with me, while I was already in the intersection, despite him having a stop sign and me not having one).  A little later, I got to witness another cop further polluting this ridiculously terrible air during two of my laps.  He was just sitting there apparently texting or playing a cell phone game, idling away and dumping more garbage into the air.  I was going slowly, so he was idling there for at least 12 minutes, despite the law prohibiting idling for more than 2.  Great work, guys.  Way to set the bar high.  Fortunately, I reported both officers.  Unfortunately, absolutely nothing will be done.

 

In case you can't tell, I was pretty annoyed for the entire 2nd portion of the run after nearly getting run over.  

 

Obviously, this week sucked, but I had incredibly important things going on in the lab, so I'm OK with that.  I'll pick it back up this week, but given how much I'm planning on skiing this week, I doubt it'll be all that monstrous.

 

Oh, and congrats to Zach Bitter for running 100 miles in 11:47 today.  7:04/mile for 100 miles is really freaking impressive.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 9.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(7)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.500.001.000.0012.50

AM: Skiing day #9 for the year (and 3rd day in a row).  That irritation on my calf from yesterday's crash was noticeable when my boots pushed hard into my leg, so I mostly stuck to just lapping the groomers around Gad 2.

Early PM: 5.5 miles, quite hilly, but very easy, 8:30 average pace, with Holly. Memory Grove to City Creek Canyon Road to 11th to Virginia to 4th, and back home.  Too much salt on the sidewalk cause Holly to have to stop a couple times.

Late PM: 7 miles, 7:20 average (6 easy, last mile, which was quite uphill, at tempo effort).  Up to 9th East, down to 1700 South, over to 7th East, back up to South Temple, and back home.  I think the inversion is getting better.

The leg thing from yesterday's crash wasn't really noticeable while running today.  Hopefully it will stop being noticeable while skiing ASAP.  I want to ski a few more times before I fly back to MN on Friday.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 7.00RETIRED Saucony Kinvara 3 Red Miles: 5.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.005.000.000.0010.00

Early AM: Said I wasn't going to go into the lab much this week after the incredibly busy last couple weeks, but went in for lab meeting at 9 and stayed a few more hours to get a few odds and ends taken care of.

Early PM: 4th day of skiing in a row, 10th day of the season (1st at Solitude, rest at Snowbird... need to start using my Alta/Park City/Deer Valley days soon...).  I guess the lower leg thing is a bruise.  It was still a little annoying when skiing techy stuff requiring really hard turns, as my boot dug into that spot, so I mostly stuck to groomers.  Fortunately, I didn't feel it at all when running later in the day.

Late PM: To 9th East to 27th South, to 5th East, back home.  First 4 miles at a hair under 7:00 pace (net downhill by 140 feet), then hit the next 5 at 6:28 average (net downhill by about 10 feet, with about 120' uphill and 130' downhill.  If this was marathon effort (it felt like it), it would equate to a little above 6:10 at sea level, which sounds about right.  Of note on this section was that the air qualty was literally choking around 5th East / 21st South.  I actually gagged at one point.  Seriously awful.  Anyway, I finished with an easy slow 8:15 back uphill to my apartment.  It was pretty icy tonight, but I felt like it only slowed me on one mile of the marathon effort miles (everything from 4 to 9 was 6:21 to 6:30 except the 3rd mile, which was particularly icy, was a 6:36, despite being net downhill).

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 10.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.000.000.000.0010.00

AM: 5th day of skiing in a row, 11th day of the season.  Unfortunately, I only got in a couple of runs before having to head into the lab.

PM: 4 miles on treadmill, then 6 miles outside.  Would've done it all on treadmill to avoid the air outside, but couldn't get to the gym until about 9:30 and they closed at 10, so I took what I could get indoors.  6:50 pace inside on the flat treadmill, 7:10 pace outside on the hillier/icier Campus/Sugarhouse/Campus loop.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 10.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.000.000.000.008.00

Early AM (5:15): 5.5 miles, with Koren and Megan; brought Holly along as well.  Nice and easy, like 8:45 pace (although quite hilly).  It's 6:30 and I realistically don't need to be up until 9:00 today, so I'm going back to bed for a couple hours.  Will do a second run later.

Early PM: 6th day of skiing in a row.

Late PM (about midnight): finally got out and found the roads to be horrendously icy, as in literally the least traction of any running surface i've ever attempted to run on.  Made it .2 miles in my Nike LT2s before turning around to go home and grab trail shoes.  Made it one mile in those at 10:00 pace before giving up.  Didn't fall, but lost my balance at least a dozen times, especially on the way back.  It was getting worse by the minute, so I'm not looking forward to seeing the driving conditions tomorrow AM.  Absolutely pointless to run out there tonight.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 5.50RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 0.50RETIRED New Balance 1010 - Just Awful Shoes Miles: 2.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Skied hard in amazing powder for a few hours in the afternoon at Snowbird with Eric and his friend Lisa.  7th day in a row, and ended up riding really hard, even having to jump a pretty big (for me) cliff at one point.  Legs felt pretty exhausted by the end and I wanted to spend time with Holly before heading back to MN the following morning, so I took the day off from running.  Goal was only 70 miles this week, with all the skiing, and I'll easily hit that with a long run on Saturday, so I was OK with this.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.000.000.000.0012.00

Rolling and very snowy 12 miles back home in MN, standard route to Red Barn and back.  Temps were OK (in the mid teens), but roads were full of snow, slush, and ice.  Pace varied quite a bit as a result, but averaged 7:01/mile.

Going to get in a long run tomorrow.  Monday's going to be interesting, considering the projected temps have the low at -21.  With windchills, we may end up in the -30s.  I imagine I will be inside on a treadmill that day. :P

RETIRED New Balance 1010 - Just Awful Shoes Miles: 12.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
19.500.000.000.0019.50

To Wisconsin and back.  6:55 pace, quite icy and pretty rolling (800' of gain).  The hill up Myrtle out of Stillwater was pretty sucky.  Temps weren't that cold (about 20), but I sweat a fair amount in the first 12 miles or so and then it got colder and a big headwind picked in the last bit, and I absolutely froze.  I'm going to make sure to wear an extra layer on the bottom next time...

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 19.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.000.000.000.0010.00

10 miles at 6:50-ish pace on a treadmill at my parents' gym.  Nice gym, but the workout room had no fans and no airflow, so it was kind of miserable.  I don't think I've ever sweat that much on an easy run.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 10.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.000.000.000.0011.00

Ran at about 2 PM.  Straight temp was 1, windchill was -15 (this would be -20 if running against it the wind at a pace of 8 miles per hour!), and this was only 1 degree off the highest temp of the day.  Cold!  I bundled up with 2 pairs of pants, a pair of shorts, ski socks, trail shoes for all the snow, a thermal layer, 2 jackets, a neckwarmer, a beanie, a balaclava, and a Masque.  The Masque was the crucial element that warmed the air I was breathing and kept me from feeling awful in such cold weather.  Lapped Katherine Abbott Park before going on the OHA Nature Trail and popping out the backside onto Hilton.  Ran to Jocelyn, and ran that classic neighborhood loop to Keats before heading back home with one more mini-lap of Katherine Abbott.  It has snowed a lot over the last few days and was still snowing during today's run, so I felt like I was running trails for a good chunk of the way, even while on roads.  The Jocelyn/Keats neighborhood is all dirts roads, so it doesn't get plowed anyway, making it actual snow trails in the winter.  This is not always the best running surface, but it can be pretty fun when I'm in the mood for it (such as today).  Average pace was quite slow, over 8:00/mile.

 

 

RETIRED New Balance 1010 - Just Awful Shoes Miles: 11.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.009.000.009.00

9 mile tempo in 49:49 on a brand-new, state-of-the-art treadmill at the Woodbury location of Lifetime Fitness, which had much better airflow and much nicer equipment than the White Bear location.  Started with a 5:47, settled down into 5:33 pace, and kept it there (occasionally dipping to 5:27-5:30) through mile 8 before hitting the last mile in 5:21.  Average pace of 5:32, which is ridiculous.  Of course, I don't get to count treadmill pace as legitimate since I'm not at altitude, so, by my calculations, it would've been about 5:46 on a regular road without the benefit of lack of wind resistance, roughly what I held for 8 miles in my last tempo.  Once again, it felt like roughly half marathon effort, so it would be exciting to see what I could hit for 13.1 if fully tapered and rested.  I'd put money on a 1:14 right now.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 9.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
9.001.000.000.0010.00

Merry Christmas.  Going to run later, but in the mean time, my dad bought my mom a Galaxy Print Balaclava by Turtle Fur that uses the exact same print as my favorite shorts.  I will be going into Joe's Sporting Goods tomorrow first thing to buy one for myself. Hah!

Afternoon: Early Christmas dinner with the family and my great Aunt, who's in town from Chicago; fun time for all.  Ate a lot of turkey and tons of dessert.

PM: went to the gym with the family, did 10 pretty uninspired miles at 7:10 average pace on a treadmill.  My legs were a little bit sore from yesterday's workout, so it felt pretty uninspired. 9 miles at an average of slightly over 7:15, last mile at 6:00, which would be more like 6:15 without the benefit of lack of wind resistance.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 10.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.004.002.000.0011.00

4th day in a row in the gym (3rd day at Woodbury, which I still greatly prefer over the WBL location).  Need to get back outside tomorrow!  Hah.  I was out late tonight and didn't get to the gym until a little after 10, at which point I did an 11 mile completely unstructured fartlek on a treadmill in 70:45 (6:26 average pace).  I felt like I was going to be bored running on a treadmill for the 4th day in a row (I'm definitely going to go outside tomorrow), so I jumped the pace all around.  Fartleks are extremely uncommon for me and I wasn't quite sure how to log it, but I think the totals of what I've split into easy/marathon/threshold is pretty accurate.  The slowest I ran at any point was about 7:25 pace, while the fastest was 4:45.  I got sub 5:40 at least briefly at some point in every mile after the first and made at least 1 minute of most of the miles faster than 6:00 pace.  I didn't really do this for any particular training purpose except to break up the run and make it less boring, but I do think it might be helpful for me to do occasional runs like this in the future, not to mention that it was kind of fun, so maybe I'll do another at some point.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 11.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.000.000.000.0010.00

Busy day with family... finally about to get to the gym to run.  This weeklong pass at Lifetime Fitness will have been well worth it!  I got a whole bunch of new running gear today, which is always great.

 

Clockwise from upper left: Kinvara 4, Brooks running jacket, 2 x Run N Fun socks, Big Bang print Balaclava (Turtle Fur calls it Big Bang instead of Galaxy, but it still perfectly matches my shorts), Run N Fun running beanie, and running gloves built for a touch screen phone.  Fritz would love these. :)

Also of note, I've decided that I need to clean up my diet if I'm going to race as well as possible in 2014, so I'm going to work with Allie on fixing up the way that I eat and I'm excited to see what that does for me!

Run: 10 miles on treadmill.  Pretty boring.  Forced myself to go easy (exactly 75:00).  I was totally going to run outside today, but was doing things with my family all day and didn't get out the door until 9:30.  Got to Lifetime Woodbury at 9:45 and slogged away for 75 minutes.  New Kinvara 4s felt good.  

You know you're bored of running on a treadmill when there's almost no day to day fluctuation in mileage.  This week has been 10, 11, 9, 10, 11, 10 so far, with only one day outside (the one in a windchill of -17).  I'm going to run something longer outside tomorrow to break up the monotony.

RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 10.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
13.200.000.000.0013.20

Really nice weather outside, mid-30s.  Did a bit over 13 miles, quite rolling, at 7:28 average pace.  Probably should've gone even easier, as legs were moderately tired.  Running on a treadmill day after day really seems to tire out my legs.  I'll go really easy tomorrow, which is going to suck (windchills projected as reaching the -40s in the twin cities!)

 

 

For tomorrow's run, it's about time that I set a new PR for coldest temp ever run in.  Windchill of -48 just sounds fun, doesn't it? :)

RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 13.20
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.000.000.003.0013.00

Early afternoon: 8 miles outside in a -21 degree windchill (with some colder gusts).  I guess the prediction map from yesterday was factoring the max speed wind gusts.  The wind was pretty high, coupled with the negative temp, but there were occasional much faster winds that cut to the bone.  Still, when it didn't pick up that high, it was kind of fun out there.  I did a loop of Katherine Abbott Park, popped out on the Southeast side, went up to OHA, did a loop there, popping out on the Northeast side, took Hilton to St Jude, lapped the perimeter of the high school, did a lap of the very crunchy and slow XC ski loop back there, popped back out by St Jude again, went up to Hickory, took that to Park Ave, and followed that along by the lake before cutting back across Wildwood Road and heading home.  Old Mahtomedi is a super fun area to run, and I had forgotten how nice the MHS/MMS campuses are.  Pace was extremely relaxed, like 8:25 or so.

 

PM: Treadmill (so rep times are about 13 seconds faster than they should be on a track, by Daniels, due to lack of air resistance).  On a brand new $9000 treadmill yet again, which was fun.  1 mile warmup at 6:00, then 3 by mile with 4 minutes rest (ie, LOOOONG rest) at 4:58, 4:54, 4:53 (would be 5:11, 5:07, 5:06 in ideal conditions on a track) then 1 mile cooldown at very slow ~9:00 pace.  Since can treadmill take up to about .05-.06 miles to get up to full speed, I started timing when the distance hit  .07 miles on each rep and just considered the mile to be from .07 to 1.07 each time (what I typically do for speedwork on them).  The long rest meant that I was pushing very hard on the reps.  The focus was purely on running fast.  This will be interesting to compare to if I do any similar short/fast/long rest workouts later in the winter...  Since mile reps are so much less aerobic than most of what I do, there's not much difference in pace at sea level vs SLC.  In fact, sea level to 5000' for someone like me would only be a 2 second difference, so I can run these sorts of long rest workouts, in which each rep is done pretty fresh, both at home and in Utah and be able to compare without having to consider conversions much, other than, of course, tacking on 13 seconds per rep for being on a treadmill.  All of this aside, the important thing is that I pushed myself very hard 3 times for about 5 minutes, with a focus on running quite fast. :)

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 5.00RETIRED New Balance 1010 - Just Awful Shoes Miles: 8.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Came home, skied (day 14), was going on far too little sleep and I had a slightly irritated tendon in my right foot (completely better as of Tuesday), so I just relaxed and went to bed instead of running.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.000.000.000.008.00

8 miles easy with Holly in Memory Grove / City Creek; now I'm going to head off for a brief ski day #15 (90 minutes of skiing before close beats no skiing, and I have to be down in Sandy at 5:00 anyway).  Ideally, I'll get in a few more miles before the fesitivities tonight.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 8.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
256.2024.0020.004.00304.20
RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 172.60RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 40.10RETIRED Saucony Kinvara 3 Red Miles: 28.50RETIRED New Balance 1010 - Just Awful Shoes Miles: 40.10RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 23.20
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 159.80
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