Craig's Running Blog

I wasn't planning on running again until tomorrow, but I felt ok and figured an easy recovery run would help speed recovery. Did a nice, easy 3 mile loop at a 8:00 pace. The legs felt a little sore, but certainly not hurt.

I am planning on maintaining low and frequent mileage for the rest of the year to let things heal and so forth.

I felt a little better this morning. Legs were still a little sore in the quads, but I stopped after .6 miles, stretched it out, and felt pretty good. Instead of a 8-8:30 easy pace I did a 7-7:30 easy pace, which is ideal for my easy training.

One of the interesting things about my neighborhood (Hidden Valley Bluff in Sandy) is the geographic layout. It basically consists of a large 1.5 enclosed loop, so the traffic is minimal and it's popular for runners and walkers that don't necessarily live in the neighborhood. As I came back into my neighborhood with .5 to go, I recognized a lady up ahead that was running in the same direction. I challenged myself to pick it up and reach her by the time she got to my house. I picked it up to a sub-6:00 pace and reached her. It felt good.

Strange- my achilles isn't hurting me anymore. I guess I shouldn't say that and jinx myself, but I'm hopeful that gradually picking up and then sustaining my mileage over the winter will strengthen it without stressing it.

I think I felt about 90% this morning. No more achilles issues, but I'm still stopping after .5 miles to stretch things out. I would have done an even 5 miles today, but I played raquetball at lunch. I couldn't let these guys work me too bad.

It's hard to say how much I'll play raquetball this winter, but I would anticipate at least once a week. Maybe twice. I played with Adam today, who is much better than me. It's been a long time since I played someone better than me, so it's a pretty good workout.

Oh ya- got back on the usual 5.5 mile route this morning and it felt better than it has in months. The achilles is healing up nicely. I didn't even feel it. Now I just need to stay on top of it and keep strengthening it for the next couple months.

Anxious to do a 10k or half marathon in the near future, but unfortunately winter is coming. I may have to wait for the Moab 1/2 in March. :(

PM: I got home (somewhat) early to take advantage of the light a bust out a trail run. I am already tired of running in the dark in the mornings, and we aren't even to November yet. So I was able to get out at 5:30 in the evening and had about 1.5 hours of decent light left. I went up to the trail head and caught the Bonneville Shoreline trail. Took it down to corner canyon and then took an alternate single-track trail back to the Porter Rockwell trail. They were doing work on the alternate pipeline trail, to where it connects back to the Porter Rockwell trail and extends a few blocks to the north. Things felt good, but I was a little achy the last mile. So that's probably a good mileage to peak out at this week.

I had my daughters baptism in the morning, so I couldn't get out until after everyone cleared out of the house and Teresa decided to take a nap with the baby. I was wavering, but I finally decided to get out at 2:30. The weather was noticeably cooler and wetter than yesterday, but it was still shorts and long-sleeved shirt weather. Same route as yesterday, but I caught it short on the BS trail by taking the 4WD road back down to the trail head (rather than continuing on the BS trail to corner canyon). The 4WD road is a solid, downhill, mile-long, smooth dirt raod that I like to push the pace on. I came down it at a 5:30 pace today, which felt pretty good. I would like to take the whole road from Suncrest down to Draper as a tempo run before it gets snowed over. Maybe next week.