Craig's Running Blog

Man, it was cold this morning. Right at 34 degrees when I got up. I gave myself some extra time this morning so I could dress warmer. I usually wear shorts down to 30 degrees, but I'm not acclimated yet to the cold. It turns out that I overdressed. I was too hot by mile 1.

Took the usual route up to Wasatch Blvd and down 1700 East to the bottom of the hill. I did some threshold speed during the slight downhill and worked it. It felt good, but I was more tired than usual at the end. I guess that's good. Not hurt- that's the key.

Need new shoes.

I checked the thermometer this morning. 40 degrees. Good enough for shorts. I should have ditched the gloves too, 'cause I was burning up at mile 3.

I decided to run the Porter Rockwell this morning. A relatively flat course that would allow me to get an extra mile or two with the same effort. It was dark, but I could still make out the trail well enough. The nice thing about the trail is no cars. I hate having headlights in my face.

I felt good after nearly 2 miles warming up. I decided to push it a bit. Did miles 3-5 at 6:15, 6:14, and 6:17, which is goal marathon pace.

Noticed a meteor yesterday, and 2 meteors today. There were probably more, but I wasn't looking up at the sky too much. I did some stealth kills on the trail, Wasatch Back style. Snuck up behind a couple girls first and cruised by them, scaring them. Then I snuck up behind a couple that were walking with a flashlight. Nice. 

New shoes have been ordered from Overstock. Yes.

This was a hill workout. Pretty tough at times, but the end felt right. I cut it a little short because I'll be playing raquetball at lunch.

I'm trying to get some people together on Sat for a trail run in Draper. Looks like I have 4 takers so far. The good thing about trail running is that you can't go that fast, so a small group will tend to stick together with people of relevantly similar speed. I can even run with someone on a trail that I would run 2 or 3 min per mile faster on a road. The uphills keep the group together. The downhills spread people out more, but you have to wait ever 1/2 mile or so at a trailhead or junction. Good times. If I could, I would do all my training on trails. I know my speed would suffer, though.

Played Adam in raquetball at lunch. Came out on top 16-14, 10-15, 15-6, 9-2 (when the lights turned off). Uh huh.

The 5-6 mile runs are getting easier. I only got about 5 hours sleep last night, but this was an enjoyable, easy run. around Wasatch Blvd and down 1700 East to the bottom of the hill.

I should have checked the temp before running this morning, because it was a little cooler and I could have used gloves. My hands were aching by the time I got to mile 5. It didn't help that I carried a water bottle.

Went out on the pipeline trail and came back on the porter rockwell trail. It was dark, but the moon was full. Nice.

Well, this was a pretty strange day. Dominique put out an email earlier in the week to our friends (about 12 or so) asking if anyone wanted to go for a run this Sat. I responded that I did, and we ended up having about 6 people interested. I even made a batch of fuel for recovery at the end on Fri night, and put it in a gallon container. One thing led to another and everyone flaked out except Natalie. Now Natalie is a fast girl (she just qualified for Boston at St George), so she wanted to run with me 'cause she figured the run would be challenging. Unfortunately, there were just 2 of us that showed up at 7:30. I really expected to be running with Dominique, but her son got sick at the last minute. Drag.

As it turned out, the loco club had shown up at Draper Park at 7:00, and were already a few miles into their run. As we were about to take off, we noticed them run by and start on the Porter Rockwell trail (the same direction we were going). So Natalie said "should we just run with them?". I thought it would be a good idea, 'cause I didn't want to carry conversation for 2 hours. Unless I know the other person I'm running with really well, I prefer not to do a long, easy run with just one other person. Shorter tempo runs are ok, 'cause you're concentrating on the distance and speed more. Anyway, in a larger group, you can shift betwen conversations and running mates if things start to get stale.

So we took off at the back of the loco club pack, and I started talking to Christina and George as Natalie took off in front of me. I told them I was running trails, so I would be taking off on my own after a mile. At the mile mark, George told me that the registration to 2 trail events in Feb and March are open for registration. Those are the Moab Red Hot 50k+ (which has a 30k? option this year). The other is the Antelop Island 50mi/50k/25k race. I would like to do the shorter distance of each, if possible. Especially if I can find someone to go down with to Moab. Dominique sounded interested at one point, but I can't remember if she put it on her schedule. Bob has also expressed some mild interest. Kris Lander may be up for it, but he's still recovering from knee sugery and is up to 6 slow miles now. Moab Red Hot is an awesome ultra for a first one, and even has the shorter 20-21 mile option.

Anyway, the run itself was good. I caught the shoreline trail and took it around to the back of the new Draper temple (still under construction) and then came back. I finished at the same time as the loco club. Tracy told me that Natalie was looking for me 'cause I took off on the trails without her. Oops. I'll have to make an appearance at her wedding reception in 2 weeks and apologize. :)

I say I ran 8 miles easy, but I don't know if the hills and trails are ever really easy. It still tired me out.