Why Not?

Moving Day!!! Erica and I have moved everything to our new home in Heber. It was exhausting and pretty time consuming, but we've got everything in t he house and we're starting to set everything up now. The house is great, and has a fenced backyard for the Sammy Dog so that she can run around all the time.

6 miles in the PM.   Dog tired.

This will be a backoff week -- somewhere in the 50's. Then we'll ramp up to 75-80 for the next 3-4 weeks before the next step. For the first time in a while, my shins and knees are sore. I'm not sure if it's from the tempo downhill or from moving heavy boxes, beds, etc. Either way, I'm due for some easier days.

6 total

Legs still sore and tired. Ran for 60 minutes, the last 20 minutes quite a bit faster. The weather was great, and I found some new dirt roads to run. I felt okay at the end of the run as the rain started to fall.  Workout either tomorrow or Wed. Have to decide if I am going to race on Saturday at the Draper Trail Days or not.... 

9 total

2x1 mile:

The first one was a bit into the wind: 5:01. The second one was a clock malfunction on my part, so I don't know the time. I'd guess a little slower than the first -- maybe in the 5:05 range.

B-ball game later at night.

Steve

Lunch Run:  2.5 miles easy with Sammy -- felt great and I beat the rain.

PM: I did not beat the rain. 10 trail miles in a mud bog at Dutch Hollow Trails. My legs felt great, and the weather didn't bother me too much. At least it was almost 50 degrees, so I wasn't freezing. Just lots of mud.

12.5 total.

Steve

I realized that my back off week was going to equal my other weeks, so I'm going to take a couple days easy and then race Draper Trail Days 15 mile on Sat. for my LR.

5 easy today and will do the same tomorrow. 

Out

4 miles easy. 15 mile race / Long Run tomorrow.

Felt pretty good today.

Draper Trails Day 15 Mile Race.

My wife wanted to do a trail race, so I signed up for the 15 thinking I could get in a good workout and a long run all in one. My original plan was to run 2 hours today, so I figured I'd race the 15 miles and then add on whatever distance was necessary to reach two hours. How plans change....

The first three plus miles of the race were uphill. And I mean UP hill. The trail kept winding up a canyon, up and up and up. I didn't have a watch on and there were no mile markers, but I'd guess I was running 10:00 pace at best. Maybe even closer to 12:00 pace at times. To say the least, it was a b****.

The next 2-3 miles were down hill on a dirt road. I took the lead here and ran pretty hard downhill (yeah my legs are still feeling that). Anyway, here I probably ran closer to 5:15-5:30 pace for a couple miles. Note: This was the only easy part of the race.

After the 6 mile loop, the course was out 4.5 and then back. These 4.5 were very difficult. Tough footing, lots of hills, lots of turns. No fun. Anyway, at least I didn't have a watch. I almost got lost a few times, but made it out to the 15 mile turnaround and headed back. The last 4.5 I honestly jogged easy. My legs were hurting and I was winning by about 10 minutes. I had no idea what my time was or how long I had been running at this point -- no watch. Up and down back through the trails dodging oncoming runners and I made it back to the finish. I was guessing I'd be over 7:30 pace, so I was figuring about 1:55ish for the time. I was excited only that I would be close to 2 hours.

Then I crossed the finish line in 2:06. Almost 8:30 pace. Yikes. I can't say enough about the difficulty of the course. I didn't have a bad day. In fact, I ran some parts extremely hard. At least I got my 2 hours in.

Oh, and I'll never run that 15 mile again.

Steve

Ran for about 40 minutes easy. My knees, shins, ankles, feet, and hips are all sore.

Going to try and hit 80 miles this week. Not a great start but I have 6 days left.

Steve

AM: 3 miles before work with Sammy Dog. *This is going be a long week I think.* 

Lunch Run: 3 more miles. My legs felt pretty good actually. Going to Park City to run tonight and watch Erica play some soccer. 

PM: Bought some new shoes and just felt like running a workout. The weather was right and my legs felt like crap so I figured what the heck. I went back to the 400's, it's been a few weeks. Ran from the soccer fields to the track (2.7 miles according to the van).

Here are the splits for 8x400 with 200 jog recovery: 71,70,69,69,68,68,69,67

2.7 mile cooldown. 9 total for the workout.

I never felt "good", but the workout was solid. Going to start training with Park City HS on Thursday -- my next workout day. I will be asst coach with the HS so the training will be 5k geared on those days.  Hmmm....Sounds better than marathon training.

Out

AM: 21:00 minutes nice and easy. My legs don't feel terrible. A little foot pain and a little knee pain, but I think I'll be okay.

Lunch: 2.5 miles with Sammy. 40 mph wind gusts made things interesting.

PM: Ran a workout in the high winds with Erica1 mile warmup, 1 mile hard (with the wind most of the way), 1.5 miles easy, 1 mile hard (partly into the wind). 1.5 miles cooldown (the wind got really rough at the end.  6 total

Steve

Lunch Run:  Foot was bugging me so I didn't run before work. Plus it was cold and rainy -- double whammy I guess.  Anyway, weather was fine at lunch and Sammy and I put in 3 miles.

PM: Ran from Heber toward Midway, took a little detour down a trail along the Provo River for about a mile. Came back to the main road and decided to run up Memorial Hill. It's a nice long steady grade for about a mile or so to the top. Great views from up there, but it was quite windy as well, and even a little chilly. The way back was all downhill, and so I decided to do an informal tempo run where I ran hard for about 20 minutes or so. I timed the only mile that is marked on the way back -- 5:58. I was happy with that considering it was my 9th mile of the run. Overall a solid day. Foot is feeling OK -- still have to decide which race to run this weekend.

72:00 for the PM run -- I'll call it 10.

3 miles after work easy. CC practice tonight at Park City with the team. I believe we will be running 800's uphill.

PM: 1.5 mi warm up and cool down.  4x800 M uphill at the Park City Ski Resort. The course was very difficult with some not so good footing. The team looks solid. I am anxious and excited to get started training with them. Times really aren't relevant, but our last two were the fastest. We averaged around 2:45-2:50.

2.5 easy with Sammy

PM: 8.5 miles. Ran up Cascade Springs Rd. then back down

Will write report later. See AdamRW's blog for time, etc.

Nice and easy 4 miles with Sammy. My legs feel okay after yesterday.

PM: 42:00 rather easy with Erica. She is also running Wasatch Back so she's in the "10 days to get in shape" mode. My legs felt good. Calf is a little tight, or it's the achilles. But I think I'll be able to fight both of them off.

10 total

AM: Nice, cool morning with the sun shining. Great morning to do anything. Ran about 4 miles with Sammy. My legs felt better this morning than they did any morning last week. Must be a good sign. No lunch run today -- workout at PCHS tonight. 400s

PM: Workout at the North 40 Fields in Park City. Grass Loop, 400 M. We even checked it with the GPS to make sure it was accurate. A little downhill, but also a little soft, even some mud in one spot. Not super quick, but nice.

The first 8 were all 73 or 74, with one 72 sprinkled in there. 73,73,74,72,73,73,74

The last four were a little quicker: 73,69,69,62

Great workout for the HSers. 4 of them ran the entire thing with times very similar to mine. I felt crappy most of the time, my legs felt tired. But now I know that I'm in shape. I was never really tired, I just wasn't clicking like I would want to. I also felt that I could have done at least 4 more at 73-74. This is a good sign. I am strong right now, and ready to race this weekend.

12 Total for the dat

AM: 2 miles with Sammy. Slept in through the alarm and only had about 15 minutes to run. The weather was beautiful though. Gonna get hot later in the day.

PM: 7 miles at Silver Summit. Ran some mountain bike trails and some pretty good-sized hills. Nice training at the elevation though. It was a tad warm.

Out

AM: Woke up earlier than normal for me and got in 5 miles with Sammy. I felt great and pushed it for the last 2-3. Again, the weather in the morning is just awesome. I'm glad I have the opportunity to get out there and put some miles in.

Need to consider how much to taper for Wasatch Back. Maybe 10 today and 10 tomorrow easy will do it.

 PM: 3 miles easy.  What can I say, a little taper is nice.

Woke up early and ran 5.5 with Sammy Dog.  Another awesome morning. ran the dirt roads and then down Midway Lane.  Great run.

PM: 3.5 miles easy with Erica. Getting read for the relay.

AM: 2.5 miles with Sammy. Kinda chilly this morning. This night might be a little cool.

WBR:  3.5 miles in 18:44.  Ran about 5:20 pace, pretty happy considering it was dark outside and I was dodging some traffic. Nice course, and nice and cool.

WBR: 6.4 miles in 38:50.  Kept it right at 6:00 pace, tried to pick it up for the last two miles, but 6:00 pace was all that I had. The run felt very long for only being 6 miles, I guess I was already getting tired before this run started. 15 minute sleep just wasn't enough.

WBR: Ragnar 4 miles. It was awful and I was hurting... badly. 34:30 for 4 miles and I was pretty happy with that time. I think for much of it I was over 9:00 pace, some parts probably over 10:00 pace. But I finsihed. Yikes.

Total Mileage for Fri-Sat including warmups and cooldowns: 26

Almost took the day off, but decided to do some jogging with Sammy. I didn't feel terrible, but I need a couple easy days.

3 total

AM: 3 miles easy with Sammy

PM: 5 miles easy with Erica.

AM: 3 miles -- legs are coming back to life. I felt back to normal today. 5 miles tempo run with the CC team tonight. We'll see if I'm recovered yet.

PM: Decided to bump it down to a 4 mile tempo.  It was hot, and 4 is longer than they have previously run.

We ran the 4 miles slightly downhill on part of the rail trail. About 23:20 for 4, pretty solid. I was hoping to get them under 6:00 pace, and they ran 5:50s. Overall very solid workout. 9 total in the PM.

Steve

AM: 3 miles with Sammy. Kinda chilly this morning.

PM: Ran 4 miles up Deer Valley from the parking lot at the bottom. Saw tons of bikers out there and a few cars. I think they thought I was crazy. The altitude really does seem to affect me once I hit about 8000 feet. It was hot, and a hard uphill, but I took it relatively easy. Took me about 34 minutes going up and about 24 minutes coming down. (I'm not 100% sure on the distance, but I guestimated as their were Kilometer markings all the way up).

Went to concert in the park after and met up with some friends. The beer tastes like wine after running in the heat. Back with the HSers tomorrow for a fartlek.

Out

AM: 2.5 miles. It's going to be a hot one today, it was warm at 7:00AM.

Lunch: 2 miles Damn it's hot

PM: 4 miles with a friend who hasn't run since HS but is going to get back into running. He did pretty well considering it was almost 90. It's a start

Later:  HS practice, 1.5 mile warmup. 10x2:00 hard, and we ran pretty hard. After about 4 I was feeling it, but I held in there. We ran loops on some grass and pavement. A very solid workout.

16.5 Total

AM: 2 miles with Sammy

PM: 6 miles easy. Going long tomorrow so I decided on having a light day.

16.5 miles around PC with Adam, Chad, Clyde, Josh, Megan, Walter, and Jeff -- I think I'm forgetting someone too... Anyway, it was a very nice run, even with Clyde's idea of running up over a mountain so we could have a loop run instead of an out and back run. THe weather was great, even a little chilly in the morning, and the conversation was good until the last couple miles when we all got a little serious.

AM: 1.5 miles easy with Sammy. Only b/c she kept waking me up and wouldn't let me sleep in, so I just gave in.

PM: Waited til 8pm, ran 3 miles with Erica, she turned around, then I ran into Midway up Memorial Hill part way and then ran back. My legs feel strong, it was easy running, but knees felt a little banged up, so I only ended up going 9 in the PM. Workout tomorrow, so I will take the morning off on Monday.

10.5 total

PM:  2 mile warmup-- 6x800 with the PC team.

2:41, 2:39, 2:38, 2:34, 2:30, 2:29

We took full recovery, 800 jog between each one, but I wanted them to be fast, and wanted everyone to complete the workout. It was hot at the beginning, but cooled down throughout. I felt great, the best I have all year, could have run faster or could have run more. Going to try and race on Friday.

3 mile cooldown.

11 total