Emily's training blog

I met the East XC team at Sugarhouse Park for Boot Camp!   I've been planning this workout all summer, so I was excited to do it with them. (weird, I know.)  We ran four miles around the park and then did an hour of boot camp.

1. Flanangan Circuit (Burpees/sprint/jumping jacks/sprint/squats/sprint/ mountain climber/sprint)

2.  3 x 1 minute step ups on picnic benches

3.  3 x 15 pushups mixed with 3 x 20 situps

4. 10 hills (sprint up, jog down)

5. leg lifts 3 x 30 seconds held 6 inches off the ground

6.  Flanagan Circuit

7.  3 x wall sits (I'm not sure how long these were.)

8. 5 x stadium stairs (loops)

9. 3 x 15 tricep dips

10.  Hall Series ( lunges, toe walks, skips, butt kicks)

The kids did a two mile cool down, but I had to get home.  I plan on running again tonight, hopefully to shake out some lactic acid.  I'm going to be sore tomorrow.  Everyone worked hard, and it was a fun workout.  I need to do more of this stuff to stay strong.

I am SORE today!  I knew I would be.  Still, I felt pretty decent on my run. (Must been my lack of mileage yesterday.)  I ran an eight mile out and back.  I ran down 4800 S, to River trail to Bulion, turn around and come back.  The only bad part was the last uphill mile into the wind.  My sore muscles were singing then!.  I ran the first half in 27:33, and the total time was 54:19.  Gotta make up a couple of miles in the next couple of days before I head to Montana for my brother's wedding.  I know I'm not going to want to run much there.

I had a rough night with Lily the other night.  She was up constantly through the night.  So, I missed Wednesday's run.  We are leaving for Montana for my brother's wedding today, so I wanted to get a good run in.  I warmed up two miles.  Then, I ran 8 x 3 minutes on, 2 minutes off.  It was very windy.  I did half of them into the wind, and was very happy to hit the turn around.  Then, I extended my cool down to give me eleven miles, since I do not know what will be happening in Montana.

After eight hours in the car and another sleepless night with Lily, I just figured it was a success if I simply got out the door for a run.  It was nice and cool this morning in Montana.  It was fun to run my old high school stomping grounds.  I ran from my grandma's apartment, down Custer, up Benton to Knight Street.  On Knight Street I ran past the house I grew up in.  My mom sold it this summer.  It made me sad to know that is no longer my family home.  Then, I ran down Henderson, past CHS (go Bruins!), and back to Grandma's house.  I didn't feel to bad after yesterday's adventures.  Total time: 40:21.

Rough week.  A couple hours before Joel's rehearsal dinner, I realized from the pus-like fluid draining from her ear, that Lily has an ear infection.  We are staying at a bed and breakfast in the middle of nowhere, Montana.  So, we had to drive Lily into a tiny little town called Townsend to the emergency room.  Then, back to the bed and breakfast for  rehearsal and dinner.  It was still a late night, but Lily slept much better.  However, this weekend is taking it's toll.  I wanted a long run today, but I was so dead.  So, I ran down a trail across from the bed and breakfast to a road that ran down the lake.  After being eaten by mosquitos for about a mile I just turned around and came back for a whopping five miles. 

I've been lazy this week.  After about four days of no sleep and 16 hours in a car, and a wedding that went into the wee small hours of the morning, it has taken me a couple of days to get my focus and motivation back.  I'm a little disappointed in myself.  I can't let life derail me so much.  I still need to work on consistency in training.

Today I ran up to Valley Park and ran a fartlek ladder of 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 minutes with a 1-1-2-2-3-2-2-1-1 minutes recovery.  I usually run this workout with one to one recovery, so this is the first time I've reduced the times.  I felt pretty good, so maybe I wasn't running so fast on the quick parts.  I probably need to do some measured intervals as a check point.  I've just been focusing on longer runs and more strength oriented workouts in preparation for longer races.  Plus, I'm trying to not get injured.  I ran a two mile cool down for ten miles total.

My brother who just got married is coming with his new wife today to spend the weekend.  I'm excited, but more family commitments are going to make training tough. 

After a day of cross country practice and touring downtown with Joel and Jessica, I headed to the health club for an evening run.  I did my favorite progression run.  I started at 8.5 mph.  For the first 20 minutes I upped the pace .1 every 5 minutes.  For the next twenty minutes I increased pace every four minutes.   The last part of the run I increased every three minutes, and the last mile, every quarter mile.  That put me at 10.0 mph at the end of the run, and 53:05 for eight miles.  I wanted to do something quicker paced so I don't get sluggish for Saturday's race.  I'm weird.  I like the treadmill.

Way more sore after yesterday than I thought I would be.  I'm very tight in the hips.  I ran an un-timed easy four mile route.  I'm hoping to feel better for tomorrow's race.  I should be pretty tapered after these last couple of weeks of limited training.  I ran my SLCC route.  Joel and Jessica want to go to Lagoon, but I think I will opt out to prepare for tomorrow.

I really wanted to use this race to measure my progress.  My goal was under 18:00 and top three.  Two things I didn't count on . . . the course had two nasty hills, making it a little slower course than usual, and that the course would be cut short.  I warmed up three miles around the stadium.  Then did what felt like a million strides while a really long flag ceremony took place.  The race started with a big cannon boom, which scared everyone.  I took off hard.  The race climbs less than a mile into the course, but there is a downhill on State Street after that.  I tried to push this part hard, because I am a strong downhill runner.  My first mile was 5:38, which was a bit off my goal pace of 5:45.  I was hoping to be 11:30 through mile two, which was flat.  At this point, Amber Andrews and Stefanie Talley had pulled away from me.  I was running with Sariah Long through this mile.  Imagine my surprise when I looked at my watch at mile two and saw that it was just rounding out to 10:00.  I knew we were off, but I hoped that it would even out at the end.  The last mile was tough with a slight uphill followed by a very large uphill to the stadium.  I just tried to stay tough here and work up the hill.  Sariah pulled ahead, but seemed to stay about the same distance ahead of me, which makes me wish I had been tougher and stayed with her.  10 seconds out of the money is not fun!!!

I knew the time was wrong when I ran under 17:00.  But, I know that I have progressed well over the last four weeks.  I need to increase mileage, add in some speedwork, and get consistent.  Progress is not coming fast enough for me . . . but it is coming!

Today was a crazy day with the kids! I was so glad to get out the door tonight to be by myself and pound my stresses away.  My running was derailed last week by a nasty flu bug that hit our house.  I did run, but missed blogging. 

Tonight was perfect weather.  I could feel just a touch of fall in the air.  I wasn't able to run this morning, so I went when Teren got home from work.  I warmed up 10 minutes and then ran 10 sets of 3 minutes hard, two minutes easy.  It was an out and back route down 4800 S to the river trail, out to Bulion, and back. I hit the 5 mile mark in just under 33 minutes.  I ran 35:00 out, and 34:57 back, so I stayed pretty consistent.  It was beginning to get dark after I hit the turn around.  That always makes me a little nervous, so maybe that was a motivator to run a little faster.  It was nice to run and forget the fact that my supposedly potty-trained three-year-old pooped his pants twice in the middle of Wal-mart. Ah, motherhood! 

I went running when Teren finished his run.  It was a cool 50 degrees this morning.  It felt so good!  This is definitely my favorite time of year.  Of course, between 7 and 8 in the morning there is a lot of traffic since everyone is going to school or work.  I never realized how many schools were on my running routes.    I ran down to 1300W, over to 7000S (construction is done, thank goodness.)  up to 2700W, back to 5400 S and home.  Total time: 50:47.

I had intentions of doing a morning run to pad my weekly mileage, and then a workout in the evening.  It did not work out the way I planned.  So, I just ended up with a short morning run.  I ran my usual SLCC loop.  It's definitely apparent that school has started.  There were lots of cars around the community college. 

I ran the track workout that I meant to do last night.  400's are pretty short,but I'm trying to do some turnover work to improve my speed in preparation for a fairly big 5k women's race in September.  I warmed up 3 miles through the neighborhood and ended up at Taylorsville track.  I did 4 200's as part of my warm-up.  My workout was 12 400s with 90 seconds recovery around 80 seconds.  All of them were between 1:18 and 1:20.  The last 4 I cut my rest to 1 minute. 

I actually thought this workout would be a little easier than it was.  I guess I need to train my speed back a little.   My long term goal is a marathon, so I guess running 5:20 pace isn't that important.  I think I'm just remembering the college days, when sub-5:20 pace was easy.  I guess it's time to face the fact that I'm not 21 anymore.

I wanted a longer cool down, but I needed to get home so Teren could leave for work.  Cooldown was a mile and a half.

I took Cole down to the river trail to run.  I haven't pushed him in the jogging stroller since before Lily was born.  It was a good day to do it since I have a race tomorrow and I wanted to make sure I went easy today.   We just ran 3 miles out and turned around and came back.  I really enjoyed the time with my little boy.  He's old enough that he actually talked to me durning the run.  I'm glad that we had the time to spend together.  It reminded me to enjoy running, and not get so focused that all I am doing is preparing for races.  We had fun and blasted lots of stormtroopers along the way.

I drove up to Lewiston with the family to spend the night at Teren's sister's husband's parents house the night before the race.  It was nice to be close to Logan when the race was at 7 in the morning.  However, the kids didn't really like the change of environment,and took turns waking up every hour through the night.  I only slept 2 hours consistently, and maybe two more hours very sporadically. 

So, after a rough night, we woke up at 4 to eat and head out to the finish line to get on a bus up the canyon.  Teren and I watched an amazing lightning storm, but luckily, the storm stayed away from the race.

I warmed up two miles in the canyon, and spent a few minutes on the start line catching up with Michelle L.  I knew she would be a tough competitor since she is marathon training.  Stephanie Talley and Mary Anne Schauerhamer were also at the start, so I knew the race would be competitive.  I was nervous to run after a terrible night's sleep and a 50 mpw training schedule.

My plan was to work hard down the canyon, since I know I can run downhills strong,and then hope I didn't blow up.  We had a nice pack of women through the first few miles, and I was very nervous when at the first mile I already felt like I was working hard.  The "downhill" course was more rolly than straight down.  After 3-4 miles Stephanie, Michelle, and I broke off and took turns surging through the canyon.  (I'm sure Michelle has a more detailed race report.) 

Every time I thought I was going to get gapped, I seemed to pull back into the race, and I maintained decent contact with Stephanie until 6 miles, and Michelle until 8-9.  At 8 miles I decided to try a gu, since I will have to use them in a marathon.  Not a good idea!   My already sensitive stomach rebelled, and I really struggled the last few miles of the race.  Miles 10-12 were pretty much a death march.  I was well off of Stephanie.  Michelle was in reach if I really pushed, but all I could think of was finishing and finding a bathroom.  I worked the last 1.1, which thankfully was downhill, to finish 1:19:30 to Michelle's 1:19:02, and Stephanie's 1:17:58.  I was pretty pleased, since I just had the tentative goal of breaking 1:20.  I felt like this was my best race to date, and I am definitely encouraged.

A couple of things I learned from this race: 

1.  Sometimes you have miles where you feel good, and others where you feel terrible.  I imagine this happens even more in a marathon.

2.  Keeping contact with competitors helps you run faster! (duh!)

3.  You can' t always control conditions before a race, so it's important to concentrate on the things you can control.

4.  I need to practice with gu and fluids before I try that in a race again.

I didn't cool down since I spent a long time after the race in the bathroom.  My problems have continued through the day.  At least I know I ran hard!

I woke up to a major thunderstorm this morning, so no running.  This evening I have a cross country team barbecue, so I decided to cross train.  Since I am recovering from the half marathon still, this was actually a good idea.  My left quad seemed pretty sore.  I rode my spinning bike for an hour and a half at a steady state, increasing the resistance every fifteen minutes.  I watched Meet the Fockers on the tivo while I rode.  Thankfully, the kids napped the entire time so I could get the workout in. 

P.M.  I ran the "fun run" at the team barbecue.  It was about a 3k.  I pushed Lily in the stroller.  Since she crossed the line before me, she was the winner.  8 months old and already won her first race!

I only had time for six miles until I had to get myself and the kids ready to go to Cole's pre-school parent orientation.  I ran 4800S to River trail and off at Millrace Park.  It was a beautiful morning, and I was surprised that my legs actually felt pretty good.  I have no soreness, just a little tiredness left.  So, I will run fartlek tomorrow to see how they feel when I go faster.  I'm glad that I cross trained yesterday to give my legs a little recovery.