Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

Rest day today. After conference, my little sister and her husband came over for Easter dinner with Catherine and I. We ate ham and such, and then we played a few rounds of Monopoly Deal. I won the first two, continuing my long-standing winning streak, but then Kelsey won a round, then Catherine, and then Garth. Curses!

I've been feeling pretty tired and my head has felt a little cloudy for the past couple of days. After Friday's botched trail run I've been consumed with the idea that something might be wrong with me, to the point that I planned to scrap this morning's trail run in favor of some easy miles at Liberty Park. But it seems like I'm always afraid something might be wrong with me, and usually nothing is. My legs felt good when I woke up this morning, so I decided to hit the trails.

I ran the west side of City Creek. My time up what I consider the official climb from the canyon to the ridge was a little slow (but in the normal range) and I had to walk a couple of sections, probably because I ran the initial hills a little faster than normal. I thought about turning around and repeating the climb, but I decided it would be better for me not to. (Plus, Catherine started her new job today and I wanted to make sure I was home before she left.) Instead of repeating the climb, I took a short jog south on the ridge to the viewpoint above Ensign Peak before returning the way I came.

I usually take it easy on the descent, but since there would be no second climb today I decided to hammer it. I almost fell off the trail and into the woods on one of the lower switchbacks, but other than that I had a good time.

The splits on a climb and descent illustrate the effects of gravity nicely: 13:10 (11:04/mile) on the way up, 7:17 (6:09/mile) on the way down.

Average pace - 7:55/mile

Total vertical - 1,558 ft

I had an early appointment this morning, so I got up earlier than usual to run. Despite the snow that fell last night, it wasn't very cold, and the early time and the new snow made this morning's run quiet and pleasant.

Easy effort today. Two and from Liberty Park plus two laps on the pavement, with a few quick efforts thrown in throughout.

Average pace - 7:37/mile

AM: Short treadmill run at a steady 8:00 pace. Six 2-minute intervals on a 10 percent grade with 3-minute recoveries on the flat.

PM: Went to the track at East High with Catherine. Ran six 400s: 83, 81, 78, 76, 76, 78. I was shooting for 80-85 seconds, so I need to work on my pacing. I finished with a one-mile barefoot jog. I like shoes.

Catherine and I woke up early and went to the gym before work this morning. I ran a very easy five-mile recovery jog on the treadmill. I'll probably go pretty easy tomorrow, too, as we may go down to Orem for a 5K trail race on Saturday.

I've felt pretty awful this week. I don't know if I'm sick, suffering from allergies, or not recovered from the Buffalo Run. Maybe it's none of the above. Either way, I'm pretty much taking the weekend off and I'll see how I feel on Monday. 

I don't want to push anything right now, but something is better than nothing, so I went over to the middle school near our house and jogged a mile barefoot this evening. Nice and easy.

I'm still taking it very easy today. I walked (yes, walked) up to 11th Avenue, ran down Bonneville and back (at about 9:00/mile), and then walked back down the hill and home. My heart rate was mostly in the teens and twenties, and my legs felt fine, but my head hurt and my eyes were heavy, kind of like I was ready to go to sleep.

I'll be off completely tomorrow, and I hope I'm back to normal on Monday.