Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

Today was a rest day, as my Sundays always are. My legs are more sore than I expected after yesterday's race.

I decided to get right back at it this week. I wanted to run the Bonneville Shoreline Trail this morning, but my legs were still sore enough to make me reconsider. Instead, I ran to Liberty Park and ran 4.5 easy laps. My legs felt stiff and clunky, but my easy pace for the day turned out to be 7:45. Hopefully I'll feel well enough to his the trail tomorrow.

My legs are still sore, so I'm still taking it easy. That probably means I won't make it to the trails until the weekend, because I don't want to do anything to mess up my recovery.

I ran a new route this morning. Down 2nd Avenue past the Conference Center, than over and down to 200 West. From there I ran to Beck Street, then up around the capitol and home through Memory Grove.

PM: Easy 1.5-mile jog on the treadmill,

My legs felt good this evening, so I ran the Bonneville Shoreline Trail from Dry Creek to City Creek. Even though I kept the intensity mellow, I ran it as fast or faster than I have in the past, averaging 8:22 per mile with approximately 2,000 feet of elevation gain. To spare my legs some pounding, I stopped my run on 11th Avenue and walked back down to 2nd.

AM: Easy out and back through Memory Grove. My legs are a little stiff after yesterday's evening trail run.

I took the day off so I could be with Catherine during her surgery this afternoon. That meant I had the entire morning to do as I pleased, and it pleased me to go for a longish run on the BST. I ran up to the Dry Gulch trailhead (question--does anyone know if the official name is Dry Gulch or Dry Creek? I hear it both ways.) and then took the trail over to City Creek. From there I ran up the West Side of the canyon, down past Ensign Peak, and then down to the Church Offive Building, where I ran into Catherine and walked her home from work. Unfortunately, the run didn't go nearly as well as I had hoped.

For one thing, my stomach was bothering me. I didn't eat much, but I did eat less than an hour before I started my run. I've learned many times that doesn't work, but I keep thinking I can get away with it. But I can't, and by the time I reached City Creek I felt like I needed to throw up. 

The second problem was the trail conditions. I was good for the first nine miles or so, but by then it seemed like someone had covered the trail in chocolate pudding. It got so bad that by the top of the west side of that canyon I could barely walk, let alone run. Which would have been convenient if it wasn't so frustrating, since my stomach meant I was in no condition to run by then, anyways.

Oh well. With any luck, tomorrow's run will be better.

I ran on the treadmill today for two reasons, none of them being the weather. First, Catherine is still recovering from her surgery, and even though her sister stayed with her while I was out running, I didn't want to be too far away if anything happened. Second, after a relatively bad run yesterday morning and minimal sleep last night, I didn't want to run out of gas halfway through my run and find myself 7 or 8 miles from home with no bailout option.

I basically ran back-to-back 1-hour workouts. For the first, I ran at a steady 8 minutes per mile, throwing in two 15 minute sets on a 5 percent grade. For the second workout, I started mellow and slowly cranked up the pace before bringing it back to where I started. I'd call it a progression run, but the pace stayed mellow enough that it probably qualifies more as LSD.

Anyways, this week was pretty good. I increased my mileage for the third time in a row, and I hope to increase it again next week.