Slowly Getting Faster

This was a relay race that I did with some friends and family as part of the runners series for the St. George Marathon. This was the last run I needed for the Runners Series so baring any injury I will be running St. Gorge this fall. I'm going to try and qualify for Boston but I'm not sure that is realistic at this point.

So the race. This was an awesome event!! I had a ton of fun and got to push myself, see lots of St. George, and have great time with my team. We all managed to PR our distances on this course, which is a result of training in Salt Lake and running 2,000 feet lower in St. George I think.

My first run was just over 5 miles and was on the whole an elevation drop, but it had some decent hills.  It was a very beautiful area to run.  It was essentially from the mouth of the canyon leading to Gunlock, through another little canyon area and out to Ivins. I managed 7:26 per mile which is faster than I have ever run 5 miles before. I felt good the whole way through and wonder what I will be able to do next year, if I get the opportunity again, with more consistent training.  More importantly, I'm optimistic about what I will be able to accomplish with the marathon since it will be a constant decrease in elevation the whole way. 

My second run was 4.25 miles but it had some pretty serious hills to run.  This was a back road that meanders from St. George to Sandhollow reservoir over by Hurrican Utah. Oddly enough, the section with the steepest hills (a 10% grade on average) was the nice part of this run.  I felt like I flew right up the hill with little difficulty and my splits reflect that.  I managed the mile with that hill in 7:55.  the hardest part of this run was a dirt road that had just enough golf ball sized rocks to make the run extremely difficult.  Every step amounted to about half a step because I couldn't get my foot down to solid ground and get a grip before I pushed off. Going into this run I thought that I would be successful if I managed to keep my time below 9 minute miles.  I'm happy to report that I was able to finish the whole thing in 34:34, an average pace of 8:07 per mile. I was very happy. 

I think that a lot of my success down there can be attributed to the stationary bike in my garage, for keeping my cardio solid while my leg healed, and running Flag Rock multiple times a week for the last few weeks, which has really made my legs strong. There are pictures, which I will post later but are not uploaded at the moment.  

This was my shake-out run.  My legs didn't hurt after yesterday and they didn't feel tired when I woke up.  Plus, there is a trail out the back side of the condos we stayed at that is really cool so I wanted to hit it before I had to drive back to the cold.  It was slow, as it should be after my 9 miles at a fast pace from the day before, and it was every bit as much fun as I thought it would be.  The trail actually starts as a crappy dirt road, but after about 1.5 miles it turns into a single track trail and winds though some pretty big boulders along the ridge of a bluff. If you find yourself in St. George this is a good one to hit. 

AP: 11:40; Vert: 703' 

This run is interesting. It is exactly the same distance as yesterday's run, even down to the 100th of a mile, and roughly the same amount of elevation gain. However, I was able to complete this run today 17 minutes faster than yesterday. I did go with someone, who I thought was pushing the pace a bit, and the run today was on a paved surface as opposed to the rocky road from yesterday, but I don't think even had those 2 things been the same that I could have pushed myself yesterday to go this fast. 

I don't think its that interesting in terms of understanding anything except how my body recovers. Apparently, after a day of rest and very slow jogging I am pretty good to go again.  That's good to know. We'll see what tomorrow will bring

AP: 8:14, Vert: 768' 

I took a different route up the mountain today and ended up feeling a lot more drained. It was shorter but the elevation gain seemed a lot more drastic, though I'm not sure that's true. I did see a guy coming down just as I started going up who told me he had just attempted to get up to the rock from the north side.  He said he quit after about a half mile of post-holing up to his knees. I thought it might be a little more dry than that but I guess not. I can't wait until it is so I can make that into a loop.

I also went up from the fire break road at a different place.  It's a switchback trail that I have seen several times but have never taken.  It is a lot less rocky than my normal route but the switchbacks are pretty steep, or at least that is how they seemed to me. I made it to the rock in just over 40 minutes and immediately turned around and came back down. I made the whole trip in 1:07:49.  Not really a good pace but respectable I guess considering I haven't taken a day off since the race. 

AP: 12:47; Vert: 1,529'

I skipped work this morning so I could get a run in with Trickydick (my brother) while he is in town. This is quite the elevation change for him but despite that he did pretty good on this steep course. It always amazes me that this run ends up being somewhere between 1,700 and 2,000 feet of gain in something like 3.5-4 miles. 

I was able to run up more of the trail than I have been able to run in the past and I even got my Average Pace down a bit more than it was on my last run.  I think the day off yesterday helped. The only problem is that now I have to go to work and try not to think about how nice and sunny it is outside for the rest of the day.

AP: 12:36; Vert,  1,878'

Went back up to the rock tonight with MattVH.  The second time was much harder than the first.  Instead of felling rested and being able to run the entire trail I was beat and ended up walking a good portion of it. Still, my over all time was only 30 seconds a mile slower the second time than the first. And, after we got off the trail and steep roads I felt so good I pushed the pace a bit and got down around 7 minute miles for the last 1/2 mile or so.  

 AP: 13:02; Vert: 1,730' 

I keep posting on the wrong day.  I didn't have time to do anything today because my brother got married and that took all day.  It was probably a good thing though because my legs were a bit sore from Thursdays flag rock runs. 

This was a harder run than I expected it to be.  It was flatish, especially compared to what I have been running but my legs were worn out from Thursday's Flag Rock efforts. I was hoping to hit 40 miles this week, but after that outing I'm glad I turned back when I did. 

Oh, and P.S., road running is not nearly as much fun as the trial.  

AP: 8:43; Vert 359 

First I want to say that I did this run at the last minute.  I had planned on doing a run on the road up city creek but the weather was so nice I decided to hit a trail. Because I planned on running the road I only had road shoes, which made me sort of nervous.  I tried to run a trial in my Altra Instincts a while back and didn't really like the experience very much.  Apparently, that was due to my inexperience both with running in general and running trails in particular.  In the last month or so I have logged a lot more trail miles and today the instincts were great, even on the dirt and mud.  The only real difference I noticed is that there is slightly less protection underfoot and the traction on the snow isn't nearly as good as it is with the Lone Peaks.

I started at the trail head on 18th ave and Hilltop rd. with the goal of reaching what I assume are the twin peaks up sort of behind the U.  I have never taken this trail before and I knew that at most intersections I had to go up, if there was a directional choice.  Turns out I didn't need to do this the whole way but now I will know for next time. The up portion of the run had some mud, snow and ice on it still, not to mention the occasional small stream comming out of the snow, which I had to get around.  It was pretty fun and technical. I made it to the top of the first twin then the second, then I dropped off the top of the second comando style and hit the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and followed that back to the car.  Without the snow, ice and mud, and without the steep hills to climb, I was able to move pretty quickly even for a trail.  I managed at a couple of places to get my pace below a 7 minute mile, and sustained a 7 minute mile pace in a couple of places. 

This was supposed to be an easy run so I only went that fast when it felt good to run that fast but the rest of the time I moved at a comfortable pace.  I'm sure I could get my average pace down in the future.

AP: 12:20, Vert: 1,483' 

This was a tough run.  I did Flag Rock again but I should have probably waited another day.  I think that the trail run yesterday, my lack of nutrition this morning, the wind at my face, and my lack of sleep last night made my legs feel like lead weights.  I managed to run up the part of the trail that starts to get steep just off the fire break road then it was slow going to the top.  

At the outset I had decided that I was going to see what the trial off the north side was like.  It was still snowy and mostly just a pain in the butt. I will have to wait another month to try it again I think. That said, I finally know what that trail looks like and where it goes.  In the places that I could actually see the trail it looked really nice, although those places were few and far between. This route was initially dubbed, by the city of Farmington, as a 10k, but as it turns out it is 7.25 miles with 1,900 feet of elevation gain.  The rock isn't even the highest point. It took me a long time to navigate the back side of the mountain due to snow, my 4th mile clocked in at just over a 35 minute pace, but once I got back on dry ground it was a nice trail to the bottom. Over all, not as much fun as yesterday. 

What I learned: I need to eat before I go, even if it is just a peanut butter sandwich and I need to space out my trail runs by a day or so in order to keep my legs fresh.  That said, I'm glad I know where that trial is and what it looks like.  Now I can prepare for July. For those interested here is the course: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/157625902

I did two runs today, although the second one was a slow jog for about half of it. The first run was a lunch-time run on the BST starting at hilltop and 18th ave again.  This time I just stuck to the BST instead of trying to summit any peaks.  My original plan was to go all the way to the U, but that was cut short in favor of finding a bathroom and keeping my pants relatively clean.  For some reason I've had stomach problems all day today. I tried to keep the pace easy as I wanted this to be a sort of recovery jog and at the end I felt really good, which is why I did the second run today. 

 First run: 6.19 miles: AP: 10:33; Vert: 1,174'

The second run was with MattVH up Centerville peak.  This is a steep hill and despite starting off feeling good I got my trash kicked by VH all the way up and down this mountain. I did manage to run (or rather slowly jog) almost the entire trail (when it wasn't snow covered) which made me pretty happy.  The trip back down was a brutal quad pounding, much more serious than Flag Rock, that has left my legs feeling a bit jelly-rific. For those interested here is the link to the trail: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/158031264

Second Run: 4.92 miles (if my garmin is to be believed) AP: 14:23; Vert: 1,844 

Flag Rock run with VH. He is still killing me on those up hills. I'm hoping its because of my weekly milage and not just because I'm a wuse. 

AP: 12:32; Vert: 1,700' 

I resisted the urge to run to the track and do speed work today.  I haven't done any in a long time but I'm trying to build my base and don't want to stress the legs or feet out too much until I can comfortably run 50 or more miles a week.  I'm not there yet. 

This was the longest run I have done in several months.  I have run more miles in a single day more than once in the past couple of weeks, but I haven't run this many miles all at once in a long time. It was fairly taxing.  The wind didn't help either. It was in my face for the whole 5.25 miles out, which I think made me slower than I would have been.  I also noticed the extra push going up some of those hills on the way back, which was nice.

My original plan was to take the BST over to Centerville peak trailhead and then, if I felt up to it, run up to the top and back. That would have made the trip just over 15 miles. In retrospect I'm glad I didn't do the peak. My feet were a little sore by the time I got over there and I didn't want to push it an end up hurt.  Since the plan was to get at least 10 miles in I just turned around and came back.  One day I will run over there and conquer the mountain but not today.

The "trail" over there is pretty much a road and there were plenty of jerky motorcross bikers out kicking up dust, which pisses me off.  I flipped a couple of them off but they didn't seem to notice or care. I probably shouldn't pick fights when I'm already tired but is it really to much to ask for some common courtesy? 

AP: 10:40; Vert: 1,649' 

I did my City Creek loop today.  It's the first time I have done this route in several weeks and I was quite happy with the results.  I started off really tired but figured I could just gut out 5ish miles. Turns out my legs weren't as tired as the rest of me. I managed to finish the course in 39:03, average pace 7:55.  That's not that fast, I know, but the last time I did this I was only able to finish in 8:28 per mile. It seems the steep hill running I've been doing has paid some dividends. 

Early morning run with MattVH.  A shakeout run for him but a good effort for me.  The fastest I have ever done 5 miles prior to today is 7:52 per mile.  Today I managed to do it in 7:39 per mile. Undoubtedly this was because I had someone there keeping the pace honest rather than letting me just sleep run through the morning.  If I'm going to get my pace this fast or faster for St.George though I'm going to need to get some track work in when my base building is up to snuff in may. 

It was a long day so I didn't get out for my run until late.  I feel a bit like I'm cheating on my runs with this piddly 500' elevation gain. I need to get some steeper runs in soon. The plan this week was to cut back my miles a bit to rest.  I read that while building my mile base, I should follow a higher milage week with a little bit of a decrease in miles the next week in order to avoid injury. Last week I did 42 miles so I'm shooting for ~35 miles this week.  While I intended to cut back my miles, I didn't plan to cut back my elevation gain but that is how it has worked out so far.  

This was just an easy loop around Farmington with some faster hill splits worked in. They weren't exactly hill sprints and I did them 20 seconds hot, 20 seconds cold.  I did 20 second splits up 400 north (the cemetery road) and another 3 up State Street. They were tough, but I want to be able to move faster up those steep hills and this is the best way I know to get the speed faster.

AP: 8:54; Vert: 575'  

I forgot my watch for this one so I'm guessing at a few things, like elevation gain.  I mapped the run and it looks like it is just over 11 miles out and back.  My elevation gain on a previous run - which went about half way, to the high point, and back - was 1,100'.  Since I climbed to the high point, went down the other side and came back up to the high point again I'm assuming that my elevation gain is roughly 2,200 feet. I tried to keep track with my Nike app on my iPhone but it sucks a lot and didn't bother to actually keep track of anything. 

The route for this was the BST from Mom's Reservoir (City Creek) over to the U and back. I've wanted to do this for a long time and since the weather was good and I just submitted my bar application I figured what the heck. I was gone longer than I should have been but no one seems to care.

The trail was much better than it has been despite the snow a few days ago.  There were no muddy spots, although it was pretty rutted out by the mountain bikers tires which made it hard to run on in places.  My feet and legs aren't used to that kind of distance either, they both hurt a little now.  Not really joint pain, but sore nonetheless.

I'm guessing at my pace as well, but based on when I left and when I got back it looks like I did close to 11 minute miles. Not fast but I got the miles in I guess, and the pace felt good even on the steeper parts. 

This is the flag rock loop with an extra loop up to the rock added in.  I started by following the regular course and went down the north side.  Due to the warm temperatures it is almost completely dry and the trail is pretty fun on that side. Once I hit the fire break road, I circled back to the south trial and took it up to the top again. I went back down the north side, down the BST to Farmington Pond and then back to state street. I felt pretty fresh today, after not running yesterday, so I think that helped make this double loop happen.  I didn't think I had it in me to run back up the cemetery hill again, which is why I just looped from the fire break.  One of these days I will be able to do that in a more respectable time.  

AP: 13:37; Vert: 3,196' 

I took the BST from a bit south of Red Butte Gardens over to the pass behind the hill with U on it. I had never taken this trail and it was pretty fun. I begins by cutting up behind the new history museum and then goes a ways up the canyon before crossing over and coming back out.  Once you get back around to the front of the canyon, behind the Huntsman institute, the trail continues for a while then cuts up another canyon and around the hill that the big white U is on. It climbs up that canyon to a pass.  You can continue on from there over to City Creek or up to the twins, but today I turned around and headed back.  The pass was 5.2 miles and I planned on doing no more than 10. 

 There is a lot of climbing and descending in Red Butte and I didn't have a lot of time left so I cut down around the new amphitheater, along the marked BST, back in front of the natural history museum and back to my car.  I enjoyed running a trail that I haven't run before. My legs felt fine the whole time and it seems like my speed has improved, even over the 10 miles I did during the middle of last week.  I am a little concerned that my feet hurt.  It's not the muscles or tendons but the skin on the bottom of my feet, under my big toe knuckle (does that make sense?) that seems to get rubbed raw on these longer runs.  By the time I made it back to my car it didn't hurt that much, but while I was trying to make my way down the canyon it hurt more than I would have liked.  Not enough to make me stop, but enough to let me know it was there. My hope is that if I continue to run longer miles it will toughen up and go away.  

I am supposed to be getting miles in for the purpose of building my base so I can start marathon training.  The problem I'm having, if it is in fact a problem, is that I can't seem to motivate myself to run on the road.  I can move faster on the road, and I will at some point need some specific training on the road for long miles, but I feel like maybe I should be doing some of that now.  But the road is so boring and the trails are so much fun that I'm having a hard time hitting the black top.  Anyone have any info on this? Should I force more miles on the concrete?

AP: 10:21; Vert: 1,798' 

I didn't have to be in salt lake until later today so I decided to run Centerville Peak again. This is the hardest trail I've run.  It's roughly 1,700 feet of climbing in 2.3 miles with no downhill mixed in and no flat spots. Once you hit the top it's pretty smooth, and the trail is not as grueling.  I decided that I would follow the trial up the ridge for a while and just see how nice the trail is and if I could run until I hit snow.  The trail is nice and I'm sure I could have gone that far but I ran out of time. Soon I will go all the way to Skyline Drive. 

AP: 12:17; Vert: 2,076 

I wanted to run from the capital, up the BST and over to the twins.  I ended up about a mile and a half short of the twins because I ran out of time. I was able to run the entire trail though.  My slowest mile was 13:59, which is substantially better than my slowest mile was yesterday and better than my slowest mile going up flag rock. It's not quite as steep but it isn't exactly flat either. I was tired today as well, which left me wondering how much of this would be a walk.  I'm very pleased with the results. I'll have to do it again when I have enough time to get all the way there. 

AP: 10:35 

Shirt less running today.  Not sure I'm in good enough shape to pull of the Anton Krupicka look just yet, but it was hot so I went for it.  It felt pretty good and I look forward to doing it again many more times over the course of the summer.

 I took the BST west from City Creek today over to North Salt Lake.  It was pretty fun and I was able to run the whole way, no hill walking at all. Some of the hills still felt steep, but a lot of the hills that used to be steep are not bad at all any more. I intended to just do 7 or 8 but when I hit the radio station, or whatever it is, I decided I should just drop down to NSL since I was already right there.  Hopefully it won't be too detrimental for my running plans tomorrow. I'm going to try and get in some good vert. 

AP: 10:24, Vert: 2,261'

This run wasn't as long or as vertically challenging as I wanted it to be. Time constraints caused me to cut it a bit short. Next time I need to leave the house earlier so I can make the whole course. 

The plan was to run up the south trail to Flag Rock, take the north trail down, follow the BST over to farmington canyon, cut through the canyon and climb back up to the upper BST that Dorsimus runs, take that accross to Baer canyon and the do the whole thing in reverse coming back.  If I had the time to follow that route it would have given me something like 4,000' of gain today.  As it is, my legs are sore so it's probably good I ran out of time.  

I followed the out course all the way over to where the BST drops into the upper neighborhoods in North Farmington or Fruit Heights (not sure what city it is at that point).  I realized that I wasn't going to make it to Baer since I was running out of time so I turned around and came back.  I didn't have enough time to climb back up to flag rock so I just took the paved road back home.

I felt pretty sluggish today, probably from yesterday's run.  I enjoyed the run but I just couldn't move very fast, or so it seemed.  I'm not sure what fast is on this course yet so who knows I guess.  I have decided a couple of things over the past week though.  The first thing is that I'm going to start counting the number of times I reach flag rock, alla Anton Krupicka and Green Mountain. According to a story I read yesterday, between January 2010 and Western States that same year he summited Green Mountain, roughly 3,000' of gain, 176 times.  While Flag Rock isn't nearly that steep it is about the same number of miles.  Maybe if I can make my goal to reach a ridiculous number of runs up the Rock before the run in July I too will be able to run fast on race day.  It seems that if you want to be able to run fast in these ultra type events, which I'm not quite ready for yet, you need to spend a good deal of your time running up really steep trails. Which brings me to the second thing I decided.  

Before the summer is out, I want to run 10,000' of vert in a single run. This is going to take some training to get ready for, as I ran a mere 4,900 in the past 2 days and feel exhausted at this point. Nevertheless, if I can reach that goal I will be on track for getting myself in the kind of shape I want to be in; competitive shape. I believe, based on some calculations I worked out, that I can achieve this right here.  I can get roughly that much elevation gain if I start at Chevron, run up the north side of Flag Rock, run across to Centerville Peak, take that trail to Skyline Drive, and follow the whole thing back in reverse including running back up flag rock. That will be about 25 miles, but it will also be 10,000' of gain.  

AP: 12:57; Flag Rock Ascent: #1; Vert, 2,722'