Slowly Getting Faster

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'