Slowly Getting Faster

I did 9 up city creek today.  The workout called for 9 with the last 20 minutes being moderate.  I have found it is hard to get into the grove on the down hill for a couple of miles, especially after making the transition from going up hill. Today I felt tired until the last couple of miles.  My uphill was not as fast as it normally is, and my downhill started out slow as well.  By the last couple of miles though I had found my grove and I was cruising.  

The last 4.5 miles of this run were all down hill, and the last 2 are pretty gradual elevation drop.  Not quite level, but not steep either.  In the past two weeks I have run those 2 miles at least 5 times, and the fastest I have ever managed to cover those miles is 7:30 per.  Today I covered the last mile in 6:50! I was pretty excited because not only is that fast for me, but it felt completely natural.  I could have gone another mile at that pace I think.  Tomorrow I may try to do my workout on a flat course just to see how fast I can go there.  I've been doing a lot of uphill work, and a lot of downhill work to go along with it, and I think I may have improved my time.

One last thought I had tonight.  A lot of people tell me that they don't like to run because it is boring.  At one time in my life I had that same opinion.  But I think that maybe running is boring when its a chore.  When I push myself and run faster than I thought I could or when I am able to run up mountains that I couldn't have run up before running is a blast.  So maybe if running is boring your just not pushing hard enough. 

I think I over did it yesterday because I feel really tired today.  My legs were a little sore starting out today as well, though it went away after a half mile or so. The 9 miles I did yesterday is the farthest I have run since the 5th and I'm not sure I was ready for that at the beginning of the week. I need to adjust the recommended workout so that those runs are at the end with a day of rest between them and the softer runs throughout the week.  Maybe.  I'll see how the rest of the week plays out I guess. 

I was supposed to do a 7 mile fartlek run today but I was really tired and my legs feel exhausted.  Instead I did 6 miles at an easy pace.  I'm happy to report that even completely exhausted my easy pace is 8:33 per mile. That is definitely an improvement over even just a month ago. I am also pretty please with how I felt about the course today.  I ran this same route last summer - down jordan river parkway from 400 South to 2100 South - and I remembered it being much farther than it was today.  It seemed to go by pretty quick and painlessly.  It would be interesting to see how fast I ran that course last summer. 

 I have been running uphill every day for at least a week and I think that it improved my run but at the cost of the longevity of my legs.  I need to work up to that I guess.  Next week I'll pepper in more flat runs with my canyon running. 

I didn't have a lot of time today so I couldn't go for the long run that I wanted.  Instead, I decided I should do a short, fast run. I managed to do 5 on a semi hilly course in 7:52 per mile.  I was pretty happy about it. 

Today I wanted to make up some of the miles I missed earlier in the week.  Since there is no work and no school today it seemed like the perfect time.  I did 10 in 8:39 per mile, which is the fastest I've run 10 miles since 2006. It was also encouraging that this pace was not strained at all. It was a nice mellow run.  My legs were a bit stiff and soar to start, but it went away and by the end I felt great. 

I was supposed to do 7 miles today and 3 hill sprints.  Instead, I did 5 miles and no hill sprints.  I think that the 10 I did yesterday must have taken it out of me.  My calf muscles started sore and never got better.  In fact, they got more painful as I went. I spent a good 20 minutes stretching before I went out but my hip (I.T.?) also started to get tight around mile 3.  I decided it would be best to cut the run short and take it easy instead of pushing through and ending up injured.

On the up side, I managed to break 40 miles this week. That's the first time I've done that in a while.