A Lean and Hungry Look

Day #1 of SG training plan.  Easy run with Maja out to Sugarhouse and around inner loop and home.  I could feel the difference from adding a few carbs between Saturday's death march and today's easy jaunt.  Amazing how much better it feels when you're not trying to run an unleaded vehicle on diesel fuel.

I started tracking my calories today as a means of controlling them (per Fitzgerald's recommendation and after having experienced the benefits of it the last time I trained for SG--, basically, the simple process of tracking your weight helps you lose more).  I'm trying the Livestrong app on my iPad.  So far it seems a little more convenient than the online system I used last time.  Of course, I've only tracked one meal and one mid-morning snack so far.

3 x mile repeats at Sugarhouse Park.  Here's the summary:

Warmup: 1.86 (outer loop) in 16:30 (8:54 pace)

Mile 1: 5:51 (155 bpm)

5 min active recovery

Mile 2: 5:41 (178 bpm)

5 min active recovery

Mile 3: 5:44 (181 bpm)

Cooldown: 1.34 in 11:34 (around 8:30 pace)

I never looked at my Garmin to get an idea of pace; instead, I just went by feel.  The mile course included two downhills and one uphill on all three repeats.  By the final one, I had cracked by the time I reached the top of the hill (on the southwest side of the park) and lost a lot of speed for the next 200 meters or so.

While my splits were not outstanding, they were a lot faster than I expected, since this is my first speed work in well over a year.  The legs seemed to hold up pretty well, even though they were pretty leaden by the final 400 meters of each repeat.

 Note to self: don't try to store the key to the car in the rear pocket in the gray Sugoi shorts--there is a hole (confirmed by two attempts during this morning's workout--fortunately I was able to find the key both times and learn from my mistake--eventually).

Easy loop through U campus, across the bridge to Fort Douglas, through Research Park and home.  Calves were a little tight after yesterday's repeats, but otherwise everything feels good so far.

There was a major thunderstorm last night around 3:30 a.m., complete with hail, wind, lightning, etc.  It woke me up and I didn't get to sleep until just before my alarm sounded at 5:30, so I turned it off and decided to try to sneak in my run later in the day.  Fortunately, it worked out and I was able to run home from my office downtown.  I took the scenic route up toward Memory Grove, then ran up the steps to A Street, up A Street to 7th Ave, then to B Street, then up to 9th Ave, over to K Street, up to 11th Ave, stopped at 11th Ave Park to see if Kaela was there for tryouts (hers didn't start til later), then past Popperton, down to Federal Heights Drive, then to North Campus Drive, then along Wasatch, through Fort Douglas, Research Park and home.  Whew.  Weather was gorgeous and the run was glorious.

With four soccer games and a piano recital on the docket, I had to squeeze in a shorter-than-planned run early.  I took Maja with me for the first 8, which I did around my Sugarhouse to Highland Park loop, then dropped her off at home and ran downtown to my office, where I showered quickly and picked up my car (which I left last night) to drive to game #1.  I was a little anxious about doing a long run the morning after doing a mostly uphill run in the evening (my Achilles sometimes freaks out when I do that sort of thing), but I had no problems and felt good all day.