A Lean and Hungry Look

Happy July 25th.  After being gone 3 days last week and planning to be gone on Friday of this week, I had to work today.  After getting up at 7 to put up flags around the neighborhood, I headed in to the office.  To make it feel less like I was working on a holiday, I took off at lunch and ran up City Creek.  I passed 5 cyclists and 3 runners (it can't feel good to get passed on a bike by someone on foot, even if it is uphill).  Fortunately, it was overcast and not too oppressively hot.

Had to get in to the office early (two closings next week to prepare for), so I had to skip my run.  Work is overrated.

After missing my past several speed sessions for one reason or another, I was pretty anxious about this one, and I woke up at 4:30 (my alarm was set for 5:00) and never really settled down.  The plan was 8x1-mile repeats with 5 min active recovery between each. I decided to do them in Emigration again, alternating between uphill and downhill intervals.  After the customary warmup of a little under 2 miles, I started the pain and suffering in the dark.  Splits were as follows:

1: UP 6:31 (AHR 170/MHR 178)

2: DOWN 5:22 (167/176)

3: UP 6:33 (176/180)

4: DOWN 5:26 (172/176)

5: UP 6:32 (175/178)

6: DOWN 5:26 (169/175)

7: UP 6:35 (173/179) (passed two cyclists)

8: DOWN 5:12 (171/176)

Cooled down back to the house.  I felt pretty worn out by the end and probably should have come prepared with some fuel and hydration.  Nevertheless, I was pretty pleased when I uploaded the data from my Garmin and saw how consistent the splits were.  My climbing speed continues to leave something to be desired, but it stayed consistent throughout the workout, so I'm happy about that.  I probably could have pushed the pace a little more on the downhill segments, but I didn't want to blow up.

I think I've recommitted to this a few times before on the blog, but with just over two months to go before SG, I'm going to try to limit my sugar intake and focus on eating more healthy foods and cutting out junk wherever possible.  Even if I don't lose any more weight, I want to hit the starting line knowing that I've fueled properly and shown some discipline for a sufficient amount of time to feel confident that I've respected the distance and given myself the best opportunity possible to run a solid race.

Easy effort with Maja around Highland Park loop.  It felt short after yesterday's interval session.

Because I'm headed out of town for a quick overnighter after lunch, I decided to do my long run this morning.  The plan was to do 24, but for some reason my alarm didn't go off at 4:45 and I didn't wake up until 6:00.  I couldn't justify getting to the office much later than 9:00 or 9:30, so I cut the distance short.

I ran up Emigration over the top and down one mile, then turned around.  Back at the top of Little Mountain, I took one more Shot Blok (I had taken 2 between miles 7-8) and used the restroom. I wasn't sure whether I felt up to MP work on the downhill, so I decided to ease into a little faster pace and see how it felt.  Fortunately, it felt easy and relaxed as I transitioned to higher turnover in the first mile, so I kept it up, with a goal of doing 8 at roughly MP, then using the final mile as cooldown.  Splits looked like this:

Mile 12: 6:08 (AHR 154/MHR 168)

Mile 13: 5:41 (161/165)

Mile 14: 5:51 (166/171)

Mile 15: 5:55 (165/170) [felt myself starting to slow, so I consciously worked harder in the following mile]

Mile 16: 5:47 (171/175)

Mile 17: 5:50 (174/178)

Mile 18: 5:54 (174/177)

Mile 19: 5:56 (176/181)

Cooldown mile was 6:56.

Given that my first attempt to work in MP two weeks during a long run failed (I only lasted 4 miles and popped) and the fact that I did a big workout on Wednesday, I consider this morning's effort a success.  A few things to note:

1. I didn't use the Generation UCAN product before the run.  Not sure I like it or buy into its claims of providing sustained energy for two hours if you take it 30 min before a run.  Maybe it's worth trying as a mid-workout fuel source.

2. I bought two 10.5-oz bottles for the Amphipod belt and filled them with Camelbak's imitation of the Nuun tablet mixture.  I also took 2 8-oz bottles with water.  Didn't start taking the Camelback stuff until mile 12, but I only had 6-8 oz left by the time I finished.  When I did my 22-miler, I only had the 2 8-oz bottles, and I may have been a little dehydrated.

3. Love the Shot Bloks for the texture, flavor (Cran-Raspberry today), and digestibility, but  they are too hard to open and eat on the run (and I took them on the easy portion of the run--can't imagine being able to chew them and breathe while running at MP).  Still need to find a fuel source that works as well for me as Enervitene did (before it got taken off the U.S. market).  EFS was terrible and I still hate all forms of gel.

4. Nearly two hours post-run, I feel surprisingly good.  Fortunately, Brooke had replenished the Ovaltine supply at home, so I was able to refuel quickly with a tall glass.  Chocolate milk is the bomb.com for recovery.

5. I need more MP work in my long runs.  The mental training required to sustain a hard effort for a long period of time strikes me as being just as important as the physical aspect.  I felt a little mentally weak at times today, so I need to work on that over the next 4-6 weeks.

6. I know it's cheating, but I weighed myself before getting into the shower (without having eaten anything).  Thanks to water loss, I tipped the scales at 151.2.  It doesn't count, but it did help me feel like my sub-150 goal may still be achievable.