A Lean and Hungry Look

Easy run down 9th South, through the Gulley to 15th East, around Sugarhouse, up Parley's Canyon, and back along 20th.  Gorgeous morning with perfect temperature.  Still a little stiffness in lower left quad.  Need to do more massage work.

AHR: 161

Pace: 7:11/mi

I'm trying to drop a few more pounds before SGM, so today is my first day of being a little more careful with my diet.  I'm hoping to drop down to about 158 by race day.  I'm around 162 right now.

Repeat of last Tuesday's intervals.  Drove to Liberty Park, then ran warmup of a little over 2 miles, including a few pullouts/strides. 15x1-minute repeats with recovery jog between each until HR dipped to 140 bpm.  Target was to hit 180 bpm during intervals.

1: AHR 154 (4:44/mi)

-2:26 recovery

2: AHR 166 (4:55/mi)

-1:43 recovery

3: AHR 168 (4:43/mi)

-2:31 recovery

4: AHR 168 (4:39/mi)

-4:57 recovery (no rhyme or reason for this)

5: AHR 166 (4:51/mi)

-2:24 recovery

6: AHR 168 (4:48/mi)

-2:29 recovery

7: AHR 168 (4:56/mi)

-7:00 recovery (!)

8: AHR 166 (4:37/mi)

-5:52 recovery

9: AHR 164 (5:06/mi)

-2:01 recovery

10: AHR 167 (4:38/mi)

-2:08 recovery

11: AHR 168 (4:44/mi)

-6:01 recovery

12: AHR 167 (4:50/mi)

-1:20 recovery

13: AHR 167 (4:48/mi)

-1:55 recovery

14: AHR 168 (4:54/mi)

-4:10 recovery

15: AHR 166 (5:01/mi)

-3:14 recovery

Cooldown of a little over a mile.  I lost count about halfway through the workout, but by the time I hit about the 12th repeat I thought I was done, so the last 4 were a little tough mentally.  I was pleased that so many of the recoveries were so short and puzzled by the long ones.  Legs felt pretty worked over by the end.  Still having a lot of tightness in left quad extending down toward the knee, which is understandable since I haven't done massage work for a few days on it.  I iced it down for about 15 minutes when I got home and it's feeling a little better now.

Scheduled day off.

Easy run across U of U campus and along 11th Ave to B Street, then back along Shoreline Trail above Popperton.  Still feeling tightness around left knee, but it's now mostly in the outer tendon behind the knee and not so much at the bottom of the quad.  It loosened up after a mile or so.

Pace: 7:38

AHR: 150

21st East to Stratford loop. Semi-easy pace without Garmin to track the effort.  Tried out a new pair of Kayanos today, thinking that maybe that would help me get rid of the nagging tightness in my left leg.  It was still tight today.  I don't think it's ITBS because the tightness is more in the tendon behind the knee than the one that attaches to the side of the knee.  I assume it's based on tightness up the line, as usual.  I need to start stretching before bed again.

Post-run weight was 157.5 today.  I've been limiting my calories to 2000 per day this week, and it seems to be making a difference.

Drove to Washington Terrace and ran past Mtn. Dell GC, up past Little Dell toward Big Mtn., then turned around at 7 miles and went up Little Mtn. and down Emigration.  Plan was to do first 5 at easy warmup pace, next 12 at target HR of 171, then last 3 at 180 or above.  (Same plan as last week, when I DNF'd at 14 due to the cold and rain.)

Still had some tightness in the tendon behind my left knee.  It felt better after a few miles, but it was still hurting when I stopped at mile 5 to stretch.  I felt it intermittently throughout the run.  It never got painful, but the tightness really never left.

Here are my splits:

Mile 6: AHR 168/MHR 179 (6:30) (up 152, down 73)

Mile 7: AHR 173/MHR 176 (7:35) (up 237, down 31)

Mile 8: AHR 168/MHR 174 (5:54) (up 83, down 211)

Mile 9: AHR 169/MHR 175 (6:03) (up 83. down 234)

Mile 10: AHR 171/MHR 174 (6:41) (up 132, down 60)

Mile 11: AHR 172/MHR 176 (7:38) (up 228, down 48)

Mile 12: AHR 172/MHR 178 (6:28) (up 95, down 228)

Mile 13: AHR 171/MHR 173 (5:44) (up 27, down 229)

Mile 14: AHR 169/MHR 173 (5:54) (up 72, down 232)

Mile 15: AHR 169/MHR 174 (6:00) (up 23, down 204)

Mile 16: AHR 173/MHR 176 (5:58) (up 18, down 120)

Mile 17: AHR 174/MHR 177 (6:11) (up 29, down 151)

Mile 18: AHR 179/MHR 183 (5:41) (up 107, down 245)

Mile 19: AHR 180/MHR 183 (5:46) (up 52, down 202)

Mile 20: AHR 183/MHR 186 (5:54) (up 40, down 169)

Last 0.23: AHR 179/MHR 184 (6:01/mi) (up 17, down 48)

I didn't feel like I had much more to give during the final two miles, and the last mile was pretty tough. I wish the splits would have been a little faster, but I was relatively pleased over all.