A Lean and Hungry Look

Easy effort on 21st East to Stratford loop sans Garmin.  I did massage work on both quads over the weekend and iced my left a few different times, and it seemed to help with the tightness.  The issue in my left leg seems to be migrating a bit further around the back of the knee, almost like it's a calf issue that's driving the tightness now.  I'll try to do more stretching today at work and will fit in some quality time with the Stick tonight.

It was the first day of school, so I decided to swap my Tuesday and Wednesday schedule so that I could be there to hang out with the kids before they left.  I got to bed late last night, so the extra sleep felt great, too.

10x1-min reps at Liberty Park, with goal to raise HR to 180+ on each and recovery jogging in between reps until HR dipped back to 140.  Warmed up for roughly 2 miles, including some pullouts to get the legs going.  After having some dull pain in my left leg behind the knee during much of the day yesterday, I stretched, spent some quality time with the foam roller and the Stick, and iced it.  During the pullouts, it was feeling pretty good, so I went ahead with the workout.  Splits were:

1. AHR 155 (4:41)

-1:45 recovery

2. AHR 167 (4:43)

-1:42 recovery

3. AHR 169 (4:34)

-1:51 recovery

4. AHR 167 (4:40)

-2:25 recovery

5. AHR 167 (5:03) (seems wrong--I don't think I would have slowed that much)

-3:10 recovery

6. AHR 167 (4:51)

-3:18 recovery

7. AHR 167 (4:43)

-6:59 recovery (and I finally had to stop and walk for 10-15 seconds to bring HR back down--probably a monitor malfunction)

8. AHR 165 (4:41)

-2:52 recovery

9. AHR 166 (4:41)

-1:53 recovery

10. AHR 168 (5:01)

-1:43 recovery

Roughly 1-mile cooldown.  Felt good afterward.

Easy effort across U campus to 11th Ave, then over to B Street and back along 11th up to Shoreline Trail, then over to Fort Douglas and home.  The only exception to the easy effort came just after the fire station on 11th Ave., while I was taking it especially easy so that I could eat my Nutri Grain bar (couldn't find a spare Power Gel).  A guy I didn't recognize started to pass me going around 6-minute pace.  Since I have never been passed while on a regular training run, I decided today wasn't the time to start, so I upped the pace enough to stay with the guy.  It made the Nutri Grain bar a little hard to eat, but my pride was at stake, so it was worth it.  He continued down toward City Creek at my turnaround point, so that was it.  In the end, although I let him stay about 10 feet in front of me, I am not going to count this as a pass, since I kept pace with him quite easily and just didn't feel like passing him back, thereby making my childishness even more obvious.

Although the final push above Popperton (before the trail turns to dirt and descends into Dry Canyon) hurt as much as it always does, the Shoreline Trail was particularly spectacular this morning.  I love having it so close by.

As far as the pain/tightness in my left leg is concerned, I felt better today.  It didn't hurt throughout the day yesterday after my interval workout, presumably because of the effort I put toward massaging, stretching, and icing it the night before.  I did a shorter version of it last night, too, and will try to continue doing so for the next week or so in hopes of eradicating the problem altogether.

Pace: 7:30 (with the one on 11th Ave at 6:00 and the final mile in 6:20 or so)

AHR: 151

Ran around Liberty Park with Brooke for our Friday night date.   Last lap was on my own and was probably around 6:00 pace.  The first 4 were very slow and easy.  Ate dinner at Chanon Thai following the run.

Ran up to Wasatch, then out along Shoreline/Wasatch out to around 5500 South on Wasatch and back.  Took Enervitene at around 5 miles and again around 10 miles.  For some reason, the run felt lousy start to finish.  No pace work today, though, so it was a good day for a crappy long run.