A Lean and Hungry Look

Easy effort along Sugarhouse loop.  Inhaler is empty, so I need to refill the prescription before tomorrow's speed work.

Pace: 7:34

AHR: 159

Plan called for 12x2-min repeats with target of 180+, followed by recovery jogging until HR dipped to 140.  Went to Liberty Park and did roughly 2-mile warmup, including pullouts.  Stomach didn't feel great and I just didn't feel quite right.  About halfway through the first repeat, that feeling was magnified considerably, but I usually feel awful during the first couple of repeats, so I kept going.  After 5 reps I had to make a pit stop, and for some reason it took forever for HR to come back down to 140 after I finished the pit stop and started running again (a full lap of 1.3 miles or so at a snail's pace).  I ground out 4 more reps and called it a day, due to the fact that I was feeling really lousy and also because I was out of time.  Not sure what was going on exactly, but just a general kind of malaise that has continued for the two hours since I finished the workout.  I got almost 7 hours of sleep last night and more than 8 the night before, and I'm pretty sure I've been hydrating properly, so I'm not sure what to blame it on.  I guess you just have a bad day sometimes.

Here are the splits:

1. AHR 164 (5:10/mi)

-1:12 recovery

2. AHR 171 (5:09/mi)

-1:41 recovery

3. AHR 174 (5:12/mi)

-3:38 recovery

4. AHR 175 (5:11/mi)

-2:03 recovery

5. AHR 175 (5:13/mi)

-12:00 recovery (here's where things really broke down)

6. AHR 169 (5:23/mi)

-1:12 recovery

7. AHR 174 (5:08/mi)

-2:15 recovery

8. AHR 173 (5:16/mi)

-5:12 recovery

9. AHR 173 (5:09/mi)

-5:04 recovery

Because I was feeling so out of sorts and because the last two recovery jogs were so long, I called it a day without doing any additional cooldown.

I'm actually quite pleasantly surprised by the splits.  Based on how I was feeling, I expected them to be 5:30 or slower.  Although today wasn't my best day, the shorter speedwork I've done over the past 3 weeks seems to have helped with the turnover.  I'll try to focus on that instead of being too disappointed by the fact that I didn't finish the workout.

Scheduled day off.   Tried to sleep in a little in an effort to get rid of the bug or malaise that's been hampering me for the past few days.

Easy pace up to Wasatch and across Parley's to Millstream Lane and back.  Took 1 Enervitene at the turnaround.  At the 7-mile mark, I pushed the effort the rest of the way home, but I stayed on Foothill instead of going up to Wasatch.  Splits and HR for the tempo section were as follows:

Mile 8: AHR 176 (5:27)

Mile 9: AHR 181 (5:47)

Mile 10: AHR 182 (5:40)

I had a good song playing during Mile 8 and I found myself really pushing the pace.  HR got into the 184 range for a bit in that first mile of tempo, so I tried to back it off a little so that I could hold on.  I didn't feel any of the malaise that I felt on Saturday and again on Tuesday, and the tightness in my left leg around the knee hasn't made an appearance since last week.  Both good signs.

Stratford loop at comfortable pace.  Left Garmin at home.  I slept in a little in preparation for tomorrow's big run in St. George.  I probably won't get there until 10:30 or 11:00 tonight and will be leaving early in the morning, so I thought it made sense to sneak in an extra hour os sleep today.  I felt a little bit of tightness in my left achilles (the one that gave me fits for a couple of years), so I need to remember to stretch it out and do my strength exercises.

Weight is down to around 156, which is about what I weighed when I graduated from HS, and about 20 lbs less than I weighed at the end of winter.  Hopefully the lower weight helps in the race next month.

Drove to about the 3-mile mark of SGM and ran the course to the finish (except I ran on the trail from Snow Canyon to the church on Bluff Street).  First 5 at easy pace, next 12 at MP roughly MP effort, next 3 with goal of 180 bpm or higher, then last 3 at super-easy cooldown pace with my little sister, who was finishing an 18-mile run on the course.  It was pitch black for the first 5 or 6 miles and there was a lot of traffic on the roads, presumably due to the Red Rock Relay, the fact that it was a holiday weekend, and the abundance of SGM runners training on the course.  I felt pretty good until about mile 14 or so, when my energy started to ebb.  I had eaten a banana before the run, then taken Enervitene at mile 5 and mile 10, and I took my last one at mile 15.  That seemed to help some, but I still felt pretty wiped out by about mile 18.  The ascents and descents on the trail are far more severe than on the actual course, and that undoubtedly affected how I was feeling.  The temperature was pretty mild but it was quite humid due to a significant rainstorm the night before.  I felt like I was sweating like crazy and that the sweat never evaporated.  That may have also contributed to a feeling of greater depletion than I would have expected.  Finally, I wonder if the 2000 calorie/day regimen had me toe the line with fewer reserves than normal.  I only slept a couple of hours the night before, but I got great sleep two nights earlier.  At any rate, here are my splits for the hard miles:

Mile 6: 6:27 (AHR 162) (this started about a mile past Veyo on the climb into Dammeron Valley)

Mile 7: 6:36 (AHR 175)

Mile 8: 6:29 (AHR 173)

Mile 9: 6:06 (AHR 171)

Mile 10: 6:17 (AHR 167)

Mile 11: 5:55 (AHR 167)

Mile 12: 5:53 (AHR 161) (I think this was the mile that headed toward Snow Canyon--it would have been faster, but I caught up with Brooke, my wife, and ran with her for 200 yards or so)

Mile 13: 5:48 (AHR 172)

Mile 14: 6:01 (AHR 171)

Mile 15: 6:31 (AHR 172)

Mile 16: 6:14 (AHR 172)

Mile 17: 6:13 (AHR 169)

Mile 18: 6:03 (AHR 177) (this one had a lot of big clims and steep descents along the trail and really beat me up)

Mile 19: 5:42 (AHR 180)

Mile 20: 6:18 (AHR 177) (for some reason, my Garmin showed the church on Bluff Street as being .65 short of 20 miles, so I continued down into the neighborhood for a while, then ran back up the hill to finish at the church, and the combination of feeling like I was already done and running uphill killed my pace in the last half mile)

I should note that I didn't keep to my 2000-calorie/day commitment during the 3 days of vacation.  I didn't eat like a pig, but I allowed myself to enjoy a burger at In-N-Out and some pizza.  I must say that I was a lot less grumpy than I had been during the previous week or so!

Later in the day, we took the kids hiking (I carried Eli in the backpack) and spent a couple of hours hanging out at some natural pools outside of Hurricane.  We had a great time and my energy levels stayed pretty high until late in the afternoon.  Little to no soreness (at least before I pulled out The Stick and found some in my quads) that day or the day after.