A Lean and Hungry Look

Went on a 10.5-mile mountain bike ride on the Green Valley Loop with my brothers-in-law before spending all day moving my parents' things out of their St. George place.  The first 4 miles were downhill and technical, with little aerobic effort involved, especially because the group kept stopping to chat.  The last 6.5 were rolling and uphill, and I pushed myself a little because I knew I wouldn't be able to get my scheduled 6-mile run in.  Total time on the bike was a little under an hour.  It was fun to do a little cross training for the first time in 5 or 6 months.

We didn't get home until after midnight from St. George last night, so I missed my scheduled workout and decided to run an easy 6 at lunch instead.  Ran around Holladay through Haven Lane, along Cottonwood Lane, and back to Extra Space.  Very comfortable pace.  Temperature was surprisingly mild, so it was a nice midday break.

Pace: 7:46 (!)

AHR: 148

12x2-minute reps at Liberty Park, target 180, recovery jog to 140.  Got to the park around 5:30 and finished reps before it got light.  Although I'm embarrassed to admit it, it appears that my HR recovers much more quickly in the dark, most likely because I can't see all the people around me, which prevents my HR from increasing as I look at people I want to pass, etc.  Childish, obviously, but apparently physiological as well.  Anyway, my recoveries were much quicker than usual today.  In the past, they've been quick until it's gotten light outside, then they've slowed down.  What a dork I am sometimes.  At any rate, I did roughly 2 miles of warmup, including some pullouts, striders, and high-knees, then went for it.

Here are the splits:

1. AHR 157 (5:09/mi)

-1:02 recovery

2. AHR 165 (5:29/mi)

-0:56 recovery

3. AHR 168 (5:09/mi)

-1:18 recovery

4. AHR 171 (5:19/mi)

-1:21 recovery

5. AHR 171 (5:16/mi)

-1:34 recovery

6. AHR 170 (5:25/mi)

-2:11 recovery

7. AHR 169 (5:29/mi)

-1:25 recovery

8. AHR 169 (5:10/mi)

-1:51 recovery

9. AHR 168 (5:33/mi)

-1:31 recovery

10. AHR 162 (5:24/mi)

-1:11 recovery

11. AHR 169 (5:13/mi)

-2:59 recovery

12. AHR 169 (5:10/mi)

-1:08 recovery

Roughly 1-mile cooldown.

I felt far better this morning than I did on this workout last Tuesday.  My only disappointment is that I didn't bring my HR up as high as I should have on most of the reps.  Not sure why it was, but the legs just didn't seem to want to give more.  I'm not convinced that the average pace information is correct for all of the splits, because I felt like my effort was pretty consistent throughout.  Perhaps the short recoveries led to a few slower reps, I don't know.  Over all, though, I was pretty pleased with the workout, particularly because I still felt pretty good by the end of the workout.

I yielded to Brooke's training schedule this morning and had to take Kaela to violin at 6:30 a.m. anyway, so I didn't run until 8:00 p.m.  Because I had a big workout planned for 10 hours later, I took it easy and ran without the Garmin.  Stratford Loop with a few modifications.

Ran up Emigration to about 1/2 mile above the Pinecrest turnoff and back.  First 5 at super easy pace, then tried to maintain HR at 171 or better the rest of the way.  The first 2.6 of the MP effort section were uphill.  Took a PowerGel (strawberry-banana w/caffeine) at 5 while I stretched for a minute and one Enervitene at 10 on the run.  Here are the splits:

Mile 6: AHR 163 (7:11) (uphill--temp was pretty chilly, which probably made it harder to raise HR to target)

Mile 7: AHR 169 (7:25) (still up)

Mile 8: AHR 171 (6:48) (0.6 up the steepest part of the run, 0.4 down)

Mile 9: AHR 164 (5:36) (back down, felt really relaxed)

Mile 10: AHR 167 (5:48)

Mile 11: AHR 164 (5:50) (I lost focus a little on this mile and got a little too relaxed)

Mile 12: AHR 169 (5:41) (I re-engaged)

Mile 13: AHR 170 (5:43) (focused but relaxed)

Mile 14: AHR 172 (5:37) (still feeling good)

Mile 15: AHR 175 (5:25) (felt HR rising, but still felt strong)

This was the first tempo run I've done in a long time where I felt strong and relaxed all the way through.  Over the past several weeks (even months), I've felt pretty spent on these runs.  Today's run was a nice confidence booster.  I was comfortably tired at the finish, not at all wiped out.

I'm pacing Clark Hirschi in the Wasatch 100 tonight from Brighton to the finish, so I'm going to focus today on getting my calories and hydrating.  The last time I paced Clark (in 2006) he finished 7th overall in less than 23:30, and he's hoping for a similar result this year, so I need to be ready to do a little work.  I'm supposed to meet him at Brighton around 9:30 p.m.  Good luck, Clark!

Paced Clark Hirschi from Brighton Lodge to finish of Wasatch 100.  Left at 11:30 p.m. and finished at 7:15 a.m.