Training for Top of Utah 2011

Holy Cow! What a gorgeous morning! 45 degrees when I left the house...no wind. Perfect running conditions. Started off a little stiff from my Sat. long run but after .5 mile felt good. In fact I felt so good that I thought that something was wrong. I was running easy and before long checked my garmin and noticed my pace at 8:50. Huh? Plus HR was staying in the mid 130's...what the...heck is going on here? Maybe my body is finally adapting and getting faster. Sweet! Sure took it's time though. I think the long runs are really helping. Plus doing the hill at the end of the long run might have somthing to do with it too.

I was powering up hills easy peasy today. This is where running gets to be more fun I guess.

Numbers for today are pretty good.

Pace 8:47   HR avg. 136

Next run wednesday...10 miles with 6 or 7 at tempo pace 7:30-7:40

We are trying to get to know more of our neighbors and invited a family over for dinner yesterday and I didn't get cheated on the eating part. BBQ ribs, slaw, homecooked beans and fruit salad with brownie for dessert with some Chocolate PB ice cream. Decent carbo load there.

47 degrees with misty showers but not too bad. Went out to Centennial park and jogged 2 miles. Then started the tempo run from the golf course. Exactly 3 miles to Mt. Si Road and turned around. Was easy starting out, in fact first little bit was 6:45 pace and I thought WOW, this is getting a lot easier, then settled into 7:30 pace for the remainder of the 1st 3 miles. Then I found out why it was so easy going...Wind was reverse of normal!! And it was killer coming back...surprised myself that my HR stayed reasonably low even with all of the extra work against the wind. It was work but it was doable. Not easy but I know I'm improving and that is nice! Tons of rabbits on the trail

Next speed workout on April 29 and am shooting for 5 X 1 mile with 800 jogs and a total of 10-11 miles.

Todays #'s

2 mile warm up @ 9:14 pace and 132 hr avg

6 mile tempo run @ 7:30 pace and 157 hr avg

2 mile cooldown @ 9:11 pace and 139 hr avg

37 degrees when I left the house this morning. About 4 miles into the run there was some white stuff coming down. I thought it was just something from the trees but it was snow...for about 5 minutes.

this run was the exact opposite of my easy Monday run. There is a pattern that is showing up here. This is my only back to back run and it is always after my speed or tempo runs. My body doesn't really like this run but I know that it is helping my mental toughness to run when my body says "Don't do it...stay in bed!"

Most interesting song on the radio during the run was 'She's a super freak'- Saw a gorgeous white pigeon during the run as well. Avoided hills as much as possible. I'm just plain tired after that-

#'s

Avg. pace 9:16

Avg. hr 142

Next run Sat. in Snoqualmie with no hills this week. 18 Miles

41 degrees at 6:15 when I got up. Drove to Centennial park with 1 stop on the way to drop off some water at the bottom of the parkway. Ran from park on sno. valley trail to mill pond road to parkway. 1st stop for water at 3.35 miles.

Then up and around Snoqualmie for another 3 miles, then water break. Back to the park via mill pond road and saw Sommer and her friend running on there. They were going 20 today.

@10 miles back at the park. Accelarade break and half an orange just to see how my body feels using it. Called grandpa in North bend so he could get me some OJ to drink when I arrived. 12.75 @ his house. Then back to the trail and he caught up on his bike. Chatted and then he took off. back to his house to finish the OJ...15.5 miles. Only 2.5 to go and the wind at my back now.

If you've seen the movie Remember the Titans you will know what I mean when I was saying to myself "What is Pain?" French Bread! It wasn't a killer but it was not easy.

Today's #'s

Pace avg. 8:57

HR avg. 138 (nice and low)