dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

Total time of 67:00

TLDR:  6 reps run fartlek style (not timed) but all likely no more than 60 seconds in length.  Recovery was whatever felt good and lined up well with the terrain.

Full Version:  I have felt somewhat tired the last few days, but I still wanted to run a speed workout today.  The plan was to run some shorter reps, so I still did that as planned but I did not time the reps or the recovery in an effort to keep the workout a little easier.  It was also 5 degrees during the run this morning while my phone said that it "felt like" -4 so I was even more motivated to not track splits as doing so would require removing my hands from inside my coat sleeves.

I ended up starting the first rep close to 3 miles into the run, running a total of 6 reps.  I kept the intensity fairly high and would run until I started to feel like the pace was getting uncomfortable, and then try to maintain that pace for just a little longer.  The recovery was also untimed, and I would just run easy until I felt fully recovered and ready to run another rep.  I am guessing that recovery averaged anywhere from 1-3 minutes per rep.  After finishing all of the reps I ran back to the house to use the bathroom, arriving around the 53:40 mark of the run, and following my bathroom break I went back out to finish the last 13+ minutes of the run.

Total time of 70:00

TLDR:  I ran a short tempo for approximately 8:50 starting around the 49:00 mark.

Full Version:  I have been feeling tired lately.  Not so tired that I don't feel like I can run, but tired enough that I haven't really felt comfortable running speed workouts.  We did have some illness go through our house just after new years, and I ended up taking last Thursday off from running as a preventative measure despite not really feeling super sick.  Even after taking the day off I have still felt off physically, more tired than normal, and I have slowed my runs down to compensate and scrapped any speed workouts.

I have been pleased that despite the recent fatigue I have still been able to maintain, and increase, the time I spend on my feet during my runs as I have run for 70 minutes every day this week in what has likely been my highest mileage week since 2013 (except I have not been counting miles, so I don't really know for certain).  This is a victory of sorts for me as when I felt similar fatigue during the fall of 2017 while running around 40 mpw (averaged about 54 min per day on average) I stopped running completely.  While I only ran at a tempo effort for around 8:50 during today's run I will again count this as a victory, as going into the run I had not planned to run faster during any portion of the run, while doing so did not leave me feeling overly fatigued for the rest of the afternoon.

I ran out of Alpine, crossing Timp Highway and eventually dropped onto the Murdock canal trail near Lone Peak High School.  I turned around at 35:32 expecting that I would naturally run faster on the way back.  What I did not realize was that I had a tail wind during the first half of my run in addition to the gradual downhill slope coming out of Alpine, and I slowed down as I started to run back towards home.  I turned off the trail onto North County Blvd at about the 49:00 mark of the run and decided that I needed to speed up in order to make it back home in less than 70:00 (It took me close to 23:00 to reach the same point during the first half of the run) so I started a short tempo (with stops for stoplights and to pick up a picture of Jesus that I did not feel comfortable leaving on the ground), maintaining a faster but controlled effort until I reached the top of the hill shortly after entering Alpine city limits in approximately 57:50.  I then slowed back down and finished running home, arriving in 69:36, adding a little extra to reach 70:00 for the run.

Total time of 1:15 for today's run (and the rest of this week).  Ran down to the Timpanogos Temple.

No speed work or anything special at all this week other than an occasional pick-up as it has been pretty snowy this week.  I have also had a lot of late nights with work calls as we are working with a company in India to get our web app UI developed.  The late calls coupled with early morning runs (waking up just after 5:30 most days this week) and snow have led me to just enjoy the time on my feet this week rather than trying to run at a specific pace, or perform specific workouts.

Last week was similar in regards to snow and late night phone calls, although I didn't have to wake up as early.  I did run a short speed workout once last week with 6 x 20-30ish second sprints and 5-6 minute running recovery, and a mini tempo run last Friday which I ran off the cuff due to seeing some other runners up ahead of me.  Last week I ran 1:12:00 every day except once when I ran less than a minute longer.

Total time of 1:15:00

TLDR:  15 min tempo, 5 min tempo, 20 second sprint running away from a dog

Full Version:  I haven't done a true hard workout in weeks as I have either felt run down, or the weather has been uncooperative.  As the streets were much clearer today and I was feeling good, I decided to run my first hard workout in a while.  As can happen on occasion, my mind was a little ahead of my fitness and the initial plan was to run 2 x 15 min hard.  Before I even started the first rep I started to rethink this plan and ended up deciding to change things, although I didn't solidify the new plan for my workout until I was already 9 minutes into the 15 minute rep.

After finishing the first rep I ran more slowly for 20 minutes before running the 5 minute tempo, finishing it at the 60 minute mark of the run.  My legs felt pretty tired both during the 5 minute rep, as well as during the last 5 minutes of the 15 minute rep.  I ran most of today's run on the same route that I ran on yesterday (up to the 70:00 mark of that run) and at the mark where I finally broke off in a different direction I was a little over 7:00 ahead of my pace from yesterday.  I had a little extra time left in the run as I arrived back at the house, so I ran down Main Street and back for a few minutes until I arrived back at the house at 1:15:00.

Total time of 1:18:00.

TLDR:  6 x 2 min hard, 3 min easy

Full Version:  I have been feeling better recently, so decided that today would be a good day to run another speed workout.  I didn't want to put in a large amount of speed work, but I wanted to put in more work than I have recently (most speed work in non-tempo workouts recently has totalled about 2:30 in total, so not much).  I decided to run 6 x 2 min hard, 3 min easy.  I started the first rep at the 30:00 mark of the run and finished the final rep at the 57:00 mark before running back to the house and finishing my run at 1:18:00.

The reps went as follows:  1st, gradual-moderate uphill for the entirety; 2nd, steep uphill at beginning and end with a short downhill stretch in the middle.  Overall net uphill; 3rd, either flat or mild uphill for first 1:20 with moderate-steep downhill for the last 0:40.  Likely a net downhill; 4th, moderate-steep downhill for the first 1:00, with mild uphill or flat for the last 1:00.  Net downhill; 5th, moderate-steep uphill for the entirety of the rep; 6th, gradual downhill or flat for the first 1:00, followed by uncomfortably steep downhill for the last 1:00.