Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 10 miles. 5 mile Wave Tempo in 26:37 (5:19/mi avg) - alternating 3 minutes at AT effort, 1 minute at LT effort (6 alternation sets, plus an extra half-mile at AT to get an even five miles). Average pace was 5:25/mile for the 3 min segments and 5:00/mile for the 1 min segments. Tempo loop. 3.5 up, 1.5 down.

Didn't get aggressive today... just wanted to get a feel for this type of workout, because its going to be a staple... and these are going to get a lot harder.

PM - Mellow ski tour in Twin Lakes Pass area. The snowpack is thin and ski conditions aren't ideal at the moment, but it was great to get above the smog  (which looks awful from above) and out in the sunshine for the afternoon.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 7 miles.

Here's the confirmed schedule at the moment for the 2014 USATF Circuit. Unless a few more races join, the total prize money might only be about 75-80% of what it has been the last couple years, in order for the LDR committee to stay financially solvent. So, if you want to help the circuit grow, sign up for a USATF membership and encourage your friends to do the same!

SLC Track Club Winter Series 5K
SLC Track Club Winter Series 15K
Striders WRC 10 Miler
Striders WRC Half Marathon
Ogden Marathon
Murray Fun Days 5K
Draper Days 5K
Top of Utah Half Marathon
Layton Classic 10K
Top of Utah Marathon
 
Hopefully we'll be able to add a few more road races, and maybe a cross-country race in the fall. I'll post more information as I have it, and updates will be e-mailed (you should get those if you are a USATF member) and posted on the website.

AM - 5 miles w/ Andrea.

PM - 5 miles. Treadmill.

AM - 15 miles. Fritz and I drove down to Lehi to meet Matt, Mike, Scott, Zak, and Reed for the run. We did 15 on the Murdock Canal path with an 8 mile AT Tempo (44:23, 5:33/mi avg) in the middle. Chilly wind, icy in a few spots, but overall better than we probably thought it was going to be this morning. Typical winter running conditions and good fun! Afterwards we had a contest to see who could peel hard-boiled eggs the fastest. I think we all lost.

Matt's wife took this photo of the group before we headed home.

AM - 12 miles. Usual-ish Sunday run w/ Fritz, Josh, Nate, Collin, and Adam. Pretty nice (cold) morning.

Went for an afternoon ski tour, similar to what we did on New Year's Day. I'm really excited about the prospects of skiing more this winter / spring (and hopefully summer too). We've been thinking about some of the places we'd like to go this year - definitely want to bring longer ski days and backpacking trips back into the mix if Andrea's body cooperates (which it will!). We have a lot of cool stuff planned for the spring and summer already. When life revolves around running a little bit less, that can actually lead to much better running (assuming the fire to train really hard at the appropriate times burns hot... and that's not a problem!). 

A few photos from today. Valley smog = gone!

AM - 6 miles.

PM - 8 miles.

AM - 12 miles. AT Reps: 3-2-1 miles (1/4 mi easy) - 16:00 (5:21, 5:22, 5:17), 10:29 (5:15, 5:14), 5:07. Then another faster quarter mile before heading home. 3.5 up, ~2 down, joining Andrea for a bit. Only about 80% of the workout volume I wanted this morning and the paces were slower than I was aiming for. But for the first early morning workout since November 17th (wow!), I'll grade this as a solid "Whatever+".

PM - 3 miles.

Another reason why Alta is the best.

AM - 10 miles. First 4 w/ Andrea. Nice morning with a little bit of snow on the ground... and warmer temps!

PM - 4 miles.

Cherry Blossom announced that they are hosting the USA 10 Mile Championship in April. This is a race I've wanted to run for a while, especially since I have a lot of friends in the area and owe them a visit. Now that it's the USA Championship it makes sense to finally swing the trip to DC. This actually fits perfectly into what I'm trying to accomplish in terms of training / racing this spring. I like this option better than the 15K Champs (Gate River) due to timing and travel logistics.

AM - 7 miles. Treadmill. 3 up, 4 mile AT Progression (1%) - 5:30, 5:20, 5:10, 5:00. Then hit the "cooldown" button which almost immediately went to 3.2 mph and I walked for 4 minutes. Too many black ice spots on the roads this morning to do anything faster outside.

PM - 6 miles. Treadmill. 3 up, 3 mile AT Progression (1%) - 5:30, 5:20, 5:10. Another cooldown button walk-a-thon to cap it off. Too much fun this morning to pass up a chance to do this again. This time my iPod was dead, adding to the excitement.

If Canova posted on FRB, he would probably call this the worst special block he's ever seen :-)

AM - 8 miles. First 4 w/ Andrea.

PM - 6 miles + strides.

We booked flights for the trip to DC and Cherryl Blossom 10 Miler last night. That escalated quickly.

USATF-Utah Press Release with the 2014 schedule and links to updated scoring / rules.

AM - 23 miles. Long Run. Started at HHS w/ Fritz, Nate, James, Josh, Collin, and Rob. Did a nice wandering Holladay loop for the first 15 miles. At that point we switched gears and I paced Josh for his two mile fast finish (5:39, 5:39), back to normal pace for a few minutes w/ Josh and Fritz, and then did 3 faster miles heading back towards home (5:14, 5:19, 5:18). Finished up w/ a couple miles around the neighborhood because it was so freaking nice out!!!

I'm trying to live in the 85-95 mpw range this winter, and since this run puts me at 93 for the week, tomorrow is a mandatory day off. Hopefully the 10-20" of snow forecasted comes through and we get a big powder day!

Cold, windy, awesome day of storm-skiing at Solitude. The weather never let up, but linking up powder turns is just so worth it. Andrea and I made sure we were dressed for an arctic expedition and also went inside every 90 minutes to warm up. With that game plan, we survived the elements and had a fantastic day.

AM - 10 miles.

PM - 6 miles.

For those interested - a little more information to follow up on the USATF-Utah announcement posted last week. The XC race is going to be the same day as the youth championships, which is typically the last weekend of October or first weekend of November. We'll keep the entry fee low (probably $5), but you must be a USATF member to run. There will be individual prize money, but we're also going to add a team scoring component.

AM - 12 miles. LT AT Reps: 6 x 1 mile in 5:10 avg (all +/- a second). Tempo loop. 2.5 up, 2.5 down. This weekend could be ugly. But, I'd rather run slower in January than June, so I'm keeping it in perspective, and being very patient with the progression of my workouts.

PM - 4 miles. Had just enough time to squeeze in 30 minutes before my Dad came over for dinner. He was up in SLC on business again. Running under 8:00 pace on easy runs is way too hard. I won't make a habit of it.

Great e-mail from one of my best friends from college about Cherry Blossom...

Oh I'm definitely planning on coming down. I looked at the calendar and said "oh, that's still like 12 weeks away, I can probably get into shape to run 10 miles by then" but then I looked at the Cherry Blossom website and registration is closed. THANK GOD! Plus I'd much rather be a spectator and watch you finish rather then have you finish the race, grab a drink, jog around, chat with the Merkels, take a shower, jog around some more, and then watch me finish.

AM - 11 miles. First 6 w/ Andrea, including a few quicker miles on the tempo loop.

PM - 5 miles. Most of it w/ Andrea.

AM - 8 miles. 4 mile Wave Tempo in 21:05 (5:16/mi avg) - alternating 2 minutes at AT, 1 minute at LT. Segment average paces were 5:29 and 4:55. Tempo loop. 3 up, 1 down.

PM - 4 miles.

Watch out for this guy in Houston on Sunday. I really like this quote from the article... it sounds like what Andrea and I say all the time! - “I used to tell my wife on Mondays that this is it, I’m going to clean up my diet. It’s been a hundred Mondays and I’m not much better.”

AM - 8 miles.

AM - 5 miles in Houston with SlowJoe (yep, he's a real person!) along the Buffalo Bayou. We did a couple traffic intersection sprints that would have made Fritz proud. Finished w/ 8 x ~100m strides and 20 minutes of 1-on-1 post up moves with Hakeem.

Hoping I can ride a little residual fitness from the fall to a decent time tomorrow. Honestly I'd have to be thrilled to even be under 1:07 after just coasting for the past 6 weeks. But regardless of how it plays out, being at another US Championship is a great way to kick off the year. Fancy hotel, massages, and more free food than anyone can eat!

Not really a stellar time on the fast Houston course, but as long as I can look back on this as my slowest race of the year, I'll take it. Targeted 16:00 5K splits and was pretty much dead on - had a little lapse from 15K to 10 miles, but otherwise ran very consistently. The effort never felt that hard, but when you haven't run under 5:10 pace in two months, it's kind of hard to get moving quicker than that.

5K Splits - 16:01, 15:55, 15:58, 16:08

Fast race(s) today. Close to 60 OT qualifiers combined M/W.

I finished pretty much at the back of the race, which isn't exactly something for me to be proud of... but I feel like I'm actually at a good starting point for 2014. Last year I ran 65:55 in January, and the next 7 months weren't any better. I was either regressing or stagnant until later in the summer. I have a good plan for the winter / spring, and I think that my incremental approach will actually get me to where I want to be.

Some additional thoughts...

When I decided to run here (registered in November) I knew I wasn't going to be in good racing shape unless I pressed right back into harder workouts after CIM. I didn't do that (which was smart), but I was also over-optimistic at the time and figured I could still run low/mid 1:06s without training for it. When I look back now, I really haven't done much work faster than MP since Indy Monumental... 11 weeks ago! If anything, I was stretching out the window in which you can run 5:00 pace without training for it at the Mesa 10K on Thanksgiving. By the time Houston rolled around, it had been way too long since I've run any LT workouts! Luckily I realized this a few weeks ago and adjusted my goals accordingly.

This may seem very ambitious to say after running one of my slowest half-marathons ever, but I really believe I'll be in range to take a serious crack at 2:17 this year if I follow through on what I have outlined. Talked to a lot of fast guys who will also be targeting the OT standard at the Grandmas Marathon.

Course - Flat and fast loop. Long straightaways, minimal turns. Lots of concrete. It was perfect. I can draw the elevation profile using my keyboard:

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Race Organization - Just like Duluth, awesome. They take care of everything for you. I can definitely see why most athletes who ran in 2012 want the Olympic Trials to return to Houston in 2016. I was hoping we might get cowboy hats as a gift... no dice... nice pullover fleeces instead. If Andrea qualifies, we'll go back in 2015. And I will not run 1:07 again in that scenario!

MUST-DO in Houston - I highly recommend the rooftop hot tub at the Hilton Americas. Riley, Jason, and I spent a good hour there sufficiently dehydrating ourselves after the race.

Random people - to my assigned roommate, whoever you may be, thanks for not showing up! I had my own room for the weekend which was nice. I cooled down after the race with the guy who beat me by a few seconds at the Portland 10,000m in 2012 - we exchanged some words during that race (all of which started with "F"), but we're cool now :-)

Mile splits - 5:09, 5:11, 5:11, 5:03, 5:08, 5:07, 5:05, 5:10, 5:09, 5:15, 5:07, 5:11, 5:39 for the last 1.1. I wore my Garmin (I can't remember the last time I've done that in a half-marathon) to make sure I didn't go out too fast. It was useful early and then I didn't pay much attention to it after that (probably should have paid more attention in the tenth mile!). Pro-Tip: Turn off autosplits if you wear a satellite watch in a race. You'll get some relative pacing feedback but the course markers on the road are more accurate 99.9% of the time.

This is the finishing stretch of the course

Somehow I ended up wearing bib #9 on my back, which is embarrassing when you are in the absolute back of the race!

And to wrap it up, ice skating in 70 degree weather!

AM - 6 miles.

PM - 3 miles.

AM - 10 miles.

PM - 4 miles.

One of the cool things about going to USA Championship races (and other high-caliber events) is that you spend all of your time surrounded by hundreds of other like-minded people, most of whom are current or former (very) elite athletes. Its not only motivating, but also a great opportunity to "talk shop" and pick up some tips that you can apply to your own running. The people you meet and conversations you have are always interesting and I came home with a lot of useful/funny anecdotes. I'm still blown away from hearing a 1:03/2:15 guy say that "Yasso 800s" are a key workout for him! Everyone finds things that work for them... no two athletes are the same, and you need to be confident in the training that you are doing. That being said, there are some common denominators as well - everyone is talented, everyone puts in a lot of work, and it seems like (from my interactions, at least) everyone really enjoys running and the process of hard training.

Slept in.

AM - 9 miles. Second half of the run w/ Andrea.

PM - 9 miles. 6 Mile AT Progression in 31:40 (5:17/mi avg). Splits - 5:28, 5:23, 5:20, 5:17, 5:13, 4:58. Tempo loop. 2 up, 1 down. Got rolling a little faster on the last mile. I actually had planned to do this workout on the treadmill... fortunately the air (temporarily) cleared up. It was actually a pretty nice afternoon. Daylight is lasting longer!

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Rock 'n' Roll Series Launches New Elite Program ...“Fast running has always been a part of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon since its inception in 1998. We believe our participants and general fans of the sport will like the features of the program, which include a special emphasis to create opportunities for America’s best men and women as they strive to qualify for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.”

AM - 10 miles.

PM - 8 miles.

15:33 with splits of 5:03, 5:05, 4:55, 30. Followed by 4 x 200m in ~30-31 seconds. Pretty much right on where I thought I'd be today... wanted to be ~LT and then pick it up a little towards the end. I was happy to hit the time I was aiming for, but I'm never pleased to finish that far behind the front pack. Riley, Jason, Scott, and Byrant smoked me. On that note though - I love how competitive these winter series races are getting! A lot of guys stepping up and running fast. The local races are going to be deep this year.

Andrea was there taking some photos: SLC Winter Series 2014

MVP = Josh E. ~2 minute improvement from last year! Also, the master's running scene is about to get shook up when Mr. Keate turns the big four-oh. Holy cow, what a run by that guy today.

Did a nice 5 mile shakeout on a beautiful afternoon in Park City.

AM - 20 mile long run in Park City. Moderately hilly loop around Snyderville Basin. Averaged ~7:15/mi.

Spent the day skiing at Deer Valley in the sunshine. Fun!

AM - 6 miles.

PM - 7 miles.

If you have a second, vote for Andrea's entry in this STP photo contest (a photo of her that I took a couple years ago in Little Cottonwood Canyon).

AM - 11 miles. 6 Mile Wave Tempo in 32:05 (5:21/mi avg) - alternating 4 minutes AT, 2 minutes LT (x6) plus an extra two minutes at AT to hit six miles. Segment averages were 5:29 and 5:05. I did this session off feel without pace feedback from the watch, just the interval beeps telling me it was time to speed up / slow down... so I didn't really know what to expect in terms of how fast I was running. Hit my targets (5:30/5:05) almost exactly... to the point where it looks like I cheated!

Yes, please! :-)

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 4 miles.

AM - 9 miles. First 20 minutes easy then a few AT miles on the tempo loop (5:37, 5:32, 5:27) to get warm and loose. Another 10 minutes easy and then got going with the actual workout: 10 x 30 seconds uphill on a gradual incline (~3.5%) at 3K/VO2 effort. Jogged back between reps. Cooled down a little bit more w/ Andrea. Felt like I was moving very well on the 30s efforts.

PM - 6 miles.

Its been almost 8 weeks since CIM... now I'm finally ready to start training for real. Three races on the spring schedule, evenly spaced out about a month apart, ascending order of importance. I feel very confident that I have a good training plan (tweaking this thing has been a month-long process that has finally come together thanks to some major help from across the Atlantic). No excuses this year... my goal is to earn a spot on the line at a little run around Los Angeles on February 13, 2016.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 7 miles.

I linked Anatomy for Runners in December, and I'll give it another thumbs up now. A month into 2014 and we've been at the gym almost every night (maybe missed 3 or 4 days the entire month) after work, working on general stability / balance / coordination. We are progressing very slowly though Jay's program. So far, so good. There were some very basic movements I couldn't even do 5 weeks ago (it was seriously pathetic), but I'm already noticing some nice improvements.