Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 9 miles up to work. 

PM - 3 miles. Andrea was about to head out for a short run when I got home, so I joined her. I think that was a fair reason to run twice today. 

Somewhat disturbing article in The Telegraph yesterday about how there is no out-of-competition blood testing in Kenya (to be fair, it really applies to the whole region, not just Kenya, and plenty of foreign athletes go to Kenya to train as well). It follows an interview with Hajo Seppelt from a week ago. None of this proves anything, but it seems to be the popular topic right now. 

It seems kind of shallow, but assuming the NYC marathon happens on Sunday, I'm very interested to see how ESPN does with the live coverage, this being their big foray into the genre. They tend to be a lot more innovative that the other networks, and it would be nice to watch a marathon on TV w/out having to refresh Letsrun on my computer every minute to get splits, etc.

AM - 8 miles up to work.

PM - 4.3 miles down to SHP.

AM - 13.4 miles. Tanner Park Death Loop w/ Fritz, ACorn, Bryan, and Jon. Usually I only give this route that label the day after a really hard workout or in the middle of a high-mileage cycle, but I feel so out of shape on hills right now so its very much a death loop. Good to run w/ the guys... been a while since we've done that!

Afterwards we rendezvoused w/ the trail running team (Allie, James, Devra) and the Gallowalking team (Andrea, Amiee) for a birthday brunch @ Ruth's. 

Happy 26th Birthday to Andrea! 

AM - 3 miles. Andrea and I walked over to the Cottonwood complex, ran on the grass, then walked back home.

PM - 6 miles, horsepark + xc park.

Great conversation w/ my parents just a few minutes ago. They're getting all fired up for the family turkey trot in a couple weeks. My Dad said he did a 2 x (800, 1600) + 400-800-1200-1600 workout on the track yesterday. That's 5.5 miles of intervals - where did that come from?!?! And then the two of them were running hill repeats at South Mountain Park today. My family just cracks me up. Gotta love it.

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I like this. I think cancelling the NYC Marathon was the right call (regardless of the bad timing, etc), but I'm disturbed and saddened by the fact that some people in NY were organizing disruption / violence against the race, and that was part of the reason it couldn't be run (safely). You would think those idiots could find something better to do (like, volunteer w/ the recovery efforts?) rather than go out and try to hurt people running the race (just threatening to is bad enough). This is why I hesitate to tell people I'm from New York (even though I grew up closer to Canada than NYC), and I just say I'm from Colorado :-) 

Mike Cassidy offers his perspective. Worth a read. 

AM - 9 miles. THIS IS THE PLACE / Zoo / Donner Park.

PM - 30 minutes of pool running. Probably got my heart rate up to about 50. 

Here's an early draft of the 2013 USATF Circuit schedule. If anything, a few more races might be added (SLC, Des News, Lavender Days). I'll keep everyone updated and as always - if anyone has suggestions, let me know.

AM - 8 miles up to work.

PM - 7.3 miles home. 

Hopefully everyone will exercise their constitutional right to fill out a write-in vote for Rob Murphy as the new governor of Utah today. I think he's the man to stop SkiLink and bring back the 10K!

AM - 8 miles up to work.

PM - 4.3 miles down to SHP. 

The big take-home from the election is that Salt Lake voted for more parks and trails, while Colorado legalized pot. So maybe we'll move up a spot in the fittest state rankings after all!

AM - 11.5 miles up to work. Heading to Tennessee (via Chicago, of course, because its always so quick and easy to get to Knoxville) this afternoon for Nate & Nora's wedding weekend. Otherwise we would totally be at the Clean Water 5K. If you're around on Saturday, run it! Allie and James were even kind enough to start the race at a reasonable hour (9am).

New Vizipro. Light up jackets. Slick! Don't get hit by cars!

AM - 13 miles in Knoxville. McFee/Turkey/Bacon loop.

AM - 10.2 miles in hillbilly Las Vegas (Gaitlinburg). Ran up the Cherokee-Orchard road, which is is a grinding climb. Saw a bear. Then we went to Flapjacks.

PM - 13 miles on the McFee / Turkey / Bacon loop. Same run as Friday, but 12 minutes faster. We had an awesome weekend at our friends' wedding. I'm not sure how I managed to feel so good on this run. Stayed up about 6 hours past normal bedtime each of the last 3 nights... Well worth it :-) Also discovered that dancing, of all things, doesn't hurt Andrea's hip... go figure. So we did that until our legs gave out. Flying back to SLC tonight.

It was 70 degrees and sunny all 3 days in TN.

AM - 8.7 miles up to work. Nice to see Utah got a little character building weather!

PM - 4.3 miles down to SHP. Walked around a bit through the snow w/ Andrea and then we ran a lap around the track just because its fun to run on the track when its covered in snow.

AM - 10 miles. Post run, I took a hard fall while scraping off my jeep - luckily all of my body weight came down on my elbow, which I barely need for athletics anyways. I'm not planning on getting into javelin anytime soon. The jeep miraculously started on the first try after a full week off sitting around in some colder temps, so I'll take a somewhat painful fall as a tradeoff for not having to get out my jumpstarter.

Saw a pair of guys laying a skintrack above HCI when I got up to work (Update - it was exactly who I guessed it was). They were moving pretty quick. I was a bit envious. There's rarely enough snow on the hills above the upper parking lot to make it worth while (without risking putting a rock through your shin), even in the middle of winter. 

PM - 30 minutes of pool running w/ Andrea. 

AM - 8 miles up to work. 

PM - 8 miles home. 

AM - 8 miles up to work. The battery on my Timex died! I've had this one for 3 years so it was due. Finding a tiny screwdriver and replacing the battery will be my big project for tonight.

PM - 4.3 miles down to SHP + 10 x 100m on the track. Andrea was getting sick of me talking about how out of shape I am, so she told me to snap out of it and go do some strides.

AM - 8 miles up to work. I know, I know... pretty exciting stuff!

PM - 4.3 miles down to SHP + 8 x 100m strides on the track. So, slightly different than yesterday. 

AM - 16 miles. Wasatch Blvd  / 6200S loop. Kept a pretty good pace (avg 5:59/mi) and picked it up a bit at the end, hitting the last couple in ~5:20. Last 10 miles was ~56:30. Good little test for the hamstring. I'm getting really anxious to start rolling again.

After I finished I did 30 minutes of very light pool jogging w/ Andrea. Nice way to cool down the muscles. 

AM - 10.5 miles. Started easy and then gradually picked it up throughout the run... miles 9 and 10 were 5:21 (down) and 5:13 (flat).

PM - 4 miles w/ ANDREA. Best run in a long time :-) 

AM - 11.5 miles. Zoo / Wasatch Drive / Random wandering around Research Park.

PM - 30 minutes pool running w/ Andrea. 

AM - 11.5 miles up to work. 

PM - 6 miles. Down to the track, 6 x 200m in ~33 seconds + 4 x 100m strides. Slowly but surely, the legs are coming back. Stride is still a little choppy when running faster. The sunset was pretty spectacular.

Red-eye flight to JFK tonight. 

PM - 13 miles at a brisk pace in CT. Hilly run and a bit tired from the traveling... Flew into JFK at 6am, met my Dad and drove to Brooklyn to pick up my mom (who flew in a few days ago) and sister... then got some breakfast and drove up to Connecticut. Finally got out to run around 1pm... finished up and then hauled firewood for a while. Exhausted now! :-)

AM - 8 miles. The Newtown Turkey Trot is close to my Aunt's house so I decided to run this as my first harder workout of the new training cycle. Tough course - a big climb in the first mile, then flying back down the hill, and rollers for the second half of the course. 

My goal was 16:00, which although its not a very fast time for me, considering what I've been doing lately, it seemed sort of ambitious. I jogged 3 miles and did zero strides to warmup. Off the start about 6 high school guys went out hard. I caught all but one a little before the 1 mile mark, which I hit in 5:18. The kid out front had a decent gap on me. Second mile was 4:51, where my Mom said "Don't pull your hamstring!" I just maintained the effort on the third mile, which was around 5:02. Pretty good effort and my hamstring felt good. Now I just need to be able to run a faster average pace for 10 more miles by late January. Shouldn't be a problem :-)

As soon as I finished I ran back along the course to find my Dad. He got food poisoning a week ago while traveling, felt terrible yesterday, yet still woke up this morning and said "Alright, I'm racing today!" Love it. I was able to run the last half-mile w/ him... that was definitely one of my running highlights of 2012. Its been a long time since we ran a race together. Both of my parents are planning on running the PHX 1/2 in March if I run the marathon.

For my second place finish, I won a gigantic trophy (which I'm donating to my sister's apartment) and an even BIGGER pumpkin pie. 

PM - 7 miles before dinner on a beautiful, sunny day.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!! 

AM - 11 miles. To avoid the narrow shouldered roads and relentless hills around my aunt's house, my parents and I drove over to a local park which connects to a dirt rail trail. It was a nice run, all on soft surfaces. First half on the rail trail, then ran a bunch of loops around the lake trail.

PM - 10 miles. I had to take my sister's friend down to the train station so I stopped on the way back to basically do the same run as this morning. Pace was a little quicker and I finished the last mile in 5:33 just as the sun was setting. Now, thanksgiving dinner round two.

AM - 15 miles. Easy paced run on a tough, hilly route. Webb Mountain X 3. Pretty wiped by the end. Long day of travel back to SLC on tap.

Had a really great time w/ the family this week... Nonstop action and fun... We're on day #4 and my sister hasn't even gotten mad at me once yet... Andrea can attest to the fact that is something of a miracle!

AM - 20 miles. Did my standard long run loop for when Jeremy Ranch is too cold... down through Holladay to the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, then back along Wasatch Blvd. Kept the pace relaxed (~6:40 avg)... surprisingly didn't feel too tight after a lot of time sitting in the car and airplane yesterday. It feels good to be ramping it up a bit again. Time to make some repairs to my aerobic house.

PM - 4 miles easy. 

A couple pics from Thanksgiving in Connecticut. Somehow my cousins and sister think I'm less dorky now (despite the fact that all evidence points to the fact that I'm more of a dork), so we ended up having a ton of fun. My sister also brought her boyfriend, who I liked a lot... we jammed out on Friday night (he played guitar while I handled the vocals)...

AM - 6.5 miles easy.

PM - 7 miles easy. First 3 w/ Andrea. 

Talked to Fritz and Scott and we're thinking of a big group long run this Saturday. Maybe meet somewhere b/w SLC and Utah Co? I'll post details once we get it ironed out a bit more.

AM - 8 miles up to work.

PM - 6.5 miles. Down to the track w/ the last 2 miles starting at MP effort and progressing a little - 5:10, 4:55 - then 8 x 200m in ~34 seconds.  

I read Running with the Kenyans on the plane back to SLC the other night. It was entertaining... not really something to read if you are looking for inspiring training, but it does provide a nice glimpse into the simplicity of life in that part of the world. There is a great part when the author visits Emmanuel Mutai's camp - the guy is fairly wealthy, but he essentially lives in a shack to "keep his edge." My favorite quote was when the author spoke to Brother Colm... "You people come to find the secret, but you know what the secret is? That you think there's a secret. There is no secret." I swear I made the title of my blog before I read this book!

AM - 8 miles up to work.

PM - 9 miles home. 

Long Run - Saturday, 8:00am - Riverton JRP. Meet here. I'm guessing we'll do something like 17-20 miles and it won't necessarily be slow.

AM - 13 miles. 3 up, 2 down, 8 mile AT* Tempo in 43:00 (5:23/mi avg). Splits - 5:26, 5:25, 5:23, 5:23, 5:26, 5:18, 5:20, 5:21. I had 6-8 miles @ 5:20-5:30 pace on the schedule, so I'm happy that I was on the longer/quicker end of the spectrum, while keeping the effort level where I wanted it to be. I would have been perfectly happy if this morning's workout was 5:30 average... I've got a long way to go from here, but I'm not starting at a bad place right now.

PM - 30 minutes of pool running w/ Andrea. 

[*I'm using "AT" (Aerobic Threshold) instead of "MP" (Marathon Pace) from now on... its mainly just semantics, but I feel like it does a better job of capturing what the workout is really about. Marathon effort can be 5:05s on downhills and 5:45s on uphills... that's a big range, so you aren't really always running within that +/- 5 seconds of goal MP. I really like the way Mark Hadley classifies different types of workouts.]

Got a good night of sleep on our new mattress. A couple weeks ago Lindsey D suggested two ways for Andrea to break out of her injury cycle - have a baby or get a new mattress. Needless to say, I became a big fan of shopping for mattresses immediately! Between the new mattress and the inversion table that now takes up a large portion of the living room, I really should NOT have any back problems in the future! :-)

AM - 12 miles up to work.

PM - 4.5 miles down to the track, then 8 x 100m strides.

The USATF meeting is going on right now in Florida. Of major interest is obviously the new Olympic Trials standards. Rumor has it that the Men's "B" standard is coming back, but its going to be faster than the "A" standard has ever been. Probably 2:15 / 2:18 for the guys, 2:37 / 2:43 for the ladies. We'll see...

... and its confirmed:

Men's A = 2:15  B = 2:18, 1:05

Women's A = 2:37  B = 2:43, 1:15

Qualifying window opens August 2013. Game on.