Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 18 miles. Got started at the crack of 11:30am for an easy recovery "long" run w/ Andrea, Allie, Rob, Kevin, and Collin. We ran 7 w/ the girls and then started doing loops around SHP. Bumped into Bill Cobler and he joined us for a bit and ran part of the way home w/ me. Very nice morning afternoon... sunny and relatively warm out. No soreness/tiredness at all from the indoor track workout yesterday, which bodes well for the week ahead!

PM - 4 miles easy. I was thinking about taking the evening off, but then I saw that the weather service was issuing a frostbite warning, so that made it a no-brainer to get outside for a shakeout. It was still a balmy 3 degrees outside. 

Super-Inversion is on the way. By the way, that weather blog that I linked is really interesting to follow if you live in Utah.

AM - 9 miles up to work.

PM - 5.5 miles down to the gym, met Andrea there for an intense hot tub workout. I broke my streak of not punching cars... wish I had stronger fists and could have shattered that knucklehead's window.

Here's the website you want to bookmark for the 2013 circuit.

AM - 12 miles. 3.5 mi warmup, 7.5 mile AT Tempo in 40:17 (5:22/mi avg). Splits - 5:21, 5:28, 5:28, 5:25, 5:28, 5:20, 5:12, 2:34. Cooled down a mile. And it was truly a cooldown, because I was quite warm and sweaty by the end. I probably had too many clothes on, but that's better than being under layered.

The goal for this morning was to get in a solid, but not taxing, aerobic effort. I thought this might finally be the workout that would get shifted to the treadmill (my tempo loop still has a lot of ice spots), but yesterday I noticed that the stretch of road on 1700E b/w 21st and 33rd was pretty clear, so I just ran back and forth there. Took it easy on the 180 degree turns and had to be very conscious of any slippery painted spots on the roads. And then the last 1.5 miles was a bit downhill back home, hence the faster pace. I normally wouldn't do that but I wanted to get a little quicker turnover at the end and didn't want to pull a muscle, so I considered it a fair tradeoff since the windchill was probably below zero.  

PM - 4 miles easy. 

This is a cool dataset - showing the improvement in the depth of American long distance running from 2005-2012. Hope to see this trend continue.

AM - 10 miles up to work, easy jog.

PM - 4.5 miles down to SHP. 

Lost in the shuffle of all this Lance nonsense is a great interview w/ Alan Webb...

You know I’m trying to get the best out of myself. And if you aren’t really getting the results you want, you can’t keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result.

I think a lesson I’ve learned is that when you do get frustrated and have setbacks, it makes you ask the question, “Do I really want to do this? Is this something I like to do?” And I’ve realized that I just love the sport – I love doing it.

If you are going to do go down, you gotta go down fighting. Don’t just give up. That’s what it’s all about in the end.

I feel privileged to be even allowed to hang around (this training group). The dynamic with these guys is better than I could have imagined. Everyone here is very driven – everyone knows how to work hard – but these guys are really smart guys – smart form a training standpoint of knowing when to push and not to – and they can keep you accountable. 

That last quote is exactly how I've been feeling about our "weekend workout" group over the past couple months.

I also want to share this interview with Scott Wietecha. I know him from Saucony... we met at the 1/2 champs in Duluth last summer and have become internet friends. So creepy, I know. Anyways, he ran 2:18 and was the 2nd American at Houston a couple days ago. 

AM - 10 miles. 3 mi warmup, 6 x 1/2 Mile in 2:29, 2:28, 2:28, 2:28, 2:30, 2:20. Full recovery (1/2 mi back to the start) in between. 1.5 mi cooldown. Just keeping the engine primed. Slightly faster than HM pace on the first 5 (hard to go much slower given the immense amount of recovery), then finished a little quicker on the last rep.  

PM - 4 miles easy. Getting smoggier outside. 

There's a giveaway for a free entry to the SLC Winter Series 10K on the USATF-Utah Facebook pace.

***Lance Warning - Don't read if you are sick of this***

I was thinking about the Lance/Oprah interview puppet show that is going to air tonight, and while trying to jot down my thoughts, Rick Reilly posted an article that sums it up best (and who ever agrees with Rick Reilly?!?!). Steve Magness also offers some perspective on what it was like to actually work with Lance. Like Steve, I want to believe that amazing things can happen in athletics without the use of PEDs.

I feel embarrassed that I was duped by this guy. Back in the day, I was a Lance fanatic. I painted "GO LANCE" on my car every summer, watched every stage (live in the morning, highlights at night), and spent A LOT of time and energy (especially in college) defending him against doubters and accusers. I fully believed in him. As time went on after the 7 TdFs and more evidence came out over the years, it started to seem a little too good to be true, and I began to think that if anyone was smart enough to beat the system and get away with it, that person was probably Lance. I still wanted to trust him, though... he was a hero to so many people, and while that doesn't justify cheating, there is something to be said for the inspiration / hope he (and the foundation) provided.

But that doesn't absolve him. I'm not even talking about the doping. Anyone who knows me understands how passionately anti-cheating I am. I hate it. All the cyclists were cheating then... whatever. And lying about it. Whatever. It happens in other sports too. It would be naive to think otherwise.

Lance took the lying to the extreme though - going on the offensive, filing lawsuits against people who were actually telling the truth, using his foundation as a shield, targeting specific people and attacking their finances and character. Examples 1 - 2 - 3... I can go on with these links. He sold out his teammates, friends, and coaches... while making millions and millions of dollars in the process. He didn't just cheat and lie, he was a HUGE jerk about it too (and "jerk" is not the word I want to use there, I'm keeping it family safe). He's coming clean now because he has no choice - the whistleblower suit could potentially bankrupt him, and he wants to keep competing in triathlons. He isn't doing this to clean up athletics. If that was his motive, he could have made an impact a long time ago.

I don't know what angle he'll play tonight. Maybe he'll actually show some remorse? I hope that regardless of how this plays out, he is not allowed to compete in sanctioned running events again. I would feel a little cheated if I was standing on the starting line of a race and he was there too, because its been proven (through his own actions) that he simply doesn't have the integrity to be a good role model and ambassador for the sport of running. He can do other things to make a positive difference in the world, but not through athletics anymore.

Plus, he dated one of the Olsen twins. Which one? Hopefully we'll never know...

AM - 8 miles easy. 

Flying to AZ after work today. I'll be in Phoenix and San Diego for 7 of the next 9 days... couldn't have planned this any better! :-)

AM - 8 miles, Ocotillo loop. Then did strides w/ no shirt on. I love being in the sun again!

Went to the expo, picked up my stuff. I'm bib #207, which means I'm seeded 7th. Some good guys in the field, a couple OTQers. I'm excited. 

PM - 2 miles with a couple accelerations to shake out the nerves.