Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 11 miles. Hilly run in Sedona w/ Andrea biking along. Garmin said it was ~700 feet of elevation gain... all up and down. Really nice run.

PM - 10 miles. Ocotillo golf course loop. Unreal weather (WARM!). At 7.5 miles I crossed paths w/ Andrea and ran a few miles with her.

I made a blog post with some pictures from Sedona... what a great place - we'll be back there for sure: "Winter" in Sedona 

A couple shots... lots more on the blog link...

AM - 19.3 miles. Ran 5 miles w/ Andrea, changed shoes, got a drink, then got going on the workout - 15K Tempo in 48:35 (~5:13 / mile average). I mapped out a nice loop of about 5K from my parent's house that didn't cross any major streets, did that 3 times... breezy and 50 degrees - pretty much perfect conditions for this workout. Splits were 5:18, 5:12, 5:20, 5:15, 5:11, 5:13, 5:14, 5:12, 5:09, and 1:32 for the last 0.32 miles. Changed shoes again, then ran another 5 miles... I was hungry by the time the cooldown was over!

I was very tempted to stretch this out to 20K or a half-marathon tempo since I was in a good rhythm. But I was reading Ryan Hall's book last night and he was talking about how there is a fine line between workouts that are a fitness deposit and ones that are a withdrawal. I wanted to make sure I pulled the plug early enough to make sure it was the former.

Pleased with how this workout went considering the volume of miles I have in my legs right now. 

PM - 4 miles easy on the dirt along the canal. Andrea gave me a 30 minute leg massage this afternoon, working out all the kinks / knots / etc. I'm pretty sure I owe her some $$ for that, she did an awesome job. I'm such a baby - I handle the tempo run better than the massage... but it was definitely helpful! 

AM - 10 miles. Up early this morning to get in the run before a 7am flight back to SLC. It was 55 degrees in Phoenix at 3:58AM when I started - hard to beat that! A lot easier to get out of bed and out the door when you can just throw on a pair of shorts and hit the road on a nice warm morning. Ran the Ocotillo golf course loop, dodging sprinklers.

PM - 10 miles, easy. 

AM - 11.5 miles. JAJA Wednesday. A very nice run as usual. On the last little push up to HCI it actually started snowing!

PM - 9.7 miles home. 

Track Thursday! Tomorrow - 5:30PM, Olympus HS. Nothing crazy, just some short reps (200-400m) @ 5K pace. You can squeeze through the fence at the south end of the track at the parking lot where the baseball fields used to be ( Map )

AM - 10.5 miles. 10K Tempo in 32:36 (5:15/mi average). Splits - 5:25, 5:21, 5:14, 5:10, 5:16, 5:07, 1:03. Warmed up and cooled down a little over 2 miles each. I purposely tried to dial it back a bit (especially off the start) this morning... I don't want to start trying to make each workout better than the previous one. Right now I'm at the point where I could do that - but there is still a lot of work to be done between now and Boston, so I need to make sure I keep things at the right effort level.

Track workout this afternoon... supercompensation day! 

PM - 9 miles. Met Adam (ACorn) and Andrea at the track and we warmed up together. Workout was 4 x 200m, 8 x 400m, 4 x 200m. Didn't try to crush it - just wanted to get in some 3K/5K pace work. Averaged 34 seconds for the first set of 200s, then 71.1 seconds for the 400s, and 33 seconds for the last set of 200s. Recovery was a 200m jog b/w reps. Adam and I ran 2+ miles for a cooldown. Really great to have some company on the track tonight! 400s were a little quicker than when I did the AM/PM double 2 weeks ago but the effort felt the same, so that's a good sign.

When I got home, Andrea had the ice bucket prepared for me so I could give my feet a good, cold soak. What a sweetheart! :-) 

AM - 11.5 miles up to work, easy jog. It took 2 weeks, but I think I finally have completely kicked the chest congestion out of my system... and I got in a lot of quality workouts during the time I was sick.

For anyone that doesn't already know, there will be a gigantic group meeting for a long run at JulieC's house tomorrow (7:30am, details on her blog). On Sunday, AdamRW and I are meeting at Highland High School at 8am for an easy 10-12 miles. Anyone is welcome to join us.

Some "local" running stoke - interview w/ Eric Houle of SUU. I like his response about what guys like Cam Levins bring to the table - in terms of getting their teammates to rise to a new level:

Anytime any program can get someone to blow up, in a positive way, and achieve great things, it inspires everyone around them. All of the sudden, the focus is “Is it possible?” and yes, it is possible. They see it happen in front of their eyes. They know, yes, the work they’re putting in and the things they believe they can achieve are happening. They can do them. And that’s what (Baumgartner and Levins) bring to our program. I think they bring inspiration, I think they bring belief — that the program does have — but now (their teammates) see and realize.

In many ways I think this blog has the same type of effect for a lot of us.

Talent and hard work are big parts of the equation - but those two things will only take you as far as what you believe you are capable of doing. Every one of us probably has the potential to be better than we think we can be... you just gotta believe your ceiling is a lot higher.

PM - 8.5 miles home.  

AM - 25 miles. Drove down to JulieC's house w/ Andrea, Allie, and Fritz... we were on time despite sleeping through our alarm and waking up 45 seconds before it was time to leave.

Met up with the big group... probably two dozen or so... and we were off! First couple miles were colder than expected (my toes were numb) and then it started to warm up once the sun came over the mountains. I really liked running down in this area - you are surrounded by amazing views of Lone Peak, Box Elder, and Timp the whole time. Its really a stunning place if you love the mountains.

Our group of a dozen or so guys slowly got whittled down as the run went on. Started easy and built into it. Averaged just over 6:45 pace for the first 14 miles, then we (Fritz, Scott, and Walter) got moving a bit faster on the gradual downhill back to Julie's house. Every mile got a little faster, peaking with the 20th mile in 4:52. Then Scott, Fritz, and I backed it off and went out for a "cool down" loop which ended up being 5 hilly miles at ~6:00 pace for me... everything feels easier after you've run a sub 5 mile. The average pace for the last 11 miles was 5:52. Total time was 2:39 for 25 miles. I felt stronger as the run went on, and might have kept going past 25 if Andrea hadn't yelled "stop running!" at me :-)

Thanks Julie for setting this all up today... and thanks for the yummy breakfast afterwards! Great to see all of you - and thanks for the push, guys. Its so much easier to get these quality long runs in with a group like this. A lot of bloggers are going to be running fantastic races this spring - its awesome to see everyone running so strong!

PM - 4 miles shakeout around the neighborhood. As usual, no watch... feeling very good.