Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 4.5 mile easy run. Then the fun began...

Started from Brighton, skinned up to Catherine's Pass. Skied a pair of incredible laps off the ridge b/w the pass and Sunset Peak. Then we booted up to the top of Mt Tuscarora, and since we were up there, decided to tag Mt Wolverine as well. Skied the bowl, tried to ski Stupid Chute but it was too sketchy, climbed back out, up to Wolverine, then wound our way back to Brighton and my jeep. It was a very adventurous day and we had so much fun. In true Andrea & Jake fashion, we triggered 2 decent sized (but slow moving and manageable) avalanches, and I got myself in over my head climbing with no protection or snow tools in a very exposed area. Ahhh, what a day! I'll write up a full recap on Wasatch and Beyond tomorrow. I have a lot of photos to go through tonight.... here's a few...

AM - 10.5 miles up to work. Bumped into AdamRW along the way and ran the last couple miles with him. Legs felt like they had some real good bounce to them this morning.

More photos from yesterday's adventure. 

PM - 7.8 miles down to SHP and met Andrea along the way, we ran about 4 miles or so together. 

AM - 6.3 miles. Zoo and back from HCI.

PM - 8.7 miles. Met Andrea and Redd at Highland. We warmed up 2 miles on the grass, then went down to the track.  Workout was 12 x 400m in average 68.8 seconds w/ 200m float recovery. All the reps were very consistent - fastest was 68.1 and slowest was 69.9 (the first one). We cooled down around the perimeter of the park. It was a perfect afternoon for running!

This was a good workout for me because I didn't have to press to hit the splits. I can feel the wheels coming back. The effort level was about the same as when I was running these kind of reps in 72 seconds a month or two ago.  

We also met a guy who is a 400m/800m runner. He agreed to meet me for some 200s later this week. A long sprinter would be a good addition to our training group! I need someone to chase :-) 

PS - Another epic steeplechase. 

AM - 12 miles. JAKJAF run... SHP-Tanner-Parleys-Wasatch-Zoo-SHP loop. Nothing like picking the hilliest route possible after running quarters the night before. Added on a little extra once we got back to the park (Andrea's idea - not mine!). Such a nice, pleasant morning - there wasn't even a massive wind blowing out of Parley's Canyon like usual.

PM - 4 miles. 

AM - 7.3 miles up to work.

PM - 7.5 miles. Ran down to the track and met Andrea, Allie, and (our newest blog member) Rob. Workout was 8 x 200m w/ 200m jog recovery. Rob and I took turns leading - we averaged 30.8 seconds - the fastest 200s I've run in quite some time! It felt good to get the legs turning over quicker. When the girls finished, we jogged about 10 minutes to cool down. 

Excellent post from the Track & Field Superfan about Cam Levins, high mileage, frequent racing, and achieving the "tireless state." 

AM - 4.2 miles w/ Andrea. Easy breezy. Provo City 5K tomorrow.

PM - 3 miles.

Thou Shalt Run!

What a tagline for a race... only in Provo :-)

Went down w/ Andrea and Kevin this morning. Warmed up a little over 3 miles, then did some strides. I need to start getting a better warmup for 5Ks - getting in a few minutes of threshold pace running to get my heart rate up. That's also what the caffeine pill is for, except that I forgot to take it today!

Off the start a bunch of kids sprinted out FAST! One of them, who couldn't have been more than 4 feet tall, stayed with me for about 200 yards or so. Then I was solo the rest of the way. The course is essentially the last 5K of UVM, so you go up the country club hill and then its a gradual downhill to downtown. Its an aided course, but I think a flat sea-level course would be a bit quicker.

I came through 2 miles in ~9:38 (I didn't have my watch set to auto-split and there were no markers for the 5K), then the last mile was 4:51 or 4:52. Final time just a tad over 15 minutes. Oh well.

There are a lot of upsides to marathon training, but the downside is that you get really comfortable just running "comfortably hard" all the time. You don't spend a lot of time on the other side of the red line when you are running lots of miles, long tempos, etc. That was my problem today, I just felt comfortable at 4:50 pace and mentally I didn't want to push it any harder. The workouts I have planned for the next month are going to be geared towards "re-learning" how to make it hurt. Lots of work in the Mile to 5K race pace range.

Kevin ran very strong and finished 2nd. Andrea continued her excellent streak of races and not only won in a great time (17:08) but she finished 4th overall! After she came in we waited just a little bit and there was Rachelle - who ran 19:30-something, a great PR for her! I think sub-19 is in the cards for her this year. Lots of awesome running from the blog today - Allie and James broke the record in the relay, Fritz ran a half-marathon PR (if you don't count the first half of his marathons), Emily B ran a PR and won the women's half, and Steve ran his weekly sub 2:40 marathon :-)  Seriously, I think Steve is 23 years old. Met some other bloggers for the first time - including Merri and BrandonD.

Cooled down 5 miles back to the car. Then made our way back for awards and the Cinco de Mayo festivities. Run13 did a good job with this one, I'll be back down in a couple weeks for the Memorial Day 10K.

PM - 3 miles easy w/ Andrea. Now off to see The Avengers. I am having the ultimate birthday weekend for a dorky 14 year old runner...