Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 10 miles. Soft surfaces and easy pace were the goals for this morning, so we went to Dimple Dell park. It was a really nice run. I may have kicked the 5:20 guy's butt yesterday, but the 9:00 guy almost got us today :-) 

PM - 5.5 miles easy. What a nice afternoon! 

Let's develop everything! Seriously, a 200 home development in Cardiff Fork? Has anyone that supports this idea ever been in Cardiff Fork? It is paradise... especially in the winter. I get so mad about this stuff!

AM - 10.8 miles. Ran 6 w/ Andrea, then headed up to work. Feeling recovered from Saturday's workout. 

PM - 12.8 miles. Ran 4.5 miles down to the track, then rolled right into the workout - 5 x 1000m + 5 x 200m. Wanted to keep the 1Ks somewhere b/w 5K/10K and Half-Marathon pace (since there is not much difference between those paces!). Splits were 3:07, 3:05, 3:05, 3:04, 3:01 (400m jog b/w reps), then averaged 32 seconds for the 200s (with a 200m jog b/w reps). Cooled down 2.8 miles in the park with Andrea. 

AM - 12.2 miles. Ran the horsepark loop w/ Andrea, then up to work.

PM - 8.1 miles, easy. Down to Sugarhouse and around the perimeter of the track while Andrea did her workout. Just took it really easy today, after 4 of the last 8 days have had some quality miles.

AM - 8.2 miles up work, easy. Chilly outside this morning! Brrrr

PM - 7.4 miles, down to Sugarhouse and ran 3 miles on the grass w/ Andrea. 

We're going to do the 5K track race on November 12th. Since we'll be past Halloween at that point, we can't call it Spooky Fast... so I think Turkey Trot Tune-Up 5K will be the official name unless someone thinks of something better. For now, lets plan on ~9:30am... that way it will hopefully be slightly warmer outside and someone won't pull their hamstring a week before Philly. :-)

AM - 5 miles easy on campus. Another 10 hour night of sleep. I am racking these up lately! This afternoon is the "dress rehersal" half-marathon tempo. I basically got the idea for this workout from the Hanson's standard 26.2K @ MP, although I feel like 16 miles is a bit too long at altitude in terms of recovery... so for the sake of symmetry I scaled it back to 13.1. 

PM - 15 miles. The BIG tempo run, as described above, out on the frontage road between the airport and Saltair. I ran 13.1 miles in 1:09:16 (Average pace = 5:17 / mile).

I am ready. The cake is done baking, and its out of the oven now. All that's left to do is let it cool off, then add some frosting and sprinkles over the next couple weeks.

I really didn't want to crush this workout, just run it nice and controlled. My splits were: 5:21, 5:21, 5:20, 5:19, 5:18, 5:18, 5:13, 5:16, 5:17, 5:18, 5:18, 5:14, 5:13, :30. Very even effort. When I accidentally hit a faster mile in the middle, I was able to ease right back to the proper pace. As soon as I finished I drove back along the route and made sure Andrea and Emily B were doing OK, and drove alongside them as they ran their last couple miles. They had a great workout as well! We cooled down a mile in the dark together once they finished up.

If you told me at the beginning of May that I'd run 1:09:16 in a half-marathon RACE this year, even on an aided course, I would have been pretty happy with that. To run that fast during a workout, without pushing it too hard, during a stretch of 140 mile weeks... well, that's just cool! And it makes me feel very confident about my ability to execute a great race in 3 weeks. 

AM - 9 miles. Started w/ Andrea, then up to work. I wasn't feeling too trashed this morning, which is somewhat surprising after what we put our bodies through last night! I'm definitely going to wear the Fastwitch for the marathon... I hate giving up the 1.5oz (compared to the Type As), but it will be worth it when my feet aren't hurting at mile 23. We did a comparison of all our racing flats recently on the blog.

PM - 9.5 miles, home from work. Great run... beautiful outside, perfect weather, really enjoyed it... looking forward to the long run tomorrow. 

*Long Run tomorrow, all are welcome! - 8am - Jordan River Trail... meet at James Madison Park (3300S 1100W). We'll have people going 14-22 miles, easy pace until the very end.*

Here's some video I shot last night. If you get past my first minute of rambling, there's some good footage of Andrea running...

AM - 22 miles. Long run on the Jordan River Parkway. Had another great crew this morning - Andrea, Emily B, Devra, AdamRW, ACorn, Chad, and Bryan. Chilly at the start (had to use hot hands in my gloves this morning). We ran the first 20 miles at a pretty good clip (~6:57 average pace), then I added a faster 2 mile effort in 10:01 (5:01, 5:00). The stretch that I did the faster effort on had a good little hill in the middle of it (out & back so I hit it twice), so I was pleased to be able to accelerate to that pace at the end of the run without having to crank it up too much. Great run, great company, great conversations... it just flew by! Really enjoyed myself this morning. 

PM - 4.4 miles, horsepark loop.

She says I'm a tough coach... but marathon training is not easy! :-)

A) Andrea after the long run this morning, B) Andrea after the tempo run on Thursday night, C) Now she is officially becoming a marathoner!