hot tub / massage session. rest.

9.5 easy

my quads are pretty sore from saturday's race. i would have liked to have gotten out for a few miles yesterday, but there was no time to squeeze it in. might be the case every sunday for a while. 

one thing i had not noticed until i ran this morning is that my calves are not sore at all from saturday's race. this is very unique for me and is a huge step in the right direction. i have had at least one sore calf or both calves after every race for almost 2 years. didn't matter the distance, something was not right. i don't know if i am ready to cross out my goal to the left of figuring out my calf issue completely, but i am on the right track.

also, i looked at my past 5ks (i have only run 5) and i think saturday was a PR for me. Murray last year might have ended up faster, but it was a short course. so, my 17:59 there doesn't count.

9 easy - ended at a 7:45 average

Accepted today as an "off" day and just kept on trucking to 9 miles. Never felt great. Legs felt heavy and my breathing seemed a little off for the first couple miles. Some days are just like that I guess.

Going to shoot for a track workout tomorrow and then take Thursday and Friday super easy and short to taper for my birthday run of 31 on Saturday.

Met Fritz and Dan at HHS. Warmed up around Sugar House once and then headed to the track. I had a plan to do 12 x 400 at about 5k pace or slightly faster. I didn't want to push it too hard. Just wanted to get in the flow. I have done this workout twice relatively recently. Today, I ended up doing a baker's dozen (13x400) and then the final 200.

JUNE '14 - 88, 90, 88, 88, 89, 87, 88, 86, 86, 86, 80, 76 and a 32 for 200 to hit 5k.

AUGUST '14 - 87, 86, 86, 85, 85, 85, 85, 84, 85, 84, 79, 73 and a 32 for 200 to hit 5k.

TODAY - 91, 89, 88, 87, 87, 86, 86, 84, 84, 83, 82, 82, 70, and a 32 for the 200.

Overall, they felt pretty easy, aside from the last 400 and the 200 of course. That is a good sign and I think this is a pretty good benchmark to go off of coupled with my 5k from last Saturday.

9 easy

I was planning on taking today and tomorrow pretty easy to "taper" for Saturday, but I figured 9 super easy wouldn't do any harm. Ask me if I was wrong come mile 28 on Saturday. I will likely only do 3-4 tomorrow.

I felt surprisingly good after yesterday's workout. I thought I could feel a little tightening in my right calf, but it never really surfaced. Track speed still seems to cause some sort of flare up in the calves, so I will have to watch that. I wore compression sleeves on my calves and quads yesterday after the workout. Perhaps that helped.

3.1 for turning 31. seemed appropriate. the real celebratory run is tomorrow...31.

31 - 8:18avg

Last year I ran 30 miles for my 30th birthday. Seemed like a decent idea to keep up the tradition. 

Felt pretty good the entire time. Had no real pace goal other than keeping it near 8:30. Just a long fun run was the plan. Gradually picked up the pace the second half and then pushed the last mile for giggles and to see how the legs were and finished mile 31 in a 6:44. Don't know about 32 next year. But today was fun. 

20 min on the eliptical with some stretching. Feel alright considering yesterday's 31. Will likely feel worse tomorrow. 

Took the day off. Would have liked to have run in the morning, but I was too tired. Overall, I feel alright but my right quad is pretty sore from Saturday.

8 easy with one mile a little quicker to test out the legs a bit. I almost felt better at the faster pace. The pounding of each step on my right leg caused some pain in my right quad. Will likely be all but gone by tomorrow. 

Met Daniel and Noah at HHS and warmed up with a lap of Sugar House. I had a goal to do 6x800 at about the 6:00 pace just to get some turnover, but not destroy myself. I am still feeling the 31 from Saturday and have a 5k this coming Saturday. Daniel ran 1-4 and then had to take off to class. Noah ran 2-5 and then also had to take off for class. I finished the 6th solo and cooled down with a lap+ of the park. I was slightly faster than the goal pace, and that was fine.

2:55, 2:57, 2:54, 2:53, 2:54, 2:48.

Met Fritz and Noah at HHS and ran down to Liberty for a few loops. Casual run at a 7:19 avg. Easy tomorrow to hopefully feel good by Saturday's race.

contemplation the last few weeks -- Comparing the fastrunningblog to 2 years ago, there are some significant differences. Times, they are a changing.

6 easy. Race tomorrow. 

I didn't feel great on my 2.25 warmup. Just didn't feel in the groove. That changed once the race started. My main goal was to run faster than I did on Thanksgiving (18:39) on this same course. 

There were a couple people at the start that said they were hoping for sub-18. I decided I would hang on to them as long as I could and if I blew apart, so be it. The course is one big square with the first 1.25 slightly downhill and the rest slightly uphill, aside from the final .1 which goes back to a slight down to flat. 

First mile was fast but it felt alright. The uphill took its toll, but I actually felt relatively good until mile 2.5. The wheels started to come off and my pace dropped. I hung on the best I could and snagged a PR. It might not have been the prettiest but it is what it is. Happy to be improving. 

5:44, 5:58, 6:13 - today

5:52, 6:07, 6:20 - Thanksgiving 

PM - 13 easy on the mill

30 minutes easy on the treadmill. Was hoping for more, but that was all I could squeeze in before the kids woke up.

9 easy on the parkway

Took a good 3 miles to start to feel like I wanted to be out there. 

8.25 easy around the neighborhood and then out on the parkway.

Track workout tomorrow and long run with tempo on Saturday. Hoping the tempo feels alright. It has been a while since I have run any miles strung together at my marathon pace.

-i am no longer quantifiable- 

11 - 6:46avg

Met Fritz, Dan, Noah, and Evan at HHS and warmed up with a lap of Sugar House. We did a long ladder workout. 2x400, 2x800, 2x1600, 2x800, 2x400.

I wanted to ease into it and keep everything comfortably fast. I feel really good about how it turned out.

89, 86, 2:56, 2:52, 6:05, 5:58, 2:51, 2:51, 81, 72 

10 along the parkway. It was a clear still morning. Temp was decent, though my fingers got cold on the way back. I likely need to invest in some new gloves.

Right calf / soleus is a little tight from yesterday's workout. Good news is my left side in genreal is feeling a lot better. I have had off and on pain from my foot to my hip ever since the rib + St. George debacle. 

6 easy on the parkway

A couple years ago I had this idea for a clock made of my old running shoes. I am sure it has been done before, but I thought it could be cool. At the time, I didn't have enough to complete the clock. Thousands of miles later, I finally hung it last night. It is just shy of 4 feet wide, hanging in our loft area.

21 - 7:07 - 626 ft. 

Tempo - 7 - 6:29

Met John, Jen, and Devra at Liberty and ran miles 9-24 of the Salt Lake Marathon course. We warmed up 5.5, ran 7 miles at tempo, and finished with 2 laps of Liberty to hit 21. 

I was looking forward to this run. I was planning on using it as a test of where my fitness is at right now. I had a goal of keeping the tempo at about a 6:35-40 average. It ended up being a little faster because of a couple miles with some down. I was pleased to hold that pace on the few climbs though. This gave me a good idea of what to do moving toward Ogden. Pushed the final half mile at Liberty back down to 6:30 for fun. 

3:18, 6:39, 6:33, 635, 6:23, 6:24, 6:17, 3:15

5 easy to lossen up a bit.

Felt pretty good considering yesterday's run. My right calf / soleus is still sore from Wednesday's track workout. That bothers me a bit. I can't seem to specifically nail down what causes the extended soreness.

10 easy on the parkway

Arguably the coldest I have felt on a run this winter. The wind was howling from the northeast. I almost called it early about 73 times. Glad I hung on until 10 though. My right calf / soleus was still sore, but seemed to feel a little better by mile 6.

8 easy on the parkway

Track tomorrow and then I am trying to decide what to do for the rest of the week. Perhaps another tempo mixed into my long run on Saturday. Or, maybe a moderate run on Friday and keeping the long run easy on Saturday. We shall see. 

Met Fritz, Dan, and Noah at HHS and warmed up with a loop of Sugar House before heading to the track. Planned on doing 12x400 with 400 rests. Goal was to run the 400s faster than usual, but have a little longer rest in between.

I thought 80 seconds per would be a good effort for me and something I would have to work for. I planned on starting at 85 and working down to 80 by the fifth repeat and then trying to hold that. 

The first repeat was right at 80, so too fast. I figured I would back off on the second to not risk burning out. Second was right at 80 as well, but felt slightly easier than the first. So, I just went with it. I ended up cutting my rests to about 300 by cutting across the field to catch back up to Fritz and Noah. This made holding a decent pace a lot easier because I had them to keep in site. I fell back on the third split and it was my slowest. From then on I started cutting.

I couldn't have held together if I didn't have Fritz and Noah to chase and if I didn't have Dan encouraging me. I planned on pushing the final repeat, but Dan told me to try and push the second to last as well. I hung right behind Fritz and Noah as long as I could and I am really pleased with this workout.

80, 80, 81, 77, 77, 77, 76, 76, 76, 76, 73, 72

10.5 nice and easy. Felt good. Surprisingly not more sore from yesterday. Tired and slow, but not sore. 

Going to try and post the clock photo again below. For some reason it didn't work last week. 

A photo posted by james e clissold (runmehappy) (@james_clissold) on Feb 20, 2015 at 7:39am PST

8 on the parkway

don't know what the plan is for tomorrow yet. i am definitely feeling some cumulative fatigue and was feeling pretty worn out after 8 this morning. planning on 18-20 and would like a few pickups in there for good measure.

20 - 7:07

Met Jen at the parkway at 33rd and ran south. 10 out and 10 back. Goal was to keep a steady pace and average in the low 7s by the end. A good moderate pace was what we were looking for and we got it. Took a power gel at 10 and a sip of water and gatorade at 12. 

Another solid week down. I am feeling in a good position going into Ogden. Hope to keep the momentum.