running for my mind

7.21 miles - Met up with Brayden and Ashley at their house at 6:30. Normally when I meet them, we head out on our typical 6-8 mile out and back. That route is pretty flat, with a gradual up the last couple of miles. They decided to mix it up this morning so we headed straight up to Wasatch from their house for a 7 mile loop. We climbed a little over 400 feet in less than 2 miles.

After the climb, it leveled off as we ran North on Wasatch to Skyline High. We worked our way through the neighborhoods north of Skyline down a gradual hill and then back south to their house. It was a fun loop and we ran it a little faster overall than we had originally planned. We just clipped along at a steady pace and enjoyed the conversation.

Going to do a 6-8 mile loop from my house with some pickups thrown in tomorrow morning if anyone is interested.

8 mile loop through Holladay with John, Scott, and Tyler. It was a solid group for a solid run. We warmed up at about an 8:00 pace and then did 6 quarter mile repeats with quarter mile rests. Our first two repeats were up 6200 South. John decided to kick it in to gear for the 4th and we kept the progression for the last couple. Splits were:
1:25
1:23
1:21
1:12
1:10
1:09

I officially get sworn in as an attorney today. So, that is neat.

5 miles - 3 loops around what I am now calling the Van Winkle loop. I ran this loop on Saturday and liked the grade a lot. It has a roller in it with a gradual down and the rest is mostly flat. It makes it easy to avoid any traffic as well.

Time was 36:48.91 - which is a 7:22 average pace. I have been working on my "easy" pace and have mentioned that I would like it to sit right around 7:30. I am feeling really good about this goal. Overall, on today's run I just enjoyed it and was in a nice rhythm. I think if I can feel comfortable between a 7:30 and 7:45 on my easy days and I can start to feel slightly uncomfortable yet tolerate 6:30, I will be in good shape. I will likely shoot for a short tempo this week at the 6:30 pace to see how that is feeling.

At least this sounds like a decent plan for now.

8 miles - 7:53 avg. -  Met up with Scott at his house and conquered the hill up to the mouth of little cottonwood. In general, the hill is not horrible, but it is a decent climb and I was feeling a little sluggish this morning. In about 2.5 miles it climbs just under 400 feet. The main hill is .6 of a mile and climbs roughly 200 ft.

I was considering doing a tempo run tomorrow, and I still might, but today's run gave my quads a decent workout so I might hold off tomorrow. I am still just running by feel and trying to enjoy it for another couple months before I get into another training cycle. I don't want to set any hard and fast expectations or goals for my workouts right now so I can prevent getting burned out in Feb. or Mar. before Boston.

14 miles - Solid group this morning for a 6am start. Scott, Tyler, John, Brayden, and I. Took all I had to get John out of bed before the sun came up!

We averaged a 7:43 pace and just kept it conversational the entire time. Was fun to run with that large of a group. It sure makes the miles and time pass by quickly.

I am writing this about 5pm and the bottoms of my feet are aching a little. I don't know if it is from the run or the time I have spent on my feet since then. I spent the afternoon up big cottonwood canyon taking pictures of some triathletes. I think it is more due to the run and the mileage on my Kinvaras. I think I might retire them soon. They don't show a ton of wear, but perhaps it is time. This is the first time I have had this soreness on the bottoms of my feet, and I wouldn't really expect it from only 14 miles.