Gonna Fly Now

According to my training schedule this was supposed to be a four mile run - so I'm going to count my slightly less than three miles as four. :)

I thought the Bonneville Shoreline Trail between the Huntsman Cancer Institute and Sunnyside would be pretty well packed down after Monday morning's snow storm. I figured since Monday was a holiday everyone would have been out enjoying the day. Turn out I was wrong. The trail was broken, but not packed. Most of the time I was running in loosely packed snow. Well, running is actually too strong of a description for what I did - it was more like walking and panting. (Running in loose snow is tough - you lose any rebound you would have gotten from your footfall, so it's almost like you're running from a dead standstill with every step).

GPS output:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4832214

Today I was scheduled to only run two miles, but I wanted to make up for yesterday's shortage, so I tossed an extra 1.3 miles onto my run. This was a just a simple out and back along 1500 East from my house to 900 South. In the past this has always been a fast run for me (especially on the return trip) but I've found since attempting to come back from my ACL surgery last year the smallish hills are far more daunting than they ever were before. It's not because my knee bothers me - I think it's more of a conditioning issue. I just don't have the stamina I once had.

It was cold this morning - about 8ºF at 6:30 AM according to my GPS, so I was surprised to see other runners out there.

GPS output:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4836912



 

It was hard to get up this morning. Rosie decided she was done sleeping around 02:30, and wouldn't let either of us get back to sleep for more than a few minutes for the rest of the night. Just after my alarm went off Lissa rolled over, put Rosie in the crook of my arm and said "do you want to cuddle with your Dad?" How can you get up when you have a 4 month old baby in your arms? I eventually forced myself to get up and go running.

It didn't take more than a quarter of mile to remember how hard the Higdon training schedules are when you're first getting started. My calf, quads and ankles are all tired and sore - although not as sore as I expected. I guess I wasn't in such bad shape after all.

I ran the same route as last Thursday, and I'm pretty pleased with my improvement. Last week I ran the 4 miles in 33:11 for an average of an 8:14/mile pace. Today my total time was 32:02, for an average pace of 7:59/mile. I even managed to bust out a 7:29 and 7:33 in the last two miles of the run. (Which also happen to the two downhill miles).

Oh yeah, it was cold. My eyelashes froze, again.

GPS output:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4841539

The schedule says to rest, so I'll rest. I did do my normal routine of crunches and pushups this morning...so that counts as exercise, right?

I wish I could go climbing, but my gym is closed today and Saturday for a competition associated with the Utah Outdoor Retailer Show. Oh well.

I deviated from my schedule a bit today. I was supposed to run in a 5K race, but I don't know of any local races being held today, and because I've only resumed running in the past few weeks I was a little afraid that I might hurt myself if I tried to race. Instead I ran a 6.6 mile out and back from the State Capitol building to Shriner's Hospital with Locomotion.

I started out slowly, covering the first two miles in nearly 20 minutes, and gradually picked up my pace until I finished out the last mile with a 7:36 pace. (Downhill, of course). The weather was warmer than it has been, so that made running a little easier.

GPS output:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4850819