Now that my faithful Loafer Canyon buddy is in foriegn lands, I needed to figure out what to do with myself on Mondays. I have been running up a canyon called Loafer Canyon. Because a long, 4.5 mile hill can tend to spread out runners you really need to run with someone you are close to, pace wise. Running alone is not very appealing since it is dark half of the time and there have been bear and wild cat sightings.
So, I called another friend who doesn't like Loafer (imagine that, he doesn't care for 4.5 miles uphill). Actually, Loafer Canyon is not an ideal uphill training run because it is so steep that for me I am fighting just to stay under 10 minute pace going up, and going down is so steep in some places I don't dare risk running down hard. So I think the Payson Canyon up and down run will start to be more frequent on my running circuit.
Back to my run today, I ran long hill repeats with my friend Mark S. We did a gradual uphill on Spanish Fork Center street, starting at Main and ending a mile to the east. It is very gradual except for three steeper parts. We ran the following paces:
mile 1 7:36
mile 2 7:24
mile 3 7:38
I think this workout will be great to add to my training. Mile repeats are nice and long and can't be faked too well. Add a gradual hill and you get one tough workout. I will try to add more repeats to get the endurance I need. As it was today, the third repeat was very difficult to maintain pace. I think next time I will try to keep at around 7:35 each time, and try to add one. I won't be in town next Monday so this workout won't be repeated until the following Monday. | 