Where's the Donuts?

Beautiful day for a run. I don't mean to rub it in for the Cache Valley folks, but days like this are when I'm glad I've forgotten what the word "inversion" even means. Probably 40 and completely clear and sunny out, makes up for all my bellyaching about damp and dark. I did the Tracyton Beach Road out and back, hit the four mile mark and came back. I meant to run a really slow easy pace but the sun lighting up the mountains and rolling route must have inspired me. I covered 8 miles in 58 minutes, and the last mile was pretty slow coming up the last two hills home. Felt good, and I'm encouraged about the week.

Morning treadmill/indoor track run. My legs were stiff and slow to warm up, never really felt in a groove. I split the run between the treadmill and the track to break up the monotony, and I figure it'd be better to get off the treadmill when my legs wouldn't stretch out. New shoes today, maybe that had something to do with it, and my stretching yesterday may not have been adequate. First mile at 8 min., the rest at 7:30. I start work late tomorrow so I'm going to try and do a little workout in the morning, probably some Tinman miles. 

 supernova - 4

Cold this morning, but the sun came out so that helped. I tried a bit of a workout, it's been awhile since I've pushed on a shorter distance. 3x1 mile uptempo (I initially planned for just doing some Tinman miles, but ended up fast on the first so I changed the workout). Did the Shore Drive loop, repeated once so it ended up at 5.5 miles. 1.5 warm-up, 1 mile uptempo (around 6 min/mile), 400m jog, another mile uptempo (a little slower than the first), 800m jog, then another mile uptempo. 1 mile+ cool down.

My legs felt fine, but my fitness isn't at the workout level yet. I was laboring by the second interval, and really taxed on the third. It's ok, this is the first of the year. After getting home I wasn't too beat though, so I can tell I'll quickly build off of this one (if, that is, I continue to do them regularly). Need to do more striders to get my legs in gear for fast miles in any case.

 supernova -- 9.5

Cold morning, so I went treadmill again. 8, 7:30x2, 7x2, my legs felt fine for running indoors. Nothing more than that. 

 supernova
 

Early morning run along Beach Drive with the Slugs Club. Not as cold as I had anticipated, which was nice and once the sun came up it was perfect winter running weather: cloudy day, between 35-40, no wind or precipitation. I set out for 12, running with this guy Henry. He was going 16 so I met him at mile 2, figuring I'd come back and stop to shave off the four miles. But after the turnaround at mile 8 we really got into a groove and had a great pace going -- right about 7:15 -- so I ran all the way back to his starting point. I was pulling him along by the end, and didn't feel nearly as fatigued as I thought I would for my longest run of the year. The four-mile bump from last week didn't break my legs down at all until the last 800m or so, when I got a bit creaky. Really encouraging run, especially to do the miles at a good clip without too much strain.

The run was a great end to a really good week of running. The mini-workout on Wednesday didn't seem to affect me much, so hopefully I'll have a chance to push another few fast miles in the coming week. I'm going to try and go over 40 for next week, and hover around or just above that mileage for a few weeks.

supernova -- 29