Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

Easy run on the Planet Walk, plus a mile with the dog. Didn't wear watch. I felt pretty good this morning, and feel ready to attack a good week of training. I hope to get in the upper 80s this week.

(Adrenaline orange: 398 miles)

Workout today. Warmed up 5 miles on the Landfill Loop, with 1.5 miles of tinman tempo at 6:00/mile pace. Took a pit stop, then ran out to the LHS track to do an interval session: 6x1000m at CV pace, with 2:00 (200m) rest. Intervals were 3:15, 3:16, 3:16, 3:14, 3:14, 3:14 (~5:12/mile pace). My legs felt decent, but my form felt sloppy and not very sharp. After the intervals I went out to the grass rec fields and did 4x200m barefoot strides through the soggy grass (sprinklers had been on). Cooled down a couple miles afterward. All in all, a good solid workout.

(1120: 47 miles)

AM - met James at the Island Market and headed up the Center Street hill, then through River Heights and Providence. Came back along the TOU course. Pace was slow, and my body didn't feel very perky. 7:51/mile average pace.

(Adrenaline blue: 229 miles)

PM - met Jon at the Rec Center and did the Planet Walk (5 miles). Hot. 7:35/mile average pace.

(Adrenaline orange: 403 miles)

AM - I really didn't want to run this morning, so I sought out some company to make it easier, and fortunately found Cody and the LHS track. He will finishing up his interval workout, so I paced him in a 400 at 72s, and a 200 in 32s. It's definitely hard to go into a 400m interval with only 2 minutes of warmup (I live next the track), but I felt pretty good after the 200. I figured that took care of my strides for the run. I ran with Cody on his cooldown, and then did the landfill loop after he went home. 7:24/mile average pace for the run (7.5 miles)

(1120: 54 miles)

PM - had a dinner run late, so I didn't get to hit the road until 9PM. Did the canal trail route (6 miles). It was getting pretty dark, and I ran past a shadowy figure running the other way at sub-7minute pace. I took a good look back, trying to figure out if it was Jon, Cody, or James, since there's only so many people in Logan that run sub-7 pace. The shadowy figure looked back too, probably thinking the same thing. Turned out to be Jon, so I turned around and ran with him back to his car, and then back home via the Boulevard. Better to run with people than to run alone, IMO. That makes me 2/2 today on bumping into friends while running. 7:07/mile average pace.

(Adrenaline orange: 409 miles)

Long Workout Day. I wanted to do some hills, so I ran from my house up Center Street to Dry Canyon (600 ft climb). Pace up to Dry Canyon was around 7:45/mile or so. Then I hopped on the Bonneville Shoreline/Deerfence Trail, and took it past Providence Canyon to Millville Canyon. The Deerfence is very rolling, and my goal here was to work the uphills and recover/maintain on the downhills. I managed to average a little over 7-minute pace on this 4.5-mile stretch of trail, which I was pretty happy with. At Millville Canyon, I left the trail and hit the road back down to Millville and Providence, maintaining tinman tempo pace. Did a downhill mile 5:47, an uphill mile in 5:55 (the uphill mile on the TOU course through Millville), and then a flat/downhill mile in 5:47 (TOU course into Providence). Finished out the last three miles cooldown averaging 6:40 pace. 14 miles total. 6:56/mile average pace.

(Adrenaline blue: 243 miles)

AM - easy run on Logan Loop. 7:18/mile average pace.

(1120: 62 miles)

PM - ran the River Trail with Cody (6 miles). Felt pretty good. 7:15/mile average pace.

(Adrenaline orange: 415 miles)

Met Jon and Cody at First Dam and then carpooled up Logan Canyon to Franklin Basin. We parked in the lot near the highway, and then started up Franklin Basin Road, which is a fairly well-maintained dirt forest road. Parking lot elevation is about 6600', and temps were in the low 50s to start the run at 7AM. Perfect! It felt really good for my arms and hands to be a little chilly in the shade. The road climbs at a fairly steady 4% grade (~200ft/mile), and our pace going up was pretty slow -- a lot of miles in the 8:30 to 8:50 range. We turned around at the junction of Gibson Lake Rd, which happened to be exactly 8.0 miles. We took that as a sign not to get greedy and go further. Elevation here was 8100', so we had climbed 1500'. Going down was much faster, and the last three miles turned into a bit of a mini-tempo - 6:44, 6:36, 6:30, 6:46, 6:26, 5:58, 5:44, 5:48. It was already getting warm by the bottom. Also, various campers were cooking bacon as we passed their campsites. I really wanted to stop and say "hello, please give me bacon", but restrained myself. 7:32/mile average pace for the entire 16-mile run. A good Saturday morning.

That gives me 90 miles for the week, tying my highest mileage week for the year. If I do Draper Days, I will drop down a little bit next week, but if I don't run it then I'll maintain upper 80s another week before the Des News 10K. After Des News, I'll start my 9-week "marathon program", which pretty much involves doing the same thing I've been doing for the last 6 months.

(Cascadia: 227 miles)