Everything Counts

8 miles easy in my neighborhood very early before heading to the airport. Very, unseasonably warm weather this morning.

AM: TEMPO

I attempted (and somewhat failed) a tempo run this morning. I wanted to go 5-6 miles at 5:05 pace. But with this being my first night in the Eastern Time Zone and the travel still in my legs, I just didn't have it this morning. I ended up with 4 miles: 5:03 5:04 5:06 5:09. Some nice reverse progression. Oh well, I should be acclimated to the new time zone here shortly.

PM: We took a break for dinner and I wasn't too hungry so I got a second run in on the hotel treadmill. I felt substantially better than this morning and got another 9 miles in with the last 3 at 5:36 5:17 and 5:00.

9 miles easy from the hotel. Relatively warm weather out here, but quite foggy.

AM: AEROBIC BUILDER (PROGRESSION)

I did an 8-mile AB on the hotel treadmill at a 1% incline, since I haven't found a suitable route for fast, safe running yet (the roads around the hotel are narrow with no shoulder or sidewalk). Splits were: 525 525 521 518 514 512 505 500.

PM: Got another break and snuck in a quick run before meeting back up. 6 miles easy outside.

8 miles easy. It's getting harder to wake up each morning and I hit snooze a few too many times to run any further than this.

9.1 miles easy on some slippery, icy roads. I couldn't get up early enough to run further; I tried, but failed.

14.05 miles easy out on the slick roads. Drivers around here don't like to move an inch toward the double yellow line to give runners space. It's move off the road or risk getting hit by their side mirror. Drives me nuts, they have the entire road with no oncoming traffic. Move over a bit!

1,000 METER REPS

The plan today was 5-7 1,000 meter repeats at 2:55 with 2:00 jog for rest. I found a good loop that was dry and low traffic. It's 1500 meters or so per loop, so I just ran the workout on the loop. So it ended up being a 500 meter jog for rest or like 2:20-2:30. So the rest ended up being a little more than planned but each rep was the same, which was nice. I ended up doing seven reps with a 2:55 average. Splits: 252.1 2:56.1 2:58.3 (had to slow a tad at one point to move off road for a bus to pass) 2:55.0 2:55.1 2:54.5 2:53.3

It was cold and windy, but it worked out just fine. I'm happy with it, especially considering how tired I was when I woke up.

AM: 11.8 miles easy on what's becoming my go-to route here in Indy.

Lunctime: Got a bit longer lunch so we could do laundry, so in between the wash and dry cycles I got another 8.2 miles in on the treadmill.

AM: 8 miles easy. We started work an hour earlier this morning so this was all I could squeeze in.

PM: TEMPO RUN PROGRESSION

I was lucky enough to sneak in another run before everyone headed to dinner together. My plan today was 5 miles progressing from 5:10 down to 4:55. But I ran this on the treadmill and it maxes out at 5:00. So I ramped the incline instead to increase effort. So here it was:

Mile one 5:10 1% incline

Mile two 5:05 1% incline

Mile three 5:00 1% incline

Mile four 5:00 2% incline

Mile five 5:00 3% incline

11.5 miles easy

14.15 miles easy, running in a winter wonderland. It's nice to get out before the plows after a few inches of snow has fallen. I love how bright it is; no headlamp needed.

12 miles easy

AEROBIC BUILDER

I ran an 8-mile AB on the hotel treadmill this morning, since the roads are still a bit slick. I ran with a 1% incline and finished the 8 miles in 41:30. The first 5 miles at 5:15 pace then 5:10, 5:05, and 5:00 for the last three.

10.65 miles easy. I planned on running more, but I ran more slowly than planned due to slick roads and surfaces. At one point during the run I saw something come zooming out of the woods in my peripheral vision and look over and see a coyote hauling down the other side of the road. Kind of startling at first, but also kind of cool (if only it would've howled at the full moon).

6 more easy miles in the afternoon during a short break to allow everyone to get out of the conf room for a bit. After 2.5 weeks in that room for 12 hours a day you get pretty sick of it.

600 METER REPS

Well this morning's workout was decent but not quite as fast as I was hoping for. The weather was warm, 45 degrees, but it was windy (20 mph). The wind made me want to bag the workout, but I decided to do it anyway. I warmed up and was really warm with a jacket on, so I swung back to the hotel and changed into a long sleeve instead. Then I did the reps on the road just outside the hotel. There's a U-shaped road that I did them on. So each rep had roughly 50% headwind and 50% tailwind. I ran ten reps with 1:30 jog for rest. I didn't look at my watch at all during the reps, so that my body would adjust the effort in the wind. If I saw slower paces due to the wind I may have tried to pick it up and get the effort too high. I averaged 1:42.4 for the ten reps or like 4:37-38 pace.

Last time I did 10x600 I averaged 1:38.7, so this was slower. But, I was too hunched over and anaerobic last time to jog, let alone walk during the 1:30 rest. I also got slower as I went last time, and I had sore calves for awhile after. Today, I easily was able to jog the rest. I easily could've done more reps and I got stronger as I went. I also am hoping this one won't be as taxing on the calves. Finally, this morning's was in a very windy environment. So, although it wasn't super fast today, it was adequate and we'll keep on moving forward from here!

6 easy miles way too early in the morning before heading to the airport. I get to go home finally!

12.75 miles easy in the snow with Dave and Jace. It's so much nicer to run with good company than flying solo every morning. 

I'm glad to be home from Indiana. I didn't get as much running in over the last three weeks as I would have liked. But I did the best I could given the time constraints. And hey, I only gained 2-3 pounds after three weaks of eating out for every meal. That's a score in my book; I feared the scale would be much higher. I do need to cut 4-5 pounds before USA Half though in Jan if I want any chance at a sub 1:06. So I got some work to do.

In other news, Pearl Izumi all but cut their local sponsored team. So, I've been looking for a new sponsor. After considering a few potential deals, I settled on Brooks I.D. (Inspire Daily) Elite program. So as of Jan 1st I will be running for Brooks. I'm super excited for this opportunity! Brooks is a very solid running brand with awesome shoes and apparel! 2014 is going to be awesome! So as the Brooks slogan says, "Run Happy"!

12.2 miles easy with Dave, Ken, Jon, and Bret in Ogden. The roads were treacherous with black ice everywhere. Somehow we got through the run with no one falling, despite several close calls. It's so nice to be back home and able to run with the guys. 12 miles goes by soooo much faster with good company than it does running solo.

6.1 more miles in the afternoon with Jace and Dave in East Layton, down in the gully.

THRESHOLD REPS 2-2-1

I met up with Jason, Dave, and Albert at Smith's on Harrison and we warmed up on Glassman Way over to the South Ogden tempo loop. The plan was 3x2-mile. But, we found out very early on that it was going to be tough to hit times with the wind. There was an 18 mph wind from the north. So, the first mile of the reps was fast with tailwind and then the second mile was a death march into the wind to finish.

First rep I ran 4:50/5:03 for a 9:54. The wind seemed to get worse in the second rep as the gap from the first mile to second got even larger 4:48/5:06 for another 9:54. I didn't have the fortitude today to do another rep into that nasty wind plus Jason was on a time crunch. So, we decided to cut the third rep to a mile. It was wind-aided and I ran a 4:35.

I'm pretty happy with this workout. I feel like I'm slowly gaining fitness.

12.1 easy miles at 4:45 am with the UCC (Utah County Crew). Matt, Mike, and Zak were kind enough to let me join them on their run. Nice run, cold temps, great conversation, and a shooting star sighting (or was that Santa's sleigh)?

AEROBIC BUILDER

I met up with the UCC again: Mike, Matt, and Zak. We warmed up three miles with strides on Murdock in Orem and heading north from there. Then we all did different lengths of quality. I did 8 miles at a 5:13 avg. It was nice to have people to meet in the morning again as it makes it a lot easier to get out the door. Thanks to those guys for letting me crash their run for the second straight day.

12.05 miles easy in the late morning. It was deceptively cold out. I noticed on the run today that I acknowledge the presence of others on the road differently based on age. Old folks out walking get a full-hand wave and a verbal "good morning". People my parents age get a full-hand wave and a verbal "hi". People in the ballpark of my age get a very lazy two-finger wave. Teenagers get a head nod. And little kids get the open and close wave with my kids voice "hi".

LONG RUN: STEP PROGRESSION

We had a great group this morning early at 6:00 am for a long run: Ken, Steve, Jason, Albert and me. The plan was to run 3 warm up 5 at 6:00 avg 5 at 5:40 avg and 5 progressing from 5:40 down to whatever you can hold.

We hit the first step at 5:54 avg for 5 miles

Then Steve and I hit the second step a bit quick at 5:33 avg for 5 miles

Then Steve ran one more mile with me over the last step. He had a great run! I struggled a bit on this last section and think it was some leftover fatigue from Thursday's AB. Splits were 5:30, 5:25, 5:23, 5:25 and then I just called off the last mile. My legs were done. I waited for Steve to finish (only 45 seconds back!) and then we jogged the last 3.5 miles back to the cars.

Overall a great run. I did this workout in October and ran a bit better, especially the last five miles. But, I have not done many long runs lately, my weight is up almost five pounds, and I had some fatigue from Thursday, so this is still very adequate overall. I was very impressed with Steve though, watch out for that guy this next year!

AM: 10 miles easy in Ogden with Bret, Jon, Ken, and Jace. My legs were feeling the heavy load from last week, so I think I will push my workout back to Wednesday instead of tomorrow. Last week was high volume and a lot of quality, so I need to make sure I let it sink in and improve my fitness. The timing was good for a big week. This week I'd like to maintain high volume and get another really good workout in, which may not happen if I try tomorrow, so Wednesday it is.

Also, I began "Operation: lose a few pounds before Houston" yesterday. If I stay around 153, then there's no way sub-1:06 is going to happen. But if I can get back to 150-ish I think there's a chance I have a race to remember.

PM: 6.65 miles easy in South Weber.

AM: 12.1 miles easy in South Ogden with Bret and Ken. It was a pleasant morning; reasonably "warm" for December at 27 degrees. Toward the end we saw my Mom drive by, she slowed down and offered us "fuel" for the run in the form of McDonald's breakfast.

PM: 5.55 miles easy in South Weber.