Even though I had a short night of sleep, I decided to try to break my long-run personal record of 28.3 miles set on 03/07/2009. Plus, I needed to get in a long-slow-distance run in over 26.2 miles before next month’s Salt Lake City Marathon and today was the perfect opportunity because our weekend group run called for 20 miles along the Jordan River Parkway. Consequently, I got up relatively early for a Saturday to jog up to Walden Park (around 5400 South), which is along the JRP’s trail. However, before heading out, I checked the weather forecast in the Salt Lake Tribune and it called for rain. Even though it was relatively warm outside, I slipped on my windbreak after filling it with three packets of GU. The total distance of my run up to Walden Park was 5.5 miles.
After meeting up the Salt Lake Running Company group and doing some stretches, we headed south (against the wind) for 5 miles to the end of the Parkway’s trail around 8600 South. Then we ran north on the trail--with the wind--for the next ten miles until we reached 3300 South. At this point of time, even though it was overcast, I was wondering why I wore my windbreaker since the weather was warming up. However, after the 3300-South turnaround, it was back to running into the wind and it started to rain. The weather only worsened during the remaining part of my run. Adding on a little extra distance on the trail, I completed a total of 20.8 miles with the group.
As the temperatures continued to drop and the rain started to turn to sleet, I jogged back home. Completely soaked from head to toe, I ran 6.2 miles on this return trip. In summary, I covered a total of 32.4 at an easy pace (average heart rate 138.8 beats per minute) in a total time of 4:35:50 (average pace 8:31). Also, I just beat the afternoon snowstorm and with my Garmin reporting that I burned 4,308 calories, I enjoyed a big breakfast.
Finally, for my non-running workout, I accomplished my typical 300 sit-ups and 30 push-ups. | 