Luckily, I just avoided (i.e., by fifteen minutes) today’s flash flood thunderstorm that moved through the valley late in the afternoon. In another effort to prepare myself for the vicious Ragnar leg of the Wasatch Back, I repeated the hill workout that I did yesterday. However, I did not run this one to break the mark that I set on Saturday. Rather the objective of this hill workout was to run at a good pace and mentally prepare myself (i.e., by remembering to lean from the ankles into the hill, practicing side stepping the extremely steep parts, focusing on targets ahead, and most importantly, concentrating on belly breathing) to run up what will feel like a never-ending hill. Again, this hill workout took me from my home up through the Holladay neighbors, up to and above Wasatch Boulevard to the top of 4500 South (approximately an elevation gain of 1530 feet--last mile and a half is an elevation gain of 780 feet). This time I completed the 5.8-mile run in a time of 55:51. Certainly not a fast time, but considering my legs were feeling pretty heavy, I maintained a good pace On my way back down, I again took the long way. This time I ran over to Parley’s bike path and Nature Park before returning to home. On this Sunday afternoon, I ran for a total of 16.3 miles at an easy pace.
Today was also another repeat of day 11 (i.e., week 4, day 2) of the Push-up Challenge. I completed a total of 137 push-ups over the following five sets that consisted of 25, 29, 25, 25, and 33 push-ups. In addition, while watching the Sunday morning news programs, I did 200 sit-ups. | 