Rosswog Running Blog

For my Sunday morning run, I decided to hit the trails of my local park.  After a short jog over to Big Cottonwood Park, I ran 12 laps around the parameter of the park.  Even though I kept an easy pace throughout this run (completed the entire run in 1:58:21; that is, a 8:09 minute-per-mile pace), I was able to get in some great off-road experience that will hopefully payoff in my upcoming half-marathon trail race in September.

While watching the Sunday morning news shows, I completed my non-running workout, which consisted of 200 sit-ups and 50 push-ups.

At first I did not want to get up for my sub-6:00-am wakeup run; that is, I was really trying to think of every excuse possible to justify a 20 minutes of sleeping in. However, eventually I got out of the door and loved every minute of my short 1.7-mile morning run in my Vibram Five Fingers. For this wakeup workout, I ran over to Big Cottonwood Park and completed two laps of the softball complex before heading back home. Once I got started, I actually felt like going for an eight-ten-mile run (which would have actually entailed a sub-5:00-am run), but I had to get to work.

I was not planning do intervals today; however, since my legs felt strong and considering the busy week ahead, I decide to just go for it. As a result, after work I ran 4 miles of half-mile intervals (i.e., the slow halves at 8.7 miles per hour, while the fast halves at 10.7) and completed it in a time of 24:43. I followed this interval workout with a 0.4-mile cool-down run (0.1 of a mile at marathon pace and 0.3 of a mile at an easy pace).

Today was also another repeat of day eleven (i.e., week 4, day 2) of the Push-up Challenge. For the second straight Push-up Challenge day, I completed 128 push-ups over the following five sets of 25, 25, 25, 25, and a max out set of 28 push-ups. In addition, I was able to accomplish 200 sit-ups, 130 (50, 40, 30, 16 lbs) curls, and 20 (60, 50 lbs) reverse curls.

Sub-6:00-am training runs are starting to become a habit for me.  It’s so nice and peaceful at 5:20 am (i.e., you can really just relax and think about the tasks that lay ahead of you for the day), it’s an excellent wake up, and a great feeling of accomplishment.  For today’s morning run, I ran over to Big Cottonwood Park and completed 3 laps of the softball complex before heading back home.  The total distance of this run was 2.2 miles at an easy pace in my Vibram Five Fingers.

Following work, I headed straight home and ran up to the Salt Lake Running Company (round trip: 4.2 miles at an easy pace) to participate in a Chi Running clinic.  Having read the book and watched the video, I’m a big practitioner of Chi Running.  Mary Lindahl--a Master Chi Running Instructor--did an excellent job with the workshop and it really made me aware of how inefficient my running form still is; that is, I still have a lot of work to do in this area.  My takeaways from this clinic are to work on running from my core (i.e., achieve the road coming to me feeling), learning what my optimal cadence is, and watching more video of myself running (i.e., Mary did an awesome job of identifying what you need to look for when you watch yourself run).

Finally for my non-running workout, I completed 200 sit-ups, 32 push-ups, 60 (30, 16 lbs) curls, and 20 (50 lbs) reverse curls.

This morning was my third straight sub-6:00-am run! Wearing my Vibram Five Fingers, I ran over to Big Cottonwood Park and completed one lap around the softball complex before heading back home. The total distance of this run was 1.3-miles at an easy pace (i.e., I shorten this wakeup run a little bit because I was biking to work).

I completed my fourth consecutive day of sub-6:00-am training runs!  Again, at an easy pace and wearing my Vibram Five Fingers, I ran over to Big Cottonwood Park and completed one-and-a-half laps around the softball complex before heading back home for a total distance of 1.5 miles.  My feet are feeling great, but my calves are sure burning (i.e., I hope I’m not running too much on my toes).

This morning, I completed an entire workweek of sub-6:00-am runs (this is a good accomplishment for a non-morning runner). Wearing my Vibram Five Fingers, I ran over to Big Cottonwood Park and completed one lap around the softball complex before heading back. The total distance of this wakeup run was 1.3 miles at an easy pace. After work, I did my full interval workout by accomplishing 6 miles of half-mile intervals (i.e., the slow halves at 8.7 miles per hour, while the fast halves at 10.7) in a time of 36:58. I followed this interval workout with a 0.2-mile cool-down run at marathon pace.

In addition to riding my bike to and from work for a round trip of 32 miles, my non-running workout consisted of 200 sit-ups, 30 push-ups, 20 (50 lbs) butterflies, 150 (50, 40, 30, 16 lbs) curls, and 20 (50 lbs) reverse curls.

 After I got out of bed this morning, I went for a run down to Liberty Park where I jogged one lap of the park with a friend from work before running over the downtown library.  After study for the CFA for about an hour, I took one lap around the City Hall before running back home by way of Granite High School where I completed one lap around the old track.  The total distance of this workout was 16.3 miles at an easy pace.

For my non-running routine, it was short and sweet in that I only completed 200 sit-ups and push-ups (i.e., I need some recovering time after putting my body through the wringer all week).