Rosswog Running Blog

It was another early-Sunday morning run in that I jogged over to Big Cottonwood Park and met up with Soren.  By the way, it was colder than yesterday hill workout even though we were starting out thirty minutes later.  We were planning on a sixteen-mile run, but of course it ended up a little longer.  Eager to get some more practice on the Salt Lake Marathon Course we took 1300 East up to 400 South then headed up through campus to the starting line.  Of course, it was a Rocky-like run up the Huntsman Center steps (I’ll take all the practice I can get at running stairs with my race just two months away).  Once at the starting line--the Olympic Legacy Bridge--I glanced at me Garmin (it read 7.2 miles in just over fifty minutes), took a quick drink of Knoa Kola (I love this drink) then it was on.  We cover the first eight miles of the Salt Lake Marathon course mainly working on our form and steadily trying to increase the pace until breaking it off at Keeler Lane and returning to Big Cottonwood Park.  The total distance of this run was 17.5 miles at a 7:04 with the following splits: 7:17, 7:07, 7:01, 7:10, 7:09, 7:28, 7:48, 7:07, 6:45, 6:40, 6:45, 6:56, 7:07, 7:02, 7:07, 6:56, 6:48, and 3:32.  I jogged the 0.65 of a mile back to home and had a much needed breakfast.

My non-running workout, I completed 300 sit-ups, 30 push-ups, and a 90-second wall-sit.

5-minute Plank Challenge:  2:00 (again two two-minute planks and I’ll try for a 2:30 plank tomorrow)

Following work I took on one of the old rickety treadmills (i.e., two of my colleagues beat me down to the gym and were on the good treadmills) with no real expectations after a couple of solid runs over the weekend.  However, after I started running I felt good enough to make this a tempo run.  Consequently, I completed 6.3 miles at a 6:55 minutes-per-mile pace (increased the speed from 7.0 to 10.0 mph).

In regards to my non-running workout, I completed 300 sit-ups, 30 push-ups, a 90-second wall-sit, 10 metronomes, and 60 (50 lbs) curls.

5-minute Plank Challenge:  1:30 (tired and disappointed; I could have probably struggled through 10 more seconds, but I just felt exhausted)

Today was a recovery day for me; therefore, after work I hit the treadmill for a one mile jog on before heading home and out for an evening run.  For this 5k evening run, I ran over to Big Cottonwood Park and battled the wind for four laps around the softball complex before heading back to home. 

My daily non-running workout consisted of 300 sit-ups, 30 push-ups, and a 90-second wall-sit.

5-minute Plank Challenge:  2:00 (I was luck to complete this and it’s starting to sink in that this is going to be a long-term project for me)

It was my best treadmill interval workout today pre-D-News Marathon!!!  In other words, even though it was short and exhausting, I had no sensation that my left hamstring was going to get pulled again.  I completed three miles of half-mile intervals (i.e., the slow halves at 9.2 miles per hour, while the fast halves at 11.2) in a time of 17:56.  I continued on at 11.2 for another tenth of a mile to register a 5k time of 18:25 before completing a 1.5-mile cool down.

In regards to my daily non-running workout, I completed 300 sit-ups, 30 push-ups, and a 90-second wall-sit.5

5-minute Plank Challenge:  2:30 (however, this was a straight arm plank which painfully uncomfortable in its own way)

I need more sleep, so my solution is to get up earlier for a morning run.  If I can somehow establish this schedule (i.e., I’m normally not a morning runner), there will be no need to go out for any late evening runs that take me one to two hours to cool-down from.  Consequently, my hypothesis is that I will get more quality sleep under this morning-run schedule.  However, this means early to bed and insanely early to rise.  Anyway, for this morning’s workout the roads were covered with snow which was still coming down.  I ran an even 4.0 miles up to the Smith-Kiln Chimney then halfway around the Brickyard Shopping Plaza and back.  The pace was slow going (8:43 minutes-per-mile).  I’m hoping to pick it up a little bit on the treadmill after work. 

I woke up this morning and realized that I really need to put out all my running cloths the night before because it takes too long to get everything together in the morning.  For this workout, I ran up the old Villa Theater and back for a total distance of 5.0 miles.  It was another slow pace run due to all the snow and ice, but I love the sound of the snow crunching underweight each footfall.  I’m aiming to get in some mileage on the treadmill after work today in order to wrap-up my running for 2010.

Okay, I’m so disappointed, no miles on the treadmill since I worked late tonight.  I figured it was better to call it a year and to get some sleep in order to brave the cold tomorrow morning.

For my daily non-running workout, I completed 300 sit-ups, 30 push-ups, and two 100-second wall-sit (I’m going to have to work up to three of these per day).

5-minute Plank Challenge:  2:38 (PR and tried to hold it until 2:40, but ended up completely collapsing and when I looked up I saw my Garmin just changing to 2:40)

Happy New Year running friends!  If there is not an inversion and I’m healthy, I always try to get in a long slow distance run to start the year off.  Everything worked out this morning in that the air was clear (but pretty cold when I headed out at 7:30 am) and I was feeling great after a good night of sleep; therefore, I was up to hitting the streets for some serious millage today.  My aim was to take it an easy-rider pace (sub 9:00 minute mile pace) run for at least 26.2 miles.

To begin with, I ran to the Salt Lake Running Company and met up with the gang (as expected, a much smaller group--four total) and we ran down to Liberty Park and completed four laps before heading back to the store.  After slipping into a dry pair of mittens (i.e., my ski gloves were not doing it), I ran the last five miles of the Salt Lake Marathon Course to Liberty Park, over to State Street, up to South Temple, then over to the finish line at The Gateway Mall.  I then headed up to West High School and climbed the absolutely brutal 300-North hill up to the State Capital Building.  In my book, this is the most difficult hill in Salt Lake City to climb and today was not exception.  I proceeded by circling around to the mouth of City Creek Canyon before taking 11th Avenue and the rollercoaster bike path to the University of Utah Hospital.  I reached the Olympic Legacy Bridge at exactly 25.2-miles into my run and my legs were feeling tired.  Cutting out the Sugar House Park loop, I ran the first 8 miles of the Salt Lake Marathon Course before returning to home. 

Overall, I was able to achieve a distance PR (by an even two miles) of 34.4 miles in a time of 5:05:38 (i.e., an average pace of 8:53).  For the most part, I was able to keep the miles between 8:00 and 9:30.  However, my last two full miles were 7:38 and 7:40, my only sub-8:00 miles for this run; therefore, I had a little bit of a kick left in my legs.

My daily non-running workout consisted of 300 sit-ups, 30 push-ups, and a 100-second wall-sit (I’m going to have to work up to three of these per day).

5-minute Plank Challenge:  2:00 (building up to another run at 2:40)

Okay, running at an 8:53 pace is certainly not going to help me PR in a marathon; however, I like to go on one of these runs once every so often because it allows me to clear my head and think about where I want to go with my running.  During this run I came to the conclusion that for the first time in the five years that I have been running marathons, it’s going to be really difficult to PR in 2011 or in any year hereafter (i.e., my 2010 D-News Marathon was really an outlier from my normal running capabilities--in other words, a fluke).  Not that I will not try to PR (i.e., I love the challenge), but I’m just trying to be a realist.  Runners that run sub-2:40s are extremely talented and I absolutely admire (i.e., running at a sub-6:00 pace for 26.2 miles is just ridiculously fast).  I also remembered that I got into running to have fun and to get into shape.  Then I began to think about the Theory Of Constraints (TOC, a popular operations management concept) when trying to determine my 2011 running goals.  My initial thoughts were that I need more hills and more intervals--more quality workouts while maintaining my weekly millage.  Then I asked myself, why have I not been doing more hills and intervals?  This personal inquiry led me to establish the following three goals for 2011:

• To improve my balance/agility (this has always been a weakness… I score terrible on these tests)
• To take constructive steps to eat healthier (I have been slowly improving my eating habits, but never really challenged myself to eat healthier)
• To get more quality sleep (sounds easy, but might be the most difficult of the three)

These are sort of sound like general goals, but I believe address my real constraints.  If I improve in the areas of balance/agility and eating and sleeping habits, more hill and more interval workouts will be the result (at least this is my hypothesis).  Will these goals ultimately result in a faster marathon, who knows… but I’m certain that it’s going to be fun to find out and I’m really looking forward to continuing to improve my conditioning in 2011.