Running For Trevor

Took advantage of the sweet weather and having absolutely nothing to do on a Sunday and ran on trails in Provo Canyon via Pipeline.  Awww it was absolutely lovely and just what I needed.  Seriously sweet 8 miles in the sunshine!  Hard to believe it was December.  8 miles in about 70ish minutes.  I think Pipeline is my favorite trail in Utah County...it is just so easy to access and so runnable and the wide open views of the valley are hard to beat in my opinion.  There is something kind of magical about running in the mountains.

4.5 miles up to the gym on 8th north/30 min weights/3.5 miles back down.  7:50 pace.  The weather was kind of awesome yet again this morning.

I am finally feeling completely recovered from Snow Canyon half + Las Vegas Ragnar.  Geez it only took a month!  Running is feeling really natural and fluid again and most importantly I am really enjoying it.  My back is still sore from the skating fall and my plan is to stay in "base training" mode for the remainder of December.  I may throw in one workout a week just keep the mojo alive but I definitely wont start training for anything until mid Jan.  I'd like to focus on strength training more over the winter and just simply staying in shape.

I have ran in some pretty crappy weather but I am almost certain that todays takes the cake.  It was pretty commical running into the 40mph wind and pelting snow.  We just closed our eyes, pumped our arms, and sprinted as fast as we could.:-)  I'm glad Jen & Melissa knocked on my door this morning and literally forced me out.  We just ended up doing a 2 mile out & back by my house x 3 and then I added one more by myself to make 8.5 miles, 7:42 pace.  It was quite the memorable adventure.

I just started reading The Extra Mile by Ultrarunner Pam Reed and wanted to share something I read last night about limits that really resonated with me.  "Most people who have been running for a while, even in a very casual way, mentally set a limit on how much they can do.  Placing limits on what I think I can accomplish is something I tend not to do.  I've heard that people are actually able to cover about twice their imagined limit:  You might not be able to cut your "best" time in half, but you can reduce it by a significant percentage.  That has been my experience.  While initially I never thought I would run the distances I have, or in the times in which I've done them, I haven't really put mental limitations on myself either.  And truly, I've surprsied myself."

Stuck on the treadmill today so I made up a ladder workout.  1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1-30-30-30  8.5 miles total in 61 min.  1 min recovery in between all sets @ 8:27 pace and the fast intervals ranged from 9.2-10.3.  6:35 pace - 5:49 pace.  I kind of wanted to quit during the 5 min set but I stuck it out and felt really good about the hodge podge workout.

Planks/pushups

Today's take away from the book The Extra Mile:  "Learning to break things down is one of the most valuable lessons I've learned as an ultrarunner.  It's helped me when I feel like I can't sit still, and it's also helped me when I feel like I can't get going.  In both cases, the trick is to do less than I think I have to do.  I do not have to get to the finish line this instant; I just have to get to the next bend in the road.  Training yourself to think in bite-size bits takes practice and willpower.  But it's something you've got to learn if you want to be a long-distance runner.  Tricks like these can help with the most difficult part of running-the most difficult part of anything, really-conquering it in your mind's eye.  If you can mentally convince yourself that you can tackle a task, you can always accomplish it physically.  Well, maybe not always.  Almost always.  More often than you think.  Sometimes, at least.  Definitely sometimes!"

8 miles easy on the treadmill, 64 min.  1.5-2.5% incline.  Gosh I feel like such a wimp this year in the freezing weather....I used to run in it like everyday last winter and can't even stand walking from my car to the gym this year.  I need to man up and get out there because I'm going to drive myself nuts on the treadmill.

30 minutes weights

20 ounces hot chocolate

2 kind of awesome things happened this morning.  First of all I miraculously landed on a treadmill that went for longer than 60 min and secondly I felt oddly kind of great.  I was reading on Jackie's blog yesterday about "Aerobic Threshold" runs and realized this is a pace I rarely train at.  I am really good at running fast or slow but I rarely train at a steady state.  This is something I really need to improve if I want to PR in the marathon in 2014.  I knew I wanted to get a longer effort in today since I have school tomorrow morning so I just kind of went with it.  2 mile warmup and then 8 mile progression run.  6:58, 6:53, 6:48, 6:43, 6:39, 6:35, 6:30, 6:22.  I was so patient with this workout and I felt so good!  First 4 miles at 1.5% incline and last 4 at 1%.  1.5 mile cooldown for 11.5 total in 82 minutes.

7.5 early in the morning with lots of incline on the treadmill before sitting through 3 hours of math on a Saturday.  waah, waah, waah!  7:50ish pace.