Sean's Running Blog

I forced myself to take four days off since I never reall had a full break after Grandma's. A nice easy 6 miles this morning, right past a house in the neighborhood that caught fire this morning. Looks like it started at the electrical box outside. Fortunately, it looks like it only damaged the garage.

Off to Utah for several days to visit the wife's side of the family.

Easy 8 miles up the Provo Canyon Trail and back down. Left Seattle yesterday in sunny 80 degree weather and arrived to rain in SLC. Funny. Hooking up with Cody and Paul to ride up to the 15k tomorrow.

Opted not to make the 45 minute drive to Logan to run the Blacksmith 15k. A combination of not wanting to get up at 4:30 and really wanting to give mesyelf a true break from the last training cycle led me to that decision. So I just ran an easy 10 this morning near the place we are staying in Laketown just south of Bear Lake. It was a beautiful run through Round Valley. I saw more deer, dogs and rabbits than cars. It was even a tad chilly. I did notice the 6,000 feet of elevation a bit, but nothing too big.

Another wonderful run around the Bear Lake Area. Found a 12-mile loop that took me through Round Valley and then a few miles along the Bear Lake shoreline. It's a beautiful place. I think I saw more tractors on the road than cars.

Today was our last day at Bear Lake. We had to be out by 10am and byt the time i got the car loaded up, it was 9:30. So I decided to run from the lodge in Laketown to the the climbing wall in "downtown" Garden City were I would meet my wife and kids and from there head to Provo for the rest of the week. More than any other run so far, I felt the altitude on this one even running at easy pace. The elevation is 6,000 and the 1,500 foot difference between the Salt Lake/Provo area and the Bear Lake area is substantial.

Relatively easy 10 miles on the Provo River trail. I got a late start (8:30) so the temperature was already well into the 70s. Went up to mile marker 13 and then turned around. It's a great trail although I don't think I have ever run in a place with more mile markers painted onto the cement. Even Central Park has less.

Down in Spanish Fork visiting my sister. Went for just six miles today to make sure i don't ramp up too quickly from a fairly light base the last three weeks.

Nice morning run from Timp View HS down to the south end of BYU campus, back up University Ave to Riverwoods and back to the HS. Beautiful weather but the afternoons are just scorching so I've been running early.

Ran from my sister in laws house on Foothill Drive above Timpview HS down to the Provo River Trail. Lost 550 feet in elevation. Ran to the 4M marker on the trail and turned around. Goal was to climb back up the hills at sub 7:00 which I managed without a crazy amount of effort.

\A little muggy this morning, particularly by Utah standards. Headed back to Seattle tomorrow. Looking forward to the oxygen.

Back in Seattle under cool skies and plentiful oxygen. Nice run along the Sammamish River.

First workout in a while. It was a fartlek of 5x 4min ON followed by 2 minutes OFF. The ON was supposed to be around 10k pace. It felt more like walking pace.

Still feel pretty sluggish. It was quite warm during my run...81 degrees which probably didn't help.

Nike sent me a pair of shoes to test. It's their next version of the Vomero. Incredibly soft and very light. I'm going to try them out for a week or two and see if they provide enough pronation support. Felt like I was running on pillows today.

Felt a little better this morning running under beautiful skies and cool morning temps. Still a few pounds heavy after all the traveling, vacation, and time off.

Beautiful morning ahead of what will be a scorching summer day. Still heavy but feeling a bit better with each day I'm back in the swing of things.

Today was my first track workout in what seems like months. 3.5 warmup miles with a few from the new Mt. Si Running Club I formed a couple of months ago. Then hit the track for 6x1000m with the goal of hitting 3:05s on two minutes rest. With the exception of a 3:04 and a 3:06, everything was exactly at 3:05. 3:05 isn't patticularly fast but I wasn't sure going in whether I would be able to hit it or not so I walked away happy to have done so.

Beautiful and even slightly chilly early morning for a run. The cool won't last long this morning which is why I ran early. The NIke VOmero's are really comfortable and don't seem to be causing me any problems. I particularly like them for my early morning runs. They seem to have a bounce that my body lacks.

Still feeling a bit heavy because I am. The vacation combined with the time off was less than kind to the body weight but I'll be back to fighting shape by race day Saturday.

One week ago today I pulled my groin running hard to first in a meaningless softball game. I've never been brought to by knees (actually to my back) in such convincing fashion. When I got back up, i couldn't even walk without a big limp.

So I have spent the last week doing absolutely no running. I visited the PT three times. Rode about 45 miles on my bike and did three 30-minute sessions on the ellipitical. I discovered a few things in the process:

(1) It is very hard to get a decent cardio workout on a bike.

(2) I hate to bike

(3) I hate working out indoors on an elliptical or any other device

(4) I really like running

The good news is that I was able to run today. I ran about half on grass and the other half on blacktop. No pain and only a little tightness. I ran pretty slow...averaging 7:45 miles. I can tell that speed work is a no-go for at least another week. I intentionally waited until noon to make sure it was warm enough outside that my muscles would be loose. Which brings me to my next point.

Seattle is at the beginning of a heat wave for the ages. When I left to run at about 12:15, it was already 89 degrees and very humid for our area making the heat index well over 90. We topped out at 96 but triple digits are coming for the next three days or so. I know many of you live in climates where the mid-90s and even low 100s are common in the winter. But Seattle has hit 100 degrees only once since they started keeping records in 1891. Yes, once. In fact, we only average two days per year in the 90s which is why very few Seattleites have air conditioning in their homes.

Anyway, we'll be hanging out at the library today once I get back from cub day camp. The bad news is that I can't run today until about 4pm...the absolute hottest part of the day. Should be fun.

Put in another 5 miles this afternoon after visiting the PT and everything seems to be working OK. Hopefully a week of low mileage and easy pace will allow me to jump into some speed work next week.

It was 97 degrees with a heat index of 99 when I ran today. It was the only time I had available. I've never run in such intense heat. I felt like I was running in a sauna which I guess I was. Supposed to break 100 for the first time ever in Seattle tomorrow. I Plan to run in the morning.

The average HIGH temperature for this time of year is 76 and the temp when I ran this morning at 7:30 was 84. Overnight we set an all-time record for warmest low temperature in Seattle's recorded history. Never before this morning had the temperature in Seattle NOT dropped below 70 degrees. Hard to believe but there has never been a day when the temperature in Seattle was not 69 degrees or lower...until this morning.

Anyway, a couple more days of 98-102 degree temps and then we "plummet" to the low 90s. Yippee!!!

One nice thing about the warmer weather is it's helped my muscles loosen up and the groin feels fine although I haven't pushed it. Just running 7:00-7:15 pace nice and easy hoping that next week i can jump back into some speed work.

A very tolerable 79 degrees this morning at 7am. Too bad it was 85 inside the house. All the more reason to get outside and run. Only 99 degrees forecasted today after an all-time record yesterday of 103. Never been more than 100 in Seattle until yesterday. So 99 today is going to feel downright chilly.

Groin feels great. Ran 7:00 miles this morning and felt so good I went an extra mile. I will probably shoot for 6-7 tomorrow morning and then 10 or so on Saturday. If all goes well, I will start back into some speed work next week.

Ahhhh...it was spledidly perfect this morning. Mid-60s and wall to wall sunshine. Ran a couple miles at 6:00 pace to get a better idea of where the groin injury is. No problems at all. No tightness and no soreness. I will shoot for 10 miles tomorrow and then jump back into a speed workout on Tuesday or Wednesday.