My Running Log

Ran north through a bunch of neighborhoods. I ran along part of Highland Drive for a while and then through a neighborhood I've never seen before, etc.

I started out running nice and easy. I was really holding back, but it still was about 8:00 pace, which is faster than I've been doing lately. At about mile 4, my achilles tendon started hurting. I could feel it on every stride. This pain was lower than the previous calf pain I had felt. So I slowed down, especially on the uphill parts. After another mile or two, it started feeling better.

I continued with a slower pace, and it was fine. At the end, I averaged about 8:50 pace overall, but this was totally fine. I had a hard time pushing the pace, but part of that was that I wanted to be careful with the calf/achilles so I wouldn't aggravate it again and have to start over in my recovery.

I'm grateful to have been able to run six days this week, even with recovering from straining my calf. Today's run was nice because it was long but felt good to me rather than a pain (as long runs sometimes do). I'm hopeful to build up the mileage next week.

Interesting note...I ran with headphones for the first time today. It was awesome!! I wasn't checking my Garmin every 10 seconds (that's an exaggeration, but still) as my only means of entertainment. I listened to podcasts, so I also learned a few things. I'm definitely going to do this in the future. 

Did the loop down to 12300 south on 1300 east and returned on 700 east. This is the one that I couldn't complete last weeK because my calf flared up. This time it went great. No calf pain whatsoever. I'm really, really glad. I didn't run any super fast miles, but the whole run was at a very steady, strong pace. The first mile was 8:15. The overall pace was 7:45 per mile. The fastest mile was about 7:10. Good start to the running weeK.

Listened to podcasts again. 

Had to squeeze my run in between school and dinner. It was hot, so I ran on the treadmill. It probably would have been nice outside, because at least I would have had a breeze to cool me down. I sweat sooo much this time.

Anyway, I did a 2-mile warmup at about 8:10 pace average. Then I did the random hill worKout on the treadmill on level 5. I ran 7:30 pace for the first half and then slowed down to 8:00 pace for the last half.

I have done this worKout before on a harder level, but today it hurt more than usual. Yesterday was a medium effort day, so I made today the same. But it was a little harder effort than anticipated. Oh well. It feels great now.

So far I have two double-digit running days this weeK. That's my first time this year doing that on Monday/Tuesday. 

I started running outside, and I felt good from the beginning, so I tried to continue with a good pace. The first mile was 7:30, which is a little fast for a warmup, but oh well. The next two miles had a slight downhill, and I was able to run about 7:20-7:25 for those. Then on the way home, I was able to continue at 7:20-7:25 pace for the next three miles. The last 0.4 miles were slower for a cooldown. Total 6.4 miles. Overall average pace: 7:31.

I just felt great tonight, and my times reflected it. Burt must have inspired me to run some faster mileage since he did the same. I was breathing somewhat hard at times, but never was it super hard.

No left calf pain for third straight day! Minor aches and pains here and there, but doing great!

I brought my stuff to campus today and ran on the grass field by the Engineering building. It was about 0.4 miles around. The grass was cut short in some places but not others. I decided that rather than going for distance I would go for time. So I did 8 reps of 5 minutes each with 2 minutes jogging rest. I didn't really keep track of how far I went on each one, but I think they ranged between 0.65 miles and 0.8 miles. I got progressively slower. So at best I was running about 6:30 pace and at worst around 8:00 pace. Not super impressive, but I was mostly worried about effort rather than distance. I won't say it was the world's best effort, but I was really dragging at the end, so I must have pushed myself fairly hard. And conditions were not ideal (hot, grass, slight hills). Total was 10.8 miles.

Third day this week with double digit miles. 

5 easy miles at about 8:00 pace on the treadmill. I remember at the beginning of the year, this was my most challenging run of the week. Now it's the easiest. So that's progress. Other than that, I will enjoy resting up until tomorrow when I will attempt my first 20 miler of the year.

Today my goal was to run 20 miles in preparation for the marathon. 

I got up this morning at 6 am. That turned out to be a good decision, because it was cool and a gorgeous morning. I didn't need (partially because I couldn't find a place to get it) water until mile 19, so that tells you how much less I sweat today compared to Thursday. Anyway, I turned on my Garmin, and it said the battery was low. Bummer!! I thought it would have plenty of juice. So it only lasted a mile. Then I had to go by how far I thought it would be based on what I had seen on Google Maps last night. And I wasn't sure what my pace was going, so I just ran what felt right. I went north via 1000 East, Creek Rd, Highland Dr, Bengal Blvd, 2300 East, and Holladay Blvd, up to 4500 South. Then returned the same way. I felt soooo good the entire way. It was nice to run among trees and little traffic and hills but not too many. It was nice to see a few other runners out, too. Couldn't have been more beautiful. At the end I felt a little sore but not that tired.

When I got home, I mapped out the specific route I took, and according to Google it was 22.5 miles! I ran extra without even knowing it. And the crazy thing was that I felt like I could have kept going another 5 or 10 without a problem. So maybe things are starting to come together. I'm going to call it 22 miles just in case Google was off. It took me exactly 3 hours, with about 5 miles of stoppage. So that would be about 8 minute pace.

I ate some GU Chomps three times along the way. It was easiest to eat while running downhill because I could just go on autopilot.

I also ran into a big dog with big teeth that barked at me a lot. It went on long enough that I started to lose my temper. Good thing the dog gave up at about that point! But at least it gave me an adrenaline boost going up the hill.

Bottom line: this was the best run of the year for me. It has given me a lot of confidence for the marathon.

This was an awesome week of running. 65 miles. That's more than I've run in a week since I was 18. Next week will be lower mileage. 

Ran the out-and-back to the trail that is by Le Cailles. Gorgeous morning again. Felt excellent for the first 3-4 miles, then was OK. Felt some muscle soreness from Saturday's run. But no calf soreness, which is great because it has struck mostly on Mondays. Excited for another week of running!

Did the shorter tempo run loop down to 11400 South. Legs felt sore, so I started out slowly but then kept a consistent 7:30 pace for about the last 4 miles before cooldown. Average pace was 7:45, including warmup and cooldown. Another beautiful morning. Hopefully an easy day tomorrow will help with the soreness.

6.5 miles on the treadmill. 49 minutes total. About 7:35 average. Felt great but had a little soreness in tendons. No muscle soreness though.

Ran 2.3 miles warmup. Then ran 6.6 miles of intervals. Then 2.1 miles cooldown.

I ran over to 11th avenue by the old cemetery in the SLC avenues. There was a nice little hill there that turned out to be perfect for my intervals. My goal was to practice some downhill running so I could have fast turnover and also practice for the downhills in St. George. I ran 1 minute fast, turned around and jogged back up the hill for two minutes, and repeated this 16 times.

I seemed to go further as they progressed. I don't know yet how far I traveled on each, but I was going pretty good. According to my watch, my peak pace was 4:30/mile. So I'm happy with that. The rests and cooldown were quite slow, but the focus of this workout was really the fast downhills. I'm probably going to do this again sometime, because this hill was perfect for it.

Treadmill. 6 miles. First mile warmup in 8:40. Next 5 miles in 36 minutes.

I wasn't sure how to classify these miles. They weren't easy, but they weren't really good enough for the other categories. So I put them down as (11.25) easy miles. I was doing a youth activity with my church ward all day, so I started my run at 10:30 and ran as far as I could until midnight on the treadmill. It wasn't as far as I had planned to go, so I pushed the pace a bit. The first 6 miles were about 7:40 average pace. The last 5 miles (other than short cooldown) were about 7:00 pace. It was a good pace, but I don't want to get excited, because I haven't yet been able to run this type of run outside. So I hope to get to that point.

This was a 53 mile week. It was intentionally a lower mileage week. Next week I plan to ramp up the mileage and see if I can do more than last week.

I woke up this morning, and my toe was throbbing. I have had a blister that has been festering under my toenail for a week or two, and it was acting up again. So I used that as an excuse not to get out and run early in the morning.

After spending time with my wife and daughter this evening, I had about 70 minutes to get in my run before my wife had to leave for the airport. So I decided I'd try to squeeze my tempo run in and that I would push the pace to see if I could do ten miles. I did it on the treadmill again (a habit lately). I felt really strong the entire time. I ran the first mile at 8:00 pace, the next 4 miles at 7:00 pace. I didn't feel like I was breathing too hard or struggling. So I pushed the pace to 6:22 per mile and was able to hold that for the next 4.75 miles. Then I did a short cooldown and hurried home.

I realize that these times do not necessary translate to times outside, but comparing this with myself, it was an excellent run for me. The 6:22 miles were hard, but I wasn't breathing super hard. I could handle it so much better than earlier this year.

I feel like I am now making some real breakthroughs in my training after training sold for many months and not feeling like I was making much progress. So I hope to continue it forward. 

Ran the 123rd South loop (10.85 miles). I ran outside in the dark, which is not preferrable, but that's ok. It was a beautiful night. Felt nice and relaxed. Form felt good. Average pace: 7:49.

I've been trying to get myself to the track for a speed workout, but it has been hard to fit it in, so I've done them on the grass or road. Tonight I got myself out there and did a full-blown track workout. It was 10x800m with 400m rest. My commitment to myself was that I would break 3:00 for the first time this year.

Here are my splits:

3:14 (getting a feel for it)

3:14 (felt faster than this)

3:11 (dropped a little)

3:08 (dropped a little more)

3:05 (half way done, not so bad)

3:02 (I can feel it now)

2:58 (was running against some teenagers who were running a mile or something and that pushed me forward to hit my goal!!)

3:01 (consistent)

3:02 (consistent)

3:01 (felt like I pushed hard enough to be faster than this, so I must have had a good workout)

I was happy with this workout. I'm glad to have shown myself that I can run faster than 3:00 for an 800m. My average was 3:06 per 800m. So if you believe Bart Yasso, this would suggest I'm capable of running a marathon in 3 hours, 6 minutes. I hope to prove him right!

6 miles easy on the treadmill. Was very conservative, partially because my right (not left) achilles felt a little iffy. Might be because I wore my old shoes. 50 minutes of running. 

I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure my body was telling me not to run today. I could have gone, but I thought it might be prevent me from having a good run on Saturday, so I stayed home with my wife.

In my original marathon training plan that I devised for myself, I wanted to build up to a 24-mile long run. I am not sure whether such a long run is necessary, but I wanted to experiment with it.

It is supposed to get above 100 degrees this afternoon, so i was worried it would be warm morning. So I started at 5:20 am. Crazy stuff.

I ran a similar route as the last long run. This time I turned around at 4500 South 2700 East. It turned out to be 24 miles. The pace for every mile was between 8:00 and 9:00. The average pace was 8:22. I didn't feel nearly as good this time as on the last long run, but it wasn't bad.

I ate Jelly Belly sport beans. They tasted better than the GU Chomps, but they were harder to eat. It was harder to get them out of the bag and there were more of them to eat.

I didn't get my goal of 70 miles for the week (64). But I had 3 really good hard workouts. The rest was just details. Now it's all downhill for the next six weeks until St. George.

Went and ran on the trails behind the U of U. 9 miles out and back. Beautiful morning. No rain. Trail seems to have been groomed. Average pace: 8:42 (9:19 on way up). That might be faster than before. I think it is.

P.S. I got stung by a wasp in the arm. Stupid wasp! 

Ran from my building at the U over to City Creek canyon for the first. Went to mile marker 2. Gorgeous canyon. Beautiful morning. Great for running. But got yelled at by a biker because didn't know I was supposed to run on right side.

Felt good so went 12 miles total. Average pace was 7:57.

Tempo run on the treadmill. First mile in 8:30. Next 3 miles at 7:00 pace. Next 3 miles at 6:35 pace. Next 2.25 miles at progressively faster pace with the last 1/2 mile at 6:00 pace. Then a 0.75 mile cooldown. This was about the same intensity as last week's tempo run, but I didn't feel as strong. The goal is to feel more comfortable at faster pace, so I'll call it good.

7 miles on the treadmill in 55 minutes. Didn't feel great but felt better toward the end. I would call these junk miles, but hopefully they have some purpose in the end.

7 miles around Green River, WY. 6100-6300 ft elevation. Looped around to the water treatment plant and came back. 

Had wanted to do a half marathon in preparation for St. George, but it didn't work out. So I decided to do a simulated race this morning. My wife was kind enough to drop me off up by Flaming Gorge (the very north edge of it), and I ran back to her parents' house.

The starting elevation was 6200 ft. The first mile of the race was downhill to about 6050 ft elevation. The next 8 miles were uphill. This was longer than I expected. But it was a great challenge. Some parts were fairly steep, but mostly it was a long, gradual hill.I was able to keep the pace better than I expected, especially at the higher elevation. The slowest mile was 9:05. But some of them were under 8:00, so I'm happy with that.

There was about 4 miles of hard-core downhill. This was to simulate St. George. It was pretty steep at places. Average pace here was about 7:00-7:05.

My overall time was just under 1:43. I'll take it. This course would actually make an excellent and fair course for a half marathon.

60 miles for the week. That's my 3rd time to get that high this year. Not sure what I'll do next week.

Feeling demotivated about running today. Maybe it has to do with the extra miles I've been logging lately.

Why is it that I run 10 miles a day?

Shouldn't I spend that time on other things?

How about any of you? Why do you run?

10 miles on treadmill. Was feeling demotivated but it turned out pretty good. I was running 7:30 pace the first few miles, and it felt easy, so I bumped it up to 7:00 pace and a few minutes at a little faster. Still trying to decide on a target pace for marathon.