My Running Log

This was a fun run. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go short today, so I decided to get started and see how it went. I went east toward the mountains. It was a very gradual but steady uphill for about 4 miles. Then I ran into a city recreation area that has some dirt trails. One of them follows along a little stream and ends up at Wasatch Blvd. I took that and then came back a different way.

The uphill felt pretty good. I felt like I could keep going up without slowing down too much.

This ended up being a 10 mile run, which is a big jump from what I've done on Monday so far this year. I felt it the last 2-3 miles, but it still felt great overall. I love this weather!

And some great news to end with...I got accepted into the St. George Marathon!! So there are about 4 1/2 months left of training. I'm going to work hard to blast away my current PR.

I ran 2 miles warmup at 8:00 pace, then 5 miles of "tempo" run at 7:26 pace average, then cooldown at around 8:00 pace. The tempo part was hard for me to do. My legs were hurting. I have some sore muscles and my shin was bothering me a little. Hopefully someday it will clear itself up. Good mileage so far this week. Might take it easy tomorrow.

I pushed it pretty hard the past 3 runs, so my body wasn't feeling too great today. So I ran easy. Actually, I did 3 miles on the elliptical and 3.3 on the treadmill. That's the easiest I've run in many weeks.

I decided to experiment with running during the day up by the University of Utah where I study. We are right up against the foothills, and I always see runners and bikers around. So I found a trail that looked good, but it was blocked. So I turned on what I thought would be a way around the blockage. It kept going UP and UP and UP and was STEEP. It was so hard and my lower calves were burning badly, so I walked. Eventually I got to the top (it was more of a hike), and it was beautiful overlooking Salt Lake. I got up to 6400 ft (starting at 5000 ft). I tried a fork in the road, but that was taking me too far, so I turned around and went down the other side.

At the bottom I found another path that looked promising, so I took that for about 3/4 mile, and it was excellent. That got me up to 5400 ft. That will be the path I focus on next time. I don't know if I will do this every week, but I would like to go again. It's an amazing experience to run in the mountains and in nature.

My mile splits were extremely slow, but I think my workout was worthwhile.

Good luck to those running tomorrow in the Ogden marathon!

I went down to the Hillcrest track again this morning. It was about 3 miles to the track, and it was an absolutely beautiful morning. I did 12x400m repeats. And then ran home.

It was a nice workout, and I pushed myself, but I just can't get my speed where I want it to be. My fastest (and it was wearing racing flats) was 78 seconds. I guess I'm comparing myself to high school when I could get some of my repeats down around 65-70. So that's not a fair comparison right now. But I just want to get faster. Patience is a virtue...

1 - 82

2 - 84

3 - 82

4 - 81

5 - 82

6 - 84

7 - 82

8 - 85

9 - 82

10 - 78 (wearing racing flats)

11 - 78 (flats)

12 - 79 (flats)

On a positive note, my times were very consistent.

This has been a very enjoyable week for running. The weather has been gorgeous, and I have found some new training routes, which is a huge plus because it motivates me to get out the door. I think it was 44 miles for the week, which is right where I wanted to be.