Every Run is a Great Run!

OK so maybe after a year+ of runningblog-free living, and with the start of new year and new age division (45-49) it's time to fire up the blog again. Taking a "rest year" has been good for me and has me feeling rejuvenated and hopefully a bit wiser after learning a few lessons, mostly the hard way.

Running lessons learned include figuring out that doing months and months on end of high mileage (which for me is anything over 55 miles or so a week) is counter-productive. I seem to be ok with a base of 50-55 miles or less with maybe a bit of cross-training thrown in. But the 60-70+ mile weeks only work for me for a few months, so I'm best off saving them for the months right before a marathon.

Even with the relaxed approach 2009 still had a few positive running surprises - like running my lifetime 5K official race PR in June at the Nestle 5K. Unfortunately I got sick the next day which also happened to be the week of the race I was really training for which was the UV Marathon. After being sick much of the week, UVM ended up being a total disaster and I got to experience my first migraine-aided voluntary marathon DNF. The other high of the year was running SGM from start to finish with Kim. It was a great day, great company, and I much prefer the sunny and pleasantly cool conditions to the monsoon conditions of 2008.

Well enough chit-chat --- started out the year right with a dandy 8.2 mile easy run with Kim. Nice in-between-storms day with the temps in the afternoon being pretty dandy for a January day. Hope 2010 is a great year for all.

Ran in the early morning with the SF group, mostly with Hal and the Barneys who were visiting for the holidays. Temps were warmer than I expected but a bit of breeze from the west. Hal talked me into running up Harry's again and as usual he pushed the pace back to Osbornes so I'll count 2 miles as MP.

Ave pace: 8:29

Ave/Max HR: 158/185

Had intended to do a speed/inteval workout today but the dumb garmin did it's thing where the battery loses its charge for no apparent reason. So I bagged that idea and did a nice easy 9 mile run instead. I'll try again tomorrow on the speed.

Nice day today although a bit nippy, but the sun was shining and I quite enjoyed the run. Since I had no watch/pace to think about I worked on a few Chi running focuses and ended up getting into one of those zones where I space off and then I suddenly find myself surprised to be at the end of my run. Felt like I could have run forever today, wish they could all be like that.

Ave pace probably somewhere in the 8-8:30 range.

Also did some cross-train stairstepper/elliptical - 10 minutes or 1 mile equiv.

Ave pace 8:12. Ave/Max HR 160/189.

Not a good workout today. Didn't sleep well last night and tired before even starting the planned speed workout. But in the spirit of Coach Hudson's advice to at least give workouts an attempt even on bad days I gave it a try. Warmed up 10 min on the stairs/elliptical then 1 mile on the 'mill. Then went outside for 8 miles including the attempt at speed.

Plan was to do a drop-down ladder interval workout. Warmup run for 2 miles including some drills/strides, then do 1 x 1m, 1 x .75m, 1 x 1km (.62m), 1 x .5m, and 1 x .25m, with 90s run/walk active recovery in between. Finish with 2 easy miles. Ideally you start around 10K pace and work toward 3K pace which for me is somewhere a bit below 6 min/mi. Did this same workout about 6 weeks ago with paces of 6:29, 6:15, 6:08, 6:01, 5:40.

First mile interval didn't feel right, by the time I was done it felt too hard, too much like it should be the last interval. Gunky inversion air didn't help. Next .75m interval felt worse, starting to feel nausea and GI yuckiness toward the end. Notice my HR is higher than it should be at this point. Started the next interval but bagged the whole think after .25, just feeling queasy so I loafed back to the gym.

Oh well better luck next time. Wish garmin would have worked yesterday when I was feeling good and was supposed to do the workout.

1m interval: 6:29, Ave HR: 179 (90s rest, 10:43 pace)

.75m: 4:47 (6:22), Ave HR: 182 (90s rest, 11:32 pace)

.5m - quit after .25: 1:30 (6:20), Ave HR: 185

So I've been doing an experiment since mid-October. Thought I'd try switching gears and do some 5K specific training rather than usual marathon. Wanted to see if/how it would affect my speed.

Verdict: It helped some for a while, but sub-32 temps and 5K training don't go well together. Also 5K-style workouts are not much fun, too much feeling like puking or actual puking. Helped me remember why I haven't done 5k training for a few years.

My 5K PRs are still all during marathon or half-marathon, higher mileage training cycles usually toward the end of the cycle when reaching peak. Much more enjoyable to me to get faster on this kind of training than doing cruddy 400/800/1200 interval type training. Will Painters 5K be any different?  Guess we'll see. Looking forward to post-Painters and starting up the UVM marathon training cycle.

Busy day today so pre-blogging the workout. Plan is for 2 crosstrain miles (bike/stair/elliptical), then 7 easy, hilly miles. Somewhere in the middle 8 x 8-10 second hill sprints.

8:20, 150/170

Felt sluggish at first then better as the run progressed.

Felt pretty good today. Warmed up 10 min crosstrain-stair/elliptical, then 1 mile tmill. Then hit the roads. 2 miles easy then 4 miles tempo then 2 miles easy to cooldown.

During the tempo run I tried to focus not so much on the pace but more on holding form and running at perceived effort in the 1/2 marathon to 10K pace range.  Was happy that pace improved as the run progressed with last mile being the quickest. Strangely enough the last 2 miles felt alot better than the 1st 2 even though I was 10-20 seconds faster. Much better workout today than Tuesday.

Pace and ave HR for 4 mile tempo: 6:52/175, 6:51/181, 6:37/184, 6:34/187

Overall: 7:30/167/190

30 minutes x-train bike/stair/elip, then 6 miles nice easy and relaxing on the roads. A bit nippy but the sunshine was glorious.

AP: 8:13 HR: 146/159

Ran with Kim and the SF group for a while then me and Hal for our weekly jaunt up Harry's. Toward the end Kent joined us for a couple of miles. Mostly easy, had a couple of faster miles that qualify for MP.

AP: 8:35

Kind of a strange workout today. Was supposed to be my 5K race peak workout. 5 x 1K repeats at 5K pace with 60s active recorvery. Warmed up with 10 min XT and 1 mile treadmill at the gym before heading out into the gunky air. I was feeling really good to start, usually means I'll have a pretty good workout. Did 2 miles easy including drills/strides before starting the repeats.

Felt pretty good the first 2 repeats but then suddenly in the middle of the 3rd I got smacked with a wave of nausea and GI distress and my form went all to pot. I started the 4th repeat but I quit after .25 and decided to just keep the workout medium difficulty and then do a couple quarters later on if I felt like it . Turns out I did feel like it.

I'm thinking the nasty air may have been the culprit. Even as I write this an hour later I can still taste the gunk in my mouth and kind of feel like I smoked a few cigs. For all I know I did more damage than good running in this kind of air. Oh well..... for Painters 5K I think I'll go out at 6:10-6:15 pace and see what happens. I was hoping to be closer to 6:00 average and sub-19 but we'll just have to see how it feels after the 1st mile.

Splits:

1 - 3:48 (6:08) HR 175 (1 min active recover - 10:55 pace)

2 - 3:51 (6:13) HR 180 (1 min AR - 12:05)

3 - 3:53 (6:17) HR 181 (1 min AR mostly walking - 14:04)

4 - quit after .25

Later on..... 2 x .25 around 6 min pace.

AP: 7:31  HR: 167/187

Better air today thankfully. The nasty effects of yesterday's run-in-the-gunk lasted through the day and night. I think I still even have a little aftertaste in my mouth today.

Today was a fun run with Kim. Maybe more fun for me than Kim because the plan was for her to do the same workout I did yesterday (5 x 1K @ 5K pace with 1 min active recovery) but at her pace, that we're thinking is around 8 min/mi. I thought this would be a challenging workout for her but she surprised me and seemed to hammer out the repeats without much discomfort. I think she should be able to run sub-25 at the Painter's 5K no problem.

I'll list her splits here for future reference:

1 - 4:55 (7:58/mi), 60s rest (11:16/mi)

2 - 4:55 (7:58), (11:10)

3 - 4:54 (7:58), (11:05)

4 - 4:49 (7:55), (11:14)

5 - 4:44 (7:39)

AP: 8:48, HR: 137/163.

Easy hills day today. Beautiful day with most the gunky air gone as near as I could tell. Did 20 min XT warmup (S/E) at the gym then out on the roads for 7 miles including 6 x 8-10s hill sprints toward the end.

AP/HR 8:08/158

I quite enjoyed the run today, even though the weather was kinda dreary. But temps were fairly mild and the air didn't seem too grungy. Warmed up with 10 minutes XT (S/E) and 1 mile on the treadmill. Then did a 2-2-2-2-2 workout. 2 miles easy, then 2 miles around HM to 10K pace, then 2 minute jog rest, then 2 more miles at HM-10K pace, then 2 miles easy cooldown.

Like last week I tried to not pay so much attention to the garmin, but rather tried to focus on keeping good form, breathing and relaxation. During the tempo I had this mantra in my head...."Pants on the ground, pants on the ground, lookin like a fool w/yo pants on the ground.....". If you saw Idol last night you know what I'm talking about.

Splits/HR for tempo miles were 6:44/176, 6:41/182, (2 min jog rest - 9:26 pace), 6:35/181, 6:30/187.

AP/HR: 7:27/167(189max).

Easy run on a cold morning in the foggy foggy dew. 3 miles with Kim then 3 solo. Now off to St. George!

LSD run on the V.R. trail in Dixie. Went 10 miles with Kim then solo the rest of the way. A little chilly and cloudy at first but by the end it warmed up and cleared up nicely to where short sleeves were just dandy.

AP/HR: 8:53/135

Ran in the late afternoon, 3 miles with Kim then 5 solo including 6 x 8-10s hill sprints. Went later than usual because we were waiting for Tyler's phone call from the airport! Yesterday he left the MTC to head over to Denmark. We had a great chat with him and look forward to hearing about his experiences with the Danish.

Felt sluggish on most of the run. Oddly the hill sprints felt really good compared to usual. Taking a rest/reduced-mileage week this week.

AP: 8:38

Beautiful day today for January. A little breezy but I'll take it any day for this time of year. Warmed 10 min. XT (S/E), then did 7 miles outside including a 5K tuneup workout: 1 x .75m @ 5K pace, 1 min active recover (i.e. slow jog), then 6 x .25m @ 5K-3K pace with 1 min active recovery.

Felt ok but the repeats were harder than they should of and my HR reflected that. Perhaps the 2am call from the airport in Austria had something to do with. But I'll trade an off workout for a talk with my missionary boy any day!

Splits:

1) .75m - 4:42 (6:16 pace, ave HR 172), 1 min rest (10:14 pace)

2) .25m - 1:29 (6:03, 173), (1min rest 9:46)

3) .25m - 1:29 (6:00, 178), (10:10)

4) .25m - 1:31 (6:04, 179), (10:34)

5) .25m - 1:29 (6:01, 178), (10:21)

6) .25m - 1:28 (5:58, 181), (10:32)

7) .25m - 1:26 (5:54, 179), 

AP: 7:45, Ave/Max HR: 160/193 

20 min XT (S/B/E) warmup then 6 miles easy outside hills. Nice day again.

AP/HR: 8:09/151

No running today. Instead did 50 minutes x-train (10 min stairs, 10 min bike, 30 min elliptical).

20 minutes XT warmup (S/B/E) then 5 miles on the roads. Felt sluggish today, maybe it was the pizza party at work yesterday. Looks like we're going to bag the trip down to SG and skip Painters.

AP/HR: 8:24/145

Felt pretty good about the race, I'm happy anytime I'm under 20 minutes for a 5K and elated when I can sneak into the 18's. Kim also had a great race with close to PR time of 24:30 and 2nd in 40-44 women's AD.

We almost didn't make the trip to St. George when we looked at the weather forecasts. But then we looked outside and saw sunshine so we decided to take our chances - which proved to be the right choice, as we didn't really have any weather problems the whole trip. Plus we still had things to do at the condo to get it ready to rent out here starting in a couple weeks.

I had no real expectations for this race, especially since my speed workouts the last few weeks have been dismal. But in past years I've usually run well at Painters so I figured I'd go under 20 minutes and have a shot at under 19.

Probably went out a tad too fast but I was pleased that the close to 6 min pace felt as good as it did since lately in workouts I've been dying to hold that pace for a 1/2 mile. I'm sure being at 2500 ft and a touch of race magic helped.

I kind of wimped out the 2nd mile, I ended up in that situation I hate in races when I get stuck with nobody around to push me or key off of and I slack. But I was glad I was able to pick it back up the last mile and even pass a couple of runners (and manage not to get passed).

Felt really good shortly after the race and ran a few more miles including running Kim in at the end, so I suppose that means I probably could have pushed a little harder. But what the heck....I'll take the (barely) sub-19 when I can get them since they occur so rarely.

I thought Kim did a great job, near PR on only around 20 miles a week and a touch of speed work. She should have a great year this year.

Splits were 6:07, 6:17, 6:07, :30 (last .10, 5:55 pace).

I think the race distance was pretty accurate.

Time to switch gears and begin the marathon training cycle. Enough of that 5K training foolishness. Although the 5K race itself wasn't so bad, I think 5K training is the pits, especially in the winter.

Focus for the next few weeks will be mainly on building base and working weekly mileage up in the 60's instead of 40's and 50's. Also extra emphasis on hills. Not much speed work or tempo runs yet, just some occasional strides or maybe take off for 5-10 minutes when the horses are neighing.  Also a race each month for fun and to get a feel for where I'm at.

Had a very enjoyable, relaxed run today out toward Utah Lake. I was pleased to see my HR average in the low 140's while the pace was close to 8 min miles. Seems like I haven't been able to do this for a while.

AP/HR 8:05/143

Seven peaks hill route. Did 6 x 10s hill sprints in the middle.

AP/HR 8:08/146

Warmup 10 min XT (S/E) then 8 miles easy on Kuhni road.

AP/HR: 8:11/146

Just over 10 miles out toward the lake and back. Picked it up toward the end so I'll count a little bit as marathon pace.

AP/HR 7:58/147

XT 30 minutes (S/B/E) then 5 miles on the roads nice and easy.

AP/HR: 8:11/143

Had some things going in the morning so I had to get out earlier than usual and forgo running with the SF group. Nice morning today, no wind, humongous full moon. Did a lot of hills throughout the run and finished with just over a mile pushing it up Canyon Road hill. I'll count that last 1.25 as MP.

So this wraps up our "Hundred for Haiti" week our family. Last Monday in FHE we were discussing some things we could do as a family to help the quake victims. We decided to see if as a family we could cover 100 miles this week in the form of running, walking or playing sports/exercising. Then we'll each donate some $ amount per mile that we each contributed.

For anyone trying to figure how best to donate funds to help the Haitians, here are a couple of links where you can donate and your dollars will be well spent.

https://secure3.convio.net/ldsp/site/Donation2?df_id=1861&1861.donation=form1&s_src=14703

http://healinghandsforhaiti.org/

AP/HR: 8:16/156