Every Run is a Great Run!

Happy Mother's Day to all the bloggers who perform Mommy duties of any kind!

After 3 weeks of pretty good training and miles we were thinking of making this week a reduced mileage / rest week. However we're both feeling pretty good so the current plan is 1 more week similar to last week and then we'll probably take a rest week next week and finish it off running the Scandinavian 5K on the 24th down in my good 'ol home town of Ephraim.

Current pace zones:

Kim: 1MP = 7:20-7:30, 3KP = 7:40-7:55, 5KP = 7:55-8:15, 10KP = 8:15-8:35, HMP = 8:40-8:55, MP = 8:55-9:15, BP = 9:20-10:30, RP = 10:30-12:00

Tom: 1MP = 5:15-5:25, 3KP = 5:35-5:45, 5KP = 5:50-6:00, 10KP = 6:00-6:15, HMP = 6:20-6:40, MP = 6:40-6:55, BP = 7:10-8:00, RP = 8:00-9:10.

Tentative plan for this week:

Mon: AM 3-6 miles with Kim @ RP, PM 7 @ BP. Dork drills.

Tue: Hills: AM 5-6 with Kim @ RP, PM 6-7 @ RP w/ 8x1-min hill reps @ 1MP w/2-minute active recoveries.(6 reps for Kim).

Wed: AM 0-6 with Kim @ RP, PM 7 @ BP. Core workout.

Thu: Fartlek: AM 5-6 with Kim @ RP, PM 7 @ BP w/ 8x1-min striders "sprinkled in" (6 for Kim) @ 1MP

Fri: AM 0-6 with Kim @ RP, PM 7 @ BP. Core workout.

Sat: AM 10 miles @ BP, 5-10 miles @ RP. I'll be doing this run while at father-son campout near Birdseye. Kim will be running a 'casual' 5K at Thanksgiving Point in an attempt to win an entry into SG marathon. Good luck Kim!

Kim and I exercised our Monday option of bagging the morning together run if we have good reason and getting it done separately later in the day. As we lied there in bed listening to the monsoon-like sounding wind and rain it was a pretty easy choice. Only thing is we didn't get to do our dork drills together. Darn (sarcasm). I've about decided the dork drills are useless and silly (and dorky of course), so perhaps Coach Tom will banish them from the workout schedule.

Got in 10 miles at work on Kuhni Road and a different road I haven't run on before since Kuhni's is partially closed. Ended up by the sewer treatment plant. Oh yummy! What delightful odors were enjoyed by all. Had to run solo today as I went out earlier than usual to meet work/schedule demands.

Most miles in the 7:30-8:00 range but with a few at the beginning and end slower to raise the average pace to 8:02.

Going to watch Tani compete in the Hershey's track meet today so decided to get the entire workout done this morning. Went about 3 miles with Kim then headed down to the bottoms to do hill repeats. Since Kim was feeling a twinge in the achilles yesterday and since she's running a 5K race/tempo-run on Saturday, Coach Tom suggested it would be wise for her to forego the hills this week. If she's feeling fine tomorrow we may do a few 1-min striders.

Did 8 1-min hill repeats with 2-min active recovery in between. These hill repeats are always tough and I thought I may have to run and find a bush toward the end of the repeats for an unplanned potty break but luckily it didn't come to that. Not sure on pace, garmin was all over the place again as it seems to always be on the hill repeats. Probably around 5K pace. Average pace for the entire run around 9 min.

UPDATE: Wanted to mention that Tani did awesome at the Hershey's track meet!! She made it to the semi-finals in the 50m and 100m dash and also to the finals in the 4x100m relay. I think the relay team ended up getting 4th. Not too bad I think! Luckily Tani takes more after her mom's side as far as running ability and overall athleticism. Most our other kids take after my side which wasn't blessed with great athletic prowess. I think Tani is our first runner to make it past the 1st round for this track meet. That's the great thing about distance running is that even if you're a generally lousy athlete you can still do pretty well with decent training and discipline.

Also while at the track meet I ran from the track a couple blocks to the van and over to the fountains to fill up our water bottles a couple of times, I think good enough for another .75 miles to push the total to double-digits for the day.

AM: Ran just over 4 miles with Kim, then she got in a couple more solo. Another beautiful May morning, looks like we'll have nice days for the next while. Super! Kim was feeling pretty spry so we did 6 1-min striders scattered throughout the run. Most were in the 7-7:30 pace range but I think the last one was under 7. Ave pace around 9:50.

Noon: Ran the 10K Lakeview loop with Paul. Darin also joined us for about the last couple of miles. I tacked a bit more on to the end solo to end up at 7 miles. Ave pace 7:43.

AM: Had a real nice morning relaxed run with Kim. Absolutely beautiful morning, maybe the first we've had in the 50s and no wind. Ran what has become our standard 4.35 mile river bottoms loop and then Kim got in a bit more afterward. Didn't get much sleep last night, between watching the Jazz game which went until around 11:30 (DANG why did they lose!!??), then staying until after midnight so we could sign Kim and Tyler up as volunteers at first chance for WBR, we probably only got 5 hours of sleep. But hopefully we'll be OK at work with being too snoozy. Ave pace between 9:45-10:00.

Late AM: I quite enjoyed my timed fartlek workout today. It was a tad warm and windy but once again I thought it was quite invigorating to pretend to be a speedster, albeit in short 1-min. bursts with ample rest time in between (3 minutes). I did still run during the "rests" around 8:15-8:45 pace. I was pleased the intervals felt easier to me than last week even though I went further and rested the same. I feel like I could have done a handful more at near the same pace. I know Sasha would probably say I would be better served going back to the longer/slower tempo runs like I was doing before or building up to higher mileage, but dang-it! I really like doing the faster/shorter stuff sometimes so I'm going to indulge for a few more weeks anyway. Just pray that I don't hurt myself.

Except for the 1st repeat, all were in the 5:05-5:30 range, around .18-.20 miles. Paces were 5:46, 5:27, 5:28, 5:23, 5:22, 5:22, 5:12, 5:08.

Overall average pace - 7:33.

AM: Nice run around river bottoms short loop 4.35 miles with Kim. Another nice day, albeit a bit windy, but no complaints. Didn't pay attention to pace, probably in the 9:45-10:00 range.

Late AM: Lakeview 10K route easy run. Legs feeling a bit weary from the fartlek run yesterday so decided to keep the pace slow, well into the recovery pace range. Ave pace 8:40.

Good luck to everyone racing tomorrow!

Well unfortunately Kim wasn't able to score the SGM entry golden ticket today at the Running with Angels 5K at Thanksgiving Point. She had submitted an inspiring story on overcoming adversity, but the eventual winner also was well deserving with her story, having overcome being hit by a van while running the Ogden Marathon last year. OH, and she was also pregnant with twins at the time. How ya gonna beat THAT! But we haven't given up the SGM entry quest just yet as there are still other giveaway races and charity entries to explore.

I had planned on running up at Father/Son camp near Birdseye. The boys and I did go up last night with plans of staying overnight, but it ended up there were lots of schedule conflicts in the ward and not many fathers and sons showed up, and those who were there were mostly very young kids, none of my boys friends were able to make it. So after dinner, games, and fireside activities my boys consulted with me and decided we would have better father-son bonding opportunities if we went home early and watched the Jazz (who unfortunately seemed to be thinking more about camping or something other than playing B-Ball).

One of the other nice things about not staying overnight at the camp is it allowed me to go and run with Kim in the 5K. Before the race I got up early and ran 10 miles solo around 7:30-8:00 pace. The rest of the miles came piecemeal, before-during-and-after the 5K. Most of the last 9 miles were in the 8-10 pace range with a couple of miles under 8-min during the 5K.