Ran various random places during recruiting. Ran to and from downtown and then did a timed 5.6 in driving wind and rain in 32:24 (5:47 pace).

Jordan river loop. This felt pretty good, it was a very easy pace even though I eased down to about 6:20 at the end and finished with a 6 minute pace. Total time was about 2:15 (6:45/mile).

Feeling really sick so I just ran around liberty park twice.

AM Ran to school.

PM Was going to do a threshold run but I was still a little sick so I did the 10.3 mile course in 67:30 (6:33 pace).

Ran from school up city creek like I have done several weeks in a row. Today was not that fast (about 7:15 pace). and I came back (down hill) slower than I went out last week. At some point in the next month I'm just going to nail this run (both directions sub 50 mins).  It was really cold today which isn't going to help me get better. Anyway, I should be up for Sugarhouse repeats tomorrow!

AM 3.5

PM Ran from school to sugarhouse (about 3 miles) then did 4 loops (7:40,48,46,47) with 2 minutes rest in between each one. Averaged just over 5:30 mile pace for the workout. It was fine for my legs but tough in my lungs, especially trying to accelarate coming off the final climb each time. Then ran the 3 miles back to school.

Typical friday run in the trails behind the U.  Now that the snow has melted its really muddy which would be fine if not for the possibility of falling down off a large cliff. Ran the course in 59:47 which is pretty typical.

This wasn't supposed to be a fast run and I wasn't really feeling that good but I guess I just punish myself occasionally. Started out at about 6:20 pace but it felt much harder.  Then I maintained that on the uphill, then I maintained it going into the wind. Reached 5.8 miles in 37:10 (6:24 pace) and then started to move. Ran down south temple at 6:00 pace and then cranked it into high gear on 300 East running through as many stop lights as I could. Hit the last 1.7 miles in 8:24 (5:30 pace) to finish the 9 mile loop in 55:12 for a 6:08 average. That's actually not bad for a day when I don't feel good. My best recorded time on that route is 54:59.

My patented THINK ABOUT IT run.  Basically go west in 1300S (it actually turns into California Avenue) until it deadends out in the middle of nowhere.  You'll see a huge mysterious building with those words in letter that must be twenty feet high. Does anyone know what this means. I thought this might have been a Hyundai factory but it's too isolated and doesn't appear on this website.

Anyway, this is and out and back (10.75 miles each way).  And the plan for march is to start negative splitting my long runs. Today I got a pretty nice headwind on the way out so negative splitting was very easy.

Out: 1:16:28 (7:07 avg) Back 1:08:07 (6:20avg)

This run makes me feel confident that I could average 6:10-20 pace for a marathon at altitude. I'm still not sure how that will translate to sea level.  But if I 'blow up' and can still run 6:20pace at the end then I'll be doing ok. I guess I'll check out the predictor. According to the predictor I subtract 10 seconds per mile.  We'll see, predictor, we'll see.

I guess this was kind of an easy run. I didn't time it but I felt that my pace was well under 7 minutes on the bark at liberty park. That's not what I would normally consider a recovery run, but I was anxious to get dinner started.

AM 3.5

I couldn't figure out why this run was so tough until I realized that I was going way faster than I intended to.  I generally do better on these types of runs if I start out kind of slow.  Instead I jumped right into a fast pace. I got to 3 miles in about 16:50, I did the mile that was entirely uphill in about 6:15. Even when I was struggling on the gradual uphill into the wind during miles 6-8 I was averaging 5:45 pace still. Ran the last 2 miles (downhill) in 10:40 and it was just cruising. Overall it was 10.3 miles in 57:43 (5:36 pace).  I don't think I need to do this workout faster, it just needs to feel a little smoother.

Ran up city creek and back (1:50:48). Took it kind of easy running 7:11 pace. The run was kind of uneventful.

AM 3.5 overslept again!

PM Ran from school to Sugarhouse park and did two loops. Did two 2-minute surges just to shake things up. Time was 60:43 which is about 6:45 pace.

Then it was a nice day so I ran home.

Ran on the shoreline trail, such a wonderful day! Ran it in 59:18.  I've done this course 3 times since the snow melted and have run 59:47,59:47 and now 59:18. I just run how I feel, is this consistency unusual?

An easy 5.5 which was probably kind of fast.  I'm going to actually recover on Monday. I ran around Liberty Park 3times. I also mapped out a half marathon course on the Jordan River bike path.  Start at the train tracks south of 1700S and start heading south. The turnaround is the last house before west vine street which is about 100m past the end of the boardwalk between 4800S and 5400S in Murray.

Some splits(Goal time) 1.05/12.05 (6:07/1:10:17)First bridge after freeway underpass

3.1/10 (18:05/58:20) 3300S

4.3/8.8 (25:05/51:20) End of bridge over meadowbrook expwy

5.6/7.5 (32:40/43:45) Taylorsville Expwy Underpass

6.2(10k) (36:10)Turnoff to bathroom after 4800S underpass

6.55 (38:12)Turnaround

Here's what I should see on my watch:1-6:07;2-11:58;3-7:00;4-7:35;5-3:30;6-2:02;7-5:33;8-7:35;9-7:00;10-11:57;11-6:08

Lots of splits in the middle to keep me motivated.

Well, things didn't go as planned.  I made it to the first checkpoint in 6:13, which was 6 seconds slow (5:55 first mile).  But I had the wind at my back so I should have been fast.  However my legs were feeling pretty heavy and I didn't think that I could really go any faster.  That's only a little faster than I ended my long run last Sunday! I hoped that maybe I would start to feel better, but instead I started to feel worse, alot worse.  My legs were burning and demanding that I stop immediately.  Who knows how the run would have turned out, but I knew that continuing would have been a bad idea in the long run.  So I stopped my watch and slowed to about 9 minute pace and ran home.

I think the problem is that I've been trying to fit in too many workouts recently.  I had a really tough run on Tuesday, but had been feeling fine.  I'm going to do easy mileage for a few days and then I'm going to try to tackle then 20miler in under 2:05.  I think that more reflects the type of shape that I'm in right now.

Did Sugarhouse twice.  pace was 7:05.  Started to feel better on the second loop, but I felt sluggish just like yesterday.

Ran up to the mountains and back. There was actually about 1000ft of climbing involved, which I guess inflates my 7:20 pace a bit.  Especially as I didn't really go that fast on the way back.

Another pretty relaxed run that started at around 7:30 pace and progressed down to around 6:30. Ran up 2700S to 2000E then came down Sunnyside and finished with a little in Liberty park.

6:06 pace! So, I got myself so redemption for Sunday! The run went off better than I would have hoped. This course includes the half marathon course that I made plus quite a bit more. So yeah its not really a race, but it was a tough effort. I was thinking I could do around 2:05, but saw that I was actually in reach of going under two hours! I was tiring/slowing at the end and didn't want to completely destroy myself to chase such an arbitrary thing when I was well inside my goal pace. Previous best on this course was 2:12 and my typical range is 2:30-2:40.

Just as I learnt alot from Sunday's failure, I also learnt alot from today.  I knew I was capable of such a thing but didn't know how it would feel. I got out a little too fast (18:35 5k, followed by 18:18, followed by 18:37 and hit 10 miles in 59:47) but it didn't really seem to matter at those speeds, I kind of recovered while still running fast.  My shins tightened up briefly in the second 5k perhaps due to the tough pace but it didn't last.  I felt really good in miles 11 and 12, I was just fully warmed up, loose and my endorphins were kicking in. Then I noticed that my right shoulder was starting to tighten up, that happens to me alot, but it didn't last. There are some rolling hills on 5300S and I handled them fine although in the end my butt started to get tired. At the end I was mostly conscious of the pain in my butt and of a general nausea.  I didn't bonk at all, I felt as I had no problem finishing with a 6 minute mile even though my legs were getting weak and I was nauseous. The nausia is probably due to the extended period of ab flexing, i don't know what to do about that.  And as for the weakness, I guess my mileage hasn't been high enough, I haven't done enough longer faster runs.

As this weeks theme is recovery, I gave myself a pretty good rest after yesterday. My only real activity was to run up to East High School to watch the HS track meet. My roommate has just started helping out with the team, so I thought I'd give them some support. I wasn't really sure who did well or not, as I didn't know any of their PRs, but If I keep going I should get a pretty good idea though. There was one girl who ran 5:35 in the mile, which is obviously good.

So despite all the recovery I took this week, I'm only about 5 miles less than I wanted it to be.  I finished up the week with a pretty legit base run.  I did my Sugarhouse Thrice course in a new fastest time (1:08:52) which comes out to 6:19 pace. It was a pretty uneventful run, although I did actually measure my stride rate while I was running.  It turned out to be 166 strides per minute which is much faster than I thought I would be. I think I'm going to start recording this during all of my runs to see how it varies. My last mile today was probably about 5:40.

Ran on the Jordan River trail until 3300S.  Although I almost missed the turnoff and kept going to Sandy because I wasn't paying attention. Ran a recovery run in 1:23:27 (7:15 avg).

Ran an easy 6 miles. I recorded my stride rate again and it was 168.  I also measured it yesterday at 166 so I'm pretty consistent.

AM 3.5 to school 178 strides per minute

PM did my 10 mile loop from school aiming for about 60, ran 60:44 which is pretty good.  I didn't feel great today so I didn't try to do anything crazy.  It was a beautiful day though so I decided to run home, though I did that really slowly.
 

Ran up city creek and turned around after 50 minutes. Well actually it was more than that because I stopped paying attention.

Just ran to and from school today.  Thought I'd go back and calculate my 5k splits from seafair in July should be kind of interesting.

5k 18:32, whoops too fast

10k 37:37(19:05) that's more like it

15k 55:40(18:03) Maybe I really am this fast!

20k 1:15:07 (19:27) No, I'm not

25k 1:35:12 (20:05) Ok, I guess I'll try to hold this pace the rest of the way.

30k 1:56:40 (21:38) Maybe this pace is a little more realistic

35k 2:19:00 (22:20) Holding on

40k 2:42:58 (23:58) Nope

42.2k 2:52:48 (9:50)

I was really frustrated in the last 5k that I could go any faster.  Looking at this makes me amazed at how far I've come. I was worried that I ran a 6:30 mile in my twenty miler, hah!

It should also be noted that I was in 5th at 20K and in fifth at the end.

Did Yasso 800s.  I was aiming for 2:35 and gave myself equal rest that included a lap jog.

1 2:38

2 2:37

3 2:36

4 2:37

5 2:35

6 2:36

7 2:38

8 2:39

9 2:38

10 2:39

The wind really picked up for the last one. I'm not sure how much time that adds but I would guess 2-3 seconds. I wanted to get this workout in primarily as a reference for the future. According to weather.com the wind was 22mph gusting to 30mph...yep.

Ahh, my last looonng run. Did it in about 2.5 hours and averaged 7 min pace.  It's gotten pretty to run that pace for that long.  Hopefully when I blow in Boston, I can limit the damge to 6:40-7:00 minute miles rather than the 7:30 horrors at the end of my last one. I ran one of my favourite routes along 1300S/California.  This was the first time I'd done this run on a day other than Sunday, so I was actually able to run in the wilderness area by the dump. It has a wonderful desolate beauty, I love those types of things.

Well, it's time for the next phase: a gradual taper. Following Sasha's lead I took a complete rest day on Sunday, my first goose egg in a veeery long time. It's the first one that I did willingly (not due to injury) since maybe August! and I've been totally healthy since thanksgiving.  Now it's time to start kicking butt. Total distance today was zero avg mile pace was 3:57.
 

Ran to sugarhouse park, did a couple of loops and then came back. Now my achilles is kind of sore. Probably due to the kind of first pace in the kind of cold weather. I still can't get over the fact that my legs will be feeling fine, but I'll be breathing really hard. Anyway: time was 59:47 which is about 6:38 pace.