Elite Jogging For Dummies

Easy five miles with Heather and Jack (in the baby jogger, of course). It snowed a couple of inches yesterday and last night but this morning was clear.  We ran through the cemetery, which is beautiful after the snow. We saw 20 or so deer.  Heather said that if we ever moved she would miss living next to the cemetery as much as anything. It is a peaceful place. 

Easy run this morning on the Ensign Elem. loop. I can still feel a little bit of Saturday's race in my legs, but it just seems like normal fatigue. Congratulations to the FRB racing team for the awesome performance at Del Sol. You guys are amazing. 

This morning all I could think about was running uphill.  That thought was enough to trump speedwork with the Black Sheep or a tempo run.  So I ran from home over to Red Butte Canyon and ran up to the gate (still some ice and snow on the road).  Then I headed over toward Dry Creek via the Shoreline trail.  It's the first time I've been on this section of trail in months--it was good to be up there again.  I dropped down to 11th Ave through Popperton Park and then headed then up up up to 18th Avenue.  From here I connected on to the Shoreline trail again for a loop around the meadow.  Now it was time to descend to home via 11th Ave, Virginia and 4th Ave. to home. 

This morning I headed out around 5:45 with a plan to head up toward the H Rock and then down to Wasatch Blvd for the return. I meandered through the St. Mary's neighborhoods and turned downhill just before the dirt road that heads to the H Rock. I startled a couple of deer on my descent when I detoured onto a trail in a small gully, but I ended up making friends with one of them. On the return, I headed through This is the Place park. The snow is all melted and it's all runnable now. Nice to have those access points as an option again. For the rest of the run I just tried to stay consistent, pay attention to my breathing.

AM: Made it over to Radda at 5:35, enough time to get in three easy miles before joining the group at 6am. We ran the canal route, which is easily accessible now. After the mansion tour, ran three spicy miles. First mile was a long uphill because I missed the turnoff (I forgot to check the split). Then back down to the rolling hills of Wander Lane for two more miles, 6:02 and 5:52. I still need to concentrate more on staying in the groove in that second mile, but overall this felt pretty good. We ran 9.3 together. Johanna Nielsen is back in town from Paris, this time for good. I should try to get her on the blog so she can join the team. She is coming off of injuries, but is speedy, speedy.

PM:  Ran home from work, 2.3 miles. 

Catching an early flight to go to Palm Springs for a wedding.  Out the door at 5:10 and all I had time for was 7 miles before I had to get home and try to get us out the door on time. Ended up having plenty of time at the airport waiting for the flight.  I ran a modified Avenues loop.  It was nice and quiet being out that early.

Palm Springs, CA.  Heather and I came down here for the wedding of my longtime friend Eric, a college friend and roommate.  The wedding was great, we had a really enjoyable time.

On Saturday morning (I'm writing this Sunday evening), Heather and I ran 7.5 together,  and then I did 6.5 on my own. We cruised through the neighborhood very close to our hotel and then found a trail behind the Palm Springs Museum of Art and climbed probably 800-900 feet before realizing that it wasn't going to get flat anytime soon and our time was better spent on the road if we wanted to avoid getting cooked on the trail without enough water.  So we dropped back into the neighborhood and followed a bike path that took us through a neighborhood with the most amazing collection of mid-century modern homes that I have ever seen. I understand that this architecture is not everyone's thing . . . many people prefer "homier" styles.  But man, I just go nuts over desert modernism. Later in the day we went back to the museum and looked at an exhibit of photos by Julius Shulman--one of the master's of modern architectural photography. Some of his best work is in Palm Springs.  Here are a couple of examples: