Elite Jogging For Dummies

I had to drop off my car for inspection/emissions this morning at a shop out on 4800 So. in Murray so I decided to drive it out there and run home. This worked fine. I was there right at 7am when they opened and on the road a couple of minutes later. I ran mainly on 5th East until I got to Liberty Park, then I just took my usual 6th E. route home from there. The Garmin had teh distance at exactly 9.0 miles. Running time was 1:01, which included some stoplight downtime. What a pleasant morning to run.

Added 2.5 tonight running back to my office.

I had an early meeting this morning and couldn't hook up with the Black Sheep for Jan's workout.  Instead, I went out and stumbled around the neighborhood for an hour--aimlessly trying to decide if I wanted to go to the track, run easy, or do a tempo run.  Big mistake waiting until I woke up to try to decide what to do.  In the end, the SI was sufficiently vocal and the legs sufficiently stale that I more or less ran something that resembled a fartlek. The one thing of value is that I worked on pushing my legs at pace on some gentle downhills which has been a weak spot in my recovery regime.  It has required some changes in my form that I'm just getting comfortable with. I'm going to try to get out this evening for a few, hopefully more redeeming, miles.

After work and a visit to the chiro I ran another 3.5 through the hood.  These miles felt better than this morning.  I think the chiro appt helped.

Liberty Park / Avenues route. These miles were easy and felt good.

Holladay route with the Radda crew.  First four miles were easy, to the

bottom of Casto, and then I started a 3 mile tempo run.  It's a long

uphill followed by then rollers, so the times are slow,but the effort

is hard.  First mile, 6:20, then 6:00, and 6:15.  Sasha's course

analyzer always makes me feel better, as it projects 5:45 for a flat pace on this route. After puking, I turned around and caught with the main group behind me and we finished the run together. 

From my house, I ran two miles up to the Legacy Bridge to get a glimpse of the marathon/half marathon start. I wanted to run some of the half marathon course, but running on Foothill during the morning commute is asking for trouble so I ran up through the Bonneville golf course to Wasatch Dr. and ran south to 21st South--where the course turns west. This is the biggest downhill section in the half marathon and I was curious to see how my legs would handle it. My SI recovery has gone well except for hard downhill running. I just can't get the forward lean with fast leg turnover that is important to fast downhills without some weakness and discomfort on my right side. I can do a couple of tricks with my form to compensate, but they are slower. So, it's unlikely I'll light it up on this part of the race. The gradual downhill past 23rd. E. down to Sugarhouse Park felt much better. From there, I just ran around the park and then through the Hidden Hollow natural area below 1300 E. and down to 11th E. for the now-standard Salon/Gift Shop return toward downtown and home. Overall time was an easy 1:34.

I haven't been running with my iPod much recently, but today I did. I listened to podcast interviews from the website TheFinalSprint.com I listened to interviews with Dr. Jack Daniels, Brian Sell, and Scott Jurek. The Scott Jurek interview was best and would be very interesting for vegetarian runners or those interested in that topic.

The Final Sprint podcasts are also available as a free download on iTunes.

From a cabin in Teasdale, I ran out and back to the end of town. Elevation is just under 7000'.  Miles were mainly easy, but the last miles on the return had a nice downhill grade and I picked it up for miles of 6:00 and 5:32.  Also did 5 x 100m striders at the turnaround point. SI was slightly more vocal than it should be.