Elite Jogging For Dummies

This morning I ran out and back to This is the Place and up to the St. Mary's hood (no golf course loop).  For the first time since the marathon, I felt I had finally regained full range of motion in my body, so my form felt much more at ease. Also, my hip, which had tightened up a lot after Saturday's run, didn't give me any big problems.  I spent a fair amount of time yesterday working the TP massage ball and that seemed to help. It's still something I'm keeping a close watch on, however.

Black Sheep Workout at East High. This was my first time back on the track in a while and I could feel it.  After 1.25 warmup, we ran 4 x 400 with 300 at intensity and 100m easy.  Then the infamous "Penny Run" which would take too long to explain, but basically it's an "equalizer" run that is designed so that everyone in the group should finish each interval together.  Thus, while Josh was running 700m, I was running 670-680m, and some were running less than 600m.  We did eight of these intervals and I am here to tell you they hurt. I have no track speed, and thus no 5k speed. I would like to push that VO2 element a bit in the next couple of weeks to boost my capacity and make the endurance work that follows more meaningful.

Met up with Josh and Megan on 3rd Ave at 5:45 and we ran the U/Ensign Loop with a 2 mile  extension up and down City Creek Canyon.  My quads are a little sore from the track workout yesterday, but everything else felt pretty loose.  

The plan this morning was to run out to 4800 South to pick up my car from Mike Bailey's shop, but it was raining and this particular car is not suited for wet weather so I had to figure out something else to do. In my early morning fog I even decided to lay down and try to fall asleep for a few more minutes. Didn't really work. Finally headed out the door around 6:15 with no real plan and a bad attitude.  It was raining and I was tired ... 

So I ran what can only be described as a meandering route out to the Harvard/Yale neighborhoods with lots of zigzagging and going down streets I usually don't run.  I guess mixing it up was the only way I could keep it interesting today.  It was one of those runs where you feel like you're stopping every five minutes for some dumb reason or another (bathroom, gear adjustment, etc).  As the run went on my mood improved slightly, but I still felt like BA Baracus.  I pity the fool who don't remember what BA stands for!

The skies were fairly clear this morning so I ran from my house out to Murray (4800 So./200w) to pick up my little British car from Bailey's.  After I got to Liberty Park, I basically ran on 5th East all the way out to 4500 South and then down to State, etc.  There is a serious camber on 5th East and I ran a lot on the sidewalk, which isn't my favorite, but it worked.  On the upside, the car runs great now and I look forward to getting it back on the road for a couple of drives this summer.

Met up with Johanna at  6:30 at Foothill Sbux.  We ran a north loop via Bonneville Golf Course, TiTP, Research Park, Fort Douglas, U, Federal Heights, Avenues.  Johanna keeps the pace spicy and although neither of us felt great, we ran fairly hard overall. My watch showed 1:34 for the distance and that includes a couple of times I didn't stop the watch when we stopped briefly.