Elite Jogging For Dummies

Lake Tahoe. Adam & Helen's wedding was last night; it was a blast. Stayed up late, but not too late. So I got up at about 7am and ran for an hour. Headed south again from Tahoma to Sugar Pine Point, around the grounds of the Pinewood Lodge, and along the path on the lake shore. Another gorgeous morning. Climbed back across the road and onto the General Creek trail. I wish I had more time to explore that area; it's double track and fireroad with pine needles underfoot. This area was also the site of the cross country ski events during the 1960 winter olympics. After exploring the General Creek area a bit, I headed back to Tahoma on the bike path.

From home, I ran to Liberty Park (via downtown) for three loops and back home.

East High track workout with the Black Sheep.

Started with a 1.2 mile warmup around the neighborhood, followed by 800 meters with strides on the straightaways.

The workout went like this:

Part A: 6 x 800 m. Wanted to keep these @ 2:40 pace.

1. 2:40 w/ 200m recovery

2. 2:39 w/ 200m recovery

3. 2:37 w/ 400m recovery

4. 2:41 w/ 200m recovery

5. 2:42 w/ 200m recovery

6. 2:37 w/ 400m recovery

Part B: 3 x 400 at sub 80 seconds.

1. 80 w/ 200m recovery

2. 78 w/ 200m recovery

3. 76 w/ 400m recovery

Part C: 1 x 1 mile:

1. 5:27

One mile cooldown on the track afterward.

Refresh your browser to see a picture of me in my new macrame track suit wearing my iPod.

From home, I ran about 3.5 miles to Foothill Village to hook up with a few folks, and then we ran about a 7 mile loop up around the Zoo, to Steiner, through the Yalecrest neighborhood and back to Foothill.

Added another 4.5 tonight with Heather.

Tried another variation of the run Jed and I did last Thursday. From my house, I ran up to City Creek Canyon via the Capitol. Took it easy up to the mile 2 mark and then started a 5 mile tempo run. I ran the first mile uphill, gaining 150 feet, in 6:50. It felt hard, but I was not very fast. Turned around and started the descent. Next miles were in 5:50/5:39/5:39 and 5:23, dropping about 700 feet over these miles. Cooled down back home via 4th Ave.

Title for today's run: "Sorry I'm late, I got caught behind a couple of skunks"

My friend Sam and I met at 6am to run the Pipeline trail in Millcreek. We parked at Burch Hollow and headed out into the darkness. It rained a lot last night and was still raining when we started. So it was dark and wet, though we had our headlamps to help us see the bigger puddles.

We ran easy out to Rattlesnake, turning around before the lookout point because we were a little short on time. We ended up being very short on time, but for an unexpected reason. After turning around, we were running up-canyon looking at the changing colors and the low hanging clouds filling in a few of the side canyons under the overcast sky. After a mile or so of this scenic beauty, we rounded one of the bends in the trail and came up on a pair of skunks wandering casually on the trail in front of us. Ok, no big deal, we thought we would just wait for them to wander off the trail and we would pass them. Since there are no bail-out points from where we were on the trail, that was our only choice. But these skunks were apparently dedicated trail runners, as we followed behind for about 10 minutes as they trotted along the trail (I've been sprayed once before and lost a pair of good shoes to it, so I knew we should keep a little distance.)Finally, one skunk stopped on the right side of the trail, and the other on the left side. But they were still right next to the trail. It became clear we would just have to make a run for it and hope for the best. So just as a crack of thunder echoed through the canyon, we yelled like a couple of madmen and sprinted at top speed past the skunks and into the rain. (see VO2 max mileage) We didn't get sprayed and enjoyed the rest of the run back to Burch, laughing our heads off.

Met up with Aimee Larkin at 5:30 at 15th/15th. It was not raining when we started, but that didn't last long. After a few minutes the rain started and we figured it was going to be a very long morning. At about 4 miles out, it started to hail. We actually decided it would be a good idea to turn around and maybe go to Aimee's gym and finish the run on a treadmill since we still had a couple of hours of running ahead (it sounded like a good idea at the time). As soon as we turned around, the hail really started coming down and it stung our legs and faces. It hurt! So we took cover briefly under some trees and waited it out. We then headed out onto the road, which was now covered in an inch of slushy hail. After a few minutes, the weather improved. By the time we were within a mile of our starting point (15/15), the rain was gone. So we decided to turn around and continue back south again. We had covered about 6.2 at that point. So, we ran from Sugarhouse Park through the gully to 20th East and through East Millcreek, into Holladay. We ran Hollady Blvd, stopping briefly at the Carmelite Monastery where they had set up some of the cleanest porta potties I have ever seen in my life in preparation for the Carmelite Fair today. We then ran straight into the Old Mill area, picking up some extra mileage before turning back via the same route.

Aimee looks really strong. She's running for Wasatch Running Center now and hoping to make a good showing for her team at St. George (she's run 2:47 there and run the Trials). She sure looked strong today.

I felt pretty strong for the most part. Aimee actually kept the pace harder than I would have if I were alone; we were running most miles at about 6:40, many were faster.