Elite Jogging For Dummies

Out the door at 5:45. I grabbed a hat before I left because the sky looked like it could rain. Indeed, about half way through my run, a little rain started to fall. But the bigger deal was the wind, lots and lots of wind. It was pretty brutal running toward City Creek canyon. The run was overall at easy pace, but I also added 8 x 100m strides to get some leg turnover. I felt ok, but a little heavy from the weekend and the long drive. 

Yesterday we hiked out to Delicate Arch at Arches NP, three miles round trip.  I carried Jack in the toddler pack. He did really well, not as much fuss as when we have hiked in the past.  It was a good time.

Easy run this morning, but with some climbing.  I headed up to the Shoreline Trail at the mouth of Dry Creek and ran south on the trail, up into (and then down) Red Butte, then continued south to the site of the new Natural History Museum. It's a mess up there, although they did add a new little section of trail to get around some of the work. But it hardly makes up for the giant imposition the new building will create, considering it's right in the middle of the trail. Farewell open space! Oh well, we can always make more of it. Oh, wait, no we can't.

I ran the last real workout on the schedule this morning, 4 x 4 minutes at CV pace with 15 miles total running.  I warmed up over to TiTP, then up to the golf course. I started the first interval and ran for about a minute before realizing I had not hit the split on my watch, so I stopped for a second to fix my watch and then started the first interval from scratch.  Pace was 5:29 on semi-rolling terrain on Wasatch Blvd. I felt like I was working pretty hard. On the second interval, I tried to relax a bit, but thinking it didn't make it happen.  Pace was, again 5:29.  On the third interval, I turned from Wasatch and headed along Foothill toward the footbridges.  This one has a little up, a little down, a little flat, and then a little more up again into a little Parley's Canyon headwind.  Pace was 5:35.  After jogging down to the end of the first footbridge, I turned around to start the last interval, retracing essentially what I had done on #3, although I had the benefit of a little more downhill. Pace was 5:25.  I then ran easy back home via the same route I took on the way out.

 My overall impression of this workout?  Eh.  It was good to get the miles, but I figured I would feel all speedy and snappy and it just wasn't there. I was legitimately working to keep pace. I will say that 4 minutes at CV pace feels a lot different than 3 minutes at CV pace. Add another minute and you're pretty much doing mile repeats.
 

AM:  I ran 8.10 miles on the U/Avenues loop, easy pace.
 

PM: I ran home from work, 2.25 mile version.  

AM: I ran 7 miles via a modified Federal Heights/Ensign Elem. loop.  I set my alarm last night for 5:30 pm, so that wasn't very helpful. I woke up at 6:30, glad I didn't have a long run planned.   I added 8 x ~ 100m strides during the run.

Since Mark O. is out of the massage world with an injury for the time being, I had a massage at noon over at the Eagle Gate College, right by my office. It's $30 for 50 minutes. The guy I have gone to is pretty good and it's a great deal.

PM: three easy miles, from home out and back to the gate up Memory Grove. Nice and easy, felt good.

I slept in until about 6:40 am and that made me feel pretty lazy. But since I only had 15 miles on the schedule, I figured I could indulge.

For this run, I traveled the same route as my Wednesday workout, out to the footbridge at Parley's canyon and back. After the turnaround, I did some progression miles, picking up the pace from 7min, to 6:45, to 6:30.  This generally felt pretty good. It was nice to feel my legs turning over, but I'm to that point now where I have no idea how I am possibly going to run as fast as I plan to run in the marathon. Oh well, as they say, the hay is in the barn.