Elite Jogging For Dummies

I ran an easy mile, then went out with Heather. We ran together for a short time, and then I headed up toward the Shoreline trail and she headed toward the University. I just wanted a short run to burn off some energy, but I did run the last couple of miles at 6 min pace.

Bonneville Golf Course loop, with 1900 E. and Steiner return route. I wore my HR belt today, something I have done very little this year. Average was 153. The first 5 miles were at a steady easy pace. The last three miles, I picked it up and averaged about 6:20. From the golf course on Wasatch, there is a nice descent down 1300 So. to 1900 E. that makes running north on 1900 E. feel much better.

Black Sheep workout. We started at Popperton Park (11th Ave and Virginia). We ran a one mile warm up. Starting from the firestation on 11th Ave., we did 2 minutes hard/2 minutes easy, running west, and then north down past the entrance to City Creek, and south to the Capitol. Easy jog down to Memory Grove. We did 4 hard sets of stairs between Memory Grove and 4th Ave. Then we did the Black Sheep classic "Over and Up," which means running easy on the flat numbered streets and running hard up the hilly lettered streets. The first few were not so bad. Josh and I were hanging in there, with Derick not far behind and the rest of the group a little bit back. By the time we were running between 9th and 10th Ave, I was getting anaerobic. Heart rate was up to 180. On the final stretch, between 10th and 11th Ave, I was wasted. My HR was 186 at the end of that long climb, and I think I only have a couple of beats to go beyond that for a maximum. It took a couple of minutes to catch my breath and jog it back to the finish. Kind of a brutal start to the morning, but fun.

From my house, a group of six of us ran the Bonneville Golf Course loop. It was a beautiful, warm morning and an enjoyable run.

I was too late out the door to hook up with the group, so I ran alone. First couple of miles were sluggish beyond belief. Thought a tempo mile might spice things up, it didn't. I struggled through it into the wind at 5:58. Thought a bio break might help, it didn't. Thought some downhill running might help, it didn't. Thought stopping at 6.5 miles might help, that did the trick. It's not as if I have been training hard, I can't really explain why I felt so sluggish today.

We're up at Bear Lake for at least part of the weekend. Thanksgiving was fun, but too many calories. Heather and I went out and ran on the dirt roads up and around the cabin this morning. Not much snow has accumulated, but we did run on the crunchy stuff for a while. I did some Rocky III style pull ups while waiting for Heather in a few spots. Also ran a couple of hard hill repeats, approx 45 seconds on a steep grade. I still feel a little worn down though my energy level is fine; both knees have been a bit stiff for the last couple of weeks and it's not getting much better so I need to figure out what's going on there.

Still up at Bear Lake. I went out alone this morning and ran a mix of dirt roads and pavement. The first 40 minutes felt decent, but nothing great. Started to get a little sluggish again, but I finally had a breakthrough as I ran a long flat stretch next to a field full of cows; I picked up the pace into the wind and ran a hard half mile. The last 30 minutes of the run were great. I finished in 1:10. It was a sunny, gorgeous 30 degrees.