running for my mind

8.5 miles in Maryland with Clark and Mark. 

It was an early morning after our flight got in so late, but it was totally worth it. We ended up running on some amazing paved trail in Maryland that was almost completely shaded by a canopy of trees. We had thought about running around the monuments in DC, but it was just a little too far away for a morning run. After breakfast we did get down to the city and walked around for a while before we headed east to the wedding that lasted the remainder of the day. This was my first time back east. Beautiful country there. 

6.5 easy miles on the usual out and back. 

Whit joined me on rollerblades this morning pushing Grey in the stroller. It was fun to have them there. They would fly past me on the downhill sections and I would catch them on the rises. On the flats it was easy for them to cruise along so it helped me push the pace a little on the second half.

6 miles in a new pair of kicks today. I stepped out of my comfort zone of the Brooks PureFlow and purchased the Kinvara. I really like the PureFlow 1, but I don't really like the new model. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find the original PureFlow so I am moving on...slowly.

Had a good run for sure. I didn't have any pain at all. Decided to push a couple miles in the middle. I wanted to do some speed work, but didn't want to go too crazy because of my race on Saturday. I still don't know what my strategy is for Saturday, but I think I am going to have a goal of simply sub-1:30.

5.5 with Adam in the heat of the day at 4pm.

Was fun to get out and get the legs moving after hours of studying. Pushed Grey in the stroller and at times with the light breeze I felt like the stroller was a giant parachute! Going to try and get a few miles tomorrow in and then head to Boise early Friday morning..

HOT! 

Went out for 4 miles at 5pm to see how the heat would feel because my race on Saturday is late in the day and I expect to start running the half marathon at about 4pm. Predicted temperature is 86 degrees and sunny! I pushed the pace a little to get a more accurate feel of what it might feel like Saturday.

I felt alright in the legs, but my lungs were burning up. My chest, at about the top of my abs, was hurting significantly. I didn't feel great at all. My nutrition and hydration were not great today so I think that was definitely part of it. The race has water stations every mile so that should help. 

With the heat, I think I am going to start out at about a 7:00 pace and work myself down from there. I just don't know how much the heat is going to effect me. I know I will run faster than training days because of it being a race and having people around me so maybe that will balance out the heat. Nevertheless, it should be a fun race and I am excited for it.

Was a really hot run in 96 degrees. I didn't feel great, most likely due to the heat. But, I was able to hold my pace through about mile 9. Then I started feeling pretty sick and was even starting to weave a little here and there. I had to dig deep to finish and our relay team took first overall. It was fun to be on the podium. 

[I will write a longer race report later] 

7 mile trail run in Summit County - 800 ft of climb in 2.5 miles

5.22 - track workout - 3 800s and 4 400s

8 easy

7.5 with 5 in the middle at tempo - painful

8 easy - up 6200 and back

13.14 miles - 6 to Brayden's house and then 7.14 with him. My watch died partway through the run with Brayden. Here are the stats for the first six miles

 Then watch died at 3.93

I finished the run and Brayden sent me his data.

8 miles - 2 mile warmup, 6 x 1/4 mile repeats, 1 mile at MP, 1 x 1/4 repeat, cool down.

I slept about 4.5 hours which is about half the sleep my body is used to. This workout was tough, but not miserable. I had a crazy busy day yesterday and didn't run at all. It was the first time I have skipped a workout in a really long time. Felt weird, but it is good to be flexible I guess. I will make up for the lost miles with Ragnar this weekend.

I am trying something a little new with my speed workouts. I want to try and through in a mile or two at marathon pace after a good set of repeats to see how it feels. I am weak mentally and I think this will help build that up a bit. I would be interested to know some of your thoughts on this strategy. Today I decided to toss in one more repeat after the mile at MP to push myself just a bit.  

I did this workout on my typical route so there was some change in elevation that effected some of my times for the 400's. Don't judge me if you think they look slow, I could have been charging up a steep incline! 

10 miles - 

I needed today's run. I have been stressed out a lot lately. Something about not having a job, studying full-time for the bar, and just having too many side projects all at once has warn me down. So, I decided to go out and run at about 4:15pm. I wanted to simply run for the fun of running and not worry about my pace too much. I think I often rely too heavily on my watch and I wanted nothing to do with it today.

I left my house and did the first half of my usual route up to Brayden and Ashley's house. I felt great and knew that I was holding a good pace even up the decent 1/2 mile hill before their house. I looked at my watch each mile when it would buzz and beep and I was surprised at my pace. I focused on not changing my running at all based on the mile split that I saw and I just kept on running. After Brayden and Ashley's I turned north and went to 45th south and then west on 45th. This was a nice decline so I just kept running at what felt like a pretty comfortable pace. I hung a left to go south on 13th east and made it home right at 9 miles. I did a one mile cool down around the neighborhood and called it a night.

I needed to get out and just enjoy a good run without worrying about my pace and everything else. It felt good to simply run!

5.5 easy the night before Ragnar Wasatch Back

19.55 total miles today

4.3 - few rollers with a net gain

6.94 - down Avon Pass

8.31 - climb up to East Canyon

Final leg of Ragnar - 4.93 - couple rollers - 2 mile slow climb of 100ish feet.

7 miles - 2.5 on treadmill and then 4.5 of trail - 2 loops each with 339 feet climb and decent.

Fun trail run in Park City with my sister and my folks dog. We did the Glenwild Loop. I wanted to get in some speed work so I did some repeats. I let my sister and dog go ahead about while I counted to roughly 30 seconds or more and then I would sprint up to them. I would then run with them a bit to get my heart rate down and then I would do it again. Because of the gnarly terrain they are each a little different. At times I was a little worried about rolling my ankle or sustaining some worse injury.

9 easy trail miles - 3.5 with my dad and the rest solo.

I made the rookie mistake of not charging my watch so I don't have any data. I would have liked to know how much faster I did the second loop solo in comparison to the first loop with my dad.  

tempo thursday

8 easy - a few with Brayden

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