running for my mind

8 along the parkway with Josh. Decent temp and no bugs.

Tomorrow night is the STOMP out CANCER event. If it sounds like fun, please come. If nothing else, it is fun to just hang out on the lawn and chat while listening to some music. Also, some have asked about donating if they can't attend. One can always donate securely on runmehappy.com. Thanks!

Here is the link for more info about STOMP out CANCER.

Mostly easy miles. Averaged in the mid 7:20s.

Planned to meet my friend Dan at the mouth of Big Cottonwood at 5:45 and run 15 with him. He is training for the Big Cottonwood Canyon Marathon and I told him I would join him and pace some miles.

I got to the mouth early so I could log a few before he showed up. Ran 3.5 along Wasatch solo. We then ran 7 down the canyon and out to 45th along Wasatch and back to the mouth. I dropped mile 17.5-18.5 down into the 6:30s and it felt OK.

Now I am at the U teaching the first class of the semester and the students are taking a diagnostic LSAT. Glad I am not in their shoes.

8 easy/moderate on the parkway solo this morning. Legs never really felt snappy. Today is mine and Whit's 8th anniversary so it seemed fitting to run 8 miles. Seems pretty crazy how fast time seems to progressively fly by.

We had a good event on Saturday. Josh and Scott and their families came. We ended up raising a couple hundred bucks and everyone had a great time. 

Met Brayden and Scott for a good workout. 
12x400 at West High track this morning. 200 active recovery with 400 and a sip of water in between splits 6 and 7. I did this same workout on June 17th and my splits were...
88, 90, 88, 88, 89, 87, 88, 86, 86, 86, 80, 76 and a 32 for 200 to hit 5k.

Today, I wanted to go slightly faster and my splits were...
87, 86, 86, 85, 85, 85, 85, 84, 85, 84, 79, 73 and a 32 for 200 to hit 5k.

I think next week I am going to head to some hills for my workout instead of the track. A little hill work can't hurt for my St. George prep.

Avenues loop with Josh.

Zero calf pain.

2 up, 1 down, and 8 at marathon pace in between.

Goal was to run 6-8 in the 6:30s for the tempo. Met John at the parkway and did the 2 mile warmup. John's calf started tightening up just after a mile into the tempo so he backed off and I continued on solo. I am pleased with the workout and feel really good about where my training is right now for St. George. Averaged 6:29 for the 8 mile tempo on flat ground the entire way, aside from the 7 feet of elevation gain and loss! Splits were...

6:39, 6:31, 6:31, 6:27, 6:30, 6:28, 6:27, 6:23

Easy and not too breezy along the parkway. 

Went to bed last night at 8:40 and it was glorious.

20, 18 with Brayden. More later. Not more miles, but more of a description. 

Average pace - 7:28. Elevation gain of 857.

Met Brayden at his house and ran a big loop. West on Casto Ln. South on Holladay Blvd. Trail up to the mouth of Big Cottonwood. North along Wasatch to 33rd South. West down 33rd and North by REI. Down past Tanner Park. South on 23rd East. East up to Wander Ln. just after Olympus High and south on Wander basically back to Brayden's. 

6 easy on the parkway. 

Had a running first for me today - 2 humans (or what appeared to be humans) passed me from behind on bicycles. The human in the back looked over his shoulder as he passed, waved, and audibly spoke the words "good morning." 

Hill repeats up the road out of Memory Grove with Brayden and Scott.

After a 2 mile warmup we did repeats starting from the drinking fountain by the bridge. 1x30 seconds, 1x60 seconds, 6x90 seconds. The 90 second repeats were a quarter mile or just over. 

After the last repeat we did our cool down to the top of the road and turned around for a fast mile down in 5:09 and then an easy mile back to the track at West High. I was hoping to crack 5:00 on the fast mile, but am more than satisfied with the result on relatively tired legs.

8 with Josh on the avenues loop. We might have had 1 or so at marathon pace, but I didn't have my watch on me. I felt pretty sluggish until about mile 5 and then things seemed to loosen up a bit. 

Don't know yet what my plan is for a tempo and long run this week. Perhaps moderate tomorrow and then try and sneak in some faster miles during my longer run Saturday. 

3-2-1 at 6:31 on the treadmill. Warmup of 2 and cool down of 1.25 with .5 and .25 in the betweeners.

This was a super difficult workout. It was much more difficult than my 8 mile tempo last week. Everything about it seemed miserable, except for finishing. Here are 2 of what I consider to be contributing factors to the suckfest that it was.
1 - My treadmill is in my garage and there is no fan. It was hot! good heat training I guess. By the end, I might as well have jumped into a pool.
2 - I always feel like my treadmill is actually faster than what it displays. 6:31 felt more like 6:15 today. My breathing seemed a little labored within the first mile of the tempo and I felt like I was having to push considerably harder than 6:30 on the road. 

So, I am happy that I stuck it out because I wanted to quit many times. Though it was fewer miles at marathon pace this week, I still feel like it was a good workout.

8 along the parkway. 2 of the miles were moderately paced. I had planned on just sticking to pretty slow and easy miles but ended up running 2 miles with a couple guys that were doing a tempo run right at about the 7:00 mark.

Interestingly, I saw these same two guys 3 times this week. Tuesday they were at West running on the track, Wednesday Josh and I saw them in Memory Grove, and today they were running the parkway. They are both shooting for sub-3:05 at St. George. It was nice to finally actually meet them.

20 miles through Holladay / Millcreek along about the same route as last week. Slightly faster average this week at 7:27.

Had a couple of ups and downs during the run. Overall, I didn't feel as good as last week, but surprisingly I was actually feeling better at the end. I remember last week feeling ready to be done and feeling relieved when it was over. Today, it was obviously nice to be done, but I could have continued on had I needed to and it would have been alright.

Ran and at marathon pace at mile 10 and again at mile 19. 19 was encouraging because it has a decent climb and I still had some speed left.

8 easy on the parkway with Josh. According to Josh, my watch was "all like buggin." Which, it was. Average pace right at about 7:30.

Josh and I talked this morning about my training cycle for St. George and if, and when, I should try to have a bit of a down week before ramping up just a bit before the taper. I think that might end up being this week. I have been wanting to take a look back at my build ups to my previous few marathons and see what my long runs (in this case roughly 18+) looked like. The following analysis is for my own good so I have it all in one place, but any thoughts or feedback is more than welcome.

Ogden 2013 - 3:10.xx
3/16-17.5
3/23-18
3/30-20
4/6-20
4/13-22
4/20-20.5
4/27-22
5/4-18

BCC 2013 - 2:59.02
7/27-17.7
8/3-17.26
8/22-20.65
8/30-18

Boston 2014 - 3:06.xx
2/22-18
3/1-18
3/8-18
3/15-20
3/22-20
3/29-20

St. George 2014 (currenty cycle) - sub-2:50 goal
5/24 - 20
5/31-17.5
6/7-18
6/24-20
6/21-19
6/27-22.2 (ragnar day 1)
6/28-16.27 (ragnar day 2)
7/5-20
7/12-20
8/2-19
8/9-20
8/16-20
8/23-???
8/30-???
9/6-???
9/13-???
9/20-???

So, I am going to take some time to think about these but obviously I have already put in more long runs this cycle than ever before. I am seeing the benefits already from this, but the first thing to note is that BCC 2013 is my PR and I ran the fewest long runs before it. 

Hill repeats up Memory Grove hill. 6 x 3 minutes. Goal was to be somewhere around a 7:05 pace, but ended up pushing it harder. Progressed down with each repeat from a 7:06 to the last one at 6:21. Just focused on effort and time and did not look at distance. After uploading the data the repeats ranged from .43 to .48.

Felt good and built more confidence for St. George. 

Spent the night up the canyon at the cabin and slept horribly. I seemed to wake about every hour or so. When my alarm went off at 4:45 to go an meet Josh, I decided it was necessary to try and sleep for 2 more hours instead of run. 

Had a good hot tub and stretching session last night though. I spoke with a massage therapist who showed me some trigger points for my calves. I put those right in the path of a strong jet and it was a slightly painful bliss.

Moderate pace progression tempo run through Holladay with Scott and Brayden.

I wanted to get a moderate run this week of 8-10 averaging close to 7:00. Brayden and Scott planned to do a 10 mile tempo at 7:03 so I figured that would be perfect. The route had some rollers and was more uphill at the beginning and then at mile 9. Averaged 6:55 for the 10.

Exactly what I was looking for. Will post splits when I get home from work. 

7:03, 7:11 6:53, 6:57, 6:56, 6:51, 6:51, 6:42, 7:03, 6:24

6 easy along the parkway with Josh for his birthday. 

Good luck to all those racing tomorrow. I look forward to reading the reports.

Just over 16 on the same loop as the last two Saturdays. Felt good today to wrap up my "down" week. Will post splits and a comparison to the last two weeks later. Averaged 7:13 today, 7:27 last week, and 7:29 the week before. More later

8 easy solo on the parkway. I had a scheduled "down" week last week and now today is the start of a 3 week buildup before I start to taper for St. George. I am excited. And, as always...a little nervous.

9 miles this morning with Scott. Met at the West High track and headed to Memory Grove for some hills. Did 10x60 seconds at a decent effort. Nothing too crazy. Headed back to the track and did 2x400 at marathon pace just for kicks in the middle of our "cool down."

I think I have nailed down my schedule for the rest of this cycle for St. George. I plan on increasing several miles each week to peak at 70. I know that is not crazy and is a little weak to some on here, but I feel that is pretty solid for me. I also have a few more track/hill workouts to do and am planning a simulation on 9/6 with 10 at marathon pace in the middle. I am mostly happy to report that I am continuing to enjoy this training cycle and it has been my most consistent and strong showing yet.

8 easy on the parkway. Felt really good out there today. Tried to hold back a bit so I have all I need in the tank for tomorrow's tempo.

Can we chalk this up to some of the best August Utah weather ever?

Thursday Tempo - Goal was 9@6:30 (my goal marathon pace for St. George).

Hit the parkway (so, flat as a pancake) and warmed up 2. Started into the tempo and felt alright. It was temperate out and I knew it would take a couple miles to really get in the groove. The first mile came in a hair faster than I had planned, but I didn't think too much of it. Mile 3 made me a little nervous I was going too hard too early but it just felt nice right around the 6:22-6:25 mark so I went with it.

6:27, 6:28, 6:23, 6:22, 6:23, 6:22, 6:21, 6:16, 6:12 (6:22 avg)

6:39, 6:31, 6:31, 6:27, 6:30, 6:28, 6:27, 6:23 (6:30 avg)

3 weeks ago I did an 8 mile tempo with those ^^^ splits on the same route. Today felt easier, so that is good.

8 easy easy. 

Have a lingering demon in my right calf. Seems to resurface when I push the pace occasionally. Anyone know a good exorcist? 

Woke at 4:45 to meet Scott so I could get the 20 in before having to head to the U to teach my class. Good thing I can take a nap after!

Did a similar Holladay/Millcreek loop to the last few weeks, but added on the north end which increased the total elevation gain and loss. Finished at a 7:25 average and feel good about that and how this week shaped up. 2 more weeks to build before the taper kicks in.