running for my mind

I feel really good about this past week. I had about the same elevation gain as last week, but got in more mileage and more time on my feet. Friday night was my longest run and I am pleased with how it went and how I recovered. On to another week...

Week Summary
6 day - all singles - 5 trail - 1 road
77.88 miles
10,756 ft. elevation gain
13:05 on feet

5 - 2,072 ft. - 60 minutes on feet

Whit is still out of town and I am chilling with Olive. So, I hit the treadmill this morning before the sitter showed up and I had to head to work. Took it nice and easy wanting 60 minutes at incline 5-10. It was some heat training as I think it was pushing 80 degrees in my garage. Zero knee pain. Happy about that.

9.52 - 1,673 ft. - 1:37 on feet

East Mountain Wilderness Park to post and back with Matt. Nice and easy. Had to stop for a pack of 4 dogs that were not looking too friendly. The owners said they were "cool" even though they were barking and coming at us crouched down and ready to pounce. 

9.42 - 1,545 ft - 1:20 on feet

Did a 60 minute workout and the above data is from the entire run. The workout consisted of 10 minutes super easy warming up, 30 minutes uphill at ~80% effort, 30 minutes downhill running controlled but not cruising, and 10 minutes of cool down.

I chose Mueller Park for this workout as it has some consistent up that would be good for the 30 minutes. I have run it casually but never pushed the pace. I felt alright and am happy with my times and effort on both the up and down.

up - 3.34 miles - 1,056 ft gain - 30 min - 8:59 average
down - 4.5 miles - 1,432 ft. loss - 30 min - 6:40 average

It was by far the fastest I have come down that trail. However, I felt smooth and was in control the entire time. 

9.6 - 1,794 - 1:38 on feet

The first 4.8 miles of the course gain 1,298 ft. A lot more rolling than I would have thought.

Took it nice and easy at a conversational pace. Ran everything, but slowly. Recovering.

13 - 1,555 ft. - 2:01 on feet

Goal was 13 in the hills somewhere with 2 at marathon effort at the end. I decided that along the fireroad and BST would be a good spot. Unfortunately, I don't know that area very well so I took a few wrong turns, ending up in someone's backyard at one point. I felt a little sluggish on and off and had a bit of knee pain that was more of a dull ache. Took one gel roughly 40 minutes in to see if I needed some calories because I didn't eat breakfast before. I felt better when I picked up the pace for the 2 miles at marathon effort. I decided to do these at miles 11 (74 ft) and 12 (135 ft) so I could have one mile of a cool down. It will be interesting for me to see how I feel on tomorrow's long(er) run.

22.22 - 6,201 ft. - 4:18 on feet

3:30 AM alarm to run Lamb's canyon to Brighton. 

Half a mile up the road of Lamb's my legs were already aching. I was worried it was going to be a really long morning. I quickly realized though that this was perfect. It would be a good long run on tired legs. When I run this section in a couple months, I will have 52 miles behind me. So, I pushed on. 

The goal for today was to run the majority of the route. There were bound to be a few climbs that required hiking but I wanted those to be as few as possible. I feel like I met this goal even though I hiked a hair more than I originally planned  the legs were sore from this week, especially yesterday's run. 

Overall, I am pleased with the run. We ran faster than I would have guessed we could have. I am pleased and look forward to another week of training.

Also, I spent the rest of the day working in the yard in 100 degree heat. Mowing, trimming, digging holes, and fixing sprinklers. Didn't finally sit down until 9:30 PM. Good heat training...I am spent!

I'll post a summary of the week tomorrow.