Training for Top of Utah 2011

2 days off from running so I had to make up a little with an extra long run. 12 miler from home to Centennial park and back 

Drizzle and a little wind. Decided to sleep in so this run started a little after 12 noon. Felt great on the way down to the park. Took a power bar with me and fueled up with half of it at the park. Then back with 2 miles up that beastly parkway and then down into the industrial area to add .5 mile so I could get my full 12. Then over to the trail and home. That hill really hammered me. 

Tried to keep my HR under 165 but it got up to 169 on parts of the hill.

Avg. Pace 9:05  Avg. HR 150

3 days off running due to different things going on. 

Super windy but at least the sun was shining. Mid 40's.

1st 2/3 of a mile easy with wind at my back. Then the tough part began! Made it to the bottom of the parkway hill at about 5.25 miles in. Up the hill with the wind coming down. Ouch...then flew down the hill.

Finished up with the wind at my back. Pace was super fast and easy.

Avg. Pace 8:52 HR avg. 147

Splits 8:38, 9:22, 9:04,8:49, 9:00, 9:17, 8:30, 8:49,8:18

My body seems to do better with longer runs and then more rest rather than the same mileage everyday. I'm going to experiment with this as I prepare for the Newport marathon in June.

Crazy Windy this morning so I stayed inside to run.

Super easy 4 miler on treadmill to recover from workout yesterday. Everything felt really good.

HR got up to about 145 and then fluctuated between 140-145.

Looking for a 12-13 miler on Saturday...

Very nice morning for a run. Overcast with some showers(not many) and some wind(strong in some places) with temps at 44 when I left the house. Started at the train area of Snoqualmie. Then the loop where Kinghorns live then back to the car for fuel.

Then saw Mark Howard driving home and he stopped and chatted with me. Then to the Mill Pond road(wind started here) to Centennial Park for water and 1/3 of a power bar for fuel. Next to the in-laws in North Bend and more powerful wind. My goal today was a half-marathon(13.1 miles) with a 9 minute pace.

I finally got through the wind tunnel of the Sno. Valley trail and noticed my overall pace was about 9:12. I didn't care about my goal at that point. However on the way back it was so easy that I picked up the pace and with a 1/4 mile to go I was at 9:03ish pace so sped up to get to 9 even pace.

Feeling pretty good. Next week the miles go up to somewhere between 27 and 30.

Avg. HR for this run was 152...a little high but not too bad with all of the wind running I had to do.

Absolutely miserable running conditions this morning. Heavy rain with some wind. Treadmill run. Easy recovery run from the long run on Sat.

Last 5 minutes were without shoes.

Nice day for a run...cloudy and 50 degrees with some wind in places. A few small showers too.

Started out the run and felt like I was running my normal pace...checked the garmin after about a quarter mile and lo and behold I'm cooking along at a mid 8 min. pace. Sweet! After about a mile I was chased by a big orange tabby cat that kind of freaked me out a bit at first. 

Today was a day for a hard workout so all hills that were encountered I tried to push up pretty hard and that got the HR up a little higher than normal. I figured what the heck and pushed it most of the way.

At 2.75 miles stopped at the park for water and stretching, then off to the Parkway hill to push hard there. Smoked the hill and almost got to the puke zone with my HR at 180 at one point. That's pretty close to my max HR I would bet.

Down the hill then to another park for water and stretching again at 6 miles in.

2 more miles reasonably easy and a quick kick in at the very end with about a quarter mile walk to get the HR back to a normal level.

 Overall pace: 8:34  Avg. HR 159(yikes) it was a tough workout!

Missed the last 2 days for various reasons so was going to make up some of the lost miles today....ended up only doing an extra 2.25 due to Heidi needing to leave, so hustled home asap.

Had a 6 am webinar so didn't get my run started until 8:15 ish. 

34 degrees with wet streets but no significant rain until the end of the run. In fact as i left my neighborhood the sun was shining on the Cascade Mts. and there were patches of low fog...Gorgeous! 

Home to Parkway then down to Mill Pond rd. and then to Centennial park. Then back through town and up the Parkway...tough...the regular Ridge hills sure seemed a lot easier after that beast of a run up the parkway. Since I was not able to get all my miles in I decided to do a fast finish and did a 6:45 quarter mile to end the run then walked it out.

Splits - 8:46, 9:06, 8:20, 8:06, 8:39, 8:57, 9:03, 8:57, 9:16, 9:30, 9:02, 7:58, 6:45

Avg. Pace 8:45(darn good for me) and Avg. HR 151(loving that)

In the immortal words of Emeril Lagasse "OH YEAH BABE!"

Mark Howard invited me to run a race(OK, just one leg of a 50K or about 9.6 miles) with him this Saturday.

I am loving the fitness coming back and it feels so good to see the pace coming down as I gradually increase the mileage.

Easy 6er this a.m. after sleeping in a little longer than normal due to the holiday. Even with the wind blowing a decent amount the run felt quite easy.

Avg. Pace 8:40  Avg. HR 144(love this, baby!)

Beautiful Sunny day out there. A little too windy for my liking but nice for a run. Easy 6er and saw a friend who just ran the Phoenix Rock n Roll marathon. She was just plugging along with a stroller and a Husky dog. She says she feels a little sluggish but she looked great!

She was informed a long time ago that she should not run but she did it anyway. She said she wanted to just do one marathon but thinks now she might do more.

Anywho, HR got a little high no thanks to the wind. Avg. Pace 8:44 and Avg. HR 150

Mark Howard invited me to run one loop of this race which is a 50K and it's 3 times around lake Youngs in Renton, WA for the full 50.

Clear all week and then we get rain this morning. I wore a long sleeve and short sleeve tech shirt and because of the rain wore a light jacket which made me extremely warm during the race. 

Trail run with gravel, hard pack, mud and wet grassy conditions. Lots of ups and downs. Running on trails takes more energy out of my legs and slows down my pace quite a bit.

I carried a 16 ounce bottle of accelerade with me which made it kind of awkward to run with. Stopped and walked 2 times to drink. About 4 miles in I was getting pretty tired and told Mark he could shoot ahead if he wanted to but he chose to stay with me which was nice as it forced me to keep up with him. On the hills my HR kept getting up into the mid to upper 170's which is pretty high for me. However due to the running of the Parkway hill lately it didn't kill me.

This was a hard run but I never felt like I wanted to quit. Happy with the way my body is responding to training. Now it's time to start speed work next week. Mark and I both agreed that next year we will run 2 laps and then the following year we will do the full 50K.

Overall avg. Pace 8:29 Avg. HR 167

Splits

Pace:               HR:

7:57                 153

8:20                 169

7:30                  169

8:53                 170

9:01                 170

8:47                 169

8:31                 168

8:26                  166

9:13                 169

7:45(.4 mile)      169

The website for this race says 9.6 but my garmin says it was 9.4 so I'm sticking with 9.4. I was saving a little energy for the last quarter mile but we finished early so am feeling pretty darn good.

After the race on Sat. my calf has been hurting a bit so just taking it easy until it's ready to roll. It does feel much better today but decided to just do the elliptical and stretch.

45 minutes at moderate level. May be able to run tomorrow, at least I hope so.

Quick 6 this morning a little late. Super windy and the hills were killing me.

I waited to run this week until the calf on my right leg felt better. No issues except at the end a little tiny twinge but not anything that worries me.

  Easy start with the wind and then uphill and against the wind after a mile.

Went 2.75 then water and stretch break. Then just a regular loop here at the ridge with the hills and killer wind. Looking to go 12 more on Sat. morning.

Avg. pace 9 even and HR avg. 149(kind of high) probably due to no other running this week.

Early start with drizzle from time to time. It's getting lighter earlier and yes I love that. Hate running in the dark.

Ran from home down to the park on the parkway @ 2.75 miles. Light stretch, 1/3 power bar and water. Off to Mill pond rd and then Centennial park @ 6.35 miles. More water and power bar and full stretch. Then back through Snoqualmie to the same park on the parkway @ 9 miles. Finish power bar and water and power up the rest of the hill. I was REALLY tempted to walk after getting to the top of the hill as there is still some slight incline the rest of the way but resisted that urge and kept running(slowly). 

Soon after saw Sean S. on Fairway...I took a leisurely way back home and when I got back on Muir I saw Sean again as he popped out of the loop trail...I think he may have been running the 5K course he is setting up for St. Paddy's day run.

Got home and there was bacon and buttermilk pancakes...did those in and then pounded about 24 ounces of Accelerade. Full stretch.

Feeling good...I was worried about my right calf but the only time it gave any indication that it was hurt was running down the parkway...just the opposite of what I expected. I figured it would hurt going up but nothing after mile 4 since the rest was flat and uphill.

 Avg. Pace 9:05(a little slow to protect the calf)   Avg. HR 146(gotta love that)