Training for Top of Utah 2011

Our 4 year old got sick about 2:30 this morning so no sleep. Was going to run in the afternoon and I got sick.

Temp at home 43. Temp at HS track. lower, but not sure how much. It was pretty cold. Didn't bring gloves so my hands froze the first 2 miles. 

3 days off plus being sick yesterday killed me today.1.5 warm up then 3 mile tempo. HR was way higher than normal. (avg. overall was 157) once I got going on the tempo run it settled in between 170-173 at least 5-8 higher than I would have liked.

Pace was not that good either for a tempo run, ending with an avg. 7:45. It didn't help that there was some work going on around the grounds and the fumes from the exhaust was killing me too.

It did feel good to be out there though. Changed my Marathon this year to the Newport, OR May 30th as my little bro. is going to be running his first there. Weight is down to 170. Hope to get to 165ish before the marathon.

Cold. Cougar Mtn. Trails. Good run with Bruce and John. Kicked it up the last .5 miles to get my HR up to 175. 

Only my second run this week due to illness. Glad it feels gone. 

HR avg. 142 nice.

Pace avg. 11:15

Woke up to an inch of snow so back to the TM. Easy run. Boring as all get out! Kept HR below 140 most of the run.

Same as yesterday except no snow. Had to run early so I hit the TM one more time. High HR in mid 140's. Tomorrow is speed workout at the track. Looking forward to it(sort of).

30 degrees at the high school track which was a little slick. 1.25 warmup then

.25 mile at 6:40 pace then jog .25

.5 mile at 6:40 pace then jog .25

.5 mile at 6:40 then jog .25

.5 mile 6:40 pace then 1.25 cool down.

Hard but doable. I found that when I relaxed my lower body and didn't try to muscle through the run it was much smoother.

35 degrees. Ridge run. Beautiful morning. I started out too fast and was paying for it the last 4 miles. It felt like I was carrying a piano on my back. That bug last week combined with spotty running this week is killing my fitness. Gotta hit it harder next week! 

32 degrees and the rain last night had turned to ice on the streets. As a friend of mine says in a french accent, it was slicker than cow slaw-bear. Going downhill was scary. Uphill was difficult because my feet were slipping the whole time. Flat was OK but slow. 

HR was decent at 144. Pace slow at 9:23. Overall felt way better than Saturdays run. Also after Sat. run my weight was down to 165. It hasn't been there for 15+ years. That might be why my runs are feeling easier.

Tempo run on the track at Mount Si High School. Temp said 36.5 at my house so I wear shorts. I get to the track and it's more like 26,27 degrees. On top of that there is a good news bad news sitch. No wind is the good news. No wind is the bad news because of the people living close to the track burning wood in their wood stoves. Yuck! When I start the tempo the workers fixing the damage from the flood fired up the heavy machinery to add to the nastiness in the air. 

Workout went well. 

1.5 mile warm up at 9:12 pace nice and easy.

3 mile tempo(runnersworld.com plan said to do 7:26) Did 7:23(Yipee Skipee) pace without killing myself too badly. Maxed the HR at about 174 with avg at 168

 1.5 mile Cool down at 9:16 pace

Usually the day after a speed workout I don't do very well, but today my legs felt good. 6 easy on the ridge, with plenty of hills. Not much traffic-probably because of  mid-winter break.

HR avg. 149 Pace 9:12

Weighed in at 165 again! Soon that might be the ticket. The love handles are going bye-bye. Love that!!

Gorgeous morning! Sunny and clear. Ran the ridge. Some gusty winds in some places. The first few miles was going against the wind. It's a killer when it's uphill against the wind. Anywho, started easy so it wouldn't be like last week where I was carrying piano the last 4 miles. Stopped at 3 miles and 7 miles for water. Decided to hit the parkway hill(usually a killer) about halfway through the run. 

It's amazing how much easier it is to run with less weight on your body. I can remember trying to run this hill when I was weighing 200+ lbs. I almost kept my same pace up the hill. 

Here are the stats from the run.

Avg. HR 148   Avg. Pace 8:53(not too bad with that hill in there) max HR on the hill 173

Sun was just trying to come up creating a gorgeous red/orange sky in the east. Ran the ridge with plenty of hills. Decided to run the parkway hill. Felt strong the whole way. 

Pace of 8:56 HR avg. of 149 with a high of 171 on the Hill.

We had an open house for Carter last night for those that wanted to say Goodbye. I ate way too many cookies/treats. Glad to burn some off this morning. Had almost 100 people come by. It was great!

Took Tori to school and then was going to run on the track but they were power washing it so it was off to Centennial park. Was thinking of hitting Sno. valley trail but with all the rain didn't want to run in the mud. Plan was for 2 1600's but I changed it to 800, 1600, 1600, 800.

Weather was miserable. Windy, rainy and fairly cold. My shoes were soaked pretty quick. Wind gusts were changing all over the place and it was hard to keep a decent pace.

Here are the splits.

1.5 mile warmup

.5 mile 6:56 pace .25 jog

1 mile 7:01 pace .5 jog

.5 mile 7:09 pace(Wind was gusting and I decided to do .5 instead of mile) .25 jog

.5 mile 6:53 pace .25 jog

.5 mile 6:42 pace(I hit this last one pretty hard but ran into a hard wind otherwise would have been faster.

1 mile cooldown. As I was walking afterwards there was an intense rainbow right by the park. Awesome!

Snowed last night so TM run this morning. Wow, after being able to run outside that is really boring! 3 minute walk to warm-up then 7 miles at 9 minute pace and then 4 minute walk to cool down. Today is Carter's last full day here and we are going to spend it hanging out together as a family. He will be set apart tonight at the Stake center.

Windy, windy and did I say windy? Wow!! Going out the first few miles was very tough. Coming home the last few miles saved my bacon on pace. Water breaks at 2.5, 5.8 and 8.1 with some swedish fish thrown in to see how they would affect me. Didn't notice much difference. 

Ran the Parkway hill and did pretty well. HR max was 169 on the hill. 

Overall HR avg. was149. Very good for me with a 10 mile run.

Avg. pace 8:51 which was wind aided at the end but I struggled up several hills during the run.

That's 31 miles this week. 5k in 2 weeks and then time to get serious about training for the Newport marathon.