Training for Top of Utah 2011

Nice morning for a run. Rain overnight left the roads wet. Some clouds but no rain during the run. A little wind but reasonable. 40 degrees.

Did not wear my HR monitor due to it causing a sore on my chest last Saturday. going to run without it for a while and go by feel and by pace. Definitely went faster than normal with the 2 days off it was feeling good!

Changed up the route a bit. Hit Muir and then went round the trail there to add on .9 mile then the reg. route.

Was glad that the calf did not give me any grief. Will go again tomorrow.

Avg. Pace 8:40

Another nice day for a run...no rain...moderate wind, and I can live with that. Another change to the route today. Went down Cascade and over to Crestview where we used to live, then on to the main park for water and a stretch @ the 4 mile mark.

No HR monitor again...Kinda glad I got rid of that thing. I was relying too much on it and staying too slow I think. 

Today's pace 8:32 and felt really great after yesterdays 8:40. Did the first 5.25 miles at the 8:40 pace and then there is a nice long downhill that I just let er go and it felt really good. The legs feel strong.

If I feel good tomorrow morning I'm going to run 3 days in a row and then long run on Sat. If I don't feel good tomorrow then will run Friday and moderate length on Sat.

Easy Tread run in prep for tomorrow's Monster Hill run.

Took it real easy today. Started easy for 5 minutes then eased it up to about 6.3 mph.

Going to take on the Full Parkway hill tomorrow morning with Mark Howard. 3 miles pretty much all up and 2 really steep parts. Will run (hopefully) 11 total miles with a 4 mile warm up and 4 mile cooldown.

Should be fun(hard).

Sweet morning for a run. 50 degrees with wind. Left the house at about 6:45 and headed down towards the parkway. As I was going down the hill the sun was just coming up and hitting the clouds and making a gorgeous color display of red, orange and pink.

Stopped at the park on the hill and watered up and stretched. Then on to the bottom of the parkway to meet Mark Howard for  our hill run.

We jumped right on it and went the 3 miles without even having to stop for cars. On the very last hill we saw some people ahead of us and reeled them in towards the top. I really like running with Mark as it helps push me a little harder. He had run from home and had already come up the Salish lodge hill before he met me.

I felt super good this whole run...

After the hill we watered up at the train park. Then we split up and I finished up my 12 and now to take care of Heidi who is sick.

Avg. Pace for the whole run was 8:40 and splits are as follows: 8:53, 9:13, 8:17, 8:12, 9:12, 9:35, 8:37(this included the toughest hill portion), 8:20, 8:18, 8:43, 8:32, 8:08 finished up the last quarter semi-fast.

Speed workout! Plan was 2 X 1 mile @ 7ish pace. 2 mile warmup and then at the loop off Muir. Stretched and then off....first .25 miles was at upper 5 pace so I knew I was in trouble...went out way too fast. Legs started feeling like jello but the lungs were OK. Had to settle for 3 X .55 mile runs and then cooldown.

The pace on the sprints were: 6:12, 6:41, 7:02...yeah I ran out of gas...

I have to do some speed work to get ready for the St. Patty's day run here at the ridge in about a month or so. Avg. Pace for total run is 8:07

Low 40's with a little wind. Otherwise absolutely perfect! Easy runner and I'm surprised how fast my pace is getting without watching that Stupid Heart Rate Moniter. So glad I'm not using it. 

Pace 8:23 - - amazing that it felt as good as it did after some speed work yesterday.

Easy run on Tread...just to avoid the rain, cold and wind. 3rd day in a row running which I rarely do. Feeling so good now I better not overdue it.

Looking to do 12-14 on Saturday and maybe some hills with it.

Another Perfect running day in the NorthWest! 45 degrees and overcast. No wind to speak of and no rain. I overdressed thinking we would get some rain. Got plenty warm.

It was Mark's day to set up a long run today and he chose to take us from his house(about .4 miles from the Snoqualmie Valley Trail) in Fall City to Carnation and then back.

We started off running uphill from Mark's house to the trail and I was huffing and puffing right from the start with that nice little trail run. Then the trail which is a gentle downslope down in to Carnation where we stopped at Remlinger farms to drink some water and stretch.

Then back up the gentle incline which slowed us down just a bit. Mark had only run 2 miles early in the week and so he wasn't his usual free flowing runner so I was able to keep up with him.

We only saw 1 man and his dalmation(twice) and 4 bikers on the trail. Total run time was about 2 hours with the avg. pace 8:39. That's not bad on the trail as it sucks the energy out of your legs running it. Quite different from my usual road runs.

I kicked up the last .15 miles to a 6:45 pace to finish strong and then the easy walk/jog back down to Mark's house.

Splits: These are after .8 miles as my garmin had a hard time locking in to the satelites with the tree cover.

8:18, 8:18, 8:30, 8:29, 8:37, 8:44, 8:41, 9:04, 9:08, 8:42, 8:41, 8:43, 8:40, 6:47

37 degrees with sun shining and a light breeze in places.

Sweet day for a run. Recovered well from the 14 miler on Sat. thanks to the wedding reception(lot's of carbo-loading) we went to that night.

I'm reading Born to run and am trying to incorporate some of the tips into my running.

Today I worked on running on my forefeet uphill midfoot strike during flat and downhill. Worked on keeping my back straight and staying light on my feet. I've got quite a ways to go but will get there at some point.

Overall pace was 8:34

Cold. Light wind. Tempo run. Drove to the train area in Snoqualmie. Ran to the high school track, jumped the fence then 4 mile tempo. Supposedly a tempo run is at a pace you could keep for 1 hour...not sure that I could've done it at this pace. Runners world plan said 7:27 pace so that's what I did. Not that easy but not a killer either.

1st tempo run in a long time.

Avg pace overall on run was 7:55.

Beautiful sunny morning for a run. A little windy. Mid 30's.

5 easy recovery miles after yesterday's speed work. When the run started my legs felt a little crappy, but after about a 1/4 mile they were fine.

Avg. Pace 8:35

After five miles outside went to the treadmill and ran 1 mile barefoot to strengthen the feet. I wouldn't mind running those outside but it's way too cold still and I don't think I will ever be able to part with 80 bucks for vibrams.

Sweet morning for a run...no clouds and 39 at the start.

Forgot to recharge my Garmin so this is the first time in forever since I've run without it. Fortunately I have multiple runs memorized so the distance isn't a problem.

My mp3 player died about a half mile in so it was a little bit of a boring run. Pit stop at halfway park then another at centennial at the turnaround and then again at halfway park. Saw Mark at Centennial and chatted with him. He had run an 8 miler with Sommer at 7:55 pace earlier.

Not sure on pace but was supposed to hit 8:50. Pretty sure it was faster but it doesn't matter.

Coming back up the hill wasn't a killer...happy that I'm getting better at that.

Another Perfect Day in the Northwest! 40 and Sunny...didn't feel much wind either.

Easy run with only one weird thing that happened...as I was finishing up on Carmichael a man stopped me and asked if I could help him with a table...I thought he meant move the table(he was from a foreign country and didn't have a full grasp of the English language).

He wanted me to put a coffee table together for him...I showed him how to read the illustrations and then bailed as I was sweating all over his carpet. Felt sorry for the guy...his son was sitting there watching TV and neither of them had a clue how to put this thing together. If you have less mechanical skills than I do you are in BIG Trouble...at least I have my wife who is a whiz with just about anything.

Avg. Pace was 8:30 until I slow jogged to this man's house to help with his table, ended at 8:32

Perfect day for speed workout? Let's see....Windy, Rainy and Cold....

Went to High School track and did a 2 mile warm up then a light stretch.

Plan called for 2 X 1600 meters @ 6:58 pace with 800 meter jog in between... my garmin is set for miles so did 2 X 1 mile @ 6:46 with the first one not too tough. 2nd one pretty tough as I was against the wind at the end and had to push to get the 6:46.

Then an easy cooldown which didn't seem all that easy after the workout...

Tough start to the day...I was a missionary in the Concepcion Chile Mission and served in San Clemente and Constitucion, cities Very Near the epicenter of the earthquake that nailed Chile.

Some of the kindest and most generous people on the face of the earth. I had to be careful as a missionary not to compliment things in people's homes as they would say "Oh, you like that...then it's yours" and they would try to give it (picture or something like that) to me. One of my companions who was a Chileno, I consider my best friend to this day. We had such a great time serving the people together. 

OK...felt crappy on my run too. Not sure if it was pushing harder than I was supposed to on my speedwork on Wednesday or if it was crappy eating and sleeping habits but this was a tough run and that's putting it mildly.

Left home about 7 and headed around the ridge to get some easy miles in before going down the Parkway...saw Sommer and Laura, a couple women I ran the Newport marathon with(or rather they smoked me at that marathon) on the parkway as I was going down they were coming up. Sommer looked as fresh as a daisy but Laura was walking. Little did I know at the time I would have to stop and walk a bit too on the way up.

Then to Mill Pond rd where I saw Bishop Fowler and then my buddy Larry Shaw...stopped and had a nice chat...then off to centennial park for a quick break with a drink and part of a power bar...maybe I shouldn't have eaten the power bar as I was starting to feel better but then was hurting after that.

Started plugging along back to the parkway and  made it to the halfway park. Then up up up the steepest part and had to walk for about 15 seconds to get some juice back into my legs. Finally made it to the train park for another quick water break and then struggled mightily home....still half dead...it's going to be a tough day!

No more going faster than my plan calls for... In fact was slower by 5 seconds today at 8:55