Training for Top of Utah 2011

Made the mistake of talking to S. Sundwall at church yesterday and he convinced me to keep my mile up this week instead of starting to taper off. Runnersworld plan said to do 11. Started off thinking 10 after that 20 spot on Saturday. Partway through decided to go for it and do 11. 

It's amazing how much these really long runs help with cardio fitness. My Avg. HR is down today to 135. Avg. Pace down also to 8:44.

Got up early(for me) at 6:00 and was on the road  by 6:25 ish. Rain during the night but only drizzle and some dry during the run. Saw Sommer Reynolds flying around over on Silent Creek.

48 degrees was nice. When trying to get in 11 miles here at the ridge you are required to hit a few hills and that's what I did. Feeling good on them still.

Just had to burn off my 4/1 protein/carb ration yesterday of 3 parts ribs-1 part salmon and 1 part orange sherbet/vanilla icecream-sprite slushy. OK maybe more than 1 part on that last one. Felt good to burn it off this a.m.

Only annoyance of the morning  was breathing in the nastiness of those school buses.

SWEET NELLY PIE! I surprised even myself with this run- target of 6:55 pace for 4 1 mile repeats with .5 mile jog between. Haven't done intervals for quite some time so I was a little worried.

 40 degrees and forgot my gloves dang it. Perfect running weather however with slight overcast with peeps of the sun. Hands cold for the 2.5 mile warm up but didn't even give them a thought once the mile repeats began.

2.5 warmup on snovalley trail. Didn't want to run fast on the gravel so decided to run on Boalch  where they recently repaved and it's nice and soft asphalt.

Started at centennial park and went towards the pirates plank area.

1st mile 7:00 pace and 156 HR avg (against the wind and slight uphill)

2nd mile 6:47 pace and 164 HR avg (with the wind and slight downhill)

3rd mile 6:49 pace and 166 HR avg (against the wind and slight uphill)

4th mile 6:32 pace and 169 HR avg (with the wind and slight downhill)

at the start of the 2nd mile I remembered something that I read the other day about keeping your stride shorter and that was to move your arms faster. WOW!! What a difference that made. Much easier to keep the pace and even go faster. 

Very Extremely happy with this run.

Next run: Thursday 11 mile easy

Today I was running in the clouds...not to be confused with the far more positive running on a cloud. Rained hard during the night and the wind was whipping around pretty good too.

mid 40's with rain showers and some hard downpours as well this a. m. windy at times as well - Wore my pants and jacket...problem was the pants are not the good kind that are skin tight, they are the kind that get wet and start slapping from one leg to the other. That was very annoying.

About 6 miles in I  was bit by a dog whose owner could not hold him back(who has a mean spaniel anyway). Fortunately the bite didn't break the skin but there is a bump there and  a little bruising.

Then saw Sno. soon after that at the park where I stopped for some water. Chatted with her and then decided to cut my run short from 11 to 9 miles. It was just way too miserable out there today.

Had some hot chocolate to warmup when I got home. That hit the spot. I drained about 5 lbs. of water out of my clothes once I could get them off.

Oh and to top off a lovely morning...my commute is normally 35-40 minutes turned out to be 1 hour and 15 minutes and I was almost rearended by mr. giant truck talking on the phone.

Next run will be Saturday...20 miles.

Forgot to take the garbage cans out last night so got up at 6:30 and took out the garbage. Was going to do a couple intervals. Like to the garbage cans and then back from the garbage cans, but decided not to as my hands were full and I wasn't properly warmed up :)

Gorgeous and perfect morning for a run if you are feeling good. When you have a sore throat and can barely breathe through the night and don't get much sleep it's nice to be outside but tough to do the running part. Especially when you have a 20 miler planned.

Went with a friend who is preparing for his first ever marathon on July 4 down in Portland. This was his longest run so far of his life- He did great! We hit the sno valley trail for 12 miles at 10:00 pace. He plugged along like he could have kept going all day. I was a little sluggish once we finished that. My body told me to quit after 17...could've finished the 20 but didn't want to totally wipe myself out- Did the last five at 9:12 pace...wasn't really watching the pace, just out running on a really nice day. 

We had a couple of yearling elk running on the trail with us. We were hoping not to see a big bull elk around there. Took the trail all the way to I-90...want to explore that further...nice area out there.

Sinuses feel a little better now and I hope this crap goes away fast as the marathon is officially only 2 weeks from today.

Next run Monday morning: 9-10 miler easy