Training for Top of Utah 2011

Another and hopefully the last tread run of this year...or at least until late fall. Still feeling a bit ill so hit the tread for 12...that is tough to do 2 times in three days...BORING!

Looking forward to my tempo run on Wed. at the HS track...6 miles @ 7:22...should be simple after the half...we shall see.

5 year old was throwing up all night and since I was feeling crappy my wife did duty all night long...she earned the title Mother last night...(OK, she earned it a long time ago, just reinforced it again last night)

I was looking forward to running outside after being sick and having to run on the treadmill for 2 long runs. Close to perfect weather out there. 50 degrees and mostly cloudy...not much wind until halfway into the run. @ High School track.

2 easy warmup miles then into the tempo run. Switched up after miles 2, 5 and 8 so as to get even running.Target for tempo was 7:22 but with being sick etc. wasn't sure...and it ended up being pretty tough but for some reason the last 3 were not bad and I pushed it pretty hard the last mile.

Lap Splits:8:46, 8:31, 7:27, 7:30, 7:28, 7:18, 7:18, 6:51, 8:48, 8:54

Easy run at the ridge tomorrow.

Perfect morning for a run. And I do mean perfect! 50 degrees and very light wind...no clouds. 

Hit the Deer Park run, then over to the industrials and to main park. Stop at 4.5 miles and then after running Cascade and the center loop hit Tanner Jeans park @ 7.5 miles...finally up into my old neighborhood and then back home on the trail...Wow! Gorgeous on that trail...need to go for walks with the family on that more often now that we have easy access. Unfortunately the last .25 miles was all uphill and finally a little walking to finish.

Target Pace: 8:35 which is what I had until the last quarter mile and finished with an 8:37

Splits: 8:30, 8:33, 8:22, 8:49, 8:34, 8:39, 8:35, 8:31, 8:52, 8:47

Felt good the whole run...I'm surprised there was really no soreness from the speedwork yesterday even...weird...is this what it feels like to be in good shape? I'm liking it...ready for Rattlesnake run on Saturday...

Early run with Mark Howard. Met him at 6:30 @ centennial park and off from there the back way to get all of the trail. 

Stopped @ the in-laws for water at about 3.5 miles then back to the trail and had another stop about 3 miles from there where I had cached some water and then up to Rattlesnake lake where I had left more water.

As we were going up the trail a lady was standing off to the side with her dog, which got away from her and nipped at Mark...irresponsible pet owner. On the way back down we saw another lady with a dog and when she saw us she took the dog way off the side and made sure that there would be no issues. Responsible pet owner. If you can't control your pet, don't have it out in a public place!

Very nice run and the gradual incline was not too bad as we were able to score about a 9 min. pace on the uphill part. My pace goal was set at 8:35 but I was running with Mark so I knew it would probably end up faster(which is why I like to run with him). Plus instead of 20 miles we ended up going 22. With water stops etc. time ended up being 3 hours and 20 minutes. We did throw in 2 8 min. pace miles right toward the end and they weren't killers

Splits: 8:39, 8:29, 8:39, 8:28, 8:42, 8:46, 8:46, 8:59, 8:59, 8:52, 8:33, 8:12, 8:09, 8:17, 8:17, 8:26, 8:13, 8:19, 8:14, 8:02, 7:58, 9:15 Overall avg. pace ended up at 8:30

After almost finishing, I drank some Accelerade and then finished off the run with some walking and watching a little league baseball game. That stuff really helps me recover quicker than normal. We will do that run again sometime.