dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

Total time of 40:14 for 5.77 miles according to the course tool (average pace of 6:58).

I haven't blogged at all since October (I think), but I figured that I would start blogging again every once in a while, even though I don't plan on blogging daily like I used to.

I only ran sporadically from late October of last year until late May of this year, but I finally got back on the horse and started running more consistently.  I started by running 20 minutes per day, 6 days per week (only 5 days the first week), pushing the running stroller (with a baby in it of course) an average of 4 days a week.  After maybe 8 weeks or so (can't remember exactly) I started slowly increasing the time I was running and now I am running 40 minutes per day, with only a couple exceptions where I have run longer.  Beginning in August I started running with the stroller less frequently (no more than once per week now) as school started and my wife and I stopped running at the same time.

During the past months I have time trialed 2 miles with Sasha pacing me, finishing in 11:22.  That time will serve as a starting point for me to build off of over the next year or so.  As my wife has gotten into shape for the first time (she never exercised consistently her entire life until May of this year at the age of 30) I have paced her to a 17:41 2 mile, with a 1 mile pr of 8:42 en route.  She is not competitive, but I am, so I am trying to work within her expectations to see what I can coax out of her physically.

For today's run I used the course tool to measure things after I got back home so all distances are approximate, but likely to be more accurate than GPS devices that people frequently use :).  For most days lately I don't even measure anything, I just run for time and it helps me to not worry about my pace during the run.  I had a planned workout today of 2 x 6 minutes hard during the second half of the run, so I ran Southwest of the house turning around at 20:03 (2.73 miles according to the course tool).  At 22:00 I started the first rep, running between 1.06 and 1.07 miles in 6:00.  I lost approx 57' elevation during the first 2:00, and then gained 32' back during the last 4:00.  I started the second rep at 32:00, losing 20' over the first 100m or so, and then gaining 84' thereafter until reaching the house in 37:36 (.91 total distance for the rep up until this point), accidentally slowing down and then realizing that I had more time left to run hard and speeding up to finish the second rep at 38:04 (added time to make up for the slow down).  I timed the last half mile to the house in 3:08 while gaining 70' elevation.  After finishing the second rep I ran a brief cooldown to finish off the run, making it back to the house in 40:14.

I averaged approx 6:25 pace from the turn around until I reached the house.  I may have run too fast on the recovery as I still averaged 8:00 pace for that portion of the run.  I also may have started the first rep too fast as running on the fairly steep downhill to start off the first rep I was averaging 5:10 pace before slowing down substantially once I started to head back uphill.  I am not sure how much of the slowdown was simply due to elevation change and how much was due to fatigue, but I definitely felt like I was struggling some during the second rep, and even near the end of the first rep.

Total time of 43:24 for today's run.  I'm not sure about the distance because I only measured one section of the run on the course tool, and not the entire thing.

During this past week I ran between 42-43 min per day.  I ran some short speed workouts on Tuesday and Thursday, mixing short sprints into the run on Tuesday, and running 7 x 1 min hard with 4 min rest (yes I know that the rest was probably longer than needed) on Thurday while running with the stroller.  I had a few runs during the week where my legs felt pretty snappy, so my runs this week were probably a little faster on average than is the norm for me.

Today I ran 2 x 10 min hard with a 5 min recovery between reps.  My goal was to be able to run strong during the second rep and not feel like my legs were turning into jello.  So, I made a point of trying to keep my pace more conservative during the first rep.  Originally I was only going to have a 3 minute recovery between reps, but I ended up in an area where my second rep was going to have substantial uphill, so I lengthened the recovery to try and get to higher ground so that I could have more of a mix of uphill and downhill.

Unfortunately I misjudged the length of the initial hill that I was running up.  I started my second rep at 25:00, expecting to be at the top of the hill within a minute or two, followed by a flatter stretch for a few minutes with net downhill, one more steep hill for about a minute, and then a steep downhill from there to the finish, and boy did I remember things wrong!  It took me approximately three minutes to make it to the top of the hill (0.41 miles with 125 ft elevation gain, almost 6% average grade), and by the time I turned onto the "flat" street my legs already were feeling like jello even though I was not even running under 7:00 mile pace.

Once I turned onto the "flat" street I realized that it had more rolling hills than I remembered previously even though my recollection of a net downhill was accurate.  Even with the net downhill on that stretch I was struggling to maintain pace and switch gears due to the uphill that was thrown in.  By the time I crested the second steep hill around 7:00 into the rep my legs were thoroughly trashed, only for me to then to come to a realization that I still had some more rolling hills (and a net elevation gain) before I finally started to head back downhill.  By the time I finally started to run down the final steep downhill (approx 7:40 into the rep) my legs were so trashed that I couldn't actually push myself enough to feel like I was running hard.  The road was so steep (One stretch of approx .14 miles had a negative grade of over 11%) that I was still running sub 6:00 pace during the downhill stretch which covered the last 0.6 miles of the repetition (5:50 average with average negative grade of close to 5%, with approx 150 ft elevation drop), but I never felt like I was running hard during the last 3.5 minutes it took me to get back to Main street.  Total distance for the final rep was 1.71 miles covered in 11:12 (aveage pace approx 6:33) with approximately 0 net elevation change (course tool said -2 ft net change).

I then finished running back to the house, arriving around 39:30 into the run.  I felt so rotten that I considered stopping for a few minutes to rest for a few minutes before finishing the last 3.5 minutes of the run.  Ultimately I just decided to keep my legs moving, and by the time I hit 41:00 my legs were feeling a fair amount better, so I was happy that I didn't stop and was able to finish my run.

So in sum, I felt a little disappointed in how the workout turned out because I was trying to take it easier early on so that I could finish stronger.  Even at the beginning of the last rep I was making an effort to not kill myself on the uphill, but the grade was so steep that just running at any pace will get my heart rate elevated, so I am trying not to be too critical.  I am hopeful that I will eventually get to the point again where I can perform workouts like this and not feel like I am killing myself.

Total time of 43:xx for today's run.  Estimated 6.32 miles total based upon course tool measurements (average pace of 6:50/mile).

Today after a 10 minute warm up I ran 10 x 2 minutes hard 1 minute easy, except after the 5th rep I took a longer recovery of 4 minutes.  I was much happier about today's workout in comparison to Saturday's.  The total amount of hard running was similar to Saturday (20 min vs 21), but the intensity was higher today, there was more total recovery due to the shorter repetitions, while I did not feel as worn out at the end of the run.

My calves and tibialis anterior both felt a little sore on Wednesday afternoon due to this workout, but nothing terrible.  I may just skip my Thursday speed workout, or scale it back substantially if I am still sore on Thursday morning.

Today's run:  45 minutes with the running stroller.  Not sure how far I ran, but probably 6+ miles.

Over the past week and a half I have run between 43-45 minutes most days, except this past Tuesday when I only ran 20 minutes because I was feeling a little under the weather. 

I ran 43 minutes every day last week after I posted last.  I skipped my planned speedwork on Thursday because I was still a little sore from Tuesday's workout.  I ran a tempo run in Park City last Saturday, running from the Canyon's resort towards the center of town and turning around at 21:30.  It was at this point that I started the tempo run, finishing the tempo when I arrived back at the resort at 40:15, before running easy for a few minutes until I hit 43 minutes.  I was pretty happy with the workout as I felt strong even when running up some steep hills at the end.

This week I ran 45 minutes on Monday, but I felt pretty rotten during the second half of the run and during the rest of the day thereafter.  So, on Tuesday I only ran 20 minutes to let myself recover.  On Wednesday I started my run with the plan to turn around early if my legs still felt weak, but my legs felt snappy so I ran the full 45 minutes.  I ran the full time for the rest of the week thereafter, and while I felt a little off for a good portion of the week, my legs tended to feel good while running.

During today's run there was a fair amount of wind which made running with the stroller difficult, while the hills were pretty tough for me to run up as well.  Despite this I still made it through the run at a decent overall pace as I ran the same route I ran on Monday morning and actually finished a little faster despite the stroller (but I didn't feel sick today, so maybe that helped more than the stroller hurt?).

Total running time of 45:30, with total distance run of approximately 6.69 miles (average pace of 6:48/mi) according to the course tool.

TLDR version:  I ran a speed workout 3 x 5 min hard, and 3x 1 min hard, 45 min per day during the first half of the week.

Full version:  All week I have been running 45 min per day, but only running easy.  I strained one of the intercostal muscles in my ribs about a week and a half ago and it has hurt to breathe deep or blow my nose, etc.  Thankfully this hasn't happened in a couple years as for a while I was straining an intercostal muscle once every few months.  So, for the first half of this week I just kept things easy.  I also felt like I ran my runs too fast last week, even though I didn't run any speed workouts after getting sick, and I felt like I needed to slow things down a little.

Today, as I started my run I could tell that my legs were feeling snappy so I decided to run a speed workout.  I ran the same loop around Alpine that I ran 3x last week.  This loop contains a lot of hills, and I measured it out on the course tool at 6.03 miles.  Last week I was running this loop in around 45 minutes, and today I expected to run it at least a few minutes faster.

For the speed workout I ran 3 x 5 minutes hard/3 minutes easy, followed by 3 x 1 minute hard/3 minutes easy (only 2.5 minutes easy after the last segment as I had finished the run), starting at the 10 minute mark of the run.  The first repeat had about 4 minutes of mostly steep uphill, with about 1 minute of fairly steep downhill (approximate net elevation gain of 115 ft, with total climbing of 158 ft during .76 mi according to course tool).  The second rep was almost exclusively downhill (moderate to steep) until the last 20 seconds when it turned uphill again.  The last 5 minute rep again had about 4 minutes (mostly steep) uphill and 1 minute of downhill.  For the 1 minute reps, the first was downhill until about the 45 second mark and then turned uphill.  The second was exclusively downhill (very fast as the grade was pretty consistent).  I made it back to the house during the following recovery to complete the loop in 40:57 (3:14 for the last 0.5 mile even though only 1 minute was run hard) for an average pace of approximately 6:47/mile.  At 42 min I ran the last 1 minute rep (about 40% downhill and 60% uphill), before turning around once more to head back to the house.

Total of 45:00 for over 6 miles.

TLDR:  1 mile hard at end of run in 5:13

Full version:  I decided to run 1 mile hard near the end of my run as a fitness test of sorts.  The goal was to run this mile near all out.  I ran the same 6.03 mile loop I have run multiple times in the last two weeks and started the hard mile with 1 mile to go.  This entire run is pretty hilly and even while running some of the hills early on my legs felt slightly fatigued going up them.  On the downhills I felt fine.

The last mile of the run starts off flat with a slight uphill gaining approximately 9 ft.  I made it to the top of that rise in approximately 1:13, at which point I started heading downhill.  Unfortunately the downhill is steep enough initially that it feels uncomfortable, but eventually it decreases to a more manageable grade.  I hit the half mile mark in 2:33, and then ran the last half mile in 2:40 for a total time of 5:13.  During the last half mile there is a fairly steep hill, with total elevation gain of approximately 35 ft over the last minute or so of the run.  Total elevation change over the last mile is approximately -73 ft, with 44 ft of climbing and 117 ft downhill (net -56 ft during the first half, and -17 ft during the second half).

I was really hoping to be under 5:00 for this mile because of the net downhill, so I was a little disappointed to not hit that goal.  Overall it was hard to estimate what this sort of effort was worth due to the steep uphill at the end, as well as the uncomfortably steep downhill during the first half that didn't speed me up as much as I would have hoped.  Aerobically I actually didn't feel too bad, but my legs did not feel like they had the strength in them to run faster.  I feel like my current fitness is limited to a large degree at faster speeds by lack of strength.  I may implement some additional exercises at home to try and rectify this problem, or maybe some hill sprints (no shortage of those around here).

Total time of 48:05 for a little over 6.5 miles.

TLDR:  I ran 4 x 1 min hard/2 min recovery during second half of the run.

Full version:  I found an app that works with my watch that makes the GPS actually function to a respectable degree, so I decided to try it out on an actual run.  I tried the app out previously walking a 0.54 mile loop and it read 0.53 miles at the end, with the discrepancy due to slow pickup of GPS at the beginning, so I was hopeful that for a 6+ mile run the amount of error would be reasonable.  I made comparisons by running a 6.03 mile loop that I had previously measured on the course tool.  My general belief is that my course tool measurements are almost never short, and if they are long the measurement is likely not off by more than .01-.02.

At the beginning of the run things didn't start off so well, as the delay in GPS recording led to the watch showing 0.02 miles run after only 0.05 miles.  However, after the start things began working much better as at the mile mark the discrepancy was still only 0.03 miles.  Shortly before the 19 minute mark of the run I had to stop at a bathroom, and my measurement was messed up as I had to run off course.  I paused the watch, and upon resuming there was once again a delay in which the watch did not record any distance run for a few seconds.  Based on extra course tool measurements I will estimate that the added distance due to the pit stop was approximately 0.06 miles, of which the watch only recorded 0.04.

As I was running up the hill on the backside of Alpine Blvd, I ran 4 x 1 min hard, with a 2 min recovery.  I ran pretty hard for the first two reps, and with a less severe uphill grade on the last two reps I felt like my motivation to push myself was not as strong as it should have been and I did not really start pushing myself hard until the last 15-20 seconds or so.

With a mile to go in the run my watch read somewhere between 5.01-5.02 miles (I was in the middle of my last 1 minute rep, so I had a hard time catching the distance at the mile marker), and at the finish my watch read 6.01 miles.  With the added distance for the pit stop I am estimating that the actual distance for the loop was 6.09 miles, giving me a total watch-run discrepancy of 0.08 miles.  Of this distance, 0.05 can be accounted for simply based on GPS lag upon starting/unpausing the watch, indicating that the mid run error was only 0.03 miles.  I feel like this amount of error is reasonable considering the error associated with my own measurements using the course tool, and it is substantially better than the standard 2-5% error that I would experience when using previous software on this same watch (0.08 mile error is only 1.3% assuming that the course tool measurements are accurate).  What is additionally positive is that I would expect the amount of error to be smaller as my runs get longer (as long as I do not stop frequently) considering that over half of the error for the total run was related to GPS acquisition errors when starting the watch.

Total time of 50:46.

TLDR:  1 mile all out in 7:25 (not a typo), tempo'd last mile of run in 5:43.

Full version:  I was inspired by the "grinder" that American Fork High School runs as a workout, so I measured their course (starting at 100 E and 1100 N in Pleasant Grove) using the course tool to determine that they are gaining approximately 432 ft elevation over a distance of 1.27 miles.  I set out to find something similar to run here in Alpine.  I ended up measuring a 1 mile stretch that ends at the trailhead to the national forest just above the rodeo grounds, and which gains approximately 416 ft of elevation, so all told it is a little shorter but also steeper.  As you can see I was shooting to match elevation gain more closely than distance run, and 1 mile even seemed like a good distance considering that the elevation gain was so similar.

I estimated that this mile would be at least 2 minutes slower than a flat mile, so with this in mind I set a goal of sub 8:00 for the mile (if it was harder than I anticipated), but with a real goal to run it in under 7:30 (I just didn't want to be disappointed if I ran slower than 7:30 because of how brutally steep the road is going past the rodeo grounds).  First I ran a warm up to my starting point, and added a little extra time/ran a few strides so that I would be over 16 minutes (16:43.52) at the start of the mile.  I broke up the mile into two segments, the first 0.4, and the last 0.6.  The first 0.4 miles is less steep, only gaining 103 ft, while the last 0.6 miles gains 313 ft.

I started the mile trying to get out hard, while also trying not to burn myself out in the first minute or two of the mile.  I felt like I did a pretty good job of this, as the pace felt challenging but not overwhelming.  I was surprised at how steep the first 0.4 miles felt as when I run up this road on easy runs it does not seem as challenging as it did today.  I hit the 0.4 mile mark in 2:32 (6:20 pace) as the road curved to go up towards the rodeo grounds and the national forest.  As I ran up the second 0.6 miles I noticed that I was aerobically limited before my legs were maxed out, as I felt like my legs could do more, but that my heart/breathing could not.  I made an effort to pick up the pace a couple times as my legs felt strong, but it was not sustainable.  By the time I made it to the 5:00-5:30 mark of the mile my legs were also feeling maxed out.  At this point I was just trying to hang on until the end.  As I neared the end of the mile I made a half hearted effort to kick the last 50 meters or so, but the steep grade made speeding up more than a small amount very difficult.  I finished in 7:25.85 (24:09.37 total for the run thus far), to finish the last 0.6 miles in 4:54 (8:10 pace).

I was happy with how this mile went.  I ran faster than my goal of 7:30, when I halfway expected to run closer to 8:00 at the start, while after finishing and resting for a few minutes my legs did not feel too trashed either.  I started running back down the mountain and ended up hopping onto some trails and running on those until I got near the stake center, at which point I hopped back onto the roads again.  I was feeling good enough at this point in the run that I decided to run a tempo for the last mile of the run even though I had not planned on doing so initially.  The last mile drops 73 ft net, with 117 ft down, and 44 ft up.  The last half of this mile is much more honest as it has less than 20 ft net drop (iirc) with 35 ft elevation gain at the end.  I ended up negative splitting the mile (2:52, 2:51) despite the more honest second half (to be honest I was pushing harder the second half because I felt like the first half was too slow even for a tempo mile) to finish it in 5:43.

During the rest of the week I ran a little over 48 min most days except Tuesday when I ran 47 minutes.  Overall I was pretty happy with the week, as I estimate that I ran 37+ miles and I felt pretty good in doing it.  While this mileage is nothing special it is still one of the highest mileage weeks that I have had since early 2014 (I think that my highest during this time period was a week last year where I ran 42 miles).

Total time of 50:12.  Total distance over 7 miles, but not sure by how much.

TLDR:  6 x 3 min hard/ 2 min easy, plus 1 min hard at end.

Full Version:  I hadn't really planned on running a hard workout today, but I realized this morning that I hadn't run one yet this week so I made up a workout on the fly after I started the run.  I woke up earlier than normal (5:30am) because I needed to paint faces for halloween.  As a result, the entire run was performed in the dark, and I didn't have a good feel for how fast I was running for most of the run.  It was around 30 deg F, so I was bundled up.  I'm sure the extra clothing slowed me down a little, but I am not sure how much.

I started the workout at the 10 minute mark of the run, running 3 minutes hard followed by 2 minutes easy.  I decided to perform 6 reps, with the possibility of running a seventh if I came back a lot slower following the turn-around since the second half of the run would be mostly uphill.  I ran out 25 minutes, turning around right as I started the fourth rep.  The first and third reps were almost all downhill, with the first a little more gradual than the third.  The second and fifth reps both had a mix of uphill and downhill, while the fourth and sixth were almost all uphill.

I felt like I ran pretty well for the first four reps, as I felt strong and felt like I maintained pace pretty well.  I felt like I was starting to struggle just a little on the fifth rep, but felt like I was still able to maintain pace.  I am guessing that I was between 10-15 seconds slower from 25-35 minutes than I was from 15-25 minutes due to the net uphill coming back.  I was relatively pleased with this as I was expecting a bigger discrepancy.  I struggled a lot more on the sixth rep as I began to feel a lot of tightness and some pain in my right arm and shoulder and it was hard to maintain pace as a result (probably due partly to extra stiffness following my recent intercostal muscle strain).

I am guessing that with about 8 minutes left in the run I was somewhere near 30 seconds behind pace to arrive back at the house by 50 minutes.  I decided that it wasn't necessary to run a seventh rep as I was close enough to goal pace in the second half, plus I was fatigued enough from the first six reps that I thought a seventh would not offer any benefit.  Instead I decided to run 1 minute hard as I got closer to the house in an effort to practice running fast when fatigued.  I ran hard from 47:30-48:30, and I had made up any deficit lost earlier in the run and was on pace to arrive at the house right at 50:00 when I slowed down.  However, I ended up running up the last hill pretty slowly as a recovery from the hard minute so I still finished just behind pace at 50:12.

Overall it was a good workout and I am happy with how it went.  I do feel a lot more fatigued than I was expecting as the volume of hard work wasn't excessive compared to other workouts I have performed recently, but my legs feel more fatigued this afternoon.  I may just have to take tomorrow morning's run more slowly.

On the first two days of the week I also ran for 50 minutes, but I kept the pace pretty easy both days as on Tuesday I was only 1:00-1:30 faster than 8:00 pace through 6 miles, and Monday felt similar effort wise.

Total time of 50:03 for approximately 7.4 miles.

TLDR:  I ran a 25 minute tempo from 20-45 minutes.

Full version:  I again didn't really plan a workout for today.  As I was about to walk out the door I jokingly asked my wife: "What should I do for a workout today?"  Her response: "Nothing too hard".  So, her advice turned into a moderately hard tempo run of 25 minutes.  My goal was to not work so hard that I was super fatigued for the rest of the day.  I decided to start the tempo at the 20 minute mark of the run and then turn around at 26 minutes, giving myself 24 minutes to make it back home.  Normally I would be a little concerned about making it back 2 minutes faster since the return trip has a net uphill of approximately 180 ft based on where I turned around.  Today I wasn't concerned about that since 19 minutes of the tempo would be after I turned around.

It is normal for me to get excited before speed workouts and run the easy part of the run faster than normal.  Today was no different as I averaged 7:30 pace from my house to a power pole that I pass 1.06 miles into the run (normally on an easy run I guess that I will average about 7:45 pace).  I was conciously trying not to speed up, but I still maintained about 7:30 pace until the 20 minute mark when I started my tempo.

At the start of the tempo I was at the bottom of a hill that I had just run down, and I gained a little over 30 ft elevation while running into a headwind during the first minute of the tempo.  I then turned on Highland Blvd and started to head downhill (losing approx 109 ft elevation) with a tailwind for the next 5+ minutes until I turned around at 26:00 (approx. 1.03 miles into the tempo).  I then turned around and ran back the way I came, running uphill into a headwind.  It was no surprise that I ran back up the hill 51 seconds slower than I ran down it, cresting the hill to turn off Highland Blvd at 31:55.  I was now worried that I would not make it back to the house by 50:00 because I lost so much time running into the wind.  Thankfully, over the last 13 minutes of the tempo I had less headwind, and more tailwind.  For the next 4:25 (until 36:20) after turning off Highland Blvd (approx 0.75 miles). I was running a net downhill (losing almost 60 ft), but with one uphill segment thrown in as well that lasted for about 1:30.  The next 7:20 was almost purely uphill (approx 43:40 into the run), followed by a short downhill segment for 20ish seconds and a mostly flat last minute.  I then finished running the last 0.70 miles back to the house, arriving at 50:03.  I ran a little faster back to the house than I would have normally run because I wanted to make it back in close to 50:00.

All told, I ran about 4.03 miles for the tempo (approx 6:12 pace), with 3 miles coming during the 19 minutes after I turned around, while gaining approx. 100 ft net elevation after the turn around.  For the entire tempo I only gained a little over 20 ft elevation, so not a big change there, but there were lots of hills throughout the tempo (plus some wind), so I was actually pleased with how things went even though the average pace was not very fast.  It was also nice to not feel like I was straining very hard to run this pace as there have been some workouts in the past few months that have been around this same pace where I have felt like I was really straining.

My next order of business is to improve my top end speed for distances 400m-1 mile.  I feel like if I am going to try and run tempos like this in the 5:00-5:30 pace range at some point in the future that I need to get my top end speed a little faster.  I just need to follow through on actually doing the workouts in the near future.

Total time of 52:00

TLDR: 5 x 400 w/200 recovery, except 400 recovery after the 4th rep.  Rep times of 1:11, 1:11, 1:12, 1:12, 1:14.  Recovery times of 1:11, 1:10, 1:12, 2:17.

Full Version:  As I stated on Saturday, I have felt like I need to work on my speed over shorter distances (400-mile), so today I decided to run a workout aimed at doing that.  I ran to the track at the middle school in order to run 400 repeats.  The track is made of asphalt and was covered in leaves and branches on the back stretch, so it isn't the fastest track around here to run on, but it is the only track within a short running distance of my house so I decided it was good enough.  I have also wondered if the track measurement is actually 1/4 mile instead of 400m because of the non-traditional make-up of the track, and some course tool estimates, in addition to my own estimates running on it on an easy run a while back.  Basically, my point is that I don't know for sure if I was running 400's or some other distance that is very close to 400m.

My goal for the workout was to try and hit 1:15 pace per repeat.  I was a little worried that this would be unsustainable so I set two goals for myself.  The basic goal was to run a minimum of 4 repeats.  If I started to struggle I would end the workout at whatever point after 4 repeats where I was unable to maintain pace to a reasonable degree.  The optimal goal was for me to run 8 repeats.  My suspicion was that I would end up running somewhere between 4-8 repeats but not actually hit either endpoint.  I decided to run 200m recovery because I wanted an active recovery and I thought that 400m would be too long, while 200m was pretty convenient in terms of knowing where my start and end points were (no marks on the track itself, but there were big cracks in the pavement at the approximate 200m and 400m marks).

After I got to the park near the track I first went to the bathroom and then ran a lap on the track with a 100m surge to try and figure out what effort to run at to hit 1:15 400 pace.  Once I started the workout I used a running clock so I don't have exact splits, but I started the first 400 repeat at the 15:20 mark of the run.  I ended up starting out too fast at the beginning of the first 400, but it didn't seem abnormally hard and I felt relaxed so I ended up deciding to just keep that effort up.  I finished the first rep in 1:11, followed by an equal recovery of 1:11.  The second rep also felt good, and I finished it in 1:11 again (1:10 recovery).  Starting with the third rep things started to feel hard and I finished this rep in 1:12 (1:12 recovery).  The fourth rep felt much harder, but I was happy that I was able to run another 1:12.

At this point I knew that a major slow down was coming for any additional reps, so I decided to run a 400m recovery with the goal of trying to run 2 more reps afterwards.  This recovery ended up lasting 2:17 (1:14, 1:03 for the 200m segments).  Unfortunately my legs still felt pretty fatigued at the start of this rep, however I was pleased that I was able to keep up a solid pace for the first 200m (approx 35.5 seconds).  Over the last 200m the wheels started to fall off and I struggled to maintain focus.  I ended up finishing the fifth rep in 1:14 (approx. 38.5 for the last 200m).  At this point I didn't feel like running any additional reps would be beneficial, so I ran my final cooldown 200m in 1:18 to get back to the start line and I ended the workout, having run approx. 2 miles total (counting recovery) in 13:08.

At this point I still had over 23.5 minutes left in my run, so I just ran easy, winding around some of the streets of Alpine until I finished the run at the house in 52:00.  My legs still felt fatigued even while running close to 8:00 pace at the end of the run (I timed the last 0.5 to the house in 3:55).  I am hoping that workouts like this and some continued consistency will lead to improvements over the next few months as I try and see what I am capable of.

Total time of 54:00

TLDR:  2 x 0.6 miles hard in 4:48 and 4:53 (uphill).  1 mile hard downhill in 4:30.

Full Version:  For today's run I wanted to build off of the idea that I need to build strength/speed, specifically at distances 400m-1mile.  I have also felt like I need to learn to utilize my quads more when running, so I decided to run uphill repeats on the same stretch of road where I ran an all out uphill mile a few weeks ago.  I felt like a mile was too long for the repeats, so I ran the repeats on the 0.6 mile stretch (approx. 313 ft elevation gain) starting where the road turns to go up towards the rodeo grounds, and ending at the parking lot to the national forest.  My original plan was to run 3 of these repeats, however after running 2 of them I felt like I should practice running fast too, rather than just running hard at a slow pace, so I ran a hard downhill mile (approx. 416 ft elevation loss) on the same stretch of road (I was also curious to see how fast I could "fall" down the mountain as I knew that the grade was so steep that I would be unable to actually run all out without more practice running downhill).

I made it to my starting point in a little over 15:30, and I jogged around a little more until I hit 16:00 so that I could have an even starting time.  The first rep started off well, and my quads were burning within the first 30 seconds because of the steepness of the grade.  My breathing quickly caught up and acted as a limiting factor.  There were a few times when I attempted to surge in order to keep the pace faster and avoid getting complacent.  Each time I did so my quads reminded me why I had slowed down to begin with, but I was happy to at least attempt to increase the pace even if it was not sustainable.  I finished the first rep in 4:48 (average 8:00 pace) and immediately turned around to go back to the starting line.

I made it back to the start line a little before 25:30, and I estimate that I averaged about 7:35 pace during my recovery as I ran back down the mountain.  I jogged a few seconds more and started the second rep right at 25:30.  I don't feel like I started the second rep as strongly as I started the first (still feeling a little fatigued from the first rep), and I feel like that is where the majority of the slowdown between reps came from.  After the first minute or so I feel like things were pretty equal.  I attempted to surge a couple times during this rep like I did during the first, and near the end I also tried to focus more on sustaining a strong pace without the surges.  I finished this rep in 4:53 (8:08 pace).

After I finished the second rep I ran around some of the trails at the entrance to the national forest until my watch hit 35:00 (recovery of a little over 4:30).  I then stopped my watch and walked over to the start point for the downhill mile.  I rested for another minute or two before starting the mile.  The mile did not feel as hard as the 0.6 mile repeats, but I could still feel the fatigue in my legs from the uphill repeats as I ran down the hill.  My feet were getting shoved to the fronts of my shoes, making me wish that I had tied my shoes differently.  I could also tell that I don't have lots of recent downhill running experience as running down the hill felt uncomfortable to the point that I felt like I was unable to utilize the elevation loss adequately.  Once I hit the 0.6 mile mark (split time of 2:38, average pace of 4:23) the grade levels off a little, only dropping about 100 ft over the last 0.4 (compared to over 300 ft during the first 0.6).  It was at this point that I started to really feel my legs burn as I finally had to start working harder to maintain the pace I was running at.  I ended up hitting the mile mark at 4:30 (1:52 last 0.4, average split pace of 4:40), making this the fastest mile that I have run since the beginning of the Des News 10k back in 2010 (I think I split sub 9:00 for the first 2 miles that day), although I may have run a mile faster on the treadmill back in early 2011... I'll have to check.  Maybe if I keep at it I will be able to break 4:30 for a legit (flat road or track) mile someday as I never made the effort to do so when I was younger.

After finishing this mile I kept the effort easy for the last 14:30 of the run until I reached the house in 54:00.  My legs felt pretty fatigued during the cooldown.  I'm hoping that this will provide a good stimulus for improvement moving forward.  At some point once I finish building up to my initial goal base mileage (1:20:00 per run M-F plus a long run) I may also start running 3 hard workouts per week instead of 2.

Total time of 55:00

TLDR: 2 x 10 min hard, 2 x 2 min hard, 1 x 1 min hard

Full Version:  Since I worked primarily on shorter speedwork last week I decided to give this workout a little longer focus while still trying to implement a little bit of a faster stimulus.  After a 10 minute warm up I ran 2 x 10 minutes hard, with a 5 minute recovery between reps.  The first rep likely had a net downhill, but the section of road I ran on was arguably the flattest road that I have run any longer speedwork on in the past 6 months since I started training regularly again.  During the recovery I ended up running up a fairly large hill.  I started the next 10 minute rep shortly before I reached the top of the hill, and I had a mixture of uphill and downhill during this rep.

Following a second 5 minute recovery I started my first 2 minute rep on slightly rolling terrain with a fairly negligible net elevation change as far as I could tell.  I then ran a 4 minute recovery before running another 2 minute interval.  This rep had a lot of downhill, which wasn't ideal, but it was where I happened to be when the time hit.  I then ran a final 4 minute recovery (I arrived at the house near the end of this recovery in 51:37 and turned back around to finish the run) before running 1 minute hard, ending this interval at the 53:00 mark of the run before running back to the house and arriving right at 55:00.

Overall it seemed like a good workout.  I didn't feel like I was ever red lining during the workout which was good.  I did wonder if I should have pushed the pace a little more during the second 10 minute rep, and at times during the shorter reps, but overall I feel like it was hard enough to provide a good stimulus.

Edit:  I measured the course I ran on the course tool and it came out to 7.86 miles.  I think this is the longest run I have done since August of last year when I got lost while running in Prescott, AZ.  I tried to measure how far I ran on the intervals with limited success.  I am guessing that I ran about 1.65 miles for each of the 10 minute intervals (close to 6:00 pace), but that could vary by a fair amount.  I was surprised to find out that the first 10:00 interval actually had a net uphill gradient although very small.  I think I ran .19 miles for the 1:00 interval (I was able to measure that one fairly accurately), and maybe 0.34 for the first 2:00 interval.  Measurement for this one is very approximate as I couldn't remember accurately where I started and stopped.  Same goes for the second 2:00 interval which I am estimating at around 0.39.

Approximately 8 miles in 55:00

TLDR: 3 x 1 mile in 5:06.5, 5:48, 5:42

Full Version:  I drove to the track at Lone Peak High School this morning to run a speed workout.  I have been curious lately to see what I can run a mile in.  I would like to be able to break 5:00 for the mile in the near future as I have not done so in a long time.  My plan was to run a mile all out to try and do just that.  I warmed up for about 2 miles prior to running the mile.  During my warm-up I ran 3 x 100m strides to try and get a feel for 5:00 pace.  I felt like I had trouble figuring out what the correct effort should be, and after running the third stride I was also feeling kind of tired, so I extended my warm-up by two laps in order to try and relax a little more before the start.

I started the mile, and still had trouble figuring out what pace to run at.  I hit the 400 meter mark in about 76.5 and was concerned because the effort did not feel as easy as I thought it would.  I tried to pick up the pace on the second lap and did speed up a little, but was only able to run a 74.5 (2:31 at 800).  I tried to maintain this effort for the third lap but I was starting to hurt a little despite the slower than anticipated start and I could only run a 77 (3:48 for 1200).  I knew that running a 72 for the last 409 meters was not going to happen, but for some reason I thought that I could run that pace for 400 and I tried to speed up in an effort to run an extended kick.  I felt like I was working harder, and I thought I was speeding up so when I crossed the 1600 meter mark in approximately 5:05 (another 77) I was a little surprised.  I stopped my watch right as I hit the mile mark to finish in 5:06.5.

I then ran 4 laps recovery in 7:37, which was a little longer than I had originally planned (plan was about 5:00) before running the first of two tempo miles.  I started this mile with a goal pace of 90 seconds per lap to start with the plan to speed up a little based on how I felt after that first lap.  I ended up running a 5:48 (90, 85, 86, 85, with 2 sec diff for the last 9 m).  I then ran 4 more recovery laps in approximately 7:32 before running the final mile in 5:42 (84, 87, 83, 86, +2 sec).  After the final tempo mile I finished by running 4 more recovery laps, plus a little extra to make up the differential between metric and imperial distance so that I would have a total of 8 miles for the run.

So, all told I was not disappointed with how things went.  The two tempo miles felt easier than I was expecting, but the all out mile was a little slower than I was hoping for (but realistically was probably more in line with the workouts I have performed recently).  I feel like I need to work on learning how to really kick at the end of time trials/races as I frequently am hesitant to really hurt and run all out at the end of these efforts.

Total time of 58:00

5 x 15-20 seconds hard during the run

My original plan was to run 2 x 0.5 miles at about 5:30 pace, but I felt more tired yesterday that expected (I accidentally ran farther than planned too, finishing yesterdays run in 60:49) so I decided to make todays "workout" more relaxed.

I am running the Orem turkey trot on Thursday, and I am excited for that.  It will be the first race that I have run since the summer of 2013.  I am mentioning the race now because I have a goal for the race to really focus on pushing myself hard during the last 1-2 minutes of the race (maybe start kicking once I make the second to last turn?), and to kick hard.  I want to tie up if possible before I hit the line.  I feel like I frequently struggle to really push myself hard at the end of max efforts, so I want to rectify that on Thursday.

First race for me since 2013.  It felt good to dip my toes back into the racing scene.

I decided last week to run this race as I have been feeling pretty good in training recently and I wanted to test myself to see where my fitness is at.  My expectations based upon recent workouts was that I had 22:30-22:40 fitness in me, and that there was a possibility that I could go faster.  Deep down I told myself that I would like to run sub 22:00, but I didn't think that it was likely when considering some of my recent workouts, and my inability to run sub 6:00 pace on 20-25 minute tempo runs over rolling terrain.

I warmed up for 2 miles, and ran a few strides before the race started.  When the gun went off I shot to the front, surprised that no one else was in front of me.  It didn't take long before Dave Taylor and another guy both went by me.  The pace felt unsustainable so I tried to relax and drop back into the pack.  This worked pretty well for me over the rest of the first mile as I felt relaxed despite being at the front of the race.  The pack and I passed both Dave and the other leader shortly before the mile mark.  I hit the official mile mark in 5:17 feeling relaxed, which shocked me considering that just last Saturday I was only able to run 5:06.5 for an all out mile on the track (I found out afterwards that the mile marker was short).

During the second mile the pack stayed together initially until shortly before the 1.5 mile mark one runner made a move and gapped the rest of the pack.  Dustin Bybee started to move up shortly thereafter, and misjudging my ability to maintain pace for 4 miles I made the decision to try and go with him.  I stayed with Dustin initially and hit the official 2 mile marker (also short?) in 10:40 (5:23).  Unfortunately by this point in time I was starting to feel the pace and by 2.25 miles Dustin had gapped me.

I turned the corner onto Center street just before 2.5 miles and really started to struggle over the next half mile as there was a solid headwind (maybe 10-12 mph?) that I had to run into (on the first loop I was able to draft off other runners so the wind didn't really affect me early on).  As I ran on Center street I could tell that the pack (4 guys) was catching back up to me, and by about 2.75 miles they had caught me and proceeded to quickly leave me behind.

I hit the official 3 mile mark in 16:29 (5:49... ouch!  Not sure what it would have been with correct measurements), and realized that my chances at breaking the 22:00 barrier were slipping away unless I picked up the pace over the last mile.  Just past the 3 mile mark one of the runners in the pack stepped off the course as he was just there to get in a workout, putting me in 6th place where I ultimately finished.

The pack finally started to stretch out at this point but all three of the remaining runners continued to pull away from me.  I tried to focus on maintaining my own pace that way I could hopefully stop the gap from growing.  Coming into the race I had a goal of kicking hard to finish the race as I feel like I frequently give up a little bit mentally when it comes time to kick.  I was thinking about this as I turned onto 400 South for the last time with a half mile to go in the race, and I decided to start my kick as I made the final turn with about 400 meters left in the race.  At that point I really started to push.  I wanted to feel my legs give out on me a little, and with maybe 200 meters left I started to feel that.  I realized that not only was the gap between me and 5 place no longer getting bigger, but I was actually starting to close on him a little (he still beat me by about 10 seconds, but I will take the little victories wherever I can get them).  I continued to push the pace towards the finish as I really wanted to make sure that I got under the 22:00 barrier.

I crossed the line with a time of 21:54.7 and to be honest wasn't really sure what to think.  I finished 30-40 seconds faster than I thought I was capable of running, and I was exstatic that I had run so well, but wished that I could have held on a little better during the third mile.  Thinking on things now I am really pleased with the progress that I have made over the last few months.  To be in the mix running with "fast" guys again is invigorating, and it leaves me hungry for more.  I am pleased that I was able to run a strong final mile despite the mile 3 slowdown, and I am excited to see what even greater fitness brings me in the future.

I won a turkey for winning my age group, so that was nice.  Hopefully next year I will be able to contend for the overall win rather than the age group win.

Total time of 1:00:17, running a little over 8.5 miles based upon course tool estimations

TLDR:  5 x 5 minutes hard with 3 minutes recovery

Full Version:  I hadn't run a speed workout since the race last Thursday, and it felt like it was about time to run something faster again.  I ran a 10 minute warm up, running uphill (frequently I like to start running downhill until I get warmed up, but I decided to switch things up today).  I have felt good running the last couple days, so I was surprised to start off much slower than normal, hitting my half mile mark in 4:40, and my mile mark in 8:56 (the uphill was part but not all of the issue).  This made me rethink my decision to run a harder workout today as I suspected that maybe less than optimal sleep the last couple days was leaving me more tired than normal.  I ended up deciding that since I was just planning to run by feel it shouldn't be a problem to complete the workout.

I started my first 5 minute rep at the crest of the hill I was running up, running 5 minutes hard followed by 3 minutes easy from the 10-50 minute mark of the run.  The first rep started downhill, but flattened out shortly thereafter until the 4:00 mark when I started running down a steep hill for the last 1:00.  The second rep was mostly downhill for the first 2:40 and mostly uphill for the last 2:20.  The third rep was mostly flat for the first 2:30, followed by super steep downhill for about 1:30, and more gradual downhill for the last 1:00.  The fourth rep was mostly flat throughout although there was a slight uphill grade during the last 1:40.  The last rep was either flat or mild uphill throughout.

After I finished the final rep I finished running back to the house, arriving at the 51:51 mark of the run (I have previously estimated this loop to be 7.39 miles long, so this gives me a 7:01 average pace up to this point, only 14 seconds slower than two weeks ago when I ran a speed workout on the same loop).  I then turned around and ran down past a different 0.5 mile marker from the house down to the corner of Grove Dr. and 200 N before turning around and running back home, arriving in 1:00:17.  Of the last 8:26 I ran after arriving at home, I ran the 0.5 mile out and back in 7:09, plus an additional 1:17 to make it to the corner and back to the 0.5 mile mark (I measured this stretch on the course tool at approximatley 0.18 miles).  This gives me approximately 8.57 miles total for the run based upon all of the measurements that I have taken at different points in time.

Total running time of 60:00

TLDR:  mild tempo lasting about 18 minutes.

Full Version:  My right calf started acting up on Thursday about 2/3 of the way through the run.  It is a problem that I have dealt with for years, but this was the first time it has acted up since I started running again back in late May.  The general problem is that the soleus becomes too tight and it causes a knot to develop in the muscle near the attachment with the tibia.  This knot then causes uneven pulling of the muscle on the bone leading to pain (and a stress fracture back in 2007).  As long as I massage things out for a few days after it tightens up it tends to go away without any major issues developing.

So, on Friday I ran super slow as a precaution, still running for the full 60 minutes that I had planned.  I noticed that the calf hurt more when running downhill and essentially did not hurt at all when running uphill.  I kept massaging with the plan to scrap a hard workout for today unless there was a drastic improvement over the next 24 hours.  I decided to keep today's run on as flat of terrain as possible in order to avoid any steep downhill, so I started my run off by heading South down Main Street.  This meant that I was running downhill, but nothing so egregiously steep as to agravate the calf.

I made it to my estimated mile mark in 8:00, and slowly sped up even though I was still trying to be really careful with the calf.  I continued heading South down into Highland, crossing Timp Highway.  I noted when I passed an approximate 3.5 mile marker from running the same route last fall as this was the first time that I have made it past that mark as I am running more mileage now than I was back then.  I was feeling antsy as I continued to run.  I wanted to run a speed workout, and it felt like every muscle in my body (except one) wanted to as well.  So, after turning around at 31:01 I started a very mild speed workout as I headed back up the gradual incline towards home.

In order to be careful with the calf I focused on speeding up gradually and staying relaxed as I headed back towards Timp Highway.  Eventually it felt like I got moving at a decent speed (maybe close to 6:00 pace or a little faster?), but at no point did it feel like I was running "hard", and my calf felt good throughout.  Once I crossed Timp Highway again I slowed down again, but shortly thereafter another runner on the opposite side of the road started to pass by me.  I still felt good so I sped up again in order to stay in front of the other runner.  This time I felt like I was working a little harder, but my calf felt good and did not hurt at all so I kept going.  I slowed back down again for good once I made it a little ways past the round about on Main Street, and then finished the run by running home and adding a bit extra in order to hit 60:00.

First half of the run: 31:01, second half (before adding extra): 27:20ish.

Speed work strech going out: 22:34, coming back: 19:20 (didn't run hard for about 20-30 sec in the middle, plus the first 1:00-2:00 after turning around).

60:00 run.  Had fun running on trails in the snow.  Saw 52 deer while running (yes I counted, no I don't know if I saw some of them more than once).

Total time of 63:00

TLDR:  3 x 5 min hard, 3 min easy

Full Version:  About 2 weeks ago beginning the day of my last blog post I started to feel off.  My legs started to ache, my stomache hurt, my neck hurt, my back hurt, I felt tired.  It was odd.  I felt similar to how I felt last fall when I stopped running, and also similar to how I was feeling when I was visiting doctors years ago getting blood work done, only for them to find nothing wrong with me.  I still do not know what was up, but I ended up deciding to maintain my running time for a few weeks instead of continuing my schedule of weekly time increases.  So, I ran 60 minutes per day for the past two weeks, and only started increasing time again at the beginning of this week bumping up to 63 minutes.

The other odd thing about what I was experiencing is that it occurred at the same time we found out that my wife probably has an autoimmune disease, and part of me felt like I was experiencing sympathy pain.  To a degree I felt bad for not feeling good because I felt like Sam needed the attention, not me as she is the one with a genuine diagnosable medical problem.  More on Sam... she probably has Ankylosing Spondylitis, although an official diagnosis has not yet been made.  She has had recurring bouts of uveitis/iritis (caused by inflammation in the eye), has tested positive for the HLA-B27 gene that is associated with AS, and has elevated levels of C-Reactive Protein (general test for inflammation), in addition to chronic back and hip pain, so I feel like it is just a matter of time before the diagnosis is made official.  Now we just need to figure out how to deal with everything so that we can minimize future damage to her eye, spine, etc.

Back to running... Ok, so this week I finally increased mileage again, running 63:45 on Monday and then 63:00 yesterday and today.  I haven't run any hard workouts over the last couple weeks, and today I wanted to run a workout but on a more limited level.  I decided to shoot for something that would not be super high in intensity, so I decided to run some longer repeats, opting for 5 minutes hard with a 3 minute recovery.  My initial gut impression was to run 5 repeats (25 minutes total hard running and 40 minutes total counting recovery), however I felt like that was more in line with what I should do on a normal day, not after skipping all hard workouts for almost 3 weeks.  So I decided to run 3 repeats, with the option to run a 4th if I was feeling up for it.

I ran a 20 minute warm up with a bathroom break in the middle before starting the workout.  The first rep I felt pretty strong and smooth for most of it, with minimal elevation change.  The second rep was uphill for the entirety with a more mild grade for the first 4 minutes, and a very steep grade for the last minute.  I felt like I probably could have pushed myself more on this rep.  The final rep had a mild-moderate downhill gradient for the entirety of the rep.  I still felt like I was running within myself on this rep, so that was a positive.  After three reps I was still undecided on whether to run a fourth rep or not as I felt fine except for maybe a little calf tightness which went away on its own after only a minute or two during the run.  I ended up deciding not to run any additional reps after the third out of an abundance of caution as I don't want to experience a reoccurance of the fatigue I experienced regularly last fall.  I then finished my run, arriving back at the house in 62:38, followed by running the extra 22 seconds in the driveway to end up with 63:00 total.

Total running time of 63:00

I ran south into Highland.  On the way home I ran a tempo run from the 36:50 mark until I reached the corner of Main Street and Pioneer Drive at the 59:47 mark of the run (22:57 for the tempo).

Total time of 65:00 for the run

In Arizona visiting family for Christmas.  I ran a ladder workout on the canals, 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1 minutes hard with 1-2-3-4-3-2-1 minutes recovery.

Total time of 65:00

I ran a workout with 4 x 8 minutes hard, with 3 minutes recovery.  I had a few times where I had to stop at street crossings while running on the canal (I had the same problem on Wednesday), 1 stop during the first rep for about 60 seconds, and 2 stops during the second rep (the first was for no more than a few seconds, and the second was with only 15 seconds left in the rep and was for approx 15-20 seconds).  No stops during the final 2 reps.  The workout was harder than anticipated due to wind.