dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

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.