Slow to fast

No knee pain today or yesterday.

I got my wife Mandy to run this morning.  With her permission, I signed her up for a 5k that's a month away.  She ran for 25 min and said it was boring.  But she's committed to run at least three times a week until the race.

1600-1200-800-400-200 with 400m jog in between.

6:00, 4:27, 2:53, 1:26, 38

Workout went well this morning.  This was the first time I had tried a step-down type workout.  I was able to speed up a little for each rep.  The only problem was the 400m where I was a second slower than my goal.  I'm not too worried about it because the others were all on target or faster than target.

Three miles this morning.

2 x 2mi w/ 3 min jog between

6:32, 6:31, 6:33, 6:32

Good workout for me.  I felt solid the whole time except for when I was messing with my watch a little.  I set it to do the reps for me without pushing the lap button, but I guess I set the interval at 1 mile instead of 2.  Sometimes it's just easier to push the lap button and forget about watch features.

Night run.

I did 13 miles in about 110 minutes on my Wasatch Blvd loop that has 1000 ft of elevation gain. I really wanted to run during the day but I just couldn't get out. My left knee felt great. No pain at all. I forgot to charge my headlamp and it cut out at mile 12 after being pretty dim the whole run.

I ran through some neighborhoods that I don't normally run through.  It was refreshing to go to different areas.  A couple of dogs charged me, but backed down when I kept coming at them.  It was a good morning.

1600m - 2 x 800 - 1600m w/400m jog in between

5:55, 2:56, 2:56, 5:56

The workout today was very good.  I felt like my form was right and I wasn't exhausted at the end.

4 mile run in the evening.

5 mi tempo

6:52, 6:53, 6:51, 6:52, 6:47

I missed my target pace of 6:50 and my instantaneous pace varied a fair amount. This was a tough workout. I'm not sure why. Possibly because I haven't been getting enough hours of sleep this week.

Slow three miles on Friday evening.

My brother and I went up Little Cottonwood and ran to Hidden Peak from the Mid Gad lift. He's signed up for the Speedgoat 50k and wanted to try part of the course before the race in July. We got up in an hour and a half and were frozen from the wind and no sun. Luckily, the ski patrol hut was open and the heater was on. We warmed up for 15 min and then cruised down the same way we came up. This was a lot longer run than I planned but it was fun and had some great views.

My IT band hasn't hurt in quite a while.  I was a little worried about the run at Snowbird on Saturday but I felt great after.  I just need to remember to keep up the clamshell exercises so the pain doesn't come back.  

8x200m with 200m jog 40, 39, 37, 35, 34, 33, 32, 31 I didn't intend this to be a progression workout, I just didn't want to start out fast and get slower by the last rep. As it turned out I'm pretty happy with the times. But maybe it would have been better though to keep it steady around 34s.

I ordered a pair of A5s and had to test them out this evening.  I really like them.  Not as narrow and long as the A6s and they feel just as light.  An 8.5 fits me perfectly.

8 x 15s strides on the Alta track this morning.  Went well and I loved the shoes.  I've been pretty busy with work and haven't been able to do as many miles this week.  However, my legs feel a little more fatigued than usual.  Possibly because of the 3800ft I did on Saturday or the 8 x 200m strides on Tuesday.  Hopefully I can recover a bit for the American Fork 5k on Saturday.

During my lunch break on Friday I drove down to American Fork to pick up my packet. It took a little over an hour. I really wish they would have had the option for me to pick up my packet directly before the race.

I arrived at AF high school at about 6:30 am and found a parking spot fairly close to the starting line. After a little over 2 miles of warm-up I started toward the starting line and did about 4 strides (10s each).

I got up to the starting line with a couple of minutes to go. Then Kate Hansen, the luge Olympian, gave the countdown and fire the pistol. A group of about a dozen went out at an unsustainable pace. I was just behind this group that was led by a few preteens and two high-school age boys. At 0.5 miles we came to a steep hill that throttled the pack nicely. The hill was only a quarter of a mile but by the top, I had passed almost everyone in the group. One of my goals for this race was to keep my speed in check at the beginning and it paid off. Down the other side of the hill I passed a few more and could see three guys in front of me quite a ways off. The gap closed a little with the second and third place guys slowing down slightly. By mile 2 I couldn't see the guy in front and the other two were running side by side.

With about 0.25 miles left there was a small hill that slowed the two guys in front of me. Now they were within 10 seconds. I kept pushing to catch them but wasn't able to. Just before the finish line, the third place guy ducked under the rope on the side of the course. I ended up finishing 7 seconds behind the guy in front of me. And I was surprised to see my uncle volunteering in the finishing area to give me a bottle of water.

I cooled down for about 1.5 miles and hung out for a bit in the nice weather. I was still a little confused about whether I got 3rd or 4th because the results kiosk said 4th but I knew the 3rd place guy bandited the race. I stuck around anyway and was happy to get a certificate for a free pair of shoes.

Splits from my watch. A little different than my official time.

6:04, 5:59, 6:00, 34

I started out a little stiff but it didn't last long and had a good run.  

My wife and kids have been camping in Big Cottonwood this week so I've joined them in the evenings after work.  Tuesday evening I was able to run on some of the bike trails at Solitude.  I did the first couple of miles with my brother-in-law and then kept going until it got dark.  The original plan this week was to do a 4-mile tempo but I decided to postpone the tempo for Wednesday evening when I'll be able to be on pavement with less elevation gain.

4 mile tempo

6:36, 6:37, 6:37, 6:27

The workout went well but I did it too late in the evening. I really need to start focusing on getting enough hours of sleep. It's going to start affecting my training before too long.

I like running after it rains.  Everything is just a little damp, it smells nice and it's just humid enough.

6 x 800m

3:01, 2:57, 2:54, 2:51, 2:51, 2:50

Tough workout. It took me three reps to find my pace (I was aiming for 2:55) and then I over compensated a bit. My last rep didn't feel that good and I was surprised that it was my fastest. The temperature was really nice and cool. Much better than Wednesday's tempo.

So much for my goal to get more hours of sleep; it's 1:30 in the AM and my kids will be waking me up no later than 7:00 AM.

Tonight's run was up Dimple Dell on the Northern trail. Then I took Dimple Dell road down to 106th South. I was out for 91 min and I saw some ferrel cats, deer and a suspicious man just milling around on the trail.

8 x 200m

33, 34, 34, 33, 33, 32, 32, 31

I'm very happy about this workout. I was consistent and pushed myself.