Hit the Dusty Trail

Ran at lunch. Felt good so I pushed the pace for the entire run.

Didn't get a chance to run at lunch so I hit the treadmill at home.  Felt pretty good, I set the pace quite a bit faster than I usually do when I run on that thing.

Ran into work this morning.  I felt pretty good so I pushed it a little bit.  The time was 1:21, one of the faster times I've run going into work.  With the run in and the run home this afternoon I've probably messed up any chance of running a decent time in tomorrow's Strider's half marathon.  Oh well, I'll have the race experience and the mileage.  To me right now mileage is more important.

The run home was faster.  Ran a 1:17 home.  Felt pretty good.

Not too bad a time.  I ran the overall pace I wanted to which was a sub 8:00 pace.  The 18 the previous day definitely didn't help as you can see that I slowed down considerably after 9 miles.  Something of a headwind as well once we came out of the canyon and started around the northside of Pineview.  Here's the splits

1 - 9:29

2 - ?:??

3 - 7:52

4 - 8:03

5 - 7:41

6 - 7:47

7 - 7:54

8 - 8:07

9 - 8:09

10 - 8:29

11 - 8:23

12 - 8:19

13 - 7:53

13.1 - 0:42.9 (7:08 pace)

Ran on the treadmill this eveing.  Pushed the pace to a 7:30 (fast for me) with the last .5 miles at a sub 7 pace.  Running the Striders half at a sub 8 pace gave me some incentive to push harder in the training.  Who knows, maybe I will run a BQ in May.

Ran in to work this morning.  Just took it easy.  Time was 1:27.

Took it easy on the run home as well.  Time was 1:25.

Did the dreaded interval work on the treadmill.  Ugh!  but it does work.  All of the intervals were at a 6:18 pace.  Did 2 x 0.5, 1 x 0.6, 1 x 0.75, and 1 x 1.0.  I think I need to bump the pace up a bit.  When I was running the 1 mile, I could clearly tell when I went anaerobic.  It was at 0.9 miles.  The rest of the intervals left me out of breath, but recovery was pretty fast.  Max HR was 168 with 162 being the norm.

Ran into work this morning like I usually do on Friday's.  The run was a little slower due to the interval work last night.  The legs were a little dead.  Morning was a little cool, in the 30's.  Looking forward to the afternoon run home.  Should be a lot warmer.  Next week in the 70's, it's about time.

The run home wasn't too bad.  Kind of slow as well.  Time was 1:27

I'm calling this a marathon pace run.  The run was on the White Rock, Split Rock, and Elephant Head trails on Antelope Island.  The day was perfect for a trail run.  A little breeze to keep things cool, nice warm sun, and perfect trail conditions.  Since  I'm on the Trail Patrol there, I was carrying a radio as well as my usual run stuff.  Lots of horseback riders and mountain bike riders.  Ended up adding to my mileage having to chase down people that go off trail.  I felt pretty strong so I pushed the pace the entire way. I ended up taking a little over 3.5 hours, but if you back out the time spent chasing people down, then I could have done the run in less than 3 hours.  Not bad given those trails.

Ran my usual 6 mile loop at lunch.  Very windy but at least it was warm.  Not too much to say about it.

Interval work on the treadmill.  2 x 0.5, 1 x 0.6, and 1 x 0.75 all at 6:18 pace.

Ran around the block at lunch.  Very nice day, a little cool, but warm sun.  Felt pretty good.

Yep, I ran a marathon this Saturday just like everyone who ran Salt Lake.  I just didn't have to pay $75 and run on the roads. 

We started at 7am on one of the trailheads above the avenues, ran a loop thru City Creek and over to the west side of that canyon, back down City Creek, then back to the start.  That got the first 10 miles or so out of the way.  Then we went up the trail past a water tower, and along the BST, down Dry Creek Canyon and over to the aid station behind Huntsman Cancer Center.  then a loop thru the Red Butte area brought us back to the aid station, back up Dry Creek, continuing past where the trail switchbacks and up the actual creek bed, on up Black Mountain ridge, then along the ridgeline back to the start.  We finished in Dan's driveway.  I've been told that there's over 6000' of vertical on this course and I believe it.  We had at least two 1000'+ climbs (very steep as well).

This is the fourth year I've run this race and with the exception of two years ago, I always have a good time.  I felt really good and tried to push the running a little.  I started out a little slow, just chatting with everyone I know (which is most of the 95 runers there), then I picked it up some after about 5 miles.  During the next 20+ miles, I managed to catch around 20-25 people while only a couple people passed me.  Even the climbs weren't too bad and I'm not a climber at all.  I managed to run up most of Dry Creek canyon and that's after 21 miles.  I think the speed work is helping with that.

Weather conditions were ok.  The wind was terrible all day long.  The temperature finally warmed up to the 70's but along some of the upper ridges that wind had to be blowing at over 40 mph.  Some of the smaller women were really getting tossed around.  You know it's bad when it takes effort to run downhill.

Very little snow on the course this year, maybe 200 yards total, and the trails were dry.  Great running conditions.

Anyway, a good time was had by all, expecially after we were done.  I'm surprised at how sore my legs are today. 

Ran into work this morning.  Kind of slow (1:30).  I'm still sore from the BST marathon on Saturday.  This is the sorest I've been from a race in a long time.

The run home in the afternoon went better.  Still a little slow, but at least it was a sub 1:30 (1:25).

Ran around the block at lunch.  Still a little sore, but pushed it some.  Had to yell at one driver who claims he didn't see me.  hopefully he'll look a little more before turning into a crosswalk.

Ran at lunch.  Haven't had much chance to run this week due to moving to a new house.  Hopefully things will settle down a little bit now that we're moved.