Everything You Didn't Want to Know About My Runs

Eight miles on the treadmill.  

I hate the clock on the treadmill.  After an hour the display goes from mm:ss to hh:mm.  In the rare cases when I last longer than an hour on the machine I can keep track of the hours in my head.   I just want it to show mm:ss at all times.  Maybe there is a user setting.  Somehow I doubt it.  Maybe I just need to run faster.

Watched the Jazz game while running on the treadmill.

Felt a little winded during 10mm warm-up.  Might be that I ate way too much yesterday and did not get enough sleep over the weekend.  Maybe it was the 8 miles I ran Saturday.

Easy 4 mile run with a quarter-mile walk at the end.  Just ran at a 10mm pace--which is starting to feel more like a fallback pace than almost as fast as I can run.  I'd like to get where 9mm is a comfortable pace.

Ran outside for the first time in a while.  I didn't get home in time to enjoy the warm temperature today, though.  I got out at about 6pm and it was dark by the time I finished.  I ran my tough but fun 6 miler including running up Eastdell hill and then down 98th South.   I ran well up the hill and went anaerobic after I got to the top.  I then was able to open up going down hill.  I love running down that hill.  Steep enough to get a good full stride yet not so steep that I come down too hard.

 I'm quite a bit stronger than the last time I ran outside which must have been about a month ago.

Tough run after yesterday.  My quads were sore.  But the weather was perfect--nice and sunny with a cool breeze.  I wanted to run something more flat after the hard run on hills yesterday, but my plans didn't work out.  I had a busy day and had to work in just under two hours of running where and when I could.  I had planned to go hit the south end of the JRP after dropping my daughter off at tumbling, but I wasn't able to get ready in time.  I had to go home and that meant running locally with hills.

 I combined two 5 mile courses into a sort of figure 8.  I ran the downhill loop to Falcon Park and then did the buffalo loop.  Hard stuff with sore legs.  I kept it slow because I needed to and couldn't go much faster if I wanted to.  I got home just in time to help drive some girl's to the ice rink for Sydney's birthday party.

I think this was my longest run since the marathon.   

Treadmill.  Was a little winded at first and still a bit sore from my big weekend (16 miles Friday and Saturday.)  After about three miles I started feeling pretty good.  

 Watched the Jazz beat Detroit as I ran.  They hit quite a few 3's late in the shot clock. 

Tempo run on the treadmill.  Warmed up for 20 minutes at 6 mph.  Then gradually increased up to 7.5 mph for 75 seconds then gradually down to 6.5 mph until I got to 6 miles.  Then a quarter mile walk.

 I'm no longer warming up at < 10mm pace.  My quads aren't sore any more, but my hips are getting tight.  I need to start stretching again.

I also need to work my aerobic fitness.  Maybe a slow eight mile run tomorrow and then another on Saturday?

It was nice to get outside for six miles.

Busy day.  Tried to go mountain biking before the storm hit, but wasn't able to get out until it was just starting to rain in corner canyon.  I decided to just go ride on the JRP.  There is some new stuff there around 114th south so I explored on my bike.  I ended up doing 12 miles.  Six with a strong tail wind and six with a strong head wind.

 It turned out to be a good thing to ride around on some flat pavement because my legs were burning right off the bat.  It is probably good to let my biking muscles ease into it. 

Got some new shoes.  I found some Ghost 3's on a sale rack for a little over half price, so I picked them up Saturday and decided to try them out today.  I didn't really notice much difference from my other shoes.  But then again, I don't really notice much difference between my Glyceryns and my Launches, so why would I expect the Ghosts to be any different?

More treadmill games.  Today I tried mile repeats at just under 9mm.  I did four of them.  It was hard, but I feel like I am starting to get somewhere.

Nice to run outside as the sun rose.  8 miles at an avg. pace of 9:33.  Not bad for the hills, including my old friend, Eastdell.  

Details

 11.25 mile bike ride up to Little Cottonwood and back.  Legs were by far the limiting factor.  My breathing didn't ever seem very heavy.  Legs were a little sore and heavy from yesterday's run, but a lot of it is just dormant biking muscles.  They started loosening up after a while and felt pretty good.

I got all the way up to the first bridge on the Little Cottonwood trail and that's when I got to the snow, so I turned around.  It was nice to get out, but I need to adjust my derailers and brakes. 

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Slow run.  My legs were pretty beat after running 8 miles on Thursday and the biking yesterday.  I was planning to do 12, but I didn't get out soon enough because I was tired and took a little afternoon nap.  It is always so hard to get started. 

Details

Nice 8 mile run with the sunrise.  It was cold, though.  I went out without a hat and gloves.  I did a mile loop and then went inside and got gloves and a hat.  They made a big difference.  I seem to be just running 8 miles all the time now so I am getting more creative in my routes.  I did something a little different on Saturday.  I did something totally different today.

Basically, I did my 5-mile buffalo with a mile tacked on the the beginning and two at the end.  (In C, we would call this ++buffalo + 2)  I altered the way home from the buffalo to go up a little higher and then come home through Falcon Park.  I got to Falcon just past 7 miles so I decided to see if I could do a lap around Falcon (just about 1 km) in under 5 minutes.  I did it in 4:49.

When I started running again a few years ago, I was training for the Wasatch Back relay.  I didn't know much, so I was following their suggested beginner training schedule, which is based on time.  I was also using an iPod with Nike+ because it was interesting to run with music and it was helpful to have it tell me milestones as I ran.  Some of my early routes involved running to a park and then doing a few laps and coming home.  Naturally, since a Falcon lap was 1K and I had my iPod set to tell me distance in kilometers and since I was seeing how far I could go in a given amount of time, and the time intervals on the iPod were 5 minutes, I was always trying to make a lap in 5 minutes, but never could.

It was nice to not only make it in 5 minutes, but to beat it after running 7 miles with a lot of sustained up-hill. 

Details 

Did 6 x 1 mile repeats this morning.  I was kind of sick of running hills and wanted to see what I could do off the treadmill.  It was pretty cool this morning--frost on the ground and I could see my breath up until I was done.  I haven't looked at the GPS data yet, but I will update this when I do.  I do know I was trying to beat 9 minutes for each split and I did.

I warmed up for a little over ten minutes first.  Then I just kept running around the mile block in my neighborhood.  I think I was around 8:30 for the first two and then 8:45 for the third.  I drank too much water in the break for this one and I could feel it slow me down.  My legs felt like rubber for the fourth.  I can't remember the time, but it was still under 9.  I decided to try for 8 on the fifth.  I was expecting it to be more difficult and I could really slow down if I didn't push it.  It went well and I ended up somewhere around 8:10.  I thought the last one would be super hard and I relaxed a bit but still came in under 9 and it wasn't as hard as I was expecting.  It was like my body was just saying, "OK, this is how fast we run now."

It is hard to focus for 1 mile.  It is just long enough for my mind to start to wander half way through, but it was good exercise.

I finished with a 1 mile easy jog.