Everything Counts

I did a workout on the Arc Trainer, simulating mile reps. I did 6 by 5-minutes hard with 2:30 easy in between. I hate cross training. Based on the pool of sweat under me, I must've lost 5-6 pounds.

I warmed up 22:30 on the Arc Trainer. Then I tried running on the treadmill to test the knee. I knew it would feel better uphill rather than flat or downhill. So I two miles at an avg pace of 7 mph and avg incline of 13%. According to Daniel's formula that's a 4:42 effort for flat road. Not sure how accurate that is but I did get my heart rate up to a max of 177 during it, which is faster than threshold. Then I did another 20 minutes on the Arc Trainer to cool down.

Here's a video of last week's Ogden Superloop 31-mile trail run that Bret put together.

10 miles easy on the Riverdale Parkway with Denver, Matt, and Ben, avg pace 7:37/mile. My knee is feeling better, but it's not quite 100% healed. I'll continue to aggressively rehab it. 

9 miles on some trails near Snow Canyon, avg pace 7:16/mile. My knee started hurting a bit toward the end. I may take tomorrow off; give it another day off, we'll see.

12.55 miles easy on Monday Funday with Denver, Matt, Ben, and Ken, avg pace 7:25/mile. I did three sets of hill sprints toward the end.

My knee still bothers me a bit while running, though it's not painful. If I can't shake it soon, I may take a full week off and bag anymore races plans for the year.

11.25 miles on the muddy, snowy trails with Bret, Ken, Ben, Denver, and Matt, avg pace 8:13/mile. We hit some fog and then ran above the fog, which was cool.

2-3-2 AEROBIC SANDWICH

I haven't done a workout in a month, I have a cold, and I have some aches/pains (left knee & left calf/achilles), so I decided to do an "easier" version of an aerobic builder.

I met Denver, Matt, and Ben at Smith's. I warmed up three miles and then did the workout:

2 miles - 5:20, 5:15

2:30 jog

3 miles - 5:15, 5:06, 5:10

2:30 jog

2 miles - 5:04, 5:05

If I can't shake these aches/pains soon, I'm going to have to take some downtime (which likely means foregoing a final OTQ attempt). I'll give it another week as long as it doesn't get worse. But if it's still present in a week or so, I have to take the smart road...so fingers crossed.

7.05 miles easy with Denver in South Ogden, avg pace 7:51/mile. We've both been sick lately and yesterday my knee hurt quite a bit (hence me not running yesterday), so we took it very easy this morning. My knee felt quite a bit better today, so the day off helped.

USATF Cross Champs

I ran this race to move up in the circuit standings to secure 3rd place. If I didn't run I could've dropped out of the top five, depending on who showed up. This was only my 5th race and they score 7, so just showing up was going to gain a lot of ground for me since the others mostly have already scored 7 and can't score too many points today.

I really wasn't in the mood to drive down to Provo for a XC 5k, but it ended up being fun (and more competitive than I thought). I was in 3rd early behind a Provo HS kid and Jake. I took the lead after the first inner loop and thought I had a decent cushion. As such I fell asleep a bit on the 2nd mile and around 2.4 or so in Jake came up and passed me. This kind of surprised me as I thought I  had more of a cushion. So, this woke me up and I passed him back shortly after and pushed to the finish, winning in 16:15. I had 3.29 on my garmin, so I thought I was running faster, but I guess not.

Garmin Splits: 4:54 5:04 5:01 and 0.29 in 1:15 or 4:20/mile pace.

I cooled down with John Coyle after for a couple miles.

Not the best race, but it got the job done and it didn't aggravate my knee too much, which is a huge plus.

14.05 miles easy on Monroe Your Boat with Matt, Ben, and Jason, avg pace 7:19/mile. I did four sets of hill sprints at the end too. My knee felt reasonably good.

13 miles with Ben (Denver and Matt ran first two with us) in South Ogden, down into Uintah, up the toll road, Terrace and back, avg pace 7:12/mile.

LT REPS: 2-MILE REPEATS

I met Ben at the pond at 5:15. We warmed up three miles with a few strides and then got into 3x2 on the aerobic builder route. I wanted to average sub-10:00 on mine. After the first I took 3-min jog rest. After the 2nd set I took about twice that to use the secret bathroom.

Splits:

9:56 (4:58, 4:58)

9:58 (4:59, 4:59)

10:03 (4:58, 5:05)

Today showed me how far I have to go if I want to run a 1:04 half marathon. My fitness is nowhere near where it was two months ago. I've got work to do. But, so far my knee is cooperating and I'm almost over my cold (it's only been two weeks, sheesh). Ben did great! Maybe his best 2-mile reps ever.

AM: 7.55 miles early with some strides, avg pace 6:57/mile. Maybe more later today, maybe not...

PM: 5.05 miles easy after work out west in Syracuse on the paved trail, avg pace 6:52/mile.

10 miles easy in Central Ogden with Ben, Denver, and Matt, avg pace 7:47/mile.

LONG RUN: 60-MIN FARTLEK IN MIDDLE

I was going to meet Bryant and Ben in West Haven at the Country Park. But both of them had to cancel at the last minute due to sicknesses to them or their family. So, I was solo. I ran out into Roy and on the way back I hit the rail trail and started my fartlek. I did 5 sets of 3-2-1 minute pickups with equal 3-2-1 minute jogs for rest. I stopped briefly back at the car to get a drink and drop off my headlamp and then continued the run out west. After the last set of pickups I had my phlegm/mucous problem, which resulted in me throwing up again. This is frustrating. I thought maybe I'd found a solution for it, but I guess not. Next step in solving it I guess is carrying water with me on my runs (which really sucks). I have to figure out why this is happening. It's worthless to even attempt another marathon until I do, since I throw up everytime I put in a hard effort over 15 miles it seems.

Average pace for the 6.15 miles worth of pickups was 4:55/mile. Average pace for the total run was 6:23/mile.

14.35 miles easy with five sets of hill sprints at the end, avg pace 7:05/mile.

11.5 miles on a Tuesday Trailday with Ben, Bret, Ken, Jon, and Matt, avg pace 8:13/mile. One of these days we'll beat the 8-minute guy up on the trails.

AM: AEROBIC BUILDER: 2x4

I met Ben and Matt at the pond at 5:15. We warmed up three miles and then did our workouts. I paced Ben on the first four miles. Goal pace was 5:27. Quick pit stop after the first four and then set out on second set. I planned to go quite a bit faster, but just didn't have it. The extra weight I've put on is really slowing me down. I feel so out of shape since Chicago. Workouts that were relatively easy just a month ago and kicking my butt right now. It's kind of discouraging. Anyway, splits below:

Set One: 5:28, 5:27, 5:25 5:23

Set Two: 5:10, 5:22, 5:19, 5:17

PM: 4 miles easy in the first snow storm of the year, avg pace 7:08/mile.

10 miles up on the BST from Rainbow going North with Dave and Ken, avg pace 8:57/mile. We successful claimed first tracks in the new, fresh snow. The wind was howling with gusts up to 30-40 MPH and there were some barren spots and other spots with 3-foot snow drifts. Beautiful morning out there!

8.55 miles easy wandering around on the trails above Lindon and Pleasant Grove, avg pace 8:58/mile (1,800 feet climbing). I wandered up Battle Creek Canyon and found an awesome, half-frozen waterfall, maybe 40-50 feet high.

15 miles easy with Scott Keate and Brandon Dase from the Orem Soccer fields up Provo Canyon and an extension on the Murdock Trail, avg pace 7:08/mile. I was hoping to speed up a tad at the end of the run, but with the fresh snowfall I decided against it. It was great catching up with Scott and Brandon; great dudes.

13.5 miles easy with Ben, Ken, Matt, and Jon in Ogden, avg pace 7:37/mile on slick, slight snow-dusted roads.