Everything Counts

LONG RUN

I met with Jason, Bret, Bryant, and Dave for a very early morning long run before I fly out to Ohio this morning. The weather is supposed to be 25 below zero with windchill out there this week, plus I will be working 7am to 10pm, so I may not get much running in. So, I figured I'd get a lot in this morning.

4.25 more easy miles on hotel treadmill before fitness center closed for the night.

12.25 miles easy on the hotel treadmill. The first run in Eastern time zone always feels terrible, but I'm happy to have gotten it in.

3.25 more miles easy on hotel treadmill after a long day of work. My legs feel very heavy; I think it's a combo of the long run yesterday and the lack of sleep the last two days. I had a workout scheduled tomorrow, but I may push it to Thursday unless I wake up feeling very good.

8.25 miles on the treadmill again this morning. I tried one mile at 5:20 pace to see if the legs were ready for the scheduled workout, but decided my body was too tired still. I will give it a go tomorrow instead.

Looks like SLC Marathon changed the courses substantially from previous years:

http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/1077229/d8cfad9b61/521259849/5b711c7219/

AEROBIC BUILDER

I had planned on doing a 4-3-2-1 but it just didn't happen. I woke up and it was super cold out (10 degrees feels like 0 with windchill), but I couldn't stomach another treadmill run. So I headed out with the intent to do the workout. But then it was so cold running into the wind and I had a hard time moving my legs in the first warmup mile that I decided to bag it and just go easy. But, then I warmed up a little and decided to do it again.

Anyway after all the back and forth, I ended up starting the workout. I had mapped out a loop (2-miles long) yesterday that looked low traffic and safe. It was very hilly and had ice patches in a few places, but mostly it was good. I did four miles there at 5:21 avg and then three miles at 5:19 avg. At that point I realized I was out of time and had to get back. So I didn't get around to the 2-1 portion.

I didn't feel great and the paces felt hard, but I'm hoping that was the cold, wind, and hills.

7.15 miles easy before my flight home. Long travel day ahead, boo!

AM: I met Bryant, Bret, Jason, and Jon at the Dee Events Center parking lot, where Ben was just finishing his Strider's WRC 5k. We picked him up and headed out on a run. Bryant, Bret, and I were planning some mile reps. But as soon as we started running the snow started falling. After a four mile warm up Ben, Jason, and Jon headed out to finish an easy run and Bryant, Bret, and I started some mile reps.

Those two wanted faster reps with more rest, while my plan was high quantity on reps with very little rest. So we only ran the first one together. I was planning on 10 by one-mile at 5:10 with 1:00 rest. So I started on that quest. The first one wasn't too slick and I ran a 5:08. The second one got more slippery and I still managed a 5:11. But the third one got dangerously slippery and I decided it wasn't worth the risk of taking a bad fall to get this workout in. Plus it was extremely difficult to see with the snow blowing in my eyes. So after a 5:15 third one I called it off. Not finishing one workout is not going to kill my plans, while one bad fall could kill my plans.

It's frustrating because I feel like this week has been a waste. I wanted higher miles and I wanted better workouts. But, the week just felt blah and the workouts just didn't go according to plan. I feel like it was an important week in terms of PHX marathon prep and I just didn't really get the job done. I tried, but the travel, the lack of sleep, and the weather just didn't cooperate. I hope to get back on track next week as I feel I haven't had a good workout in like three weeks.

PM: MILE REPEATS

I couldn't help myself. I wanted to finish the workout I had to abandon this morning. So, I headed to the base gym and ran seven by one mile with 1:00 rest on the treadmill at a 1.5% incline (which according to this website is the incline most comparable to outdoor running: http://www.hillrunner.com/training/tmillchart.php) 

I ran progressive splits. I started at 5:10 and figured I would ramp it up a couple seconds each rep until I got to seven reps or couldn't handle the pace anymore off the short rest. It went very well: 5:10 5:07 5:05 5:02 5:00 4:57 4:51

I'm glad I went back out again and got in a good workout. I feel much better now!