Everything Counts

12.2 miles easy with Dave, Ken, Jon, and Bret in Ogden. The roads were treacherous with black ice everywhere. Somehow we got through the run with no one falling, despite several close calls. It's so nice to be back home and able to run with the guys. 12 miles goes by soooo much faster with good company than it does running solo.

6.1 more miles in the afternoon with Jace and Dave in East Layton, down in the gully.

THRESHOLD REPS 2-2-1

I met up with Jason, Dave, and Albert at Smith's on Harrison and we warmed up on Glassman Way over to the South Ogden tempo loop. The plan was 3x2-mile. But, we found out very early on that it was going to be tough to hit times with the wind. There was an 18 mph wind from the north. So, the first mile of the reps was fast with tailwind and then the second mile was a death march into the wind to finish.

First rep I ran 4:50/5:03 for a 9:54. The wind seemed to get worse in the second rep as the gap from the first mile to second got even larger 4:48/5:06 for another 9:54. I didn't have the fortitude today to do another rep into that nasty wind plus Jason was on a time crunch. So, we decided to cut the third rep to a mile. It was wind-aided and I ran a 4:35.

I'm pretty happy with this workout. I feel like I'm slowly gaining fitness.

12.1 easy miles at 4:45 am with the UCC (Utah County Crew). Matt, Mike, and Zak were kind enough to let me join them on their run. Nice run, cold temps, great conversation, and a shooting star sighting (or was that Santa's sleigh)?

AEROBIC BUILDER

I met up with the UCC again: Mike, Matt, and Zak. We warmed up three miles with strides on Murdock in Orem and heading north from there. Then we all did different lengths of quality. I did 8 miles at a 5:13 avg. It was nice to have people to meet in the morning again as it makes it a lot easier to get out the door. Thanks to those guys for letting me crash their run for the second straight day.

12.05 miles easy in the late morning. It was deceptively cold out. I noticed on the run today that I acknowledge the presence of others on the road differently based on age. Old folks out walking get a full-hand wave and a verbal "good morning". People my parents age get a full-hand wave and a verbal "hi". People in the ballpark of my age get a very lazy two-finger wave. Teenagers get a head nod. And little kids get the open and close wave with my kids voice "hi".

LONG RUN: STEP PROGRESSION

We had a great group this morning early at 6:00 am for a long run: Ken, Steve, Jason, Albert and me. The plan was to run 3 warm up 5 at 6:00 avg 5 at 5:40 avg and 5 progressing from 5:40 down to whatever you can hold.

We hit the first step at 5:54 avg for 5 miles

Then Steve and I hit the second step a bit quick at 5:33 avg for 5 miles

Then Steve ran one more mile with me over the last step. He had a great run! I struggled a bit on this last section and think it was some leftover fatigue from Thursday's AB. Splits were 5:30, 5:25, 5:23, 5:25 and then I just called off the last mile. My legs were done. I waited for Steve to finish (only 45 seconds back!) and then we jogged the last 3.5 miles back to the cars.

Overall a great run. I did this workout in October and ran a bit better, especially the last five miles. But, I have not done many long runs lately, my weight is up almost five pounds, and I had some fatigue from Thursday, so this is still very adequate overall. I was very impressed with Steve though, watch out for that guy this next year!