I warmed up to Paul's house. Picked him up then ran to the start of the First Dam run course and began the fartlek workout. We went 8x's 3min on 1min off. Mostly. We got pretty distracted talking and ram some longer hard intervals and some longer rest intervals. It was sure nice to have company for a workout. It was also nice to be able to keep up with Paul. That has never happened before...in my short memory.
Pace for the hard 3mins (goal was 5:50-6:00 pace on flat terrain)
6:02 (slight uphill)
6:00 (slight uphill)
5:58 (same)
5:56 (big up then flat)
5:25 (flat than big down)
5:32 (slight down)
5:55 (opps too slow for slight down)
5:40 (flat, but some dogs wanted to race so I got carried away)
I dropped Paul off and then ran the Planet Walk to get to 12 miles.
Bethany and I are flying out to Mexico tomorrow morning = good
We are even leaving the kids with the grandparents = good
That means that I don't have time tomorrow for a long run = minor annoyance
I decided to do it today as I had time in the late afternoon/early evening while we are in SLC. I had my wife drop me off at the Jordan River Parkway at 700 N and Redwood. I then proceeded to run the trail all the way to my in-laws house near 6200 S and Redwood. It went pretty well other than taking a wrong turn and adding on a mile winding my way back to the trail. I was moving along ok for the first half, but by the second I was sure hungry and bonking. This was my longest run since SGM and I felt it. I am sure running a long run the day after a medium workout did the trick, I feel like I need lots more runs of 15+ miles or I will be in sorry shape for the marathon. I did my best to stay right at 7:00 pace for the run, but the last mile is all uphill and it killed me. I sure enjoyed exploring more of that trail system though. Pretty sweet. Although I was glad it was still daylight running through South Salt Lake area. Nice neighborhood.
I plan on getting out in the morning for a slow jaunt before my flight. We will see how that goes.
I went on vacation with my wife, my parents (to their time-share) and my sister and her husband. We enjoyed ourselves greatly and especially enjoyed the nice temps (70's and 80's). I will post some pictures when I finally make it home (I am writing this while at the in-laws in SLC). The were good enough to watch our kids for a week, but we were sure happy to see them again. As for training this week, I didn't do so hot. It was more important to be with family and have fun then run. Plus it made my family nervous to be out running for hours in a foreign country. I did what I could.
Today, I attempted to run on the beach where I was staying, but that lasted about 25 mins before my feet turned to mush. It was hard work. The flat part of the beach was deep soft sand and the hard sand near the water was too sloped to be able to run well. Plus, when the waves came, I was running in 6 inches of water and mud. Scratch that plan. 2.5 miles at an effort closer to 5.
I went swimming in the ocean later body surfing on Divorce beach. Fun stuff. I got beat up pretty good. I am counting as 5 miles of Cross Training.
Today instead of the beach, I hit the treadmill in the fitness center at the Hotel / Resort. It was busy, so they limited you to 30 mins on the treadmill. I made decent use of the time getting in 4.25 miles before I was kicked off. Rather than wait my turn again, I ran outside where it was cooler due to the breeze and finished off to get in 5. We managed to get in some more serious beach/pool time before renting some quads and hitting the trails around the baja. Fun stuff.
Today I got up at 5:30 to go deep sea fishing. Not a bad setup, we split a boat rental with 6 of us and headed out to the local fishing grounds with our captain and his mate in-charge. After close to 3 hours of 5-10 foot swells, I was not feeling to hot. I spent a large amount of time standing up with the waves crashing over me trying not to puke. Maybe next time, I will take some dramamine or something. I was the only one to lose my breakfast, but once that happened, I was good for the rest of the day. We ended up being very successful in our fishing adventures and had a blast. Our captain was very good at what he does and set up up to catch some real fish. We caught and released 4 marlin, but kept the 3 Dorado we caught (I brought in a medium sized Dorado). Pretty sweet experience, but extremely tiring trying to not get thrown overboard and ride the waves all day. We did enjoy our catch for dinner though.
Counting that ordeal as 10 cross training miles since I was more tired than after a 20 miler.
AM: 7 miles around Cabo exploring the roads and dodging cars. Tough on the feet as everything is shaped concrete. Very un-even and un-forgiving. I enjoyed it though.
I felt lousy this morning. Not a big surprise since I am back to real life again, but still annoying. I wanted to get in a decent medium workout but my body was rebelling. I did the best I could considering it was a "3 star" workout. The workout was the Providence - Millville Hills loop. 3 mile warmup, 6 miles hard (Tinman Tempo effort) then 3 miles cooldown. The faster miles were: 7:54 (big hill), 6:29, 6:13, 6:10, 6:20, 6:13.
T-1:21:40 (6:48) 161
PM: 4 slow miles with the kids in the Stroller....yep it was stroller weather.
I was tired of running in traffic and didn't feel like 1.5 hours of running on city roads so I drove up to Blacksmith Fork Canyon (mile 14 of TOU) and headed up the canyon. For the first time EVER, there was no wind up or down. Weird. I was able to hit a pretty fast warmup going up the canyon staying under 7 min pace. I did 5 warmup then did 10 x 3 min hard, 1 min easy. Goal pace was half marathon pace (5:50) to get a better feel of it. I forgot how much it hurts to run fast (my memory is lacking). Other than some stomach issues again today, the run went pretty well. I was working pretty hard though and doubt that I can hold the goal pace for the whole half marathon distance. Bring on race day magic!
Pace for the hard intervals
5:55 (up hill)
6:03 (slightly steeper uphill)
5:45 (now the rest are down the canyon)
5:48
5:45
5:46
5:45
5:54
5:44
5:38
Finished with 1.5 mile cool-down to the car
T-1:25:20 (6:33) (164 ave) (low 170's for the intervals)
Long run with Jon and Paul. Paul took us on a tour of the famous Hyde Park Hill. Nasty. My legs are pretty tired after jumping from the mid 50's to 75 miles this week, plus this long run is 4 more than I have done this year to date. I survived it, but it wasn't anything special. No heroric effort or anything. It was good to run with the guys though. I was feeling a bit of tendonitis in my previous injury spot yesterday during the day, but it felt fine today. I will have to watch it close this next week to make sure it is ok. In all, it was a good week of training. I feel like I can put together a good half marathon at this point, but not a full. But I still have time for that...a bit.
T- 2:27:24 (7:22) 151
The best part of today though is that it is BETHANY and LILY's (my daughter) birthday!
I did the run on the Jordan River Parkway. Why? you ask? Last night I got called on a last minute business trip to Tulsa OK. I am on my way to the airport now to repair a LED Display that is malfunctioning out there. Fun. We came down (to SLC) last night and stayed with family over night. I am crossing my fingers that I can get the issue resolved and get home. Not excited about taking up residence in Oklahoma.
8 Easy miles around Tulsa. I found a large group of soccer fields with a dirt trail around it. .8 miles long. Perfect for running. I did a bunch of laps.
Things are going well here. I am on schedule to make my flight tomorrow at mid-day. Knock on wood, but the problem is solved.
AM: Easy 8 in Tulsa - Didn't have time for more. Turns out I did, but it would've had to be around the airport as I was stuck there most of the day. Weather in Denver cancelled my flight and the next, and anything else remotely close to being an airplane to get me home. So, it looks like I will be here again tomorrow as I couldn't get a flight until 5pm on Friday.
We waited until it was sunny and nice to go for a run and it was great. I ran over to his place and then we ran up the TOU course until near the end of hollow road and back. All of the miles were pretty brisk and I was pretty worn out by the end. I dropped Paul off when he hit 15 miles and I added on to get 20. I have never been so tired and hungry and thirsty at the same time. Major fuel depletion. We hit a few sub 6:30 miles and my last mile was 6:35.
PM: I was planning on joining Paul and Jon for a workout but forgot about previously made dinner plans. The run got put off until 8:50. It was lightly raining, but not too bad so I figured I would be ok. I was wrong. I froze my butt off when the rain turned to big fat flakes of snow and the wind started to howl. It was like the St. George marathon all over again. Only much shorter. I warmed up 2.5 miles to the First dam run 10k course start/finish line and tried to do a 6 mile tempo. The first mile was uphill but with the wind. Most of the second was the same, but I decided to turn around at mile 1.75 and cut out almost 2 miles because I couldn't see anymore due to the snow and I was killing myself trying to hold a tempo pace in this weather. Turned around and did better the further away from the canyon I got. I still had a nasty headwind though. The six mile tempo turned into a 4.4 mile tempo. I then decided that I had better hustle home or I was going to lose all feeling in my body. I ended up hitting some good splits due to self preservation. Good motivation tool.
Tempo splits:
6:05
6:17
6:15
6:06
5:56 pace for .4
Cool down home:
6:38
6:36
6:30 pace for .7
Now to recover and rest for the big race Saturday (striders 1/2)
