In search of old age PRs

I've been slack about posting this season, but with the TOU 1/2 and the full coming up I hope the blog gives me a renewed running sense. 

I ran up to the Avenues and over to Memory Grove before heading back home early this morning.  I had a intense downhill run on Saturday out on Big Cottonwood with a few intervals at altitude around Brighton, so it was nice to shake the legs out today.

Nice cool morning run with low humidity.

Met the group at Highland HS for some 1 mile repeats in Sugar House park.  We did a couple of miles of warm up then 6 x 1 mile with 2 minute jog in between.  We ran a 5:50 average pace for the intervals.. Afterwards, a 2 mile cool down.   This is a good middle of the week workout.  We have a schedule Lloyd Hansen put together for us of weekly 800's, 1 mile and 2 mile repeats with little recovery in an attempt to improve lactic acid threshold.  I think it is a schedule from Jack Daniels.

Morning run from my home in Sugar House up to Avenues and Memory Grove park before heading home.  South Temple is a very nice street to run on if you are OK with concrete sidewalks.

Early morning run up City Creek with few people from the running group.  A lot of bikes going up as I was coming down.  I like this course because you can easily run your marathon or half marathon pace coming down while getting the quad work-out that you need for TOU or St. George.

Another early 5:30 AM morning run with Lloyd and some of the group.  We met at Dan's on Wasatch and ran south to a park at the intersection of Wasatch and 6200 South.  Lloyd always stashes hydration there.  20-miler planned tomorrow up and down Emigration with the group.  It should be fun.

Good group turn out today for a run up Emigration canyon.  A few of our Ultra people showed up for some tapering.  A little windy up the canyon, but the temperature was perfect.  We started from the zoo and ran up to the Little Dell lake.  It was a good climb, but the fun part is coming back down.  We average a decent pace of 7:20 for the 20 miles.

Early morning run in the Avenues before heading to Pocatello for work.  After I finish work, the plan is to take the family to Driggs for some vacation.  There should be plenty of nice places to run up there.

8 x 800 intervals at Teton High School in Driggs.  It was 40 degrees this morning!  It took awhile to get warmed up.  It was pretty cool watching the sun come up over the Tetons.  Also, a hot air balloon was filled up and took off from the football field.  That was neat to watch at 6 AM.

Early morning dirt road running in Driggs, Idaho.  Nice, cold morning again!

Run from Driggs up toward Grand Targee ski resort.  The view underneath the Tetons was really nice this morning.  Also, not as cold this morning for some reason. 

I had a friend offer me an official entry into St. George.  My training has been geared toward Top of Utah.  I have another friend that would love to have it, but I would like to run it just not competitively after just a 2 week recovery.

6 x 200 with warm up and cool down at Teton HS in Driggs. 

Early morning run from Driggs to Victor, Idaho.  Most of the run was on a bike trail running parallel to Idaho-33.  On the way back toward the ski resort I ran into the the Grand Teton Relay.  I saw several of the leaders.  It looks much smaller than Wasatch.  It finishes on the other side of the Tetons in Teton Village.  Has anyone run this?  I think it would be fun.

Morning run to Sugar House park and back.  Much warmer in Salt Lake at 5:45 AM than Driggs!  I noticed they re-surfaced 1500 East and took away the street parking on the west side to expand the bike lanes.  Good for running, but horrible for the residents. 

Interval work out with group in Sugar House park early this morning. 

Three mile warm up followed by 3 x 2 mile repeats with 800 meter recovery jog then cool down.  The work-out called for marathon pace since many people in the group ran Park City or Hobble Creek on Saturday; but I was actually somewhere between 1/2 marathon and full marathon pace at about 6:15/mile.  This work out is usually done at lactate threshold pace which is about 1/2 marathon pace as calculated by Mr. Jack Daniels. 

The toughest thing about this workout is meeting the group at 5 AM!

Today's run brought to you by Wal-Mart.  Day trip to LA turned into an overnight trip.  Unfortunately, I had no clothes.  Quick trip to Wal-Mart where I picked up....wait for it...Dr. Scholl's Relay athletic shoes for $5 (normally $28)!  They suck and are one size too big, but they are better than my business shoes.  I have several pairs of real running shoes at home.  5 miles on an equally sucky treadmill.  

Here is a review someone posted on how the shoes perform when walking your dog, which is of course, just like running:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5670090/cheap_shoe_review_dr_scholls_relay.html?cat=46

Late night run around Liberty Park.  I'm not sure why the lights are not on around the trail.  Maybe its budget cuts?

Quick stretch of the legs this morning at East High.  5 x 200 with warm up and cool down.  Top of Utah Half tomorrow.

Nice, warm race today.  It was fun talking with the other blog people. 

The buses were late for the hotel pick.  They were scheduled 4:45 to 5:00.  At 5:30, I caught a ride with a running couple going up for the race (Elizabeth and the boys were asleep in the hotel and they needed the car to get to the finish line).  At the park, the race director told me the buses were about 40 minute late, but I'm still glad I caught the ride.  Thank you mystery running couple! 

At the start it was a little warm and I got a quick 2 mile warm-up in.  No time for strides.  Kudos to the race director for still getting the race started at 7:00.  My goal today was sub 1:20 and to keep Andrea in site.  For the first 5 miles I ran with Jason Blackham.  We had the same sub 1:20 goal and he was in my age group (35-39).  He keep a good pace.  Coming out of the canyon we were able to get in some 5:45 miles and we were able to catch a small group of runners.  I keep this pace up for Hollow road and left our small running group.  The 11-12 mile hill was a little difficult.  I slowed to a  6:24 pace, but I could see Andrea up front.  I tried to make up some ground the last mile, but could only get a 5:59 mile in.  The last 0.10 I ran with Lucas, my 4 year old.  There was really no one else around. 

I felt great after this run.  I believe I could have left a little more on the course and dropped my time by another 0:45 seconds.  It was a mistake to not start with the lead woman, but I am happy with the time given the effort.  I'm looking forward to TOU and St. George marathons.

Splits:

Mile 1: 6:01 nice easy start and right on pace

Mile 2: 6:07 a little slow, but the elevation goes up and down at the start

Mile 3: 5:56

Mile 4: 6:01 back on pace

Mile 5: 5:45 good downhill

Mile 6: 5:48 tail wind and downhill

Mile 7: 5:48 begin to separate from the pack

Mile 8:5:52 feeling and breathing fine

Mile 9: 6:00 long stretch down Hollow road

Mile 10: 6:03 I start thinking about the hill.  There is no one in site behind, but I begin to see the lead woman (Andrea)

Mile 11: 6:06 trying to conserve a little energy yet still pull in the lead woman

Mile 12: 6:24 Nice hill, but feel good at the top.  Some jogger coming the other way tells me to not let a woman beat me.  I'm like...dude, she's quarter mile in front of me and is faster!

Mile 13:5:59 tried to push hard yet still feeling good

Mile 0.14?: 0:50 ran in with Lucas!

Easy morning shake-out run from the TOU 1/2 marathon race.  Comfortable (read slow) pace through the Avenues.  The uphill felt good, but the downhill hurt.  I should be good for interval work early in the morning.

My legs were still to fatigued from the 1/2 marathon for interval work today, so ran around Sugar House park instead.  I'll try to get the 2 mile repeats in Wednesday or Thursday while in Asheville, NC this week.  Time to train in high humidity!

Three 2.0 mile repeats on the track in Bryson City, NC.  I saw one person early in the morning walking the track, but he was not very social.  It was a good workout considering the travel the day before.  I averaged about 5:59 pace.