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.

Another run on the track.  It is very dark in the morning and I need to find some other well lit areas.

One more early morning run on the track in Bryson City, North Carolina.  

Warm up and cool down with 5 x 200. Uneventful, except for the poor lady I scared to death when I walked out on to the track at 5:30 AM.  She was walking and singing a the top of her lungs.  I thought it was cool, but she was embarrassed and left after my first mile..stinks, would have been nice to have some music to run my 200's to!

This run was supposed to be on Sunday, but a flight delay in Chicago got me home super late.

Early morning run up Emigration.  Not many runners, but tons of cyclists.  Most have courtesy, but some do not (they actually believe the shoulder/bike lane is there lane entirely...idiots)!

I ran up somewhat easy, then ran marathon pace on the 11 mile return (6:20-6:40)Run was easy until the last two mile.  I can only hope TOU is easy until the last two miles!

Sore miles to Sugar House park.  I hope I can run some intervals tomorrow morning.

Morning interval work-out at Highland HS.  I ran to the track from my house and was still feeling Monday's long run in my legs; however, since I was awake I thought I should go ahead and try the intervals.

Warm up and cool down with 8 x 800 with a 400 meter recovery jog between each 800.  I wanted to hit 2:55 or lower, but averaged a surprising 2:47.  This is a good sign for a 2:50 to 3:00 marathon at TOU next Saturday.

A little windy this morning.  I had to wear gloves.  It is about to my favorite season!

Sluggish run this morning up through the Avenues.  Due to fatigue, I'll probably just do a short run around Liberty park Friday morning then run the Alta Peruvian Lodge race on Saturday (5 miles) then run the 5 miles back up to the lodge. 

I am running the TOU marathon next Saturday, but I'm thinking about running 5 x 2 mile interval work-out during the week.  I would keep it at marathon pace, but that would be a high mileage workout (15-16 miles).  I'm planning on running St. George on October 1 too.  Any thoughts on doing this?

Evening run after dinner around Liberty Park.  I need to get my butt out of be in the mornings!

Super cool race this afternoon.  This race should be packed with people.  For $30 you get a t-shirt, BBQ, live music and BEER!  In addition, I talked with several Fast Running blog people and met the St. George marathon record holders (Devra out-kicked me the last mile)and John Cahill (MC the event).

My plan was to use this race as speed work before the Top of Utah marathon next week.  At the start, several runners told me it was a bad idea, so I was going to go a little easy; however, you get sucked up into the downhill speed and well....I ended up racing it.

Mile 1: 5:03.  200+ feet of drop.  This is crazy fast...and I'm going to run 4 more of these?

Mile 2: 4:55.  400+ feet of drop.  Even faster, but start to get into a rhythm.  There is no way I could run this time for just 2 miles on a flat track.

Mile 3: 5:04.  300+ feet of drop.  I begin to hear expected foot step behind me.  I just ran a 15:38 5K.  I remember thinking, this is Paul's marathon pace?

Mile 4: 5:04  400+ feet of drop.  Rob and Devra are right behind me ready to pass.

Mile 5: 4:53 450+ feet of drop.  I tried to keep contact with Rob and Devra.  They pulled me in to the finish.

Crazy PRs all around.  I had a quick water/recovery and decided to run back up the canyon.  This was a bad idea.  After 1 mile up, I was done.  Luckily, Stephanie Talley's husband picked me up.  My legs didn't feel too bad, so I should be able to run fine on Monday (I hope so).

Shake out run to Sugar House park this morning.  My body is sore from the flu shot on Sunday and the Alta 5 mile race on Saturday.  I felt good at the end of the run, so hopefully I'm on the road to a quick recovery before the TOU marathon on Saturday. 

I  have to work in St George this week so I plan to run some of the marathon route in prep for the race in a few weeks.  The times I have run the race, I never can seem to remember the last few miles, so this week should be informative. 

One more weird thing, I really only talk to Sasha at races, but I had a dream last night that he came over to my house with his family...maybe this is a good omen? :)

Working in St. George, so did a 2.5 mile run out from the finish line of the St. George Marathon and up Diagonal Street then turned around and ran back to the marathon finish line.  I did this run to verify that St. George is indeed all downhill to the finish, because it has never felt that way during a race.  It does in fact drop over 100 feet these last miles.

My legs still feel slightly sore from the race on Saturday, but I hope to be 100% tomorrow.

Also, I found out that the hotel I am staying at this week, Hilton Garden Inn, still has vacancies for marathon weekend!  I was planning on sleeping in my van (yes-down by the river), but opted for the hotel.

Drove back from St. George to Salt Lake.  Did a short night run around liberty.  Legs feel almost 100%.

A fun race in wet conditions today.  I started off wanting to race it, but after the heavy rain early in the race and a few porta potty stops it became a seriously hard training run.

The highlight of the race was running with Joe Wilson the first few miles.  It was also cool running with the top three woman finishers.  I would catch a different one after each porta-potty!  

I still managed 4th in my age division.  The results say 5th, but there is an obvious error that the race officials should correct.  There is a guy that ran a 1:48 half then a 1:10 2nd half...really?  I think this guy made the beeline for the finish and skipped the turns.

It was great talking with all the bloggers and I'm looking forward to St. George in 2 weeks!

One more thing...I suck on the tangents for this course...my race mileage was 26.5.  Anyone else?

Lactic acid shake out run from TOU marathon on Saturday.  Felt pretty good running around Liberty Park.  I hope I didn't push it to hard at TOU and ruin my chances at St. George!

Upped the mileage this morning!  It felt like I ran 20 miles.  It is going to take a few days to recover from the TOU marathon.  

Early morning run around Sugar House park.  I had to wear the gloves this morning!

Morning run, with the gloves (again), up to the Avenues then back home.  I now try to avoid the sprinklers due to the colder temps!

Faster paced run today around Sugar House park then back to the house.  I started the run with a refreshing shower within the first 1/4 mile!  It was dark and I was messing with my MP3 player then--splosh.  It took 3 miles to warm up a little.

After the run my achilles tendon was inflamed.  I'll take tomorrow off before attempting a short run on Saturday.

Nice group run this morning from the Capital to Emigration canyon above the zoo.  The distance was a bit far and the pace too, but felt good during the run.  Taper week!

Easy morning run around Liberty Park.  I hope its not a hot day at St. George this year!

Short speed work session at East High this morning.  5 x 200 with warm up and cool down.  Still feel a little muscle fatigue from the last long run, but it should be gone by Saturday morning.

Another hot St. George!  Someday, I will run in this "perfect race conditions" St George is known for. 

At the starting line the announcer told us it was 60 degrees...a new record high for the start...great.  I was wanting a sub 2:50 today, but with the conditions I knew 2:55 would be work .  Luckily, before leaving my house in Salt Lake I grabbed a two year old packet of salt tablets.  I know the rule of never trying anything new at a marathon, but I made an exception for this one.

Started of with a buddy and a few of his friends.  We started a little slow, but I  had warmed up and they had not.

Mile 1: 6:54.

Mile 2: 6:39. The group warms up a little and we begin to run faster.

Mile 3: 6:22. Final out of the crowd in a good pace.  Still nice and dark.

Mile 4: 6:14. The pack we had was pretty social.  There was a lot of talking during the first 10 miles or so.

Mile 5: 6:28.

Mile 6: 6:07.

Mile 7: 6:11. We can see Veyo and begin preparing our strategy to take it easy.  The plan was to run conservative until mile 14 or 15 then really push it.  I take my first salt cap.

Mile 8: 7:02. Veyo.  It was a good pace up the hill and we all high-fived  at the top.  I knew the course was tough the next 5 or 6 miles and the sun began to come out...worst, there was a head wind.

Mile 9: 6:59.  Rolling uphill with wind.

Mile 10: 6:40.

Mile 11: 6:58.

Mile 12: 6:36.  Glad that was over.  Some nice level and downhill work ahead.  2nd salt cap.

Mile 13: 6:21.  Our group begins to split.  I'm able to latch on to the 4th-6th girls, including Julie (won it last year).  This helped a lot with the wind.  We came through the half about 1:26:30.  I was aiming for closer to 1:25, but the course turns a little easier now.  I took my only gel at this point.  It took me forever to swallow it!

Mile 14: 6:28  I lose my running buddy.

Mile 15: 6:08 The girls picked up the pace because they could spot the 3rd place girl.  I just went with them.

Mile 16: 6:00

Mile 17: 6:13 We catch the 3rd place girl.

Mile 18: 6:22

Mile 19: 7:03 This is a horrible stretch that goes under an overpass.  It is uphill and very draining.

Mile 20: 6:25 Downhill again.  I take my last salt cap.

Mile 21: 6:18.  This is where the heat finally hit me.  My head felt like it was on fire.  I knew it was going to be work to the finish.

Mile 22: 6:47.  The 3rd-5th girls have kept the pace and left me in the dust.

Mile 23: 6:57.  Doing the math just to make sure I could still break 2:55.

Mile 24: 6:49.  Nice crowd support, so tried to run a little harder.

Mile 25: 7:30.  Toast.  I'll make it to finish but it will not be pretty.

Mile 26: 7:33 +1:49 to finish.  I can see a guy 100 yards behind me kicking hard, but my poor attempt at a sprint is ugly.  He easily passes me.  2nd half 1:27:36.  No negative split, but glad to be done (last 5K ruined it)!

All and all, it was a fair time.  In tough conditions, you really have to look at your placement and not your time.  I should be placing in the 50-100 range at the marathon and I was 70th.  Someday I will run St. George and it will be 40 degrees at the start and 62 degrees at the finish!

In review, I probably ran the Top of Utah marathon two weeks ago to fast.  I pushed the pace the first half (1:25) then coasted the 2nd for a training run of 3:04.  Next time, I'll do this 3-4 weeks out.  I am also a NEW believer in salt caps.  I simply have to find something beside gel for fuel.  It slows me down to eat it.  I am so ready for winter.

My plan was to run early this morning, but I awoke with a lot of lower back pain due to "neighborhood clean-up" starting this week.  This means I spend the weekend hauling heavy stuff to the street for trash pick-up.  I took a couple of IB tablets then hit the streets to Sugar House park and back.  My back did not hurt during the run, but I could not bend over to stretch afterwards.  Hopefully, it will improve tomorrow.

Run up to 11th Avenue from my house.  Center street through the cemetery is a tough 1/2 mile climb!

Nice to know cheaters are still out there; however, a 2:51 with a bus ride is embarrassing!

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/London-man-DQ-8217-s-after-taking-bus-for-final?urn=oly-wp779

Sugar House loop today.

New route today from my house to the large smoke stack in Brickyard.  Super flat course with water and bathrooms.  This is a good route with a little history at the turn around point:

http://history.utah.gov/apps/markers/detailed_results.php?markerid=2185

Beat the Heat 5K today at Shriners Hospital in the Avenues.  The is one tough course with great competition.  I ran from my house to the start then did another short warm up before the race started.

Mile 1: 5:43.  Downhill on 11th Ave. and I knew we had a big climb coming up.  I ran this first mile with Allie from the blog and tried to keep Steve A (another blogger) in sight.

Mile 2 : 5:52.  Uphill on D-street then back down to 11th going toward the hospital.  This began the long, slow drudge going uphill.  I was able to catch one more person, but then ran alone the rest of the race.

Mile 3: 6:20!  Marathon pace.  Great...at least I did not lose any places (or gain any)!

Last 0.13: 42 seconds.  Flatter here, so glad to get some speed back.

The time was not good, but the placement is where I expected given the great runners coming out.  It will be interesting to see if I finish in the $ on the Utah Road circuit.  It should be close between Bill Cobler and myself for 5th place.

Afterwards, ran the kids race with my four year old Lucas, then had fun with the Shriner clowns.  It is a great event and I hope they can get a better turn out next year since it goes toward the hospital.

Perfect Utah Fall day.  Run from house to Sugar House park.

Run from House up to 11th Ave then back. Another perfect day for running. I came across this link yesterday:

This guy does not look like he's 100 years old. I guess 100 is the new 80!

http://www.freep.com/article/20111017/SPORTS18/111017023/100-year-old-runner-finishes-Toronto-marathon?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CSports%7Cs

Longer run today from house to the Brickyard smoke stack. I was planning on running Sugar House park until I read that the state cross country championships were there today. I'm sure the place is packed. It would be fun to watch it, but not run in it!

Warm run today from house to Sugar House park.

Quick lunch time run through Liberty Park.  

Afternoon run up to Wasatch and over to Tanner Park then Sugar House before heading home.

A few days off because of long work hours, but I was able to get out today and run to Sugar House Park.

Longer run along Wasatch drive from Highland High school.  I signed up for the Striders winter racing circuit today.  Five races for $100 is tough to beat!  Check it out at:

http://www.stridersrunning.com/

Run from the house up to Hogle Zoo then over to Wasatch Drive and back down.  Light snow on the run today!  Perfect running weather.

Perfect running weather today.  Run from house to Sugar House Park.

Yet another great Fall day for running.  I ran from the house to the Brickyard smoke stack and back.  Earlier in the week I signed up for the Striders Winter series.  Its hard to be motivated in January and February, so maybe the series will help!

Cold, windy blizzard run on Wasatch Blvd this morning.  Glad to get that one over with.  Hosting a 5 year old's birthday party later today with 20 kids.  Wish me luck!

Long tough work week in Northern CA this week, so no running.  Was able to get a run in today now that I'm home.  Quick afternoon run to Sugar House park.  I plan on running Emigration on Saturday with the running group probably in the snow again.

Wet, cold and windy run up and down Emigration canyon this morning.  What happened to Fall?  It feels like the middle of Winter.

Run around Liberty park with the wife and kids.  It was cold, but the sun was out.  My 5 year old rode his bike while we all tried to keep up.

It was way to cold to run outside Monday and Tuesday because I was working in Bozeman.  I got a quick run in today around Sugar House park before flying down to Phoenix.  The running weather was perfect in Salt Lake, although we are supposed to get a storm Friday night.  I hope to get some miles in while working in Arizona.  Tonight was the USATF-Utah LDR circuit dinner.  It stinks that I missed it since I won some $ for 5th overall!

Late evening run in Tucson.  I was able to get in several miles before the trail became too dark.  Its great to be running in 70 degree weather!

Ran today on a trail in Tucson and I'm so glad I did!  First, there was a fire alarm in the hotel at 4 AM.  The hotel staff woke EVERYONE up and made them leave the building...false alarm of course (I debated about asking for a refund, but reconsidered thinking they were just trying to help).  So, no mood to run; however, once on the trail and a couple miles into the run I was passed by Abdi Abdirhman and his coach (on a bike).  The guy was flying!  About 1 mile from my finish at the out/back he came by again.  His coach was stopped reading splits and I heard 5:04 mile pace.  I guess he was doing 10-12 miles based on my 7:00 pace and the trail length.  Here is a link to his web page.  He has run a 2:08 marathon and 27:16 10K.  The other cool thing was he said "hello" each time.  Runners are a friendly bunch.

http://www.blackcactusrunning.com/

Run up Millcreek with the group.  The road had been plowed all the way up to the winter gate so conditions were perfect.

Short run around Liberty Park with the kids.

Quick run to Sugar House park.  Warm weather today in Salt Lake.  Earlier in the week I was in Riverton, WY where it was 9 degrees.

Run around Liberty park before Turkey!