Per Aspera Ad Astra

Winter Series 5k

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Location:

Salt Lake City,UT,United States

Member Since:

Dec 08, 2012

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

13.1: 1:09:58 (2018 Des News)

26.2: 2:37:45 (2019 Mesa Phoenix)

Short-Term Running Goals:

Stay healthy!

 

2019 Running Schedule

Feb - Mesa Phoenix Marathon (AZ): 2:37:45. Lingering flu didn't help, but I still got a PR.

April - Bonneville Shoreline Trail Marathon (UT). Mostly just going to be a training run. Finally got myself into the sub-4 club last year, so I'll just have fun with it this year.

May - Stillwater Half Marathon (MN). Goal race for Spring. Looking for ~1:12.

October- Chicago Marathon (IL). We'll see where I'm at in Fall, but probably will be looking for low 2:30s.

Long-Term Running Goals:

Stay healthy, make improvements, maximize my potential.

Personal:

I am a bioengineering PhD currently working as a post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of Neurology at the University of Utah, where I design and improve neurosurgical approaches for treating movement disorders.


Summer 2018 update: I'm lazy about copying over from Strava, so find me over there for day-to-day runs until I eventually get around to copying everything over here.

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Skechers GoRun 4 Blue - A Bit Too Big, But Free Lifetime Miles: 105.80
Saucony Grid Type A Lifetime Miles: 94.20
Saucony Fastwitch 7 Blue Lifetime Miles: 132.40
Saucony Fastwitch 7 Red Lifetime Miles: 135.90
New Balance Vazee Summit V2 Black Lifetime Miles: 121.90
Skechers Go Med Speed 4 Lifetime Miles: 36.70
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
282.0036.7515.003.55337.30
RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 47.70RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 169.80RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 100.40RETIRED New Balance 1010 - Just Awful Shoes Miles: 14.80RETIRED Saucony Kinvara 3 Red Miles: 4.60
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 155.60
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
9.006.000.000.0015.00

15 miles at 6:38 pace with a big group at Riverton.  Pushed the last 6 a little bit harder than the rest with Jon Kotter, probably about marathon effort, but very very relaxed.  These 6 had a couple hundred feet of hills and an average pace of 6:24/mile (including that annoying run up and over the bridge, which cost a good 15 seconds on that mile's pace), which would be worth about 6:04 on a course like Phoenix.  I felt really fit today, which is always a nice feeling. :)

 

PM: Skied at the Bird for 2 1/2 hours, 3rd day in a row and 16th day of the season.  Legs felt super solid, even though I spent a lot of time hitting moguls really fast and hard.

RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 15.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(10)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
9.000.000.000.009.00

Ski day #17 for the season (4th in a row).  Legs were a little tired, so I just skied moderately for about 100 minutes.

Run: With Holly.  Didnt' get out until right around midnight.  Wanted to avoid the poison gas that we have to breathe outside, so I stuck to the upper aves and ran pretty close to an exact loop of the perimeter.  A little over 9 miles with nearly 1500' of gain, a little under 9:00 pace (8:55 pace correlated to 8:15 effort on flat, so quite easy effort).  Perimeter was pretty complete other than an offshoot of Terrace Hills Drive and a small loop off of Capital Park (the latter a gated private community that I couldn't run even if I wanted to).  I'm sure the air is still quite bad up there, but at least the visible smog line was lower in the valley than where I was running.

 

 

 

On a note related to air quality, I've been coughing constantly, despite not being sick, ever since getting back to Utah.  My lungs feel simply awful.  At this point, I've never been more excited to finish my PhD and move to a place where the government won't put more effort into selecting a state gun than solving an extreme health crisis that affects millions of people.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 9.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.000.000.000.0010.00

My place to Sears to pay for some tires that I'm going to have mounted on Tuesday (they only had 3, have to wait for the 4th from Tire Rack), to 27th South, to 5th East, to Smith's (needed new pillow cases), back home, carrying my purchase over the last mile.  7:25 average pace.

RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 10.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
13.504.000.000.0017.50

AM: Ugh, that kind of sucked.  17.5 with James from Highland, up to Wasatch, along the bike path, and down to 6200 before following some complicated route back with a pickup from 13 to 17.  Kinvaras were a terrible choice today, as it was extremely snowy and icy for the first 4 or 5 miles, so my legs started to feel it too fast and I didn't have much on the MP pickup.  James started pushing really hard right away and I didn't have it mentally, so he got away from me.  I averaged 6:29 on the pickup.  Granted, it had some significant hills and is at altitude, so this isn't terrible, but I wanted to be faster and feel better.  I think I felt crappy due to a combination of:

a) 3rd run this week that was at least moderately hard (Mile repeats on Sunday, somewhat similar 15 mile pickup on Wednesday, and then this) plus skiing 4 of the last 5 days

b) Mentally wasn't really all there on the pickup, as it wasn't physically all that bad, breathing wise.  Strangely, I tend to run workouts best solo a lot of the time.

c) Have a horrible cough from the inversion still which probably won't go away for another week or so, at which point we'll probably have another inversion.

d) Shoe choice.  Kinvaras were really really awful on snow and ice, slipping all over the place, and my stabilizers were already feeling pretty shot by mile 5.

Anyway, runs like this that you have to suffer through are good training for the marathon, so I'm glad that this happened.

 

 

PM: Ski day #18 at Snowbird (5th this week), legs actually felt good.  Great day to ski. :)

RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 17.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.500.000.000.0012.50

12.5 with the group (slightly less, did an extra minute-ish at the end to get the mileage far enough past 12.4 to round up... haha...) at 7:17 pace.  Moderately hilly route from Highland, overall nice day out there...

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 12.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.001.000.000.0011.00

Worked typical hours, but still had more work to do, so I went home, ate, played with Holly, and then ran back to work, slightly longer than the typical 2.5 mile method.  Ran a little over 8.5 miles on a longer route back home down through Sugarhouse, with one mile at 6:15.  Had to carry my wallet, phone, and keys in a camelbak (I remove the bladder and use it as a backpack), which really wasn't so bad.  Average pace for the 11 was about 7:10.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 11.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.0010.753.000.2519.00

Pretty big workout today, and felt absolutely great, despite this workout putting me at 60 miles over Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues.  2.5 mile warmup up to the gym at about 7:30 pace (uphill), then hopped on a treadmill for 14 miles (marathon effort between treadmill at altitude here and flat at sea level is pretty similar).  Miles 1-5: 6:00 pace, mile 6: 5:52 pace, mile 7-8: 6:00 pace, mile 9: 5:56 pace, miles 10-12: 6:00 pace, mile 13: 5:52 pace, first .75 of mile 14: 6:00 pace, last .25 of mile 14: 4:55-ish pace (5:00 for most, kicked it down to 4:30 over the last .05).  2.5 mile cool down, SO SLOW. 9:15 pace downhill.  Workout was comfortably hard, but I've done quite a bit harder.  To put this on par with my hardest workouts last year, effort wise, I'd have had to tack on another 4 miles.  I felt like i could've gone ~20 if racing all out.  I love the mentality of doing hard workouts on a treadmill: either run the pace or fly off the belt.  There's no question of whether or not I'll keep up the pace.  I simply have to.  Based on how I felt today, I couldn't currently hold 6:00 pace for a full marathon, but I bet I could hold 6:07s and hit a 2:40.  Once I drop all the way to race weight, I might just have to take Phoenix out at 6:00 flat pace.

 

One other note to self for future reference: pace felt kind of "fast" already by mile 3, but didn't really feel any harder even by the end, so that's something to keep in mind when a race pace feels "fast" too early.  If I'm strong enough, it's not a big deal.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 19.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
9.500.000.000.009.50

Easy snowy/slushy/icy 9.5 at 7:55 pace.  Down to Fairmont Park, then slight Sugarhouse Loop.  Pretty boring and uninspired tonight.  Didn't get out until 11:40 PM and was quite tired.

RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 9.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.000.000.000.0010.00

10 miles on a treadmill at the gym, 6:35 pace, which felt pretty darn easy.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 10.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.000.000.000.005.00

A little over 5 at like 7:48 pace, felt really tired, so didn't do much.  Lungs felt horrrrrrrible afterwards.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 5.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
16.000.000.000.0016.00

16 with a pretty decent sized group.  Lungs weren't so good (not much coughing while running, but hard to breath during any significant exertion on a hill, and really bad whenever briefly stopping).  When I stopped at the portal potty at mile 10 or 11 and then again after the run, my chest was very painful.  Average pace was 6:55, a bit faster at the end, and when the group decided to start injecting pace at mile 15, I intentionally went on another street to avoid even trying to go with it.  Anything under 6:45 was kind of unpleasant for me today and I was feeling pretty awful most of the run, but it's good for me, mentally, to feel awful starting from mile 3, and still finish the run without slowing down.

 

Tried to go to the student health center afterwards, but they're "only seeing international students on weekends" for the first couple weeks of the semester.  They referred me to a local after hours clinic, where I'd have to spend the first thousand out of pocket and then 20% after that.  Some great insurance they give to students here!  I think I'll wait until Monday and hope that I don't lose an hour+ of sleep tonight being awake and coughing like I have the last couple nights. :(

 

In any case, I have new skis, so I'm still about to go skiing.  Hope my body can deal. :)

RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 16.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Took the day off after skiing at Deer Valley!  Snow was AMAZING.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.004.000.000.0011.00

7 miles easy with Holly.  Capital and Aves loop, didn't wear a watch, so I don't know the exact pace, but probably about 7:30.  An hour later, 4 more miles on a treadmill at 6:00 pace.

 

I went to the student health center this morning and was found to be quite healthy other than the cough (lung capacity literally off the charts, HR of 45, not fully at rest) and I was diagnosed as simply having crap from the recently polluted air still stuck in my lungs (I guess it can take a full month to clear the system).  After exertion, my airways get irritated and constrict, leading to the coughing.  Despite not having asthma, I got a prescription an asthma inhaler, which I will have to use before my runs (and after, if I start coughing), likely for the remainder of the winter, assuming the air doesn't stay like how it's been for the last few days.  I used the inhaler for the first time before the fast miles and found myself breathing easier than usual at 6:00 pace.  I noticed that the overall effort seemed slightly easier than it typically does at that pace, but completely forgot that I had used the inhaler until a little while later.  Apparently being able to breath better makes a difference.  Who'd have thought?  After the run, I had a cough, but it was reduced, so that's good.

 

I'm going to go easy tomorrow, as I'm planning on a massive workout on Wednesday.  Time to rest up well for 2 nights.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 11.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.500.000.000.0010.50

10 with Holly at ~7:30 pace (wasn't wearing watch), my place to 9th to 27th to 5th to my place loop, immediately followed by jog to grocery store and back for a couple things.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 10.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
25.000.001.000.2026.20

Annual Indoor Treadmill Marathon #2.  Last year, about the same time out from Phoenix, I hopped on a treadmill and ran 26.2 miles in 2:53:4x.  I decided a few days back that this was the ideal week to do it as my workout, so I did it tonight.  Time was 2:45:32.  Last year, when I ran the 2:53, I was hurting over the last 2 miles or so and couldn't pick up the pace.  In Phoenix, I was sick, but still ran nearly 4 minutes faster with a 2:50:00.1.  Tonight's 2:45:32 felt very relaxed.  I picked up the pace about 5 seconds per mile on miles 24 and 25, went another 25 seconds faster on mile 26, and then ran the last .2 at 4:57 pace.  Now, an hour later, my legs feel completely fine other than a tiny blister on the front of my right middle toe (just an air blister).

 

This was a major confidence booster.  I planned on running in the ballpark of, but no faster than, 2:45, so I hit that spot on, but it felt a lot more relaxed than I anticipated.  Splits were 63:41 for the first 10, 63:27 for the second 10, and 38:24 for the last 10k  19:04 for 20 to 23, 12:30 for 24 and 25, 5:50 for 26, and :59 for 26 to 26.2).  So yeah, I think sub-2:40 is very realistic come Phoenix.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 26.20
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(12)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.000.000.000.005.00

Recovery run with Holly, Koren, and Megan at 5:30 AM.  5 miles, 8:59 pace.  A little hilly, but still quite nice and easy.

RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 5.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
9.800.000.000.009.80

Stupidly hilly aves/fed heights/aves/memory grove loop (nearly a perimeter loop) with Holly at mid 8's pace to stay above the inversion.  Hills included Virginia all the way up to the top at Tomahawk and Terrace Hills all the way up to 18th, among others.  Garmin was nearly dead at the start and started beeping low battery a mile in, but it got within 7 tenths of a mile from the finish before it died.  Legs are a little fatigued still from 2 days ago, but that was expected, and actually, they felt better than I would have expected them to.

 

My recovery from the 26.2 mile workout has actually been meticulously planned out.  I didn't want to take any days off, but wanted maximal recovery, so I did 5 miles very easy at 5:30 in the morning yesterday, and then put off my run until nearly 10 PM tonight, so I had nearly 40 full hours off of running without taking a day off.  I'll do easy runs for the next couple days to ensure that I'm fully recovered.  Doing 26.2 at 15-20 seconds per mile off goal marathon pace as a workout would be a bad idea without proper recovery, so I'm going to make sure that I'm being smart and listening to my body very carefully over the next couple days.

RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 9.80
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.600.000.000.007.60

AM: Ski day #23. Legs still slightly tired. Pretty bad snow. :(

Pm: 7.6. Aves, Fed Heights, Capital Hill with Holly. Low to mid 7s. Lazy with distance; made sure to get above 70 for the week.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 7.60
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.504.000.000.0010.50

Ski day #24 for the season in the AM, this time at Alta.  REALLY fun day out there.

Very late (12:30 AM): 10.5 miles, 6:48 average.  Intended to go easy, but around 5 miles, I got rolling.  Did a 6:06 for mile 6 (slightly net downhill), 6:26 for mile 7 (70' net uphill!), and then 5:39 and 5:34 for miles 8 and 9 (quite downhill, really got rolling down the 4% average grade down University Avenue).  Definitely a bit harder than MP effort overall, but still easier than tempo, so I guess I'll log those miles as MP. Finished up with a nice easy last mile.  Garmin had 10.1, but it got started a couple minutes late.  I thought it was connected when I started, but it wasn't, and after a couple minutes, I noticed that it only had me logged as .08 miles, so I just reset it and started back from 0 after a couple minutes.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 10.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.400.000.000.0010.40

AM: Weight is coming down, thanks to a better diet, with help from Allie.  155.6 is the lightest I've been in quite a long time.  Skied for day #25 of the year, this time at Park City MountIn Resort.  I love that my Snowbird pass gets me 3 free days at each of Alta, Deer Valley, and Park City.

 

PM: 10.4 miles with Holly.  Aves - fed heights- upper campus loop - fed heights - 11th ave - canyon road - loop around capitol building - around the bottom of memory grove and back home.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 10.40
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 155.60
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.600.000.000.0010.60

Didn't get out until 11:30 PM.  Need to fix my running schedule again. Hah.  Up 4th to Virginia, on University to Foothill, up a bit, across to Sunnyside, upper research park, down wakara to foothill, onto capechi, through upper campus, back through federal heights, up to 11th, to B, down A, back home.  Lots of hills, 7:20 average pace, had to fight the urge to start pushing hard a couple of times. :)

RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 10.60
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.000.0010.000.0012.00

Big workout tonight.  1 mile warmup at 6:20 pace, then 4, 3, 2, 1 on treadmill with 4,3,2 minutes rest, starting at about half marathon effort and getting slightly faster each rep, then 1 mile cooldown without a watch on the indoor track..  I did a similar workout on a track last April a few weeks before rather easily running 1:15:33 at Provo City Half (with a lot left at the end) and wanted to run a better workout on a treadmill.  Last year, on the track, the total time was 59:14, so to run an equivalent workout on a treadmill indicating the same fitness, I'd need to hit sub-56:50  I decided to plan for low-mid 56s to make it a slightly "better" workout without crushing myself (I've been trying to not full-on race my workouts as much this cycle, so as to not leave my legs in training).  In hindsight, I mis-timed my rest a little bit and gave myself a bit too much, as I had thought I had done 4,3,2 last time, but had actually done 3,2,1.

Without further ado, times were:

4 miles: 22:58 (5:44.5 pace).  Felt very smooth.

4 minutes rest: ended up taking only 3:45.  4 minutes just felt too long.  I was itching to get going again after less than 2 minutes.

3 miles: 17:00 (5:40 pace). Last half mile was getting harder, but still felt smooth.

3 minutes rest.  Felt a little long, but took the whole thing.

2 miles: 11:05 (5:32.5 pace).  First mile was fluid, and second mile was the hardest mile of the workout, as I split this as 5:36/5:29.

2 minutes rest.  Was happy to have the full 2.

1 mile: 5:16.  Felt pretty fluid.  It's not hard to stay engaged for a little over 5 minutes.

 

Total time for the 10 miles: 56:19.  I hit exactly the kind of time I wanted, but should have taken 1 minute less rest per cycle.  Overall, it was hard but not super hard, so I'm quite certain that I could've held the same pace with less rest.  In all honesty, I'm not even convinced that it would've been much harder; with nearly 4 minutes of rest between reps 1 and 2, my heart rate had dropped a fair amount by the time I started the 2nd rep, and it took a little bit to find my rhythm.  With less rest, the 2nd rest would've been easier, while the 3rd might not have changed much, and the 4th probably would've been harder.  Maxed out and fully racing, I would estimate my maximum capacity for this kind of workout to be in the ballpark of just under 55 minutes.

Take-aways: I've been getting really confident for March.  I've had some really good workouts lately that have strongly indicated to me that I'm going to be able to run fast, but I haven't been beating myself up in the process, which I think is going to be key on race day.  I've felt fresh and I've been extremely consistent throughout the entire cycle so far, and I think these factors are going to give me massive benefits.

 

I'm going to race Winter Series 5k on Saturday, and frankly, I have no idea what to expect.  I haven't been training for short stuff, and I generally find it hard to mentally engage for something as short as a 5k, so I find it unlikely that I'll be much faster than, say 17:20.  In any case, the entire focus is on the marathon, and I'm only running this series because it's fun/miserable and everyone else is doing it, so I've already promised myself not to put any stock into it one way or the other.  If I run well, it's not relevant to a marathon.  If I run poorly, that's typical for me in a 5k over the last year, so it doesn't matter.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 12.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
13.000.000.000.0013.00

AM: 6 miles at 9:00 pace in City Creek Canyon. Nice slow recovery run with Sara Davidson, who's in town for OR.

 

Pm: 7 miles on treadmill @ 7:20 pace without ipod or tv. Certainly less than thrilling...

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 7.00RETIRED New Balance 1010 - Just Awful Shoes Miles: 6.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.800.000.000.008.80

8.8 miles very easy (9:10 pace) on BOSHO trail in bad conditions (very icy, to the point that I fell, in places, even muddier in other places) with James, Josh, and Nate.  Note to self: Garmin has 8.55, but I started .25 late because it wasn't connected when I left my building.

RETIRED New Balance 1010 - Just Awful Shoes Miles: 8.80
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Race: Winter Series 5k (3.13 Miles) 00:17:02, Place overall: 17, Place in age division: 4
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.000.000.003.108.10

My first race in a couple months went well.  I did a couple miles of warmup, the Winter Series 5k in 17:02, a couple miles of cooldown.  I went out in 5:32 and felt really comfortable, not to mention that the weather was uncharacteristically good, so I figured I had a shot at sub-17.  Not wanting to blow up (I'm bad at gauging 5ks, and just yesterday thought that anything under 17:20 probably wouldn't happen), I decided to conservatively increase the pace and just sneak under the mark.  I did the 2nd mile in 5:27, and then the 3rd mile in 5:23.  Unfortunately I wasn't planning on 3.13 (I guess I ran the tangents pretty poorly), so my last .13 at 4:59 pace couldn't quite get me there and I ended up at 17:01.6.  Oh well.  This is still my fastest non-aided 5k in Utah (previous was 17:04 in 2009, on a point-to-point course that was net uphill by a measly 5 feet) and my overall 3rd fastest 5k ever (16:34 PR is from my win in the 5k at the National Beer Pong Championships in 2009, down at sea level, and my 16:44 at Running of the Leopards last year was obviously aided).

Race wise, I went out in what must have been about 30th place.  I stuck about there until shortly before a mile, when I started passing people.  I couldn't get a sense of pace for about the first .5 miles, but right around when Steve Ashbaker pulled up to me at a half mile, I started being able to roll, so I took off from him.  I passed another 5 or so guys before the turnaround, and after the turnaround, I saw Sasha pretty far off in the distance.  It took me until 2.3 to catch him, but I did, and then started to focus on Walter.  I caught him around 2.7 or 2.8, and then keyed off closing the gap on Benjamin Pachev from there until the finish (closed on him, but he was too far and still got me by 10 seconds), while fighting off Dennis Simonaitis - who had been running with Walter and then went with me -over the last couple hundred meters.  I don't normally feel like having others in the race affects how I perform all that much, unless I'm just sandbagging for an easy win, but negative splitting was a lot easier today when I had other runners in front of me that I knew I could reel in.

Congrats to Josh E for running nearly 2 minutes faster than last year (and massively leapfrogging me), Scott Keate for an absolutely dominating masters performance (yeah, yeah, he's 39, but he turns 40 this year and counts as masters in the circuit), and Riley for beating a solid course record.  Getting 17th with a 17:02 this year, compared to 12th with a 17:33 last year, indicates that there are a lot of people who are rounding into monster shape for their upcoming early-mid Spring races, so I'm excited to see everyone's results this year.

 

 

Noon: Clean air rally.  Some of the speakers were good, but overall it was less effective than it could have been.

 

PM: Ski day #26 of the season.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 8.10
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(8)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.000.000.000.0012.00

12 from Liberty Park with Allie, James, Josh, and Fritz.  Nice out and back, pretty flat, out to and along JRP.  Legs felt a little tired today, which means that it's a good time to go out for ski day #27 of the season. :)

RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 12.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
9.100.000.000.009.10

9.1 miles with Holly, quite late (midnight start), 7:45 average pace.  Would've done a little more, but Holly started getting tired around mile 7, so I cut it a little short.  Hilly loop through Aves/Fed Heights/Upper Campus Research Park (low point under 4500', high point over 5000').

 

 

RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 9.10
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.400.000.000.0010.40

2.4 up to the gym, 5.1 on a treadmill at the gym, 2.9 home (if comparing to Garmin, I started the watch a little late after leaving the gym).  6:45 pace on the treadmill, 7:30 (hilly) on the road.  Kinvara 4s are starting to tear, ever so slightly, in the upper, after 123.6 miles.  Lame.  Good thing I still have some 3s.

RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 10.40
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Hip felt a little tight, weather was atrocious, didn't want to risk it, took the day off.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.703.000.000.0010.70

4.6 miles right after work, from the lab, all I had time to fit in.  Ran in the old red Kinvara 3s and my hip, which felt slightly wonky, got the tightest it's been at any point in this training cycle.  I think running on the super sloppy trails last Friday put it in a sensitive state, and these shoes messed it up.  I finished the run, saw how unevenly worn they were (they were literally forcing my foot to buckle in, which was what caused the extreme hip pain before), and chucked them in the trash to avoid the temptation of wearing them again and really messing myself up.

 

Later, 6.1 miles more in my Zoom Streak LT2s.  The hip was touchy from earlier, but I could tell that it wasn't getting any worse.  Still, I kept it short to be safe.  I'm pretty confident that I won't have a setback, but I'm going to be EXTREMELY cautious over the next few days.  I'd like to get in a long run on Saturday still, but if I can't, I'll accept that.  I'll probably double tomorrow to avoid going longer than 8 miles in a single run. In any case, if being cautious means having a second week in the training cycle under 70 miles, so be it.  My #1 goal of this season is to stay healthy, not to rack up mileage.

RETIRED Saucony Kinvara 3 Red Miles: 4.60RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 6.10
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.104.001.000.0017.10

Very thankful for Matt Poulsen today, who may have saved my upcoming marathon.  I was getting pretty worried about my hip, but then remembered the night-and-day difference made by methylprednisolone prescribed by Matt back in the summer, which allowed me to start training again, finally, after a summer of hip pain.  I emailed Matt, he got back to me right away, and I had my prescription a couple hours later.  I took the first dose and then started watching Lost, which is quite addictive, so I didn't get out the door to run until an admittedly absurd 12:45 am.

 

In any case, I decided to do an easy run on some iteration of 9th East just to feel things out and go as much as 12 miles if I felt great.  After the first mile, which is very hilly (my place to 9th and south temple, nearly 100' up and 100' down, with a slight net up), I looked at my watch expecting near 8:00 and saw 7:02.  At that point, I realized that my body just felt awesome tonight, so I decided that if my hip was still feeling it by 21st south, I'd do the long run, and maybe even put some fast miles near the end like I had wanted to do a few days ago.

 

At 21st, I was feeling great and averaging 6:46s very easily, so I turned up towards Highland and then took that all the way to 45th, where I still felt good, other than having to make a 5 minute pit stop at 711 to use their bathroom.  I had been debating the merits of going hard from 10 to 15, but by 9.5, I still felt good and decided to give it a go.  I turned on to 5th south and hit 10 miles shortly thereafter, and picked it up.  I decided I would go a little harder than marathon effort (6:05 at sea level would 6:23-ish here, so I decided to push nearly sea level marathon pace into a minor-to-moderate headwind).  11, 12, 13, and 14 were 6:08, 6:13, 6:12, 6:09, and then I got tired of running so easy, so I pushed mile 15 in 5:47.


I ran the last 2.1 miles at 7:40-ish pace, uphill, which felt really slow after the faster miles, and now I better get to bed since it's after 3 am.  Average pace 6:40.

 

In any case, I'm extremely grateful today just to be able to run and I felt exhilirated for that entire 17 miles, which probably kept from falling asleep on my feet before I finished at 2:30 or 2:40 am.  Thanks to Matt Poulsen for his help and generous giving of his time, and thanks to modern medicine for keeping me off the sidelines. :)

RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 17.10
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(7)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
282.0036.7515.003.55337.30
RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 47.70RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #1 Miles: 169.80RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 100.40RETIRED New Balance 1010 - Just Awful Shoes Miles: 14.80RETIRED Saucony Kinvara 3 Red Miles: 4.60
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 155.60
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