Per Aspera Ad Astra

Winter Series 10k

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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.

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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
164.4017.6015.707.70205.40
RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 62.00RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 84.30RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #2 Miles: 53.10
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.000.000.000.0011.00

AM: Ski day #29.

11 miles with Holly at 7:37 average pace.  To 9th to 27th (with a pit stop over to 8th en route to get some poop bags, since Holly wouldn't stop going to the bathroom... hah...) to Highland to 21st to 9th, back home.  Legs felt tired, but hip was fine.

RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 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
10.100.000.000.0010.10

Easy run, 7:4x average pace (Josh had 7:38, but had to play a little catch-up), with Josh, Jake, Mystery Runner Nate, James, and Allie.  Liberty to Memory Grove and back with a loop at the end.  Legs were still a little tired, but hip felt OK.

RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 10.10
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.007.502.500.0010.00

10 miles on the treadmill.  Didn't start running until 8:55, and the gym closes at 10, so I decided to run fast.  First 7.5 was at 6:05 average pace, last 2.5 was at 5:35 average pace.  Legs were a little tired at the beginning, but loosened up and felt good.  I spent the entire time rocking out hard to some new tunes from Cynic, a really fantastic group whose style has changed a lot over the years while still retaining a really recognizable quality that is truly their own: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDNr3p6jQ-A

RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 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
8.800.001.200.0010.00

10 at the gym.  Had a little less than 2 miles done on the treadmill when I spotted James running fast on the track overhead, so I jumped off, did the last 1.2 of his 75 lap workout with him (I wasn't wearing a watch, but I guess it was a little under 6:00 pace), and then went back to do another 7 on the treadmill.  Treadmill miles were about 7:10 average pace.

RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 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
10.600.000.000.0010.60

10.6 miles at 6:39 average pace, so on the faster side of easy, but easier than MP, with no miles under 6:20, and no miles over 7:00.  My place to 9th East to 27th South to Elizabeth to Highland to 21st south to 9th east to my place.  Glute/right leg felt a little tight, so I'm stretching hard now.  I need to make sure that I'm consistent about stretching over the next few weeks.

RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 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
11.000.000.000.0011.00

11 miles, treadmill, high 6:30s average pace.  Nice chill run.

RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 11.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(8)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.600.000.000.008.60

Easy 8.6 at 7:42 average pace with Holly.  My place to 9th to 21st to 11th, gradually back to 9th, to my place.  Pretty windy out there tonight... tomorrow's 10k is going to be interesting. :)

RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 8.60
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Race: Winter Series 10k (6.25 Miles) 00:36:51
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
4.000.000.006.7010.70

Meh, not my best race.  1 mile warmup + winter series 10k in 36:51 + 3.5 mile cooldown with 5 x 30 second pickups (maybe a half mile?).  Slept as late as I could, woke up, and legs just felt tired and stale, which wasn't a great sign.  Showed up at the race pretty late, warmed up a mile, then got started.  In the out portion, I settled in behind Sasha, Dennis, and James, but when Sasha and Dennis (both of whom I beat 2 weeks ago in the 5k) pulled away from James, I let them go.  Hit the 5k pretty easily in 17:25, with a nice tailwind, turned around, and just immediately lost motivation when the rather large headwind hit me in the face.  I passed James right after the turnaround, but never made any ground on Sasha and Dennis, and they gradually got away and I couldn't get myself to care.  I felt like the wind started to settle a bit in the last mile, but I never really picked it up and just slogged it home with a 2:01 positive split.  I'm not happy with this race, but I also don't care very much at all, which is probably part of why I didn't really push it.  The last 3 days were too much (2 days of 10+ at sub 6:40), and last night's race was far too close to the race, so that didn't help.  I'm going to probably up my mileage a bit this week and then taper for 2 weeks to be really fresh for the marathon, which, as I keep reiterating, is all I really care about at all.

 

PM: Ski day #31.  Legs were tired!

RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 10.70
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
20.000.000.001.0021.00

AM: 20 miles with James and Allie, who themselves did slightly more.  Pace was easy, probably about 7:40-7:45, which felt extremely pleasant, although I forgot my watch, Allie didn't have one, and James accidentally stopped his for 5.6 miles in the middle.  Route was SE Liberty to JRP to 4500 south, up along the above road, back to 4500, along to 9th, back to 9th, back to Liberty, loop of Liberty, back to James and Allie's for Allie to grab her Saucony test shoes, and back to my car.  Legs were tired before I started, but the run didn't make them more tired at all really, which is good, considering that this is probably my 2nd to last long run before Phoenix.

 

PM: Ski day #32 of the season.  Legs were actually not so tired, but now that I'm home, I'm ready to be done with physical activity for the day. :)

 

Later PM: I lied about being done with physical activity for the day. Haha.  Walked Holly to Memory Grove and wanted to get her to really burn off some energy, so I did ~30 hard sprints (50-ish meters a piece) with her, wearing jeans and moccasins. Hah.

RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 20.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.700.000.000.008.70

Same loop as Friday (9th/21st/11th), but legs felt super tired, so I took it extremely slow (8:13 average pace).  Brought Holly.

RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 8.70
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.800.000.000.0011.80

11.8 miles, 7:18 average pace.  Quads were still somewhat sore from doing a bit much over Wed-Sunday, but loosened up throughout the run.  My place to 9th to 33rd to 5th to my place.

RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 11.80
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Took the day off.  Only looking for ~80 this week to avoid overdoing it, and I still have another workout planned, so figured I'd take the day to rest.

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 in a little under 67 on a treadmill at the gym.  New A6 felt good.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #2 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
10.000.0010.000.0020.00

Now THAT was a workout.  Left the lab, did 9 miles on roads at 7:02 pace (through campus, to Sugarhouse, around the park, back to campus, mini campus loop to wind up at 9 at the gym), immediately onto a treadmill for 10 miles in 58:54 (5:53 pace), and then 1 mile cooldown via a roundabout route back to the lab (extremely slow, 10:15 pace, to really shake everything out).  I took 1 gel at mile 9 and that was it.  I felt really smooth, but had to dig pretty deep (not marathon racing deep, but pretty deep for a workout) over the last 2 miles of the tempo portion.  I just wanted to get that 10 mile portion under 60, so to have under 59 was extremely encouraging.  At this point, the hard work is done, so I'll probably do ~10 tomorrow (likely with the group), and then it'll be taper time.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #2 Miles: 20.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.000.000.000.0011.00

AM: 11 miles with Holly in addition to a decent sized group (Jake, Jon Kotter, Josh, Rob, Kramer, and one of Rob's other athletes whose name I didn't catch).  HHS to Tanner to Wasatch to Zoo loop, to Foothill, back to HHS, finishing with a little loop to get it up to 11.  Holly stopped to poop about 20 seconds into the run, so I started by playing catchup and didn't get back to the group until almost the mile mark, after losing a full minute.  When up on Wasatch, Holly stopped to poop again right as the guys were picking it up a little bit.  This time, her poop bag had a hole in it, which I didn't initially realize, so I ended up finishing the run with dog crap on my hands.  This was not pleasant.  Also, I lost another minute+ here and ended up having to drop the pace into the 5:40s on a long flat section to catch up.  My legs were pretty tired from last night's workout, but it was nice to see that I could comfortably get it going that fast.  Overall pace was 7:04 for the 11 miles with 775' of gain (775' of both gain and loss is only enough to slow the run down a hair over 2 minutes, but that's still significant), so probably not as easy as it should've been after the workout, but whatever.  Taper starts now, so I have 2 weeks to recover. :)

 

 

Looking back at the last 14 weeks, I've only had one week lower than 70 (the week of my dissertation proposal), giving me a total of 1 week in the 50s, 9 weeks in the 70s, and 4 weeks in the 80s.  I think this has been perfect for me.  I've averaged 73.5 miles/week for 14 weeks, 75.3/week discounting the one down week, and have been remarkably consistent from week to week.  My biggest week has been 87 miles, so I've avoided the temptation to overdo it.  This week, I saw myself going over 90 if I didn't take a day off, so I made the smat decision to take a day off.  Overall, this is both the smartest and most consistent training I've ever had for a marathon, so as long as I don't do anything stupid in the next 2 weeks (which I won't) and as long as I show up healthy at the starting line (will be washing my hands a LOT over the next 2 weeks to avoid a repeat of last year), I should be ready for a very nice PR.  My legs were tired after today's run, but they just feel strong and I have the sense that they will be ready for something special as soon as I get to the starting line in 14 days.

 

PM: Ski day #33 of the season.  Legs were really tired and the snow was really heavy due to high temps, so it could've been better.  Only stayed there for like 90 minutes.

 

Later PM: 3 mile hike/walk with Holly in City Creek Canyon.

 

Really tired now.  Time to watch Olympics. :)

RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 11.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.500.000.000.007.50

AM: Taper has begun with an easy 7.5 at 7:37 average pace.  Since it's Sunday, I brought Holly and communed with a good group of folks, with whom I did 4 laps of Liberty, then a little out and back on 6th, then a mini lap of Liberty.  Others were going farther, but Holly was tired and starting to drag on the out and back on 6th, so we turned it around.  When we got back to Liberty, she had a drink and got some energy back, so we did one more mini loop of the park for 7.5 total.

PM: Ski day #34 of the season.  It was horrible at first (very windy with graupel snow that stung the face when riding fast), but it quickly tranisitioned to nice powder, making the last 2 hours of my 3 hour ski session remarkbly fun.  Legs felt infinitely better than yesterday and I rode pretty hard.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #2 Miles: 7.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Ski day #35 of the season (thanks George Washington for having a birthday!), took the day off of running.  I'm only planning on running 5 days this week, since it's taper time.

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
0.000.000.000.000.00

Hah... didn't get home until after 10 PM and just didn't feel like running in the dark.  Guess I got my 2 days off this week already. :)

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
0.008.100.000.008.10

PM: Brighton night skiing.  6 degrees at the peak with 45 mph wind, gusting to 75 put the windchill in the -20s.  Pretty cold!

 

Later PM: 8.1 miles at ~marathon effort.  Course had 300' of uphill and 300' of downhill, so 6:18 pace was worth 6:12 on flat.  Altitude adjusted, if I could hold this for 26.2 here (I think i could, or very close to it) this would be worth 5:56-5:57 pace at sea level.  Interestingly, I timed it from home, but intentionally didn't wear a watch, so it was purely based on feel.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #2 Miles: 8.10
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Holy crap.  Such a lazy taper.  I guess my body needs rest!  I haven't gotten enough sleep this week, but got in ski day #37 for the season in the AM before going to the lab.  I won't take another day off this week...  I swear.  I only wanted 40-50 miles, and I'll still hit 40 at least.

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
4.500.002.000.006.50

2 miles from campus (downhill) in 11:04, then 4.5 more easy miles.  Didn't have much time to run due to entertaining prospective students, but stopped by home and let Holly do 2 of it with me.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #2 Miles: 6.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.200.000.000.008.20

9 AM to 4 PM: long ski day at Brighton with prospective students.  Ski day #38 of the season and #5 of the week (also Sunday, Monday, Wednesday evening, Thursday AM).

5:30 PM: 8.2 miles easy with Holly.  Didn't wear a watch, intentionally, to avoid thinking about pace.  On 5th to Liberty, 2.75 trail loops, back on 7th/South Temple.  So warm out that I got to run without a shirt!  Apparently not all the locals liked this, as a drunk old man on a bicycle, who cut me off in a crosswalk while he was running a red light, called me a word inappropriate for posting on fastrunningblog (having to due with sexual orientation) and offered to fight me.  Interesting times. :)

 

Very light week of running, but I skied 5 times, so it felt like more than 30.3 miles.  Basically, I just decided to do what I felt like doing this week (other than doing workouts), and due to a few late nights, that only resulted in 4 runs.  I've been itching to run fast quite a bit this week, so I think my body is really getting primed up to race!

RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 8.20
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
3.101.500.000.004.60

Ready to go for Saturday.  Wouldn't have taken yesterday off, but put in a 15 hour work day between lab and tutoring, so that killed off running.  Today, I did 4.6 with Holly with 3.1 easy and 1.5 faster.  I hesitate to call this marathon pace since they were so fast, but they just felt pretty solid and smooth.  First 2 were up to 11th and B, down canyon road, and up city creek a bit, then turned around and ran 1.5 down the 4% average grade at 5:37 pace.  Holly didn't want to run quite that fast and was pulling back a little bit over the last bit, but otherwise, it just felt smooth.  Legs felt very strong today, and I'm excited to race on Saturday.  The only downside at this point is that the weather forecasts don't look great (currently calling for rain and a pretty big headwind).  Considering that we're still 4 days out, I'm not putting much stock in it yet though.

 

I'll do another 4 or 5 easy miles tomorrow, and then do 2 the day before the race.

RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 4.60
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.000.000.000.005.00

5 miles at 6:38 pace with a bit of hills (low 200s).  My place to Liberty, lap, and back.  Rest tomorrow, 2 miles Friday.  Ready to go!

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.500.500.000.001.00

Half mile @ 6:00, half mile @ 6:50.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #2 Miles: 1.00
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
164.4017.6015.707.70205.40
RETIRED Saucony Orange Kinvara 4 Miles: 62.00RETIRED Nike Zoom Streak LT2 Miles: 84.30RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #2 Miles: 53.10
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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