Per Aspera Ad Astra

From Liberty with Jake, Fritz, Krah, Josh, and Steve.  SE Liberty to Memory Grove to City Creek to 11th to Virginia to South Temple, and back to NE Liberty with 1 3/4 laps after that.  Quads/hams felt slightly sore at the end, just because I raced yesterday.

Ran up to work late at night to deal with a couple things.  On the way home, I ran to Federal Heights Drive, and once I hit Alta Drive (exactly 3 miles into my run), I tempoed the last 3.8 miles of the Haunted Half Course (which I'm running next wekend) + an extra .2 at the end for an even 4 miles of tempo, before jogging one more circuitous mile home.  Splits of the 4 miles of tempo were:

1. 6:23 (nasty uphill, average 2% uphill, but most of it shortly after the start in a steep climb, and then a long gradual climb), from Fed Heights / Alta to roughly the Fire station on 11th)

2. 5:36 (nice 2.5% gradual downhill, to roughly 11th and B)

3. 5:39 (nice gradual 2.5% average mostly downhill down Canyon Road and then into Memory Grove's paved trail, but exposed to a swirling wind for a good chunk of it up on the road)

4. 5:23 (nice 4% downhill, inside the trees, no wind, continued through Memory Grove down to 1st Ave and State).

Finished feeling like I had run fast, but with a lot of juice left.  Honestly, the hardest mile of the tempo was probably the first one.  I run Memory Grove a lot and can get a great rhythm going around all the turns on that 4% grade downhill, so locking into that 5:23 last mile really wasn't actually all that tough.

A few of the miles between 7 and 10 at Haunted Half are going to be pretty brutal, but if I'm feeling decent at mile 10, I should be able to really throw down hard over the last 3 miles.

A little over 7, easy, with Holly, up and down Memory Grove and City Creek, about 8:00 pace.

Pre-run, found this interesting:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/sns-rt-us-padded-shoes-20131011,0,4536920.story

Sorry Hoka.

6.2 miles with James on his "Sugarhouse 10k" loop.  A couple of the miles were probably getting to within the ballpark of marathon effort.  Afterwards, another 1.8 with Holly, because I don't like to end on incomplete mileage and because Holly likes to run.

Workout, treadmill.  I know, I know, treadmills are lame and a little easier, but it allows me to lock into a specific effort and hold it, not to mention that treadmill workouts worked really well for me in the Spring.

Anyway, 1 up, 4 x 2 mile @ tempo progression, 1 x 1 mile @ 5k, with 2 minutes rest between intervals, 1 down.

2 mile: 11:55 (not bad)

2 mile: 11:44 (not bad)

2 mile: 11:36 (starting to get pretty hard)

2 mile: 11:18 (really hard)

1 mile: 5:20 (really really hard)

I really like running interval tempos as progressions, in which the pace becomes a little faster each rep.  The point of the last mile was to be able to push hard after already being tired from a relatively long tempo run (ie, being able to kick home the last mile of a 10 miler or half marathon).  All in all, I think this was a pretty good workout specific to the half marathon (racing one next weekend), but stuff like this just build all around strength, which I can always use more of.

Easy shakeout with Holly, around the Aves.  Legs actually felt good despite yesterday's workout; that said, I'm planning a long run of 18-20 tomorrow and want to keep my mileage below 70 this week so that I can keep building up intelligently, so this is all I let myself do.  I suppose I could have taken the day off, but active recovery is always best in my book.

2:11 for 19 miles, 6:53 average, so pretty easy, mostly right around 7:00 flat with a couple mid-6:20s thrown in.  My place to the 8th South entrance to the Jordan River Parkway Trail, down to the General Holm memorial trailhead at 3900 south (exactly 9.5 out on the Garmin), and then back.  Garmin got screwed up really badly coming back through downtown (these things don't work at all with tall buildings around), so I'm just doubling the distance for 19 total (still far shorter than the 19.6 Mapmyrun calls it, which is probably fair considering that I tend to cut corners on training runs).   I realized 2 miles into the run that I had literally only eaten 2 mini Reese's beforehand, but figured I'd be OK with the 3 gels I had on me.  Did the first 10 at just a hair under 7:00 pace.  I just did a hard workout tempo/VO2 workout 2 days ago and didn't want to overreach, so I decided to test marathon pace out for a bit as long as everything felt good, but back off as soon as it got tough.  After 2 miles of MP, I was getting a headache due to lack of calories and just didn't feel super fluid, so I backed off and just finished the run at 7:00 pace, which was pretty darn easy.  I felt fine until 16, but over the last 3, I felt super out of it and had a raging headache due to the lack of calories.  That said, my pace only dropped a little bit on the uphills, and my legs/lungs were fine.  This is the 2nd long run in a row in which I felt moderately to severely crappy at the end due to not paying attention to food intake beforehand, so I'm going to make sure I don't repeat that mistake next time.

Overall, this was a good week of getting the mileage up a little higher, and my legs feel solid.  I'm going to keep the mileage a little lower this week as I get ready for the Haunted Half on Saturday, but I'll be ready to start working really hard once that's out of the way. :)