Novice or Expert? Eh, I run

Blast it all! I was gonna run hills today to see how my inhaler works. Another red air day! I can't wait for summer. Will have to try hills on the treadmill

 I officially need to work on hills a bit more. this may be a consequence of spending so much time in the pool, but...at least i know where there can be improvement. yay (as my sister would say) 

all nice and easy. body feels great though i am a bit tired. definitely ready for dinner. (oh, multiple workouts not one)

Did you hear heavenly choruses this morning?  

i wanted to run some hills today to better test my new inhaler. Did a half mile warm up around the indoor track then a half mile flat at around 6:30 (on the treadmill)to get up to speed, then I slowed down to do the "variety" option but after a half mile it hadn't given any variety so i decided to take control of my workout and started the machine over on manual and ran hills.  Most of the hills were .25 miles some were .5. I "rested" at the same speed (6;58).  After a couple of miles of this I felt that I wasn't working hard enough and I was breathing fine, so I increased the speed gradually to around 6:45 or 6:40.  This was a bit harder, but still, I could breath. So, I tried harder hills at this speed and felt the workout a bit in my legs, but oh--I am a blessed woman because my lungs, my esophagus was relaxed. At mile 8 (6.5 of hills) I decided to finish out running harder but flat. So, I spent the next half mile at about 6:30 and my last mile increasing speed from 6:30 to 5:30-ish(?).  It felt great. I checked my heart rate a maybe 30 seconds after I finished and was at 175. It runs fast but it likes it. Cooled down a half mile around the track still hearing those angels sing.

Will run a few more in the pool this evening. 

did a few more in the pool. i prefer morning hours in the pool because i don't have to deal with people who are playing around and jumping off the diving boards (heaven forbid!). 

multiple workouts. was stretching at the fieldhouse (indoor track) and saw a friend run by so i ran with him for a few miles. that was nice. then when he left i went up to the treadmill for variety and a girl asked how long i ran usually (she saw that i'd been downstairs and then came up) and we had a little conversation for a while. that was nice too. i like people, running with people.

two runs. should have probably run hard on the treadmill this morning but i went to school w/ nothing but my bathing suit in my locker at the gym so i couldn't. then, i just felt like running easy. probably a good thing. knee is bugging again. need to figure out how to fix this. bugs in the pool too sometimes. such a bother, such a bother.

BUT I RAN OUTSIDE!!!!! YEAH!!! 

i seem to have a hard time getting the miles in when i ski.  legs were trashed today from skiing. but moreso from cutting a path while snowshoeing straight up a mtn. last night. ahhh, the burn.

8 mile run this AM. good ol' soggy so jo. and 8 this PM in the pool. accidentally ran hard at the end. oops.

eh, another day another few miles run

I totally biffed it while running today. stuck to canal roads and grass to save the ol' knees and didn't see a big ol' root or stem of something sticking out. but on the upshot, my run was mostly all quite soft.

ps- i went skiing in hip-deep powder again this morning. i love my life

ahhhh, 3 miles at 6:15 (warm up easy and warm up at 6:30 to gear up for it). felt good. hardly breathed at all. would've done more but i'm planning on a little 5-miler in st george so i held back the amount of hard miles today.

easy pm run. 

feel lame with all these easy miles but i hate a 5mile race tomorrow.

I liked this race. small, scenic, nice weather. nice guys even. i started out with this pack of a few guys and a mile or 1.5 into it or so was blocking wind for them. i said something about it and 'chivalry'--joking w/ them and one took the wind for me for a while. i thanked him (but was really going nuts because i hate running behind people). he was running a titch slower than i was, however, and another guy passed so i went with him. he surged after a while and got a short way ahead of me, but i caught him and beat them all.

incidentally, a fastrunningblog guy also won. but he had a jersey. i should have a jersey too. (hint  hint anyone?)

5 miles isn't enough (oh, and a bit warm up and then after i ran back to my sister and my dad).

so, i'm going running again. 

i ran more than i thought i would today. i got up at about 5 and headed to the gym. see, it's my sister's 21st birthday and all she wanted was to ski all day. we leave the house at 7:30 (though Alta doesn't open til 9:15...dad likes to eat breakfast up there and Kt and i wanted to demo skis). so, that meant i had to run early. i ran about 8 on the treadmill and was home with plenty of time to spare.

sadly the snow was...awkward. so, we stayed til 1 and came home with plenty of time for another jaunt outside before dinner at the Bombay House (i am excessively grateful that my sister and i have similar tastes. it's like my birthday too). 

i love days like this. i meant to run shorter--both in total distance and distance of hard miles. but less than a half mile into it i found that contrary to my plan i was already running hard, so i just followed my stride and kept going. i altered my course to take advantage of the canal roads (still in so jo and will be tomorrow as it's snowing pretty bad up north, so i hear. my car, which i affectionately call Tainted Love, does well in the snow, but alas, she has only the drive of two wheels. thus i sit by my parents' fireplace to grade papers and write this).

Well, despite the fact that the bit of snow we received this morning has already melted, today's canal roads weren't nearly as mucky as yesterday's.  there was muck, but not much. Anywho, the run went well though i wish i would have pushed it a little harder. i'm in better shape than i thought. great discover. Yay (as my little sister spells it). i've also discovered that i might want to increase my dosage of inhaler. Boo. (as everyone spells it).

 So there you have it. I'm ready to rock and roll. 

first time i've run 16 all at once in quite a while. nice and slow and mostly on grass (that needs a good cutting) or soft canal road that was often quite soggy and even goopy in a few stretches. but, 'twas a lovely run. 

two workouts. should have run hard today but my hammies were tight and sore and i thought i'd do a long run w/ hard miles tomorrow.

good hard miles in the middle of a nice long run. i love that many of the roads on the west side of the valley have a foot or so of dirt next to them. only way to run long in logan. hammies still pretty tight

slept in this morning and had to run all my miles after 4:30 when i got back from a good friend's wedding. was gonna do 16 but it was getting dark and i didn't feel good about crossing a busy busy road so i shaved a mile off the middle. ran harder than i meant for a while. hammies still tight.

good hard run. didn't really want to do all 12 hard but i managed to do it without much difficulty.

wow, did i run slow today. still sore from yesterday's 12 hard. glad i did it yesterday. good to work my body like that every now and again. good to not push it the next day too, eh?

i was out on the west side of the valley today. 34th west? i don't remember. anyway, mapmyrun.com had shown a road at 18th north that i wanted to use to return to the school so i didn't have to go down to the valleyview highway (2nd north, which is actually 5th north where the two meet, but does cut down three blocks to 2nd). anyway, i've run the road before and didn't remember anything being there, but it has a few dirt roads between fields listed elsewhere in the valley so i figured it was probably one of these.  

anyway, my legs are still recovering from monday's dozen hard miles but i did a good 5 miler hard and was in a bit of "recovery" miles before a smaller set of hard miles (3). i neared the spot where 18th north should be. there was a water plant or something there, but i was still a bit south and i could see a turn off or perhaps road up ahead so i kept going. i must stop to say something about premonition.  i really need a more positive premonition because as they say in that cheesy (but horribly true) book/movie the secret you get what you ask for. anyway, in return for my negative premonition asking for no road to be there, there was one--even paved. and i could see it bend right where mapyrun.com said it would. but ahhhh, my negativity. it was locked up. i often ignore these things. i frequently climb a fence in south jordan whose gate reads 'beware of bulls'--there are never any there. but, this...this was close to that water plant and i was afraid of being hauled off to questioning by some blind-sighted government authority figure hopped up on a power trip and lording his authority over me, a nearly defenseless (i had pepper spray) girl running on a deserted road.

so...i kept running and lost the umph for my 3 more miles hard. i don't know why the addition of one single mile killed me. 17 miles is significantly harder than 16 but i don't know why. it's' just a mile, right? kills me. kills me. monday i added and easy mile--an easy one and had a time of it finishing (ok, not really, but it did feel a lot harder than 16 would have).

ok, it's time for bed. you get the picture. i ran longer than i wanted. 

multiple workouts. by the time my afternoon workout came (after finishing my last class), it was chilly and a bit snowy. i was TIRED. my legs have just not recovered well this week, though i keep trying to push it on days that are supposed to be hard because i'd like to build endurance and speed. still, i just couldn't do it. i thought i'd give some miles in favor of rest.

(wrote this friday before running. last night i went climbing and thought it's be awful since my legs were so tired. maybe it was giving up those few extra miles but i climbed quite well. makes up for a poor running day!) 

I think i let down a nice lady who said my determination to run was something to the effect of inspirational. today was supposed to be a hard day and as you can see i accomplished only 1 hard mile. i was going to do 6 x 1 mile hard. i would say six mile repeats but then it sounds like i'm running intervals that are six miles a piece and i tell you what, i may daily run  more miles than most americans do in a week, but i don't run that much.

anyway, about half way or two-thirds into my first repeat i felt the sluggish-ness hit that i'm not supposed to get until about repeat 4. sooo, i wussed out and decided that since i'm "trying to build speed and endurance this week" i'd be better suited to do so if i could really push hard. likely excuse, i know. i just tried to reason through my laziness, but it makes me feel better. at any rate, i sought out some soft-ish ground and ran easy miles. hard miles tomorrow, which may mean that i could miss running with the guys up here. would have been the first time in months. they already think i'm a flake. this won't help 

i do rather enjoy running in smithfield canyon. haven't done that in a while.