Novice or Expert? Eh, I run

So here are my excuses. I'll get them over with and confess the real problem: I ran 16 miles yesterday. I stayed up until 3:30. It's the end of an 80 mile week....I was just didn't run smart. "Stay behind her for about 3 miles and then fly past her," Cody told me as we warmed up. I had patience to run about a stride behind her (or less) for a bit over a mile and then flet like she was slowing down, so I gradually passed her and put some distance but she cause me a  little before mile 4. My legs, I'll be  honest, were tired. I finished 20 seconds or so behind her at a pace that's definitely not my best, but it wasn't bad for having run 16 miles yesterday.

I ran a few easy miles to cool down and discovered that indeed my legs are tired.  But, I enjoyed my run yesterday and the race was not terrible. Fall is still hanging in there (hopes of a little canyon running this next week). Yes, yes, life is grand.

I love sundays and no running is one of the many reasons. All I can say is that my body needs that bit of break. I plan on high mileage this week again (and a "recovery" week to follow), so I think my muscles are thanking me for this. I hope the rain doesn't put a damper on my roommate's and my weekly sunday afternoon walk. Maybe it'll be shorter (not the hours of wandering we did last week) but I think we'll go.

Good run today. Three mile warm up, ten mile tempo, three mile cool down. I wasn't as tired as I expected to be given my mileage the past couple of weeks, which is encouraging since I'd like to keep the  mileage high (yes, with scheduled "rest" weeks of lower mileage). 

The thing I've found curious lately is my asthma. I must not have trained very hard in the past few months because I never really noticed it. I could run hills and be fine, but recently and especially today it gave me trouble. I think I need to go back to my dr because she gave me the prescription I like on the condition that I not use it more than once or twice a week. I used to never use the stuff (as I seemingly never ran hard), but I'd like to use it more. I didn't today (hence the trouble breathing up a few hills). Yes, must make note to see her again when I'm in Salt Lake. Pooh Pooh on breathing. 

Same as many tuesdays. Easy-ish miles broken up around my teaching schedule. Did my second run after all my classes...Not sure how I feel about this whole getting dark at about 5 o'clock thing. Wait, I am sure. I don't like it.

I need to call my allergist/asthma dr. I headed out to 34th north (35th?)...whatever is at the end of 16th east and turns back west. Interval/hill day. Planned on a few 800m repeats and mile repeats and 400s...Attack in my first interval. Tighter and more serious than just the normal wheezing.  so I stopped to breath at the top rather than just turning around and "resting" on the way down. Caught my breath (it waited for me, how nice) after a few seconds and decided to try it again. To no avail, so I thought I'd run home and eat lunch and then run a tempo later and again tomorrow to make up for my laziness today. Ended up running farther and faster than I meant, so I had a shorter tempo (6.5 miles) but I didn't want too many miles, seeing that it will be three days in a row of 16.

But this afternoon's run was good. The uphill kicked my trash a little but I hit my stride a couple of miles in and then kicked the run's trash (would that be the opposite of it kicking mine? Because whatever the opposite is, I accomplished). Good hard run. Good effort. I needed that. 

Ok, the 4 fast miles weren't terribly fast, but they were faster than I meant to go. I met up with a friend who I'd never run with. Most can't really give me much of a workout (except they guys on this blog, of course)...and I don't say that to brag, it's just true. Most roommates and buddies just don't run as much as I do. But apparently Patrick runs daily or almost every day, and he runs trails. So, we ran up the trail on the north side of Logan canyon and down the the river trail. We "ran" through a little tunnel (I couldn't run very well in there because not only were we hunched over, Patrick was blocking the little bit of light at the end, so I couldn't see a thing). We also ran on top of a pipe (my favorite part). I must say that I'm impressed. He kept his pace up the whole time, like I said, that doesn't often happen with the friends that I've run with. But, it was exactly what I needed to run the sore out of my legs. My earlier, easier run didn't help with that much (may have made it worse, in fact).

On the drive home I saw Cody and Jon (? were you two running together this evening?) decked out in their reflective vests, jogging along the sidewalk on 8th east. I wanted to honk or yell or something, but they never would have seen me. Twas too dark. 

I'll be honest. I'm having a rough time with motivation and running hard in the cloudy weather we've been having. Getting used to winter always seems to do this too me. My miles were "medium"--not hard specifically or super easy but medium.

I love the sun. And I love Emigration Canyon. And I love gradually speeding up into a hard pace and just pounding it out. Feels good. I needed that run. 

Went on a walk with my roommate as I do every sunday. We were wandering around North Logan and saw a sign for the North Logan Cemetery.  Neither of us had heard of it before so we thought we'd check it out...perfect cloudy day for exploring an old, creepy cemetery. No, no. Don't think you'll find any haunted corners or weeping statues or glowing grave stones. It was dedicated less than two months ago. A quiet, pleasant patch of grass with one lonely grave and an open view of the valley. We sat on the bench for a few minutes, until a truck came into view and we thought it was family members of this one person, so we left. But the truck just pulled around the cemetery, probably hoping the road went through somewhere (where to that far east, i don't know). i'm just glad no one got out of the car just then. I don't know why, we weren't disrespectful but contemplative. I guess, it's just the thought of being seen at an stranger's grave...I dunno.

Medium miles. Medium pace, I guess. Just a good "base" run.  My right knee was bugging me a bit, so I finished a mile or mile and a half early (out and back run. took a short cut home).

i think I'm getting used to winter--or the idea of it. I'm such a summer person that I have a hard time transitioning to colder weather, but I think I'm coming out of my funk. Yeah! I have to keep myself in check against the winter doldrums and tendencies toward laziness. Running, usually at least, helps with that, so long as I can wake my mind up enough to just let myself run. 

I did my ladder intervals in the pool this morning. So...no it's not the same as road running but sometimes my body just needs a break from the pounding. I like to run intervals in the pool because I can actually concentrate on running hard for the shorter times (that and it passes the time faster. I tell you what if the US government really wanted to torture people...) Anywho, twas a good run. One of the ROTC programs came in and seemed like they were going to do lots of drills. They had fake guns they had to try to keep dry and everything, but they didn't even stick around for half my workout (and the well...i don't know what kind of leader he was but the guy in charge was talking most of the time). I enjoyed the workout.

I'll probably get out for a few more miles this afternoon.

Ran again this afternoon (6 miles medium--comfortable but not completely slacking pace). I didn't mean to run that far, to put that many miles in today, but I just couldn't help it.  Seems pointless to run just a couple of miles at a time when I'm striving for a couple of hours of running each day. Mostly, though, I just enjoyed my little jaunt around the Island. Ran over to that park/nature preserve (or whatnot) on 1st south and about 7th east. Hadn't been there in a while. It was a useful run for stretching my legs out a bit so I can run tempo tomorrow. 

Started out slow and bummed that I didn't feel like running hard. I am really having a hard time pushing it in all this cloudy weather. Ran "up" Smithfield Canyon. Decided to push it harder on the way home. Good run back. Quite enjoyable (found out I can run hard without the sun).

Ah...the sun came out today. Made my "recovery" run quite lovely....nice and easy.

But the harder miles were also satisfying. I ran on the treadmill today because I wanted a good hard run (third day in a row with some sort of 'hard-ish' workout). 8 mile-temp.

here are speed breakdowns as far as I can remember:

0-.5-      6:35

.5-1.0-   6:31,6:27

1-1.5     6:22

1.5-2     6:15  (faster song that i love so i sped up)

2-3.5     6:22

3.5- 6.5 6:18 

6.5- 7    6:16 

7-7.25     6:11

7.25-7.5  6:07

7.5        6:00

7.5-8 went up a notch each .10

felt good! 

I went out on what should have been an easy 17 but i got sleep in the middle and just couldn't bear it. Decided to split my miles into two runs (i know that's not preferable, but i just didn't care). So, I ran 9.5 and will finish up later this afternoon. ahhh. the sun the sun.

My afternoon run was chillier but better and not so sluggish. Burrrrrr. 

so some of the miles were faster, some were slower but we figured it was a pretty god pace. near 8 min avg for trail running.

Met Cody and Jon at first dam and ran about 5(ish) up the river trail. Chilly chilly chilly running up the canyon to the trail. joe and paul met up with us when we got back and we took the boneville shoreline trail to green canyon. however we did not take the final mile of single track to the top despite the fact that paul and i had never run it. never run it, you say? are we sure? have we seen the nice bathroom at the top? what about that camp ground they got rid of? oh, oh and the tree....nope. nope. pretty sure i missed that. oh, except i do remember the tree. (jon kept asking if we'd been there, checking to make sure we'd never seen the bathroom or campground. cody joined in with a great description of a tree that i'm sure i've seen somewhere. maybe not, but we had a good time. nice to run with the guys again.

oops. forgot to write earlier. went out for a 2x4mile tempo but wasn't feeling up to the pace (don't know what's wrong with me) so i ran a 10 mile tempo. the pace is a bit slower and i've been wanting to push it for a longer distance so i don't mind that i changed. i'd left my watch at home so i don't know my pace but my legs were burning the last few miles so i figure i'm ok-ish on calling it a hard day. 

Two nice easy runs. Beautiful weather. I bought new running tights yesterday and although it was really not necessary, I wore them this morning. I think I'm in love.

ah....good tempo. 6:30 and under (well, except the first .5 miles. that was about 6:35). spent most of it at 6:22 and 6:18 but finished last .75 miles at 6:00 and under.

i finally hit it... exhaustion. i logged 11 tired miles. and all i can say is whew! w-i-n-dy! i swear there were a few strides there where i ran in place, and i had to brace against the side gusts when i wasn't running against it. but on the bright side, the valley air is cleaner.

i know, i know another easy day. maybe i'm just getting lazy (a lazy person who runs 20 miles? yeah. it can happen, but most people don't understand how it works. i think a lot of us do though). anyway, (and i hope this is understanadable), i'm just tired. not physically or really even mentally. i just felt likek running.

I'm close to 100 again but i'm not pushing through 3.5 more miles. my little sis has a dance performance that i must attend.

staying at my parents' house again this wk end and spend time on the canal roads. good ol' south jordan/riverton. love those canal rds. though one of them i was on today has piles (mounds) of dirt that i had to clamber around a little. good thing i'd done my tempo earlier in the run. will have to keep this in mind next time i want to run down that canal road. 

nice run. altered 17  min easy, 13 min hard. great way to break up a 2 hr run and get a good workout but not get overly bored.

by the way, i think my asthma doesn't have it out for me as much as it did. breathing felt pretty good today. helps that i was running the flat stuff out west, but i ran my hard stuff at sub 6:30 pac and didn't wheeze too awful much. yeah! 

intervals in the pool again this morning. just trying to give the joints a break. they're fine but i like to run on soft surfaces and cross train every now and again. no ROTC this morning but a girl who was learning to swim without the head-above-water-turning-side-to-side thing. she improved quite a bit. will run again this afternoon between classes.

just 4 more easy miles this afternoon, just to get out in the sun. ahhhh, what a nice day... 

easy miles. nice rest day after two hard. hope i go to bed early tonight 'cause i'll have to get up early to get miles in tomorrow. good thing my little sis will bike with me while i run.

got up early to get some exercise in. yeah. but thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because my cousins and sisters and i go to the salvation army downtown (slc) and serve the meals on wheels (we get there early, cut pies and do random things like divy up 600 sets of plasticware. oh, and serve, serve, serve food. we have a good time. my cousins are hilarious. hil-ar-i-ous.

my miles weren't completely slow but they didn't deserve to be "fast"...

i ran in moab today. twas lovely. i quite enjoy that place like a second home. it was home for a while. i miss it...ah, the red rock. 

yeah. no major comments on the run. it was a run. soft stuff. ran faster than i meant to but i liked it.