A Lean and Hungry Look

Highland Park loop to 33rd with Maja.  Pace was very slow for the first couple of miles, but picked up as we gained distance for an overall avg of about 7:30. Maja did much better than my last run with her--I only had to drag her for the last half mile or so.  4th metatarsal on the right foot didn't hurt on the run, but it's noticeably tender now (2 hours later).

Right foot (4th metatarsal) ached all day yesterday, so I decided to rest it today.

Hill repeats today.  Ran up to Popperton Park (crossed paths with Chad in the alley, which was great) and did 8 reps from the southwest corner of the park up to the tree about 200 m up the hill.  What a grunt that climb is.  It was steep enough that my pace was slow, but my legs and lungs were burning like crazy.  I walked down between reps and used that as my rest.  The legs were a little shaky during the final 3 miles of cooldown back home, so I think the session served its purpose.

Easy pace up Emigration 6 miles, then back at MP effort.  Splits were mostly in low 5:50s and mid-5:40s until the final mile at 5:36.  Crossed paths with Chad Derum again, this time in front of Ruth's as he was on his way up and I was going down.  I had wanted to do 16, but had a packed day ahead and could only squeeze in 12.

Easy loop into Highland Park with Maja.  I was going to do 9, but when Maja started dragging just under 4 miles in, I decided to head back along the 8-mile route instead.  I don't know what was wrong with her, but I had to drag her for the final 4 miles, even though I slowed the pace to what couldn't have been faster than 8:00 or even 8:30 (left the Garmin home today).  

Feeling guilty for having such a bad few weeks in terms of consistency, so I went out for 12 and left Maja home.  Temperature was nice and cool and the run was great.  The issue on my right foot (4th metatarsal) is still hanging around in spite of the reduced mileage.  I had some achilles pain in the left leg (same spot as always) over the past couple of days, which tells me that I need to stop being lazy and do my stretches and eccentric loading exercises.

H-rock with Maja.  Perhaps due to the reduced schedule over the past couple of weeks, I didn't notice any pain anywhere this morning.  Hopefully the rest has done more good than harm.  Since I dissed Maja in my last post involving her, I must give her credit today--she had a lot more energy than I did on the 21st South hill up to Lakeline Drive, and she finished strong.  When I got home and Brooke was just getting ready to leave, Maja started chasing her tail and acting like she couldn't wait to get back out on the roads.  (Brooke left her home rather than take her for a second run less than 15 minutes later.)

Easy effort with Maja out along Highland Park loop.

Today was supposed to be Ragnar day for me, but things are too crazy right now and I can't afford the time away.  Instead, I'll be working on my house and garage all day as we prepare to move back to our old place.  Because we have the current place torn up while we replace some carpet, we slept at my parents' place in Murray.  I ran home early in order to meet the carpet installers.  A little brisk out.  Hopefully that bodes well for the Ragnar folks today, especially my team (Trading Paces) and the Nordic Track Elite Men, which took two of our teammates in their quest to dethrone BYU.  Good luck to everyone!

Easy effort out to Stratford and up to 20th and back.  

Highland Park loop without Maja.  I listened to some tunes and found my pace about 30 sec/mile faster than my usual easy run.  Last 2 miles felt a little labored.  My fitness has clearly slipped, but I also think I need to refill my inhaler prescription.  I ran without it all winter and spring without trouble, but I'm finding myself wheezing more and more by the end of my runs.  It's the height of my allergy season, so it makes sense that my asthma is also flaring up.

Maja's probably getting a complex this week, but I went without her again because I knew she couldn't handle the distance.  She's a funny dog--she's young (4 years) and spry, but she just doesn't hold up very well beyond 8 miles.  I headed up to Wasatch, across Parley's and out to Millstream and back.  Caught up to my cousin Kristen on the Parley's portion of the run and ran for 5 minutes with her while we chatted.  On the climb out of Parley's in both directions, I was feeling the asthma, and the raspiness has stayed with me today (5 hours later).  Fortunately, I was able to get a prescription called in and filled it this morning.  Hopefully I'll feel stronger tomorrow; otherwise, I'll know that it's a lack of fitness and not my asthma that's wearing me out.

Easy pace up Emigration with MP effort all the way down.  I haven't been able to find my Garmin charger and the unit is out of battery, so I wasn't able to take splits.  My guess is that I had 3-4 miles slightly under 6:00 and the remaining MP effort miles between 6:00 and 6:10.  I refilled my inhaler prescription and that seemed to help quite a bit.  The early uphill miles felt much better than they have for the past few weeks.

The chief legal officer for our firm's biggest client called me Sunday night to see if I could help him out with a special project this afternoon.  I told him I'd be happy to.  Then he explained the project--buy a bunch of drinks and carbs for him and his 6 friends, drive to the gate up Millcreek Canyon, then hike the goods to the Upper Big Water trailhead at the top of the road.  He is running the Wasatch 100 this year and was doing a 50-mile training run, and they had just realized that the Millcreek gate would still be closed that day, which prevented having someone's spouse drive the supplies up.  Being a dutiful lawyer, I agreed.

By the time I was done shopping, my pack was bulging and probably weighed 40 pounds (I went a little overboard).  I pushed the pace on the hike up (averaging 15-minute miles) and the temperature was hot, so it was a pretty good workout.  When I got there, I ended up waiting about 30 minutes for the first person in the group to arrive.  After everyone made it and had had a chance to rest and eat what they could, I loaded up the trash and the excess carbs (lots of those) and ran back to the car.

I wish every work day could include 3 hours in Millcreek Canyon.