Monthly Archives: December 2009

It was in the low teens this morning in Salt Lake.

I met up with my good friend Danny, we both happened to be in Salt Lake for the week from out of town.  We had a really easy enjoyable run for close to 2 hours.  It was great.  It’s crazy how fast the time flew by since we were catching up on stuff and chatting the whole time.  I felt like I could have kept going for a long time at that pace which is a good feeling.

I’m currently training to be able to run 30 miles on my 30th B-day in February and I don’t care at all about how fast or slow I do it.  My only goal there is to build up the endurance to comfortably do that without needing a lot of recovery and without injuring myself.  Here are the stats for today:

13.1 miles – 1:54:07 – 8:43/mile avg – HR: 136 avg – Really flat, easy run along the JRP trail, redwood road, and the legacy trail for a bit. Some sections of the legacy trail were slower going due to snow/ice/crud all over the trail, but most of the run we clear asphault.

What a great day.  I love Christmas at home.  The kids woke us up at about 6 am and I guess I didn’t explain the rules all that great to Abe because by the time we were out of bed there was already wrapping paper all over the floor and he had opened 3 or 4 presents already.  It was pretty funny actually.  I guess it was reasonable logic for him: it was Christmas, they had his name on them, so he might as well go for it!  Next year hopefully I’ll remember to explain the rules of waiting for everyone in order to prolong his agony and suspense.

After eating candy, playing games, eating lunch, playing more games with the kids, and taking a nap, I went for a run.  I felt really well rested since I only had run 3 super easy miles since last Saturday.  But I felt really good that I took the time off, because my legs and feet really appreciated the rest.

Today I must have been itching to move though, because I felt great and I kept getting faster the whole run.  It felt so smooth to run today, I was loving it.  Mile 4.5-5.5 was a 120 ft steady hill climb and I just hammered up it feeling awesome.  By the top of the hill my HR was at 173 and when I crested it and started going down I felt an awesome rush of endorphins or something.  It was awesome!  I don’t even know how to describe the feeling, but it was really cool.  I thought it felt like winning a big race or something.  Not that I would know, because the biggest races I have actually won were podunk town 40 person triathlons with no competition.  Anyway, it was a fantastic feeling, and was one of those many things that make me love running.

I ended up going out for 3.1 miles and then back for 3.1 miles.

1st 5K – 23:46 – 7:40/mile – First 1.5 miles were pretty slow warming up and running over snow and ice, then I started running 6:30-7/pace as I was on the dry street.  It was a lot of down hill.  HR:  152 avg – Ascent: 161ft Descent 280ft

2nd 5K – 23:00 – 7:25/mile – HR: 162 avg – Ascent: 257ft – Descent: 135ft – most of the run back was fast and clear road, except the last 1/4 mile of snow/ice that was a nice cool down anyway.

What a great day!  I love days like this.  Playing with my family.  Working out.  Resting.  Relaxing.  Life is good.

Well that was LAME! I got nailed with a cold or something on wednesday that kind of wiped me out through yesterday.  Maybe it was a good thing because my legs and feet were feeling pretty good today with 3 full days of rest, and now my sickness is gone which is a relief, so today was looking promising…

I decided to explore a new trail run for 2 or 3 hours when Nan got back from her workout…

That was fun.  It kind of beat the snot out of my feet and legs though.  I ended up doing the same trail I did a couple weeks ago in the snow with a slight variation adding another loop with and additional 500 feet of climbing.  This time it was a mixture of rocky trail, rough hardened ice/snow sections, a 1/2 mile of downhill in ice/snow I had to walk, and a lot of mud.  Good times.  It was very slow going for a lot of the time though because of the rough trail.  There were a lot of gorgeous and fun sections of the trail, then there were a bunch of really slow difficult sections where the ice or mud made it hard to go.  As I got higher and higher, it got better and better.  Until I got to the top and went down the north facing slope.  That was the worst section, trying to go straight down a steep hill for 500 yards of pure ice and snow coming down from the high point of the run.  In FiveFinger Sprints it’s a lot easier to go uphill in snow than it is to go down…probably would be in any shoe though.  I had to walk/slide that whole section.

Totals: 11.61 Miles – 2:15:00 – 11:38/mile avg – HR: 140 bpm – Ascent/Descent: 2,251 ft

Nan and I are super hard core when it comes to snowboarding.  It’s nearly 1 in the afternoon and we just got done eating lunch/breakfast after sleeping in until 8, working out at the steamboat springs fitness center, and relaxing in hot springs all morning.  Oh yeah…and I guess we should sneak some snowboarding in this afternoon since we already have the free pass anyway right?

Today’s treadmill run was surprisingly enjoyable again.  I just warmed up really slow (9 something pace) for the first couple miles.  Then increased the speed for the 3rd mile to 8:40.  Mile 4 I increased the incline to 2.  Mile 5 increased incline to 4 – HR up to about 160 at this point.  Mile 6 decreased it to 2.  Then I just finished the last 1.5 at about 8 min pace with no incline.  It felt great.  Total time was just about 1:03 to 1:04.

7.5 Miles total – Don’t know the average pace – 1:04:00

** I just noticed after posting this that today I ran my 100th mile in my FiveFingers…that was fast…they don’t show any real wear yet, but my feet are certainly a lot stronger than they were 100 miles ago…I wonder how the ff’s will be holding up at 1000 miles.

Today marks the end of my 6th week of running since I bailed on the running shoe scene, changed my form, and started running only barefoot or in Vibram FiveFingers.  My legs and feet have worked through many different pains and sorenesses in lots of different areas over the last 6 weeks.  I feel like I have come a long way and my body is feeling really great.  I think it is due to the combination of rest days frequently, massage therapy and personally stretching and massaging with a roller and with my hands, getting out there consistently, and especially focusing on and continuously working on my form during each run.

I currently have some minor stiffness in my right foot around my broken pinky toe, but I have noticed significant and almost immediate improvement there when I have done my own combination of rolfing/push therapy to my foot (which is simply trigger pointing sensitive spots and moving my foot and toes all around).

Nan and I are in Steamboat Springs for the weekend.  It has been a really nice, relaxing morning.  We got up at 8 and ate something light and went to the fitness center.  I did 9 easy miles in 1:15.  That felt great.  Nan did 12.  We stretched and rolled our legs for a while, then went outside and relaxed in the natural hot springs that happen to be connected to the fitness center.  Ahhhh.  That felt good.  Breakfast at noon.

It was -9 degrees this morning but really beautiful.  We’re going snowboarding now for the rest of the afternoon, its a lot warmer now, its really sunny.