Joe's Running Blog

Only had time for 64 minutes this morning, so decided to explore the Poison Creek trail west of town. Crossed the river where we saw the 7 skunks on Friday, turned off the highway and got on the dirt road with cattle guards every couple miles. The road forks after about 4 minutes, and AnnMarie had already been running on the same road this morning, and said she stayed right when the road forked and she made it to a large outbuilding a couple miles up the road. I decided to take the left fork and see where it went. Gradual climb up a canyon, hills covered with sage and juniper. Have not seen one vehicle this morning, and I can count on two hands the vehicles I've seen the entire time running in Cokeville. Anyhow, didn't expect to see any vehicles on this "road", kept heading east until 27 minutes into the run, where a fence blocked the road and enclosed a rather large herd of noisy bovine on the other side. Didn't figure to see any bulls in the group, but didn't exactly want to recreate my own version of Pamplona, Cokeville-style, so I turned around and took the same fork AnnMarie took earlier. Turned around at 43 minutes and decided to blow out a little carbon on the way home. Got into a nice rthythm, not sure of the pace but estimate it to be around 5:35 ish or so. Made it home in about 63 minutes, just in time to shower and walk to Church. Amazes me that in a small community, people will still drive less than a mile for anything. We were definitely in the minority as far as walkers. Oh well, I prefer it that way. Drove back to North Ogden for a few days, will be headed back up there Wednesday or Thursday.

Took the day off from running. My body was telling me I needed a break, so I spent most of the day working on my few remaining assignments for my master's classwork. I'm set to defend my project on Wednesday, my project is a study on the affect of extracurricular sports on grades at the junior high level. I know you're dying to know more, but that's all for now.   

A.M. "T" workout from Jack Daniels. 6x1 mile at threshold pace, with one minute recovery. Threshold pace is approximately 5:15 per mile for me, so I figured mile repeats would be perfect. Talked Kenneth Richardson into joining me, he is still recovering from nasal surgery, but agreed to come run it and see where he is fitness-wise. Warmed up from my house to Weber High's track, did some strides and got going. The sprinklers for the football field were going all the way around the inside perimeter of the track, and we would often get blasted by them as there was definitely some overspray that landed on the track. Actually, there was quite a bit of overspray. It was very welcome, however, as it kept us cool the entire workout. Our mile repeats went as followed:  5:18, 5:19, 5:17, 5:13, 5:10, and 5:03. The last lap of the last one was more of a VO2 max effort, but I didn't mind too much at that point. Ken did great and is in better fitness than I think he allows himself. I felt pretty good the whole time and was never uncomfortable, save for the last lap of the last one. Jogged home, scarfed down some breakfast, showered, changed, and headed to the airport to see the arrival of Elder Nick Fisher from the Philadelphia Mission. He ran for me at Weber High, where his prs were 9:22, 4:12, and 1:54 for the deuce, 1600, and 800. He'll be joining the Weber State team this fall and I believe he has a bright future ahead of him. At the airport he said the thing he wanted to do the most was go for a run, so we agreed to meet up in the evening and go for a run.

P.M. AnnMarie, Myles and myself went to Nick's house for a BBQ and a little run, Nick wanted to run this trail that winds its way up to Powder Mountain ski resort. I didn't want to curtail his wishes by reminding him we'd be starting at well over 5000 feet and going up from there, I figured the run would let him know that. We made it up 17 minutes, then turned around and it took us 13 minutes to come back down. I'll call it four miles. I remember my first run after being home from England--I felt like someone had my head in a c-clamp and was standing on my chest. And that was a 3 mile run! Welcome home Nick.

Ran easy with Nick Fisher again, we headed east on the canal, got on the trail, and came home. I remember the feeling of coming from sea level to altitude, and it ain't fun. Nick will be fine after a couple weeks. Will probably run again tonight.

Got a good night's sleep, but felt sluggish and beat down the entire run. Not sure why, it was fairly cool, overcast (or was that all the smoke from the fires?), and I didn't go particularly hilly. Yesterday was an easy run, so...anyhow, it's in the books and that's the important part. Running in the evening is tough to make work, but I'm going to try again tonight to get an easy hour in, and call that my long run for the week. I think we're going to do the xTerra Trail race at Snowbird this Saturday, I love running the trails and it will be fun for both AnnMarie and I to go.

P.M.  Made it out the door at about 9:45 p.m. and figured I had time and energy for about 30-40 minutes.  Went down 450 east to 2600 north, east on 2600 to Mtn Road, cut NW on the canal, dodged a few cats, and worked my way home. 35 minutes on the dot, showered and zonked out. Call it 5 miles.

Met Ken at Rainbo Gardens on 12th street and got 50 easy minutes. I'm glad I got out the door late last night, but I'm not yet used to doing that and getting up the next morning. However, I need to start doing it 2-3 times per week to get in a few more miles. Hope to get out the door for a few tonight.

Daniels "I" marathon workout. I had the option of doing this workout as a hill workout, so I found a quiet residential street that is pretty well lined with trees on the east side of the street, so I would be doing most of the workout in the shade. Plus, I figured there would be enough sprinklers still going I could drench myself every 5-10 minutes to keep cool. Ran from 2600 north to 2850 north, on 700 east in North Ogden. It's a pretty decent climb, but gradual enough I could keep my rthythm and turnover at a good clip. 9x800 meters, though I believe it's just a shade under 1/2 mile. Does anyone know of any software or website that tells exactly the distance of city blocks and streets? Please let me know. Anyhow, I ran the uphill, immediately turned around and jogged back down for the recovery. 2:40, 2:34, 2:35, 2:39, 2:31, 2:35, 2:34, 2:35, 2:29 and one mile jog home. Tough workout for me, I was working and my hamstrings were humming on the last three. The shade helped a ton, and knowing someone who lives on that street helped also, because between every other repeat, I would turn on his outside tap and water myself down to keep cool. That saved my bacon more than anything.

Decided against doing the XTerra trail race at Snowbird today. Didn't feel like driving into SLC, and am in the middle of painting/carpeting downstairs. Oh well, it was a good workout and a good ending to the week.