Racing and Pacing

AM - 10 mile Holladay loop with Jake, 7:45 pace. 

Heading to the Dick's Sporting Goods in Layton and SLC this afternoon to teach the employees about Saucony shoes and how awesome they are.

AM - Wednesday Workout, JAJAK style with MarkP and friends. 1.75 mile warmup then 6x800m w/ 400m recovery + 2x400m. Goal was 5-10k pace (targeting 2:47). I ran the 800s in avg 2:46.5 and 400s in avg 1:23. I felt great today - the weather was perfect (except for the sprinklers watering lanes 1-6 of the track) and I felt very strong through six 800s. It's amazing the difference between 200m recovery jog (which I've been doing for repeats) and 400m recovery jog.  I decided to run 8 reps after the 6th, but my hamstring twinged and I stopped on the 7th rep at 400m. Took a 30 second break to stretch then joined Allie on her last rep for another 400m. Cooldown around the track watching the guys do strides and Allie almost kill herself going over a hurdle, then more sprinkler madness around Sugarhouse Park. Felt like I had a lot left in the tank which is a good sign :)

The hamstring twinge seems to only happen on the track when I'm running faster than half marathon pace. It's my right leg, so I'm wondering if it's just a little too tight and the extra push-off on the turns is triggering the twinge.

PM - 1.8 miles. Distal hamstring attachment not happy.

AM - 4.5 miles, a couple of those with Jake. Felt surprisingly good this morning after the workout yesterday except for my new sunburn!

PM - 5 miles in the Sugarhouse area. 

Interesting info. about how much pro runners make - pretty sad, in my opinion.

- There is wide variation across each event and within the highest rankings. In aggregate though, combining all T&F events:

• Approximately 50% of our athletes who rank in the top 10 in the USA in their event make less than $15,000 annually from the sport (sponsorship, grants, prize money, etc.) and
• Approximately 20% of our athletes in top 10 in the USA in their event make more than $50,000 annually.
• Athletes outside of a top 10 USA ranking, other than some sprinters, milers, and distance runners, can expect to face very limited (if any) income support.

AM - Just a super short shake-out run. I was going to do 2 miles but got frustrated because the Garmin was off by 0.2 miles this morning (doesn't take much, huh?). I think someone in our neighborhood has some kind of electronic device that messes up the signal because both Jake and I have had this problem. This run was just bonus miles anyway because I have a hard 8 mile tempo run this afternoon.

PM - I decided to do my workout during lunch, thinking that it might be a little cooler than this afternoon. It was hot - 80 degrees with the sun high in the sky. The Jordan River Parkway down in Sandy (9000S) is much different than that around 3300S - it has no shade at all! 2 mile warmup then I started out the tempo, planning to do a progression from 6:35 to 6:00. It was just not happening. I started telling myself at 4 miles "just stay around 6:30". Ran the 8 mile tempo in 51:40, 6:28 average (6:33, 6:25, 6:23, 6:25, 6:28, 6:27, 6:35, 6:25). There was a bit of a headwind on the way back. As soon as I finished, I chugged a 32 oz drink in about 30 seconds :) Although the workout wasn't quite what I wanted, it was a great marathon pace tempo and longest I have done in a long time! Can't be upset about that :)

AM - 3 miles around the block with Jake. Today is my designated cross training day with minimal running! :) I'm trying to do this at least once every two weeks to give the legs and back a break from the pounding of running.

PM - Headed up to Alta for some ski fun. Skinned to the top of Wildcat chairlift then bootpacked up one of the east chutes of Mt. Baldy. Skied a really fun run - perfect spring conditions!

Happy Mother's Day!!