Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

I'm back. I haven't decided is this is a limited engagement or a long-term return, but I'm registered for the Saint George Marathon in October, and I thought I should keep a record of my preparation. If I use the paln I used for Ogden last year, today is day 1.

My goal is 2:45, same as it was at Ogden, but this time I plan to get it.

Of course, I'll be a little more flexible with my training this year. Having just finished four years of school, I'm looking to get back into shape and have some fun doing it, so I want to spend some time on trails rather than running intervals. Also, I plan to run either the Sapper Joe 50K or the Mid Mountain Marathon (or both) in preparation, so I'll need to get ready for that.

Todays run: 30 minutes, alternating between 5 minutes easy and 1 minute at about 5K pace. I went a little over and ended up running about 35 minutes.

I ran about five easy miles this morning, although my GPS never found a signal so I can't say for sure exactly how far I went. Maybe I'll drive the route this evening and update my post accordingly. 

Other than that, there's not much else to say about my run other than that it was nice and I felt fine. Hooray.

I started with an easy jog over to Provo High, where I did some 800s. It turns out the track is closed to the public now, but I just hopped the fence and was done before 5:00. 

5x800m with 200m recoveries. I was supposed to be going at about a 5K pace. Going by feel, that ended up being about 2:55 on average, which seems disappointingly slow. But I haven't run much at all since Ogden last year, and I haven't done any speedwork, so I guess that's what I should expect. Fortunately, there's still plenty of time between now and St. George.

Same run as on Tuesday. Out to 5th West/State Street, up into Orem and around the University Mall, past Costco (and Runner's Corner), back down the bike path along University and then home. I wore my GPS today and the route turned out to be a tenth of a mile longer than I reported on Tuesday, so bonus. Putting in the big miles this week, Krupicka style :-)

Easy miles on the Provo River Trail. A duck jumped out of the bushes as I ran past Walgreens and nearly gave me a heart attack.

Easy Saturday miles in a light drizzle.

I ran north along Carterville and then Palisade(?) until I could drop down to Riverwoods. From there I went back south on the River Trail along University until I hit the Chevron, where I jogged back over to Carterville.

Other than a few blocks on one of my regular weekday routes, I've never really run along Carterville Road. After today, I'm not sure why. It's got everything you'd want in a road to run on. It's quite, it's scenic, it's (relatively) uninterrupted, and it's lined with huge, shady trees (not that the last one mattered today). And, as an added bonus, there are tons of speed bumps to keep trafffic in check.

I think I'll make Carterville one of my regular routes.

Out of the blue, my ankle started to hurt last week on Monday afternoon. It didn't get any better throughout the week, but it felt much better after taking yesterday off, so I knew that the smart thing for me to do would be to take a litte more time off until it was completely better.

But against my better judgment, I decided to take advantage of the holiday to hit the trails. At the very least I was wise enough to consider the limitations of both my ankle and my current fitness, and I limited myself to a short run up to Rock Canyon Campground instead of up Squaw Peak or over the Slate Canyon - Y Mountain loop.

As expected, my ankle now hurts more than it did yesterday. But it was a beautifiul morning for a run, so I'm not sorry. At least not yet.

My legs feel pretty beat up after today's little climb and descent, even though my pace was so slow that the entire run took a little over an hour. It's kind of embarassing, really. There was a time (only a few years ago) when I could tag the Squaw Peak summit and be back to the car in under 90 minutes. 

Talking like that makes me feel and sound like a has-been :-).

As expected, my little trail run yesterday afternoon set my ankle back a bit. Even so, I was going to run this morning. I even got dressed and headed out the door, but when I started to feel trouble within a couple hundred feet, I turned around, the turned around again, and finally turned around one last time and went home. 

As impatient as I'm feeling, it's better to take time off now while my training is just getting started and there's more time to make up for lost time. 

I planned to run again this morning, but Nora had different plans and kept me up till about 1:00 in the morning. After that, there was no way I was going to wake up to run at 4:30.

Maybe Nora did me a favor--at the very least. I doubt the extra day of rest will hurt me.

Anyway, I'll be running again tomorrow, no matter how my leg feels when I wake up.

I ran a few easy miles this morning after taking a few days off to let my ankle heal and sure enough, nothing changed. Of course, although my ankle hurts after running, it doesn't seem to be hurting progressively more each time. So I've decided that I'm going to just try to run through it, whatever it is, until I get better or my body forces me to stop.

Bring it on, stupid ankle.

Four easy miles, out and back (heading east first) on the Provo River Trail. When I wake up in the morning, my ankle is stiff and sore, and it's pretty sore after I run, too. But while I'm running it's only a minor nuisance at worst, and usually it feels fine. I'm not sure what to make of that.

Today, unlike Monday, I did not oversleep, and that meant I got to do the longer trail run I've been wanting to. Specifically, Squaw Peak from Rock Canyon. Which isn't really a long run, but I guess it's all relative.

I hit the turnoff to the Squaw Peak trail, at just under two miles, in about 20 minutes, and I hit the summit, a touch over two miles later, in another 38 minutes. Which means I topped out in under an hour, something I didn't expect.

Of course, that means I was giving the trail too much credit or my fitness too little. Maybe both.

Anyways, I spent about five minutes at the summit and then ran back to the car in a bit under 40 minutes. As I was finishing, other people were just starting to get onto the trail, and the sun still hadn't come over the mountains. In a lot of ways, it was a perfect run.

After the run I picked up some donuts, which seems to have become a recent Saturday tradition, and after Catherine, Elliott and I ate them I went out for a short jog around the neighborhood with Elliott and Nora, because I enjoy it and Elliott enjoys it and I think Nora does too.