Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

Easy 7 miles on Planet Walk and USU track (was calibrating Nike Sport Kit). Slippery out today. Didn't wear watch.

(Adrenaline blue: 460 miles)

(Triax: 335 miles)

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Packers win the NFC Norse. Lions do us no favors.

Big Workout. 8 mile MP tempo, with 10x100m strides at the end. 15 miles total. Today I tried a new loop: the Hyde Park Hill Loop. It starts out on my Logan Loop, then I cross Main by Iggy's, then turn left on 800 N, and take that road to Hyde Park. Then a right onto the main road there, up the hill (a mile long), and then back south on 1600 N, at which point the route merges with my North Logan -USU-Boulevard Loop. So perhaps a better name for this new loop would be the "Logan-Hyde Park Hill-North Logan-USU-Boulevard Loop. But I'll stick with "Hyde Park Hill Loop", because it has a really stinkin' big hill in Hyde Park. Or maybe "Loop of Pain". I thought this route might be easier than my Millville Hill Loop, but it was in fact harder.

Warmed up for 4 miles, then started the tempo.

Mile	Split	Terrain
1	5:39	rolling
2	5:44	rolling; more uphill than down
3	6:54	um...BIG uphill.
4	5:18	blissful downhill
5	5:47	rolling; last bit of uphill
6	5:28	net dowhill
7	5:36	flat
8	5:41	mostly down; traffic stops

It was an okay workout, but not my best. The Hyde Park Hill makes Millville Hill look like a loser. I've ran down this hill many times, back when we would do long runs from Ben's house in North Logan, but never up. I'd rather go down. The last half of the tempo felt pretty good. The last mile was going through USU campus, so I had to slow down through the traffic light on 800 N, and then took the steep paved trail down from campus, which slowed things down too, because it was too steep. But another workout is in the bank.

Took a 00:45:00 power nap afterwards.

(Elite: 175 miles)

AM - morning treadmill routine. 7 miles total. I just got my FRB/St. G Running Center Team gear (thanks Steve and Sasha), so I wore one of the shirts over to the gym, and then made sure there were people in the row of treadmill behind me who could see the shirt, and therefore join the blog. I'm pretty sure that's how it works.

Napped for 01:10:00 before going to work.

(Adrenaline blue: 467 miles)

PM - 9 mile out-and-back to the River Trail from work. Cold, but tolerable. I did further testing of the Nike+iPod thingy while listening to a "This American Life" podcast. Now that the foot pod is calibrated, it was within 0.01 mile of my Garmin's measurement. Not bad for a $30 gadget. I felt really good during the run, and was fueled by injustices exposed by Ira Glass and cohorts. Averaged 6:44/mile for the run.

(Triax: 344 miles)

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Alright, all this talk about pink shorts for the racing team got me all worked up. So I decided that we needed a simulation to see how it would look in action.

AM - easy 6 miles in the dark. Very cold this morning. 7:40/mile average pace. The highlight of this run was wearing brand spankin' new Adrenalines with brand spankin' new Powerstep inserts. And not just any Powersteps, but the Powerstep Pinnacles. It's the orthotic used by kings and other nobility. Oh yeah, I'm living large!

(Adrenaline: 6 miles)

PM - easy 8 miles on Landfill Loop. A bit warmer out now, and I had a good run. Listened to a This American Life podcast about summer camp, which was entertaining. 6:39/mile average pace.

(Axiom: 8 miles)

Big Workout. 6x1-mile on the road @ LT pace, 1/4 mile recovery between intervals. I did the workout on the Young Ward-ICON Loop, which is as close to flat as we get around here. It started snowing before my run, and the roads were pretty wet. Cold and snowy is not my ideal running environment, but does it matter? I guess not. Warmed up for two miles and then started the intervals.

Interval	Split
1	5:07
2	5:13
3	5:10
4	5:14
5	5:10
6	5:14

Considering the weather and road conditions, I'm pretty happy with this workout. I hit a slight headwind on intervals 3 and 4, but then had nice conditions for 5 and 6, except on the 6th interval, my route turned onto a gravel road that was snow-covered and slick...and gravel. I think that last interval was worth a 5:10, but the effort was there, which is was matters.

My calves, especially the left one, got really sore after the 4th interval, probably due to wearing flats for a long period of time. The same thing happened last week, so hopefully my body will start adjusting. Maybe I should wear flats twice per week for more exposure. My cooldown was kind of pathetic, since I was so sore. But another quality day is in the books.

Big zero for today. Around 7PM last night I was just sitting there, feeling perfectly fine, and then within an hour I was sick with the beginnings of a cold. Today I have a sore throat, congestion, and general lethargy. I have definitely felt worse, just a garden-variety cold, but I put myself in self-quarantine and stayed home today. In a small office like ours, there no need to risk getting everyone else sick, especially when I can remote-desktop to anywhere on our network and get work done if the need arises (I had to do this for a couple hours today). It's been a good day of rest, and also got a lot of work done on the FRB running resumes.

I thought about going for a run earlier on, but then emailed Coach Tinman, who told me just to rest until I am healthy again. Loss of fitness at the muscle level and of blood volume doesn't start for several days, he says. Therefore, I am better off just resting and getting healthy faster, and not risking prolonging the illness. On that note, it's so good to have a coach in my corner now so that I don't have to make these decisions myself. Before, I would probably be out running right now, out of obsessive-compulsive guilt, and doing my body more harm than good. But now I have someone I can trust just telling me what to do, and it takes a lot of weight off my shoulders so that I can focus on the actual running, and on other things.

So no 100-mile week for me this week, but it's just a number, right?

No run again, still sick. I feel about the same as yesterday, but I imagine things will turn around by tomorrow. I got 12 hours of sleep last night, and will probably catch a nap or two today.