Trying to improve my running

This was a great run the day before the relay with my brother. We were taking it pretty easy but ended up doing a descent hill. The trail was great.

This was a fun race. It was a 5 person team 50 mile relay. Our family put together 2 teams. The team I was on only had 4 runners. My brother and I ran 3 of the legs and my sister and Jessie (My brother's friend) both ran 2 legs. We named our team Run for your life. So we dressed as zombie hunters and counted each team we passed as a kill. 

My first Leg was Leg 2: It was a 5 mile leg on the road with several decent hills. My goal was to have a 7:30/mile pace average. I finished the 5.22 miles in 39:17 for an average pace of 7:31/mile.  I was able to get 5 kills on this leg.

For my next run I did 2 legs back to back. leg 8 & 9: Leg 8 had a long gradual hill at the first. I was able to get up that without too much trouble.  I was trying to take it a little slower so I would have enough left to finish the end of the course because of the upcoming hills. I was doing this by keeping my heart rate at less than 160. The course was pretty flat for the next couple of miles and I was able to go fairly quick (8:25/mile) and catch 7 people. Just at the end of leg 8 there was a pretty steep hill (11% grade) it was less than a quarter of a mile and I was almost able to catch another 2 people right there unfortunately the back site was downhill and then was the exchange and another steeper and longer hill (just over 0.25 miles and 11% grade) so they exchanged with fresh legs and I lost ground on them from then on. I thought those were the only hills on this run when I was planning on it but the course just continued to gain elevation gradually (another 290 vert over the last 4 miles) and I wasn't ready for it. I was pretty happy that I was able to continue running through the whole course my average pace for these legs turned out to be 8:53 (my goal was 8:30).

I'm glad I did this race it was more of a stretch for me than I thought it would be with the extra leg and having the hardest leg on the course. I hope I can get ready for the speedgoat now since the elevation on this was nothing spectacular. 

Pretty stiff today for my run. I didn't think I would be that stiff after only 14 miles I guess the extra effort to go fast really adds to the lactic acid production. AP: 8:45.

Hit the trail this morning. It felt really good the muscles were still stiff though a little less so than yesterday. I am going to need to doa  lot of trail work this month if I am going to get to my vertical feet goal (12,000). I felt pretty good about my pace on the trail (9:42).

I didn't have much time this morning because I slept in. I wanted to do some vertical so I drove to the trail close by my house. I only did 2 miles but was able to get 320 feet of vert.

First missed day of running excepting Sunday's since Thanksgiving. I guess i have kind of turned this week into a rest week following the race.

First run was up Beacon hill (only 2 miles). I was kind of amazed at how well I was able to get up this hill. I wasn't very fast but was able to get all the way up the hill without stopping. The steepest part of the hill is 20.2% grade over a quarter mile.

The second run was in the middle of the night while I was at work. I did 3.8 miles AP: 8:31. I was just taking it slow.

This run felt surprisingly good, given that I only slept for 2 hours since Friday morning(with 2 runs in the interim) prior to this run on Saturday afternoon. I really wanted to run up Wasson peak to get some vertical as well as some trail work. The first mile of this run is a gradual up hill. I felt like it was nothing. The next mile is mostly made up of semi-steep switchbacks. most times I have needed to walk at least 1/4 of this portion. today I was able to run the whole thing with only a short rest at the saddle. I then was able to run most of the rest including over half of the steep switchbacks at the end to get to the summit. It was so much more than I have been able to do prior to this. I then tried to push the downhill as much as i could to strengthen the quads for the speedgoat. I felt like the whole trip was the easiest trip up to the summit I have had. Comparing this to my prior runs up the mountain after it was over it turns out it was my fastest run by 20 seconds however since this was a little longer run it turned out to be 13 sec/mile faster. It was a lot faster than my most recent runs here.

Slept in again and only had time for a short trail run this morning.

Early morning summit of Wasson peak, beautiful sunrise. The uphill felt harder and slower than Saturday, but I pushed the downhill harder and ended up with faster overall time. AP 11:41. 

 Below is the comparison between Tuesday and Saturday.

Took a day off the trails and went up wade road. AP 8:12.

Ran up Beacon hill again. I need to get up earlier. I wanted to do the hill a couple of times. Unfortunately I didn't have time. I was again able to run the whole hill, which is very encouraging. I feel like this hill is as steeper as the steepest parts of snowbird unfortunately much shorter.

Just went up Wade road this AM. AP: 8:11.

This is my third time up wasson peak this week. I felt like this time was going to be slower I didn't have much energy when I started. As I kept going ingot more energy. I did rest a minute or so longer at the saddle and at the top. I did try to push the downhill as much as possible and ey were all less than 10 min/mile. I was kind of surprised that the uphills were as fast as the previous times as well as faster than any prior trip as well. My AP was the fastest I have ever had as well. AP: 11:34. Below is the comparison with the runs from the past week as well as the run from right before the Moab trail half marathon.

I have wanted to do this run for about 6 months. This was the first time I have been able to get enough time to do the run. Mt Wrightson is the highest peak you can see from Tucson. The trail I took starts at 5400 ft. The summit is at 9453. 

Here is a view of the peak (the highest peak to the left of the picture.) Jospehine Saddle is in the middle of the picture.

With how well the run up Wasson peak had been going this week. I thought this wouldn't be too bad. It was double the vertical feet and at almost double the elevation. I guess that had a big effect this was a ton harder than the wasson peak trail. I was able to run most of the way (only walking the more technical parts) up to Josephine saddle which was ~1700 vert over 2.4 miles (average 13% grade). I rested at the saddle took some pics and chatted with some other hikers. After this the trail seemed to get really steep. Looking at the numbers it was a little steeper 1620 vert over 1.7 miles to get to Baldy saddle (average 18% grade). I had multiple moments on that trek that I could really feel the altitude and was only able to run about 30% of that leg. The last leg was from the saddle to the summit. It didn't seem as steep, however the altitude, technical nature of the trail and the wear from the rest of the trail I was only able to run about about 50% of this there was a decent amount of snow up there. the views from the top were fantastic and made the run worth it.

This is the view from the top looking back towards Tucson. 

I felt pretty good at the top after a short rest and thought I was ready to really crank out the downhill. The first part was pretty technical and icy so I couldn't go very fast. After Baldy saddle I tried to go faster and by the time I got to Josephine saddle my legs were really feeling it. I thought I would take a little longer trail down from there and before I got to the bottom i was wishing I wouldn't have my legs were so tired. I think it is going to be key to get used to going up and downhills after having already done pretty steep hills if Iam going to be able to survive the speedgoat. I think if I could do this run 2 times in a row I will be as close to ready as I can get for speedgoat.

Recovery run up Wade road. AP: 8:24

Did a trail run today on the trail by the house. I still feel pretty tired from Mount Wrightson.

I did a run up Beacon hill today. This run may fit into the category of I planned this run and decided to do it despite not feeling up to it when I woke up this morning. It is hard to tell if those feelings are being lazy or are my body telling me to slow down. I erred on the side of lazy today and went and did the run. I was really tired I wasn't able to make it all the way up the hill the first time without a short break halfway. I had wanted to do at least 2 laps up the hill so I went up again and had to stop 3 times in less than a mile. I need to get my climbing legs in better shape. i guess the only way to do that is to do these climbs.

Normal run up wade road AP: 8:00.

I was going to run up Wasson peak today, but last night I decided to look at putting together a training schedule for the upcoming 50K and realized I was less than 20 weeks away. I felt like I needed to do something longer than 10 miles and my wife didn't want me to be gone too long so I decided not to do those miles on the trails. After making that decision and probably a mile or so into the run I decided to see how fast I could do a half marathon since the only one I have ever run was the Moab trail half. I must admit I didn't push this overly hard but tried to keep and 8:00 pace. I did great at that for the first 7 miles. At that point I went up Beacon hill (over 300 feet of vert in less than a mile 20% grade). This obviously slowed me down for the next mile but took more out of me than I thought and I could only manage to hold about 8:30 pace. I felt pretty good about the overall effort though. my time was 1:53:08. I think I could have done better at a real race, without the hill in the middle I would have been around 8:00-8:15 the whole way.

This was a fartlek run, which I did up Wade road. I did 20 sec at 6:30 pace every mile. My legs were kind of tired at the start and before the end they were exhausted. I am going to have to do something easier tomorrow. AP: 8:10.

Ran slow on the local trail to get hopefully some recovery. AP: 9:08.

1st run: run up beacon hill. I did the hill 2 times. It felt better than last week. I did have to stop 2 times on the second trip up. I could have finished but I would have to walk a lot. I did about a mile warm up and a mile cool down as well to get some extra miles. 4.6 miles

2nd run: after work did 3.1 miles slow and flat to get some more miles. AP: 8:15

Just a standard Wade road run. went almost to the top of the saddle before I ran out of time and had to turn around. AP: 8:05.

Ran up Wasson peak before work. I love this run. It felt so good this morning. I wasn't able to make it to the top but I did get about all the vertical out of it and made it to the final ridgeline (about 0.5 miles short of the peak) before I ran out of time. This is great run to do at sunrise so pretty. My AP was about the same as the last time I ran it. Subjectively it felt a little easier today. AP: 11:37.

Busy day today so I only had time for 6 miles up wade road before work and other activities. hopefully I can get in some stairs at work to get some more work on vert. I am almost to 20,000 for the month. AP: 8:05

 I was able to find time to go up the stairs at work 2x while on call. It is 8 flights of stairs I figure about 200 vert as there is 12 ft per flight. It was pretty tiring. I should try that more often.