Monday, January 22, 2007

Easy Does It

Daily Quote: "Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd." --Voltaire

I have been roughly following the schedules in the book, "Advanced Marathoning," which calls for today being a Rest Day. Nevertheless, I ran a short and easy five miler instead of a complete rest as I find that easy runs helps flush my legs and I could always burn a few more calories. I wouldn't recommend running seven days a week for everyone, as a rest day for beginners is very important, and for those who just can't run EASY should take a complete rest day too. Sometimes I'm too competitive for my own good and found it very difficult adjusting to easy recovery runs as I wanted to improve by pushing myself in every run, not realizing I was jeopardizing my hard workouts as I wouldn't be fully recovered. Now I look forward to these short easy runs, especially after a long run like yesterday.

Today is a Recovery Run:
5 miles. Time, :46 minutes. Pace, 9:12 minute miles. Out & back on Lindell Route. Sunny, 45 degrees, Wind N @ 8 mph. Average heart rate: 146 bpm. Cardiac drift: 151 bpm. Finally ran up the Spring Mountain Road at a even effort...normally my cardiac drift would be in the 160's as I would challenge that hill. I should eventually be doing hill repeats as Allen had warned me several weeks ago that the Salt Lake City Half Marathon has hills at the end of the race. I wonder what grade or elevation the hills are in Salt Lake City's race?

Happy trails, Bruce
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1 comment:

Allen said...

Bruce, there are relatively small hills, but not nearly as bad as the last two miles of the GSL.

The race starts at the 2002 Olympic Legacy Bridge University of Utah. We'll follow Wasatch Drive and then go downhill to Foothill Blvd. We'll follow Foothill to 21st South. Foothill has a slight uphill grade with a steeper hill just before 21st South. These grades are nothing to worry about. Then there is a steep downhill to Sugarhouse Park. Sugarhouse Park used to be the location of the Utah State Penitentiary. The Penn was moved to its current location at the south end of the Salt Lake Valley when I was in high school.

Then more downhills to Liberty Park and more downhills to the finish at the 2002 Olympic Legacy Plaza, the place where awards were given during the Olympics. These downhills are not steep like the one on 21st South. There will be small ripples along the course but nothing to worry about.

Here is the page for the course.

http://www.saltlakecitymarathon.com/Course.155.0.html

Here is a map of the course.

http://www.saltlakecitymarathon.com/fileadmin/SLC_pdf/All_events_map06_nodate.pdf

Look at the elevation chart. Notice at the beginning there is a slight downhill followed by a slight uphill. That is Wasatch/Foothill. Then see the steep downhill. That is 21st South to Sugarhouse park. We separate from the marathon runners and head south to 27th South, a flat stretch. Then we go to Liberty park and into the city center. There are small ups and downs but nothing to worry about. Notice that the end is significantly lower than the beginning.

Do your hill training so you can power up the small ripples and so you'll be used to the steep downhill on 21st South.

January 22, 2007 at 6:09 PM

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