Artichoke's Running Blog (Ken Spence)

5:00 a.m. run.  Pretty early for a Saturday.  Did 6.1 up the Smelter Road hills.  Met Gina at the top at 6:00 a.m.and we then did another 11.3 back down the hills through Erda and to the church at Stansbury Park.  I left my truck overnight down there.  A very nice run, much cooler than 2 weeks ago when we wilted in the heat.  Gina did great and was very encouraged.  She even shed the knee braces half way through, so she may be on top of that as well.  Set out frozen H2O and Gatorade last night for every 2 to 3 miles and that helped out a lot.  She's right on target for the TOU 1/2 in 4 more weeks.

7:30 a.m. trail run on the Dark Trail in Settlement Canyon.  A great run.  Felt good to push it some on the hills.  8:47 overall pace compared to 8:56 last week.  Every mile was faster with the splits being:  Uphill, 9:36, 9:18, 9:52.  Downhill, 8:46, 8:08, 7:26.

7:30 p.m. run.  7.17 miles.  Very warm.  Smelter Road hills.  6.2 for Gina.  She did very well going up the hills. 

5 mile run at 5:10 a.m. solo run.  Back and hip not feeling the best.  No run tonight.  CHICAGO concert. 

Two runs today.  5 miles at 5:10 a.m. with Tina.  44:23.  First sub 9 minute run that early in the morning for months.  She really pushes those downhills for the last 2.5 miles! 

5 miles tonight at 8:30 p.m. with Gina.  A great run at a progressively faster pace. She really did well.  11:26, 11:03, 10:49, 9:49.  Held the faster finishing pace for the last full mile.   I'm feeling it tonight!

Aborted a 6 mile run.  Heavy smoke from the Settlement Canyon fires we felt was too unsafe to breathe.  Also very strong head wind.  We started out on Smelter road and ran for a mile or more and turned around and went back to the truck.  Hope the air is clearer by morning.  5:10 a.m. run scheduled, but may have to bag that one as well.  Hate the thought of going back to the treadmill.

5 miles at 5:10 a.m. with Tina.  Not quite same pace as Wednesday, but still a good run.  Smoke cleared out miraculously from last night.  18 miler tomorrow.  Glad it will be a lot cooler and we won't have to go so early.  Stashed water and gatorade tonight.

19 miles this morning on an unusually cool August day.  Felt really good.  Cloudy with some sun at times.  Easy running up the Smelter Hills to the gate.  Ran with Matt1 for a short while.  He was coming back down the hill on his 16 miler.  He turned around and went with me back up the hill for a mile or so.  Met Gina at the top of the hill for her scheduled 12 mile run down through Erda to Stansbury.  Saw Liz and Roland coming up the hills as we came down.  Quick introductions, and then off we went.  Gina ended up going 13.13, so she felt good about being able to go the distance.  She really did great and felt really good about the effort today and we had very even splits.  She'll be ready for the TOU 1/2 in 3 weeks.  Good week for me at almost 54 miles.  Back felt better today for a long run than it has for the last 2 days of short runs.

5 miles at 5:10 a.m. solo.  Easy running.  Then 7 miles tonight, extremely easy, 6 with Gina at 7:20 p.m.  Smelter hill again.  She did very well, 3 weeks in a row on the big hill.  Practiced a bit of chi running form coming downhill.  Felt good, nice view of the sunset to the west over the Stansbury Mountains.  Tired legs.  No running in the morning.

5 miler at 8:15 p.m. With Gina for 4.  Experimented with some Chi running the last two miles tonight and Gina's pace dropped approximately a minute per mile.  9:26 for the last full mile.  It was totally amazing!  I've been doing a little of this off and on the last few years, but it's the first I've done it by monitoring the pace with the Garmin.  I was really impressed.  5 miles at 5:00 tomorrow morning.  I better get to sleep.

5 miles this morning at 5:10 a.m. in about 46 minutes.  Chi running on the last 2 miles coming back.  Another 5 tonight at 8:30 p.m., 4 with Gina.  She struggled tonight, but hung in there to the finish.  That's okay after 3 consecutive great runs since Saturday.

Probably a bit shy of 4 tonight.  Gina not feeling well, so I went out for some easy miles around the high school.  Thought about doing some Yasso's, but wasn't in the right frame of mind, nor did the back feel like it could take it.  Practiced some chi cadence at 86, 85, 85, 86, and 87.  Barely there.  Still a decent workout.  5 miles scheduled tomorrow morning.

5:10 a.m. run.  4 easy miles.  I cut it back a mile to help get rested up for tomorrown long run.

 7:30 a.m. run.  Uphill for 6 miles to the gate on Smelter Road.  Ran into Matt1 coming down the hill and he turned around and went back up with me to meet Gina at 6 miles.  Then another 13 down Droubay Road through Erda and Stansbury.  Rained for the first 8 miles or so, then got very nice.  Very easy running, but a bit faster than last week for Gina.  She's ready for the TOU 1/2 with several 10/11 milers and two 13 milers.  We'll back it off to 10 miles next week.  H2O and G2 every few miles was nice to have. 54 miles this week.  Back felt better today than it did the last two runs with short mileage.

Total of 5 miles at 7:15 a.m. Yasso 800's at the brand new Stansbury track. What a nice surface!  My times weren't so great but I made 6 x 800 in 3:29, 3:30, 3:35, 3:32, 3:36, and 3:27 with 400 easy jog recovery after each.  1/2 mile easy warm up in Stansbury before.  Nice cool morning.  Hills tonight at 6:30 p.m. 7 more miles, 6 with Gina. She did great on the Smelter Road hill and also her last split coming back at 9:44, touching at 8:05 at one point on the Garmin. She is doing so good and is so excited about running right now.

6.4 miles up Settlement Canyon and along the Dark Trail and back.  Felt pretty good.  3:30 p.m. and 80 degrees.  First time solo on this run.

10 mile tempo run tonight at 7:30 p.m.  Smelter Road hills, solo.  Chi running in places.  Able to hold form longer.  45:45 at 5 going up, 9:09 pace.  Overall time, 1:27:19.  About 8:45 pace overall.  Felt strong in places.  Nice evening, nice temperatures.  Beautiful sunset to the west over the lake and the Stansbury Mountains.

Downhill run from the top of Smelter Road at the gate, plus up Droubay hill and back down, finishing at Main Street.  Gina's first time going up Droubay and she did very well.  Nice evening, 7:15 a.m. start.  Easy running, felt pretty good.

5:10 a.m.  4 crappy miles.  Sluggish today.  20 miler tomorrow.

First 20 mile training run.  What a fantastic day!  Started out at 5:30 a.m. and ran easy up Smelter hills to meet Gina by 6:30.  Back bugging me a bit and I was disappointed in being 3 minutes behind where I was two weeks ago going up.  Coming back down was another story, my back got feeling better the longer we were running.  Not as hot as we were expecting.  Saw Matt1 coming up the hill.  Got passed by a young girl runner going at a very fast clip coming down the hill.  I think a THS cross country runner.  She was hauling.  Coming down thru Erda was at least 1 minute per mile faster than last week for about 7 miles straight.  We've been trying more chi running and trying to get used to that running form and it is working great, especially for Gina.  Same effort as last few weeks and much, much better pace.  All under 10 minute miles with one full mile at 9:09, so she is really showing some major improvement.  I am very pleased!  Good week at 58+ miles.  TOU 1/2 marathon next week.

Trail run on the Dark Trail at 12:30 p.m. with Tina.  Fairly warm.  About 38:00 minutes.  Forgot the Garmin.  Fairly easy up and back but picked it up in places.  Drove up to the trailhead this week.

Easy downhill running from top of Smelter Road with Gina.  7:00 p.m.  Nice view. 

8:15 p.m. run.  5.5 miles mostly easy.  Vine, Droubay, and lower part of Smelter and back to Broadway.  3 easy with Gina but decent 2nd and 3rd mile.  Pushed the last mile some coming home.

Slow running at 5:10 a.m.  Very easy.  Ran into Liz at 2 miles.  She is running extremely slow right now with back and sciatica problems.  She should be resting, but she's very addicted and the marathon is coming up.  This will be her 11th consecutive SGM. Amazing!  

Second run tonight at 8:00 p.m. with Gina.  Tapering for the 1/2 on Saturday.  Easy 3 miler at about 10:26 pace.  We're ready. 

4 to 5 mile walk tapering for the 1/2.  2 easy miles running home from Gina's

Resting.  Travel to Logan.

A very nice 1/2 marathon under great weather conditions!  Gina did very well.  I paced her trying to stay under 10:00 minutes for every mile.  Finished in 2:09:11, about 9:47 pace.  She finished 31st out of 76 in the F45-49 division, or about top 40%, so she's improving rapidly.  Fastest split was 9:18 with 9:33 final mile.  She stayed very strong throughout, finished strong, and had left nothing out there, so she did very well.  A cool tail wind for a while coming down the canyon and overcast skies in the last stages helped a whole lot.  Just a great race and  I couldn't be happier for Gina.  She was very excited.  Tina also did extremely well.  1:36:00 flat.  2nd in the same F45-49 age group.  She is amazing and a great runner.  Next up for me is the St. George Marathon, one day after getting back from Argentina and then Snow Canyon 1/2 Marathon on November 7th.

5 miler in 45:12 this morning at 5:10 a.m. at 9:02 pace overall.  6.5 tonight very slow and easy.  4 with Gina.  Pushed last 1.5 coming home at 8:21 pace.  Nice evening run.  Legs a bit tired.