Meteorology 101

Okay, basic physics: Hot air rises, and cold air falls. Typically, the higher in elevation you go, the colder the air gets, right? To escape the heat of a hot summer day, you head to the mountains, where it's cooler, right?

So, in a typical environment, the hot air near the surface of the planet rises, and as it does, it cools, which in turn makes the air fall (colder air is denser, but we've been over this already), so you get this stirring action (called convection) that keeps the air, shall we say, "fresh."

Well here in our high mountain valleys, it snows in the winter, which tends to keep the air around the ground area cold. Cold air falls, as we've discussed, but this air is already on the ground... so as warmer air aloft moves over us thanks to a nice "ridge" of high pressure, the cold air is trapped, because it's colder than the air above it, instead of warmer like it usually is (hence the term "inversion"). That was a long run on sentence, but if you read it a few times, you'll get what I mean -- if you're still awake at this point, that is.

Anyway, in this nice layer of colder air near the ground that's not going anywhere because it's colder than the air above it exist all the cars, factories, oil refineries, furnaces, fireplaces, etc. (and sublimating snow, which adds to the visibility issues), and since the usual convection isn't happening, all the particulates, pollution, water vapor from the snow, etc., just hangs in the air, and all of a sudden you have Salt Lake City doing its best Los Angeles impersonation, like this:

My point? You really don't want to be out running in that gunk if you value your lungs. So, I'm relegated to this:


*Sigh* 5 miles today. Here goes nothin'.

Update

I had a great run last Saturday. I went out for the best 10-miler I've had in a long time. I managed to hold a 10:30 average pace, which I would LOVE to be able to maintain for 26.2 here in another couple months. It was cold outside, but nothing a few layers, a fleece vest, and gloves couldn't fix. Here's my splits:

10:21
10:30
10:23
10:21
10:25
10:39
10:27
10:55
10:37
10:20

You can tell where the long uphill mile was, eh? :)

Sunday is (always) a rest day, Monday I ran 4 on the treadmill, and Tuesday I ran 5 and change outside at lunchtime. It was PERFECT running weather... just over 40° and mostly sunny. I ran the hilly City Creek + 1 route, and finished in 50:35, which for 5.1 miles equals a 9:54 pace. A PR for that course, for sure.

Wednesday was a biking day on the Cycleops Pro 300 PT indoor cycle. I was reading a book and in about 38 minutes I went 13.45 miles. I really want to work on my cycling and get to the point where I can hammer out more watts on a more consistent basis. I average about 165 watts on a good ride. I'd like to get that up to over 200 sooner rather than later. We'll see how that goes, but I'm going to focus on it on my cross-training days (like tomorrow). I have 4 easy miles on tap today -- it's a cutback week on the training calendar for SLC. Tomorrow's another bike day, and Saturday will be 7 more miles runnin'.

Ya gotta love marathon training. You just gotta love it!

2009 Training Plan

Here it is, if you want to see what I'll be doing from now until the triathlon in September. I did forget to note the Art City 5k on here, but I'll definitely be running it... I believe it will be June 6th. So I may trade my cutback week and make that my shorter Saturday, and run 13 miles the week before, when I'm scheduled to bike 16.

I'm curious to know anyone's opinion. :)

2009 Plans

These aren't the New Year's Resolutions... these are the plans.

I'm planning on trying something a little different and running the Salt Lake Marathon in April this year. This is only 14 weeks away, so I'm kicking the training into gear now. If all goes according to plan, I won't have a week of less than 23 miles of running for the rest of the season. And only very few weeks of less than 30 miles.

There will be some biking (and maybe even swimming) thrown in there as well. I really want to do the Daybreak Triathlon in September. It may be the sprint, it may be the Olympic distance, but I'd really like to get it done. It will depend on the funds available at the time.

I also plan on doing the Art City 5k with the family, and entering the lottery for the St George Marathon in October. And with any luck, I'll run the Hobble Creek Half Marathon in August. That oughta keep me busy for the year, eh?

Good news and bad news

Some good news...

I had a great Christmas. Lots of fun, the kids had a great time and got lots of fun new things that are eventually making their way to their bedrooms, and I got some new toys... mostly bike related (headlight/taillight set for the bike, bike computer [with cadence!]), but I also got a new heart rate monitor. I got to take it out for the first time today, as the weather over the Christmas break was not conducive to running, or even to walking the 1/2 a block to the clubhouse with the treadmill. I ran my standard 4 mile City Creek loop, and my heart rate seemed to average in the high 160's going up, and the low 150's on the way down. The not-so-good news is I didn't get one that stores the data -- it's a very basic model. That's cool though, it's a step up from what I've had in the past (nada). The treadmills and indoor cycle here in the gym will have their computers that will keep track of average/maximum rates, etc., so it's all good.

The bad news?

Gained a pound over the 5 day layoff. Considering what I ate and how much I exercised (not), I think that may actually be a positive thing.

Tweet tweet

Still running. I had a great run Friday night. I left home about 5:30 and ran for 44 minutes and change, for 4.55 miles. That's a sub-10 pace on average, and every split was sub-10 also. Usually I'll have a sub-10 run where one mile was just over 10 minutes, like 10:04, but the sum of the other miles made up for that :04 and brought the average down. I was quite pleased with this run.

Also, on Monday I tried going out way too hard... on a treadmill. I got on the treadmill at lunch, and noticed that the guy next to me, who happens to be a VP in our company and one of my former professors in college, had been on the treadmill for about 2 minutes and change already when I started. I also noticed that he was running at a 6.0 mph rate, or a 10-minute mile. I set the TM to 6.2, with the goal to catch him within 3 miles. It didn't quite happen. I noticed that he sped up at one point to 6.1... so I went to 6.4, then 6.7.... then 7. When I had .25 miles to go, I knew he was out of reach, as he was still about .13 ahead of me. But I got a nice tempo/interval/speed work session done. Then I went and did a circuit on the weight machines which made me just about pass out. I haven't been that light-headed in a long time. But alas, no passing out (although I came close). I think I just was under-hydrated and under-fueled.

Today I settled in for a quick 4 mile "easy" run at 6.0 on the treadmill, with Champions League soccer on the telly. Chelsea won, 2-1 (yay!). And the 4 miles were over in 39:46.

Oh, and I'm on twitter. Follow me at twitter.com/baldzach

December?

Today I ran outside in 55 degree temperatures. In Utah. In December. 4 miles in 40 minutes.

I'm going to have to ditch the podcasts in favor of Christmas music on these runs if I'm going to believe it's December at all. As near as I can tell, it's 'beginning to look a lot like Halloween.'

... minus all the scary stuff. Which is good, I don't like that crap anyway.