Mileage

Ran at noon today, 85 degrees and about 85% humidity. I wanted to get in a few more miles for the week and for the month keeping up a good base for the half training.

3.5 miles in 29:44, 8:30 m/mile

Splits:
1- 8:47
2- 8:37
3- 8:05
.5- 4:14

I won't be running tomorrow so my months totals are as follows.

August: 103.9 Mi in 15:25:33
2008 YTD: 673.4 Mi in 106:15:55 (4 days, 10 hours)

Easy 5.1 today 44:55 8:49 m/mile. It was humid today, perhaps as humid as it's been in a month or so. I'll be glad when fall gets here to cut me a little slack on the heat and humidity.

Neglect

I didn't realize I had been neglecting this blog. I guess if you're fascinated by my daily runs you can check them out in my running log that is linked over in the right column. This week is cut back week. Cut back week is nice because it cuts out the long run and it cuts out the speed work and limits the runs to 5-6 miles. I love them because I also use them as a gauge to see how my easy pace has gotten faster.

Both of my easy runs this week have been at paces better than 9:00 m/mile, which is a first for me.


Monday: 5.3 miles at 8:29 m/mile
Tuesday: 6.18 miles at 8:27 m/mile
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: Hills 5 miles at 9:19 m/mile with 2 miles of hills total. Kicked my butt!

I've been getting runner's world magazine. I like the magazine and it's fun and sometimes informative. I also hear about Running Times and when I saw a subscription for $10 I jumped at it. I got my second issue in the mail a few day ago and I have to say that magazine is amazing. The articles are good and the information about running and training programs is excellent. Just one more tool to keep me from wandering around in the dark!

The Long Run

The Long Run is now my favorite run. It's tough getting myself out the door for this run sometimes, I don't know why and I can't explain it. But when I do get out the door for it, which so far is every time, I love it. Today I was set to do 10 miles, I decided to keep my long run training going with doing most of the miles at my LR pace but doing a few in the middle at half-marathon pace, or close to it.

I did the first 5 miles right at 9:19 a mile (maybe slightly better). I then did the next 3 miles at HM pace and then wrapped up the run with 2 back around 9:19 m/mile.

Overall I did 10 miles in 1:29:10 for a 8:55 m/mile pace.

Splits:
1-9:25
2-9:10
3-9:09
4-9:12
5-9:17
6-8:20
7-8:09
8-8:15
9-9:17
10-8:53

The weather has been great for these runs the last few weeks since I started doing long runs again. I'm sure this is due in part because I did the hot miles in July. Those miles were tough but they in turn made me tougher. They also made me a stronger runner and a faster runner. That's one thing I've noticed about my running. I'm strong. I get stronger the longer I run. My better miles start at mile 3 and get even better at mile 5. I look forward to increasing my distances to see how my body handles it. I love the fact that I'm getting faster as well...who wouldn't?

Hill

We don't have any hills around here but they are a great part of a workout. So I did hills today on the treadmill. 4 miles in 47:20 with 3 .5 mile hills with .25 mile recoveries. I really like running hills. On the way up I feel strong, and just solid. On the decline or when it levels off I feel horrible.

I also confirmed an article I read recently. It said that no matter how cool the room your treadmill is in you body creates a heat/humidity bubble around it. I felt that today- it sucked.

1 mile warm at 10:00 m/mile
.5 hill (3) 9:13
.25 recovery
.5 hill (3-5)
.25 recovery
.7 hill (5-9)
Finished to 4 miles.

Speed day

Today's speedwork didn't seem that challenging- at least on paper.

Mile @ 7:23 x2 w/ 800 recoveries.

During my warm up mile I just didn't feel fresh. At about .5 miles I remembered that I always run better on my second day back. It's almost as if my legs are fresher if I don't take a complete day off but rather just run a few easy miles.

I hit mile 2 at exactly 7:23 then after my 800 meter recovery started on my second mile at 7:23. My garmin was telling me I was doing 8:30 miles but I knew I was doing faster. After getting home I learned I was going about 7:10 which is a relief because it didn't feel as hard as my first mile. Then for my 800 recovery I kept the pace at or under 8:00 m/mile the finished the final 1.3 mile at a moderately easy pace.

Overall 5.3 miles in 44:47 8:27 m/mile

Splits:
1- 9:24
2- 7:23
3- 8:19
4- 8:08
5- 8:45
.3- 2:46

Monday/Tuesday

Monday- 5.5 miles in 48:34. I set out just running how I felt. The weather was great, nice and cool for the duration of my run and anytime it's cool I run very well.

1- 9:11
2- 9:06
3- 8:51
4- 8:34
5- 8:10
.5- 4:41

8:50 m/mile


Tuesday- so my running a little bit harder yesterday when I should have been taking it easy took a slight toll on me for the first mile or so of my long run this morning. After a slow first mile or two though I settled in and decided to push the pace. I want to start incorporating some half marathon pace miles into my long run. For instance if I'm doing 10 miles I'll do 6 at easy pace and 4 at half pace. I tried that today and really enjoyed it. On the long run it's so easy for my legs to sort of get stuck in a pattern and I just get stuck at the same pace, so doing this really helps.


1- 10:12
2- 9:25
3- 9:10
4- 9:19
5- 9:21
6- 8:50
7- 9:11
8- 8:39
9- 9:04
.5- 4:47

1:28:00- 9:16 m/mile

I found a nice little dirt road that I want to check out. I wasn't sure where it was going and I wanted to make sure I could keep my speed up but next week I'll go and check it out.


A shot from part of my run.

Half Marathon

Well it's time to update you all on the new training plan. It's half marathon training plan. I've yet to find a plan I'm excited about so right now I'm doing my own thing. Of course like any running plan there will be the usual suspects; long runs, recovery days, speed work, and rest days.

I want to run the Richmond Half Marathon in 1:45. Let the training begin.

Monday- 9.3 miles in 1:26:32, at a 9:19 m/mile pace. I forgot how much I love the long run. There's something incredible about being out on the road running that long, I can't explain it but I love it. I'm not sure if it's healthy but there's this euphoric feeling I get when I run for more than an hour.

Tuesday- 4.5 miles in 41:20, 9:12 m/mile pace. I ran with someone for the first time. There's a running group at the Y and while the group didn't come out on Tuesday at 6 AM me and the leader were there so we ran.

Thursday- 6.1 miles in 51:30, 8:24 m/mile pace. Again I ran at the Y. Jon, the guy I ran with, is a much faster runner than me. I told him my goal for the day. 6 miles total, some speed work at about 8 m/miles and the Churchland Bridge- a .67 mile bridge a mile from the Y. Well he ran my arse into the ground and it was great. He challenged me we kept a recovery pace between 8:30-9:00 and did anywhere from .25 mile to .5 mile fartleks. Hard runs from one point to another. We then took on the Bridge so I can get used to hills for Richmond. On the way back we did a few more fartleks and finished strong. It was a great run that I know I'll benefit from running with someone faster than me.

So that's the running so far for this week. I know I'll do a recovery run tomorrow and then maybe Saturday.

Journey

My friend BJ rode a tandem bike from the pacific ocean to the atlantic ocean a few summer's back. He rode solo on that bike for two for his friend Stephen who died of Cystic Fibrosis. I love to read about a good long distance trek so I thought I'd link to this one. While it's most certainly much less noble than my friends journey it's still interesting.

This guy is trying to cover the AT in less time than anyone else.

http://www.whereskarl.com

Last week recap

Monday I did 3 miles to get the legs turning over and ready for my race on Tuesday night. I always run better on the 2nd day after a day off so I knew this run was important but wanted to save all that I had for the race on Tuesday.


Tuesday the race was set for 6:30. I don't know what the temperature was but it was supposed to be high 80's with about 90% humidity at start time. Fortunately the race was in a garden so the trees provided nice shade but also stifled the breeze that felt so good. On top of the hot humid weather it rained about an hour before so there were huge puddles on the path and that hot steamy feeling coming up from the asphalt.

I lined up well mostly towards the front. I checked local area times and I knew I would be in about the 3rd wave of finishers, behind the front runners who finish in 15:xx and the next group that is sub 20:xx. We started out fast, very very fast. People had no idea how fast they were going and it showed about 2 miles into the race. We did the first half mile at 6:16 pace so I pulled it back a little and hit the mile marker at 7:20.

The course was pretty tough as far as hills go. I'm a sea level runner so I was surprised to find hills we had to conquer. No matter, I just pressed on. I hit two miles at 14:50 so a 7:30 mile. I knew I needed to finish with a 7:25 third mile and a strong kick to the finish. No problem, I was tired but had it in the tank.

Then it happened. I was in a group of about 15 runners, we were set to finish sub 23, this was the group I was going to hang with. We came to a fork in the race. No cones, no person waving us a certain way, so we guessed. About .2 of a mile later we realized we guess wrong. We ran into the group that was trailing us that would finish in 25 minutes or so. So we just jumped in with them to loop around again.

I was so mad and deflated. About 30 seconds went by like this and then I realized it wasn't going to do me any good to be mad or deflated so I should just finish as strong as possible. So I picked up my pace and started passing runners, runners I had already passed once.

It got tough because my body was prepared to go 3.1 miles at race pace not 3.35 miles at race pace. But I keep moving forward and finished in 24:30 (my clock time) 24:33 (chip finish).

I'm racing again on August 23rd and there I'll make my next sub 23:00 attempt.

To wrap up the week I did a 4 mile easy run on Wednesday and then a 6 mile run on Friday. I then took Saturday and Sunday off to get rested for the start of my 15 week half marathon training.