overtaking haynes

went out with my brother...i did a couple add ons while he walked and i showed him the place where i had a zen moment last week. It's this really awesome downhill section that is probably a solid 1/4 mile with all different terrain. Probably a 150-200ft drop total. Starting to like my asics trail runners finally. As the sun was going down the orange glow through the trees was beautiful. 

2.6 mile warmup followed by a 5k tempo run on trails. The course is similar to what i've been doing for the 5 mile tempo runs but didn't feel like doing the full 5 was a good idea today. The long races are long enough and i wanted to start incorporating more speed. Not like i had much speed. My 5k was a 20:44. Definitely some good hills but I have been able to hold that same pace or even faster for a full 5 miles. Probably not fully recovered. Hopefully i feel pretty good this weekend. I sent in my application for the mount mitchell challenge (40 mile race in winter up and down mt mitchell in NC). It's really hard to get into because priority is given to people who have run the race before which makes entering for a first time difficult. Doesn't seem like a fair strategy but i guess it's the race director's call. 

ran at huntington...it is starting to get dark too early...may start going to work at 7:30 so  i can leave a half hr earlier. Today I'm 99% sure I saw a bear...i didn't stay very long to look twice but it was large, black, thick legs, bear walk, no collar, and no owner around...i was day dreaming and went down a path that said no trespassing...i've been near there before but never exactly at this place and i'll think twice about going there again. I then booked it up the hill and about 10 min later an owl swooped within 1ft of my head and landed on a tree just above eye level. I stared at it and it looked like one of the flying monkeys in the wizard of oz and it stared back intensely...and after about 10 sec it stepped forward one pace closer on the end of the branch and i saw electricity in it's talons as if it was going to charge at me and yes it won the stare down and i grabbed a stick which was rotten and fell apart in my hands and ran. I didn't let the animals get the best of me and i did another 2.5 mile loop as the darkness continued to engulf me. 

no bear sightings today...i was scared to go to the same place i saw the bear. I did run by where the owl was and got swooped at again...this time there were two of them! I wonder if they have a nest there. felt horrible at the beginning of the run i think it's mostly due to stiffness. By the end felt ok...definitely going to go back to taking the day off before a race. glad the storm is supposed to be bad on sat and not sun when the trail marathon is.

I'm definitely never running the day before a race ever again, I just feel so much better when I don't. I was hoping that no one good was going to be here but usual trail race winner Ben Nephew showed up and was in for the full marathon, but gave me a glimmer of hope when he said he may opt out for the 1/2. We started, and I was right behind Ben for the first mile or so but then the hill came and he pulled away. 3 others passed me on the first climb of 2000ft (a ski trail) but not by much and 2/3 of them were doing the half. Next was some single track and i got to the 5 mile aid station in 49 min feeling pretty good. More rolling single track and I got caught on an uphill by another guy who was doing the half and then i passed him on the downhill section but then we ran together.  A long steep downhill brought me to mile 8 which i dreaded having to climb on the 2nd loop which would be the reverse direction. The  course became ATV trails which were not in the best of shape but pretty good. Lots of up and downs to the aid station at mile 11, I had to poop which made me feel better. I think I need to stop eating dunkin donuts egg and cheese and the new flat bread egg thing before races. I like it though at 5am. Anyways, to get to the turn around point it was definitely longer than 2.1, probably 2.5 to 3 miles as the mostly downhill on good roads took a full 21 minutes. I saw Ben coming back and he was for sure about 12 minutes ahead at the turnaround which i got to in 2:05. I would have beaten the several people in the half marathon as I went out pretty easy and wasn't further back than a couple minutes on the winner of that. The second place guy was maybe 2 mins ahead of me and I was determined to catch him. I started very strongly on the uphill but became discouraged when i couldn't see him. I started to hurt a bit up the steep climbs but felt really strong again with about 7 miles to go. I was slightly nervous I could get caught since i was only ~6 mins ahead of the next people at the turnaround but knew i was running well enough that i should be fine. I ended up finishing 20 mins ahead of 4th place. I actually did catch up to the 2nd place guy in the last mile but it was only because he did a mini loop of ~1/3 mile cause he had his head down and missed the turn. He was too strong-a sub 3hr marathon runner according to his friends...hopefully not 2:59,  and he pulled away from me and kicked it in 2 mins ahead of me. All in all i don't feel too wrecked, haven't been getting sore from these weekend races but i think this week may be an exception...i definitely hurt a  little bit right now and waking up at 4:20am to drive to the 8am start doesn't help either....much better than last week. I only got ~6 mins slower on the return trip of 2:05 instead of 13 mins slower on the return trip of 1:20. 

Decided to go run at a place i hadn't been since h.s. It's on the way home from work in the hills behind a fairly large industrial park that is half empty. Kind of creepy actually in a way...I was only creeped out because i got lost and had to find my way back in the dark. I started running about 5:30...planned on running a couple hrs. I remembered the place being pretty hilly and remembered there being some vistas to explore. In looking for new places to run online this apparently is the start of a trail that runs 15 miles in one direction through 3 towns. I planned on doing an out and back...I ran about 2.75 miles to what looked like the trail was going to come out near a road and i decided to turn back and explore some of the side trails i opted not to take on the way out. I was at literally 35 mins or so, but the terrain was pretty awesome. I started at about 450 feet and got up to almost 900 and down and up several times. On the way back i took some side trails and found an unexpected beautifully made rock stairs and also cut out steps in rock, as well as a sweet bench with a good overlook. My downfall was taking another side trail and thinking i was somewhere i wasn't. I ended up getting down to what i thought was the place i needed to be but then i checked my gps watch as it was getting dark and i was like crap! Needless to say i had to climb a hill again and run back completely in the dark with the owls hooting. at least there appears to be miles of trails back here and i saw not a single person which i like. i'll have to go back soon. i think i'm going to try to hit the track tomorrow for a 5x1000 workout but we'll see if the track is open and also how my motivation is. Surprisingly i wasn't sore at all from the marathon. i don't really get sore anymore and i wonder if that means i don't push my body as hard as i can or if i'm just well trained for the races i do. 

went to the track today after work...wore the racing flats for the first time i'm planning on wearing in the marathon. of course my little left toe got hammered with blisters like it always does on the track. Anyways, i didn't really know what to expect. Haynes had cranked out a solid 5x1000 workout recently averaging between 3:20 and 3:25 but he had been doing some speed workouts in the past couple months while i had only done 3, 5k to 5 mile threshold runs in addition to trail racing 14 miles to a marathon the past 4 weeks. I felt fine on my run yesterday and also from the trail marathon minus the soreness on the ball of my foot. it doesn't hurt during the run but hurts to walk the next day. it went away so i'm not worried about it being a fracture...i bet it got bruised from the tortuous downhills...ok, enough of procrastinating with my times....warmed up 1.8 miles, stretched for the first time in forever and then it was judgement. I knew from the first 200 that i was not going to be hitting Haynes times today and ran a 3:29 1k. i then jogged 400m in about 2:30 and did a 3:32...looking week! then a 3:29, 3:30 and 3:33 for the last one. According to Daniels I went from a 60 vdot from my mile time back in may to a 57 vdot based on my interval workout today. What I would run if I could do a 5:11 mile. I do think i could have run much better with Haynes there too so maybe it's not fair to compare. I'm actually not disappointed, I didn't really hurt, just the speed wasn't there. I'm NOT going to race this weekend. I've said this before but i really think i'm going to focus on speed. Even with this workout i could hit a 2:50 marathon according to Daniels if i was properly marathon trained, which i'm most likely not! If i can drop these to all under 3:29 in a few weeks i'll have some confidence that i can break 3hrs going into the marathon. 1 mile cool down.

had an eye doctor appointment in the morning in the next town over and brought my running stuff because i wanted to check out some new trails. I thought the GPS in the car would be enough to find it but what should have taken 10 min took about 30 cause it would bring me to the edge of the state park but i would have had to go through people's back yards on dead end roads. the ball of my foot was hurting again but i'm sure it's from the new shoes i've been wearing...although i brought the same shoes again. The trail began overgrown but after about a mile turned beautiful and I got some good views after a good climb to 1,050ft which is impressive for where i live. did and out and back but the gps went out on the out at 6.1 miles and never really recovered. i wasn't feeling well for starters and i think a lot of that had to do with the pain in my foot and also that i had only had a light breakfast and was out there running for a couple hrs. ran about 10 +/-1 a mile a guess. Excited to explore the next segment of the Ives trail which unfortunately isn't quite finished yet. It's ~15 miles one way over all of the high points in the area. 

During yesterday's run i wanted to quit running i was so frustrated. Today I took an advil which i never do and switched to my cure all 1lb each montrail hardrock running shoes. Have no idea when the last time i wore these were as the tread is starting to come off but they have soft shock absorbing inserts i had put in. I remember wearing these during a track workout with Haynes when i had a toe blister so bad i could barely walk. I tried on 4 different pairs of running shoes but they all were really painful. i looked online and found what i had and no sight mentioned time off...it doesn't really help, it just remains tight. So i went with the hard soled montrails and i'm not running on any trails for the time being cause any root or piece of rock just kills me. I warmed up for 2.3 miles on the dirt road by my house at just under 8:30 pace and then decided to do a 5 mile loop at tempo pace. I started in 6:35, 6:45,7:00,7:00, 6:50. It was pretty humid and the loop is very hilly with elevations from 550ft to 800ft. There was actually little pain by the end of the tempo run and then i did a 2.5 mile cool down (another loop) and it started to come back. Overall though feeling much better. Will stick to the roads this week. Even the dirt roads aren't comfortable anymore cause they have tiny pieces of gravel in them. 

ran on the road today...some of it was dirt. Took 2 advil today, cause in the morning my foot hurt a little. loosened up during the day and then took another one right b4 running. Felt only mildly uncomfortable until i took the dirt road to the park...i stepped on a pebble and had excruciating pain for a few moments. ran it off and was fine. feels better than a couple days ago so i'll keep running. hopefully i'll be up for a decent track workout tomorrow. it's funny how these days the track is the least painful while a slow jog in the park is devastating.  

Went to the track today after work. i saw an older asian woman walking with her hands behind her back clasped together...i wouldn't have thought anything of it except there is an older asian man who i almost hit every morning on my drive to work that also walks like that. i wonder if it is genetic or cultural. it looks pretty cool though. 

 the weather was perfect for a track workout but i was a little bit unsure of my new running shoes. last workout was miserable but i put some body glide where i had trouble. unfortunately the skin on the side of my left foot came off today and is bunch up a couple mm thick. my skin isn't made for the track i guess.

i did 3x2 miles today and i was mistaken that i had thought Haynes said to run b/w 6:10 to 6:15 instead of 6:05 to 6:10. First mile 6:08, second 6:20. Didn't feel like i was trying really but was afraid of the workout. Took 2 laps around the track then did 6:10, 6:12. I could hear the blister sloshing around but it broke on the 3rd repeat. I'm amazed that it takes so little time to form a blister. 6:08 first mile, 6:11 second. Didn't lock up and felt like i could have done another 2 repeats at this pace but could only manage to do 2 cool down laps due to the pain.

 The ball of my foot was only felt during warmup and the track is really the best place to run for me due to the even surface. Only 3 more weeks really of training. I'm kind of enjoying the workouts again and the week off from racing makes me feel much faster.

 I also started taking endurox R4 after every run to see if it will help me recover better. it can't hurt.

 will take another crack at the 5x1000 in a couple days if the track doesn't have some sporting event on it. I think i need v02 workouts and speed more than anything else right now.



 

objective: deal with painful blisters and run through any additional foot pain before it gets dark.

 Used a liberal amount of vaseline to cover the blister which is 1/3 the size of my foot. not really a blister anymore but raw skin. didn't need the advil today for my ball of foot pain...felt yesterday's workout a little bit i guess since i didn't really feel like i had a good pop in my stride.

 decided to not add on any additional miles to avoid bats and not overdo it cause i plan on doing 5x1000 tomorrow on the road with the gps. No more track until the blister heals. i think the road is flat enough that it will be close to the track in terms of speed. not enjoying the road pounding. i hope that by this weekend i'll be ok to venture out on the trails again, at least ones that aren't too rocky.

objective met!

was going to do 5x1000 until last night when i saw a workout in advanced marathon training was 6x1000. not like i really read any of it...

i couldn't go to the track because my foot looks like it is bleeding so i had to go do the workout on the road. i went to the flattest place i know which is the road with the most traffic in my town. i almost ended up getting hit by drivers pulling out of side roads not expecting runners but i'm still alive. The course had 2 slight hills, not more than 10 feet or so each but enough to feel. I took 90 sec of rest in between. the first couple i jogged but had to walk at the end. splits were...

3:38, 3:32, 3:36, 3:36, 3:38, 3:41 

 i enjoy doing these on the road much more than the track. it was too dark to really do more mileage and my left foot still has a bad blister and just feels awkward cause i'm compensating a bit. i think by sat it won't be a factor.
 

5.5am, woke up at 5:30 only to find out it doesn't get light enough to see and have no chance of bats till 6:15. ball of foot pain is gone but red skin was dreadfully painful. loosened up after about a mile and was not too bad. pain is relative. 

 5.5pm same out and back loop. i like the 1.1 mile dirt road, there are only 3 houses on it and one of them is a farm.

 it's getting dark too early! am thinking about getting to work at 7:30 to get off at 4:30 to have more light.

 

was planning on running to some trails to run but after running down a dirt road thought better of it. my blister only was unpleasant for 0.5 miles and then was fine. It was a beautiful day and I actually enjoyed running on the scenic roads around town. I unexpectedly found a 1.5 mile dirt road that no cars can go on. Don't know why it's there but it was real pretty, especially the part that went by the swamp. Managed to do an 18.8 mile loop than did an out and back for an even 20. The hardest part was the 300ft climb in 0.5 miles at mile 18. Tightened up a little bit around mile 14.5 but nothing too bad. Could have cruised the flats pretty well but was in no condition to deal with hills. Averaged 8:30 which is fine considering the course. Not sure if i have more or less confidence about breaking 3hrs right now. i'd say this was a neutral run. 2hrs 50 min, wore some old trail shoes which were really quite comfortable on the road. maybe the advil i snuck in helped. 

ran to my brother's soccer game in town. was planning on taking a connector trail there but it was not a trail it was white paint on trees. i turned around after 1/10 of a mile. 8 years ago it was a trail. the game was really boring and i wished i wasn't standing out in the sun but i did at least stretch a bit which i wouldn't have otherwise. legs felt decent after the first couple miles. 9 miles on the road and 5x600 tomorrow at 5k race pace with 90 sec rest...i'm going to pretend i've been following the pfitzinger advanced marathoning plan all along.  

purposely got to work by 7:30 so i could officially leave at 4:30 but didn't end up
leaving till 5:30. Would have liked to have done a few more miles but all is well. My big legs felt a little unsure of themselves despite their massive size but I was psyched for the workout since i know there aren't too many more of them. My gps watch did not work until the last mile of my run so was no help. I knew that I should be running the 6x600 around 2:05 and figured that i'd run about 2:10-2:15 so on my first one on the road i started at a mailbox and ended at a mailbox that put my time where it should be.  2:14 for the first one. did 90 sec rest. 2:11, 2:09, 2:11, 2:13, 2:16. May have missed the order of the 2nd and 3rd but those were the times. Right quad was tightening up during the cool down. It takes me about 3 vo2 max workouts to feel decent doing them. They actually start feeling good. I'm all about staying off the track now. I actually like having lots of cars pass me, it is kind of inspiring to not look pathetic. The only downside is i can't hear my music as well due to the noise. finished just as it was getting dark. did a decent stretch and managed to pump out an insane 25 pushups and situps.

Ran 1hr33 min, legs felt tight but running on the road is so much easier than the trails. Holding 7:30 when it's flat feels comfortable whereas 9 min on trails s pushing it. Holding a 6:52 for 26 miles to go under 3hrs seems kind of daunting. 6:40 is 2:55, which seems impossible. I'll have an idea how it will feel after the 1/2 this weekend. I'm kind of nervous I won't be able to run a 1:23. I would LOVE to just break 1:23, but it depends how fast this course is and if the weather is cool. Apparently only a net rise of 100ft the whole race, despite it being in a hilly area.  Should be beautiful, i hope the leaves are starting to change up there! Legs were definitely tight today. Tomorrow I may actually go to the track on the way home from work if there isn't a sporting event on it to do 100's. I'm just going to run 6-7 easy. And no turns around the track for sure. Blister/cut still not close to being healed although today the pain was only a 2 on a scale of 0 to 10. Ball of the foot pain is almost non-existent. Still going to stay off the trails until after the marathon i think and a week off. That's the plan anyway.

 I did measure my 600 workout from yesterday and found that the intervals were actually 630m +/- 5m.

 Saw a fox for the 2nd day in a row. They're everywhere i guess.

 

Went to the h.s. track and there was a cross country meet going on. Even the leaders didn't look very fast. I'm curious how fast they ran. I mostly ran around the soccer fields there and the cross country course before and after the meet. did 8x100 sprints on the soccer field. Not really striders, but full sprints about 95%. Felt pretty weak today probably from the long run and the intensity of my runs increasing. Will maybe take tomorrow off unless I want to wake up early and run 5 in the dark. 

This race was supposed to be very fast according to the website. I originally thought to my surprise that there was only a net 100ft of elevation gain total but it was instead a net 100ft loss which really doesn't mean anything on a rolling hilly course. The hills weren't substantial, there were no big climbs but the course never did seem flat. I was really hoping for a 1:23 since i thought i was in better shape than in '05 when i didn't even have racing flats. I did however come from training in CO to sea level with lots of long tempo runs and the extra oxygen probably helped me a lot. 

Haynes was there and i really didn't want to lose to him by more than a minute. His track workouts he has been posted have seemed very strong and i thought he might run a ridiculous time. Haynes already posted a good race report so i'll just say that i felt tight holding 6:15 pace for the first several miles. Not sure why my hamstrings were tight...after about mile 8 i started to not be too happy....i held on till mile 10, it was funny to pass the parking lot of a state park where i had a trail race earlier in the year...that was unexpected. Came through 10 miles in 1:03:55 with Haynes holding an even pace till then.  i needed to pull through in 20:04 for my goal time but only mustered a miserable 20:43 for the final 5k. The last mile had a miserable hill. It was odd how there was no pain anymore after mile 10, i simply was shut down. Haynes maintained his pace very well and beat me by about a minute.

 The one depressing thing was that i found a 40yr old woman ran about 5 sec faster than me last year and went on 2 weeks later only to run a 3:02 marathon. i'm hoping the marathon course i'm doing is faster. I also hope that my body is more suited for maintaining paces not close to my threshold pace of 6:10. I'm wondering whether it's best to go out in 6:45 and try to hold on or closer to 6:50....

 

ran with my brother. i wanted to go up this mountain about a 5 min drive to my house. There is a bench at the top which is pretty cool. It took us 1.8 miles from the car and 26:30 to reach the bench. Will be a good route for time trialing to gauge fitness. The only real mountain climb around. Although the 450ft net elevation gain isn't very impressive. It does gain about 650ft total though. Unfortunately the two of us couldn't stay on the lofty 850ft summit because it has been raining for several days and the mosquitos were out in full force. I was happy my foot didn't act up at all and my legs felt pretty good. Total running time 56 min for 4 miles! Would be such a sick and technical trail race back there. It's kind of creepy how well maintained all the trails are but i never see anyone around. As i pulled in to the turnaround and the half abandoned business park there was a cop parked there i was worried that maybe we're not supposed to park there...it was odd that he drove away immediately as we were getting out of the car as if i was the cop and he was the one up to no good. 

easy run with my brother...towards the end there was a long downhill and my brother was pushing it so i picked up the pace. 

did a workout from pfitzinger....was supposed to be done on a thursday but my schedule is a little bit off. during the warmup 9 min miles didn't feel so great and i wondered if i should take another day off before doing 3x1 mile at 5k race pace. but i hate not finishing what i planned for the day and i decided to go for it and just take the times i got. i glommed on a ton of vaseline and body glide on my feet to try and prevent the 2 week blister again and it worked. Did 6 striders before i started and felt miserable. Mile 1 (really only 1600)...first lap i went out in an 80 and was already winded...i apparently had a fear of being weak and slow...the 80 did not feel easy. settled down and ran a 90sec 2nd lap and finished the first mile in 5:42. 5k race pace back in may would be 5:43 so surprisingly good. 2 min recovery and then i ran a 5:45....2 min recovery, 5:47. Started to slow each lap slightly but know i could have held if i had someone there with me. Wasn't terribly hard. Probably the last vo2 before the marathon. will do lots of striders and a couple marathon pace miles.