track fan

2:02:49 ... so, I guess I have been running longer than 15 miles the past 2 Sundays.  I was pretty sure that this was 14.  I went down to the same trails I have been running my long runs the past few weekends, but because I have so much work to do, and because my legs are tired from two awesome workouts this week, I decided to stick to a 2 hour run.  

It was *81F* degrees today!!  holy moly it was beautiful!  Dare I say even a little warm the last couple of miles.

Now I have to finish my answer key for the homework for my class tomorrow (it is a tough assignment so it will even take me some time to finish it) and finish an analysis for one of my collaborators from Vanderbilt.  From the looks of it, I will have 6 manuscripts published in the first 4 months of 2011 ... sweet, makes me look ever so productive ;-)

Have a wonderful Sunday bloggers! 

AM: (9.5 miles, 1:21:31). 28:32wu/29:30cd  15 x :30 w/1` recovery.

PM: easy 4.

Beautiful week so far, in the mid-70s for the high yesterday, ahhhh.  By Thursday winter will be back, but it is lovely right now.  We had some really bad weather while I was in DC.  It got so cold that the gas company had some pipes burst and there were about 30,000 people without gas for 3-4 day, because these people did not have heat many/most of the them had burst water pipes as well.  This did not affect us (we live in the boonies and don't  have gas - and we had actually sort of prepared for the weather a head of it (things that you know how to do when you have lived in areas that have cold winters) --- however, what did happen was that a couple of our more beautiful/exotic cactus got frostbite and I am not sure they are going to survive.  It is kind of sad to see ...

I hope you are all enjoying your "springlike" week!! 

BUSY day, I was so lucky to squeeze in a 6 mile run.  I had a meeting at 8AM that went until class time, then after class I had back-to-back meetings until 5:00 and then Dean and I had to take a visiting faculty person (who gave a seminar in our department) out to dinner.  I got home about 10:30 PM.  seriously, I am too old for these long days with no breaks!

AM: (11 miles, 1:43:09).  28:45wu/43:58cd  6 x 800 w/2` recovery @ 5k pace.  

3:23, 3:22, 3:19, 3:21, 3:18 3:18

This is probably my least favorite workout, and the only thing I don't like more than this workout is this workout into a strong headwind on the backstretch!!!  But, I can't complain, it is much faster than when I did this workout 5 weeks ago (3:22, 3:22, 3:24, 3:23, 3:22, 3:24) and I had a longer recovery then -- 400 meters vs slightly longer than 200 today!  Hmmm. I am always amazed to watch progression of pace over a training cycle.

I actually was only planning on running 10.5 or so this morning, but there were a group of runners on the track (many of them were in my way during my workout) and one of them talked to me during my cool down.  She had to run a mile time trial - so I decided I would run with her and keep her occupied, she was very nice.  She probably ran a 12-13 min/mile pace - but it was nice to keep her motivated.  She had 7 kids and  homeschooled!!!  her "break" was this class she was taking.  She had lost 100 lbs over the course of this year and the class was part of a training program for personal trainers. 

PM easy 4. 

Recovery run up Yeatman Trail (1:07:01).  Storm is blowing in ... but it is perfect running weather.

Busy day ... Have a great Friday bloggers. 

AM: (8 miles, 1:11:33).  Warm ... but wow, from weather.com: "winds SSW 22 mph with gusts up to 42 mph".  Unfortunately, it was a headwind uphill all the way home.  Good thing I wasn't in a hurry or trying run a workout, slow and steady wins the race today.

I hope you are all having a fabulous weekend.  I am finishing my paper and writing a final, all and all one of the most relaxing weekends I have had in over 2 months.

PM: 4 miles easy. 

My coach posted an awesome read today on FB.  After reading it I laughed because I can tell that  these guys (e.g.,  my coach and Nic) are Lydiard followers, though the details are a little different, they all follow the same principles.  It took me a long time to figure out how to do workouts that were "controlled", and how to run totally by feel (never over-reach pace, and embrace long slow distances) my race times have come down significantly.  This stuff really works.