I am one with the levee and the levee with me

6 easy... then off to Birmingham

I made the 5 hr drive to Birmingham last night. Got in later than was ideal, but the family wasn't coming and I wanted to be around to hang out with the kids before bed. Worth it.

The weather was nice until it started raining. 48F at the start with practically no wind. The first 5k is a net uphill with rolling hills, and the second half drops about 60 ft before rolling along to the finish. No huge hills. A gentle 50 ft climb in mile 3 with the gentle drop behind it in mile 4. Rolling hills are perfect for me. Net drop of about 20 ft between start and finish.

Splits off my watch were 5:11, 5:16, 5:12, 5:04, 5:08, 5:11. ~5:00 to the finish. I followed a nice pack through 5k, taking over the lead in the 3rd mile and pulling away in the final 2. The clouds opened up at 2.5 miles and poured the rest of the way. Floated the downhill. Last 2 miles were mostly flat and I pushed hard from there to the finish. The 6th mile was better than it looked as there was a sharp 270 degree turn followed immediately by a 90 degree turn that zapped all momentum.

This is my fastest 10k since 2012. I'll take that. I felt very, very strong all the way to the finish, and I feel like my base fitness is in a good spot. I had the sensation of feeling like there was more aerobic ability to tap but no speed in the legs to grab it. I think there are good things to come this spring.

12 recovery

AM - 12 easy progressing to steady.

PM - 6 steady.

AM - 10 with 8 x 200m levee sprints. Still feeling Saturday's race and it took me a few reps to get up to speed.

40, 36, 36, 35, 34, 34, 34, 35

PM - 8 easy, 7:17 avg.

12 fairly easy.

AM- Big workout. 8 mile tempo + 5 x 35s fast. Hit 44:01 or a 5:30 average.

Splits: 5:29, 5:37, 5:31, 5:29, 5:36, 5:26, 5:27, 5:26

Weather was 45F with 0 wind. It might be the last non-windy day for a couple weeks, so I'm happy I coud take advantage. I felt a little rough to start, but after mile 3 I started to click. 180 degree turn after 4 and took a minute to get back into the groove. Finished feeling tired but still strong.

PM - 4 recovery

12 pretty slow. No watch, but probably just a hair under 8:00 pace. One of those days where getting out the door was tough and it just didn't get better.

21 mile long run, 6:34 avg. Started with the usual old man mile (~7:40) and then averaged right around 6:30 from there. I don't think it will matter how fit I ever get, 20 miles will always be 20 miles. Very tiring run.

This is a weekly mileage PR for me. Turned the knob down on intensity and up on volume this week. The next 2 weeks are planned to be at or just under 100 miles with a little more intensity.

6 easy

12 easy with 8 x 200m levee sprints. My legs are feeling pretty good considering all the miles from last week, and I got after these.

35, 35, 34, 34, 33, 33, 33, 33

Times are just meant to be relative week to week. I haven't measured this aside from pacing and the GPS watch. I figure it's within a few meters of 200, and that's good enough.

AM - 6 x mile (1:00 rests) + 6 x 35s sprints. I moved up the workout by a day due to wind forecast, and because I'm feeling well recovered. I had 60F temps and 5 mph wind. Did 2 reps into the wind and 4 with.

5:11, 5:18, 5:11, 5:17, 5:10, 5:10

5:11 & 5:18 averages to 5:14.5 which is about right for the overall effort. I'm continuing to feel excellent in workouts. Felt like I could have done 4 more of these without reaching race effort.

PM - 4 easy

AM - 12 recovery

PM - 4 very slow

Unplanned day off. It's been a few weeks since I took a day and I needed it. I still feel guilty for missing 16 miles of planned running.

12 easy

AM - Track day. 6 x 1000m + 4 x 400m. 400m jog (2:15-2:30) between reps, 800m jog after 1ks.

3:06, 3:03, 3:02, 3:02, 3:01, 3:00

67.2, 66.4, 66.7, 67.2

Averaged 3:02 for the 1000s for 6 reps. A nice improvement over the 3:05 avg for 5 reps from 3 weeks ago. 400s improved from 67.7 to 66.9.

PM - 6 easy

AM - 8 easy

PM - 4 easy

AM - Threshold workout. 3 x 2 mile (2:00 rests), 1/2 mile jog, 5 x 35s sprints.

10:34 (5:18/5:16)

10:33 (5:16/5:17)

10:29 (5:15/5:14)

Again, I'm scheduling around the weather. Today was relatively calm with just a light cross wind, but the rest of the week will be windy. It would've been more ideal to do this tomorrow, but it's not a big deal to move it up a day and get a few more days of rest.

I added a 10k this weekend. Unfortunately I won't be able to run the local big race (Crescent City 10k), so I had to shuffle things around a bit. I think it's still important to hit my miles this week, so I'm front-loading 60 miles through Wednesday, and then doing a small taper into the race. Goal is to get 100 miles for the week.

PM - 6 easy

AM - 12 easy

PM - 6 easy

2 x (6 x 200m) levee sprints. One mile jog between sets.

36, 35, 35, 34, 34, 34

35, 35, 34, 34, 34, 33

10 easy. New shoes.

9 easy with 4 strides.

This race was a mess.

I drove up to Mobile this morning and got situated with the elite coordinator, who was kind enough to let me in the group. Noticed there were only 3 Kenyan men present when usually there are 5. Money is 5 deep, so the door was open for me.

I started at the lead of the chase pack with the goal of running the first 4 slightly slower than what I think I can do, and then hammering the last 2 miles. Top 3 Kenyans were long gone, and the top 2 Kenyan women were running hard about 10 seconds ahead. By 3 miles I was pulling away from my pack when a race official directed the 2 women and my pack off course. I didn't realize it until mile 4 when we turned back against the flow of 10k runners coming the other way. That was a real punch in the gut. I had 10 seconds on the chase pack at that point, I knew the runners behind me, and I knew I had 4th place locked up.

I caught up with the 2 women and found our way back to the course. 5.3 miles on the watch when we passed the 4-mile marker. I couldn't stomach dropping out, and gutted it out to the end. Ended up with 7.5 miles at the finish. Good news is I set an unofficial 12k PR (38:37). Bad news is I lost out on $500 in prize money. 4th place was worth $750 to me ($500 + $250 for top American), and the race director awarded me $250 as consolation money. Considering they really weren't obligated to do anything, I should feel totally okay with that. But it leaves a pretty raw taste in my mouth. Made worse because they duplicated 1st & 2nd place money for the 2 elite women.

Anyway. Splits were 5:08, 5:09, 5:08, 5:07, 5:11, 5:10, 5:11, 2:33.

The big takeaway is my fitness is coming around. I think I would have finished 31:45-31:50 without the deviation. 3 months to Grandmas. 5 weeks to Indy. I'm the healthiest I've been in awhile, and everything seems to be clicking.

AM - 10

PM - 4 stroller miles with Rylie

AM - 12 easy (7:29 avg). I had levee sprints on the schedule but I'm beat. Took it easy instead.

PM - 6 easy

AM - 12 easy + 6 x ~100m strides. I warmed up as if to do the levee sprints again, but my legs are still lead. Opted to run easy and just do a few strides.

PM - 6 easy

12 easy

AM - Big workout. 8 miles in 5:28 avg + 6 x 35s sprints.

5:31, 5:29, 5:29, 5:25, 5:31 (180 turn), 5:33, 5:22, 5:23

There was a beaver or a nutria rat the size of a small child running along the levee at the very beginning of the tempo that scared the living daylights out of me. If you're not familiar with nutria, we lovingly refer to them as R.O.U.S.s. Hideous creatures.

PM - 4 slow

12 easy

22 miles at 6:31 pace. This run really kicked my butt. I had to wait till afternoon naps to get it in, and it was warm and a little muggy. 80F + 61F dew point. Could be worse, but I went into the run dehydrated, and because I was feeling good and already had one pit stop, I decided to skip my 5-mile water stop. Not good. Didn't take any water until 13 miles in (why doesn't New Orleans have more water fountains?), but I was wilting by 12. The water helped big time, however by 2 hours into the run I was counting down the steps to be done. Better to make these mistakes in training than in the real thing.

115 is a mileage PR. Aside from a minor flare up of my peroneal tibial tendon from Thursday's workout, everything is holding up pretty well. This is my first cycle where I'm working in lower-intensity/higher-mileage weeks, and I like how it's working out.

8 slow