Same Time, Same Channel

Marathon-pace long run - 18 miles w/ 14 @ marathon pace.

10:21 am, 55-58° F, 12% humidity, wind 3 ENE.

Dang, that was hard.

I got a late start. I wish I could say it was because I slept in, but I didn't sleep in. I got up at 6:00 and spent all morning doing things for the family, and then finally went running after they were all off to their destinations or settled.

I've been running so slowly all week, I doubted my ability to hit marathon pace for 14 miles. While I need marathon pace to be about 8:00 in order to run a 3:30 marathon, for this run I set my marathon pace goal at a more realistic 8:20. I was just slightly over that pace for a couple of miles, but under that pace for the average of the whole 14 miles. So I feel good about this run even though I feel like I've been hit by a truck. I actually cheated on the run a little bit and took a few breaks. I stopped at the turn around and took a gel. I also took two pit stops and a couple of other breaks where I paused my watch and just rested for a couple of minutes.

I am very glad to have this week over with.

AP: 8:35. Splits: 10:10, 9:55, 9:33, 9:16, 8:20, 8:17, 8:18, 8:20, 8:19, 8:13, 8:18, 8:22, 8:10, 8:06, 8:07, 8:26, 8:11, 8:05.

V0₂ max - 9 miles w/ 5 x 600 m @ 5K race pace; jog 50 to 90% interval time between.

9:14 am, 45-50° F, 30% humidity, wind 6 SSE, sunny.

I guess we really are having perfect running weather here right now. I should enjoy it while it lasts.

I slept in a little bit this morning and then got up and did some work and got kids off to school. I saw Michelle out running when I was driving my second son to seminary. Then about an hour later, I saw Carly out running when I was driving my first son and his string bass to school. So I felt a little like a slacker because I hadn't run yet. So after I got the last kid off to school and got to a good stopping place in my work, I went out for my run.

When I first started, I was really dragging and wondered about the wisdom of trying to do this workout. But after the first two miles I started feeling better.

I went to the high school track instead of the middle school track for the first time. The high school track is softer and nicer. It took me just under 3 miles to get to the track and then I ran on the track a bit to finish that third mile before starting the intervals. Last time I did 600 m intervals, I only did 200 m recovery, but since I'm coming off my two highest mileage weeks ever and a hard run last Saturday, I decided to take it a little easier today and do 400 m recovery, which caused my recovery to be at least 90%, maybe slightly more, than my 600 m repeat time.

There was a guy mowing the soccer field by the track and he waved at me when I was doing the recovery before the last interval.

I love and hate these short intervals. They're hard, but they're short, and I feel good after I'm done. I've got 1200m intervals next week. That's going to be tougher.

AP: 9:18.
Splits before the intervals: 10:55, 10:19, 9:16.
Pace on the 600 m intervals (with rest pace in parentheses): 7:20 (9:36), 7:10 (9:52), 7:13 (9:48), 7:08 (9:51), 6:43 (10:26) (I was anxious to be done and really pushed it on that last one.)
Splits after the intervals: 9:55, 9:34, 0.85 @ 9:11.

Medium-long run.

4:47 am, 55-58° F, 22% humidity, wind 15 mph S, gusting to 26 mph.

I've got a busy day today and so I had to do my run early in the morning. This run took a long time. I started well before sunrise and finished well after sunrise. It would have been a fairly pleasant run if not for the wind. The route I took has a long stretch that goes south and is mostly uphill, so that was into the wind today.

I was surprised that my legs felt better than I expected them too. But they'll probably feel dead tomorrow.

I was stopped at one major intersection this morning, and there was a runner at or approaching each of the four corners of that intersection. I thought that was kind of funny.

I've got take care of a bunch of things at home and I've got to pack because I'm leaving for San Francisco (actually, a little south of San Francisco) tomorrow morning. It's a business trip. I'm coming home Friday night. At least it will give me the opportunity to run at sea level a bit before the Newport marathon. I've got to work all day today and go to an orchestra concert at the high school tonight. Good thing I did the laundry yesterday.

AP: 9:19. Splits: 9:51, 9:19, 9:28, 9:20, 9:35, 9:28, 9:35, 9:23, 8:46, 9:03, 9:04, 9:11, 9:03, 9:22.

Recovery run + 10 x 100 m strides.

4:49 am, 46° F, 42% humidity, wind 9 SSE.

I was only supposed to do 6 strides, but I neglected to check on what my workout was before I headed out the door this morning, and I had it in my head that it was 10 strides for some reason. Also, I was only supposed to run 6 miles, but I ran too much before I got to the track, and so when I finished the strides, I was slightly over 6 miles and I still needed to get home. Thus, the 6.5 total miles. It would have come out about right if I had only done 6 strides. Oh well.

 Now it's rush rush rush to get all the kids off and get ready to go to the airport.

AP: 9:57.
Splits before the strides: 10:26, 10:21, 10:38, 10:13, 0.82 @ 9:59.
Pace on the strides (with 100 m recovery pace in parentheses): 6:51 (10:08), 7:06 (10:13), 6:45 (9:58), 6:55 (10:31), 6:51 (8:46), 6:47 (10:34), 6:55 (9:54), 6:32 (10:10), 6:57 (9:01), 6:32.
Pace after the strides: 0.46 @ 10:03.

General aerobic run.

5:00 am, 45° F, 84% humidity, winds calm.

I'm in Foster City, California. There's a workout facility in the hotel, but why run on the treadmill when I can run outside. So I just ran the streets of Foster City. Part of this run was on a path along the bay. It's pretty flat here. The only real elevation change was on some bridges that I had to go over. I did not see any pedestrians out during the 5:00 hour, but I saw a few after 6:00. I saw one woman twice. She was running, but she had a big coat on. I guess she thought it was cold this morning.

It looks like it took me a mile to wake up this morning. I just ran at a comfortable pace for the whole run. I suppose it is a little easier to run at sea level than at high elevation.

This wasn't exactly my scheduled run today, but I've switched things up a bit the last half of this week in order to do a 10K race on Saturday morning. I was going to do the 10K and then the 5K, but changed my mind and am just doing the 10K.

Now I've got to get ready and get to work. We're going out to a Brazilian steakhouse for lunch today. Yum.

AP: 9:11. Splits: 10:39, 9:38, 9:17, 9:06, 8:48, 8:46, 8:41, 8:56, 8;48.

Recovery run.

5:19 am, 49° F, 69% humidity, winds calm.

I'm still in Foster City, CA.  I go home this evening.

If there's one thing this training plan has taught me, it's how to run slowly. It says "recovery run" on the training plan, and I slow down. So I had a fairly pleasant easy run this morning.

I saw a few people out, more than I saw yesterday. But people don't seem to be very friendly. In Colorado, when you pass another runner or walker, you often, but not always, give some kind of acknowledgment. No one even made eye contact here.

As for yesterday's lunch, we went to this place that is like The Cheesecake Factory, but without the cheesecake. It was okay. Nothing exciting.

The trip has been nice enough, but I'll be glad to go home tonight.

AP: 10:15. Splits: 10:29, 10:16, 10:20, 10:14, 9:59.

My heart wasn't in this race. When I got up this morning, I wanted to go to bed more than I wanted to go run a race. But I had paid for the race, so I went and did it. It was okay, but not great.

I didn't get there particularly early. I picked up my bib and chip, then ran 2 miles of warmup and did my dynamic stretching routine, and then it was time for the race to start. The race was on the trail that I run most Saturdays. It sent out a ways to the north and then turned around, went past the start to the south, took a detour onto a road, which meant going down a hill, turning around, and running up the hill, then out so more, and then back to the start. The hill was in mile 4.

The race was chip timed, but they didn't have a timing mat at the start. So I guess they just went from the gun to when you crossed the finish timing mat. I started my watch when I crossed what I guessed was the starting line and got a time of 50:22 for myself, but my official time is 50:33. So it's a little more than 2 minutes off my 10K PR, but I feel okay about it since I'm not really trained for a 10K right now and I'm in the heavy part of marathon training. My average pace (according to my Garmin, not the race results) was 8:02 and splits were 8:23, 7:58, 7:59, 8:18, 7:55, 7:53, 0.27 (again, the Garmin distance) @ 7:20.

During about the 2nd mile, I came upon a woman who looked like she was probably in my age group and who was running about my pace. So I ran with her for maybe a mile and talked with her. She was here from Kansas City visiting her sister who has 1-year-old triplets. After a while, I pulled ahead of her and stayed ahead of her for the rest of the race. I finished about a minute ahead of her. But then I talked to her again after we were both finished and I met her sister and the triplets. She was also registered for the 5K but she was going to just run it at an easy pace and not race it. I had not registered for the 5K, even though that was my intention at one point, but I ran the 5K with her as a bandit. According to my watch, since I didn't have a number or a timing chip for the 5K, was 31:15. So that's an AP of 10:06 with splits of 11:00 (very crowded at the start), 9:39, 9:44, and 0.1 @ 8:59.

After the 5K, I went in the rec center and changed into dry but cooler clothes (shorts and short sleeve shirt - whereas I was wearing pants and a long-sleeved shirt before), and then I went back out on the trail and ran 5.7 miles to give me 17 for the day. AP: 9:29. Splits: 10:09, 9:41, 9:17, 9:24, 9:12, 0.70 @ 9:04.

It was chilly at the start of the first race - 40° and 21% humidity. By the time I finished the last run, it was 59° and 12% humidity. Winds were calm the whole time. It was great weather for running.

I'm tired. I'd like to take a nap.

Run #1: Un-pre-meditated progression run.

9:39 am, 57° F, 60% humidity, wind 10 N, mostly cloudy.

I didn't get to bed until midnight last night because I took a long nap on Saturday and slept late on Sunday morning, and I had a bunch of stuff I was trying to get done. Even then, I had a hard time going to sleep. So I didn't think it would be a good idea to get up at 4:30 to go running. Instead, I slept until 6:30 and then worked until a while after the kids were off to school, and then went out for my run.

It was supposed to be a recovery run, but my legs were feeling okay after the first little bit and I was in kind of a hurry because I'm busy with work and I had to get home in time to drive my son to his AP Physics test. I'll take today's second run at a more recovery pace. I think this is the last time in this training cycle that I have to do doubles. I don't particularly care for doubles because I have a hard enough time fitting in one run per day, let alone two.

AP: 9:35. Splits: 10:08, 9:57, 9:48, 9:24, 9:14, 8:57.

Run #2. Recovery run.

2:32 pm, 65°F, 17% humidity, wind 12 WNW, sunny.

I don't know how you people who run in hotter temperatures and higher humidity do it. Actually, this temperature wasn't too bad to run in, but I was really dripping with sweat when I finished. I'm not acclimated to heat at all.

I really tried to keep it slow. Thus the slow down on the last mile.

AP: 10:07. Splits: 10:33, 9;57, 9:51, 10:07.

V0₂ max intervals - 11 mi w/ 5 x 1,200 m @ 5K race pace; jog 50 to 90% interval time between.

 5:23 am, 38°F, 79% humidity, wind 1 ENE.

I dawdled a lot this morning before getting out the door. I was dreading this workout. I debating whether to put it off until later in the day, but at this point I'm glad I got it done and over with in the morning.

I ran 3 miles to the high school track and then did the intervals there. There were hurdles on the track, but the first and second lanes were open. I did roughly 500 meters on the recovery intervals and I did them the opposite direction than I did the faster intervals. When I was between the 3rd and 4th intervals, a guy came and started running on the track. He stayed in the 2nd lane and didn't bother me.

I have to make deals with myself to do a workout like this. I'd tell myself things like, "just 3 laps and then I get to rest," or "after this interval, just two more intervals to go."

After I was done with the track part, I ran 2.9 miles back home.

AP: 8:55.
Splits before the intervals: 10:18, 9:50, 9:48.
Pace on the intervals (with rest pace in parentheses): 7:21 (9:45), 7:18 (9:55), 7:14 (9:34), 7:15 (10:05), 7:05.
Splits after the intervals: 9:57, 9:26, 0.90 @ 9:24.

Medium-long run.

10:02 am, 33-36° F, 81% humidity, wind 5 NNW, overcast with a sprinkling of snow on the grass, but not on the roads or sidewalks.

My daughter asking me this morning, "why can't we just have spring weather." I'd like to know the answer to that myself.

As I near the end of this training plan, I have to say that the hardest thing for me about this training plan has been the weekday medium-long runs. It's not so much that they're physically demanding, though they are that, but that they take such a big chunk of time. In order to do one of these runs in the morning and be done before the boys all leave for school, I need to be out the door between 4:30 and 4:45, and I just can't manage that most of the time. It would be interesting to look back at my blog entries and see how many of these medium-long runs I actually did first thing in the morning. With cold temperatures and snow on the ground this morning, I opted to sleep in a bit, then get up and work and run later. Of course, it wasn't much warmer at 10:00 or noon than it had been at 5:00 am.

I departed a bit from my normal routes today and ran through Lone Tree on Yosemite Street. It turns out that section of Yosemite Street is pretty hilly.

AP: 9:11. Splits: 9:47, 9:30, 9:20, 9:08, 9:25 (Park Meadows Center Drive from Acres Green to Yosemite), 9:25 (Yosemite Street), 9:19, 9:00, 8:51, 9:09, 9:06, 8:56, 8:54, 8:46.

General Aerobic + 8 x 100 m strides.

5:37 am, 34° F, 89% humidity, winds calm, overcast.

It's supposed to get warmer today than it did yesterday, but it was still pretty cold this morning. At least it wasn't dark when I got out.

This was just kind of an ordinary run. I ran my regular six mile loop, which ends near the middle school track, so I ran a little extra to get to the track and did the strides, and then ran home.

AP: 9:38.
Splits before the strides: 10:26, 9:58, 10:06, 9:38, 9:40, 9:19, 0.29 @ 10:04.
Pace on the strides (recovery pace in parentheses): 6:26 (9:52), 6:23 (10:07), 6:41 (9:22), 6:49 (9:41), 6:54 (9:40), 6:53 (9:25), 6:36 (9:54), 6:01.
The run home: 0.77 @ 9:47.

I started fast on the strides, and then my pace slowed in the middle section, and then I picked it up again at the end. I guess I kind of lost focus in the middle.

Recovery run.

9:56 am, 50-54° F, 60% humidity, wind 6 S.

I'm taking the day off work today in order to clean my house because my brother is coming from Alabama tomorrow to play the oboe with my church choir on Sunday. This is not my favorite way to spend a day off from work, but oh well. In any case, since I wasn't going to work today, I didn't feel compelled to get up and run early in the morning. Instead, I slept in and then got the kids off to school, did some laundry, and cleaned a bathroom before I went out to run.

I felt very sluggish when I started this run, but then I got feeling better after a couple of miles, which is very typical for me.

Now I need to take a shower in my newly clean bathroom, and then get back to work cleaning the house.

AP: 9:56. Splits: 10:32, 10:00, 9:55, 9:30, 9:40.

Long run.

9:09 am, 47-55° F, 78-59% humidity, wind 7  N.

I fully intended to get up and run early this morning. But I was on my feet a lot last night ushering at my husband's orchestra concert (I do that in order to get a discount on the tuition for the youth orchestras that my boys are in). Then I got roped into going to the after-concert party, so I was up late last night. And then a family member woke me up in the middle of the night for a while because that family member was having a rough time. So I didn't manage to get up early this morning. When I did finally get up, I spent a couple of hours doing some more house cleaning.

After all this, I wasn't exactly full of energy when I headed out the door to run this morning. For this reason, I decided to do multiple neighborhood loops instead of driving to the trail. This saves some time and staying closer to home is less stressful. I was going to do a 5-mile loop five times, but when I got to the point where the five-mile loop departs from the 4-mile loop, I changed my mind because to turn it into the five-mile loop I would have to cross a busy street twice and that would just waste time waiting at lights. So I did the four-mile loop five times instead. I stopped at home for a pit stop and took a gel after the 2nd loop and after the 4th loop.

I tried to push the pace a little on the last mile. I'm glad to be done with this run. This means that I have finished the third mesocycle without missing a workout. The fourth mesocycle is much easier.

I've been thinking today about those bloggers who are running in Ogden. I hope you're all having a great day.

AP: 9:22. Splits: 10:19, 9:50, 9:32, 9:26, 9:23, 9:16, 9:04, 9:02, 9:15, 9:10, 9:09, 9:11, 9:28, 9:28, 9:19, 9:13, 9:28, 9:24, 9:24, 8:47.

Recovery + Speed - 7 miles w/ 8 x 100m strides.

5:20 am, 45° F, 75% humidity, wind 4 SE.

As usual, it was hard to get out of bed this morning. I was pretty sluggish today, but I managed to pick up the pace for the strides. Fortunately, strides are very short.

AP: 9:53.
Splits before the strides: 10:31, 10:43, 10:11, 10:09, 9:55, 0.54 @ 9:54.
Pace on the strides (with recovery pace in parentheses): 6:00 (10:45), 6:34 (9:42), 6:12 (9:37), 6:33 (9:33), 6:16 (10:26), 6:36 (9:18), 6:09 (9:35), 5:24.
After the strides: 0.49 @ 9:40.

Medium-long run.

5:18 am, 53° F, 80% humidity, wind 8 SSE.

This was my last weekday medium-long run of this training cycle. As usual, I had trouble dragging myself out of bed to do it.

I did the hilly County Line Road/McArthur Ranch Road loop. I paused my watch when I was stopped at the intersection of McArthur Ranch Road and Fairview waiting for a light, as I always do when I stop and wait for a light. My watch said 8.18 miles at that point. But when the light changed and I started going again, I neglected to restart my watch. It's a pity, because that's a fast portion of the course. I realized it a while later and started the watch and I estimated that I had missed timing about a half mile, but I wasn't sure of the exact distance that I had missed. I wanted to err on the side of running too far rather than running too short, so I ran until my watch said 12.00, even though I knew I had run roughly a half a mile more than that. I mapped the run on mapmyrun.com when I got home, and it said 12.65 miles, so I guess I ran for .65 miles without the watch running. So I've got 12 splits recorded, but the later ones are off because I failed to record .65 of the 9th mile. My average pace however, is based on my estimated actual total time and total distance.

A hazard of my running for too long in the morning: I called son #2 at 6:25 and asked him if son #3 was up, and he said that he was, so I didn't worry about it anymore. However, when I got home just after the time that son #3 should have left for school, I discovered that son #3 was just getting in the shower. Apparently he had been up at 6:25, but then went back to sleep. So he was late to school today.

AP: 9:10. Splits: 10:05, 9:55, 9:34, 9:22, 9:29, 9:12, 9:06, 8:57, 9:33, 8:53, 8:53, 8:53.

I don't know how I managed to be so consistent at the end. I didn't do it on purpose.

Recovery + Speed - 5 miles w/ 6 x 100m strides.

5:50 am, 43° F, 90% humidity, wind 4 SSE, overcast.

This run was good for me. I've been stressed out lately, particularly last night and this morning. The run calmed me down some. But I still have some problems to deal with today. Namely a broken pipe and my in-laws are coming today for my son's high school graduation, which is tomorrow. My son has a bunch of graduation practice and cap and gown pick up and that kind of stuff today. And I've got to work today. Fortunately, my house is still somewhat clean from the work I did for my brother's visit last weekend. I've just got to make sure there's nothing rotting in my refrigerator, because my mother-in-law will go through the refrigerator while I'm at work and then give me a report of everything that's spoiled and tell me she didn't throw it away because she thought I might be saving it for something. It makes me crazy. If I've left it there long enough for it to spoil, I've forgotten about it and am not saving it and don't enjoy hearing a recitation of all of the things I've failed to keep up with in my refrigerator.

I ran to the high school track this morning to do the strides. It only took me a little over 2 miles to get there, but I wanted to run 3 miles warmup, so I ran a couple of laps on the track before I started the strides. I might have pushed it a little too hard on a couple of the strides. Incidentally, I have no idea how people maintain 5:30 pace over the length of a marathon.

AP: 9:53.
Splits before the strides: 10:36, 10:06, 10:10.
Paces on the strides (recovery pace in parentheses): 6:11 (10:35), 5:56 (9:57), 6:25 (10:30), 6:21 (10:01), 6:15 (10:06), 5:33.
Splits after the strides: 10:08, 0.27 @ 9:34.

Recovery run.

5:40 am, 46° F, 89% humidity, no wind.

How about this? Two recovery days in a row. But then I have a mock tune-up race tomorrow and my last long run on Saturday.

I don't really consider myself a morning person. If I had no responsibilities, I would stay up late and sleep in. It is hard for me to get up in the morning. However, I have to say that once I am up, I really like the feel of the early mornings - the quietness and stillness and the crisp air. We really are having wonderful mornings for the most part these days - not too hot and not too cold. I'm starting to run into sprinklers on my runs now, but it's not warm enough for me to want to run through the sprinklers. That time will probably come soon.

High School Graduation is tonight. I've got to figure out how to get to Red Rocks Amphitheater. I've never been there.

AP: 10:03. Splits: 10:44, 10:09, 9:52, 9:45, 9:44. That really slow miles at the beginning really skews my average pace.

Tempo run of sorts.

8:27 am, 57-60° F, 60% humidity, winds calm, partly cloudy.

With all the very late nights I've endured this week, I couldn't drag myself out of bed to run at 4:30 this morning. So I reset my alarm for 6:30 and went back to sleep. Then I got up and worked until the kids were all gone to school, then I ran.

My training plan called for an 8K-10K tune-up race today with a total distance of 9-11 miles. I don't have a real race to run today or tomorrow, so I decided to do three miles warm up, then 6 miles at as close to 10K pace as I could get (the McMillan calculator puts my 10K pace at 7:27), and then run 2 miles cool down. I thought about making the fast part 6.2 miles, but I didn't want to try to turn it into a 10K because I couldn't really compare it with a real 10K race because I stopped and paused my watch at stop lights and I took a pit stop in a Walgreens midway through and paused my watch for that. Incidentally, during that pit stop at the Walgreens, I got locked in the stall. The little knob would turn around but it didn't move the lock mechanism. So I had to crawl under the stall wall, which involved dragging my sweaty body across the floor. It wasn't really a big deal to me, but I'm sure I left a bunch of sweat on their floor. I told the store manager about the locked door as I was leaving.

I saw a ton of signs for garage sales today. I actually ran past only 2 garage sales because most of my running was on main roads, not through neighborhoods. However, about a half a mile into my cool down I passed a garage sale and it was at the house of someone I know, so I stopped and talked to her for a couple of minutes and she gave me a nice cold water bottle, which I had a drink out of, and then I carried it with me on the rest of my run.

AP for whole run: 8:32. AP for fast portion: 7:45.

Splits: 10:13, 9:46, 9:31, 7:58, 8:15 (this is my hill of death), 7:46, 7:29, 7:37, 7:28, 8:57, 8:54.

The  long run that almost didn't happen.

7:44 pm, 78-53° F, 10-49% humidity, wind 16 NNW.

I couldn't run this morning because I had to take my MIL to the first part of the graduation for the high school that my husband teaches at so that she could hear the mariachi band that my husband directs. We had to leave at 8:00 in the morning and there was no way I was going to get 17 miles done before then. After we got home, it was too hot and windy and it was hot and windy all day. I almost didn't make it out, but I finally went out a little while after dinner. I tried to give my body a chance to digest dinner before I headed out, but I felt a little uncomfortable during the run anyway.

I felt like staying close to home, so I did a1.3 mile loop around my neighborhood. It was going to take a little over 13 loops to get 17 miles. I did 5 loops and then stopped at home for a pit stop and some water. I also picked up my head lamp at that point. My third son had joined me on his bike for the fourth loop. Then I did 5 more loops and stopped at home again for a pit stop and water again. But then instead of doing three more loops, I did my four mile loop once.

This was a really tough run for me. I almost blew it off, but I decided I shouldn't blow off my last long run before the marathon.

AP: 9:39. Splits: 10:10, 9:52, 9:50, 9:40, 9:32, 9:16, 9:13, 9:21, 9:17, 9:33, 9:41, 9:45, 9:26, 9:57, 9:55, 10:03, 9:28.

General aerobic + speed - 7 miles w/ 8 x 100 m strides.

6:28 am, 57° F, 28% humidity, wind 14 ESE.

I ran later than usual this morning because thing 2 doesn't have to be to school until 8:30 and thing 1 doesn't have to go to school at all since he has graduated now. The only issues were making sure that thing 3 was up on time and then getting thing 4 to the bus at 8:20. So I left on my run after I got thing 3 up and made sure he had everything he needed from me and could get himself to school. I actually wasn't really anxious to run today. I'm kind of burned out. But I feel good now that I've done it.

It was a windy morning. Parts of the run were hard, particularly heading uphill into the wind on Quebec St. I ran about 4 1/2 miles to the high school track, where I did the strides. There was a group of what looked to be middle schoolers gathering at the track but they were hanging out near the long jump pit. There was one guy who must have been there teacher. I wonder if it was a PE class from the middle school doing a final test or something. The middle school is right by the high school so it's conceivable that they would use the high school track. I think it has a better long jump it than the middle school track does. A couple of other runners arrived at the track as I was finishing. The track is oriented north/south, and so all of my odd numbered strides were with the wind at my back and the even numbered strides were into the wind.

AP: 8:56.
Splits before the strides: 9:56, 8:54, 9:02, 8:40, 0.51 @ 8:46.
Pace on strides (recovery pace): 5:53 (started too fast) (10:28), 6:55 (9:46), 6:24 (9:32), 6:27 (9:55), 6:28 (9:23), 6:29 (10:01), 6:01 (9:33), 6:14.
Splits after the strides: 9:07, 0.53 @ 9:01.

Recovery run.

6:43 am, 48° F, 32% humidity, wind 5 SSE.

Thankfully yesterday's strong winds are gone. We've got quite a pleasant morning today.

I set my alarm last night but neglected to turn it on. No matter. I only overslept by 20 minutes. And all I really needed to do again this morning was make sure that Thing 3 was up on time because once again, Thing 2 doesn't go to school until about 8:30. And today is the last day of school for my kids, so I'm going to be even more lazy in the mornings in the coming days. My husband still has school for the rest of the week, though, so I still have to deal with his getting up early.

I worked hard for a couple of hours last night trying to remove caulking from my bath tub. That is no easy job. I got most of it, but I need to take another crack at it tonight. I'm wondering if I have the guts to re-caulk it myself or if I should find someone who knows what they're doing.

AP: 10:13. Splits: 10:31, 10:08, 9:56, 10:16.

VO₂ max - 8 mi w/ 3 x 1,600 m @ 5K race pace; jog 50 to 90% interval time between.

6:35 am, 48°, 92% humidity, winds calm, overcast most of the time - perfect weather for a track workout.

Slept in and then went to the high school track for the workout. There was some guy walking on the track when I got there and he was still there when I left. I talked to him a bit some of the times that I lapped him. He made some comment about my lapping him and that's why I look good and he doesn't. But it wasn't very hard to lap him since he was walking the whole time.

It was overcast while I was running on the track and just as I left the track, the sun came out from behind the clouds.

I didn't do any caulking or caulk removal last night. Maybe tonight.

AP: 8:49. Splits on the way to the track: 10:22, 9:48, 0.39 @ 9:39.
Time on the 1600 m intervals (with pace on rest interval in parentheses): 7:31 (9:53), 7:19 (9:51), 7:19.
Splits on the way home from the track: 9:42, 0.65 @ 9:15.

Recovery run.

6:56 am, 60° F, 70% humidity, wind 4 S.

I have become the queen of lazy these days. I am having a hard time getting myself up and out the door in the morning. It's hard to be motivated when I don't have to get kids of to school and I only have 5 miles to run.

Yesterday my 18-year-old son came to me and said that he had decided to start running because he wants to get in shape. He wanted me to buy him some cheap running shoes and tell him a 2-mile route. So I took him to Target and got him some cheap running shoes and some shorts. I told him that I'll buy him better gear after he has proven that he's going to stick with it. I sent him out on the 2-mile route and told him to walk if he needed to. I didn't keep track of how long he was gone. When he came back he said that he had walked about 1/3 of it and he also said that he had new-found respect for me. I don't think it's just my example that has convinced him to start running. His new girlfriend is a runner. I think I won't say anything to him about it today. He's got a gig today with his band and has to work this evening anyway. But I think tomorrow I'll encourage him to go out and run again.

AP: 10:11. Splits: 10:42, 10:05, 10:12, 9:48 (this is a gentle downhill), 10:09.

Recovery + Speed - 6 mi w/ 8 x 100 m strides

6:50 am, 70° F, 28% humidity, wind 12 SSE.

I meant to run about 4 miles before starting the strides, but it only took me 3 miles to get to the high school track. I should have taken a longer route. I thought of running a slow mile on the track before starting the strides, but I got bored with it after two laps, so I started the strides after 3 1/2 miles. Since the strides are 100 m and I job for 100 m between strides, it takes me 4 laps to do 8 strides. So I had a mile and half to run home when I was done with the strides.

I didn't hit the lap button to record the time on my strides. I had auto lap on, so I just have mile splits today. The strides comprised the second half of mile 4 and the first half of mile 5.

AP: 9:56. Splits: 10:41, 10:13, 9:55, 9:32, 9:14, 9:60.

In thinking a head to next week, I'm not sure what to do on Friday, the day before the race. My schedule has a 4 mile recovery run, but it's a travel day and I need to leave for the airport at about 6:00 am. I'd have to get up really early to do the run. I'm wondering whether it's worth it or if I should just skip the run that day.

Medium-long run.

6:11 am, 70° F, 9% humidity, winds calm.

I had to get a relatively early start this morning because I'm meeting my visiting teaching companion and the women we visit for breakfast at 9:30.

I went to the Highline Canal Trail despite that I was in a hurry because I haven't been there for a few weeks and I thought it would be better to run an out and back on a relatively flat trail today than to run the roads and hills around the hood.

It was warm but not too bad because a good portion of the trail was shady. It helped that it was fairly early in the day.

I saw a couple of fields of little purple wild flowers along the trail. They were very pretty. It's interesting that I didn't notice them on the way out, but I did on the way back.

I tried to run a moderate effort, not too far beyond easy effort. The only place I really pushed the pace was the last half mile. I managed to get the 8th mile and the last mile under my arbitrary fast miles designation of 8:30, and so I'm reporting two fast miles today.

AP: 8:45. Splits: 9:57, 9:17, 9:12, 8:43, 8:43, 8:37, 8:35, 8:25, 8:32, 8:33, 8:33, 8:32, 8:09.

Recovery run.

9:00 am, 63-70° , 35% humidity, wind 2 W, sunny.

I slept in this morning, then got up and checked the Bolder Boulder results, did some reading, and then finally headed out the door. I just tried to keep it easy today and plodded along at a slow pace. I managed to go through a couple of sprinklers when I was in the neighborhood near the end, but they didn't do much for me.

I'm going to try to finally finish the caulking on the tub today. I've been procrastinating. But we're all getting tired of taking showers in the kids' bathroom.

AP: 9:58. Splits: 10:10, 9:56, 10:04, 10:03, 9:58, 9:40, 9:52.