Cool Runnings!

AM - ran 3.35 miles with Sparky, about 8:10 pace. First mile in somewhere around 9:00, then slowly sped up as I got warmed up. Then another 2 miles on my own. First mile in 7:40, second mile I decided to do at 5K race pace - it felt really good to get up to speed, and no ill effects afterwards. No pain in the knee. Last mile was in 5:50. Yeah! I haven't ran that fast in quite a while. I managed to get a hold of the course map for the 5K this weekend - looks like it will be fairly flat, although much of it will be on the canal, which is dirt.

PM - ran 1 mile with Samuel in 10:20 - it was hot out - still 100 degrees at 8 pm.  Then ran another 2 easy miles to finish with 8.35 for the day.

(ProGrid Guide - 89.75)

AM - ran 3.25 miles with Sparky, average pace of 8:15/mile.  Then ran another 4 miles by myself at average pace of 7:53/mile.  It is getting too hot (at least yesterday and today) to run in the afternoon with the boys.  Lybi is going to start doing this in the morning to escape the heat wave in the afternoon.

AM - ran 3.25 miles with Sparky in 26:30, then ran 4 miles on my own in 32:00. Average pace for the 7.25 miles was 8:04/mile. Knee continues to feel fine, felt a little bit of tightness in my right calf while running this morning, probably nothing to worry about. My left arch was also pretty sore this morning when I woke up. I think that my "sock" has outlived its usefulness, and I am going to get a new PF sock from roadrunnersports, it does not go all the way up to the knee, but instead wraps around the ankle. Getting excited for the 5K this weekend. Looks like we should have pretty good weather too with it cooling down here. I am going to set the following goals for the race:

Gold: sub-18:00 (I am pretty sure I can do this, based on the first 2 miles of my 8K last November, which were in 11:50)

Silver: sub-18:30

Bronze: sub-19:00 (this would still be a post-HS PR for me)

(ProGrid Guide - 97)

AM - ran approx. 3.35 miles with Sparky. I say approximately, because there was a quite exciting/stressful event that happened somewhere around .35-.4 miles into the run. I was running east on Baseline with Sparky, when I looked ahead and saw what looked suspiciously like a mountain lion running east on the gravel next to the sidewalk where I was running - about 100 yards ahead of me. I didn't get to see the head, nor did I get a good look at the tail. I just turned right around with Sparky and started running the other way, fairly fast, I might add. It is possible that the animal was just a loose dog - maybe a yellow lab or a great dane. I just didn't want to get any closer to confirm exactly what it was. So anyways, after the eventful 3.35 miles, I ran another 2 miles by myself. Total time for the combined run was 44:00, average pace of 8:13/mile. It cooled down quite a bit today, so I will be running with the boys this afternoon.

PM - well, Lybi took the boys with her over to a friend's house while she practiced accompanying the daughter for a special musical number, so I didn't get to run with the boys.  I made dinner and ate before going to Webelos scouts, and didn't get to see them until I got back, at which point it was time to read scriptures and get them to bed.  So after I put Adam down, I went out in the rain for a nice 2 miler.  Unfortunately, I don't have any waterproof clothing, and am too cheap to buy some, so I ended up getting pretty soaked.  But it was very nice to be able to run in the rain!

On a side note, I found out that they are doing a staggered start for the 5K on Saturday, where everyone is handicapped by age and gender, which determines your start time after the clock starts.  My start time is 13:57.  Hopefully there will be some good runners for me to run with, but it will be quite the interesting race.  Unless I can find someone who is comparable to me in terms of time goal, it will pretty much be a time trial for me, although with lots of roadkill.  

AM - no workee for me today! I got to sleep in until 7:30 this morning. Made pancakes for the family, then went out for 5 miles by myself. Averaged 8:00/mile. Felt really nice, it was in the mid-50's and was drizzling a little bit. It was absolutely gorgeous. Afterwards, I took the boys for a run. Ran 1 mile with Samuel in 10:24, then 0.65 with Joey in 7:15 or so. May get in a couple more miles this evening to shake the legs out.

(ProGrid Guide - 103.65)

Arizona Roadracers Summer Race Series #1 - ran 18:15, 16th (or was it 15th) place overall, 3rd in my age division. This year was much more competitive than last year. More details to follow later. Have to take the boys now to the ward triathlon.

OK, time for more details. The weather for the race was absolutely perfect, 59 degrees and cloudy. Warmed up with (and around) Lybi for 2 miles, did a few striders to get a feel for the pace I wanted to run. Because the park gates only opened at 6:30, they had a staggered start on this race, with a handicap assigned according to age and gender. Mine was supposed to be 13:58, however, due to crowding I didn't get to go until about 15 minutes after the start. Since the race was chip-timed, no big deal in terms of the time, but it left a LOT of slower runners in front of me.

First mile: 5:59. This mile was the slowest of all my miles because I was having to constantly weave in and out of slower traffic that was taking up all the available space on the course. Sometimes I had to almost stop so that I could thread through a gap. Otherwise, the first mile felt pretty good.

Second mile: 5:53. Still having to spend quite a bit of time weaving through slower traffic, and this mile also included the turnaround, which I hit in 19:15, but in general the course was clearer. Towards the end of this mile, I started to adopt the Sasha method of groaning/grunting as I was breathing out.

Third mile: 5:50. Spent pretty much the entire mile grunting/groaning, legs were starting to burn, breathing was pretty taxed. I was still able to pass a few runners on this mile.

Last 0.11 - 34 seconds. I was amazed that I had enough left in the tank to average 5:09 pace for the last .11.

I was pretty dead tired when I finished, but got to see Lybi come in later and beat her time - hurray! I was also happy that cardio-wise, I seemed to recover pretty quickly - after about 3-4 minutes, I was pretty much back to normal. That speaks good things to me about my cardiovascular fitness. Since I haven't really done any speed workouts yet, and still don't intend to until I reach 50 miles/week, overall I am very happy with the result. Had there not been all the congestion in front of me, I would have been very close to breaking 18:00, and in any case, I PR'd by almost a minute from my last 5K. So silver goal achieved, no knee pain at all, just some tight and sore muscles in my hamstrings and calves. I will get Lybi to massage me later on.

PM - ran 1 mile with Samuel, then 0.65 with Joey. Later on, ran 4 easy miles at 8:15 pace. Legs felt recovered, the run felt nice and easy.

(ProGrid Guide - 109.3)