M'kay

LM warmup, 7 miles in 52:33, 7:30/mi, 12 x 12 sec Hill Sprints & stretching.

Back in VA.  A bit of a progression run.  First mile in 7:50, last in 6:56.  Didn't really mean to...it just happened that way.  Also noticed that running on the pavement or sidewalk hurt more and was slower, but when I jumped into the uneven grass medians and lawn edges, I felt better, took longer more fluid strides, and went faster.  Felt like I wasn't working harder even though I know I was working harder.  Similar to my Saturday run, where I found myself slow on the road but speed up (and feel better) on the gravel and the few trails.  Hmmmmmm.

LM warmup, 8.12 miles in 58:38, 7:13/mi, HR 163, w/ 2 mile warmup, Ladder 1,2,3,2,1,2,3, 2 mile cooldown, light core work & stretching.

Legs felt a bit tired today, but after a decently paced 2 mile warmup, decided to jump into a Fartlek workout with some faster running.  Felt better as the workout progressed, running a 5:48/mi average pace on the last 3 minute interval.  All things considered a really strong workout.  Tomorrow will need to be a truly easy day. 

LM warmup, 7 miles in 52:27, 7:29/mi, HR 158, 12 x 12 sec Hill Sprints & stretching.

Found out just before tonight's run that my youngest brother (6 & 1/2 years my junior) recently ran a 5K PR that beat my PR.  By quite a lot.  Of course I'm happy for him.  Really.  No, I am.  Good stuff.  So tonight's easy run with increasingly sore legs turned into a copy of Monday's run, where the first couple of miles were slower and I worked out some tightness, then I got looser and sped up to finish off with a 7:04 final mile.  Not speedwork but not exactly slow.  Oh well.  Now to find a nice fast, flat 5K.... 

Took today off.  Last 3 runs haven't been terribly easy, a bit tired this late in a travel week, and legs a bit sore.  Just means I'll need to run tomorrow after flying back home.

LM warmup, 7.26 miles in 52:37, 7:14/mi, HR 161 progression & stretching.

Back home after flying back from VA early.  Another progression run, not that I really meant too.  Pit stop at mile 6 after which I really pushed the pace for the final mile and a quarter.  Didn't feel great but the best to be expected after all day travel, early wakeup and a long week back east. 

LM warmup, 7.1 miles in 50:51, 7:09/mi & stretching.

Caught up on sleep.  Battery in my HRM is dying...either that or my HR went from 150 to 80 by the end of the run.  Still running easy faster than normal.  Tomorrow will be a fitness check race, so I didn't go long today. 

Ran today's 5K to baseline my current fitness to see where I'm starting from in my "beat my brother's 5K PR" quest.  Since I tied by 5K PR, I guess its not nearly as bad as I'd feared.  My other goal was to increase my ability to suffer, which meant I'd go out hard to make sure I wasn't sandbagging and hang on as best I could.  

Cloudy with some sun-break's this morning, along with some transient rain showers.  The first shower caught me in my warmup, so I was wet to start things off.  That didn't matter much, since the shower continued until about 1/2 mile into the race.  Went out fast with the leaders (mostly HS kids) and settled into 4th place.  The first 2 runners were right on top of one another and I was trailing another kid a short distance back, holding off another a few steps behind me.  Felt pretty good, moved into 3rd about 1/2 mile in, coming through the first mile in 5:43.

Mile 2 began the suffer-fest in earnest.  I avoided looking at my watch and just concentrated on making sure I felt like complete garbage.  Oh, how I wanted to just walk for a few seconds.  My mind kept lobbying for a break but I managed to keep that at bay by thinking of how this would help me in my quest to beat my brother.  The trail was leaf covered again this year (ran the 10K last year) but I didn't notice any real slippage or anything.  Actually, I didn't notice much except how badly I wanted to be done.  Hit the turnaround and tried to keep the pace up.  Snuck a look at my watch and saw my pace had dropped off into the low 6 range.  Missed the 2 mile marker, not because it wasn't there but because I was hurting pretty badly and could only focus on breathing, running, and suffering.  2nd mile in 6:05.  

The last mile was in two parts.....the first half was just trying to keep up the effort and get myself to the 2nd half.  Once I was halfway through, I tried pushing with whatever I had left, which felt like nothing.  Evidently it was a bit of something because I came thru mile 3 in 6:02.  The last stretch to the finish was in 41 seconds (0.14 mile) so a bit of a speedup to the end.  3rd place, 1st in my AG and another 18:31, my 5K PR from Jan 1.

So my takeaways.  Mostly flat course, one 180 turn and only a few other turns, so no real course issues to deal with.   Some rain to start, sun to finish, but nice temps and no real weather problems.  Equaled my PR on inconsistent training over the last few weeks and months and very little speedwork outside of hill sprints and shorter (<= 3 minute) Fartleks.  Got much higher on the 5K suffering scale today than I have since Aug 08.  Now I need to go work at shaving off at least 29 seconds (and preferably more) over the next couple of months.

2 mile warmup in  14:36, 7:18, HR 157, w/ 0.5 mile threshold effort, 3.1 mile race in 18:31, 5:58/mi, HR 177, 2 mile cooldown in 15:20, 7:40, HR 150.

LM warmup, 7 miles in 50:04, 7:09/mi, HR 163, w/ 12 x 12 sec Hill Sprints & stretching.

Felt surprisingly good today after yesterday's race.  No real soreness nor atypical stiffness.  Legs did get a bit tired towards the end of the run.  Another faster-paced easy run...seems like when I'm focused on form, strides are longer and more powerful which increases pace (and effort to an extent).  Since the next week is going to be hit-and-miss on running while on vacation, I'll take whatever I can get now.

Took advantage of a neighbor's offer of their "hill", a shared private driveway that's steeper than anything else around.  It changed the dynamics of hill sprints completely.  12 seconds was about all I could manage before my legs got all wobbly and my breathing ragged.  The walk back down to the start was almost as tough as the run up.  I had to spend some time just standing around at the bottom just to get my HR back down and recover completely.  Fun. 

LM warmup, 5.06 miles in 38:30, 7:36/mi, HR 172 & stretching.

First post-trip run.  Spent a week in Colorado and Utah visiting step-daughter and vacationing.  About the only running I did was quick jogs or sprints up a trail to get a photo or to explore a trail junction.  Regrettable I didn't really have much time to do any running because the trails in Canyonlands & Arches Natl Parks were very alluring.  But it was a family trip, the schedule was pretty tight and I'm the only runner, so no real running to speak of.  I did manage to pick up a cold that only really flourished a couple of days ago, and to cap things off I got tetanus and flu shots at the doctor yesterday.  Evidently they felt it was necessary to give me the "old person" flu shot.  Jeez.....I only just turned 40 last week!

Anyway, today's run was predictably a struggle with lungs and legs.  Managed 5 miles with a couple of walk breaks, but at least it cleared the snot out of my head for a while.  The snow on the ground this morning was melted off by the time I went for the run, but I think it'll be back soon. 

LM warmup, 9.13 miles in 1:07:58, 7:26/mi, HR 173, 1 mile walk w/ dogs, light core workout & stretching.

Cool and pleasant today (41F).  Tough run only because of the week off, so HR was high and legs got tired, but form felt good and pace was decent.  Pushed a bit on the last mile.  New shoes felt nice. 

LM warmup, 7 miles in 54:57, 7:51/mi, HR 161, w/ 10 x 12 sec Hill Sprints, 1.5 mile walk w/ dogs & stretching.

Snowing and cold.  Legs already sore from yesterday.  Hill sprints okay but got difficult because the snow really started sticking once I started the sprints and the road got slick.  

LM warmup, 10.01 miles in 1:17:23, 7:43/mi, HR 163, w/ last 4 miles Moderate effort, light core workout & stretching.

Roads had about 3 inches of fresh snow on them, so the scheduled 15 x 1 min on/off workout was a no-go.  Probably overly ambitious anyway, given the entire week off recently.  Decided just to run 7 or 8 and leave it at that.  Once I got into the run, however, I felt like I wanted to keep going.  So I did.  On the way back, I pushed to about as fast as I could without significant slipping and sliding, which turned out to be about MP or so.  A good tiring run.

We'll call today Crosstraining.  17 inches of fresh snow on the ground this morning and we're not even past Thanksgiving.  This is by far the most snow we've ever had in one dumping and I believe the most at once.  So today consisted of shoveling snow.  Lots and lots of snow.  I didn't even get the truck dug out before I finally gave up some 5+ hours in, but I did manage to create an 8' wide path down the driveway, a path to the woodpile, and dug out the car.  If I hadn't, we'd have this snow lying around for weeks.  Now that I've put forth the snow shoveling effort, it'll rain tomorrow and clear all this up.  Just sayin'.

Yesterday's crosstraining about killed me.  My left shoulder has been bugging me off and on since the summer, but last night it kicked into overdrive.  Then I about fell on my face getting out of bed this morning when I tried to move my bad and it complained.  I did get loosened up a bit and managed to dig out the truck this morning for some additional "cross training" value, but I think that'll probably be all for today.

LM warmup, 7.11 miles in 55:06, 7:456/mi, HR 166, 1.5 miles w/ dog (1 mile jogging) & stretching.

40s and cloudy today.  Everything is melting.  Another get-back-into-things easy run.  An added jogging mile with the dog.

We lost Bean Wednesday night suddenly.  She was my first dog and we've had her over 13 years.  She came into our lives as a puppy at a difficult time, about 6 months before Dianna and I got married, and was a handful from day one.  Tons of personality.  Took us over a year to potty train her, not because she's dumb but because she was very very smart and used that to outwit us.  Many great memories and not one single bad one.  I'm thankful both of us were there for her at the end and she went peacefully, but we weren't ready and neither of us are coping well.  We rescue ferrets, so we've dealt with our fair share of loss, but Bean was different and we all miss her terribly.   Rest-in-peace Beanie!

LM warmup, 12.11 miles in 1:34:43, 7:49/mi, HR 168, 1.5 mile walk/jog with dogs, light core workout & stretching.

Cold with some sleet showers.  4 mile on slick slushy forest roads, the remainder on fairly clear asphalt.   Legs tired.

LM warmup, 7 miles in 54:08, 7:44/mi, HR 161, 12 x 12 sec Hill Sprints, 1.5 mile walk/jog with dog (1 mile jogging), & stretching.

Legs tired and cranky today.  Some left hip pains but manageable.  Hill Sprints were tough but got through them.   

LM warmup, 8.12 miles in 1:03:42, 7:51/mi, HR 166, w/ 2 mile warmup, 2 x Drills, 6 x Strides, 15 x 1 min on/off Fartleks, 2+ mile cooldown, 1.5 mile walk/jog (1 mile jogging) w/ dog, light core workout * stretching.

Lack of recent speedwork and consistent training made this an "ouch" workout.  Now I'm nice and tired.