M'kay

7 miles Easy in 56:16 (8:02/mi, avg HR 153).

Plenty of snow overnight made for a slippery run, but felt good and kept good pace, especially after long run yesterday.

7 miles Easy in 56:45 (8:06/mi, avg HR 152).

Bad road conditions today....plenty of ice and treacherousness to go around.  Still managed a decent pace and easy effort to finish off my runs for the year.  By my calculations, this puts me at 2656 miles for the year.  So I guess my first resolution for next year is to log 3000 miles.  I'm also thinking about running a 5K tomorrow morning to get the New Year off on the right foot.

Brooks Adrenaline (Blue) - 393 miles.

Started with 3 miles Easy in 24:18 (8:06/mi, avg HR 148) as a warmup. Warmed up by running the 5k route as a recon, since I've never run a race in this neck of the woods before, and there were more than a couple turns. Fortunately, the course was well marked, and mostly flat, except for the initial climb from the start on a track. Out and back course.

Crowded field for the start (many more folks than I'd anticipated, plus a combined 5k/5mile start) but me a few seconds off the starting line. At 9am, we were off. It took about .25 miles to get up to speed due to the crowds, but eventually I got into a good rhythm. Pace was actually on the fast side initially, but felt pretty relaxed and easy (which I knew wouldn't last). My left foot and leg were still giving me some problems, so I vowed to ease off if they got any worse than troublesome, but they didn't. Started reeling several other runners in almost immediately.

Mile 2 still felt pretty easy. Breathing rhythm was still at 3-3 (although a fast 3-3), which was surprising, since my legs felt like they were pretty much at max speed without losing form rapidly. So I kept that pace knowing the O2 debt would come. At the Mile 2 marker, I was finally starting to feel it.....the breathing dropped down to 2-2 and I struggled to keep my breathing relatively deep in the belly and to stay on pace, but I tried to steer away from looking at my watch (garmin) often, running rather on effort I felt was sustainable. I was still reeling some folks in, but far fewer now. I did try to strategize a bit here......when I did pass someone, I added a little extra for a few seconds to make them "stay passed", and it seemed to work. I had one guy try to keep up when I went by him, but the extra speed I added briefly quickly dropped him, which felt good. No .1 marker, but the end of the race was the downhill followed by a half track lap. The downhill which I normally eat up was tough, and I could tell the pace had taken it's toll on my legs. I did manage a bit of extra speed for the final bit of the race, but nothing resembling a sprint....seemed like my legs had locked in at max speed and that was it. Crossed the line at 19:05 (unofficial....times to be posted in the next couple of days) feeling pretty spent, but strangely not quite as "wasted" as my only other 5k.

Interestingly, in this 5k, my leg speed appeared to be the limiting factor. Granted, I was chewing up O2 in the last mile, but in my last 5k, I was in a 2-2 breathing pattern by mile 1, where this race my 3-3 lasted until mile 2. Since I'm in a base phase now and have done no real speedwork recently, perhaps that's why my top-end was the limiting factor? I certainly didn't feel like I was in "puke gear" at the end, unlike my last 5k. In any event, a good way to kickoff '08, with a 16th place overall, 13th in the mens category, and 3rd in my age group. I later found out that the race was stacked in the 40-60 age groups, so my AG finish is a bit less impressive (3 of 12) and many ran the 5 mile race, but still I managed to drop my 5K PR by over 1 minute. All in all, a happy new years.

Of course, that's excluding my car saga. My 10 year old Saab decided that I wasn't authorized to drive it. Rather, my remote unlocker decided to stop working. Unfortunately, I'd armed the alarm, so while I could unlock the door with the key, the alarm would sound. On top of that, my wallet, money, and more importantly, cell phone were all in the car. So I waited until the least amount of folks were around, and set it off to retrieve my cell and call my wife for help (whom I'd thankfully *not* drug along with me to the race but instead let sleep in). Needless to say, it was embarrasing. Later, after some chow and the awards ceremony, I discovered my car remote decided to start working again, so I managed to get my rescuer to turn around 30 minutes into her trip to save me. Guess it's at least time for a new remote!

5K Race in 19:05 (6:09/mi, avg HR 177). Splits according to Garmin (3.17 mi total) 6:04, 5:59, 6:04, :56.

Brooks Adrenaline (Yellow) - 135 miles.

Off day.

2 miles Easy in 15:59 (7:59/mi, avg HR 159) warmup.
6.5 miles Steady State (2.5 up, 2.5 down, 1.25 up, 1.25 down) in 45:28 (6:59/mi, avg HR 178) with splits: 6:54, 7:34, 7:11, 6:28, 6:37, 7:17, 3:21

Decided to take yesterday completely off in order to rest after Tuesday's race and to celebrate my (step) daughter's 20th birthday, which we did by going to the Point Defiance Aquarium and Zoo. I guess it wasn't completely off, since we did quite a bit of walking, which I normally don't do having a desk (computer) job. As it turned out, I was completely wiped out and wound up taking a 1.5 hr nap once we got home (passed out is more like it), in time to get up, eat, watch a bit of football, and go back to bed. All in all, a good day.

Unfortunately, that didn't presage a good workout today. Supposed to be a 10 mile Steady State workout today, but things went south quickly. I went out a bit fast in my warmup, trying out my new pace ranges and overdoing it a bit. Today's temps hit 50 today, quite a bit warmer than normal. Once I started the Steady State portion, I could immediately tell the effort was substantially harder than it should've been. I'd decided on a 2-loop out and back course, in order to break up the uphill and downhill portions a bit more than my usual 5 uphill out, 5 downhill back. Some uphill headwinds during mile 2 made it especially hard to stay anywhere near my pace and I struggled mightily while my HR soared to near my max. I could also feel my leg muscles start the familiar burn and knew this wasn't going to be sustainable. I tried to focus and eliminate the bad thoughts, and decided to mentally focus on getting to the 2.5 mile mark, where I knew the turn-around and downhill section would be a mental boost. I managed to make it there, and quickly discovered the downhill stretch wasn't all that much easier, confirming my suspicion that today's run was not going well. To make this long story shorter, I did make the halfway point, and continued onto the second loop, only to be reduced to a short walk at around 5.5 miles, so I decided to turn around and pack it in shortly after that point to finish off a total of 6.5 SS miles, slightly slower than my new SS range (but still within the tolerance of my previous range).

I'm going to speculate that this is simply a case of too much too soon. With the race, walking around yesterday, winds, warmer temps, etc. I obviously wasn't recovered enough to properly execute this workout. Instead of giving into the "end of the world" feeling I've got right now, I'm going to chalk it up to learning, try to avoid as much of the inevitable muscle soreness I *know* I'm going to have following today, and to try to get back on track for Saturday's Progression Run.

6.5 miles Easy in 52:10 (8:01/mi, avg HR 157).

Bad math on my part extended this 50 minute run to 52 minutes. A bit worn down from yesterday's fiasco, but not as bad as I'd feared. I'm in a house full of sicko's, so I'm desperate to ward off whatever it is they're passing around. Will get some good sleep tonite for tomorrow's progression run.

Brooks Trance - 285.5 miles.

90 minute Thirds Progression run (11.46 mi, 7:51/mi avg pace, avg HR 145). First third 3.41 mi (8:48/mi avg pace), second third 3.77 (7:57/mi avg pace, avg HR 150), last third 4.28 mi (7:00/mi avg pace, avg HR 169).

Ran three out and back segments (uphill outbound, downhill return) with gradually increasing pace throughout each. Aimed for recovery pace first third, easy pace second third, and marathon/threshold pace final third. Felt like I nailed it. Started coming down with the same sore throat everyone else in the household has had last night, so I pushed the fluids last evening and this morning, so it didn't affect me during the run. Plus, got some extra sleep last night.

Brooks Adrenaline (Yellow) - 146.46 miles.