M'kay

5.5 miles in 45:09, 8:12/mi, HR 137.  

Feeling the effects of this week's mileage and a bit of stiffness from yesterday's long trail run, it was easy keeping the pace mild today.  Cooler overcast skies remain (59F) so this one was a good recovery run.  405 is working fine now.

Adrenaline 8s (Blue) - 62.11 miles.

6.25 miles in 51:26, 8:13/mi, HR 142.

Felt more rested today, yet still kept things on the very easy side.  Warmer (66F) and sunny. 

I've noted in a few races that the cant of the road really affects me negatively in longer races.  Back when I began running, I'd always ran opposing traffic which yielded a down-left cant.  This gave me an achilles issue in short order.  Later, I took to running on the right side of the road to make up for the fact that my left side was weaker.  After many months, I decided to even things out and would run certain stretches of road on certain sides, giving me a relatively "even" amount of cant to deal with.  I also chose the side that was the flattest.

What I didn't realize at the time was that I wound up running uphill with more left-side cant and downhill with more right-side cant.  I decided to switch things up today and run on the opposite side I normally run on.  Boy, what a difference.  My right ankle was working hard to stay stable on the downhill (left-side cant).  Long story short:  I need to do more of this to make sure I'm developing stability and strength in both sides equally.

Asics GT 2120 - 455.98 miles.

10.3 miles in 1:22:30, 8:01/mi, HR 160.  30 minute warmup, 3.47 mi, 8:39/mi, HR 149.  15 x 30 second Strides w/ 1 minute rest.  30 minute cooldown, 4.02 mi, 7:28/mi, HR 165.

The heat is back.  Sunny and 75F in the shade for the run, so the warmup/cooldown were both kept easy.  Fortunately, the Strides were over so quickly the heat didn't affect things much, but I was terribly thirsty when they were over and glad I'd brought along some water. 

On a much more frustrating note, my brand new Forerunner 405 locked up again.  Bezel navigation quit working (yes, I checked to make sure I hadn't accidently locked the bezel) and it lost track of the GPS satellite constellation and my HR monitor, although the time kept running and it actually completed the workout once the time ran out.  I suspect that a hiccup in the wireless/GPS functionality is causing this problem but these are so new no one has posted anything online about how to fix other than to return it, so I will.  Unfortunately, it'll take REI another week to get a replacement in, so I'll have to limp thru with this one until then.   Ugh.

Adrenaline 8 - 311.74 miles.

7.5 miles in 59:56. 7:59/mi, HR 158.

Deceivingly hot today....temps read 75F but much warmer in the sun.  Kept things easy until the last 1/4 mile when I noticed that a little pushing would help me catch and beat the 8 minute guy. 

Adrenaline 8s (Blue) - 69.61 miles.

11.81 miles in 90 minutes, 7:37/mi, HR 164.  27:30 warmup, 3.21 mi, 8:34/mi, HR 154.  35:00 Steady State, 5.12 mi, 6:50/mi, HR 173.  27:30 cooldown, 3.49 mi, 7:53/mi, HR 161.

Got an early start for today's first run.  Temps around 62F and sunny.  Felt a bit tired and stiff on the warmup but settled in nicely during the Steady State portion.  Started getting tired in the final third and noticed I kept dropping my head as a result (staring at the ground).  Focused on keeping the effort up, good form through to the end.  Nice cooldown.  I think I managed to ease off just slightly from last week's Steady State and that the effort is right where it should be.

4 miles in 32:44, 8:11/mi, HR 148. 

Early evening run after work.  Temp 68F w/ some clouds which made it feel much cooler than this morning's run in the sun.  Very hard to get started....stiff and sore adductors that finally loosed up after a mile.  Wondering how my body is going to handle the 3 relay runs.

Decided against running in the VFFs for a while.  My feet literally take too much damage and getting this close to the relay I don't want to do anything stupid.  I need to find some grass-running opportunities to wear them.  For now, they'll just be my walk-around-the-house shoes, which helps strengthen the calves too.

Somehow I got my shoe mileage on this pair wrong...luckily I log the miles on another site as well that tracks it automatically, since I obviously can't count.

Asics GT 2120 - 522.0 miles.

7.5 miles in 59:17, 7:54/mi, HR 156.

One of those days where I felt like I was dragging but was not.  Sunny and warm (74F) with little shade so the asphalt was cooking, but a breeze on the return downhill felt good.  Sleep last night was restless, undoubtedly from yesterday's efforts.  Must get some good sleep for tomorrow 2 hour run.

Adrenaline 8 - 319.24 miles.

15 miles in 2:02:50, 8:11/mi, HR 161.

Warm hill run today.  71F at the start and sunny, 78F at the finish.  Out and back with a large hill early (mile 1-3), some gentle inclines (3-7.5), some gentle declines (7.5-12), the large hill again (12-14) and the finish.  Everything went pretty well except the return hill, by which time I was roasted and spent and I wound up taking a few walk breaks of several seconds to get to the top.  The heat really cooked me....I lost 5.4 lbs over the course of the run and consumed 24 fl oz of water enroute for a total of 6.9 lbs of sweat over 2 hours.  I'm not sure these runs in the heat are getting any easier but perhaps slightly more tolerable? Time to go move a couple pallet loads retaining wall bricks around the yard.

Adrenaline 8s (Blue) - 84.61 miles.