M'kay

20 Mi Long run from Pullman, WA to Moscow, ID along Chapman trail and thru UofI campus.  Mostly flat (slight incline 1st half), with a decent hill halfway that I went up and down twice.

Increased pace in last half.  Effort last few miles grew considerably.  Bad hydration plan yesterday, and no so great sleep last night probably made this run tougher than it should have been.  Last 20 miler before Seattle Marathon. 

Recovery Run at 8:56 pace.  Nice easy run thru WSU campus.

3 mile warmup at 7:58/mi pace.

6x600m intervals with 90 sec recovery in 2:21, 2:20, 2:21, 2:21, 2:18, 2:18. (5K pace).

3 mile cooldown at  8:20/mi pace.

Intervals felt pretty easy (relatively) and breathing only got intense towards end of each.  Good to feel like I've got some juice left.

Having some left abductor muscle soreness probably since I'm running weekly mileage at my upper limit.

Good easy run at 7:58/mi pace. Temps a bit warmer and much more humid than normal contributing to higher HR than normal for the effort (which was easy). Actually, legs felt good even after yesterday's Intervals....no deadness whatsoever.

Some tightness in upper-left quad that never really worked out during the run. Also some tightness on left knee outside (ITB), so some definite quality stretching after run was in order. Did some plyometric drills (high knees, butt kicks, skipping) after run.

Last non-recovery run before 10K this weekend (one and only tune-up race between Portland and Seattle marathons). Am aiming to:

1 - PR at this distance, and

2 - Break the magic 40 minute mark. Well, maybe not magic, but it's going down!!!

These longer aerobic runs at closer to MP have become easier after Portland. I believe my hopes that I could use that race as a very high-quality workout and springboard to the small performance increase I need to break 3:15 are on target. Now, I'll just need a good 10K race for a confidence booster, one last 17 miler on Sunday, and 2 weeks of quality taper and I'll be set.

Also decided it was high time to start figuring out how much fluid I lose on runs. So far for all my training and races, I go "by feel", which obviously is imprecise since I don't know how it feels until it's "too late". So with today's run under temps of ~ 53 and high humidity (> 80%) at an easy pace lasting 1:43 I lost 3.8 lbs. Wow. Guess I need to track this a bit more often under different conditions and paces to really nail down how much fluid I should be taking in during races.

7 mile recovery run at 8:44/mi pace, followed by 6x100m Striders w/ 100m rest.

Despite blogging in the forums about using my Garmin 305 HR monitor to keep my HR low for recovery runs, I blew it on the uphill stretch and pushed a bit too hard (as reminded by the constant beeping which I evidently ignored) so my overall recovery pace was on the fast side. Overall though, the effort was very light.

Still some 'twinges' from my left quad....this time in the center of the muscle, not the top. Strange, but didn't affect my run at all. Also some left achilles stiffness...need to watch that since that was an old injury site back when I started running.

Striders were in :16, :18, :18, :18, :17, :18. Weird, since the first one felt the slowest.

Followed up with some core and upper-body exercises and a healthy dose of stretching.

1:02:41 (8:57/mi) Recovery Run. 

Nice and easy today, with little difficulty keeping HR under recovery threshold up and down the hill.  Smack in the middle of my recovery pace.

Despite the dire forecast, gorgeous conditions.  Mostly sunny and 50+ instead of rainy, cloudy, and 40.  Gotta love the NW!

Some 'tension' in my outer left leg.  This seems to have moved around my left leg the past week...nothing that is causing me to worry too much (or stop running), but starting to make me wonder what's going on.  Got some good stretching in again post run.

Ready for tomorrow's 10K.  (Ready for everything except the 5am wakeup and the 2 hour drive to get there!).  

 On another note, my dog problem seems to have gotten fixed.  She's been restrained to her property for the past 3 days straight now.  I feel bad that she's on a line instead of running free, but do feel better than it's better odds I'll come home in one piece from here on out.
 

Garmin Splits: 6:26, 6:22, 6:38, 6:34, 6:30, 6:20, 1:11.

Day began with an early (5am) wakeup, a bagel, banana, some juice, coffee, and prepping the dogs and ferrets to survive the morning cooped up in the house. Also saw my wife prepping to depart on a 2 day horse hunting trip (yes, that's horse, not house). At 6am, I was off on my 2 hour drive to Carnation, WA to the site of the 10k. One potty stop and 2 hours later, I was there.

A quick and painless registration, oriented myself to the start line and the restrooms, and got myself warmed up with a nice easy 2 mile run. Since some intermittent rain had fallen, decided to keep my hat and gloves to go along with tshirt and shorts. Temps were near 50F and mostly cloudy, so relatively ideal weather. Wandered around waiting for a while, then as the race got closer, ran another 1/2 mile with some Striders thrown in to stay warm. Found a good place in the starting pack (5k and 10k started together) and waited for the horn. Right around 9am, we were off!

The crowded start kept things slow for about 1/4 mile as we run down a driveway, thru a parking lot, over some grass, and onto a track. Here it started to open up as we crossed some more grass, ran up some steep railroad tie steps and turned right onto a gravel trail. Settled in at a comfortably hard pace. After running on the gravel trail for a while, descend a short but steep dirt track that took us from the high trail ground to a crossing road below. Followed the road into a park, where the road turned to dirt at around the 1 mi mark.

The road remained fairly level for the next mile and I settled in several paces behind a female runner (who became my pacer) that appeared to be running at about my same speed fairly easily. We were slowly picking off other 5k and 10k runners as we made the loop, but my effort increased out of the "comfortably hard" and starting getting into "just hard" territory. I focused on good belly breathing that I've been practicing and managed to keep a good pace through the 2 mile mark. Shortly thereafter, the 5k and 10k paths split, with 10k'ers being directed "up the hill". Oh boy!

The next 2 miles were an out and back along more dirt road trails, this time over "rolling hills". Some were steep enough that I had to run short downhill stretches a bit slower to keep my footing over the wet dirt and rock ground. On the outbound stretch, my pacer and I passed one last 10k runner. I remember seeing 2 10k'ers ahead of us and thinking "I'm in 4th! If I can pass her, I'll take 3rd!" Unfortunately, in my oxygen-deprived state, I later discovered that I'd managed to miss the fact that 2 other runners were ahead of me and ran right by me going the other way!

On the return trip from the turnaround point, my pacer almost took a wrong turn, causing me to holler (gasp) "LEFT!", which caused her to jump briefly and return to the proper trail. Several times over the hilly terrain I'd almost catch and pass her, only to fall behind a few steps again. We hit the flat portion again after the 4 mi marker and increased the speed a bit over the flat terrain. Effort now was definitely hard and it took all I had to keep in a 2-2 deep breathing rhythm. Just after the 5 mi marker, my pacer again almost took a wrong turn, and this time a feebler "RIGHT!" plus a volunteer who first looked confused but then started pointing got her back on track. We hit the paved street briefly, climbed the steep (and slippery) trail up to the gravel trail and I started pouring on the little I'd been holding back. I finally managed to pass my pacer here kept it redlined down the gravel trail. The 10k route had rejoined the 5k route, and dodging slower 5k runners and other regular trail users became an small issue. The 10k route continued past the turnoff point another 150 meters or so to another 180 degree turnaround, then back to the turnoff.

After a brief descent, I found myself running across wet grass complete with big slippery leaves. This probably warranted some caution, but I was really trying to break 40 minutes and knew I was behind from the hilly miles. A couple of slips but no falls took me through the 6 mile mark, and I headed back over the track towards the parking lot and driveway towards where the finish was located. I poured it on at this point, sprinting (or some semblance of a sprint) towards the finish. 40:04, a few seconds over my sub-40 goal time, but well under my 10k PR from August 07 and given the course conditions, an effort I'm very proud of.