I only run on days that end in a "y."

Nice morning for a run - high 40's.  I had not planned route and had an idea about what mileage I wanted.  Ran a new route and worked my way back.  Ended up with exactly 10 miles - how about that.  Paces were in the high 8:00s to start and down below 8:00's for the last couple.  Legs felt pretty good but I can tell they are still not at 100% but close.

5 super easy/recovery miles - high 8:00's. I am trying to keep below 50 this week since it is only my second week after the marathon. 

Great morning for running - no one else on the road these days - not sure where everyone is.  I only saw 2 other runners.  

During this morning's run I contemplated how fortunate I am with the area of town I live in.  I can literally choose routes in every direction from my house.  I have flat courses, rolling hills, and mega hills, and even trails if I choose.   I have lived in this house over 3 years and found a new route yesterday that I really enjoy.  It has some nice rollers and then some flat parts.  Ran it again this morning but took it a couple miles further. 

 Today I ran by feel most of the way though I glanced at my pace occasionally. Hit some good aerobic base miles.  Most miles in the 7:50-8:05 range with the last at 7:45. 

OK - so the plan going forward is to start pushing the aerobic pace miles a bit.  I would like to stay in the 7:50 - 8:05 range. Somewhat warm but overcast and a breeze.  

 I ran 8 miles @ overall 7:52 pace.  

Since it is my birthday today I was thinking something special to do tomorrow to celebrate - say a 400m repeat for every year.  That would be 43 x 400m so I will probably chicken out and not do it.

My 3 year old daughter decided to wake up and have a party at 3 am.  We could never quite get her back to sleep.  After getting up around 5:30 I stayed with her so my wife could sleep in.  By the time I made it out the door for a run a front had moved through with 30MPH winds and some light rain.  I ran the mega hilly route out and came back the flatter but still steady incline route back in.  I had to fight the winds from 5-8.  I wanted to drop the hammer a bit on 7-10 but found it difficult with the wind.  When I got back I replenished my glycogen stores with a piece of my "chocolate explosion" birthday cake and washed it down with a hot cup of coffee.  Nice!

 8:05, 7:37, 7:37, 7:38, 7:58, 7:48, 7:54, 7:20, 7:15, 6:56.

 OK, so the new qualifying procedures were explained to me last night and I had to go reread them.  So, after registration opens to all others it is not first come first serve like I had thought.  Being accepted will still be based on time.  Therefore, the more that one has beat his or her qualifying time the better.  If one just "made it" then the chances of being accepted are less, of course.  So having a 3:17 should put me in pretty good shape if there are still spots left.  I guess we will see when the time comes.

If the field size is not reached after the first week and additional space remains, then registration will open to all qualifiers at the beginning of Week Two (September 19) and those who have met the qualifying standards by any amount of time will be able to apply for entry. The application process will remain open for the entire week, closing on September 23. At the conclusion of Week Two, those who are the fastest among the pool of applicants in their age and gender will be accepted. Accepted athletes will be notified on September 28.

40 degrees at the start but a beautiful sunrise that warmed things up a bit.  I took the road less traveled today - a bit of a country road with some mild rollers.  With 2 miles to go though there is a hill with 14% gradient at one point, levels off a bit and then another shorter and not as steep but most of the way back has a good incline to it.  7:50's - 7:40's on the country road but 8:30's up the hill portion.  Overall pace of 7:59.

Only had time this morning for a 5 mile run - will go out again at lunchtime.  Anyway - took the rolling hill route - overall 7:43 pace for the run.

Great day for a run though a bit windy.  I ran the soft trail near work during lunchtime. 5.5 miles @ 7:49 overall pace. 

Warm and muggy this morning.  I have not taken a day off in a while and my legs wanted some mercy today.  I complied and ran some slower paced miles.  8:35 overall pace with a real easy first mile.  I am planning on running in the Cap10k at the end of the month.  I will only have enough time for 4 quality workouts.  Therefore, I skipped today's hill repeat workout in lieu of tomorrow's 1000m interval workout.  I will get more out of the 1000's.  I don't have enough time to make the Cap10K a "key" race but there is a 10k in Fredericksburg at the end of April that I am going to shoot for.  The week before that race is the Bun Run 5k which I always run.  I will spend the next few weeks training for those 2 races and just go out at the Cap10k and see what happens.

Met up with the easy run group at BS pool and did a warm up mile with them and then we went our separate ways as I headed to the track.  Total warm-up was 2.5 miles.  The Mon-Wed group was at the track so I ran with them.  However, I ended up running by myself as there was no one running my pace.  Still good to be with other runners though.  I feel like I have broken through a bit to a new level because 3:39 did not feel too difficult.  I even contemplated running a 7th but coach said 6 was enough.  

1000m @ 3:50 (6:10 pace)

1000m @ 3:49 (6:08 pace)

1000m @ 3:39 (5:52 pace)

1000m @ 3:49 (6:08 pace)

1000m @ 3:41 (5:55 pace)

1000m @ 3:39 (5:52 pace)

My wife has a conference and we are at the Marriot resort just outside of San Antonio.  I am spending the day with the kids - a perfect day to sleep in and take a rest day.  I still woke up at 5am though.  I tried to fall back asleep - it was difficult.  It's a gorgeous day, though.

I found this article brief but interesting: 

"Many marathon runners think that they have to run 100 miles a week to compete successfully, but most will be able to run a marathon faster if they run fewer than 50 miles a week. Top marathon runners can run 100 miles a week and not be injured because of their superior genes. When most runners try to run 100 miles a week, they run too slowly in practice, and as a result, run too slowly in races."

Full article here:  http://www.drmirkin.com/fitness/marathon_miles.html

Up at 5am - nice cool morning - lots of rolling hills.  I just ran an out and back from the resort since I don't know the area.  Base mile run - overalll pace 7:45.

Up early.  A lot warmer than the previous morning.  I ran 8.5 over some rolling hills.  I wanted to run a 3 mile tempo run @ 10k pace at the end.  I had to contend with a pretty good sized hill and it is always a challenge to drop the pace significantly for the first mile.  The other 2 miles went much better. 

There was short 5k loop around the resort that others were using to go out for their runs.  I came upon a group of 3 runners somewhere along mile 2 of my tempo.  I flew by 2 of them and the third heard me coming and decided he was going to hang with me, or out run me, he must of thought is was one of his group.  I got next to him and told him the trick is to keep the pace up for a couple more miles.  I dropped the pace some more - sub 6 and he relented.  :-)  I did a turn around for the final mile and passed them again in opposite directions.  The other runner and I high fived so it was all in good fun. 

First 8.5 miles @ 7:55 pace, tempo miles at 6:55, 6:18, 6:29 followed by .5 cool down @ 7:40 pace.

Nice morning - 6.5 easy/recovery miles - no watch so no pace. 

65 degrees to start - took the new route with some rollers in it.  I got rained on between miles 4-6.  It was actually refreshing.  8 miles AB pace, though I picked it up on the last one:  8:35, 7:50, 7:54, 7:48, 7:46, 7:49, 7:41, 6:54.

Nice temp to start - I am going to miss these 40 degree mornings - I am sure there won't be many more this spring.   Today was hill repeat day - we run a hill on Wilke drive, so we just call it Wilke.  There is a slight incline and then wham - 150 feet climb over 300 feet or so - I think the gradient is around 18 - 20%.  At the top it levels out and we finish the run at a stop sign about 100m from the crest of the hill.  Start to finish is about 300m.   After 4 repeats the coach shows up and tells me to drop about 8-10 seconds off of my repeat time.  I was already running them 10 - 12 seconds faster than the last time I had done this workout a few months ago.  On the 7th repeat my legs were burning big time on the crest of the hill. Then it is time to push it to the stop sign as you try to pick it up again and finish fast.  I have not had the "I want to throw up" feeling in a while, but I had it this morning around repeat # 6.  After resting a couple minutes after the 7th I did one more.  Then we do 3 repeats backwards but only on the main incline of the hill.  These always let me know how imbalanced the strength in the hamstrings is compared to the quads.  But wait, that's not all, now it is time for 5 x 40m sprints up the hill.  OK - now I really am ready to throw up and my heart is ready to come out of my chest. 

So, 2.7 miles @ 8:04 overall pace to the hill, 8 x 300m hill repeats, 3 x 125m backward repeats, and 5 x 40m hill sprints.  2.7 miles back.  Grand total of 9.3 miles for the morning.

300m repeats: 1:31, 1:32, 1:33, 1:33, 1:17, 1:25, 1:28, 1:33

5.3 recovery miles this morning. 

45 minutes hard effort spinning during lunchtime.  Don't know how that translates to miles, but I am guessing 4.  It was a steady aerobic workout for 45 minutes.

Nice morning in the 60's.  Ran 2.7 miles warm up to the track and met up with the group.  The goal was 5 x 1200m repeats @ 1:30 a lap.  There were three of us in the group for the first 3 laps we each took a turn pacing.   The last lap there were just 2 left as the other had enough after 4 repeats.  The last one was hard - the legs were getting tired.  I believe there was still some left over tiredness from Tuesday's hill repeats.  I fought through it nonetheless.  Then 2.7 miles easy cool down - those are some of the hardest miles I have run.   My legs are usually dead after a hard track session.  Next time I will shoot for sub 6:00 - I would have liked to have seen 5:50's.

5 x 1200m at the track:

1200m in 4:36 (6:10 pace)

1200m in 4:30 (6:02 pace)

1200m in 4:30 (6:02 pace)

1200m in 4:29 (6:00 pace)

1200m in 4:29 (6:00 pace)

Met up with the group for the Saturday long run.  I decided on going 14.  After a couple easy miles another runner and me picked up the pace until we were running 7:20's - 7:30's.  The pace was relaxed and I wasn't struggling.  Coming back I dropped to sub 7:00's - I ran the last 4 in the 6:40's.  I don't have exact splits because I did not have autolap set on my watch.  I have to email the other runner to get out splits.  I kind of dropped him on the last 3 though.  Overall average pace for the run was 7:25. 

8 recovery pace miles - 8:50's.

Another great morning - only saw one other runner this morning.  Where is everyone?  I have not seen many runners in the neighborhood for a couple months now.

Miles 7:50's to 8:00. 

Mile repeats tomorrow. 

Early morning and 65 degrees / high humidity - had to meet the group @ 5:30 and I wanted to get some miles in before then so I woke up at 4:45.  Got downtown at 5:15 so I had time for a bit of a warm up, then met the early group and we did another easy warm up.  So I ended up with 3 miles easy.  Then on to mile repeats.  We do our repeats by Barton Springs pool.  The loop around the park is exactly 1 mile and includes a couple of good hill climbs.  We run one way one repeat and then the other direction for the next and alternate back and forth. 

I was going to do 5 repeats but coach told me 4 was enough with the 10k race coming up this weekend. 

I ended up running them alone as I was running these a bit faster than the others. 

Quite happy with the mile times given the hills on the loop.  Ran them just as fast as the 1200m workout and those were on the track.

Mile 1: 6:05

Mile 2: 6:07

Mile 3: 5:59

Mile 4: 6:00

Ah, a full 8 hours of sleep last night.  My body needed that.  

I think today qualifies as summer - full sun and 85 degrees.  I had to run during my lunch time since I slept in this morning.  I don't think I am ready for this yet.

I ran on the soft trail and was content to hold the pace in recovery range.  7 miles @ 8:59 overall average.

1.75 easy then met up with the group.  Another 2 easy then 10 x 1 minute fast (5:59-6:18 pace) with 1 minute recovery.  Followed some cool down miles @ 7:40's pace.  When I got back to the car it was still early so I added another mile.  I took a trail and ran until the trees covered the moonlight and then turned around.  Seems like it would be a good run to keep going - maybe I will bring my light with me next time.

Today was a scheduled day-off but I went to the gym and did an hour in-door cycling as recovery and get the blood going.  15 miles in 60 minutes.  I am going to put down 4 miles for the effort.   

I read a great article/interview in Marathon and Beyond with Brad Hudson who is a well known marathon coach (and a 2:13 guy back in his prime.)  A couple of the main points were: 1. marathon runners generally do not run easy enough on easy days or hard enough on key workout days and 2. a big mistake is to run long runs to slow.  He goes on to explain that a marathon is all about fuel and the only way to train your body to best utilize its fuel is to train no slower than 10% off of MGP during long runs but really the more miles at MGP the better.

I have been reading and hearing this a lot lately.  If one runs long runs too slow one cannot expect race day "magic" to happen  and all of a sudden run 26 miles at MGP.  It all sounds logical to me.  I personally had better results running MGP on long runs than when I did separate MGP runs during the week so maybe there is some truth to it.

Wow - slept in until 7 - 9 hours of sleep.  I think I slept too long.

Nice and easy around the neighborhood, 4 pickups at the end at 10k pace.

What an awesome day for a race.  A cold front came in last night.  I awoke to 55 degrees and a nice breeze with low humidity.  I could not ask for more.

I got up early.  The race was a late start at 9am.  I don't remember it being that late before.  I knew it was going to be crazy downtown as the race was sold out with 10,000 timed runners and 9,000 untimed runners.  I drove down 2 hours early and parked at Barton Springs pool and then did 1.7 miles warm up to the running club's annex.  I hung out there and met up with other runners from the group.  At about 8:15 or so we went out and did another warm-up.  We ran a loop to the starting gates but I had to job back to the annex to use the bathroom and then came back.  

I was not sure what I could do today but I did know I wanted to break 40:00 - that was my goal.  A good running partner, Kevin, told me he thought I could run in the 38:00's with how I have been running in training and that floored me.  I really did not think that was possible but he did plant a seed.  I have not run a 10k in 2 years so I was not sure what I could do.

Based on my goal of 39:50 I knew I needed to run 6:24's across the board.  This course is a steady and slow up to the state capitol building and then a sharp right with a big incline, a left and then after mile 1 another left followed by 2 miles of hills before the course turns fast - the final mile is a slight incline back into town.  My splits pretty much reflect this.

My strategy was to hit 6:24 the first mile and I was off - the timer read 6:44 or something and I panicked - I forgot about my chip time and that I was a few seconds back.  So I dropped the pace here and though the hills.  These were pretty tough but each steep hill is followed by a nice decline so the time can be made up.  I actually like hills so I did not slow down that much going up.  I was afraid this might come back to get me but it didn't.

I flew through miles 4 and 5 and at this time knew I had 39:00 in the bag and let my pace slip a bit.  I had no idea at this time that I could break 39:00 or I might have endured some pain and tried to push harder.  When I hit 6 though I dropped it and when I saw I had a chance at breaking 39:00 I ran hard.  My watch said 38:59 but I was not sure what my official time would be.  Well, happy to report that my official time is 38:57 - so I killed my last time and PR'd by almost a full 3 minutes!!

We ran 3 miles cool down afterward. 

Splits: 6:32, 6:20, 6:18, 6:05, 6:07, 6:15, last .25 @ 5:21.  Overall pace 6:14.

Can't wait to run a 5k to see what I can do.

In Las Vegas for a conference.  Took off towards the mountains though I never got that far.  10.5 easy, average 8:35 pace for the run.  

A shout out to the wonderful drivers of Las Vegas.  I had a several instances of drivers that actually backed up for me to cross a side road.  These drivers were waiting to get on the main road and when they saw me coming they cleared the road for me to get by.  Never had this happen to me before in my short running life.  Wonderful weather as well - low 60's, sunny and no humidity - dry as a bone.  

Someone pinch me - 50's and 29 % humidity.  Ran towards and past the airport.  I don't like running on the strip so I got off it as soon as possible.  Hit a nice long stretch - ran right past the airport.  There were a few sections of crushed gravel or grass next to the sidewalk and I ran on the softer surface as much as possible.  8:00 - 7:45 - most around 7:50 with last 2 at 7:17 and 6:55, .5 @ 6:57.  (My new MGP? lol!)

I started following Lolo Jones on twitter - she is an Olympic hurdler.  Love this tweet from her:

My legs are feeling a bit worn out - 3 big days in a row - so I went to the hotel gym this morning and ran 5.5 recovery pace miles on the treadmill followed by some core work.  

Saturday morning I am going to go on a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.  The helicopter lands at the bottom of the canyon for a 20-25 minutes for a quick snack/drink/look around.  I have not been since I was 5 years old so I am excited about it.  

Woke up at 6 am - only 6 hours of sleep.  I had Googled looking for a school close by in hopes that there was a track there.  I found a middle school that was a bit over 2 miles away.  I ran 2.7 easy only to find that there was not a track!  Oh, well, there were some nice wide roads around the school so I decided to use the road for 1000m repeats.  I ran 1000m easy to map out my course and then started.  My legs are still not 100%, I think I have been pushing it a bit too hard after Sunday's 10k without giving myself enough rest.  Tomorrow is definitely an off day.  

Anyway - I did 5 x 1000m with some active recovery or total rest in between depending on how I felt.  I looked up what I should be running these based on my 10k time and the range is 3:34 - 3:45 (5:44-6:02 pace.) That's a wide range.  I tried towards the faster end but did not get under 3:40.  Next time when my legs feel more fresh.

1000m @ 3:46 (6:10 pace)

1000m @ 3:40 (5:48 pace)

1000m @ 3:41 (5:54 pace)

1000m @ 3:42 (5:55 pace)

1000m @ 3:42 (5:55 pace)

2.25 miles back to the hotel @ 7:25 pace.

Uplifting video of our running coach:

http://www.youtube.com/TEDxAustin#p/c/1/kie6ArWL8Ug