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

Met up with the group for 12 miles.  Wonderful weather, had a long sleeve but that only lasted until mile 6.  Legs felt pretty good, hit some mid-low 7:00s and then finished with 1.5 @ 6:38 pace.

Drove a mile to the Y and did 8 x hill sprints.  The first one was painful but legs had loosened up by number 4 and they felt much better.  Happy I did them.

Met up with a group for the Sunday long run.  I thought it was going to be 8 but it turned into 11. :-)

Another fabulos morning - had a short sleeve and that worked out just fine.  No fast stuff at the end today - but did some 4 x strides at the end to loosen up.

Legs feeling pretty good so far.

6.2 at lunchtime from the new office.  Had to find a new route today but it wasn't too difficult.  Located some trails nearby on Google maps.  

2.25 warm up @ 8:20 AP

Then 25 x 45 second fast with 20 second recoveries.  The plan was to run 45 seconds @ 5k pace which is around 6:00 pace from my last 5k - but I just ran hard and didn't look at pace at all.  This workout normally calls for 15 sec recoveries but since I am out of shape a bit decided to add an extra 5 seconds - next time I'll take it down to 15 or increase the fast part to 1 minute.

First 15 @ 5:58-6:10 pace, then the next 10 @ 5:38 to 5:50 pace.

Total 4.05 miles average pace 6:40 with recoveries.

2.05 cool down miles and 4 x steep hill sprints to loosen up the hips.

Cross training day - besides it was raining pretty hard outside - we got these fancy bikes in our new gym at the office - so that's super convenient - https://www.pelotoncycle.com/

45 mins - of course I had to push it in order to be #1 on the leaderboard. ;-)

1000's on the track - met up with the group at Austin High for 1000's.  Wasn't sure what I would be able to run - but picked 3:40 as a good target from McMillian's training pace calc.  Started the first one with a group but ran it a bit slow, then they wanted to drop back to 4:00's so I ended up running the rest on my own.  

2 miles warm up followed by 6 x 1000m with 2 min active recovery jog.

1000m @ 3:51

1000m @ 3:40

1000m @ 3:38

1000m @ 3:28

1000m @ 3:33

1000m @ 3:25

Did some video anaylsis with the coach afterwards - seems I am over extending a bit on my left leg - but I thought it looked pretty good.

http://vid1186.photobucket.com/albums/z363/dschwalm/IMG_29691.mp4

5.5 miles on the trail at lunch time.

Got to the group a bit late, which meant only the fast group was left.  Well, what was I going to do?  Stick with them for a bit, even though I knew that ment a fast long run, or run by myself.  I choose to take off with them.  We did the end of the Austin course in a reverse loop, so a mile on the trail, up Congress, up Duval to 51st, then a loop and back.  

Great weather and conversation made the miles go by and I didn't really feel like we were running hard unitl the last 2.  Great run and over 50 miles for the week!

8:30, 8:51, 7:02, 7:10, 7:12, 7:19, 7:19, 7:06, 6:49, 6:41, 6:36, .75 @ 6:30, .25 cool down, 6 x 100m strides to finish.  

7:14 AP.

Group was meeting up at 7:30 but I wanted to be done a bit earlier.  I did a little over 3 miles and then met with the group and ran the 6 mile loop around Town lake - broke off from them after 3 and headed back.  4 hill sprints to finish up before packing up and heading home.

only enought time in the am for 4.5 easy - then 40 mins on the Peleton bike at lunchtime.

Went out a lunchtime for a quick workout - 2.25 miles warm up from the office until I found a good street/neighborhood to run a fartlek.

12 x 1 min with 30 second active recovries in between,  Tried to stay around 5k pace but that's hard without a reference such as a flat track.  It was pretty windy out there today as well.

1 min 5:37 pace, 1 min 5:50 pace, 1 min 5:59 pace, 1 min 5:41 pace, 1 min 6:03 (hill and wind) 1 min 6:02 (hill and wind) 1 min 5:47 pace, 1 min 5:33 pace, 1 min 5:42 pace, 1 min 5:50 pace, 1 min 5:52 pace, 1 min 5:35 pace.

2.25 cool down around 7:20 pace.

Cross training day - went to the work gym after work - 50 mins on the Peloton - 45 min class.  It was hard work.

Didn't have time for lunchtime run so went out at 8 PM - chilly but after 2 miles I was fine.  Sped up a bit during the run - watch died a mile 4.  Last 1.5 miles I did 20-30 second 5k pick ups with equal recovery - enough to get the turn over going.  Finished with 6 x 20 second hill sprints.

No time for a run today - was only going to run 4-5 miles anyway - so no biggie.

Drove out to Lockhard to run a 5k that Preston talked me into.  :-)  I figured why not - if I want to get back into shape and attack that 17:30 goal I better start running a few 5Ks.  I ran the Run For The Water 5k 3 weeks ago and finished in 18:55 off of a couple weeks of easy runs - so I though if I ran a 18:35 +- a few seconds I would be pretty happy.  I have only gotten 3-4 good workouts since the last 5k.

On the way to the school I saw a 5k sign and an arrow so I kept driving and drove the last half of the course.  The first thing I noticed was how flat the course was - a lot of turns - and quite a few signs.  Then I had that thought "I hope that someone doesn't come along and move one of those signs!"  That would be bad.

I parked and walked up to the start and immediately saw Joe and Preston.  I registered, and we went out for a warm up and then some strides.  I'll say close to 2 miles.

Well Joe took off of course and I knew I wouldn't be able to stick with him, but what surprised me was that there was a Tri guy in the lead and also that none of the high school crosscountry kids were in front of us.  Finally one of them passed me so I was in 4th.  That's OK because I know a 5k will weed out those who start to fast.

By mile one it was Joe and then me and I never saw the 2 guys who were in front of me again.  

Mile one was about a 5:50 and I was good with that, my watch again beeped about 30 feet before the mile marker. Mile 1.5 to 2.5 is kind of no man's land for me - hard to keep that pace with no one pushing or pulling - Joe was too far in front for me to really pace off of him - and I felt the pace slipping a bit but kept chugging along.  This mile was about a 6:03 or so, mile 3 came probably about the same but I had enough to give a pretty strong kick on the last 200m or so when we turned that last corner and I could see the finish line.

Finished in 18:37 - pretty close to where I wanted to be - and I am happy with that.  If anything it was a great workout. ;-)

Hats off to IJR,  he put on a real quality race here.  Can't wait to come back next year.  

Couldn't fall back to sleep after waking up early - headed down to Town Lake - I ran 5 miles - it was cold but humid so I stuck to a signlet - which ended up being a good call.  After 5 miles I met up with Dan and Sam back at the start, and we did the 8 mile loop.  Trying out some racing Hoka's - yes, I guess there is such a thing - that I bought on clearence months ago.  They have been sitting on the shelf collecting dust - I figured it was time to break them out.  AP was 8:00.

6 miles @ lunctime - 8:15 AP.  Sunny but cold wind.  Should warm up a bit by mid week.

7.5 after work - somewhere around 8:00 AP.

cross training day - 50 min spinning after work.  

2.25 miles warm-up and then met the group at the track for 1200's.  My plan was to run 4 at 5 k pace which would get me close to 3 miles of quality. 

Ran with one other runner that wanted to start at 1:30 a lap though we ended up running closer to 1:25 a lap after the first one.  Fortunately he had his watch set up to keep track of the 400 laps.  Otherwise I would have been a bit lost.  Still hard for me to keep a steady and consistent pace.  

Last one was hard -  I want to be able to run all 4 of these at that pace.

4 x 1200 with 2 mins active recoveries.

1200 @ 4:28 (5:59 pace)

1200 @ 4:20 (5:48 pace)

1200@ 4:22 (5:51 pace)

1200@ 4:17 (5:44 pace)

2.5 miles cool down with 4 x hill sprints to finish.

met up with the group for a medium long run - legs were kinda shot from the 5k and hardworkout on Thursday.  Also, not feeling too great and was very dehydrated.  Finished with 6 hill sprints at the end - went into the Y for some quick core work afterward.

Rain started to come down when I got in the car to head home.  Just missed the downpour!

Feeling pretty bad - coming down with something - slept in so I didn't make it down to the group.  Ran 7 easy in the neighborhood.

Heading up to Dallas today - still not feeling great - but figured I would head out for a run and see how it felt.  Ran 3.5 easy and then ran decided to run 3 threshold miles back - first was a bit slow but I haven't run this type of pace in a while.

Finished with 6 x steep hill sprints.

3.5 easy

3 threshold - 6:40, 6:28, 6:15

.5 cool down

6 x hill sprints

In Dallas - not feeling good at all,  taking a day off of running. :-(

5k workout today - 12 x 400 with 100m active recoveries (about 30 seconds).  Because of the short recoveries I thought I would shoot for 1:27-1:28 400s (5:50-5:54 pace).

Feeling better this am but still getting over this cold/flu thing.

2.25 miles warm up to the track - very lonely out there this morning,  Maybe everyone is heading out to the Turkey Trot.  I thought about doing it myself, but my wife had some run to go to so I needed to get my run in early and be home for the kids.

12 x 400 with 100m recovery

1:28

1:27

1:29

1:27

1:29

1:28

1:27

1:27

1:28

1:28

1:25

1:24

2.25 miles cool down

The last 2 were challenging - but they should be.  ;-)

8 easy in the am.  Tried to stay recovery pace - like 8:45-9:00 - didn't really pay attention to the pace though, and when I finished my watch say 8:04 AP - oops.

Mt Bonnell today - ran with Mike Woo - kept the pace sane at least until coming back on Expo we picked it up for a couple miles - I slowed down when we hit the trail for the last 2.5 - I don't have my watch on me but miles 10 and 11 were 6:30 and 6:25.  Then slowed to low 7:00's.  

7:24 AP.

Longest long run in quite some time - 13.5 - 6 strides @ 3k pace put me over 14 for the day.

Off to Sydney - I lose a day as I don't arrive until Monday morning.  Hopefully I will get a run in.