May the Mass x Acceleration be with you

Warmup

1.39 mile warmup in 11:46
Supposed to be 2x2 min @ 1/2 marathon pace, but I ended up running alongside one of the top runners on his jog while I was cruising at my 1/2 marathon pace and we ended up running the rest of the way back, thankfully slowing to a more comfortable 7/mile.

Race

Resolution Series 5k in 18:20 (/mile)

The course is long, so it was actually 18:55 for about 3.22 miles. I hit the lap button on the Garmin when it got to 3.11, and I had almost 200 meters to go on the track. Crazy. I wish they would get the course fixed.

10th over all, first master (although 1st and 3rd overall were both masters runners who were bumped from division awards). I was only 44 seconds behind Salazar, which is probably the closest I've ever finished to him. Age is catching up with him as I continue to move forward.

It was a perfect day, sunny, no wind and about 40 degrees. I got out a little slow. I assumed that with the track start I would naturally be a little too fast, but when I checked my pace after abou 1/2 mile I was at 6:02 pace and I wanted to be at least 5:55 if not faster. Thank God for the Garmin, I was able to monitor my pace and know that I needed to step it up.

Second mile I took advantage of the downhill in the first half to drop to 5:50 for the split through 1.55. I was in 13th at the halfway point but moved up to 10th by the finish. There was another guy 4 seconds ahead of me, and a group of 4 more guys just another 10 seconds up from that. Next year!

Last mile I gradually worked on a couple guys just ahead of me. One of them I never caught, but the two of us moved up and passed 3 other guys, including one younger runner who has been faster than me ever since injuries caused me to miss several years of running and get completely out of shape.

Unfortunately, I don't get to do the series this year. I will miss half the races. I'll decided in March whether to race the 20k or marathon pace the 20 mile. It will be only 4 or 5 weeks before the marathon, so i'll have to be careful.

Good to see Mike there, who finished in 19:34, which would be around 19:00 for a true 5k. No Carl or Preston, or Darrin.

Splits:
1 - 05:54 - 5:54.4
2 - 11:48 - 5:54.1
3 - 17:44 - 5:56.3
.11 - 18:20 - 35.8
.1 - 18:55 - 35.3

Cool down

2 mile cool down with Mike in 16:16 (8:08/mile)

12.1 miles in 1:34:26

Still pretty tired and a little stiff and sore from Sunday's 5k.

Splits: 8:13 - 8:04 - 7:37 - 7:33 - 7:42 - 7:32 - 7:37 - 7:36 - 7:30 - 7:50 - 7:52 - 8:32

Approximately 7 miles (Garmin was out of battery power), but may have been more or less. 57:36 was the time.

1 mile warmup on trails in 8:04

10 miles @ 3/4 effort in 1:08:02 (6:48/mile)

Pretty sure I ran a little too hard today. It was definitely more of a strain than in previous efforts. I'm still a little tired and sore, too, partly from lifting on Tuesday after a couple weeks off.

Splits: 6:56 - 6:44 - 6:54 (uphill) - 6:31 - 6:46 - 6:44 - 6:54 - 6:45 - 7:06 - 6:43

Cool down jog

Easy 7.04 miles in  56:10 (7:58/mile)

Pretty tired today, legs are sore and weak. It's a struggle on the downhills.

Splits: 8:23 - 7:53 - 7:45 - 8:00 - 7:56 - 8:00 - 7:53

16.1 miles in 2:06:56 (7:53/mile)

Man, this was a hard run. I put the miles in the blog as 'Easy Miles', but there was nothing easy about it. Where's the "slow by painful" category?

First, I was having some GI distress by the 2nd mile (where's the picture RattleTrap put up a few weeks ago about the runs?). Then, my legs were just sluggish throughout the run, but especially over the last 4 miles my quads were aching. 16 miles shouldn't be this hard. It's a long way from here to 26.2. I brought a water bottle with me, but it's still out there somewhere. I stashed it around mile 6 and forgot to get it on the way back. Maybe next week.

Splits: 8:27 - 8:01 - 7:49 - 7:44 - 7:40 - 7:35 - 7:35 - 8:01 - 7:40 - 8:08 - 7:47 - 7:47.5 - 7:52 - 8:01 - 8:02 - 7:52

Well, I failed to get up in time to get a morning run in. I guess I'll post pone that until tomorrow. Sill plan to get in 10 at noon.

OK, I did get out for the 10 miler. I decided to make this an easy week instead of ramping up. My quads have just been so sore and fatigued that it didn't make sense to try to increase right now.

Kind of a weird run, I just ran in circles, literally. It was an easy, slow run on the trails, but still hurt. It amounted to 5 loops of between 1.1 and 1.7 miles, with a little extra on each end.

Splits: 8:24 - 8:08 - 7:54 - 7:56 - 8:05 - 8:00 - 8:05 - 7:52 - 7:59 - 8:14 

Easy 6 on the trails in 49:24. I didn't expect to be so slow two days in a row. Hopefully I will bounce back after a few easy days. I don't get why the pace was so slow the first four miles.

 Splits: 8:46 - 8:25 - 8:40 - 8:23 - 7:45 - 7:26

7.13 miles in 55:33 (7:48/mile)

Feeling better after a day off yesterday.

Splits: 8:20 - 8:10 - 7:41 - 7:40 - 7:26 - 7:28 - 7:44

13 miles in 1:42:25 on Whidbey Island

Nothing like rolling out of bed and then, 20 minutes later starting running up a 220 foot hill! And that's just the beginning. Great, beautiful run on Whidbey Island with lots of ups and downs. Throw in some rain, some snow and some cold and it was a pretty wild ride!

Check out the elevation profile on this one!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141612906

Splits: 8:56 - 7:49 - 8:20 - 7:48 - 8:24 - 7:11 - 7:38 - 7:51 - 7:22 - 7:48 - 7:32 - 8:06 - 7:41

12 mile progression run in 1:26:40 (7:14/mile)

Ok, time to get serious here. Time to start putting in some serioud mileage. Marathon is only 3 1/2 months away. It may be cold. It may be snowing. But no more time to sluff.

Today's run felt good. Last week being short and easy helped a lot. It's nice to run without pain for once. The progression was pretty easy, never felt like I was running really hard. I gave myself 2 miles of warmp and a mile of cool down, so 9 miles of progression running. The plan was to start out around 7:30/mile and drop 5-10 seconds per mile. It worked out pretty well in spite of some hills and a headwind in the second half.

Splits: 8:13 - 7:47 || 7:28 - 7:16.5 - 7:10 - 7:02 - 6:53 - 6:49 - 6:46 - 6:35 - 6:33 || 8:06.

AM
Easy 3.04 in 24:51

Nothing like starting off the day with a run in the snow and slush. Too bad it is a little warm, at around 35, so it is a very wet, slushy snow on the ground. Managed to keep the feet relatively dry, though.

Noon
6 miles in the slushy snow in 48:04 (8:01/mile)

It was pretty sloppy out there, and for some reason all of the traffic was going the wrong way.

Splits: 8:07 - 7:58 - 8:01 - 8:08 - 8:02 - 7:48

AM

Easy 3 in the snow in 25:16 (8:25/mile)

Lots of snow (for here), about 6 inches and still falling. It didn't matter which direction I went the snow was hitting my face. I will have to find something to protect my eyes for my noon run if it is still snowing like this. My face is still frozen.

Splits: 8:52 - 8:20 - 8:04.5

 Noon

7.06 miles in the snow in 57:09 (8:05/mile)

Conditions are pretty challenging today. Only one road had been plowed. The park I ran through had at least a foot of snow and I got to blaze a new trail through it. Traffic was fairly light, but seems like there were always cars in the way at the wrongest times. Overall things went pretty well, but just before I got off the last road a truck came towards me and I had to jump off into the piled snow on the side. Unfortunately the truck was close to the edge of the road and sprayed me with slush. Yuck. With less than half a mile to go all of a sudden my legs were soaked.

Splits: 8:36 - 8:05 - 8:05 - 7:54 - 7:56 - 7:57 - 8:02

AM:

Easy 3 in 28:15 (9:06/mile)

I think this is the slowest I've ever run 3 miles in my life. At least since grade school. No worries, though. The conditions were crummy - snow, slush, water, ice. The snow was that kind that is a few inches deep and has a layer of ice across the top of it, so when you step on it your foot crashes through it and then you have to lift the foot back up and out. Hopefully it will be better in the afternoon.

Splits: 10:12 - 8:58 - 9:06

Noon:

So far conditions are better than this morning. This might be because I stayed on more main roads that were pretty clear of snow and slush. It's not snowing anymore. Instead we have freezing rain. The nice thing about freezing rain is that it doesn't really make your clothes very wet. The bad thing is that it hurts when it pelts your ears, or your nose, or your cheeks. Those who've seen me run probably know that I run with my mouth open. Periodically I would get little bits of ice in my mouth.

By midway into the workout conditions were definitely getting worse. The ground was turning whiter, even on the busier streets, and it was getting slipperier.

I'm going to file this workout away for when I need mental toughness in the late stages of the marathon.

2.33 mile warmup to the track in 19:03 (8:11/mile)

4x1 mile @ moderate pace with 1/4 mile recovery  jogs between. I did two loops around PLU loop as the roads were fairly clear and not much traffic. The splits weren't as fast as I'd want if it were dry out. But, given the conditions, and I only wanted a moderate workout anyway, this was pretty good. I probably would've been looking for around 6:10 or so if it had been dry.

6:38.3
6:48.1
6:26.3
6:40.1

Easy 2.33 mile cool down in 19:10 (8:15/mile)

AM:

Easy 3 in 25:22 (8:24/mile).

Conditions are improving a lot. All of the busier roads are pretty good for running now, although the shoulders and walkways are still buried so there's no place to go if cars are coming from both directions.

Splits: 8:57 - 7:53 - 8:22

Noon:

6.25 miles in 50:07 (8:01/mile)

Ick. The rain has started to come down pretty hard and mix with the snow, so it is a big sloshy mess out there! Still cold, too, at 34 degrees. I was soaked by the end. Kinda fun, though.

It was a little spooky running down tree-lined roads with big chunks of ice crashing down all around me from 40 feet up.

Splits: 8:28 - 8:00 - 7:49 - 8:00 - 7:51 - 7:56

15.2 miles in 1:55:18 (7:35/mile)

I felt surprisingly good today. Weather wasn't as bad as predicted. I did get rained on a bit, but wasn't soaked by it. The 30 mph winds never materialized, just a couple gusts. Legs felt good. The roads have improved a lot and most of the time there is a thin shoulder now. Temp was 40 degrees. Lots of water and slush on the sides of roads and on corners.

On the way back I felt good enough at 12.5 to add an extra loop in Pleasant Valley, which adds about 1.2 miles. Finally getting my weekly mileage up. Next week should be mid-70s and I nned to get 17 or 18 in for the long run.

Splits: 8:23 - 7:38 - 7:38 - 7:29 - 7:32 - 7:30 - 7:25 - 7:23 - 7:12 - 7:37 - 7:28 - 7:37 - 7;38 - 7:46 - 7:37 - (7:15 pace)

AM

Slow, easy 3 miles  in 27:25 (9:09/mile). I was extra slow and cautious today. The roads were covered with black ice and it was very slick. I had to walk in places to avoid taking a spill.

Splits: 9:56 - 8:28 - 9:02

AM

3 miles. I'm disappointed I didn't get to fit in a second run yesterday. Now I'll feel like I'm behind all week, and I missed running in the beautiful sun. It'll be rain today.

Noon

2 mile warmup in 15:49

Supposed to be 10 miles at 3/4 effort, but after 5 miles my upper quads began to ache very painfully. I struggled to keep any kind of decent pace and finally gave in over the last couple miles. Ughhh.
On the plus side, the first five miles were pretty good.

Splits: 6:39 - 6:44 - 6:53 - 6:47 - 6:46 - 7:01 - 7:01 - 7:07 - 7:25

Weights

1.41 mile cool down in 12:43 (9:00/mile).

7 miles in 53:18 (7:37/mile)

After Tuesday's painful run I decided to take 2 days off. Still hurting in the upper quads, but much improved.

Splits: 8:27 - 7:39 - 7:32 - 7:31 - 7:27 - 7:24 - 7:17

17.3 miles in 2:14:12

OK, not too bad. Yes, my quad pain started up after 12 miles and was a problem for the last 5+ miles. But, it was not overwhelmingly bad. It slowed me down, but I found I was able to speed back up if I put some effort into it. Good sign. Hopefully next week willl go easier.

Splits: 8:18 - 7:55 - 7:44 - 7:50 - 7:36 - 7:41 - 7:26 - 7:47 - 7:40 - 8:01 - 7:43 - 7:39 - 7:41 - 7:35 - 7:53 - 7:57 - 7:29 - 2:16 (7:37 pace)

Very easy 4.12 miles in 35:44 (8:41/mile)

I don't normally run the day after a long run. However, since I did my long run on a Sunday this week and I'm used to running on Monday I went ahead with a short slow one. Also, had a job interview today so it was good to get out and run afterwards for a bit.

Legs were pretty sore today.

8:43 - 8:59 - 8:35 - 8:29

12.05 miles in 1:33:24

Today was a good day. Due to a lot of pain in my legs over the last few weeks I've decided to back off this week in intensity, but not mileage. Normally I would've done some kind of hard workout today, but instead just glided through 12 miles at a comfortable pace. Not perfect, but I felt pretty good most of the time. Very encouraging.

Splits:  8:07 - 8:29 - 7:41 - 7:33 - 7:47 - 7:27 - 7:36 - 7:42 - 7:26 - 7:40 - 7:37 - 7:48