May the Mass x Acceleration be with you

16 miles on Vickory route in 1:58:03 (7:23/mile)
Feeling good after a couple weeks without a long run. The pace was pretty comfortable throughout, and no pain or tightness in the quads. The hamstring was not noticeably tight either.

Splits: 7:47 - 7:27 - 7:24 - 7:28 - 7:24 - 7:20 - 7:17 - 7:29 - 7:11 - 7:44 - 7:20 - 7:23 - 7:13 - 7:17 - 7:13 - 7:05

AM - Easy 3 miles on the Burnt Bridge Creek trail in 24:02 (8:01/mile)

PM - 6 miles on the  Burnt Bridge Creek Trail in 46:11 (7:42/mile).
It was a gorgeous day, sunny warm, not much wind. Lots of people out on the trail, too. Felt good, ran a little faster than I intended or should've, but I felt pretty good. My left ham is more sore today, but mostly I think it is the old sciatica cropping up again.

Splits: 7:55 - 7:31 - 7:37 - 7:39 - 7:37 - 7:53

2.6 mile warmup in 19:43 (7:35/mile)

2x400@4 mile race pace
I ran a little faster than race pace. I decided to do this on the track so I could do 2x400 instead of a single 1/2 mile at race pace like I usually would. I ran the 400s in 1:25.8 and 1:26.7, but was really shooting for an 88. The pace did feel a little fast, but I think 88 will feel easier. Especially in a race, with my racing shoes on.

2.6 mile cool down in 20:16 (7:48/mile)

Warmup:

1 1/2 mile warmup jog in 11:27

2x500m @ 1/2M pace. I ran them a little too far, but close enough (.33-.34 miles)
2:07, 2:11, both in about 6:20-6:25/mile pace)

Race:

Four on the Fourth 4 mile race - Goal time: 23:28; Actual time: 23:27!

I felt pretty good all morning, through the warmup and pre-run intervals. I was in a relaxed and happy mood beforehand, too.

My goal was to get out a little more aggresively than usual and try to take a little more risk. I'm not sure whether I really took much risk, but I did push a little more aggresively at least. Usually my friend, Mark, goes out faster than me and I catch him after a couple miles. However, today I went out with him or slightly ahead of him. We ran together the first mile, with me usually even or slightly ahead of him. The whole first mile is downhill, with a fairly good-sized and steep downhill the first half mile, then more gradual the 2nd half. We were at 1/2 mil in 2:44, but 5:45 at the mile, so definitely slowed up a bit. 5:45 was the slowest I had wanted to be. I was thinking 5:40-5:45 would be a good start, then try to hold pace (5:52) over miles 2-3, and hang on for the uphill 4th mile (it's an out and back course).

Mile two I opened up a few second gap on Mark. Not much, though, because I was able to hear him behind me when he would cheer on other runners. Mile two was a little slower than it should've been, a little too comfortable. Still, I was gaining on runners and moving up consistently. As we approached the turn-around I saw another friend, Darrin, up ahead. He was in 12th, but not as far ahead of me as he usually is. I found out later he went out too fast (5:15) the first mile and slowed up a bit after that. I counted the runners returning as they went by me and I was in 20th.

Mile three I focused on keeping my pace down to low 5:50s. It's basically a flat to slight incline mile, and I usually am able to catch a few runners here. There was a group of 3 runners not far ahead of me at the turn-around, and I caught them pretty quickly and zoomed past them like they were standing still. I could still hear Mark behind me by the 3 mile mark. I checked my split and was under 17:30! That's more than 30 seconds ahead of last year, and slightly ahead of goal pace. I just wanted to try to get under 6 minutes on the last mile.

From the 3 mile mark you can see all the way up to the big hill just before the finish. I could see Darrin up ahead of me in his bright green shirt. He hadn't gained on me. In fact I was gaining on him. I really tried to push the last mile, kept checking the Garmin. I hit 1/2 mile to go in 2:59 for the split, so still on pace! I kept the pressure on myself, though I was slowed a bit on the big uphill just before the finish. My stomach, which was already a little queazy, really tightened up on me on the hill, and in the final sprint to the finish. As I approached the finish I saw the digital display say 23:26 so I gave just a bit more of a surge and my watch said 23:27 when I looked after the race! Woo hoo, made my goal by 1 second! I can feel good about that because the goal was challenging to begin with. Based on the time I ran at the track meet Wednesday I thought I could pull off a 23:28 if I ran a really good race. Looks like it worked out. Next is the Lakefair 8k!

It was really nice to be able to get out more aggressively, and yet still find something to push hard through the finish, and also still be able to be competitive with all the runners around me.

Splits:
1 - 05:45 - 5:45
2 - 11:45 - 6:00
3 - 17:28 - 5:43
4 - 23:27 - 5:59

Cool down:

5 mile cool down in 42:05 (8:25/mile)
I ran over the whole course again with Mark, then finished up with one more mile on my own to make it 12 for the day. The first mile we ran with a kid Mark coaches, so ran a little extra slowly.
Splits: 9:25 - 8:10 - 8:03 - 8:12 - 8:15

AM - Easy 3 miles in 23:58 (7:59/mile)
My legs were pretty tired from yesterday's race and other running, plus the stress of the day. It was good to get the 3 in, though, as I loosened up by the last mile and felt a lot better afterwards.
Splits: 12:21 - 11:37

PM - 7 miles in 54:27 (7:47/mile)
Feeling pretty good now. Much less tight and tired than I was this morning. The last couple miles I ran out of gas, but otherwise felt good. Summer is finally here, and it was a gorgeous 80 degrees out today.
Splits: 8:15 - 7:50 - 7:51 - 7:44 - 7:41 - 7:40 - 7:25

AM - Easy 3 miles in 24:34 (8:11/mile)
Feeling fine. Bright, sunny. My legs are really tight right out of bed, and my left knee tends to give me trouble on this morning runs. I didn't do any kind of LM warmup, though, so will try that tomorrow and see if it helps.

PM - 9 miles in 1:07:51 (7:32/mile)
Started out feeling pretty good, was running a good pace though it felt slow. 2nd half I started to slow down, my knee, ham, and quads started to hurt. I was glad when I was done. It was another beautiful day, around 80 degrees and sunny.
Splits: 7:27 - 7:26 - 7:36 - 7:17 - 7:31 - 7:35 - 7:28 - 7:45 - 7:45

AM - Easy 3 in 24:54 (8:18/mile). I didn't feel this slow today. My knee, ham, etc. all felt better this morning. I took a moment to do a couple squats and lunges beforehand to loosen up a bit. Seems to have helped.

PM - Speed work

Warmup

7xLM
Easy 3 mile warmup in 23:11 (7:44/mile)
Skipping Exercises
LL Warmup
2x500m on the track @ 1/2 marathon pace, 300m recoveries
1:56.7, 2:01
4x150m with 250m recoveries

Workout

6 laps of Straights and Curves
A couple of my straights were long, one by about 5m, and one by 10m. I was tired before I started this workout and tried to talk myself out of it. Thankfully, I didn't listen to myself.
Intervals: 20.1, 20.3, 19.7, 20.0, 21.1 (+5m), 20.0, 22.0 (+10m), 19.7, 19.6, 20.0, 19.7, 19.1

4.52 mile cool down in 35:51 (7:56/mile)

I was pretty much dead on the cool down.
Splits: 7:46 - 4:10 - 7:48 - 8:04 - 8:04

7 miles in 55:25.
My legs are still very tired, so I just took it nice and easy. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be ready to handle a long run.
Splits: 8:13 - 7:53 - 7:58 - 7:56 - 7:56 - 7:49 - 7:40

16 mile run in 1:59:44 (7:29/mile)
The first 11 miles felt great. Then my legs got really tired and started to ache. I stopped to stretch for a bit and felt much better until the last mile. Beautiful sunny day. It was about 60 at the start and 70 at the finish.

Splits: 7:47 - 7:36 - 7:46 - 7:38 - 7:31 - 7:28 - 7:29 - 7:22 - 7:34 - 7:25 - 7:13 - 7:16 - 7:48 (???) - 7:20 - 7:13 - 7:18

AM - Easy 3.02 miles in 24:23 (8:05/mile) (8:14 - 8:00 - 8:01)

PM - Speed work

Warmup

LMx7, Easy 3 miles warmup in 22:40 (7:33/mile)

2x500@1/2 marathon pace with 300m recoveries
1:53, 2:00.5

4x150m with 250m recoveries
Distances were off, because I wasn't sure where to start.

Workout

6 laps of straights and curves, with a little extra jog at the end. It was a bit of an interesting workout. Apparently summer doesn't mean the school will be empty. Just as I was finishing my warmup, too late to back out of the workout or delay it, a group of students came out of the building up the hill and walked down to the track. They were in groups walking around the track and goofing off the whole time I was doing the workout. At one point of the kids decided to join me and challenged me to a race. When he heard I was running 10 miles, though, he gave up quick! The rest of the time they kept asking me "how far have you gone now?" At least this workout is easy to do from any lane.

19.7, 20.2, 20.0, 19.9, 19.3, 19.9, 19.6, 19.5, 19.7, 19.3, 19.7, 19.8

 2 sets of:
15 pushups
15 burpees
32 crunches
20,25 squats
15 bench dips
32 back raises
10 Good mornings
12,10 Feet elevated pushups
15 lunges uphill

Cool down

Easy 3.56 miles in 28:05 (7:54/mile)
8:06 - 7:51 - 7:51 - 4:18 (7:42/mile)

AM - Easy 3 miles in 24:40 (8:13/mile)

PM - Easy 5 miles on the trails in 40:07 (20:09 - 19:58)

AM - Easy 3 in 23:59 (8:00/mile)

PM - 3200m at All-comers track meet in 11:22!

Warmup

Easy 1.27 mile warmup in 10:16
Skipping Exercises
2x500m@ 1/2marathon pace, 300m recoveries (approxmately) - Total 1.1 miles
1:57.8, 2:06.7 (.32 miles)
Ran out of time to do my complete warmup. Had to skip the strides.

Race

3200m race on Sparks Track in 11:22!

My goal was to at least break 11:30, and hopefully get down into the low 11:20s. Unfortunately, I have been extra tired the last couple days, and there was no competition in the meet. Usually there a rea couple guys running in the 10 minute range, then a couple in the low 11-minute range. This time, it was Mark and me at the front for the first two laps. The first lap I let Mark let, but it was way too slow. The 2nd lap i ran on his side, on the outside of the 1st lane. It was a better lap, but stll on the slow side. The first half of the 3rd lap was in 44, so I decided I couldn't hang back. I had to make a move, so I took the lead and pushed the pace to try to catch up with my goal.

At the 1600m split Mark was just a couple seconds behind me and I could still hear his breathing. However, just after that I couldn't hear him anymore. I was in the lead and ended up winning by 28 seconds, as Mark finished in 11:50. I was trying to keep my pace at around 85 through laps 6 and 7, and I wanted to try to hit 80 on the last lap (I ran 80.8 two weeks ago). I was very pleased with the time and the overall race. I am certain that if there had been some better competition (i.e. someone a few seconds ahead, or right behind me) I would've broken 11:20. I'm sure my 6th and 7th laps could've been faster had there been someone to shoot for. Oh well. Maybe next week.

Lap Splits:
1 - 01:28.4 - 88.4
2 - 02:55.1 - 86.7
3 - 04:20.9 - 85.8 (off of a 44 200m)
4 - 05:45.1 - 84.2
5 - 07:10.8 - 85.7
6 - 08:36.8 - 86.0
7 - 10:02.4 - 85.5
8 - 11:21.9 - 79.5

Cool down

Cool down of 5.83 miles in 48:08 (8:16/mile). I ran part of the first mile with Mark and some of his youth runners, at around 9/mile pace or so.

Splits: 8:57 - 8:03 - 8:47 - 8:11 - 7:33 - 8:01 pace

AM - Easy 3 miles in 24:49 (8:42 - 8:05 - 8:03)
A little tired from the race 12 hours ago.

PM - Easy 5 miles on the trails in 41:05 (8:13/mile).
Still pretty tired from the race last night I guess.

2.6 mile warmup. My Garmin was beeping low battery right from the get go, so I turned it off during the warmup. I knew I wanted it for the two 400m pace runs I was going to be doing. I ran this pretty quickly, especially the last mile as I through in a couple surges to prepare for the pace runs.

2x400m @ 8k pace. Prep for tomorrow's 8k race. I wanted to run these at 5:50/mile pace, but ran slightly fast. They should've been in 87.5, but the two splits were:
86.75, 86.65

2.6 mile cool down in 19:56 (7:40/mile)
Splits: 7:42 - 7:40 - 4:35 (7:36/mile)

I was supposed to run an 8k race today. However, for some reason I couldn't get any sleep last night. Lots of different factors there. When the alarm went off at 6am I felt pretty crummy. Plus it was pouring down rain outside. Plus the weather forcast was prediction thundershowers. Plus I hadn't yet registered for the race, so no money lost. Plus it was a 40 minute drive to the race. I decided not to go. I went back to bed, though I didn't sleep much more. I think I ended up with about 4 hours total. So, instead I did the following workout at 11:30. It was cloudy, no rain, not hot, but pretty muggy.

Warm up

7xLM
Warmup - 3 miles in 23:04 (7:41/mile)
Splits: 7:57 - 7:30 - 7:37
Skipping exercises, LL

2x500m@1/2 marathon pace with 300m recoverieis
2:01.3, 2:02.7

4x150m@5k pace with 250m recoveries. Not sure of the distance on the first one.
30.3, 31.9, 33.3, 31.4

Workout

Circuit training comprised of 2 sets of:

400m@5k pace
15 pushups
15 burpees
30 crunches
20 body weight squats
400m@5k pace
15 bench dips
20 back raises/australian crawls
15 good mornings
12 feet elevated pushups
15 lunges
400m@5k pace
Right now I figure my 5k pace is around 86-87s per lap
My splits were: 84.6, 84.4, 84, 83.9, 78 = 6:54.9 for 1.25 miles, which is about 5:32/mile pace

Cool down -

3 miles in 22:50 (7:37/mile)
Splits: 7:47 - 7:36 - 7:28.5

AM - 6 min. test, PLU Loop tempo run:

Warmup

7xLM
3 mile warmup to WHS in 22:17 (7:26/mile) (7:33 - 7:20 - 7:25)
Skipping exercises on grass
2x500m @ 1/2 marathon pace, 300m recoveries
1:55.1, 1:58.8
4x150m @ 5k pace or faster, 250m recoveries
30, 31.8, 32.3, 31.8
I think the first one was a little short

Workout

6 minute time trial.

I covered 1780m in the 6 minutes. I passed 1600m in 5:25, which is about 8 seconds faster than last time I did this test, though that was months ago. I'm pretty happy with the run, but would like to have improved a bit more than that by now.

So, 3 min intervals should cover 890 meters. I figure instead of doing 15x1 min. intervals I will do 11-12 quarters in 81, with 81 second 200m recoveries until I'm ready to tackle those 5x3 min intervals.

PLU Loop tempo run - 2 1/8 miles in 13:20 (6:17/mile)
6:13.5 - 6:22.7 - 0:44 (5:59/mile)

2 sets of:
15 pushups
15 burpees
30 crunches
20 squats
15 bench dips
20 Australian crawls
12 feet-elevated pushups
15 good mornings
15 lunges uphill

Cooldown

3.86 mile cool down in 29:57 (7:46/mile)
7:48 - 7:46 - 7:43 - 6:40 (7:44/mile)

PM:

Easy 3 miles in 22:55 (7:38/mile) (7:51 - 7:36 - 7:28)

AM - Easy 3 miles in 24:13 (8:04/mile) (8:30 - 8:02 - 7:42)

PM 4xLM, 7 miles in 53:56 (7:42/mile)
Nice day for a run. Cloudy, cool, but dry with no wind.Hopefully tomororw night will be like this.
Splits: 7:54 - 7:36 - 7:45 - 7:37 - 7:37 - 7:43 - 7:44

AM - Easy 3 miles in 23:27 (7:49/mle) (7:56, 7:43, 7:48)

PM - All comers meet

I opted to run both the 3200m and the 1600m

3200m in 11:12.9!

Originally, my main goal was going to be to just break under 11:20. However, I noticed in my on-line log that earlier in the year I had set a goal to break 11:15. I decided that was entirely possible, especially since last week when I ran 11:22 my first lap was way too slow. I figured I could go out 4 seconds faster that first lap, and then I'd only need to drop 3 more seconds the rest of the race. I managed to do even better. Thankfull there was a little competition. I ran in 2nd most of the way behind some high school/college guy. On the back stretches I would gain on him, then he would pass his friends on the corner before the finish straight and pull away from me again. With one lap to go I sailed by him right at the line, moving pretty quickly (dropping from 86 pace to 76 pace!), but he caught me in the last 200m and beat me by a couple seconds. I wasn't too worried, though. He's just a young buck, and I'm an old dude now. I was especially please that I was able to get out in 82, instead of 88 last week, and still hold on to the correct pace the rest of the way, and then kick the last lap. And that last lap was about 2 1/2 seconds faster than last week! So almost all of my 9 second improvement was in the first and last laps.

Splits:
1 - 82.3
2 - 85.5
3 - 84.8
4 - 84.9
5 - 86.1
6 - 86.6
7 - 85.7
8 - 76.9!

1600m race in 5:21.3

I was a little disappointed in this race. I didn't really put any pressure on myself, but I still wanted to break 5:20. My 2nd and 3rd laps were a little slower than I realized, and I didn't start my kick quite as early as I should've. Also, they started this race with 35 runners of all ages, and starting on the 3rd lap I was lapping a lot of kids, and they were  getting in my way. I was constantly dogging and weaving in and out. Everyone was supposed to stay in lane 2 through the finish area until their last lap. As I was sprinting for the finish a little kid was right in front of me in my lane, definitely slowed me down a bit. Oh well, still got 3rd place.

1600m Splits:
1 - 79.9
2 - 81.0
3 - 81.8
4 - 78.6

AM - easy 3 miles in 25:06 (8:22/mile) (8:54 - 8:18 - 7:55)
It took a while to get warmed up this morning.

Noon - Easy 7 miles on the trails in 55:04 (7:51/mile)
Splits: 8:11 - 7:51 - 7:55 - 7:47 - 8:03 - 7:59 - 7:18

AM - Easy 3 miles in 24:47 (8:16/mile)
8:42 - 8:09 - 7:57

Noon - 9 miles on BPA in 1:05:59 (7:20/mile)
Energy-wise I felt good. Now that summer has returned my allergies are back with a vengeance. At least I can sneeze and blow my nose for free when I'm out running in the great outdoors!
Splits: 7:41.5 - 7:24 - 7:26 - 7:06 - 7:23 - 7:26 - 7:18 - 6:59 - 7:16

16 miles on Vickory in 1:57:28 (7:20.5/mile)

I felt kind of tired today, heavy legs and such. At four miles I almost thought about stopping and jogging back. But, still managed to keep going and get the pace down, too. Maybe I ran a slow 1 mile warmup, then 15 miles in 1:49:20, which would be 7:17/mile.

New all-time high mileage for 1 week for me!

Splits:
1 - 0:08:08 - 8:08
2 - 0:15:42 - 7:35
3 - 0:23:10 - 7:28
4 - 0:30:34 - 7:24
5 - 0:37:57 - 7:23
6 - 0:45:05 - 7:09
7 - 0:52:18 - 7:13
8 - 0:59:39 - 7:21
9 - 1:06:47 - 7:08
10 - 1:14:21 - 7:34 (uphill)
11 - 1:21:33 - 7:12
12 - 1:28:57 - 7:24
13 - 1:36:12 - 7:15
14 - 1:43:15 - 7:03
15 - 1:50:25 - 7:10
16 - 1:57:28 - 7:03

Noon: 2 mile warmup, 8 mile threshold run, 2 mile cool down

Warm up - 2.02 miles in 15:14, includng a 2 min. run @ 1/2 marathon pace

8 mile Steady State run in 51:42 (6:28/mile)
The plan was to start out around 6:40/mile the first couple miles, speed up to 6:30 for most of the miles, in the middle. Then speed up to 6:20 or faster the last few miles. Pretty much went to plan. The pace was not hard to hold, just a little unfamiliar territory. The 6th mile, uphill, was tough to keep to 6:30 pace. And the last mile was a good challenge. Otherwise, not too difficult.

Splits:
1 - 06:36 - 6:36.6
2 - 13:16 - 6:39.7
3 - 19:43 - 6:27.6
4 - 26:12 - 6:28.6
5 - 32:34 - 6:21.9
6 - 39:02 - 6:28.1
7 - 45:26 - 6:24.4
8 - 51:42 - 6:15.6

2 mile cool down in 16:06

 PM - Easy 3 miles in 24:28 (8:09/mile)

AM - Easy 3 miles in 25:14

NOON: Easy 6 miles on the trails in 48:35 (24:26 - 24:09)

9 miles on Military Road in 1:05:29 (7:16.5/mile)

I had an all-day class that got out early, so I decided to go ahead with this run after all. Weather was decent. Cloudy, but 70 degrees. I think my legs are still a little tired from Monday.

Splits: 7:46 - 7:18 - 7:21 - 6:58.5 - 7:00 - 7:03 - 7:00.5 - 15:03

AM - Easy 3 miles in 24:19 (8:06/mile)  (8:28 - 8:03 - 7:48)
Feeling pretty good. Beautiful morning for a run. Clear skies, cool, wisps of fog here and there. Nice!

Noon:
Warmup: 7xLM, Warmup, LL, 2x500m@1/2M, 4x150@5k

Workout: 16x100m hard, 100m recoveries (straights and curves)
19.6, 20.4, 20.1, 18.9, 19.4, 19.1, 18.8, 18.9, 18.9, 19.2, 19.1, 18.8, 19.2, 18.9, 19.8, 17.9

Cool down - 4.32 miles in 33:31 (7:46/mile)

The workout didn't feel too difficult, but I was sure wiped out the rest of the day. Must've been the sun.

AM - Easy 3 miles in 23:31 (7:50/mile) (8:04 - 7:39 - 7:48)

NOON - Allison loop - 7.19 miles in 54:35 (7:36/mile)

Surprising amount of energy today given how I felt yesterday after my run and all evening. The one bad thing was some GI distress I've been having for a couple days. Hti me pretty hard around 5 miles, so the last 2.2 was pretty tough, but also caused me to speed up to get home. Nice even splits other than that, and the steep uphill 1st mile.

Splits: 7:56 - 7:35 - 7:35 - 7:36 - 7:36 - 7:30 - 7:19 - 1:27.5 (7:36/mile)

12 miles on Vickory in 1:33:02 (7:45/mile)

Not a good run today. My legs were so tired, sore, crummy. My left hamstring was hurting more again, and even my groin injury was bothering me again. At 3 miles I almost gave up and turned around, but managed to stick it out and get the whole 12 in.

8:17 - 7:51 - 7:52 - 7:42 - 7:34 - 7:33 - 7:33 - 7:47 - 7:41.5 - 7:49 - 7:57 - 7:25