Positive Running

Ran 18 miles with Steve, 14 miles with Wesley and Steve from Two Rivers Parking lot to the cliffs north of the Arkansas River and back to the parking lot.  It was a cool sunny morning starting at 39 degrees and finishing at 58 degrees with very little wind.  A perfect morning for running.  The pace was easy running the first 7 miles in 55 minutes.  Steve ran the Soaring Wings half-marathon last Saturday in 1:31 and strained his groin muscles in the process.  So we slowed down on the way back to the parking lot and then over into the Two Rivers Park.  Wesley finished at 14 miles, and Steve and I finished the 18 miles at an average pace of 8:17/mile.

On a nice 75 degree evening, joined a co-worker in The Woodlands with a large running group to do speed work around a nice Jr. High School track. Ran 2.75 miles for the combined warm-up and cool-down at around 8:30/mile.  Ran 6X800, 5 at 3:17 to 3:24 and the 2nd 800 at 3:30 because I was testing to check that my hamstring was OK after running the 1st 800 in 3:17.  I was wearing high milage NB 890v3 shoes, which didn't help my times.  Between each 800, ran for 2 mins. at a 9:30/mile jog.  Then ran 6X200 at 36 to 42 secs, with 6X200 cool down jogs at 9:30/mile.  My right leg hamstring is a little tight from running the 1st 800 too fast before my body had fully warmed up.  Unlike the others who do speed work each week, I've been focused on endurance and should have realized that I needed an extra mile to warm up.

At 4:45 a.m. on a 42 degree morning in The Woodlands, ran 8.2 miles in 1:06:23 (8:05/mile) along  Flint Hill which the Locals consider to be a hill, but it probably has no more than a 1 - 1.5% incline.  Ran with a co-worker and another runner, both of whom run at about my pace.  This was planned as a moderate to slow run and we held to that.  Fun run and a great way to start the morning.

On a beautiful sunny day with a moderate wind from the east, ran 14.25 miles with Wesley at a pace of 7:42/mile.  Ran from downtown to the Big Dam Bridge(BDB) on the south side the the Arkansas River.  Crossed the BDB, and ran back to downtown on the north side of the river.  My right hamstring is still very tight from the speed work I did on Tuesday night in The Woodlands.  I need to go easy on it for a couple of weeks before the White River Marathon.  I would have run faster, but I didn't want to strain that hamstring.  I ran with some new NB 890v3, which worked great.

Wesley is running very strong and is nearly fully recovered from his 100-mile run in early October.