Doug's Running Thingy

Six miles on neighborhood roads this morning so that I would be back in the house in time to take the ever thrilling first day of school pics of Travis.  Maclay starts a week earlier than the public schools, so he is now off and running for his junior year - wow.  Cynda gets another week of lounging around the house before heading off for sophomore year in Gatorville.  Basically just tried to wake up during the first mile (8:19), but then worked the rest of them between 7:55 and 7:37 for an overall average (7:52) a few seconds faster still than last week's 6-miler on the trails.

Nearly changed my plan this morning to a longer faster run since it was a gorgeous 66 degrees and 50% humidity.  Decided to stick with the plan of an easy 1.5 mile warmup to the north loop, work the 0.8 mi loop fairly hard (5:05), and then 3 miles easy on the overstreet trail (8:30-8:45 pace).  Was a nice taste of things to come in another month or so when mornings should be consistently in the 60s... of course by then it will be too dark in the morning to run the trails.  

Less than acceptable sleep last night, so I didn't roll out of bed for a run this morning.  Took a quick nap after work and then hit the trails and track as the sun was setting this evening.  Two and a quarter miles warmup at 7:45 pace and then 2X200, 1X800, 1X400, 2X200 - all at goal mile pace (5:28, so 41 on the 200s, 82 on the 400, 2:44 on the 800) with a minute rest.  I hit all the 200s between 40 and 42, the 800 at 2:46 and the 400 at 79.  First time back on the track in almost a month.  Racing the mile on Saturday morning, so wanted to work on pacing.  Good workout.

Early to bed last night and remembered how to sleep, so I was able to hit the trails at first light this morning.  Did the super size figure 8 real easy.  Good thing I wasn't targeting any particular times or anything - the Garmin got real squirrelly during 4th and 5th miles.  It was reporting 11 to 13 minutes per mile when I'm sure I was right at 8:30 pace - very strange.  The final time seemed correct, but the distance of 5.51 miles was a half mile short of what this run is confirmed to be via Garmin many times previously and via my cyclometer in the past.  Off to Garmin site to compare the gps track.

Easy jog around the neighborhood this morning with 4 striders to finish.

Had a really good morning at the track earlier today.  Just now back from helping move the daughter child into her dorm in Gainesville - that was a good trip too - a good day all the way around pretty much.

Travis ran in the 1st heat with Kevin Sullivan, 2-time? Canadian Olympian in the 1500, but didn't make him sweat or anything.  Sullivan won in 4:26 basically cruising.  Trav did not have a good run at all, but was only 3 seconds over his goal of 4:50, so he wasn't too terribly disappointed with his 10th place overall finish.  All of his team mates ran really well and are even more fired up for XC.

I toed the line in the 2nd heat (projected times from 5:20-5:40), hoping to go 41 seconds each 200 for a 5:28.  They set this up as a full mile, so my first 200 split was actually 209 meters, and was at 43, then I went 40, 41, 41, 41, 41, 39, 37 for a 5:23.  First time in several mile races that I actually had a bit of a kick - it was fun.

After watching and shooting pics of 6 more heats of mile races, I stepped to the line for the Hamstring Hundred as one of the 6 fastest 100 meter runners during the summer track series. Surprised myself with a 4th place finish just 2 hundredths off my time from early in the summer - 13.46.  My award... a canned ham... on a string!