my makeup may be flaking

AM 10.8  Track attack.

4x800 w/90s 2:44.6. 2:40.2, 2:42.6, 2:38.2

5 min jog

4x800 w/90s 76.4, 74.3, 73.6, 73.8

5 min jog

4xPiano Hill 34.8, 34.5, 32.8, 34.2

PM 2.9

Run with CNW. Started off with  some sprints then did 2 by 2k (7:06,7:08) on the XC course. I added on a bunch of miles afterwards including 3 with Forest Tarbath, Turner Wiley and Tyler Flannery. Tyler is a low 15 5k/1:10 half marathon guy whereas Forest and Turner are both 14:xx 5k, so their cooldown pace was about 6:30.

Including about 16 miles with CNW guys at 6:40 pace. Ran through the ravenna, botanic gardens, arboretum, interlake, lake union loop, stoneway, green lake.

Ran with some of the top tier CNW guys who were just out on an easy run. Turner Wiley, Forest Tarbath, Connor Peloquin, Robert Baraldi, Tyler Van Orden, Tayler Flannery. I was happy that I was able to keep contact with the group even going through the arboretum (hilly).

AM 10.6

8 by TAIGA HILL. This hill ends by crossing over Aurora on a pedestrian bridge, which is flat. I try to surge across the bridge everytime. Today there were people holding political signs on the bridge that I sprinted by 8 times, they must have thought I was weird.

My preworkout plan was to cruise the first 6 reps and then hammer the final climb on the last two. Mostly worked out, but I started to get tired on #6.

Hill times in bold. I also included the rest which is just jogging the .25 miles or so down the hill, which will be interesting to track.

3:21.0!, 2:11.7, 3:13.2, 2:24.3, 3:11.8, 2:21.0, 3:11.4, 2:24.3, 3:12.6*, 2:23.2, 3:12.7^, 2:30.1, 3:09.5, 2:29.5, 3:06.4

!I actually expected to run in the 3:20s for most of them

*Near Collision with cyclist cost about 1 second right at the end.

^Legs starting to lose power

Course tool has this as equivalent to a flat kilometer, but that can't be correct (can it?). It's been a while since I've tried a fast effort not on dirt/gravel.

AM 9.4

PM 2.9

AM Ship canal 7 miler at 5:50 pace. Not only did I take 67 seconds off my previous best, I also beat my best 4.34 mile time in segments 3-4-5 (5:46 pace).

That's 36:17 10k pace, which I doubt I'll beat on Sunday (hilly XC vs perfectly flat bike path/jogging path).

This workout felt fast, but did not feel particularly difficult. My main issues was a hotspot on my right foot that was rubbing everytimes I pushed off. It was perfect conditions weather wise.

I just looked back over my running log to see how fast I used to run these workouts before the apocalypse. Almost exactly ten years ago I did ten miles in 57:22 on the indoor track at the U, which is about 4700ft. I was using the 7.5 laps to a mile conversion, but I think that may actually be inaccurate. It may have been more like 9.8 miles. Still, not close to that form at the moment. And also about 8 years ago I split sub 57 en route to a half marathon on that track. Sheesh.

PM 2.9

XC race at Woodland park: split into masters (combined), open women, and open men. As I was waiting for the masters race to start, some guy walking his dog asked if it was a high school race and he was suprised when I said it was adults. In most places adult XC is not really a thing, but among the fast runners in the area it's seems to be the most important thing. It's like the WA version of a half marathon down a canyon.

After my relatively poor showing in the 8k version of this course, I didn't have very high expectations. I set a tentative goal of just running the same pace as I did in the 8k but for an extra 2k loop, which would be just under 37.

The start of this race is down a really steep grass hill with poor footing and I was quickly close to the back of the race (there were 60 people). After about 500m we hit a nice downhill stretch and I caught up to Sheridan and Spencer. Hit the first 1k in 3:20 (downhill) and it felt pretty easy. I started to moveup as we climbed the hill back towards the start. 2k in 7:00.

On the second time down the steep hill I started to feel a little sick to my stomach which really kept me from pushing. After that I felt like I ran the rest of the race in cruise control. Spencer got away from me and Sheridan and I worked together. Someone in the back of my mind I knew that I could push a lot harder, but I was worried I was gonna vomit.

Sheridan and I picked off two guys and got passed by one over the final 4 loops but otherwise it stayed pretty much the same. It was a fun race, however, and I think that next year I will do more XC races. In fact, I have two more short ones that I'm going to do this winter.

AM 10.4 miles in 65:02 (6:16 pace). Had to detour off the ship canal trail as a large fire had burned a couple of the warehouses. This made the normally flat run a little hillier. Was also feeling a little flat with the XC race only two days before. Wore my new Kinvaras and am not sure what to think of them, they seem a little clunkier than I'm used to, similar to my GoRun rides which I wore in the marathon. A good shoe for longer runs I think.

Splits of 10:00 (6:15 pace), 9:52 (6:10), 8:15 (6:09), 8:11 (6:06), 10:11 (6:22), 10:14 (6:24), 8:17 (6:11)

AM 12.2 Bounce workout

I had high hopes for this workout as I feel like my basic speed has improved a ton in the last couple of weeks. Started off slow with a 5:38 1600. Then decided to lose the shirt and things got better from there. Capped off with a 2:35.7 800 and 73.8 400 neither of which felt like I was pushing too hard. Feeling pretty confident now about my upcoming 5k.

D=Dirt, A=Altiude (4500ft), E=Evening

One loop of Green Lake and some drills/strides prerace.

Idea for a race name in Mapleton: The Gobble Creep.

Anyway: goal for the race was to beat me bib# (1652) which I did just barely. I also logged my first sub 17 in a morning race (which tend to be slower than evening races.

I got out hard, staying on the shoulder of Nick Welch. He is a lot faster than me (2:29 at Chicago this year) so I thought maybe I was being overly aggressive to stay with him, but it felt just about doable. Every time he would threaten to put a little gap on me I would find a little surge and get back on his shoulder. A guy from Seattle Racing (turned out to be Joe Creighton who beat me by about 3 mins at the 10k last week) was in turn on my shoulder. 5:17 for the first mile, which was slightly disappointing given how fast it felt.

In the second mile there is a sharp left turn followed by a short climb and this was enough for the two better runners to drop me at about mile 1.9. Second mile in 5:33 meant that I was going to need to close well to get my 16:52.

In the last mile Joe pulled away, but I managed to close the gap back to Nick with about 800 to go and then I dropped him decisively (5:29 mile 3). I had a solid finish (31s) to just get my 16:50.

Turned out that Nick and Joe were running the 10k which explained why I was sticking with them.

The course was relatively fast, but they didn't close the trail to joggers which meant I had to expend some mental energy on not running into people making it slower than a track race. With that in mind, I didn't really feel like I was hurting at the end, which is positive.

Just easy miles. Wore my Kinvara 6, which started to feel a little more comfortable on my morning run. However, I think their lack of flexibility (relative to my Skechers GoRuns) makes them tire out my calves faster as it turns me into an even more aggressive forefoot striker. That means I'll have to hold off on wearing them anymore until after Sunday.

AM 4.34 mile tempo run in 24:55 (5:44 pace, new workout PR!).

Splits

Finished this workout almost as fast as the 5k on Sunday, part of that is opening with a 5:55 mile as opposed to 5:17, but I think it also shows that 5k wasn't max effort like it would be on a track.

Did this workout in my GoMeb Speeds which I usually use for these types of runs. I wore them in the Labor Day Half and Pr'd but I felt like my calves were toast for the last 4-5 miles. Therefore I'm going to try doing a half in my GoMeb Razors, which I wore for the marathon and other long runs. I'm hoping that feeling better later in the race will make up for the extra weight. 

Course was a bit more difficult than I anticipated, so I'm happy with the result. 2 seconds faster than seattle RNR and about 1 minute slower than labor day half (completely flat).

I started out in the 3rd pack for the first mile. My breathing was high but I guess I had a lot of adrenaline because I felt very relaxed. I briefly thought about trying to surge up to the second pack, but we hit a small hill just prior to the mile and it got a little harder. Reached the mile in 5:42 in a group of about 5 with another large group at 5:27 (I could hear a volunteer yell their split).

Almost immediately started to lose ground in mile 2. We turned on to the express lanes and we hit a slight climb that started to go on forever. Eventually I caught back up to couple of people who had dropped me. Missed mile 2 but mile 3 was about 17:45, meaning I had been over 6 minute pace for those two miles.

At mile 3 we went up another hill and emerged from the tunnel into the concrete canyon of I-5, which was a bit weird. Again missed my split for mile 4, but mile 5 was 29:26. This was my predetermined point to start pushing as the course suddenly gets easier. Unfortunately mile 6 was only 6:13, which seemed way wrong as it was almost entirely downhill and I had pulled away from everyone in the 3rd pack.

Then things got back on track with a 5:42 mile 7, so I figured that 6 was long and 7 was short. I could see one guy ahead of me and passed him up with a 5:50. But then it got hard to stay motivated, as I couldn't see anyone ahead of me. I just decided to cruise a little and save myself for the final 5k. 5:56, 5:58 for miles 9 and 10.

The race really starts at the 10 mile mark when you have to climb up Stone Way. Unfortunately, I had very little strength left in my legs. Managed a 6:35 for mile 11 going straight up hill. But the kicker is the climb just keeps going, it was probably 1.5 miles of uphill by the time I crested the Aurora bridge. When I did, I found it hard to get moving again and so only managed an 11:57 for the last two miles (which had some climbing but was a net downhill). 34 seconds for the finish.

I ended up almost 1 minute behind 10th and almost 2minutes behind 9th, although 12th and 13th were hot on my heels at the finish.

Weirdly, this race gives me more confidence in running a good marathon as I felt pretty relaxed knocking out those sub 6 minute miles in the middle of the race.

Afterwards I had enough energy to run back up Aurora to my house.

Was planning on doing a small workout today, but I don't yet feel recovered from the half and I don't want to risk a dumb injury.