Doing What I Can

epic blizzard outside today, so i ran 400s on the indoor track. Kept it between 1:17-1:21, total time added up was 5:11, 5:16, 5:20 for each mile, roughly 5:16 avg. took 1:15 recovery between reps. 

wind chills at -20 so decided to go inside today. wanted 5 miles ended up having some GI issues after 4. SPlits:

1- 7:06.6

2- 6:50.7

3- 6:52.4

4- 7:16.8

TOTAL-- 29:06, 7:02 avg

4 easy miles in 30:16, 7:34 avg. Felt pretty sluggish and out of it. temps didnt help, 10 degrees with wc of -5

3 easy miles today right after i rolled outta bed. temp 15, windchill 0. Total time was 22:39, 7:33 avg pace. 

Kicking off the first race of the 2011 season tomorrow doing a 5k in story city. Ideally I would be under 18 minutes, but anything reasonably fast would constitute a good speed workout and thats super important at this stage in my training. Weather should be a little better also, predicting 25 degrees with wc near 18-20.

12th annual rosy cheeks run today, my 1st. Temps at race time were good for this time of year, right around 20 degrees with no wind. The roads were still covered in snow and ice so the footing was rough throughout. Didn't run a great time, but i also havent done much speed work and the footing was bad. I have worked more on tempo pacing which unsurprisingly my average splits today were about right on my tempo pace. So I'll take the positive out of it. only split I got was my first mile in 5:48. Total time was 18:31, 5:58 avg pace. Got a nice little trophy for winning my age group. Once again nothing to write home about, but it's a good gauge of where I'm at and I also didn't feel too bad running. So i think my half marathon pace is pretty solidly engrained in my mind. next week i will run a 5 mile race and my goal is to hit 30:00 exactly. Should be an interesting race.

10 early this morning right after i woke up. got about an inch of snow overnight so the roads were slick in spots but overall pretty manageable. had some rougher miles in the middle of the run, but pushed through and ended with a nice run. Temp was 26 with wc at 18. Light snow showers during the run, but i was wearing shades to protect my eyes. Splits:

1- 7:18.5

2- 7:14.5

3- 7:20.2

4- 7:20.6

5- 7:22.1

6- 7:10.2

7- 7:34.1

8- 7:14.7

9- 7:26.6

10- 7:08.8

TOTAL-- 1:13:10, 7:19 avg pace

Very good workout today. Went indoors as the temp will remain below 0 today and windchills are between -15 and -20. did 6 x 1000 with 2:15 break, then at the end threw in a 400. First mile of my warmup was GMP. Splits on the repeats:

1- 3:29.9 (5:35 pace)

2- 3:30.8 (5:37 pace)

3- 3:27.4 (5:31 pace)

4- 3:28.0 (5:33 pace)

5- 3:30.1 (5:36 pace)

6- 3:28.8 (5:34 pace)

400 on the end- 1:17, 5:08 pace

Overall a very good workout, i am very happy with a workout at those paces.

6 miles today in the bitter cold. 8 degrees with the windchill at -10. Definitely felt the cold anytime i turned north and west. Splits:

1- 7:25.3

2- 7:14.1

3- 7:16.0

4- 7:17.6

5- 7:16.8

6- 7:09.3

TOTAL-- 43:39, 7:16.5 avg pace

4 easy miles today. Weather was better. 19 degrees, wc of 6. It was still cold but not biting like the last few days. Definitely a relief. Felt really calm and easy on this run. splits:

1- 7:26.3

2- 7:28.2

3- 7:25.0

4- 7:12.5

TOTAL-- 29:32, 7:23 avg pace

2 miles in 14:18, 7:09 pace. Felt really easy and fresh. Weather is getting better too, mid-30s with wc's in the high 20s. Should be similar temps for race time tomorrow. Gonna run a 5 mile road race in Des Moines. Although I have run 27:33 for an 8k before, tomorrow my goal is hit 30:00 exactly. It'd be a great achievement to hold that pace for 5 miles and hit that time right on. It would definitely be a boost for my sub 1:20 half hopes later in the spring.

Ran the Red Flannel Run today, my first time running this annual event. About 700 people ran the 5 mile and about 1300 ran the 3 mile. Its becoming a very big event. My goal was to hit 30:00, however I missed it by 26 seconds. I started off a little fast, probably ran the first 2 mile in 11:30-11:45, then slowed considerably as I found no one to run with. Didn't get any real splits cuz the miles werent marked. my 30:26 is good for 6:05 avg and is still a great effort for this early in the year. I started out at what felt easy and went from there. Two things of note: weather was around 30 degrees and it felt awesome and so did I, felt really fresh. Also, after the first half mile i did not get passed, instead I picked off people from there to the finish, its a nice feeling to go out easy and reel in everyone who went out too fast. a good training run, very happy with the results.

12 miles today. Didnt feel the best, had some GI issues and some overall soreness that hampered my effort. I still turned in a pretty decent run though. The weather was great, temp of 43 with windchill of 37, i wore shorts and it felt awesome. Splits:

1- 7:09.5

2- 7:09.4

3- 7:09.5

4- 7:16.6

5- 7:09.1

6- 7:07.1

7- 7:07.5

8- 7:21.7

9- 7:24.6

10- 7:16.7 (1:12:11, 7:13 pace)

11- 7:25.4

12- 7:10.5

TOTAL-- 1:26.47, 7:14 avg pace

Overall, decent splits. My first 3 miles were dead even, pretty cool. I definitely gave some time back on the second half, but i was definitely feeling the mileage + the race from yesterday at that point.

uninspired run today. 5 miles in 36:51, 7:22 avg pace. weather was nice.

5 mile tempo today. Felt really sluggish and my legs had no pop in them. Still managed to struggle through and put up a decent average. My splits were all over the place, but I think my mile markers were off, most notably i think my first, third, and fifth were short which threw all my splits off. Weather was nice though, mid-40s. Splits:

1- 5:58.4

2- 6:20.5

3- 6:07.5

4- 6:17.0

5- 6:00.0

TOTAL-- 30:43, 6:08.5 avg pace

5 easy miles today. Absolutely great weather, an even 60 degrees! Strong south winds though so that was a challenge. Splits:

1- 7:30.7

2- 7:13.7

3- 7:23.7

4- 7:23.9

5- 7:09.4

TOTAL-- 36:41, 7:20 avg pace

GMP run today. weather was near 50 and pretty nice. All my splits were at the lower end of GMP and one was technically tempo. Also, my GMP miles today were more indicative of what i hope to run in the middle to end of the marathon, not at the start. If i start out at the paces I held today, ill prolly tank. So I needa go out right near 7 and hold that on race day. Splits:

1- 6:56.4

2- 6:37.3

3- 6:48.8

4- 6:46.7

5- 6:47.4

6- 6:47.1

7- 6:50.3

TOTAL-- 47:34, 6:48 avg pace

overall, i felt really good on this run. Despite being sick lately, I was able to settle into this pace and actually felt quite comfortable on this run.

3 easy after work in 22:18, 7:26 avg pace. weather was nice- mid-40s.

long run today, 14 miles. Felt pretty decent, even hit 3 miles below 7 so GMP. weather was ok, 39 degrees, wc around 35. accidentally stopped my watch after mile 6 instead of hitting split so for my 7th mile I felt it best to just give myself a split right at my avg pace. Otherwise i managed to get the rest of my splits:

1- 7:24.7

2- 7:18.8

3- 7:14.6

4- 7:12.5

5- 6:58.4

6- 7:05.9

7- (7:10) avg

8- 7:22.4

9- 7:13.4

10- 7:11.0

11- 6:59.1

12- 6:56.0

13- 7:11.2

14- 7:08.7

TOTAL-- 1:40:26, 7:10 avg pace

makeshift uptempo run today, decided to go out hard-"ish" the first 3 miles and hit GMP. My schedule is messed up this week with added hours at work so i have to change my speed work up. Gonna just do one hard tempo on thursday so i decided to supplement today's easy run with some faster stuff. 25 degrees, splits:

1- 6:59.6

2- 6:50.7

3- 6:42.3

4- 7:33.9

5- 7:20.4

TOTAL-- 35:26, 7:05 avg pace

6 easy miles today. felt really good and smooth throughout the run so that was nice, even hit my last 2 miles at GMP. weather was mid 30s and pretty nice out. Splits:

1- 7:19.7

2- 7:06.0

3- 7:08.43

4- 7:08.44

5- 6:58.8

6- 6:57.3

TOTAL-- 42:38, 7:06 avg pace

I put miles 3 and 4 all the way out to the hundredths spot to show how close they were. I think that indicates how steady I was running today.

Not a great workout today. Was going to try for 6 mile tempo, but due to several factors, i ended up with just enough energy for 2x3200, individual mile splits at 6:04, 6:11, 5:58, 6:20. The limiting factors were running on an empty stomach, running soon after waking up, and weights yesterday. Just kind of a perfect storm of negative factors and to top it all off, the weather is in the mid20s with windchill at 14. I still put up a lot of miles because after being frustrated with my workout I decided to bury my legs with mileage. No more morning speedwork or at least not without breakfast.

4 slow miles in 30:36, 7:39 avg. 14 degrees, windchill -2.

5 slow and easy miles in 38:41 (7:44 avg pace) today in the snow. temp 13, wc 5. 

had a really good workout today, 10 miles all at GMP. temp was 32 with light winds, slick in spots. Felt pretty decent and was really  happy with how this one turned out. Splits:

1- 6:59.0

2- 6:48.5

3- 7:00.8

4- 6:46.5

5- 6:59.7

6- 6:48.3

7- 6:57.7

8- 6:51.1

9- 6:43.4

10- 6:42.6

TOTAL-- 1:08:37, 6:52 avg pace