Doing What I Can

great weather today, mid 50s, lil windy but felt really good. Splits:

1- 7:08.0

2- 6:59.9

3- 6:59.5

4- 7:17.2

5- 7:15.6

6- 6:58.3

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

5 easy today after an awesome 2 hour nap! 36:48, 7:21.5 avg pace.

good workout today. 1.5 up and 1.5 down with 12x400 in between. Hit them all between 76-79 seconds with 60 second breaks between each rep. here was each 400:

79, 79, 76, 76--5:10 pace

77, 77, 77, 78--5:09 pace

76, 77, 77, 76--5:06 pace

TOTAL time added up-- 15:25 for 3 miles, 5:08 pace

ice bath after

5 easy in the rain today. Rained pretty much the whole run. Splits:

1- 7:20.8

2- 7:10.2

3- 7:06.2

4- 7:10.0

5- 7:02.5

TOTAL-- 35:49, 7:10 avg pace

broke out the old blue shoes for my pre-race 3 miles today. beautiful weather, 63 and sunny, felt like summer! 3 miles in 22:16, 7:25 avg pace. 

Tomorrow marks the start of a rash of 5ks that I'll be running this summer. My ultimate goal is to PR by the end of the summer (16:38). My dream goal would be to break 16:00, that is a long ways off though. For tomorrow, I just want to get back under 18:00 and build some speed.

Ran a local 5k today, not much competition showed up as there are something like 25 races throughout the state this weekend i heard. Upon seeing the rather thin crowd I decided that my strategy would be to lay waste to the field with a good 1st mile. However, my victory was not a crushing one nor was it predestined. Right before the start I saw an older guy show up that I had seen before and knew he was fast. So I figured it'd be a 2 person race, unless I could drop him. Weather was great, 55 at the start with light wind. I went out and led through the first mile with a 5:30. I could still hear the older guy breathing behind me, so I kept my pace up to try to shake him, rolled through the 2nd mile in a 5:50, and he still sounded the same distance back based on his breathing (i never look back cuz its a sign of weakness and it always give the other person a confidence boost, so i never did see how far he was back, just had to gauge it by hearing). The third mile had two pretty decent uphills including a long gradual incline to the finish which was actually quite taxing given my lack of hillwork. I closed the last 1.1 in 6:27 (roughly 5:50 and :37 for the .1). I ended up winning with a time of 17:48 and the older guy, who i figured out later was 49 years old! ran a 17:52 to finish a strong 2nd. I lead wire to wire and although the 2nd place guy pushed me to keep a good pace and made it hurt, he never got close enough to pass me. Although not a blazing time, it is a nice step in the right direction, and I felt pretty good also. It was also nice to win, especially given the award was a $50 gift certificate to a local running store where I will now be purchasing my next pair of shoes!

hot and humid today for early may-- 82 degrees with 64 degree dew point, pretty muggy. Hit 6 miles in 43:01, 7:10 avg pace. Was thinking about maybe doing 2 or 3 more but was pretty beat down by the heat at 6.

bad workout, 9x400 pretty slow. 

4 easy

little uptempo today.

1- 7:07.7

2- 6:51.7

3- 6:59.6

4- 6:54.7

5- 6:48.2

TOTAL-- 34:41, 6:56 avg pace

2.5 easy today in the wind and rain. 19:02, 7:37 pace. 5k tomorrow! going for sub-17:30...unless the weather sucks...which judging from the forecast right now is a possibility.

Local 5k today for a great cause. Childserve is an organization in Des Moines that assists kids with disabilities. This race was especially important to me because my wife's step-brother, mason, has cerebral palsy and gets assistance from Childserve. I've been wanting to run this for the last few years and finally got my chance today. A little cold for mid-may as it was high 40s with strong north winds and light rain making it feel colder. Met up with my good friend from high school, andrew minear, at the start line. We were really close freinds in hs and he inspired me to get into cross country and running. Today was his day as he ended up beating me.

The Race:

Woke up at 5:55 am, did the normal pre-race routine. Met up with andrew at the start and got caught up as i havent seen him in a few months. He informed me that he and his wife are expecting, which is awesome. Got to the start and took off. andrew pulled away in the first mile, i laid back in a chase pack of about 3 guys to try to conserve some energy going nto the wind. My strategy was to outlast andrew and catch him on the return trip where the wind was at our back. First mile flew by in 5:37.6. At this point i threw in a surge and broke up the chase pack. It was now a 2 person race between andrew and I. I closed within 5-7 seconds of him at one point during the 2nd mile but could just never get close enough to get him. 2nd mile was a negative split at 5:30.8 (11:08). I tried to rein him in during the last mile, but had no such luck. Final mile split was 5:40.1, with the final .1 being 32.8 seconds. Crossed the line in 17:21, andrew had finished in 16:51, a very good race for him. Official results said 17:22 and the online results are all messed up cuz they moved everyone back a place so those results arent correct. Overall, very happy to have run such even splits on a great course for a great cause. Very well organized as well. Also, if im going to lose i couldnt be happier that the winner was a good friend. After the race, i stopped by my father-in-law's house and gave mason my 2nd place medal. He thought that was the coolest thing ever, which made my day and helped put into perspective how awesome of cause this race was for.

near perfect spring weather today. 55-60 degrees during the run with light north winds. Felt amazing to run in ideal conditions. Went 10 today to tap into some of my awesome base-work from earlier this spring/winter. Splits:

 1- 7:15.1

2- 7:02.5

3- 7:05.9

4- 7:22.8

5- 6:56.2

6- 6:59.0

7- 7:08.7

8- 6:57.9

9- 7:01.4

10- 6:50.1

TOTAL-- 1:10:39, 7:04 avg pace

36:34, 7:19 avg pace. great weather!

mile repeats today. had no pop in my legs, kind of dead so i had to get it started on no adrenaline. Still ended up with a decent workout, 5:35, 5:36, 5:31, with 3 minutes off between each.

6 easy this morning in 44:10, 7:22 avg pace.

Woke up to the sound of rolling thunder, usually a comforting morning sound. Thought I might be able to beat the rain, but i was way wrong. very light stuff through about 3.75 then with about 1.25 to go it just opened up and i got completely soaked. Kind of fun but kind of not. Lightning got a little to close for comfort as well.explains my last mile's pick-up in speed. splits:

1- 7:33.6

2- 7:13.2

3- 7:07.9

4- 7:09.8

5- 6:55.1

TOTAL-- 35:59, 7:12 avg pace

hills today. very hard workout. did 2 massive uphill sprints of about .3 mile in length, then ran 8x400 on rolling gravel roads. Then finished up with 2 more giant uphills. Completely beat after the workout, ice bath was in order.

8 miles this morning in beautiful weather. 75 degrees and a lil breezy to keep me cooled off. felt really easy. splits:

1st 3 miles- 21:15, 7:05 avg

2nd 3 miles- 21:27, 7:09 avg

7- 6:59.0

8- 7:02.4

TOTAL-- 56:43, 7:05.5 avg pace

progression run today. pretty happy with it given the fact that i just rolled out of bed and went. pretty warm and humid already at 7:45 am. Splits:

1- 7:17.2

2- 6:44.2

3- 6:03.2

4- 6:05.8

5- 7:27.6

TOTAL-- 33:38, 6:43.5 avg pace

4 in the windy and cool weather.29:02, 7:15 avg pace.

repeats today. great weather. hit my warmup mile in 6:55, GMP splits:

1- 2:44.5

2- 2:43.1

3- 2:42.9

4- 2:43.5

after these 4x800s with 1:30 rest (cept for 2 min between 3 and 4), i decided to pick it up the last mile and do 4x400. here are those splits at 1 min rest:

76, 77, 75, 74, 5:02 mile pace

ice bath

4

3 mile pre-race systems check, all systems are go. 21:58, 7:19 pace.

Ran a local 5k today, pretty good prizes on the line, 1st-3rd got 200, 100, and 50 dollar gift cards to a local running store, respectively. I ended up 3rd. I ran terrible though, just had one of those races where my legs were dead. I was hurting before the first 1k and couldnt muster any surges later in the race. Was actually pretty lucky to hang on to 3rd. first mile was 5:42, 2nd was 5:52, third was 5:48 and last ".1" was :29. Total was 17:54, they had me officially at 17:56. moral of the story, i kind of trained through this one and even though it wasnt a great race, ill take the 50 dollar gift card...goes well with the other 50 dollar gc i won to the same store earlier this month.

this coming saturday, the 4th, represents my first true goal race of the season as i set to break a local 5k record. taper will be occuring.

broke out the old flats for some speed work today. pretty warm, mid-80s but hit some awesome splits. Workout was 13x400 at 73-77 seconds with 1 min break between each. Here were the splits:

75, 75, 74, 76 - 5:00 pace

74, 76, 74, 76 - 5:00 pace

74, 76, 73, 77 - 5:00 pace

73- 4:52 pace

total time was 3.25 miles in 16:13, 4:59 avg pace

Overall, a very good workout!