Of Mice and Marathons

Valley Green to Forbidden Drive (NW) out and back - 10 miles, averaged 7:29. Did some strides.

Enjoyed watching the Chicago Marathon. Tracked a few guys who dropped at odd points (35k and 40k). Mr. Krong went after it, which was good to see. Given the hard start and tough finish he really wasn't far off PR range. One of my training buddies ran 2:49, and he was planning to run 6:00 pace even though "it probably wouldn't end well." It always gets me excited to race in the fall.

Treadmill - 6 miles in 43:42. Did some strides.

Effort felt very high for the pace. Day sucked. Run sucked. I slipped of the mill monkeying with my iPod, but with my ninja skills I caught myself. I'm going for a better day tomorrow. It involves a 23 miler, so there's a 50/50 chance it will suck.

Forbidden Drive (back and forth mostly) - 23 miles, averaged 7:27

PR for gels. 1 before and 3 during (I generally don't use them in training). Used the Valley Green water fountain for some brief water stops to get the gels to absorb. They worked out fine and at that pace I didn't notice them once they were in my belly. PR for miles run on dirt was well. I think 17-18 were on softish surfaces.

67 degrees and 90% humidty to start and 75 with 66% humidity to finish. I was planning on plodding around 7:45 pace but 7:20-7:35 felt pretty good despite the saturated air. About 1400 feet of climb according to Strava, which seems more accurate than Garmin.

Forbidden Drive (NW) out and back - 10 miles, averaged 8:29

Weighed in at 170.4, went running, had a small mouthful of water, weighed in a 165.8. I like the second number better. 

Somewhere in Utah there's a Mormon software engineer who runs road races in Crocs, getting bombarded with emails by irrate bloggers.

Forbidden Drive (SE) out and back - 10 miles, averaged 8:05. Did some strides.

Flourtown Tempo Loop - 16.25 miles, averaged 7:05. Big Workout.

Warmed up 4 miles and did about a third of a mile at marathon pace. A beautiful fall day, about 60 degrees and sunny to start with a good fall breeze. I decided to shed my shirt on my secret hanger as it was definitely getting warm enough. Did some strides, which I haven't been doing much before workouts just to keep the mileage continuous.

4 x 2 Mile with w/ ~3:40 recovery jogs

Set 1: 11:56 (5:59, 5:58); 3:12 recovery @ 9:12

Set 2: 11:50 (5:55, 5:54); 3:57 recovery @ 8:30

Set 3: 11:54 (5:56, 5:58); 3:47 recovery @ 9:12

Set 4: 12:03 (6:00, 6:03); Total average just under 5:58

3 mile cool down.

EXACTLY 10 seconds faster than a month ago, but with slightly longer recoveries (not really enough to be that significant). Probably a PR for the workout effort-wise given when I did this in March it was 19 degrees and I ran 5:54/5:55 in screw shoes! This loop is definitely less forgiving. I was working toward the end, but I have done the workout enough to know where the effort should be. This was slightly harder than the one a month ago if memory serves me.

PM: Neighborhood - 4.25 miles, averaged 7:44

Broke in a "new" pair of Kinvara 2s. My old ones are splitting. Could go some more miles, but at $50 I think they don't owe me anything.

Chesnut Hill College Hill Loop - 7.5 miles, no watch

Ran the first two with Megan before she turned around. Picked it up slightly from there, but kept it quite easy and enjoyable. Lots of leaves on the trail.

The chorizo and eggs I had for lunch, although very high in protein and quite delicious, was likely the culprit for my late run "I'm going to crap my split shorts" bad form/running style.

There's also a Harry Potter Festival going on in the neighborhood. Apparently it is quite famous and schools come to compete in whatever that Harry Potter game is that is played with brooms. Lots of younger kids in capes walking around.

For the second time I saw a Neapolitan Mastiff, which I didn't know until I finally asked the woman who owns it what it was. I wouldn't necessary buy the breed, but I thought it was an intriguing, quite handsome one.

There. I think I covered everything.