dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I ran 6 miles today in 46:xx.  I ran a few sprints during the run, but otherwise kept the effort easy.

6 miles in 48:00.  I actually had to speed up at the end just to catch the 8:00 guy.  I ran a few sprints again.  Part of why I ran so slow is because after each sprint I would slow down a lot, and I wasn't really speeding up later.  My legs felt kind of dead.  I guess that is what I get for letting myself get so out of shape.

6 miles today in 47:54.  No sprints today because I felt like I needed a break.

I ran 6 miles today in 45:10.  I ran 3 sprints again.  My legs felt more awake today since I didn't run the sprints yesterday.

I ran 6 miles today.  During the run I went over to the track and ran an all out 400, followed by 2 x 100m.  I could tell that my legs didn't feel 100% up for sprinting before I even started, but I was interested in seeing what I could do given the circumstances.  I ran the 400 in 63 seconds, followed by 13.8 for the first 100, and 14.2 for the second.  Results made me think that fresh I may have been able to run the 400 between 60-61 seconds, while running the 100 in the low 13 second range if I was fresh and didn't run a 400 first.

I ran 7 miles today.  I ran some sprints again, running 4 of them with 2 coming on uphill segments.  Total time of 53:46.  This is the first week in a while that I have run 6 times, and it felt good to get out the door more frequently.

7 miles this morning.  I ran some with Kimia, and she ran a mile time trial in 8:35.  Not her best, but not too bad.  I also ran a barefoot quarter mile on the track in 64 seconds, and ran a few short sprints later on after I dropped off Kimia at the house.

7 miles this morning in 54:39.  I ran 4 short sprints today, running all of them on hills or mild inclines.

I ran 8 miles today in 1:02:00.  During the run I ran 3 hill sprints as well.

I ran 8 miles this morning in 1:03:22.  The wind was horrible this morning, so I started off really slow.  17:23 at 2 miles, and 33:47 at 4 miles.  I finally started to speed up a bit once I turned around, however I was still way behind the 8:00 guy through 6 miles.  I finally started speeding up around the 6 mile mark, and I ran the last section to my house fast (about 0.8 miles in 4:10) so that I could catch the 8:00 guy.  I also ran 3 sprints during the run, with two of them on uphill segments.

I ran 8 miles this morning in 1:02:05.  I ran a few short sprints during the run, and near the 7 mile mark I ran a half mile fast in 2:39.  I didn't really feel like I was pushing too hard, but the ground was wet as it was raining, and I felt like I couldn't go faster due to slipping.

I ran 9 miles today in 1:08:02.  I decided to run an all out 400 at the beginning of my workout to see where I am at speed wise.  My problem is that I have been running so little mileage that in running 38 miles from Monday to Friday I had run more miles in 5 days than I had run in any given week this entire year.  In summation, my legs felt dead.  Even during my warm up I felt tired when running a few strides.

I started the 400, and by the 200 mark I felt like I had nothing left.  I tried to push the last 200, but my legs would not respond and I finished in 63 seconds.  The positive is that I ran the same time as I ran a week or so ago.  The negative is that I could only run a 63.  Womens 1500's in the diamond league have been closing in 61 for the last 400.

I then went to finish my run, running a hard mile from mile 6-7 in 5:41.  Normally I would have been disappointed with that time, but the mile is slow with lots of turns, uphill/downhill, and there was some wind as well.  To top it off I was dumb and left to run later than I should have, and the sun really drained my energy today.  In sum, I was actually content with the mile time and was just happy to be done with it.

I weighed myself when I got home and I only weighed 114 pounds, which explains some of my struggles during the hard mile (dehydration leads to overheating, which makes you slow).  After drinking some water I was over 117 pounds, and I started to feel more normal.

I ran 9+ miles today in 1:12:59.  I felt lethargic, so I never made any effort to pick up the pace, with the exception of 3 short sprints I ran.  I increased the time on the sprints to 20 seconds to let my body try to learn how to maintain pace a little longer when the effort is maxed out.  I had to take a detour during the run to bypass trail construction, so I ended up with a bit over 9 miles.

Same run as yesterday with the same detour, but minus the sprints.  Total time was 1:11:37.  I felt better today than yesterday but decided to skip the sprints as I hope to run another all out 400 tomorrow.

I ran 10 miles today in 1:17:15. I was going to run an all out 400 today, but the high school football team was about to practice and players were milling about everywhere.  I didn't trust that I would be able to run on the track without running into someone.  I ended up running 3 sprints today, and I increased the time to 25 seconds.  Between the first and second sprints I got excited to see a woman on a bike up in front of me, and I sped up for about a half mile so that I could catch and pass her.  After I finished Anita wanted to go outside, so I ended up running a mile barefoot while pushing both kids in the running stroller.

I ran 10 miles today in 1:17:31.  I ran 5 of the really short sprints again (rather than the 20-25 second sprints I have been running this week).

Kimia ran another mile time trial today.  I think we need to take a break from running those for a few weeks until she gets more used to the mileage she is running (currently on pace for 27 miles this week).  She told me that she normally doesn't hurt until the second lap when she runs these, but she started hurting almost immediately today, and told me that her legs felt dead.  Splits were 2:04, 2:11, 2:12, 2:05, +2 seconds for the extra distance to the finish.  Total time of 8:34.  I also ran a 63 second 400 while we were at the track, with splits of 31, 32, just like last time.  I ended up running about 3.4 miles total while with Kimia (pushing the stroller with both kids as well).

After I finished with Kimia I went out to run some more.  I was pressed for time so I just made sure to keep the effort fairly honest rather than running my short sprints and slowing down to 9:00+ pace afterwards.  I had to stay off of the trail due to construction, so I stayed on the roads for what I estimated at 6 miles.  I suspected it was longer so I remeasured with the course tool, measuring it at 6.4 miles.  Total time for the last 6.4 was 41:25, with the last mile around 5:30 pace.

I ran 12 miles today in 1:28:26.  I got up just after 6am this morning, but I knew Kimia should run first because she has a harder time in the heat than I do.  The problem was that she didn't finish her run until about 8am, and when I left at about 8:15 it was almost 90 degrees, and the sun was beating down on me.  I ran 10 miles easy, and then ran the last 2 miles hard in just over 11 minutes.  The last 2 miles are downhill, but it was around 100 degrees and I was nearing the end of my longest run so far this year (sad, I know) so I was happy that I was able to run those last 2 miles as fast as I did.

 Total mileage this week was just over 60 miles.  I finally feel like I am actually running semi normal mileage again. 

Even though I didn't run yesterday I felt a little off this morning, indicating that I am still not fully recovered from increasing mileage as quickly as I have been lately.  I still ran 10 miles, but I kept the whole run easy.  I had to take a detour to avoid construction so I ended up with about 10.5 miles in 1:18:00.  I then was running all over the UNLV campus yesterday getting things done, so I ended up running between a half mile and a mile extra.  I will call it a half mile.

I figured that since I am moving this week, and I don't feel fully recovered from last week, I should back off just a bit on the mileage this week.  I ran 8 miles this morning in 58:48.  During the second half of the run I ran 7 x 1 minute hard 1 minute easy.  To be honest I didn't really push the hard sections as hard as I could have.  I felt like the capacity to push myself was lacking just a little, and I was content to relax and run fast without killing myself.  I finished the second half of the run in 26:58 after a 31:50 first half.  I then showered and came to UNLV again, and I was running all over campus again trying to get things done.  I will give myself another mile for that.

9 miles this morning in 1:08:48.  I kept the pace relaxed, but it felt like I was doing more work with my calves.  I wonder if I am less economical than I could be?

At school today I got the final things finished up in order to turn in my thesis to the graduate college.  It feels good to be done.  I ran about a mile and a half extra running around campus today. 

9 miles this morning in 1:08:34.  I ran 3 x 400 during the workout followed by an 800.  First 400 was actually a little long long, was net uphill, and had a turn near the end that almost caused me to stop.  The split ended up being 1:12.  After a 400 recovery the second 400 was also a little long, and had close to zero net elevation change, but it had a super steep downhill with a cooresponding uphill, and 4 turns.  The split was 1:13.  I then had an 800 recovery before the final 400 which I knew was short, so I added some extra distance to hopefully make it long enough.  This repeat had a net downhill with no turns or funny stuff and I ran a 1:05.  I'm still not sure if the distance was right.  The 800 was actually a half mile, and this is the only split that had an accurate distance today.  It had a net downhill with one turn and some twisting in the first quarter, with a short but steep uphill (about 10 seconds) in the second quarter after going down under the railroad tracks.  Finishing time for the half mile was 2:21.

9 miles this morning in 1:09:xx.  I kept the pace relaxed for the most part, but I did speed up a few times to catch people I saw running up ahead of me.

I am in Utah with my family as we move to Iowa.  We stayed with the Pachev family last night, and I ran with them this morning.  We ran 2 miles with the kids and then ran up the canyon before running a 3 mile time trial to see where my fitness is at.  Starting pace was erratic the first 400 meters, but after that I settled down and got into a groove.  Splits were: 80, 77, 75, 75 (5:07), 75, 78, 76, 77 (5:06), 77, 76, 76, 75 (5:04) for a total time of 15:17.  I was pleased with the time as on Friday night I told Sasha that I wanted to break 16:00 and I was way under that goal.  I was also expecting to fade the last mile, but I negative split the time trial.  I am pleased that my fitness is coming back so quickly, but I can tell that I still have a long way to go.  Total distance for the run was 14 miles in 1:48:02.

10 miles at 4:00AM before leaving to drive to Nebraska

10 miles in the evening after getting to Ames, IA and getting keys for our new apartment