dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

It was a good run this morning.  I ran with Sasha and Daniel.  Daniel turned around at about 3.5 miles and the rest was just with Sasha.  Part way through Sasha was experimenting with trying to push off the ground a little harder without speeding up.  He found out that he couldn't do it, but that he could run a 6:40 pace that felt like a 5:30 if he concentrated on pushing harder off of the ground.  After doing this for a bit we ran a 600 in 2:01 to see how 6:40 pace and a faster pace differed in how they felt as Sasha tried to push harder off of the ground.  After this we finished our run going back to Sasha's house.  Total time 1:16:06

I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, but in my defense I did get in bed 9 hours before I woke up.  I just didn't go to sleep because I was watching a movie, and after it finished I had trouble falling asleep.  The run this morning was good.  The soreness I felt on Sunday and to a degree yesterday is now virtually gone and I felt good although it took me a little longer than normal to really warm into the run and the pace this morning.  I ran with Sasha, Josse and Daniel this morning and Josse wanted to do the 5 mile tempo so we paced her through it averaging close to 6:40 pace for the first half and then slowing some the second half but still averaging faster than 7:00 pace.  At this point Daniel headed back and the rest of us added a couple extra miles before dropping off Josse after 10.  Sasha and I then went out a little over a mile and a half after which I turned around and headed back to finish up.  No watch today so I don't know the total time but I think it was fairly slow with the exception of the 5 mile tempo which we finished in 34:10

I am not sure why but I felt really tired today.  I had trouble getting moving this morning to get ready and then I fell asleep in class later on, thus the half hour nap.  Anyhow, Sasha and I met at 5:00am and we ran 6.25 miles in 47:51 and ended at Sasha's house.  We then met Hyrum and ran 3 miles with him in 26:20.  After we dropped him off we ran one more mile in 7:21 to finish in 1:21:32 for 10.25 miles.  For the most part I felt fine on the run, other than being a little tired.  I also have a bruise on my right hip because I ran into a wall playing racquetball yesterday and that felt somewhat sore, but as long as I was going faster than 8:00 pace I didn't really notice it.  If I slowed down it started to bother me but it was no big deal.  I think that it should heal fairly quickly.

I ran with Sasha and Daniel today.  We ran around the block a couple of times and then we ran out to the river trail.  Daniel turned around after a couple of miles and Sasha and I continued until we got to the end of the trail.  On the way back we did 2x100 in 14.2 and 14.7 seconds for me.  I felt stiff the first 100 but then felt more loose so I relaxed a little the second 100 and I ended up slowing down.  We then ran a 200 in 29.8 for me.  This would have been a little faster but the starting mark kind of surprised me and it took me a little longer than normal to get up to speed.  We then ran back to Sasha's house to finish.

I met with Sasha and Daniel at 6:00 this morning and we went out for an easy 10.1 with Daniel turning around after 4 miles.  Sasha and I went to the end of the trail and back to finish our run in 1:15:18.

The faster portion of our run came  at a couple different time periods as Sasha wanted to see how well I could sing while running at a faster pace.  To put this all into context, yesterday while we were talking the subject of singing came up.  Sasha asked me how well I could sing and I told him that I was probably good enough to sing a solo in church, but not as good as my younger sister who is an amazing singer.  Well, due to this conversation Sasha decided that he wanted to test and see how well I could sing while running.  First we ran a 600 in 2:03 (5:28 pace) and I sang the star spangled banner while we ran.  This was followed by Sasha singing the song while we ran about 8:00 pace with Daniel acting as judge to determine if my singing was better at 5:28 pace then Sasha's was at 8:00 (he determined that mine was still better).  I then sang the song again while we ran at 8:00 pace.  Later on we sped up so that I could get home in time and while running close to 6:00 pace we decided to sing the song one more time at that speed to see what the difference was between singing at that speed and the other speeds.  We then finished our run speeding up over the last 400-800 meters or so (I counted 600 but I wasn't really paying attention so I don't know).

As far as analyzing my singing goes and relating it to my overall fitness I have to say that I am doing well.  I noticed that while singing at 6:00 pace was harder then at 8:00 pace, the difference was not all that remarkable, which tells me that my heart does not have to work much harder at the faster pace then it does at the slower pace.  However, at 5:28 pace it was rather difficult to sing and the difference between that speed and 6:00 pace was a big one.  So, this tells me that my heart starts to work much harder at these speeds, but that my overall fitness is good enough to keep the stress on my heart down to the point that I can go for somewhat extended periods of time without breathing.  Maybe I will try this test out again in a few months and see if it becomes easier to sing at sub 5:30 pace or faster.

Today I ran alone because Kimia and I went dancing up in Salt Lake last night so I didn't get to bed until after 2am.  I was tired before we even got to Salt Lake a little after 10pm and by the time we got home I was having trouble staying awake no matter what I was doing.  So we slept until a little past 10am this morning which felt really good.

Anyhow, I started off running around 7:00 pace hitting 3 miles in 20:54 after that I didn't look at the watch for a while but I slowly sped up until I was going faster than 6:40 pace.  I held this pace until about 13.8 when I did a mini tempo over the last 2.5 of the 5 mile tempo.  I started out hitting 2:34 for the first 800 and then decided it was too fast and slowed progressively to 2:40, 2:45, 2:55, 2:57 for the last 4 800's.  I then finished running home making it back for a total time of 1:58:33 for 18.2 miles.