dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I ran fairly easy for most of the run today, as I ran out on the Pittman Wash and then up on St Rose Parkway until I hit 7.5 miles, after which I ran back.  On the way back I ran a 3 mile tempo of sorts from 10-13 miles.  I started out at just a little bit faster than 6:00 pace, and then every half mile or so I threw in a short sprint for 10-15 seconds.  Mile splits ended up being 5:42, 5:45, 5:43.  Total time for 15 miles was 1:50:19.

I ran 10 miles this morning in 1:18:58.  Checked the resting HR again this morning, and it was 36 bpm again, but my HR was a little higher while I was running than I thought it should be, probably meaning that I am just a little bit fatigued still after running 15 miles yesterday, after running a hard 20 on Saturday (I felt dead all day on Saturday and even a little on Sunday after the tempo I ran, even though it wasn't even fast).  I hoped that I would feel stronger in the evening for the race I was running.

PM:  I ran the Las Vegas Track Club 3200 meter race that was held at the Green Valley High School track across the street from my house.  This is one of a series of free summer track races that the track club puts on.  The race was at 7:00pm, but the sun was still glaring down on us when 7:00 hit.  Temperatures were in the high 90's at the start of the race (the high today was 102), but luckily for us we got some shade on the backstretch from the bleachers.  Luckily there was virtually no wind to add to the heat (when it is that hot, the wind feels like a giant hair dryer... not fun).  Pre race goal was to try and hit 73 second quarters, giving me a 9:44, which I considered reasonable considering the heat, and the fact that I feel like I am lacking fitness right now with the layoff I had recently due to illness.

As I was warming up my legs felt completely dead.  I was barely running sub 8:00 pace, and it seemed like a struggle.  This was not a good sign for me, and with the added heat I started wondering if I would even be able to go sub 10:00 for this race, even though I routinely split two miles faster than that in longer races.  Add to this the fact that I had not run a race this short since 2003 and I was more worried than I should have been for a local free race.  I talked to a guy named Andrew before the race, and he thought that the heat would cost us about 15 seconds per mile.  He seemed to be my closest competition at the race, and appeared to know what he was talking about, so this made me even more unsure as to how I would do when the gun went off.  I decided to just go for it, staying with the leaders for the first lap, and then trying to hit 73 second quarters even if it was too fast for me.  I hoped it would turn out ok.  I dumped some water over my head before the start to help me keep my body temperature down during the race.

The race started, and two kids shot to the front, immediately putting a decent gap on the rest of the field.  I stayed reasonably close to them, and Andrew tucked in behind me.  I picked off the first kid near the end of the first lap, hitting it in 1:14.  The pace felt good, so I picked up the pace just a little in order to try and hit 1:13's.  I caught the second kid at about the 500m mark and from here on out it was just me, with Andrew right on my heels.  We hit 800m in 2:27 (1:13) and I could tell that Andrew was not just a random guy, but he was real competition.  He mentioned to me after the second lap that if we kept up the pace we were going we would lap a lot of people during the race.  I picked up the effort a little for the third lap to test Andrew and see how he would respond, and he stayed glued to my backside.  3:39 for three laps (1:12) so I was right on goal pace now.  The fourth lap slowed down just a little, and we went through 1600m in 5:53 (1:14).  I wasn't happy that I had slowed down and was now a second behind pace, so I sped up again the fifth lap going through 2000m in 6:05 (1:12).  By the sixth lap I started to feel the pace, and I was hurting just a bit trying not to slow down.  Despite the effort not to slow, I did slow some, and went through 2400m in 7:20 (1:15).  At this point we were lapping a lot of people, and throughout the race I had to swing wide to get by people on both the straightaways and the corners.  It is possible that some of the slowdown on this lap was related to the extra people we were passing.  The seventh lap was the same (1:15) and I hit the bell lap in 8:35.  I was now 4 seconds behind goal pace, but I was honestly not worrying about this at all as Andrew was still right behind me.  I started to push the pace at the beginning of this lap, and I could tell that he was starting to fall back a little.  I hoped that it would be enough.  I ran the next 200 in 35 seconds to make it to 3000m in 9:10, and then really started to push as I swung wide to pass some people before hitting the final straightaway.  In the last 100m Andrew sprinted past me, as he had an extra gear that just wasn't there for me and we both finished in 9:41, giving me a 31 second final 200m and a 1:06 last lap.

Despite not winning, I felt very happy about this race.  It helped me realize that I am in better shape than I thought I was in, and I was able to run solid splits without killing off my kick completely, while leading virtually the entire race, even though I felt like my legs were dead weights before the race started.  I think that if the heat were not there I would have run no slower than 9:30, and potentially as fast as 9:20, so this is encouraging.  I finished by running a long cool down with Andrew.  Ends up he is 44 years old, but just last year ran a 4:06 1500m (4:24 mile converted) which is faster than I have ever run over that distance.  Total of 8.25 miles for the evening.

After running the race last night, I decided to run my short run in the morning today, so I only ran 5 miles, finishing in just under 37 minutes.  I will run more this evening.

PM: 10 miles in 1:18:50.  When I left on my run at 8pm it was 103 degrees outside.  The thing with Vegas however, is that once the sun is no longer right on you the heat is not too bad.  When the sun is directly on you it sucks you dry and you overheat before too long, but at night while it may be hot it is not too bad. 

Temps were hot this morning (in the high 80's or low 90's at the beginning of the run and in the mid 90's at the end), but most of the run was not too bad.  Even though it was not as hot as last night, I had the sun shining on me today so that makes the conditions more difficult.

I first ran out on the Pittman Wash before running back and making my way over to the track where I ran a couple 400m repeats.  I was feeling the effects of the heat, and it was windy as well, so I was not sure how the repeats would go.  I decided to just run them hard and see what I would end up with, fast or slow.

The first repeat was in 64.  The wind was not horrible on this repeat, but probably slowed me down by a second or two.  After I ran 2 laps as recovery I ran another repeat in 67-68, but the wind was much stronger this time around, so the wind probably cost me 3-4 seconds.

I finished by running home and finishing 13 miles total in 1:36:46.

PM: 4 more miles at school after I was done working.  Total time around 31 minutes. 

I ran 10 miles easy this morning.  Halfway through the run I ran 1 mile fast in 5:24 as a test of sorts to see how my body would respond to the heat.  Finished the run in 1:15:01

PM: I ran 5 miles at school in the evening. 

This run finished off my first ever 100 mile week!  It is not like the number itself really means that much, but I am excited nonetheless, as I hope to be putting in more of these weeks over the course of the summer.

 I did my weekly long run this morning, running most of it around the Galleria Mall, and then finishing the run on the Pittman Wash.  I made it out the door at 5:20 am, which is the earliest I have gotten out the door so far this summer.  The temperature was around 80 when I left the house (similar to last Saturday) and I was hoping that I would react well to the heat since I was leaving earlier than normal.

The workout goal was to run 3 x 3 laps around the mall (3.75 miles total for each repeat) with a one lap recovery (1.25 miles).  I started the first repeat after 5 miles, and ran lap splits of: 7:23, 7:13, 6:58.  Mile splits (plus .75) were: 5:54, 5:44, 5:40, 4:16.  The first lap had virtually no wind as I warmed into the pace, but after that lap a wind started to pick up from the SW that affected me during some of the rolling quarters and the uphill quarter at the end of each lap.  

After a 1.25 mile recovery (9:32) I ran the second repeat with lap splits of: 7:10, 7:08, 7:00.  Mile splits (plus .75) were: 5:40, 5:41, 5:36, 4:21.  The wind was much stronger during this repeat, and I really had to work hard just to break 6:00 pace during the quarters into the wind.  The wind definitely hurt me more when it was in my face than it helped when it was at my back.

After this repeat I ran another lap for recovery in 9:49, but I decided that I would shorten the last repeat, extend the recovery a little longer, and run the last section somewhere that the wind would be at my back a little more consistently.  The combination of the wind, the heat, and the fact that I have never run this many miles in a week before just sapped the energy from me, and I struggled home to get some H2O before finishing the run.  I ran out onto the Pittman Wash, and then started my final tempo heading into the wind for a few minutes before turning around and getting a nice tailwind over the final 2 miles, finishing at my apartment.  At the beginning of the last repeat I actually miscalculated where I needed to turn around, so I ended up running about a quarter mile farther than I should have.  I finished the last repeat with a total time of 15:31, for what I will call 2.75 miles (it may have been just a little bit shorter, but it was closer to 2.75 than 2.5, which for my purposes is close enough).

Total time for the run (20.25 miles) was 2:17:02.