dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I ran with Sasha this morning.  We kept things easy and just ran our normal route

I ran a 10 mile tempo this morning with Sasha.  We ran to the start of the 5 mile tempo, and we ran it twice, followed by running back to Sasha's house.  We started off the tempo kind of slow making it through the first mile at slower than 6:00 pace, and then picking it up into the 5:50's.  we hit 5 miles in 29:39 (first 2.5 in 14:53, second 2.5 in 14:46).  After that, we slowly picked up the pace a little more and went through the last 5 miles in about 28:2X to finish a few seconds over 58:00 for 10 miles.  12.75 total for the run counting the warm-up and cool-down.

I slept in on accident, so I only ran 7 miles with Sasha, and the last 3 I ran alone.  We kept the pace fairly easy, but we did throw in some fat miles.  During the last 3 miles I also caught up to some kid who was running, and he started going almost all out just to keep up with me, and in the process I sped up as well.  He goes to some boarding school in town that I didn't even know existed.  I finished 10 miles in 1:11:42.

The original plan was to run a double today, but this evening I was feeling really bad, so I scrapped the plans for a second run.

No running today.  I came down with something yesterday, and I was feeling really nasty.  I don't know what it was, but by this evening I was feeling mostly fine.  I wanted to go out running around 7:00 or 8:00 in the evening so that I at least would get in a few miles for the day, but Kimia wanted me to just stay at home so that I would be completely recovered by the next day.

I ran with Sasha this morning.  Total time of a little under 1:15:00.  We also threw in some fat miles, the second being a fat 1.25 because I needed to get home faster than running slower would allow for.  The last two quarters were 1:20, 1:21 (6:59 for 1.25)

PM:  I ran a double today, first running about 1.25 with Kimia (I will count it as 1 mile) and then running three miles alone.  After 1 mile on pavement I went over to a park near my house, and I ran 2 more miles on the grass barefoot.  This was my first ever barefoot run (not counting playing games like frisbee).  Running barefoot will take some getting used to, but it felt good.  The weirdest part about it was when I put my shoes back on at the end and ran a couple hundred yards more.  I felt like I had forgotten how to run.  What felt so natural barefoot felt foreign and intrusive once shoes were on my feet again.

I also had a little adventure while running barefoot.  A dog came after me, (just a little runt of a dog) and I went sprinting off to out-run it.  However it was gaining on me, and I really had to turn on the gas to drop the thing.  I also noticed that my heart rate is higher when I don't wear shoes.  I noticed the same with Sasha when he is shoeless.  Average about 123 bpm at 8:00 pace with shoes and 10-15 bpm higher without shoes.

I ran Sasha's second race today.  The weather was nice, and after the race we even got a few showers, although I wish there would have been just a little more rain.  Anyhow, I warmed up running 4 miles in 28:57 and then the race.

I decided that since I had been sick, I would  just run 5:20 pace for the first 3-4 miles and then pick it up later on.  I did that, hitting the first mile in 5:20, followed by a 5:21 and a 5:19.  So, right on target for the first mile.  I then started to speed up just a little, but not much as I made it through 4 miles in 21:17 (5:17 mile).  During the race I decided that I didn't really want to push the pace too much until the end, so I still waited, and at about 4.5 I finally sped up, and ran two quarters in 72, 73 (4:50 pace) to run the last mile in 5:06, and to finish with a time of 26:23 for 5 miles.  So, 12 seconds faster than last time, although last time I ran almost 15 miles before the race started and I was working a lot harder to maintain the pace during the race.  Today, the pace felt relatively comfortable until that last 800.

After the race I ran about 11.5 miles of cooldown in 1:23:28, running the last mile in 5:51 as a fat mile.