dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I ran 15 miles this morning as I won't have time to run again this evening because of FHE.  I slept in, so I ran when it was hot out (about 100 degrees).  This was planned, and I have gotten used to the heat, so it was not a big deal.  I had 3 water stops planned during the run, so I was able to stop at those on the way out and again on the way back.  I also threw in 3 surges during the run to wake up my legs a bit after the day off yesterday.  Total time for the run was 1:52:43

I ran 5 x 200m today after running a 4 mile warm up in just over 30 minutes.  I gave myself 100m recovery in 60 seconds between the first 4 repeats, and then gave myself a longer recovery before running the fifth repeat.  The goal was to simulate running an 800m in approximately 2:00, so goal pace for the 200's was 30 seconds.  My reasoning is that if I can teach myself to run comfortably at a 4:00 mile pace, then I should be able to transfer that speed to distances longer than 400m.  So, my goal was to not only run the 200's in 30 seconds, but to relax while doing so.  Times were 31s, 30s, 31s, 31s for the first 4 repeats.  I simply mispaced the first repeat, as the effort was pretty easy.  During the third and fourth repeats I hit 100m in 15.xx seconds, but would have needed to speed up just a little in order to finish under 31s.  I ended up focusing more on not putting forth too much effort, and less on staying at goal pace, so these repeats ended up being slower.

After the fourth repeat I took a longer recovery, running 500m plus walking around for a couple minutes, before running the final repeat.  The goal for the final repeat was to run all out, and see how fast I could go after running the other repeats.  On top of this, I was doing wall sits earlier in the morning to try and strengthen my quads, so my quads were not 100% from a power standpoint.  When I started the final repeat I ended up starting off too slow, because I was worried about fading over the final 50m.  At 100m I really turned it on, and at the finish I felt like I could maintain the speed I was going for at least another 100m, and possible longer.  Time for the final repeat was 29.5s.  I am not sure how much faster I could have gone if I would have just started off faster.

The strange thing about the last 200 I ran was that by the end I felt like I was moving my legs pretty quick, and I had a good turnover, but I seemed unable to really put enough force into the ground to get moving fast.  It felt like I had deactivated the fast twitch muscle fibers in my legs, from running the other 4 repeats, and I was trying to sprint using my slow twitch fibers.  Obviously this is not entirely the case, as I gave myself ample recovery for my fast twitch fibers to be ready to go, but there may be a degree of truth to the thought.  I also really felt like I was getting nothing from my quads, as normally my quads will burn when I am trying to sprint, whereas today I didn't really feel anything.  I guess ultimately that is what I want, as I am a distance runner, and the faster I can go on slow twitch fibers the higher the likelihood that I will be able to maintain that speed over longer and longer distances.

I finished by running a cool down at just under 8:00 pace to finish 11 miles for the run.

PM:  5 miles in about 39:30, running most of it on the grass barefoot. 

I ran out on the Pittman Wash this morning.  A total of 12 miles in 1:28:08.  During the run I ran a mile in 5:27 (2:50, 2:37) and later on a half mile in 2:40-41.  I was simply trying to practice running relaxed, so I wanted to speed up for a bit to try and relax while running a marathon pace effort.

PM: 5 miles in 39:48. 

I was going to do a speed session on the track, but when I woke up this morning my left calf was pretty tight so I decided to just run easy with another 1 mile pick up at marathon pace like yesterday.  I kept my average pace just slower than 8:00 per mile for the first 6.5 miles, and then ran 1 mile in 5:24-25 (2:41-42, 2:43).  I focused on relaxing again, just like yesterday.  I then finished my run for a total of 11 miles in 1:24:30.

PM:  5 miles mostly on the grass barefoot.  I sped up at the end to finish in 40:00.

I ran 11 miles this morning, running another 1 mile pickup, just like the last 2 days, finishing it in 5:17 (2:33, 2:44).  I got a little too excited at the start of my mile pickup, so I slowed down a fair amount in the second half to make sure that I got practice running more relaxed.  Total time of 1:25:05 for 11 miles.

PM:  5 miles easy. 

I ran 20 miles today.  I wanted to get out early in the morning so that I wouldn't have to deal with the heat so much, but I was slow (nothing new there) and I didn't leave until later on.  The temperature outside was 102 degrees by the time I finished my run, and it really affected me during the 4 mile tempo I ran at the end of the run, as I only ran 23:20 for 4 miles despite a net downhill and plenty of water stops during the early and middle portions of the 20 miler.  Total time for 20 miles was about 2:16:40.