The Next Step

Beautiful day in Indiana today (68, low humidity). Went for a 20 mile bike ride with a friend to shake the legs out after yesterday's long run. After I got back ran 2 miles with my daughter for XC.

Nice morning (65, calm). Went to Southeastway Park to run on the trails/grass. My legs felt kind of heavy/tired when I started out and it took about 4 miles before they started feeling better. By the end of the run legs felt back to normal. It seems like it takes me a couple of days after a long run to get my legs back. The joys of getting older.

1:23:56

Cool morning (58) and windy. Today I planned on doing a 6 mile tempo run. For the last few weeks all of my tempos runs have been disappointingly slow or hard. Today I wanted to try to hit something around 6:50 pace. I started off with an easy warm up and was feeling ok but did have a few stomach issues that straightened out after a couple of miles. After the warm up I got started with the tempo. The first mile was way slow (7:21) and I thought here we go again with another bad tempo run. But I picked it up and got back on track. Here are the splits:

1st - 7:21

2nd - 6:55

3rd - 6:54

4th - 6:45

5th - 6:40

6th - 6:28

I felt better as I went along and kept pushing it harder each mile. It was getting a little tough the last mile but I wanted to finish strong. This was a good result for me. I needed to get some confidence back that I could run fast again and this helped. I need to do another one of these before the marathon where I get on a hard pace early and hold it the whole time. Something like around 6:40 to 6:45 pace and stay at that pace for 6 miles. The avg today was 6:51 pace which was close to my goal but would rather be more consistent on the miles. Don't know why the first few miles were slow. Maybe just took awhile to wake up this morning.

1:15:26

Absolutely perfect day for running (50, sunny, calm). Had trouble sleeping last night so was out later than normal. I had planned a longer run today but since I was out later that didn't happen. I will plan on running again this evening to get it in. Felt real good today and just cruised along. Ran 8 miles.

64:45

PM

Got back this afternoon and it was warmer around 75 but still a nice day. My legs felt heavy/sluggish this afternoon but I actually ran at a faster pace than I did in the AM at around the same percieved pace. I don't run much in the afternoon so maybe the body is not used to it. Any just a relaxing 6 miles.

47:05

Another great day (52, sunny) for running. I felt a little stiff starting out but after an easy first mile I felt much better. Today I wanted to do some hill sprints so I ran over to a local park that has got a short steep hill that I could run on. I ran about 6 miles before getting to the park and just ran at my normal easy pace. Since today is 9/11 I spent most of the time reflecting on the events of that day and the families that were effected. I thought about kids that lost their parents and now 7 years later I wonder how different their life is because of 9/11. This is truly an event that our country should never forget.

Once I got to the park I did 8 x hill sprints that were about 15 seconds in length. Just trying to do something that will help the strength in my legs. After that just an easy run back home.

1:23:56

Rainy morning and around 70 degrees. Just sloshed through 8 miles easily nothing special. I felt ok today but didn't want to do anything hard since I hope to be doing a long MP run tomorrow. I hope the weather cooperates because I don't want to run that long in the rain tomorrow.

66:07

Today I planned a MP run. The goal was to run 6 miles easy, 10 miles at MP then a 2 mile warm down. I wanted to run the MP miles between 7:20 and 7:30 but closer to 7:20. It turned out to not be the best day for the MP run weather wise. It was 75 with 90% humidity and windy.

Anyway started off the easy 6 miles I felt ok and just got loosened up and the legs ready to go. I didn't feel real good but everything was ok going into the MP miles. I started off the MP miles and tried to settle into a pace that felt comfortable but hard. Already on the first MP mile I was not feeling very good. The legs just felt heavy and no energy. I came through the first mile a little slow so picked it up to get on pace. Still feeling rough the second mile but was faster. I really wanted to bag the run and just go long and easy but I really need these type of workouts. I decided that this would be a good mental exercise to try to stay on pace when I didn't feel my best. Plus it was a good simulation for feeling rough late in a marathon and still pushing yourself. I continued on and stayed pretty close to the desired pace. I never really felt better but didn't feel much worse. Only the last MP mile was a little rough. Overall, not what I was looking for but given the weather and not feeling the best I think it turned out ok. At least I didn't give up and kept pushing. Here are the splits:

1st - 7:30

2nd - 6:59

3rd - 7:23

4th - 7:37

5th - 7:23

6th - 7:25

7th - 7:25

8th - 7:30

9th - 7:28

10th - 7:39

Hopefully with better weather and a taper I will be able to get on pace.

2:21:34