Random Inspirational Quote

Had to really struggle through 9 minute pace yesterday, and had a sneaking suspicion that I needed time off.  Took today off, as expected.  got out the door and took about 20 painful steps, and called it off.  went on a 40 minute moderate bike ride - about 9.5 miles.  Long Run tomorrow :)

AM: Long Run with 15mi. AT / Aerobic Builder + 1 mi. LT practicing for fast finish.  Day off paid off - a little sore in the left groin / hip, but felt energetic and able to attack some of the climbs of this run.  

Kept it right around 6:45 - 7:00 for the AT miles, and felt comfortable most of the way.  Pace consistency on this hilly course is thrown out the door.  Gave myself a mile recovery after that and tried to hammer a mile.  6:10 was a LT effort to be sure.  

19.3 mi. total - 2:15:36   

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/555178224

AM: easy paced long run around town - made acouple bathroom break stops at Mcd's and Walmart but kept really comfortable and easy today.  Struggled with a sour stomach, though - beer and bad food don't agree with me and long runs or running in general right now.  Good weather - about 65 degrees at 10am start.

20.4mi. - 2:47:56

PM: recovery pace w/ 7xstrides/pickups at the end.  A little sluggish and full after pounding half a Papa Johns pizza less than an hour before running.  Nice summer evening here in Indiana - its been a record low temperature kinda summer here.  Great training!! :)  Feeling pretty good about where I am right now.  12mi. total - 1:42:00.  Did some legs and core work for about 15 minutes before running.

PM: Tues Track workout - 2x(800m, 2x400m, 2x200m) @ 5k pace.  Watch was doing the stupid thing with the bevel where it switches back and fourth when it gets sweaty - really, Garmin - did you not think the watch would get sweaty?

2:47, 1:30?, 1:22, missed a 200, 0:40,

2:44, 1:18, missed a 400, 0:40, missed a 200...

useless

5:30's should be doable... again, this is the feeling after another workout at this pace.  Okay, so we'll see what happens on Friday night, Saturday morning.

8 mi. total - about an hour.  Good beers, good friends, afterward.

PM: recovery pace long run from work to the house - Seymour to Columbus 20 mile.  Got a little cooked by about mile 17, but kept it under 8 minutes comfortably until then.

20 mi. - 2:39:40. 

So, Strava is pretty awesome:

http://www.strava.com/activities/176510480

early AM - slow 3.55 mi. over to car to try the spare key that the stupid, lieing car dealership gave us when they sold us my car - guess what?  it doesn't fit the lock and I couldn't even open the door. :(  3.55 mi. slow and steaming mad back to the house.  Oh well - pancakes and coffee, now.  

7.1 total at about 9 min. pace.  Pretty depleted from yesterday.
 

OFF - need some down time.

5k leg of the sprint tri in town - our relay is a non-competative coed, thankfully - so, no pressure.  5:42 first mile was too fast to maintain, apparently... again.  Pretty frustrated with 5k's right now.  The end

AM Long Run with some speed stuff sprinkled in.  Mild temp., but very humid this morning.  Sore in some weird spots from attempting to water ski yesterday for 10 minutes.

4miles over to Mill Race for some MP loops.  5mi. MP - 32:58, recovered 1mile jog, and 1mi. LT - 6:00, recovered and then did some sporadic pickups up the hills remaining on the course that led to the house.  It was about 1 mile worth.

16 mi. total - 2:00:22

Weight is surprisingly still good after a full day of eating and drinking alot of bad calories.

PM1 - 4mi. shakeout right after work - about 8-8:30 pace

PM2 - 10.3 mi. - 1:23.  Moderate effort required on some of the hills of the Terrace Lake, Carr Hill, Youth Camp and back course this evening.  Very pleasant weather - 70 degrees, humidity dropping

PM:   

8x1mi. @ 10k w/ 3min. rec. jog. 

Jog over to fairgrounds for WU and then in to the reps: 5:52, 50, 50, 47, 50, 44, 50, 46. 

Great weather with a little wind.  Felt like fall... almost.  CD back home - a bit sore.

PM - easy 9 miles recovery - 8:30 pace.  Hungry and sore throughout entire run.

AM: easy 10k before work w/ 6xhill sprints, and 6xstrides

6.2mi. total - 49:30.  Pretty humid morning.

PM: great weather - think its less humid in evening last couple of days.  12x200m @ 5k pace - about 42 sec average

7mi. total - 51:04

PM: easy 3.5 after work, easy 5 after dinner

AM 5k series race as part of long run workout.  Jogged out to the course from the house - about 10k, signed up and stayed loose with some more jogging/strides.  Vowed to myself from the start of this 5k effort that I would go out relaxed and easier than I had been in the recent 5k's.  Seemed to pay off.  The course is aided, so it also lends itself to a pretty substantial negative split on the last 1.1mi.  5:45 first mile was feeling easy - me and highschooler are racing from mile 1 through to the finish.  The first place guy is a solid 30 seconds ahead after 1.5 miles.  I have to make the same comment about my continued surprise of the people who run alot of these races, that make the same mistake every race - there's no reason for these same 3 or 4 dudes who run 19-20 minutes every race to keep going out at 5:30-5:40 pace for the first 0.5 to 1 mile.  So, predictably, after a half a mile, I was in about 10th. 

Mile 2 got hard at 5:43, me and the high school kid trading back and forth.  It always fun to race with these youngsters - they are noticably affected by every move you make. 

Mile 3 the youngster takes control and shows off his downhill XC speed as he leaves me in the dust in the last half mile and kick.  Looked like I was down around 4:20 pace, so I don't feel too bad

It was 5k PR - 5:45, 5:43, 5:30, and then the 4:20 pace in to finish for 17:28.

Took some time to relish the moment / recovery and shake the 14 year olds' hand, and then jog up the hill and back to the start line.  Took a couple more loops around the course for 2x5k at MP w/ 5 minute recovery between - 20:13 and 20:06 - these felt easy after the 5k effort.  hung around for 10 minutes for awards and jogged it back home.

23.8 miles total - about 3 hours total moving time

AM: recovery pace for about 90 minutes in the rain.  A bit tired, but the rain felt great.  10.63 miles - 1:31:20.  Glycerins are pretty awesome - 600+ miles and still all warm and cushy inside.

PM:  easy 8 mi. in the drizzling rain - about 8:45 pace

easy hour in PM - 7.35 mi. - 64:20.  felt terrible for first 30 minutes

Double Day today

AM: 2mi. WU, 5mi. MP - 6:30, 24,24,29,29, 2mi. CD

9mi. total - 1:04:45

PM:  5x1mi. LT scheduled This didn't happen - I felt aerobically taxed from the start of the first mile.  1mi. (6:08) / 2min. rec. / 0.75mi. (4:45) / 2min. rec / 0.5 mi. (3:12) ... and I was toast at this point.  Jogged for 10 minutes and felt like I was gasping for air still.  2x3min. "efforts" that were barely MP.

I think humidity is to blame... yeah, that's it.  And the sun was in my eyes.

8.75 mi. total - 1:07:23

AM before work: 5:30 am - I do not get to enjoy the sunrise for these shakeouts anymore.  6mi. around the neighborhood - 52 min. 

PM: mid day   1st of back to back long runs   home from work - Seymour to Columbus.  Hot and humid - about 90 degrees and 85%.  Got pretty fried on this journey.  Struggled to keep it under 9minutes near the end :)

19.66 mi. - 2:42:23

4am:   2nd of back to to back long runs   back into work.  Dark the whole way, but still about 75 degrees and very humid.  Headlamp, and white shirt causing some nipple bleeding made for some character building.  Legs were pretty tired from yesterday afternoon's run in the heat.

19.57 mi. - 2:48:14

AM: Similar to Last Saturday's workout, but added one more 3mile AT effort.  jogged over to race across town and did some strides/pickups when it got closer to race time.  local 5k again - I've run this one the last couple years.  No ringers showed up today, so after the usual silliness in the first half mile thinned out, I was solo.  Humidit and last 2 days really took their toll in the last mile, but, I was happy that I lasted that long - 5:44, 5:44, 5:55, 0:35 - 17:58 - 5k.  Cooled off with a wonderful water bottle poured over the head shower, got a sip, and ran the course again at 5k @ AT - 20:17.  Got some cookies and nanas from the finish line collected my winnings :), and on with the rest of the workout.  2x3mi. AT with a 3 min. rec. jog - 20:00 & 20:30.

18.3 mi. total - 2:10:15 total moving time

AM: Long Run at Brown County State PArk with the group.  Jogged over to Tim's for a ride - 2.5 miles, rode to Park.  Ran for about an hour and stopped for water break, ran for another 30 minutes and then hit the last 3 miles hard to finish up.  The effort was LT by the end of the second mile, and I suffered through the last mile to finish up.  Last 3mi. AT/LT were 6:25, 6:05, 6:32.   A valuable lesson again learned from this - 6:05 is about HMP (on a flat course), but throwing hills in at that pace is dipping into the LT range for me.  If I did this one again, I'd try to run about 6:20's and go for 4-5miles.  Drove back home and ran home from Tim's and then threw in some strides and drills: 10x15-20sec pickups & some drills.

22.2mi. total - just under 3 hours

AM before work - easy 4miles.  Trying out a heart rate monitor.  Amazingly humid.  

PM: easy hour - 6.7miles around the neighborhood.  Still can't get this heart rate monitor to work.

Later PM run workout around the fairgrounds.  It really cooled off after the storm blew through.  Finally, a break from the humidity.  Did some strides and jogged overto fairgrounds to WU, then,

4x2mi. HMP and 1mi. 10k with 0.25 mi. rec. jogs:   6:09,6:09 // 6:04, 6:09 // 6:06, 6:10 // 5:59, 6:10, and then 5:52 for the mile.  Felt fine aerobically, but, my legs are pretty beat up.  Started getting some wierd feeling in my right knee - its getting a kind of numbness feeling near the end of some of these workouts... :(  who knows if that even means anything.    

AM before work - tough this morning - 3mi at like 10 minute pace.

PM: hurting - left leg problem areas flaring up more than usual.  Jogged around a bit and mostly focused on drill type movements and loosening up

Needed a day off - took it.

AM before work: easy 10k w/ 8xstrides (30-50 sec.) - about 50min.

PM: about 7pm and it has cooled off a bit, with the humidity getting alittle better as well.  easy 7mi. around the neighborhood.  The same old neighborhood loop is diffcult to run over and over.  Fortunately, alot of new streets and houses are going in all the time it seems, so there are some new little loops to run around.  7mi. - 54:46.  Once again, the day off yesterday was a wise decision.  

AM: 21 mi. Long Run.   WU 4mi. jogging over to people trail and right into 10mi. AT.  Struggled through this and was aereobically taxed in the last 2 miles - 1:07:21 (6:44 avg.).  Somewhat disheartening after higher mileage and some good training weeks prior to this.  Chalk it up as some fatigue from 2 of the hihghest mileage weeks I have ever done prior to this week.  Full recovery jog after this and then 6x40 sec. hills at VO2 effort.  these hurt... a lot.  jogged on home afterward in the rain - that was nice. 

21.08 mi. total - 2:36:50

AM: easy 7 miles - 1 hour.  Weather seems to have improved - hope the trend continues on down until the end of September.

PM: easy hourish - 6.41mi. in 55:45.

400 mile month!!