Running in Life's Slow Lane

Well today's spot on the calendar called for a long run of 5 miles. Unfortunately as I headed out the hotel doors the rain started to fall and I wasn't looking forward to more than an hour spent running in a cool drizzle. Instead I found the fitness room and started jogging on the treadmill.

Now, I admit, I abhor the treadmill. There is nothing about jogging on a treadmill that feels natural to me. None of my running gadgets -- gps watch, Nike+ -- really work well when I run on a treadmill and there is no breeze to cool me off while jogging. So, I thought I did great managing 3.0 miles on the treadmill before giving up and deciding I would rather be wet and cold than endure more time on the dreadmill.

As luck would have it, the drizzle had stopped and I was able to do my last 2.0 miles on the streets near the hotel. A few sprinkles fell as I finished up the run but they were hardly noticeable through the sweat-drenched shirt I was wearing.

Location: Kansas City, MO

Today was a very frustrating work day. So much so that I will be spending part of my evening debugging some messages byte-by-byte in hopes of finding my mistake before heading back to the lab tomorrow morning. Unfortunately I am one those people that carry their emotions with them into the run which meant this afternoon's run was a challenge. I finished though with another 3 mile run in the bank.

3.0 mi in 36:27 @ 12:09/mi burning 352 calories with 124 bpm HRavg and 141 bpm HRmax.

A little faster-paced than I had intended but once I was on the road I really wanted to be done.

After I ran I did about 15 minutes of my core workout. The hotel room doesn't really have enough space for a few of the exercises.

Location: Kansas City, MO

Next races on the schedule are
23 May - Allie Reynolds 5K, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
28 Jun - Scotiabank 5K, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Okay, clearly I need to drink less when making out my running plans. As an example, tonight's schedule originally called for 1 mi at an easy pace to warm up, then 45 minutes at 5-5.2 mph, followed by another 1 mi at an easy pace to cool down. All that seemed fine until I was in my warm up mile on the treadmill and realized that at the 5-5.2 mph pace, the 45 minutes of the second phase would require me to run over 3 miles! That would make for more miles in today's workout that on Sunday's long run. Pretending to be a sensible person, I scaled back the workout.

4.00 mi in 49:32 @ 12:32/mi burning 410 calories

1.00 mi in 13:20
1.00 mi in 12:00 (lactate threshold pace)
1.00 mi in 11:32 (lactate threshold pace)
0.50 mi in   6:00 (lactate threshold pace)
0.50 mi in   6:40

So instead of 45 minutes at stamina pace it was only 29:32. I can live with that result. What may be hard to live with is nearly 50 minutes running on a treadmill. My calves will hate me tomorrow.

Location: Kansas City, MO

It was looking very dangerous as I drove into north Kansas City after work so I thought it would be an evening on the treadmill for me. Thankfully, the truly severe weather blew south of me and after a bit of work I got in tonight's run.

The calendar called for 3 miles at an endurance building pace but I may have been just a bit too fast.

3.00 mi in 37:00 @ 12:20/mi average burning 315 calories 144 bpm HRavg 169 HRmax

Tomorrow is another stamina building workout as I work the lactate threshold with a tempo run. Woo hoo!

Location: Kansas City, MO

Tonight was a stamina-building night on the schedule. Instead of the steady state run I did on Tuesday, today called for a tempo run. A bit shorter period at a bit faster pace than the Tuesday workout, it asked that I do a 1 mile warm up, 15 minutes at a 11:10/mi pace, followed by a 1 mile cool down.

What I actually performed --
1.00 mi @ 12:04
16:12 @ 11:11
1.00 mi @ 12:46

Looking at my paces and judging how I felt, I think a pace of 10:50 or so for a stamina pace on a flat surface is probably more realistic. That seemed to be the pace at which I could tell my legs were working but not really feeling as though is was a hard effort.

Tomorrow if I run is a "get me over" day on which all I have to do is run enough miles to get me over the weekly mileage goal.

Location: Kansas City, MO

No miles today. Instead I drove nearly 7 hours to return home and spent the evening enjoying the company of my family.