Long May You Run

5.15 am miles 49:23 ave 9:35.   fatigue setting in.

10.65 pm miles 1:39:07  9:18 ave.  Yes, big time fatigue.  This run was a weight lifting session.  Each step was effort, no flow, no bounce just pushing dead weight.  It also felt like I had a 75 pound backpack.  

5.15 am miles

4.65 pm miles.

No time to post the time and ave pace but it's very very slow.  I'm very beat up.  Looking forward to only one run tomorrow.  Yeah Friday. 

4.65 slow easy miles. 20 tomorrow?  I'm planning on it.

20 miles out and back from home 2:55:58  8:48 ave pace.  This is a flat route.  I'm happy with this run.  Reducing my mileage on thrs and fri was a smart thing.  My achillies tendons are very sore and pretty much hurt with each step, oh well, not much I can do about that except block it out, which I'm getting pretty good at.  The rest of my legs felt great, good strength and power.  I really could have laid down some impressive (for me) splits in the last 4 or 5 miles but I decided keep the leg juice in my legs.  It's doing more for me mentally knowing that I could have finished at about a 7:30 than actually doing it.  I started out slow, the first few miles were 9:10 then I settled into about 8:45 for a bunch of miles and finished the last few at about 8:30.  As I left the house this morning an owl flew over my head and landed in the top of a pine tree across the street.  Wow, it's not often you get to see and owl in your neighborhood.  Now I'm going to ice my achillies and have another tall glass of chocolate milk then drink a bunch of coffee.  Life is good.

6 miles on the track.  56:03  9:21 ave.  What a weird run.  I felt totally disoriented the first 3 miles.  My arms and legs didn't seem to work in unison, I even felt a little dizzy.  My first 3 miles were 9:54  10:03  10:01.  10 minute miles? Yeah, something was wrong and it felt weird.  4th mile 9:19 then things changed almost instantly.  I felt great, strong fast and light.  8:28 the 8:17.

4.65 miles 40:43  8:46 ave pace.

5.15 am miles 46:09  8:58 ave

4.65 pm miles 40:59  8:49 ave

Starting to settle into "running shoes", I've been out of my Crocs for a few days now, no particular reason, just doing something a little different.  I think running in Crocs has built up my leg muscles much better than traditional shoes.  I feel stronger in running shoes. 

4.65 am miles  43:03  9:15 pace

4.65 pm miles  41:56  9:01

slow slogging today, very tires.  Going at it slow, easy and short so I'll be ready for the 10K on Saturday. 

5.15 am miles  46:46 9:05 ave pace

4.65 pm miles 40:19  8:40 ave 

keeping mileage low. 

4.65 miles, no watch, easy run.

Pretty much a perfect race day.  No wind and mild temperature.

1st mile 6:50

2nd mile 6:48

3rd mile 6:49

4th mile 6:46

5th mile 6:45

6th mile 6:41

.2 end  1:18  (6:30 pace)

My race plan came together perfectly.  This is exactly how I wanted to run this race.  The only minor quibble was that I wanted to be about 3 to 5 seconds per mile faster, but don't we all?  I've been running this race for about 8 consecutive years.  Today was a course PR for me and white ribbon 3rd place finish.  Call me crazy but I'll pour my guts out to win a elementary-school-3rd place-spelling bee-style ribbon.  I'm very happy!

6 miles out and back from home in the light rain.  55:32  9:15 ave pace.  28 days of consecutive running.  I wasn't trying to do this but I just realized it's been a long time since I had a day without running so I went back and counted.

4.65  40:28 8:42 ave pace

5.15 am miles 45:53  8:55 ave pace

10.65 pm miles 1:33:51  8:49 ave  6 miles on the track.  Rested after a few days of low mileage.  Lets see how I feel by Thursday, I doubt it will last.   

5.15 am miles 47:03  9:08 ave

10.65 pm miles 1:35:29  8:58 ave

Put the Crocs back on today.  Either my legs were tired, which they are, or the Crocs take more effort to run in.  If that's the case, it's a great training effect. 

4.65 am miles 42:23  9:07 pace

10.65 pm miles 1:37:16  9:08 pace  6 miles on the track

4.65 miles  44:32  9:35 pace.  The week has taken it's toll, I'm very tired and beat up.  Was it just me or was the blog down Thursday night?  I've been on a pizza rampage.  4 slices last night and 3 more for lunch today, I feel like an undisciplined slob.  It's so easy to listen to your body when it's saying "eat more pizza, your body needs it".   

20 miles out and back from home.  2:51:08  8:33 ave pace.  Started out slow, 9:17  9:01  8:53  8:51 8:35 and then stayed between 8:30 and 8:45 until mile 16.  I wanted to do the last 5 at 8:00 or faster.  Mile 16 was 8:03 and felt great, I had good strength and thought I could hold it, maybe even go a little faster.  Mile 17 I lost focus and ran 8:15, after getting focused mile 18 was 8:00.  I decided to go harder for the last two.  It almost felt like I was racing, really good focus and feel, everything was working well.  Mile 19  7:48 then and mile 20  7:24.

4.65 miles, slow and easy.  41:14  8:52 ave.  i actually felt like I ran slower than this.  I took yesterday off and it was the first day off after 30 continuous days of running.  I didn't do a darn thing except sit, eat and nap.  I still feel like a slug and now I'm going to eat chocolate chip cookies.  Ever since last Thursday I've been eating like a pig.

5.15 am mile 46:21  9:00 pace 

4.65 pm miles 40:58  8:49 ave pace.  didn't have the desire to run extra miles.  I feel kind of strange, I think I need some reduced mileage.

I haven't felt right since I woke up Sunday morning.   

5.65 am miles  49:00  8:40 ave pace

6.65 pm miles 57:55  8:43 ave pace

Feeling much better.  Held my mileage back today, cut the afternoon run short by 4 miles.  The winter series races and 20 milers on non race Saturdays are starting to wear me down.  I'm going to hold my mileage back tomorrow too and Fridays are always short.  Need to be 15K race ready Saturday.

5.65 am miles   50:14  8:54 ave pace

4.65 pm miles 41:19  8:53 ave pace.  Very very tired, no extra miles.  Hard to imagine that I will be race ready by Saturday, but one way or another, I will be. 

4.65 miles, no watch.

Wow, 10 years in a row for me, for this series.  I thought It was somewhere around 8 and I wanted to double check so I went back and counted.  2003 was my first year.  My 15K that year was 1:21:10, ave pace 8:43 and second to last in my age group.  I love this series and I love my 10 shirts and 10 wooden "metals".

Diversion over, now for this years 15K.  I'm writing this the day after and I already read everyone's race report so I don't feel like I need to rehash how windy it was.

My time was 1:04:17, 6:55 ave pace.  This is only 3 seconds slower than last years PR.  Not bad considering the less than Ideal conditions of this race.

I took 3rd in the 10K and knew this was the best I could do against the competition in my age group.  The man I had to beat for 3rd was Erich Kuster, and I liked my chances in the 15K.  So at the beginning of the race I sought out where he was and marked him.  My strategy was to hang with him for most of the race and then throw the hammer down on him in the last mile or so.  (It worked for the 10K)

My splits going out were 6:57  6:57  6:44  6:48  (32:00 flat at the turn around) and here is where it gets interesting.  Erich was about 25 feet ahead of me and that's right about where I wanted him.   Up to the turn around I kept him about 10-20 feet ahead of me, everything was going well.  Shortly after the turn around an Ironman passed me.  I knew he was an Ironman because it was on his calf and he ran a little ways in front of me on the way out and I passed him about a quarter mile before the turn around.  I was very happy to see him pass me because I knew we were running about the same pace so I jumped in his slipstream and he wound up pulling me all the way up to Erich with ease.  When we passed Erich, Erich said "I'm going to hitch on to this train".  So the three of us ran together for for the next 2.5 miles each taking turns pulling into the headwind.  It was great while it lasted, we would each pull for about 3 minutes and rotate.  It was Tour de France on sneakers. Our splits were 6:59 6:56 and 7:03.  Unfortunately I got dropped at mile 7.  I just couldn't hang and those two began to gap me.  About a half mile later, Erich got dropped.

I still had Erich in my sights and was not going to give up.  I wanted that silly 3rd place white ribbon.  My next split for mile 8 was 7:00.  I was closing the gap on Erich but very very slowly so I gave it all I had and honestly thought I would catching him the last mile or within the last three tenths.  I wound up with the fasted split of the race trying to catch him, 6:43.  Not bad for the 9th mile of the race going into a stiff headwind.  The last .3 was 2:10, by this time I knew I was not going to beat Erich so I probably slowed a little even though I knew I was very close to a PR.  2:10 is the equivalent to 7:13 so I really pooped the bed this last third.

At the finish I got to talk to the guy that I drafted with, Nate Marcotte and of course Erich.  This was probably one of the most fun races I've ever had.  It's fun to know who your competition is and be matched close enough to have a duel.  If I weren't chasing Erich, I would have run slower today for sure. 

Turns out, what I thought was a battle for the white ribbon was actually a battle for 4th.  Water showed up, bumped Rob Murphy from Masters winner to AG 1st, Taha Mahamood  2nd and Bill Cobler 3rd.  You four gentlemen are way out of my league. 

Even though the conditions were bad, that meant they were bad for all of us.  I was excited to compete for the white ribbon.  I'm glad I did not know about Walter prior to the race.  That would have changed the dynamics of the race for me and I would not have even tried for a PR due to the wind.  What a day, what a race!

Today's workout involved jelly beans, M&M's and a 3 hour nap.  Later in the day I brought in 2 boxes of Easter decorations from the garage and filled the bird feeders.  That's it.

4.65 miles 40:36  8:45 ave pace.

Mondays are rough, good to be home. 

5.15 am miles 8:46 ave pace

11.9 pm miles 1:45:24  8:51 ave pace.  felt like a bona fide  runner this afternoon.  Had some energy, rhythm and focus.  I know I'll feel like trash in a few days so I enjoyed it while it lasted.

5.65 am miles  51:47  9:10 ave pace

12.65 pm miles 1:49:34  8:40 pace.   Coldest run of the year.  Wind and snow but I had to get it done.  I'm only going to be able to run about 10 total tomorrow and Friday is always minimal so this was my last day to log some miles between now and Saturday.  I'm glad it's over and done with.