The Long Run

2.74 mi

Short mileage actually done in two parts.  Part one was done at Jessica's house, waiting for her to get back while she dropped off Jacob early.  Then I headed home and took Stella for a quick run just over 1 mile.

Later in the day I also did a fast 1 mile walk in 14:14 which I don't have counted in today's mileage.  

6.46 mi, 55:41, 8:37 avg

Ran from my house out to the new park and then did 3 laps around the lake.  I stopped after the first lap and took a honey stinger gel, then did two more laps without stopping between them and running each one faster than the one before without looking at my pace while I was running.  Pretty nice coolish morning.  This week had some shorter and more sporadic runs (i.e. less consistent) but I think that's ok to help stay out of a rut.

Post run: push-ups 3x25, pull-ups 3x8

In the afternoon saw Tom run at track meet which was mainly relay events including relay medelys (there was also an open 1600m but it was mainly relays).  Tom ran in the 4x1600 relay, going first with a time of 5:02 (1:13, 1:16, 1:16, 1:15) he ended up being the fastest on his team.   Next he did the distance medley relay, first runner, doing the 1200m (automatic PR!) - 3:40 (1:07, 1:17, 1:15) for that one.  Always great to see him do so well.

3.16 mi, 26:46, 8:28 avg

Shorter run, shakeout for tomorrow's 33 1/3 mile race.  After the run, drove out to Orlando to watch Aubrey in her first cheer competition, then visited Jessica's high school friend that lives nearby.  Watched a frisbee dog show then I got on the road, back home by 10:15, ate some dinner, went to sleep and would wake up at 4:15 am.

32.94 mi, 6:21:40, 11:35 avg

Chilly 36 degrees at the start.

With not very many long runs or many trail runs and only about 4 hours of sleep the night before, I embarked on my first ultra since this race last year (where I was feeling much more confident despite not having done many long runs before that, but was running faster and had done a few good half marathons).

First couple of miles were slow 11:30 and 11:09, then slightly faster, followed by mile 4 in 14:17 because I walked part of it while talking on the phone to Cynthia (she was going to try and meet me about mile 16 but the course had been changed this year and it was iffy if we could figure out a good spot to meet so she called it off, rightly so and went back to sleep instead of driving out).  I think there was an aid station in this mile (I stopped and asked for some TP "just in case" as I was feeling like I might not make it to Tucker Hill where there would be restrooms.

But, I did make it ok, with next few miles being uneventful.  After the bathroom break, slowly descended down the back side of Tucker Hill and at some point tripped and fell, nothing broken or even bruised (almost jabbed myself with the key fob in my pocket but didn't) - still, a humbling experience.   As I collected myself, a few more people passed me and I was pretty far back in the pack at this point.

Got going again and had some better miles, some even in the 9:00's.

Dropped off my long sleeve shirt and hat at the mile 16ish aid station as I was no longer cold.

Overall, miles 16-23 were pretty pleasant, more 9:00's and 10:00's, however mile 23 was 11:51, and then things started getting slower.

When splitting off from the usual Croom "C" loop trail to head to Silver Lake we don't take the trail with the sign that says Silver Lake, but instead we are sent on a trail running along the river.  But this year, we were routed on the trail to Silver Lake which is part of the "Florida Trail" - a hiking trail that I think covers the entire state.  On the way back, in the middle of the Florida Trail was a cactus that I almost tripped over.  I was not expecting to see one but there are some native Cacti species in Florida (varieties of prickly pear).  And in my slightly delirious mind all I could think of was telling people that I had almost tripped over a "Cacti" despite the fact that it should be cactus since there was only one, but I just really wanted to say "I almost tripped over a cacti".

The next aid station was at mile 23.  There is usually one at mile 26, where I would take my "Second Surge" gel and then feel pretty good for the last 7 miles.  But, I didn't get to the feel good for the last 7 miles feeling that I love about this race.

Miles 23-26 were a little rough.  At mile 27 I felt like walking and was already over 5 hours into the race (about 5:13 when I glance at my watch), but I thought that if I walked the whole remainder it would take me two more hours and no way was I going to make this a 7+ hour race, so decided to just do the best I could.  Things did get a little bit better and I finished the last mile with a 9:13 pace.

I was 59 minutes off of my PR for this race, but it was quite a leap up from the one 20 mile run I had done and gave me enough confidence to sign up for the Croom Fools run (50 miles) on 3/31

1.51 mi, 15:46, 10:25 avg

Still feeling a bit slow and not fully recovered from Sunday's race.  Thought I'd try just a little running to get things moving again.  Just up and down the street in front of my house, some of it with Stella.

1.15 mi, 12:04 , 10:30 avg

Better than nothing run at the treadmill in hotel in Marietta GA while here for work.  Felt a little better running than I did on Tuesday.  I didn't run yesterday due to the early flight and it was probably a good idea since I was still walking funny enough for people to notice.

8.11 mi, 1:14:56, 9:15 avg

First full run since Sunday's race, between purposeful time off and travel and life, felt good to get some miles in.  Ran with Joe, Jamie, and Renee.  Ran up to Diane's house.  Saw Melanie and Craig as well as Diane. Left together from her house and then Jamie and I turned left back at Starkey Blvd while the others headed into the park.  It was a nice chilly in low 50's.  Glad to get the run done early and now off to go see Tom run in the meet at Clearwater H.S.

Watched the track meet, Tom ran 11:09 in the 3200m and then 5:02 in the 1600m.  These were solid runs, but I know he was hoping for some new PRs but was off a couple of seconds in 3200 and 4 seconds in the 1600.  The improvement graph has dips even on the way up.  It's fun to see him get PRs but even more inspiring to see him go out and try again after not getting the time he had trained for.  Just keep going.

2.22 mi, 20:32, 9:15 avg

When I first thought about running it was still raining out, cleared up eventually so headed outside.  Ran to the gate and back and did a few random intervals up and down the street with the last one 0.25 miles, running at a 6:43 pace.

After the run, push-ups: 25, 25, 30 and pull-ups: 10, 10, 15

6.11 mi, 53:15, 8:43 avg

Ran at Longleaf from the church, out and back on Starkey Blvd bike path.  It was chilly, high 40's.  No drinks needed.  First mile about 10:30, felt like I'd never run faster again.  Last mile 6:50, felt great to get moving again.  However, that 6:50 felt like what a 6:10 should have felt like.  I'll have to try and run one to find out.

10.29 mi, 1:28:15, 8:34 avg

I set out from my house thinking that this would be a long and very slow run, which was true for the first mile and part of the way into the second mile.  I carried a 10 oz bottle with me and one gel which I took at the little church and dropped off my bottle.  I was listening to music but it was turned down pretty low and in the background, it was some sort of meditation music which I guess helped.  Pace picked up and stayed pretty steady with the last 3 miles averaging a 7:40 pace.

This run felt what I think running should feel like (at least as far as training runs go).

8.18 mi, 1:10:44, 8:39 avg

Earlier in the week my plan was to get two days in a row of 10 plus miles, but I was running too late on time and decided to cut back the mileage.  I still wanted to make it challenging so I settled on 8 miles by running to the end of Trinity Blvd which always seems much longer than it is and includes a little over 4 miles run on the grassy shoulder so it's a little bit trail like.  I wasn't aiming to run fast and would have been happy somewhere in the 9:15-9:30 range.  But, my first mile wasn't as slow as they are are sometimes and some of the grassy miles were faster than expected, so instead of 9:15-9:30 avg it was 8:39 - only slighter slower than yesterday's average.  So, despite not doing 10 miles I felt good about the long stretch of the same road.

In the evening, went to see Thomas run at the track meet, hosted at Mitchell HS.  My parents also came as well as Jenny and Andy.  He ran the the 1600m and 3200m.  Previously, for his old 3200m it was his only event for that meet but tonight he would be doing both.  He had not broken 5:00 since his first time but was coming in close.  But, tonight he nailed it with a time about the same as his PR but 0.08 seconds faster.  This time he had a really good 3rd lap compared to his other 1600s, still had a good 4th lap but not faster than the 3rd lap - he usually gets back at least a second or two faster in the 4th lap compared to the 3rd lap. 

Then, in the 3200m he ran 11:07 - nearly tied with his 3200m, but this time on 1600m race legs - also scored some points for the team with 6th overall.

I was glad my parents had a chance to see him race tonight. 

5.43 mi, 55:44, 10:15 avg

Easy paced run with Joe and Jamie.  Intentionally wanted to cut back on distance and speed compared to the last two days in order to get ready for longer run tomorrow.  Usual neighborhood and along Fox Hollow run.

23.01 mi, 3:39:33, 9:33 avg

I woke up at 2:00 dealing with repercussions from the chilli-mac I had for lunch and feared it was something even worse.  Dogs woke me up two hours later.  I got back to sleep for a little bit and then figured I'd still give the run a try, wanted to run 22 with some of it on trails.  I met up with Joe, Jamie, and Daisy at Longleaf.  We ran up Starkey Blvd to the entrance of Starkey Park where the others turned around and I continued on.

Stopped at the shelter where the Striders had set up and had two doughnut holes and half a cup of coffee, then headed onto the off road trails.  Ran near the horse corral and then out on the orange trail to where it branched slightly left and then out to the power line road.   Turned onto the bike path and ran about 1/4 mile to the water cooler to top off my bottle.  It was still kind of chilly out, glad I wore my hat but it was starting to feel comfortable.  Ran back to the power line road and turned north and headed up that was for a few miles until almost 12 miles total since I left (knowing I'd head back a slightly different way, I wanted to go past exactly 11 miles).  Part of the raod starts with baseball sized rocks, so I had to pretty much walk over that section but it was only a few hundred feet long.  

The rest of the road was nice, saw some dear crossing the path and a few Sandhill cranes flying overhead making their squawking noise (I tried to get some video of them but was too slow).

Took the detour back to the water cooler on the way back (soon had to take off my hat with the sun out), then continued south on the power line trail back to the orange trail.  Trail miles on the way back were about a minute/mile faster than on the way in.

Finally, back to Starkey Blvd and I thought it would feel like it would take forever but it wasn't so bad.  I picked up a little more speed and chugged along, finishing up the last mile at 8:15.

So, hopefully the Croom Fools Run will be not so bad now that I've gotten some distance and a little bit of off road, but will see what happens.

3.42 mi, 31:21, 9:11 avg

Easy running, warm-up near my house, then out and back to the gate, followed by strides workout 10x25 seconds with 50 second jogs in between.  First two, I could not get out of the 6:00's, but then was under 6:00 for 7 out of the 8 remaining ones.  These short workouts have been helping me to avoid  dead legs and I usually can comfortably run at a faster pace the next day, so I think it helps me stay out of a pace rut without being too harsh.

6.05 mi, 49:06, 8:07 avg

Ran up and down the Starkey Blvd bike path.  9:35 first mile - better than many of my slow first miles, felt pretty good.  5th mile was 6:33 - it felt extremely difficult, but it was the same difficulty as the 6:50 mile I did last week.  Maybe getting a little speed back.  Trying to get back to where I can string together 3.1 6:25 or faster miles to get back to sub 20:00 5k's

It's hard going back up but worth it to try.

10.64 mi, 1:29:12, 8:23 avg

So, today was a pretty good run, one of the better ones I've had in a while, maybe I'm making some forward progress.  Ran on Starkey Blvd bike trail after starting from my house and running on SR54 to Starkey Blvd and then back home the same way.  First mile was 10:22, last 4.6 miles ranged from 7:50 down to 7:22.

9.16 mi, 1:20:35, 8:48 avg

Sort of a repeat of last week, where after doing 10 miles (at a slighter faster average) on all pavement, I ran down Trinity Blvd again with a little bit over 4 miles on the grassy shoulder.  This time I also went a little bit further, turning left onto East Lake and running to near the entrance of Crescent Oaks.  It felt long again, but the pre-run dread of running the length of Trinity Blvd was gone this time, it was just something I was going to do.  Weather was good again, it's been pretty much perfect running weather lately.  I was chilly at the start but had to take off my hat after the turn around because I was getting hot.

After work saw Jacob run his his second middle school track meet (I missed his first one), he did well running the 800m in 2:36 (1 second slower than his PR), he led for the first lap but got passed by two kids coming into the last turn of the second lap, splits were 1:16.5 and 1:19.5 so not a huge slow down for the second lap.

5.6 mi, 55:06, 9:50 avg

Ran with just Jamie at 7:30 in the neighborhood (Joe said he was running at 6:30 doing intervals but he ended up starting at 8:30).

Pretty good run overall, taking it easy on the pace.

15.75 mi, 2:23:01, 9:05 avg

Ran on Suncoast trail, starting from the trailhead near SR50 with Joe and Jamie.  We dropped off a cooler about 2.5 miles from the start since there are no water stops on the trail.  Nice morning, with a chilly low 40's to start but warmed up a little when the sun came up.  Joe had 20 miles to do, I was good with 15-16 and Jamie was good with whatever.

We grabbed a drink at the 2.5 mile cooler we left and Joe grabbed his big gatorade that he carried most of the way out.   I was feeling sluggish for the first few miles but felt better as the miles went on.  

At the top of the 6 mile hill, I did one extra repeat while Jamie waited and Joe was also doing some extra. We continued on almost to 8 miles then turned back.  In the 9:00's on the way out and mid 8:00's on way back.

I really enjoy these hills and the variety from the usual flatness is a good change.

Unfortunately, someone stole our cooler.  It was not visible except to someone who actually stopped there.  Fortunately, since it was cool out, no one was dying of thirst and it was only 2.5 miles back, but still felt bad for Jamie that her cooler had been swiped.

Joe ran some more extra (in addition to his extra back and forth while we were running) to get to 20 miles.

3.15 mi, 27:41, 8:46

I ran with Jacob from my house, just past the "zero energy" house and then back.  This is my first time running Sunday in a while (not counting races).  I was feeling a little stiff from yesterday's run so I warned Jacob I might be really slow until getting warmed up, but I wasn't any slower than usual and we picked it up a little bit each mile.  First run with Jacob.

6.26 mi, 50:31, 8:04 avg

Started from the little church near Longleaf and did out and back on the Starkey Blvd bike trail.  Once again I ended with a fast mile, it felt like maximum effort (similar to last 2 weeks where I did 6:50 and 6:33) - today I did 6:42.  It probably wasn't quite maximum effort but it did feel pretty hard.

In the evening watched Thomas run the 3200m at track meet hosted by Anclote HS.  He acheived a new PR with official time of 11:01.37 (I timed 11:00.92 on my iPhone stopwatch, pretty close to official time and about what I'm usually off by).  Improved a little on all of his laps, with laps 5,6,and 7 a little slower than goal and coming back in lap 8.  He ran with Jarod who also ran a similar pattern of staying behind Tom for at least the first half or more, and then sometime in 7th or 8th lap pulling ahead.  This time Tom stayed with him most of the time and kept on closing the gap until Jarod finally pulled ahead in second half of the last lap and finished with 10:55.  Tom says he's going to work on doing more tempo runs for improvement in lactate threshold - seems like a good strategy.

Tom was one of the few (maybe only) runner from Mitchell boys team to PR today.

Quote from Jenny to Tom (originally Tim Notke) "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard"

Wanted to congratulate him after the race but left so I wouldn't be in his face.

8.74 mi, 1:09:02, 7:54 avg

Ran from my house to Starkey Blvd and ran to just past the bridge and then returned back.  First two-ish miles were at an easy pace and then I started picking it up in the third mile.  At the end of my run my garmin told me it was a new 10K PR for me (new garmin specific PR 45:23).  That was surprising but not too surprising because I have not done any longer tempo runs or 10k races.  I did run faster for the second half of a 12 mile run two weeks before NYC marathon where I averaged 7:09 pace - but that was with the Garmin 310.  Anyway, it was a nice reminder of where I need to get back to and that I'm slowly improving.  

3.2 mi, 26:00, 8:07 avg

After yesterday's slightly faster than average run, my left knee felt a bit off even just walking around (a bit worrisome only a couple days before wanting to run a 50 mile trail race).  So, I went to the Y for my favorite knee fixing exercises.  Did 10 minutes on the stationery bike followed by 3 sets of 10 reps of leg extensions.

Next, got onto the treadmill with an easy start and gradually increasing speeds (some of it at 6:50-7:10 range but only short amounts).

Fingers crossed that there isn't anything wrong with my left knee that the right workout can't help fix.

5.53 mi, 55:46, 10:05 avg

Ran with Jamie in the neighborhood, 6:30ish start time.  Usual t-shaped route over near the golf course from one end of Robert Trent Jones Blvd to the other end.   Details include actually touching the Heritage Springs gate at one end and a brief stop at the far end at the corner of RTJ Blvd and Trinity Blvd.