The Long Run

1.11 mi, 12:37, 11:21 avg

Legs still stiff from Saturday's race (they were pretty good on Sunday but on Monday the delayed soreness set in).

First half of the run was a struggle but it was easy on the way back (basically ran out to the gate and back).

Overall, this short run seemed to do the trick restarting.

4.23 mi, 37:30, 8:51 avg

Ran on Starkey Blvd bike path starting from the little Longleaf church.  Although yesterday's run made me feel like I could run again, the first mile this morning felt otherwise but then I was ok.

I've been trying out one fast mile each week, thought about skipping it but wanted to get it down.  So, once the 4th mile started I picked it up to what felt like the 6:30's, glanced down at my watch and saw 6:35 (good!), about 30 seconds later I looked again and saw 6:52 (not so good), I then thought about scrapping it, then argued to just try even if my pace slipped and I could only run 7:20.  So, with that argument out of the way I settled back in and slowly saw the pace drop until I finally finished at 6:24.

I had been worried about getting back to sub-20:00 5k pace without even being able to run a mile at that pace, but now there's one less thing to worry about.  The challenge, the doubt, and overcoming the doubt was what I needed today.

5.18 mi, 44:35, 8:37 avg

Out and back from my house, past the golf course and then down Trinity Blvd just past what was supposed to be the water blending facility.  A little bit farther than yesterday's run, faster average pace, but not an all out last mile.  Pretty good run today.

5.54 mi, 56:23, 10:10 avg

Ran with Jamie in the neighborhood, usual t-shaped route.  Slower pace, taking it easy and kept it conversational.  There was an armadillo that would not get out of the way at first, finally did but then ran parallel with us but through the bushes, making a lot of noise, but we finally outran him/her.

10.01 mi, 1:33:51, 9:23 avg

Ran with Joe, Jamie, Daisy, Cynthia and Leah at Longleaf, heading north up Starkey Blvd to the entrance of Starkey Park and then back to the start with a pit stop at Diane's house (saw Diane riding her bike with Craig and said hi).  Return trip was with Jamie and Cynthia.

After the run sat down and chatted with Keith at Havana Dreamers.  Hadn't seen him for a while, good to catch up.

In the afternoon, saw Thomas run in the Sunshine Athletic Conference West championship held at Cypress Creek High School.  Mitchell (both boys and girls teams) won their conference.  He ran 5:01.99 in the 1600m and 11:24.40 in the 3200m.  The splits for his 1600 were very even but the time and place was not what he had hoped for.   Scored 3 points for the team on the 1600 and 4 points on the 3200.

Next up is Districts, same location as conference this coming Friday.

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

2.94 mi, 25:49, 8:48 avg

Short run day, a little bit of warm up, then out and back to the gate followed by 10x25 second strides with 50 second easy jog between.  I did not get below 6:00 on the first two but the remaining 8 were between 5:13 and 5:54.  One of them did have 4:54 for "best pace".  I don't think I have ever run a 400m at faster than 1:15 (only tried once a long time ago).  Might make me go faster if I try and break my record.   Running these strides usually makes my "easy run" pace a little bit faster the next day.

5.78 mi, 46:50, 8:06 avg

For today's run, I ran out to the new park, ran two laps around the lake there and then ran back home.  When I got to the lake I did not look at my pace while running, but decided to run the first lap at about the pace I had just been running, and then beat the pace on the second lap.  After I got home, saw that I ran the first lap at 8:23 pace and the second lap at 7:12.  

Last mile was at 7:25.

9.08 mi, 1:14:04, 8:09 avg

Ran from my house to Starkey Blvd, stopping at the little church, then ran out and back just past the bridge a little bit.  When I woke up I didn't think it was going to be this cool and it felt even cooler than I thought it would.   I brought a gel with me and a 10 oz water bottle.  The water bottle had a small leak in it which squirted out a tiny stream of water when I squeezed it, so upon learning this new fact I stopped squeezing the water bottle.  First two miles were slower, then third mile was 8:29, then I got going a little faster with the next 5 going from 7:57 down to 7:21.

I had decided to not do my fast mile on my way down Starkey Blvd.  However, as I approached back to my neighborhood I started going faster and was at about a 7:00 pace.  The gate was closed almost shut so I had to stop and open it, so my pace dropped but there was still time to make it up.  So, I did and finished the last mile 6:43.  But, I wasn't trying to do a fast mile and I didn't have that feeling that I was going all out and taxing myself.  It felt like an old feeling of fitness returning.  I've been running some different things and trying to make each run a little different and throwing in some challenges and it might be working.

3.33 mi, 27:32, 8:16 avg

Short run to get something in and wanted to run it not too slow.  Last mile 7:36 pace, and final 0.33 at 7:04 pace.  Ran from my house to a little bit past the water fountain on the golf course (but I haven't actually gotten to use that fountain in quite some time other than as a landmark to run a 3ish mile run).

Did not get to run this morning.

In the afternoon, went to watch Thomas run in the divisional championships.  He ran the 1600m and 3200m, running sub-5:00 in the 1600 and was less than 1 second behind one of his teammates he's been trying to catch up to this season.  Glad I was able to make it watch the meet.

6.0 mi, 46:12, 7:42 avg

Ran on the treadmill at the Palm Harbor Y.  I was surprised to find that their new treadmills are capable of -3 degree decline.  Played around with speed and incline, with a lot of downhill running, then switching to brief uphills.  No splits because it was on the treadmill, but after an easy warmup I kept it faster than 8:00 pace with some sections between 6:45 and 7:15.

Got in a lot of steps helping Jessica to pack up her house, getting ready to move all of it to a new Palm Harbor house closer to her kids schools and without the restrictive HOA  (still has an HOA, just much less restrictive).  I'll keep the Trinity house, but hopefully I can do less back and forth now.

Did not run today.  Yesterday felt like another marathon of packing, filled a small uhaul with stuff that didn't fit in 3 PODs.  Finally got everything out of the house about 11:00, with the laundry room finished last.  Drove the truck to near my office to park for a few days until closing on the new house.

1.33 mi, 13:18, 10:02

Short  "better than nothing" and avoid 0.0 run from my house to just past the gate and then back.

5.44 mi, 56:19, 10:21 avg

Easy run in the neighborhood with Jamie, out along the golf course in the t-shaped route.

On the way back we came pretty close to getting run over.  Light was green and we had the crossing sign, light was red for traffic the other way and had been red for a little bit when a guy on his phone while driving blew right through the light.  We glared at him and he sort of shrugged a "sorry not sorry" look at us.

A few days later there would be a fatality on this same stretch of road, not the exact same spot and different circumstances but literally too close to home.

4.26 mi, 36:05, 8:29 avg

Short solo run in the neighborhood, from my house out to the intersection of RTJ and Little Road.  Last mile was 6:57.  A little bit warmer this morning.

5.8 mi, 48:40, 8:24 avg

Ran from my house out to the new park and did two loops around the lake.  Exercise in pacing with first lap run comfortably and then next ran run faster, but not all out, but with the goal of beating the time for the first lap.  Did paces of 8:31 and 7:30.  Then ran back home (2.26 mi) at an average pace of 7:17.

I had started out the run without wanting to go fast or even feel good, I just felt like plodding along, what a difference the run made, I felt great finishing up.  Glad I had enough get up and go to get out the door.

10.5 mi, 1:28:23, 8:25 avg

I had wanted to go do Robbie's run but it was a later night than expected (Went to Friday service to see Aubrey get her prayer book, then unloaded and returned the uhaul).  Jacob and Jessica were over.  I did not get out the door until 9:15.   I was hoping I'd have a surprisingly good and better than expected run or a faster run where it wasn't easy but I pushed myself.  Instead, I got this run which was still a pretty good run.

Solo from home, to Starkey Blvd until reaching just over 5 miles then heading back.  Stopped in Longleaf to use the fountain.  When crossing back over Starkey Blvd I used the new pedestrian crosswalk warning lights which no cars seem to care about.  However, one vehicle did finally stop (a Stanley Steamer carpet cleaning van), and all the other vehicles in the other lane did stop.

It was getting a bit warm by the time I got back home.

A bit of a light week for mileage, but better than nothing.

3.35, 34:39, 10:20 avg

I didn't run in the morning, was determined not to miss my run, and was going to head out anyway to take Stella for a walk, so I turned it into a run.  It was a little bit warm and a little humid but not terrible.  We ran from my house out just past the golf course water fountain.  She was pretty well behaved during the run and after the run, stretched out on the tile panting (after a big drink of water).

3.04 mi, 26:03, 8:35 avg

Ran out and back, just past the gate, then did 8x25 second strides with 50 second jogs between, followed by a short cool down.  Was hoping to easily and smoothly do each one faster than 6:00 pace.  I was pretty close but missed the goal on two of them.

It was challenging and fun and went by pretty quickly.  No boring run today.

5.4 mi, 54:44, 10:08 avg

Ran with Jamie in the neighborhood - t-shaped route (actually looks more like a "Y" when looking at the map).  Nice 70 degrees at the end, good run, relaxed pace.

AM 1.14 mi, 11:36, 10:13 avg

I had originally intended to run in the morning, then decided a tempo run would work out better in the evening, and then decided to at least do an "insurance" run of something besides 0.0 in case something prevented me from running in the evening.

PM  8.09 mi, 1:02:10, 7:41 avg

Got home from work, fed Stella and let her out then set out on my run while it was still light out.  Ran about a mile warmup, then started tempo run of 10K.  Plan was to set a new "new garmin record", wanted to keep mile splits between 7:00 and 7:15 which I did except for one of the miles at 7:18 and one of them at 6:54.  (7:02, 7:07, 6:54, 7:06, 7:18, 7:12, 0.24@7:14) - 44:22, 7:06 avg

But, it felt way too hard, but that's ok I guess since it let me know where I'm at.  In my mind this should have been not such a hard run that you feel really wiped out at the end and not so hard that you can't speed up a little bit at the end instead of slowing down slightly.

But, I did make my goal of the garmin telling me this was the fastest 10k I've run since I've owned this garmin, I even think I beat the pace from the run two weeks before NYC.

After the run, had a pretty long night ahead getting ready for the weekend trip to Raleigh to visit Jessica's sister and their family.  Flight was earlyish Friday at 8:10am and we had to stop and pick up Jessica's kids along the way