The Long Run

5.44 mi, 46:40, 8:34, elev gain 273 feet

Up and down the street on Lakeview Drive with spurs at eitehr end on Pinewood and Woodcutter

3.57 mi, 30:39, 8:35 avg

For a change, and for the sake of time ran from Long Leaf, up Starkey Blvd and into Starkey Ranch before turning back.  I only had a little over 30 minutes then needed to stop at Jenny's to get Tom's watch then meet Jessica at dr office to switch vehicles and take Charlotte Dani back to the house.  Weather was really nice.  Turned it into a progression run with 10:05, 8:34, 7:45, and then 7:25 pace for last half mile.

12.15 mi, 1:55:49, 9:32 avg, elev gain 206 feet, HR 150 bpm

Late start at 11:33 in the morning, this time not due to laziness but to go watch Jacob's cross country meet in Bradenton (about an hour drive) where they wanted us down there between 7:00 and 7:15.  Meet was good, Jacob ran 20:25 with his tightest splits so far this year.  He wore Tom's old Garmin 25 to replace the old 310 he had been using (with strap falling apart).

Ran north from Westlake Village, then through Autumn Woods and Eniswood.  I didn't want to slog through the first mile, so did a better job warming up and got onto pace and finished first mile in 9:04.  Decided to do the next mile more at MAF heart rate but that ended up being 12:18.  Then finally switched to and settled on about a 4 minute run, 1 minute walk.

From Eniswood, onto Alt 19 and then onto Pinellas Trail heading north until just past the Tarpon Tavern before turning around.  Felt reasonably good on the way back.  

First longer run in a while, going to start building back up with marathon plan.

7.05 mi, 1:07:43, 9:36 avg, elev gain 247 feet

Today is the first day of being back on a marathon training plan, 24 weeks long, possibly targeting the Tomoka marathon.  I did not want to run very far.  7 miles is not that far but it seemed impossibly far starting out.  But, one foot in front of the other, felt better after about 2.5 miles and slowly gained some movement (first half mile was like 11:30ish pace where I just felt stuck).

So, ending up at 9:36 average is not bad - training pace range for "easy" is 9:03-9:57 which is based on 3 mile time trial I did last week.

The weather was amazing.  Sleep was not so good, baby slept pretty well then I woke up startled at 6:25 when a vase accidentally got knocked off and triggered the glass break alarm (one of the kids was up early to finish homework).  Fell back asleep for a bit and then woke up feeling less rested.  

I did postpone strides to tomorrow as a compromise.  Without the schedule I probably would have only run 3-4 miles this morning.

7.49 mi, 1:08:37, 9:09 avg

Day 2 of the marathon plan week #1.  Another 7 miles "easy" followed by 6x100m strides which I was supposed to do yesterday but moved today.

Ran from my house, south down the trail, past Lake Dan, and then a tiny bit onto Tarpon Ave. to get to 3.5 miles.  First mile, slower but not too bad at 10:07, then the rest were in the 9's execpt for one mile at 8:56, felt pretty steady overall.  Weather was a little bit warm but cloudy and some breeze so overall pretty nice.  Got the strides average pace down to 5:42, a little bit better than what I thought I could do.

They are continuing to replace uneven/cracked slabs of sidewalk on Robert Trent Jones Blvd (which for the past few years have had orange paint to warn about the uneven spots), so had to run around onto the street on the latest section to be repaired.

5.05 mi, 46:30, 9:12 avg

Day 3 of the training plan.  It's probably mostly in my head but I'm already feeling more fit (even though it's not completely different than what I've been doing all along).  5 good miles, from my house and over to the trail running north until it gets to 54 which is almost 2.5 miles, so then a little bit more on the sidewalk so I don't have to cross the road.   Weather was great again today, fallish.

10.02 mi, 1:31:01, 9:05 avg, elev gain 229 feet

Day 4 of the program.  "Easy" pace 10 mile run in Palm Harbor, heading up Belcher, past Klosterman and left onto Curlew Place to the Pinellas Trail and then south.  Stopped at Conservation Park for water about 5.4 miles into the run.  Continued down the trail, crossing Alt 19 at the crosswalk near the Casa Ludivico and made my way back to Westlake taking the cut through by the Y.  Had to overshoot the house a little bit to get the last 0.2 miles.

Weather was good and overall the run went well but it was heading toward not being easy (although Whoop app says average heart rate was 138 which seemed surprisingly lower than I thought it would be.  Hmm, maybe it was the beet juice I took this morning).

7.50 mi, 1:06;43, 8:54 avg  (HR 133 bpm from Whoop app)

Day 5 of sticking to the plan, one more day this week to finish week 1

Ran from my house, south down the trail past Lake Dan, down to Keystone Road and just far enough to hit about 3.5 miles before turning around. Day was pretty nice, saw a gopher tortoise hanging out by the side, enjoying the day as much as a tortoise does.

Got back to my house, grabbed an ice pop and ate part of it (came back for the rest later), back down the street a little ways to where someone has a hash mark painted, then 50m, then 100m (painted by either a runner or maybe utility workers I guess).  6x100m with an average pace of 5:39.

This will be my biggest mileage week in a while, but it feels like mileage I should have been running all along (except for week of baby and right after, but things have settled down with almost near normal sleep at night now).

12.02 mi, 1:50:46, 9:13 avg, elev gain 251 feet

Day 6, end of week 1 of the plan.

Last week  I watched Jacob run at a meet in Bradenton so I didn't get to run until later.  I thought I would be running earlier, but it turned out I'd help volunteer at a race, glad I did.  Xanadu racing was doing a 5k/10k from Indian Rocks Beach starting at a place called Caddy's.  They were donating money to Aubrey's cheer team the Panthers and were asking for volunteers to help with the race.  Jessica, Charlotte and I left the house just before 7:00 and helped out from 7:30 to almost 10:00 when they said we could go.

Jessica drove me a few miles north to Sand Key Park where I changed, filled up my water bottle and got going.  North out of Sand Key Park, up and over the Sand Key bridge, through Clearwater Beach, across the causeway and up and over the bridge.  I stopped briefly in Coachman Park and had part of a cliff energy bar, it was good.

I was afraid the run would be horrible, as it was getting later in the day and I didn't get much sleep the night before.  But it seemed to be getting a little bit better each mile.

After going through downtown Clearwater, got on the Pinellas Trail going north and soon I was running in the 8's, had been thinking I'd be looking to stay any faster than a 10 minute pace.

I did have a reward in mind. I was going to finish at 7th Sun Brewery in Dunedin.  That kind of helped to keep me going.  But also, I felt kind of like some fitness was coming back.

Passed by Dunedin and kept on going north, almost to Curlew Road and then turned around, back south.  Made it to 7th sun but had to go a little bit farther to make it to 12 miles.

I'd made it, and felt pretty good.  Jessica, who had been walking on the Dunedin Causeway came by and picked me up in about 20 minutes or so.

Oveall, it was a pretty fun morning.

AM: 3.14 mi, 28:48, 9:10 avg

PM: 4.05 mi, 38:07, 9:24 avg

Did not get up early enough and wanted to go with Jessica for Charlotte (Dani)'s checkup, so started off the day with a run up and down part of Alderman and some of Lakeview drive for 3.14 miles.

Later in the afternoon, picked up Stella and drove her back to my house to stay with Andy.  While getting ready to run, Andy asked if I was bringing Stella, which I wasn't planning on but didn't have a good reason not to.  So, Stella and I ran two miles out, down the trail near Lake Dan and then back.  We did take a few sniff breaks but we kept a pretty good running pace while running.  She seemed pretty happy when we got back.  My arm was kind of sore from my flu shot this morning which I'm glad is out of the way.

I was supposed to do 7 miles plus strides.  This is week 2, day 1 of the plan.  It was a small deviation but the miles are checked off at least.

7.03 mi, 1:02:14, 8:51 avg, elev gain 248 feet

Did some loops in Westlake Village.  First up was a 2.5ish mile loop, followed by a slightly different loop around 3.1 miles, then continued on the original loop far enough so that when I turned back and arrived back at the house would have 7 miles.  I was able to do this run without almost no stopping at all (very brief stop about 0.25 mile into run but nothing after that).  With these Westlake Village loops I'm tempted to stop after 1 or 2 loops, even if they are the shorter ones.  Getting a little discipline added back in.  Although, the perfect weather didn't hurt.

Then finished up with 6x100m-ish strides 0.43 miles, 2:23, 5:30 average pace

Maybe strides are the key.

5.06 mi, 44:52, 8:51 avg, elev gain 170 feet

Week 2, Day 3 of the plan.  5 miles at "easy" 9:02-9:57, so this was a little bit faster than the easy range but nothing too crazy.  First mile was 9:25.  This is an improvement, going faster than 10:00 pace in the first mile (have sometimes struggled to do 11:00 or faster).  I need some warmup, any warmup better than nothing, so here's today's warmup, forward leg kicks, 10 each side, 20 jumping jacks, high knee drills, hurdle trail leg forward and backward 5 each side, and a little bit of walking.  It doesn't seem like much but it does make a big difference.

Ran a t-shaped route in Westlake Village with the t's hat run on Alderman and a little bit on Belcher and Omaha to make it a fancier "T"

10.01 mi, 1:28:03, 8:47 avg, elev gain 139 feet

Day 4 of week 2 of the plan, longer mid week run, did 5 miles from Westlake Village working my way over to the Pinellas Trail heading north.  I was carrying a 10oz drink bottle with water.  Stopped at Conservation Park and mixed the packet of Liquid IV into fresh cold water from the fountain.  This was my only stop (except for some street crossings waiting for cars which were almost not stops at all) about 4.2 miles into the run.

Continued north another 0.9 miles then turned back, holding steady with miles 5,6,7,8, and 9 all at 8:36 (this was without looking at my watch except each time the mile beeped), 10th mile was a little bit faster at 8:11.

A little faster than prescribed range, I'll keep it in range for tomorrow's run which will be ok to be slower as it will finish up with 6x100m strides.

Weather was amazing again, ran shirtless, was almost chilly feeling.

7.05 mi, 1:05:13, 9:15 avg

0.4 mi @ 5:30 pace 6x100m strides

Ran from Foxwood, some of the miles with Joe who I haven't run with in forever.  Calf was bothering him so he turned back early.  I ran down the trail heading south until Keystone and ran a little bit there to get to 3.5 miles.

Returned back and finished up with 6x100m using the mysterious 0-50-100 hash marks painted on the road.

One more day sticking to the plan (week 2, day 5)

12.03 mi, 1:45:47, 8:47 avg

Week 2, day 6 - 12 mile long run, goal pace 9:02-9:57

I pushed the pace a little faster to make sure I was back in time.  Jessica wanted to get to a 9:00 body combat class at the Y.  No reason I couldn't be back in time with 7:00 am start which is not that early and 12 miles isn't really that long but of course it's not nothing.

Decided on a southbound out and back route, starting out from Westlake Village, straight shot on Alderman, across Alt19 to Crystal Beach Ave to the Pinellas Trail.  The intersection of Curlew and Alt19 would be just over 5 miles.  To get to 6 miles I decided on a left at Curlew so I wouldn't be stuck waiting for the traffic light - although going right would be more scenic.

I didn't know how long it would take me to get locked into a pace.  First mile was 10:36, but next mile was 9:09 which felt pretty good, so I decided to stick around that effort.

Effort slowly crept up along with the pace with the remaining miles between 8:44 and 8:18 (mile 12).

Made just one stop to top off water bottle at the Alt19/Curlew water fountain while on the return portion.

Arrived back at the house well before 9:00.

AM:  6.06 mi, 53:22, 8:48 avg

Ran from my house, starting with one loop around Foxwood and then an out and back southbound on the new trail.  Once back at my house finished up with 6x100m strides.

Workout was supposed to be 8 miles easy +strides.  I had woken up feeling very tired and was later than usual so I cut the run a little bit short opting for a total of 6 miles including the strides.  That way I'd at least have most of the miles done and would have the strides so if I didn't complete the miles in the evening it would be better than better than nothing.

PM: 2.08 mi, 18:28, 8:53 avg

But, I did finish the miles.  After work, before dinner, ran a loop through Westlake Village and finished up the miles.  Evening was nice and cool, streets were kind of dark so I wore a light (more so the few cars on the road could see me).

8.06 mi, 1:09:28, 8:37 avg, elev gain 165 feet

Ran from Westlake Village, onto Alderman, through Eniswood, a little bit on Alt19 then onto Pinellas trail heading north and then far enough onto Klosterman to get 4 miles out (was to the top of the Klosterman hill), then turned back to retrace the route except for a stop at Conservation Park to use the water fountain.

Starting out my first mile was 8:48 which is faster than usual.  I usually start out a lot slower and then speed up a lot.  This time I sped up a little throughout the run except for the last mile where I slowed back down to keep the pace not too far off from prescribed "easy" range.

Weather awesome again, nice to get in all the miles at once unlike yesterday.

Week 3 , day 2 done.

5.05 mi, 46:31, 9:12 avg

Ran from Foxwood, onto Trinity Blvd and then north up the new trail until reaching SR54 and then ran just far enough to be 2.5 miles from home, then came back the same way. 

First mile was 10:03 and the fastest mile was 8:46 but overall the average pace was right where I wanted it to be.  Another perfect run in an unmremarkable way, the kind we don't always appreciate.

11.09 mi, 1:38:22, 8:52 avg, elev gain 123 feet

Week 3, day 4 of the plan, mid week medium long run.  It's been a while since I've done one of these.  Last weeks was 10 and there have been a few here and there but this one went up to 11 (these runs will max out at 12).

Got a 7:30ish start which is pretty good for me these days.  Trying to make it back in time so Jessica could get to her favorite exercise class and I'd stay home with little Charlotte Dani.  Goal range was 9:02-9:57.  If I wasn't feeling it I'd just try to keep it at the slow range which would still get me back in time.  But the run went along smoothly, first mile at 10:01, then 9:13 then the rest in the high 8's mostly, last mile pick up to 8:21

This was basically the same route as Saturday's 12 mile run but I turned back at 5.5 miles.  Route was Alderman to Crystal Beach Ave, to Pinellas Trail and a little bit onto Curlew Rd.  Quick stop on the return trip at the water fountain on the corner of Curlew and Pinellas Trail for water top off and a gel.  Had filled the bottle with Liquid IV energy.  Still some left so watered it down for return trip.

Miles clicked by and before I knew it was heading back onto Alderman and then back to the house in time for the handoff.

So, overall this was a pretty good run.  No new speed records and not quite as "easy" paced as it should've been.  I'll slow it down a little bit tomorrow for the first part (8 miles) and then stretch out the legs a little during the strides.

8.54 mi, 1:18:37, 9:12 avg

8 easy miles plus Strides, Week 3, day 5 of the plan.

Ran from my house, to the start of the new trail south bound portion, dropped off a bottle of water, then ran to the traffic light at Little Road, then back to where I dropped my water and then south down the trail far enough so I'd have 8 miles by the time I got back to my house.  Pretty steady run with first mile 10:31, then 9:31, 9:21, then hovered near 9:00 for the remainder.

Did the 6 strides near my house.  Picked up Stella and then went back to Palm Harbor and then to work.

14.05 mi, 2:03:48, 8:48 avg

Started my run from Eagle Lake Park in Largo at 10:00 am.  First, was Jacob's meet at Clearwater Catholic HS.  Jacob ran a pretty solid 20:27.  I also got to see people from Mitchell HS including the coach, seems like forever since last year when Tom was running for them.  I had Jessica drive me a few miles so I wouldn't be too far from the Pinellas Trail, looked like Eagle Lake Park was a good place to start from.

Headed south down Keene Rd which turns into Starkey Rd (completely different Starkey from where I usually run), a little bit south down to East Bay/West Bay then over to the Pinellas Trail.  The road had a good sidewalk set far enough back from the road but there were several lights I had to wait for.  I thought it might mess up my groove, but it was pretty easy to get going again each time.

The run up the Pinellas Trail was nice, some of it was open to the sun but there was also a decent amount of shade.  The downtown Clearwater section goes on and off sidewalks and is probably the most confusing where it looks like the trail almost vanishes (and it will if you miss a turn).  Coming into Dunedin was nice, just past the 10 mile mark, then a couple more miles north and turning back so I'd end up at 7th Sun where Jessica would meet me.

First mile was 10:03, then two in the low 9's with the rest in the mid 8's, last mile 8:21.  

I haven't run 14 miles since the Saturday after Charlotte was born, so today's 14 miler at the end of a 54 mile week after two 48's is a good confidence booster.  Not feeling beaten up and not been getting dead legs.  Hopefully can stay on track.

8.47 mi, 1:14:44, 8:49 avg

Ran from my house over toward the new trail, but first I turned left at the club house until I got to the Heritige Springs Gate, turned back and then continued to the trail, dropping off my water and picking it up on the way back.

Then headed south about 1.7 miles, then back and then back to my house.  Finished up with the 6x100m strides.  I was a little bit faster than last time, maybe my leg speed is slowly creeping up.

Week 4 day 1 of the plan.

8.02 mi, 1:13:55, 9:13 avg, elev gain 151 feet

The air felt heavier and my legs felt a little heavier also, slower start but not bad once I got going. Exited north out of Westlake Village,  across the street and cut through Autumn Woods and Eniswood, to Alt19 and then onto Pinellas Trail, north a bit past Conservation Park, turn back and stop at the park for water and a gel.  Watch was beeping at me for low battery so wasn't sure if it would capture all of the run but it held on.

Day 2, week 4 of the plan, chipping away

5.07 mi, 48:44, 9:36 avg

Easy miles with Stella.  Ran from my house, and then south down the new trail about 2.1 miles out before turning back.  It was warm enough that she was looking kind of hot and didn't want to overheat the dog.  Got back to my house, dropped her off, and did last 0.75 by myself going down to the end of Eveningwood and back.

11.03 mi, 1:38:35, 8:56 avg

Mid-week longish run, same route as last Thursday.  Pretty decent early start (for me), 7:42 am, had wanted to be running before 7:30. When my alarm went off I thought I hit snooze but actually just turned it off, so woke up at 7:15 (glad I didn't sleep any longer).

West on Alderman Rd, catty corner to Crystal Beach Ave and south down the Pinellas Trail to Curlew Rd, east on Curlew about 0.4 miles to reach 5.5 miles total out.  Quick stop at Curlew water fountain on way back for a gel.  This run was a slow and steady pickup, but maybe pushing the boundaries of "easy".

Week 4 , day 4 of the plan done.

My parents stayed at our house last night, just got here from up north and found water at their house was not working (cutoff valve open - check, bills paid - check), too late to have anyone come out last night.  In any event it was a nice surprise.

6.1 mi, 53:50, 8:49 avg

Was supposed to do 8 miles plus strides, but due to race tomorrow decided to cut back a little bit.  Also, took some extra time to mess with the garbage disposal which is now cracked, so if  you turned it on water sprayed out the side.  Unclogged it carefully and got the water to drain, time for new one.

Ran south down the new trail about 2.8 miles out and then back home, finished up with 6x100m strides near my house.

Halloween Halfathon - Fort Desoto Park Florida

I signed up for this race just a little over a week ago.  There aren't many races around but a few are popping up here and there and race director Chris Lauber always puts on a good event.  Even with the challenges from covid restrictions things went well.

This race was slightly off plan for me, sticking to the plan I would have done 14 miles at an easy pace.

They had neat rows marked out with spaces about 7 feet apart.  They called out paces and asked people to line up, there weren't many people who came forward when they asked for 7 minute paces (anything between 7:00 and 7:59), I was looking for maybe 7:30 so I stepped up.  Was in the first row.  I looked behind me and asked the woman directly behind me if she wanted to switch, she said no thanks, was looking for maybe 7:45 pace.

They started each row at intervals of 10 seconds.  They also had cones out for about 100 meters to form lanes so you'd stay in your own lane at least for the start.

First mile was 7:21.  A couple (or maybe 3 or 4 not sure) people passed me sometime in the first mile, but after that I seeemed to be in the same spot.  A guy in a red shirt passed me, pulled ahead but was never out of sight (although it looked like he might disappear at times).  Next two miles were 7:23 and 7:17 as we looped around and then came back through the starting area.   The announcer was calling out people's 5k paces as we passed through.

On this course, I sometimes feel like I fade on the 4th mile as we head out in a straight line parallel to the beach, but this time I held steady with mile 4 at 7:20.  Ok, maybe this race would be better than expected.  Then mile 5 was slightly better at 7:19 which made me feel a little more confident, but it's still early enough that the finish feels far enough away that all you can think about is getting through the next mile.

Then, the wind started getting to me, miles 6, 7, and 8 were not fun.  Turnaround point was just after 7.5 miles.  I plowed through but slowed down a bit, 7:39, 7:46, and 7:53 for those miles.  However, mile 8 time of 7:53 was a pickup from not being about to get below 8 and slowly speeding up.

This gave me a feeling of momentum with miles 9, 10, and 11 back to better paces and consistent - 7:31, 7:31, and 7:32

I should have been feeling like homestretch after seeing the mile 11 sign, but I think I got a little bit lazy, and/or relaxed a little.  Mile 12 was 7:55, not great but I was thinking well, at least I can get all the miles under 8:00.

Gained a little bit of speed and had noticed over the last couple of miles, red shirt guy was getting closer and closer.  Entered into the parking lot and made the final turn around the cones to get into the homestretch.  I yelled at red shirt guy to tell him to speed up, he'd been towing me the whole race and I didn't want to sneak passed him.  He heard me but must have had the gas to the floor already.  Passed him and finished 3 seconds ahead of him.

But, not really, he started in the second row so he was actually 7 seconds faster than me.  Red shirt guy's name was Evan, he said he'd been doing his runs pushing a stroller so he was able to go a lot faster today, was hoping for about 1:45 so pretty happy.

Since it was uncertain if this race would be approved, they had "vintage" race medals from years past to choose from, but they did have really nice orange shirts.

So, while today was slower than the 1:37 back in December, it was first time since that that I've put together this many under 8:00 miles and made my goal (more or less) of 7:30 pace.