The Long Run

I took yesterday morning off.  It was very tempting to run but I'm glad I took the day off.

Ran this morning and did 3 miles with Jenny, then the rest on my own.  My legs were a little bit sore from the race but overall the run felt pretty good.

Average pace: 8:24

After the run, I did my usual Monday morning upper body at home routine (aka better than nothing workout).

Ran 7 miles with Jenny then 1 more by myself.  Felt a lot better than yesterday, pretty much back to normal.

Average pace: 8:55

We just missed the rain, roads and sidewalks were wet but it felt pleasant for running.  Went a little bit farther than yesterday.  Ran 7.5 miles with Jenny then a little bit more on my own.

Average pace: 8:30

Ran by myself in the neighborhood, cool and pleasant run.  Ran the last 0.9 at 6:30 pace.

Average pace: 7:39

Ran in Starkey Park this morning.  Arrived about 6:30 and waited in a long line of cars to get in as the park is now opening at 6:30 instead of 6:00.

Felt really cold at the start, it was in the low 40's, literally just got this cold over night, haven't eased into it yet.  But, after about 2 miles it felt a lot better.  My back was a little sore from hauling out a new pool cover the night before and my legs were a bit sore also.  I had started out running with 2 other guys but went so slow I quickly lost sight of them.

At the 4 mile point, I stopped for a drink and to stretch out a little bit.  A bunch of other runners showed up and I ran with them for the next two miles (David, Jamie, Diane and some others), but then they all turned back.  Went out to just after 7.5 mile point and turned around.  Finally, the miles started flowing more easily.  Picked up the pace until the second to last mile where I backed off a bit, then picked it up for the last mile to see how fast I could run after 14 miles, pretty pleased to come in under 6:00 (5:57).

Average pace: 7:46

I was pretty happy to get in 15 miles, because at the start of the run I was seriously considering cutting the run a lot shorter, glad that I didn't do that.

Spent some time chatting a bit at the social hour and then headed home for some delicious home made french toast (made with homemade bread!)

Ran with Dixie in the hilly neighborhood.  It was cold again this morning but great for running once I was warmed up.  Took it easy and skipped the repeats on the hill.  I did do 4 strides at the end where it was flat.

Average pace: 8:13

Did my Monday morning better than nothing upper body workout at home after the run.

I ran with Jenny this morning.  This was the first run in a while where we did the entire run together.  I thought about doing a little bit more to get over 9, but felt this was a good day to do a little bit less.  Weather was nice and cool, a little cold at first until getting warmed up.

Average pace: 8:31

Tomorrow, I'm going to run with Jenny at her half marathon pace, then Thursday I'm do some 5k oriented speed work for me, such as 400m repeats, haven't done those for a while.

Ran with Jenny and Jamie this morning.  Jenny had her first successful speed work since before the Deseret News Marathon.   She did 2x2 miles at half-marathon pace.  I felt better this morning than I did on the previous morning.  

Average pace: 8:16

I wore my new Green Silence shoes from Brooks.  This is the next step down in weight from the Brooks Launch which I have had good luck with.  Going to do speed work tomorrow morning and wanted to break them in.   I noticed right away that these shoes don't really need to be broken in, they feel light and flexible.

As promised from yesterday I did some speed work today.  Jenny took a very rare day off from running, so I did the warm up by myself, about 4.5 miles.  It was warmer out this morning and I felt pretty comfortable during the warm up but soon was a little too warm due to wearing a long sleeve shirt.

Goal today 10x400m between 1:20 and 1:25, with equal times rest between each one.  It was hard to convince my body to run that first and at the beginning I bargained with myself to just do 8 instead of 10.  But, when I did the 8th one I was eager to do the last 2, even though repeat #8 was slightly off target, 9 and 10 were better.

Splits: 1:25, 1:25, 1:18, 1:24, 1:19, 1:25, 1:19, 1:27, 1:23, 1:23

Cooled down with an easy run back home.

The new shoes felt better today especially during the speed portion.  My legs felt heavy during the warm up and for the first few repeats, but I felt great on the jog home, although a little bit sore later during the day.

Nice run by myself this morning.  Took it easy in the beginning and picked it up a little bit towards the end.  Legs felt ok from yesterday's speed work and felt even a bit better after the run.  Temperature was good and I'm enjoying running in the light again.

Average pace: 7:46

Nice and sunny morning in Starkey Park, temps in the low 50's.  Met up with the whole group for the start of the run.  I was going slow than most everyone else for the first part of the run.  David J hung back with me and we ran together for 6.5 miles when he turned around.  I continued on to the 8 mile point and then turned around.  I picked it up for the last 5 miles, and gradually increased from a 7:02 pace to 6:30 pace for the last mile.

For about the last 1/3 of a mile I found myself in the middle of a cross country meet.  I was running along with a pretty good size group and even passed a few people but then turned off the path to head to the parking lot.

Average pace: 7:35

Enjoyed a bit of social hour then headed back home.

Delicious, home made sour dough waffles with strawberry topping waiting for me at home!

(Late post, finally catching up for the week).

Met up with Dixie at our usual Monday morning spot.   He had taken a few days off due to a sore achilles and this was his first day back.   We decided to take our usual route, skip the hills and see how he felt.  Decided to turn back after 1.5 miles, so we just did 3 miles together.

I continued on, and headed south down the trail and into the Lansbrook neighborhood where I had not run for a while.  Rest of the run went well and it was a nice change of scenery.

Average pace: 8:22

Ran with Jenny this morning, easy pace.  Added on just a little bit at the end.

Average pace: 8:36

After the run, did my upper body better than nothing routine (with some squats thrown in this time).  I usually do this on Monday, but wanted to make Monday a little easier.

Ran with Jenny on a cool but humid morning.  She was doing 5x1km repeats and I was along for moral support and company.  We warmed up for two miles, then did the repeats which went well, with Jenny hitting each one at a 7:00 pace or a little faster.  This was her second speed work in recent times and her second successful one since before the marathon back in July.

The last time she did this work out it was after several weeks of 5K specific training, and today's workout was after mostly just base miles.  No apparent loss off speed and she seemed stronger than last time (although she claims she was just pretending to appear stronger!!).  In any event, a good run.

Average pace: 8:19

(falling behind on my blog entries again!!)

When I woke up this morning, my first thought was that I was glad that I had already done my speed work yesterday.  Oh, wait I hadn't done it yet!

I did my warm up with Jenny for about 3 miles, then got going on 5x1km repeats at 5K goal pace.  Splits were pretty even, hard effort but it never felt hopeless.

(paces) 6:04, 5:58, 6:02, 5:48, 5:53

The shoes felt better this time than they did last Thursday when I wore them.

The weather started out nice, just slightly chilly, but instead of warming up got cooler with some fog rolling in.  Felt like I had been misted on by the time the run was over.

Average pace: 7:56

Nice, easy run with Jenny, Jamie, and Kathryn.  Jenny and I started out at our house, picked up Kathryn on the corner near her house, then a half mile later picked up Jamie near her's.  We all ran together about 5 or so miles, then Jenny, Jamie and I ran the rest of the way.  Wore long sleeves this morning as it was low 50's.

My legs were feeling a bit tired this morning, so I was happy to mainly just follow along, listen and occasionally contribute to the conversation.

Average pace: 8:48

Still feeling a bit tired afterward, I thought about not doing my upper body better than nothing workout, but realized I cut just scale it back a little bit, as long as I was doing something it would be better than nothing.  So, I cut out the weights and just did the pull-ups and push ups.

Nice run in Starkey Park.  Started out with a few of the others.   Caught up to Raj and Derek about 5 miles out, ran with them until the 7 mile point.  I went another quarter mile and turned back and tried to catch back up to them.  Didn't quite make it but came pretty close.  Made the run kind of fun for the 3 of us.

Average pace: 7:38

Didn't stick around for social hour very long, needed to get back so that Jenny and her Mom and sister could head down to pick up their race stuff for Sunday's half marathon in St. Pete

Easy Monday morning run by myself.  I felt a little bit sore and clunky at the beginning of the run.  Although I didn't run yesterday, I did do a ton of walking quickly trying to see my wife, her sister, her Mom, and Aunt and various other friends at the Women's Half Marathon.

I think I'm back to normal after this morning's run.

Average pace: 8:15

I think this was a pretty good run but I don't remember much  from it other than that I ran with Jenny and the weather was nice.

Average pace: 8:42

After the run I did my better-than-nothing upper body work out and did not skimp on it as much as I did the last time!

Another pleasant run with Jenny on a beautiful morning.  We ran 9 miles together and then I did 3 quick strides at the end so I could remind myself how to run at 5K pace for tomorrow's race.

Average pace: 8:43

Almost a PR today - 19:08, (2nd fastest 5K), course PR at least.  Good effort, although I felt like I got a little lazy in the second mile (although not by much).

Splits : 6:00, 6:14, 6:10,  :44 (0.14)

Drove done with Jenny and the boys, Jenny's parents, and Jenny's sister Amy.  Arrived a little bit later than planned.  Was able to get in a half mile warm up, which worried me slightly since I usually like to get a better warm up.

Big crowds as usual and I made sure to get as close to the front as possible.  Race started and it was the usual mayhem with tons of people going out way too fast.  About a half mile into the race and my pace was some where in the 5:30's.  As people dropped off and the crowd thinned out it became a little less stressful.  Finished the first mile just under 6:00 pace.

Felt good going into the second mile and was still right about a 6:00 pace for a while but then noticed all of the sudden I was in the 6:20's.  I fought hard to get back on pace and managed a 6:14 for that mile.

At the start of the third mile I was back on a 6:00 pace but slowed down a little bit getting up the hill.  Recovered some pace at the top of the hill, and started counting down the distance, now about a half mile to go.  Finished the last mile about 6:10.

Got into the stadium and could see that the clock still was in the 18:xx's but not enough time to make it in under 19:00.    Took my finisher's card over to the prize tent to pick up my mug for being in the top 125 then headed back to look for Jenny.

She also came in with a near PR.  Although, she had it a little bit harder with a dead garmin and no watch, she had to run completely by feel.  Someone was calling out times at the end fo the first mile, she heard him say 7:10, which ended up being the pace she ran for the entire race.

Jenny and I then waited as her sister, and our two boys finished, and then Jenny's mom after them.

Headed back home but stopped at Perkins for breakfast on the way home.  Great way to start a wonderful Thanksgiving morning!

Day after Thanksgiving recovery run.  Felt slow and clunky at first and made a few stops during the first half of the run to stretch.  Felt much better in the second half and started picking up the pace and felt pretty good when I finished.

Average pace: 7:48

Did the better than nothing upper body workout after the run.

Running with Dixie at the Space Coast Marathon

I helped out running partner and fellow FRBer as well as fellow Suncoast Strider (my running group here) on his quest to run a Boston Qualifier race at the Space Coast Marathon.  Plan was to run approximately the last 14 miles with Dixie for pacing help and moral support and whatever else I could think of.

Woke up at 4:30 and left the hotel at 5:00 and arrived about 5:15 (Jorge rode with us to the start).  Met up with Victoria, warmed up, waited and did the usual stuff before a race.  I saw the racers at the start and wished them luck.  I chatted with a guy who asked why I wasn't racing today (I was dressed for a race, except for no bib).

Hung out in the car for a bit, double checked the race course map and for some reason needed to use the POPs about three times.  Finally, headed up to find the 12 mile mark.  I had started the Garmin when the race started to keep track of the total time.  I had actually forgotten my Garmin (some pacer I am!!), and was borrowing Dixie's old garmin (which is actually Keith's old Garmin Forerunner 101).  I could not get a satellite signal at all, but tried one more time by turning it off and back on just before Dixie was due at the 12 mile point.

I had told Dixie that he could not show up at the 12 mile point any sooner then 1:35 (8:00 pace * 12 - 1 minute early if feeling good).    Right at 1:35 on my garmin, he showed up running with a couple of other people.  He was actually more ahead of the planned pace because it was at 12.2 miles and I had lost 30 seconds from turning the garmin off and back on. 

At about the half way point we were going to pass pretty close to where the car was parked.  The temps had warmed up a bit and Dixie wanted to ditch his shirt but be able to get it back, so I said I'd take it back to the car and catch up.  The car wasn't too far off.  But it took me about 2 miles to catch back up where I had to run about a 7:15 pace.  It turns out that those were his two fastest miles, 7:31 and 7:40.  He slowed down a bit when I caught back up and we held the pace in the 7:50's for the next few miles.   One of the ladies we were with was running a little ahead of us.  I said we shouldn't try to keep up, so we let her go about mile 18 or so.

Things were going pretty good until just before mile 20.  Then the pace started to slow a little bit more each mile.  I was keeping an eye on the diminishing cushion of time each mile.  I tried whatever I could to keep the pace moving along close to 8:00, but it was a losing battle.  The time was slipping away.  At the rate we were losing time, if it continued he would miss his BQ time by just seconds.  I didn't want to see that happen, he had come so far and done so much work.   But, it was all up to Dixie.  I tried running ahead, running behind, running next to him.  I tried being mean and being nice.  Told him no matter what it was going to be a huge PR if he just kept running which is all he was able to do.

Last two miles were right about a 9:00 pace.

Finally, the 26 mile sign and the turn off to enter the park with the finish chute.  I let him go and hoped for the best.     I cut across to the finish line and saw him finish.  Saw the clock reading 3:31:xx.   Not sure if he made it in time.   Dixie showed me his garmin which showed 3:31:02, but he said it took him a few seconds to find the stop button and he couldn't remember if he had started it before crossing the start line or exactly when he crossed it.

So, we waited for the results.  Got some food and drink.   Dixie found some ice to put his feet in.

Finally the net times were posted - 3:30:56!!

I'm not sure how much I helped but I'm glad I was there to see it happen.

Saw a bunch of our friends there and traded stories about the course.  It was a beautiful morning to be sitting in a park near the coast, celebrating a marathon finish.

Ran by myself this morning in the neighborhood.  I felt much better today than I did yesterday when I decided to take the day off. 

 Average pace: 7:47

Running those 15 miles at Spacecoast took more out of me than I would have guessed.  Good thing I didn't have to run the whole thing.  It helped though that last night I did a little bit of yoga.

After the run this morning, I did what used to be Monday's better than nothing upper body workout.

In the evening I once again did the Wii yoga routine, figured it couldn't hurt to do it again tonight.