The Long Run

AM: 7.71@8:19   HR 150 bpm

Workout 10 x 90 seconds, targeting goal between 6:00 and 6:15 pace.  Had a few that were slower but two of them were slightly sub-6:00.  Was running back and forth on a stretch of road (Sandy Hook ) that had a slight incline so one way was a little faster than the other. After the repeats, 7:35-7:45 felt effortless.  

Felt fresh enough from Sunday after one day off and one easy day.  Now, for some more easy and a 5k on Sunday.

PM: 3.06@9:52  HR 133 bpm

Ran with Daisy for humpday hustle near Longleaf, feeling pretty good considering the morning workout.

5.7@10:04   HR 129 bpm

Back to easy, Westlake Village loops, better with heart rate.  Chilly this morning at 57 degrees.

6.19 @9:46  HR 130 bpm

Couple of loops inside Westlake Village, easy pace, heart rate in check and happy to be sub 10:00 pace, 4/1 run/walk as has been typical on most easy days (except Wednesday nights where I turn it off so as not to be annoying to Daisy and Evan).

Plan is to do medium length run tomorrow (like 10 miles) and then Sunday will be PHSC 5k and more miles after.

Today is Andy's birthday, plan is for dinner out on Sunday with my parents, Tom, Andy, Charlotte-Dani, and Jessica.  Fortunately had time for a quick meet up for a beer at Escape Brewery (a rare Friday night beer for me).

10.12@10:32  HR 123 bpm

As promised, 10 miles and kept the pace slow enough and kept heart rate down.  Ran from Trinity Blvd trailhead, north up Starkey Gap trail to Starkey Blvd until reaching 5 mile turn around, said hi to the cows on the way back.

Felt good on the run and still felt fresh afterward and ready for tomorrow's race.

Beautiful morning for a run!

PHSC 5K

14th place overall, 1st Age Group

Really enjoy this race and look forward to it each year.  Good weather, had a nice warm up, but did not sleep well last night.  Slept good until about 2:20 am and then barely got back to sleep when the alarm clock went off.

Lined up one or two rows back after the fast cross country guys and then the cross country women.  I was able to get on a pretty good pace past the startup melee, and got in front of all of the fast women that were going out at an easy pace and would pick it up later.  First mile came in at 6:49 and I was ahead of the course marker.  It's a two loop course.

Coming past the start line I was by myself.  the fast guys were far enough ahead I couldn't see them, the women were behind me but not sure by how much.  As I got close to the out and back hairpin, athletic director Steve called out to me "You've got a bunch of girls right behind you".

Just after I turned around at the hair pin, four of the women went past me.  This actually helped a bit as I was fading.  My pace had dropped and I was much slower than 7:00, but gradually got it back down to right at 7:01.  Slowly picked up some more steam but was not able to close the gap to catch up to one of the women.

When I saw the time clock, it was like 20:42, I had a chance to make it.  The clock was counting down in slow motion but faster than I wanted to and the last time I saw on the clock said 20:58.  Thought I'd made it.  Looked at my watch which said 21:00 exactly.  There was no start mat so chip time was actually gun time, and the official time was exactly 21:00

The person ahead of me finished at 20:59.  I later saw pictures from the finish line and I could see me stopping my watch just as my feet were on the wrong side of the finish mat.  Should not have looked at the clock!

Oh well, fitness wise I think I'm there but execution cost me a second or maybe two.  Also, when I was not hitting the splits for the first two miles for what I thought I needed for sub-21:00 I kind of gave up a little bit.

Of the four women that passed me, one of them ran 20:30, which proves there was still enough race left to make up some more time.

Tom ran and came in first place overall with 16:17.  I was not the fastest "old guy", RJ at 44 years old was third overall with a time of 16:48.   Jenny was also there and won overall masters female.

After the race did another mile and a half cool down before running 5 more miles with Evan and then 5 more by myself to finish off the morning with 16 miles.

Next 5k will be the Turkey Trot, lots of runners to chase and fewer turns so usually a faster course for me.

6.23@10:22   HR 129 bpm

Out and back run from Trinity Blvd trailhead on Starey Gap down to Keystone.

AM 4.29 @ 10:19  HR 126 bpm

Big square around the outside of Westlake Village, 4/1 run/walk, going to run some more tonight.

PM 3.04@10:17   HR 128 bpm

Humpday Hustle run with Daisy at Longleaf area.  I was late getting there, darkness seems to have made the traffic much worse.  Wore a headlamp as parts of route are not well lit.

7.59@7:47  HR 157 bpm

Had not picked which workout to do so when the Garmin gave me a suggested workout of 5 x 8minutes @7:40, thought that sounded good.  10 minute warmup and the comfortablly was running about a 7:30ish pace which turned into 7:28.

Three minute jog, then next 8 minutes at 7:17 pace, then another one at 7:10, and finally 4th one at 7:01, did not feel at all close to all out and felt around what I had envisaged 7:30-7:40 would feel like.

While running these intervals I had gotten in my head that there were 4 of them, so after the 4th one and the easy 3 minutes, was caught off guard about the 5th one, so decided to at least do half of it (was on a time schedule, had to get into work for a meeting.

Ended up doing just over 5 minutes of the last one which was 0.74@6:50 pace.

So, despite the mess up was pretty happy with the workout, maybe some shorter intervals next week to practice leg turnover at goal 5k (medium term goal that is - I think I can keep working toward sub-20:00, even though I still have yet to break 21:00  - last one of those was 2019 when I was closer than I thought to breaking 20:00 before sliding backward).

5.21@9:52  HR 130 bpm

A couple of easy loops inside Westlake Village.  Heading out of town later tonight to watch Tom's race tomorrow.

15.15@9:16   HR 141   

Huntsville, AL - ran about 10.5 miles with Jenny then added on some miles with a loop around the office park road near the hotel.  Was chilly at the start , still cool at the end.  Jenny had mapped out a route so just had to follow along.  Ran part of the helix (originally thought this was like a helix shape going up but it's actually modeled like a DNA helix criss crossing).  Ran up and down a trail on the local greenway.  6:00 am meet up time so we'd be done while breakfast still served.  Race not until 2:30 in the afternoon so had time for a nap after breakfast.

Watched the race held at John Hunt cross country park.  Very spectator friendly.  I thought Tom did great but was not the time he was hoping for but also not his worst time.  He's running again on Tuesday for NJCAA Half Marathon nationals, but unfortunately won't be out here for it.

Flight back was direct from Huntsville which was nice since I flew in to Atlanta and drove so I wouldn't worry about missing a connection (wasn't a terrible drive but the direct flight back definitely nicer).

11.25@10:45  HR 128 bpm

I slept in a little bit this morning , then we went mini-golfing, then finally started run at 4:45 in the afternoon.  Out over to Pinellas Trail then headed north to Klosterman and up its hill then back to Palm Harbor.  Glad I had a headlamp with me.  Kept the pace pretty slow and easy the whole way.  I guess this counts as back to back long runs with yesterday's 15 miles (although maybe could've done a little more but playing it safe).

Ended up at Stilthouse Brewery for a quick beer then Jessica picked me up for ride home.

5.23@9:47  HR 130 bpm

A couple of loops (big and smaller) inside Westlake Village, 4/1 run/walk

After the run was glued to my phone looking at updates for Tom's race - NJCAA Half Marathon in Huntsville, this might be his last race as a college athlete.  He managed a new PR of 1:12:29.5 and 29th overall.  Proud of this guy and grateful to the coaches at PHSC that actively recruited Tom to run for them for the brand new men's team, they couldn't have found a harder working runner.

6.0@8:07  HR  152 bpm

10 x 90 seconds with 90 second jogs between

Paces: 6:02, 6:23,  5:55, 6:22, 6:03, 6:11, 5:59, 5:52, 5:52, 6:11

Lots of bargaining going on to do all 10.  Started out running the repeats going one way and then the other so that one of the ways was a slight downhill and the other way a slight uphill.  Towards the end I switched it up a little for more downhill.  Last one had a turnaround halfway.  

Garmin's suggested workout was 45 minute tempo at 7:40 pace, but it's been a few weeks since doing shorter intervals.  Next Thursday is Turkey Trot but this coming Saturday is Colt 45 (45 mile race) this, will see if I can balance it doing the distance, recovering and hitting some faster paces and maybe finally break 21 minutes.

6.06@9:59    HR 130 bpm

Another slow and easy day, somewhat early in the morning but light out so not that early. A couple of loops inside Westlake Village.

3.17@10:04  HR 126 bpm

One loop in Westlake Village, 45 mile race tomorrow at 7:00 am, a little bit over an hour drive so getting up kind of early but not crazy early.

46.77@11:49, time 9:12:20    HR 148 bpm

Colt 45 Trail Run, 14th overall, 2nd AG

Last year I ran the 45K version of this race.  Course is a 14ish mile loop, so last year was two loops and this year was 3 loops plus a 3 mile starter loop.  Great opportunity to get some longer miles in with a goal of trying to stay steady and come in under 9 hours.  Last year, my watch came in just over 28 miles, seemed like the same course but by the time I finished the starter loop and the first 14 mile loop was already over 18 miles, then got a little more off each loop.  So, the good thing is that early on I knew it was going to be over 45 miles (compared to a single loop or point to point that goes long but you're not sure until the end how long it will be).

Weather was good, felt a little humid at the start but temperature never really warmed up too much except when in the full sun, then quickly got cooler back in the shade (and it was probably a good 70 percent shaded).  The trails are very runnable with just a few small sections of big gravel pieces, some rooty stretches and a few partially flooded sections that you could mostly dance around the edges without a complete soaking.

Trying to stay relaxed and steady, first 13 miles had heart rate under 140 , then was right at 140 for mile 14.  Gradually ignored heart rate and concentrated on feel and maintaing a decent pace.

Instead of the Ultraspire belt I usually wear (with 550 ml bottle in back) I wore the Naked Band and used a collapsible bottle.  Bottle is a little harder to stash back inside but not too bad when running a slower paced race, big plus side is absolutely no bounce and no re-tightening a slipping belt.  It's got little bungees to hold the race bib which worked great until the race bib ripped on one side, fortunately I brought pins with me from the race check in.

The trail miles were great at disengaging from any outside issues of things going on in life, it was just enjoy the woods, watch your footing so you don't trip, keep moving, thank the volunteers at the aid station.

One issue this year with the aid stations, there were a lot of bees.  There were quite a few, they liked the soda and fruit. I didn't get stung and I didn't hear anyone complain about getting stung and the volunteers did a great job ignoring and working around them.

Heading out on my third loop I forgot to shove more gels in my pocket so ended up using the ones they had at the aid stations - SIS (Science in Sport) - they were pretty good, I'll probably order some.

The Long Haul 100 mile race will be here in January instead of Cypress Creek, this place is probably nicer, it will use 16 point something mile loops, so 6 loops instead of 10 that they've been doing at Long Haul except for the first year.  This year will be my 5th Long Haul race and they have a 500 mile belt buckle.  So, I will have run 500 miles, not sure if I'll do 500 more.

Rest

One more day of rest, just to be sure.

4.04@10:17  HR 130 bpm

Still dark but soon to be light out, one loop inside Westlake Village, 4/1 run/walk.  Feeling almost recovered from Saturday.

4.51@10:01  HR 131 bpm

Similar run to yesterday but in the opposite direction.  It's been perfect running weather.

Turkey Trot tomorrow, Clearwater.  Maybe I can break 21 this time.

Turkey Trot 5k

Clearwater

I was a little faster this year than last year but still just barely made top 125 (or maybe I didn't, they hand out finisher's cards to top 125 men and women, but I think a few guys didn't take their cards).

Had a very short warm up but still felt pretty good.  Warmup was 0.42 miles including two strides.  Morning was crazy.  I had signed up myself, Jessica's kids last couple of years had not wanted to do it or weren't here.  Last night Jacob was talking about doing it if we woke up on time and Sophia also said that and Aubrey said she'd go if everyone else was going.  Got up a little after 5:00, Jacob was up at 5:15 and Jessica also up and ready, left the house just after 6:00 and was about 6:25 when we parked.  Jacob headed over to registration and I went with Jessica to start line pushing the stroller with Charlotte bundled up.  High 50's for the temp, felt good while moving.   Saw Jenny and Claudia as well as Tom before the race.  Jacob made it back to the starting area with a few minutes to spare.  Didn't have much warm up but felt reasonably ready.

Took off at the start and was nearly taken out by someone tripping.  Jacob hasn't run in forever but he's been staying fit with gym and working on muscle ups (can do 7 in a row).  He hung with me pretty much the first mile which I did right around 6:45, but that mile has a good downhill.

Course turns left and I'm hanging on but somewhere in that second mile I'm slowing down.  I do pass some people here and there but also get passed here and there.  I'm struggling and have a pace over 7:00 for most of the second mile, but then towards the end I pass a couple more people which helps me squeek under 7:00 with a 6:58.

Sub-21:00 is not looking good, getting a mug is not looking good.  At the start of the third mile I see an 8:00ish pace on my watch but slowly battle it back down.  And even though the third mile has the uphill (cemetary hill - it actually goes past a small cemetary) I get some pace back and third mile ends up at 7:17.  Finish chute just up ahead, almost think I see 22 something on the clock but fortuntely I'm wrong.

On the men's side, there's still someone with a few cards left.  One guy ahead of me ignores the volunteer and keeps going without getting a card she calls out to him but then she's like "oh well".  I get a card then the person behind me gets a card and they say "that's the last one".

Jacob finishes at 24 something I think, after his first mile he's pleased that he didn't walk any of it at least.  We go to the mug tent and then I also check online results.  I see Tom got 4th place and scroll over to the right and see his time - 15:49 - new PR and finally after being close so many times has broken that wall.

See Jenny with Claudia - they both have mugs.  Jenny was not far off her PR from 10 years ago, Claudia was just a little behind me at 21:48.

Jacob and I head back to find Jessica and see her just as she's pushing the stroller up the hill.  When we reach the 3 mile marker Jacob gets Charlotte out of the stroller and they run it in.  She had fun watching all of the people with silly Thanksgiving hats and all of the doggies.

Step backward for me as far as time goes but still super happy about the fun morning and Tom getting a well earned PR.

Maybe I wasn't fully recovered from Saturday's race.

10.34@9:51  HR 133 bpm

Day after Thanksgiving run and not feeling too bad, didn't overdo it yesterday.  Loop up Belcher to Klosterman and sout on Pinellas Trail to downtown Palm Harbor and back over to the south entrance of Westlake Village.  Switched run/walk interval to 6/1 .

12.13@9:48   HR 128 bpm

Afternoon run in Kissimmee area.  Helped out Jessica by driving last night to hotel where all the kids were staying for the big cheer competition today held at Silver Spurs arena.   Drove to the meet location and then got going on my run as I'd have a couple of hours to kill.  Weather was nice, almost warm and it got cooler during the run.  Silver Spurs in on kind of a busy road but the sidewalk was set back enough and didn't have to run on it too long (just had to watch for cars turning in and out of strip malls).  Stopped at Wawa for a Reese's Big cup, wearing my naked band belt with a soft water flask (I'm learning how to shove it in there without making it leak).

A lot of the run was on Neptune Road which has a bike path (really just an extra wide concrete path), then over to Lakeshore Trail through Kissimmee then a little bit past the waterfront area before turning around.  6/1 run/walk again.  One more stop for water refill, so only two stops total (ok, two stops by choice, had a few traffic lights I needed to wait for).

Got back to the car before awards.  Jessica said their pyramid had fallen so team was kind of down about it but actually, it turned out they came in first place despite the one mess up, now they are going to nationals.

Lower miles for me this week, but with the 46 mile run last weekend, the 5k on Thursday, probably a good idea to do a few less miles this week. 

6.12@9:32   HR 135 bpm

Two loops in Westlake Village.  Purposely ran with slightly higher heart rate today, running more in zone 2 than usual (but being sure to stay out of zone 3).  At least zone 2 according to my garmin.  Usually I'm trying to stay closer to MAF (180 - age).  Someone wrote that the most helpful productive vs stress zone is zone 2.  Who knows.

2nd mile was slowest at 10:05 and that was with heart rate of 137, rest of the miles were all under 10 (fastest 9:06) all with heart rate at 137 or less.  Something about that second mile that was harder for some reason.

8.13@7:34   HR 158 bpm

Tempo run/10k time trial.  Westlake Village loops.  My last tempo run was 5 miles long at an average pace of 6:59 which was around 15 seconds faster per mile than I thought I could do.  Decided to do 6.2 and see if I could get around the same pace or at least anything steady and faster than 7:30 I'd count as success.

Ended up with splits: 7:12, 7:05, 7:08, 6:59, 6:55, 7:01, 0.23@6:44

For the first mile I started out just trying to get into 7:20's which I did then pace gradually crept up.  Despite being a little faster, held onto the pace and improved a little more over the next two miles.  The 4th mile felt good and I found myself under 7:00.  Decided to relax and not push it any further, but pace stayed fairly steady. 

When I woke up this morning, had thought about pushing this run to Wednesday but then decided to just do it today, glad I did. 

I guess I felt more relaxed for the 5th mile, ended up a few more seconds faster but realized I still had a mile to go.

For the 6th mile, I went past my turn a little bit, did a 180, then had a small hill to go up and over, so at first looked like 6th mile might be in the 7:20's, but then slowly get back some pace.  Rounded out the 10k feeling really good.

I used to have more of these accidentally fast runs in the past, so it was a feeling I hadn't had in a while.  The second half of this time trial was about the pace I did for the 5k Turkey Trot.

Decided to sign up for Holiday Half in Madeira Beach, maybe I can improve on my 2019 time.

4.54@10:42   HR  142bpm

Loop and a half inside Westlake Village.  Although I felt pretty good and things seemed normal, my heart rate was probably about 15 bpm higher than what it would normally be for this pace and distance.  It still felt easy, could've been hardware glitch with watch.  Heart rate seemed pretty consistent with the Fenix 6 and was getting very similar results to using the HR strap , so I stopped using the strap.

5.14@10:07  HR  131 bpm

Heart rate was more back to normal compared to yesterday.  This was despite having stayed up crazy late with work last night (like 2:30 in the morning - have not done that for a long while).  

I did go back to 4/1 run/walk, whereas last few runs were at 6/1, but shouldn't have made that much of a difference I would have thought.