The Long Run

Last night I was planning on just running by myself this morning, but then Dixie gave me a call to tell me that he and some of the guys were going to run in Starkey park in the morning.  It turned out that it worked out really well since this morning's cold weather would have made me feel less than motivated.  When that happens, I still seem to get the job done, I just don't enjoy it as much.

So, I arrived at Starkey park just before 7:00.  Keith, Nelson, and then Dixie showed up.  We decided on doing about 8 miles.  It was 41° , had just gotten light out and I was wearing a tight short sleeve shirt with long sleeve looser shirt over it, shorts, hat, and gloves.  We set off at a nice and easy pace, slower got faster, then stopped for a little bit at 2.5 miles, then continued on.  We went out a little past 4 miles and then stopped again.  I let the clock keep running.  Got moving again, and the pace crept up with 7:56, 7:32, and then 7:09 for the last full mile.  For the last full mile, it was kind of a game where one guy came up on Dixie's shoulder, without passing him, this always makes him go faster.   We were probably going just under 6:30 pace for the last half mile but having fun.  Cooled down for the last 0.38 to get back to the parking lot.

Stretched out for a little bit then headed back home just in time to catch the tail end of breakfast with my family.  Did a little more stretching, some hanging knee raises, and plank.  Finally did two sets of pull ups (17 and then 10 very slow ones).

Average pace: 8:29  (about 8:11 for the actual running portions)

Time: 1:11:05 

I took a bit too long to get ready this morning.  Alarm went off and got out of bed at 6:12, but it seemed to take forever to actually get started running which wasn't until sometime after 7:00.  It was much warmer this morning.  Wore one long sleeve shirt but it turned out to be too much, should have gone with short sleeve.  

First few miles felt ok.  But for some reason, by about 4 miles my strides felt "cloppy" and "slappy" and soon my left leg from my ankle up to me knee got very tight and the running soon felt miserable.   It was such a nice day I decided I wasn't going to let this ruin my run.  

I stopped the timer, started walking and stretching and enjoyed the morning for a couple of minutes.   When I felt ready to go again, I went.  It was like I was able to press a reset button to fix things.   From that point until back home I felt much better.  When I got close to the house I came to a tee intersection where I could go right and finish up a 7 mile run or go left for just over 8 miles, I picked left and felt good when I made it home for how my run turned out.

Average pace: 8:17

I'm going to meet Keith (and possibly Dixie) at 5:20 tomorrow for a tempo run.

As planned, I woke up this morning at 4:45 and made it to the Y by 5:20 to meet Keith.  Dixie was also there as well as Nelson and Raj.  It had been raining all night but the rain had stopped so it was a little bit humid but still relatively cool. 

We warmed up with an easy paced 1.5 miles, then started the tempo run.  I was the keeper of the pace and Keith had asked for a pace between 7:00 and 7:10.  First mile was at 7:07, second at 7:03.  The last mile was at 6:54.  Ironically it was Keith, along with Nelson who had picked things up for the last mile.  I was hanging back a bit in hopes they would slow back down.   This speed up had something to do with a political discussion which became heated.  With all of the talking going on maybe we weren't running fast enough?  I'm going to encourage the group to add on another mile next week if everyone else has time.

On the return trip back, ran at about an 8:15 pace.  The rain started up again but wasn't too heavy until after we got back.

I headed inside, did 10 minutes on the bike, 10 minutes on the rower then a full body weight routine.  After I got home I stretched a little bit, did some knee raises and one set of 20 pull ups.

I had plenty of time to get ready for work and left about half an hour earlier than usual.  I feel like I have so much time in the morning when  I get up this early.

Ran with Dixie this morning at 7:00.  Met up outside of John Chestnut park.  Weather was nice with overcast skies and 65° (sleeveless shirt weather).  

First mile was slower at 9:04 (pretty typical for a first mile for me).   Net 6 miles were at an 8:00 to 8:15 pace except for one of them which was 10:14 where we stopped for water but I did not turn the timer off.   Last mile was at 7:05.  Much of that last mile was actually a bit faster than that but we slowed down for the last .2, then jogged back to the parking lot for the last 0.1.

I felt really good on that last mile, much better than yesterday when I ran the same pace.   Both feet are feeling 100%.

Average pace : 8:25    (1:08:17) 

Today was my usual cross train/weights/very easy run day.  I wasn't planning on running outside which was good because it was much colder than I expected this morning and windy too.

 I did 11 minutes on the bike, 10 minutes on the rower.   Then I did some stretching followed by another full body weight routine (although slightly different than the one I did last time).  I did leg extensions, squats, curls, and tricep pullovers.

Then I hopped on the treadmill for 2 easy miles - mainly at an 8:30 pace but a few bursts of speed thrown in just to mix things up.

My wife had seen a push up contest online that someone was doing which she had entered into with 49 push ups.  So far she was in the lead and I didn't want to take that away from her  but was curious where I was at.  The contest is to see how many push ups you can do in 1 minute.  I did 66.  I hadn't tried doing a lot of push ups in a row for a long time so it was good to see that all the running has not weakened me elsewhere.  In fact it almost seemed like I could sense an improvement because of running since this was sort of like a sprint.
 

Lots of people were there this morning.  Met up at the Y about 6:45 although we didn't seem to get started until about 7:10.  It was Joe, Randall, Dixie, Bob, Nelson, Keith, Kevin, and myself running together as well as some others running but at a different distance/pace.  The group always seems to go faster when Nelson runs with us.  Most of the run was at an easy pace with a few miles faster - one of them at 7:13 where I had split off from one group and went to catch up with another group.  The last two miles were at 7:26 pace.   Spent some time after the run at the social hour.

Average pace: 7:51