The Long Run

1.11 mi, 11:49 avg

Stop, sniff, shake off the rain, charge ahead, repeat with Stella.  I had skipped yesterday's run - one more recovery day from the 33 1/3 mile run on Saturday.  Started walking Stella and decided to run her.  Rain started and she kept on stopping to shake off the rain, then she'd try and charge ahead and I'd have to pull her back.  I stopped the watch at one point and we walked while some dogs went by the other way.  So, even though we completed the full 1.7 mile neighborhood loop I only recorded 1.11 which is still more then 0.  And Stella seemed pretty happy despite the rain.

7.41 mi, 1:09:15, 9:21 avg, elev gain 218 feet

First in a series of "hills with Joe".  Joe is running Boston this year, and due to a scarcity of hills around here he came down to Palm Harbor to run the small rollers in Westlake Village (lowest elevation 19 feet, highest elevation 78 feet).

We ran one loop around the perimeter at an easy pace, and then did 4 repeats of 400m uphill at 6:50ish pace, short rest, then back down the hill at 7:20-7:30 pace.

Good run to wake up my legs and nice to have the company.  Chilly and almost cold at 43 degrees.

6.6 mi, 1:02:00, 9:24 avg, elev gain 128 feet

Did run/walk at 4/1 from Westlake heading north onto Belcher up to Klosterman for a little bit before turning around.  55 degrees, low humidity, nice!

Another catch-up entry, working my way back toward the beginning of March.

5.51 mi, 54:30, 9:54 avg, HR 138 bpm

Ran in Foxwood and along Fox Hollow golf course, on the classic t-shaped route, sometimes called the "trout", although it's more shaped like a Y.

This is a "catch-up" entry so I don't remember much more, but apparently it was 60 degrees, so that sounds pretty nice.

3.28 mi, 34:58, 10:40 avg, HR 127 bpm

Horribly and terribly behind in my blogging due to getting backlogged on race reports starting with the Jacksonville Marathon on Dec 15, Croom Zoom 50K at beginning of January, Holloway Trail Half Marathon, and finally the Long Play 33 1/3 Ultra on 3/2.

So, not much time to run since I had to mess around with the pool equipment trying to get that back on track before heading to Clearwater HS to see Thomas at the track meet.  I've been trying to run easy to get my heart rate down hopefully indicating a more solid aerobic base and to give myself a break from the races between December and March - over 200 miles (although all but one of them at slower ultra pace).

Thomas ran the 3200 and 1600m races with the 3200m race being first presumably to let the longer race go in the cooler morning weather.  His previous 3200m race had a very impressive negative split 5:40 and 5:21 where he went from about 12th place and finishing in second place.  It was also the debut race for the new pair of Nike Vaporfly 4%.

So, this morning was another negative split, this time 5:20 and 5:19 for a new PR of 10:39, finally a reward for the hard work after getting much smaller increments on the order of less than 1 second improvements.

1600m race was later in the afternoon, about 4:00 pm, second heat.  After hanging back a little for the first lap, moved out into the lead and held it up until the final 50m or so with two kids squeeking by, giving him 3rd place.  But, this was also a new PR of 4:45.39 (about 2 seconds faster than old PR).  Big accomplishment with two significant PRs

But probably the biggest accomplishment was sticking with it through the practices and meets when it didn't look like things would get better.