The Long Run

It was a nice and cool morning.  As an extra bonus I had some company which is nice.  I met up with Randall, Keith, Raj, and Tim at the Y.  We started out at a nice easy pace for the first two miles and then picked things up a little bit over the next couple of miles.  Raj split off from us after 5 miles to head back and the rest of us continued.  We had some drinks stashed by the bank where we stopped briefly before continuing on.

Since the first half of the run was a little bit slower than I had intended we picked it up a little bit more with the last two miles at MP.  This brought up the average for the whole run to where I had intended.

Average pace: 8:19

Afterwards we stretched and talked a bit then I went inside for a little bit of weight training.  I printed out a schedule for the remainder of my marathon training.  It's pretty much what I have been doing but the mileage starts to pick up.  I like to have a schedule because then I can tick off the workouts as I do them and mentally prepare myself as the weeks and days count down.  I plan on making adjustments here and there based on how I feel. 

This morning's run went pretty well.  The weather was great.  I didn't have to get up too early and I didn't take forever to get ready.  I ran from my house so that part was pretty easy and I have been taking a route that I have come to know and love.

As usual I started out nice and easy for the first few miles until I had reached a 7:50ish pace which I did for the last few miles.  Made sure not to push it as that is the tendency when the weather is nice and I'm feeling good and warmed up.  I was getting a few twinges of PF on my right foot around the heel.  I need to keep on eye on that and take care of it while it is still just barely noticeable.

Average pace: 8:11

 
I biked the boys to school afterward.

Today's run was great, I loved it. It was a little bit warm but nothing that would slow me down and the humidity was not bad. I was planning on 7 miles with a 4 mile tempo run.

I warmed up with a little bit over two miles, after having already warmed up on the stationary bike inside the Y.  I crossed the street to the neighborhood across from the Y, dropped off my drink bottle and then got started.

 First mile felt pretty good.  Second mile was a little bit of a struggle to hold the pace.  As I started the third mile I was having issues with my headphones so I stopped briefly.  So, maybe this doesn't count exactly as a five mile tempo run.  I don't think I stopped for more than 10 or 15 seconds.  Anyway I got going again and felt faster.  I got to the 4th mile and it wasn't too bad.  I figured then I'd do one more mile just for fun, icing on the cake sort of thing.  Now, since I was doing it just because I wanted to I felt faster.  For a good part of that last mile I was on track for a sub 6:00 pace and it was starting to feel hard, so I backed it down, although not by too much.  Not a great idea to go that fast on a tempo run but it was a lot of fun.

Tempo splits: 6:56, 6:56, 6:38, 6:41, 6:09

After the fast miles, I went back to my usual easy pace and headed back to the Y and then home.

Average pace: 7:39

I ran from home this morning, to SR54 , up Starkey Blvd. and back.  It had rained last night so the streets were wet and it was a bit humid out but not too bad.   I didn't have a huge desire to run this morning but figured I should just go out and get the job done.  Despite this less than stellar attitude it turned into a pretty nice run with miles that were not slow and laborious but not too fast either.

On my return trip I saw David who was also running on Starkey Blvd, we ran about a mile together before I had to split off towards home.

In conclusion, this morning's run was great, I loved it. 

Average pace: 8:07

Non-running day today.

Went to the Y and did some various cardio followed by a quick full body weight routine.

Tomorrow I will run 14 miles, then get some even longer runs after that ramping up for San Diego.

I had thought about doing this race when I saw the flyer a few weeks ago at the Armadillo race 10K. A couple of days ago I decided not to do it. Then I had a voicemail from Randall who said he was doing it and wanted to know if I was doing it. I looked at the weather and saw that the conditions would be good, and they were. The course would be a straight, out and back, and flat on the Pinellas trail. It's not that often that everything lines up that way.

It was a small race (I seem to be good at finding these small inaguaral 5K's), so the only drawback is there might not be anyone to race against. Just before the race started I saw two high school kids that I think I had seen at other races. The race started and we all took off, the high schooler in the yellow shirt was out and front. My Garmin briefly said I was doing a 4:51 pace (which I new was wrong), it settled on a 5:5x pace which was not the pace I wanted. I was not going to make the same mistake that I did at the Bolt run back in February so I eased back a little bit. I was back between 100 and 200 feet from the yellow shirt guy and now I was at the pace I wanted.

We hit the turn around, I was still feeling pretty good, the gap had closed slightly. Then at around 2 miles I was gaining on the yellow shirt guy. He was fading a bit because my pace was staying pretty consistent. Then I was past him. Still one mile to go and I had to keep holding my pace. As a warm up I had run the whole route which was good as I knew each little landmark. At about 0.2 into the third mile my garmin played a mean trick on me that it does sometimes. It said I was doing a 6:46 pace and it didn't look like it was going to budge. I didn't feel like I had slowed down but maybe I had. I gave it a little more effort and then it finally clicked back to 6:19 at about 0.5 miles into the third mile.

When I could see the time clock it had 19:3x on it so I knew I could do it. I gave it all I had and past the clock at 19:46. I grabbed my race card and hit the stop button on the Garmin at 19:49.

Splits were: 6:21, 6:22, 6:19, 0.13@5:56

** Update ** I just found out the actual official time was 19:46 instead of 19:47, yay! 

This was the most consistently paced 5K I have run. The conditions were perfect with the main challenge being the last mile when I wasn't chasing anyone down. I also broke with 5K tradition and did not squeeze down a PowerBar gel with caffeine immediately before the race because I was all out. I'm glad that I ran an even race because I did not want to blow my chance at breaking 20 minutes. I was afraid that I'd keep missing it. So, maybe next race I'll try to go out a little bit faster. With the ideal conditions maybe I could have gone a little bit faster but probably not much faster as sometime during the third mile I was feeling like I was one step away from feeling like I was going to throw up.

Randall crossed third after the yellow shirt high school guy.

We stuck around for the awards then Randall and I did just under 3 miles for a cool down. I had my picture taken, received a dog tag for the age group award and a nice plaque for overall male.