The Long Run

3.42 mi, 31:21, 9:11 avg

Easy running, warm-up near my house, then out and back to the gate, followed by strides workout 10x25 seconds with 50 second jogs in between.  First two, I could not get out of the 6:00's, but then was under 6:00 for 7 out of the 8 remaining ones.  These short workouts have been helping me to avoid  dead legs and I usually can comfortably run at a faster pace the next day, so I think it helps me stay out of a pace rut without being too harsh.

6.05 mi, 49:06, 8:07 avg

Ran up and down the Starkey Blvd bike path.  9:35 first mile - better than many of my slow first miles, felt pretty good.  5th mile was 6:33 - it felt extremely difficult, but it was the same difficulty as the 6:50 mile I did last week.  Maybe getting a little speed back.  Trying to get back to where I can string together 3.1 6:25 or faster miles to get back to sub 20:00 5k's

It's hard going back up but worth it to try.

10.64 mi, 1:29:12, 8:23 avg

So, today was a pretty good run, one of the better ones I've had in a while, maybe I'm making some forward progress.  Ran on Starkey Blvd bike trail after starting from my house and running on SR54 to Starkey Blvd and then back home the same way.  First mile was 10:22, last 4.6 miles ranged from 7:50 down to 7:22.

9.16 mi, 1:20:35, 8:48 avg

Sort of a repeat of last week, where after doing 10 miles (at a slighter faster average) on all pavement, I ran down Trinity Blvd again with a little bit over 4 miles on the grassy shoulder.  This time I also went a little bit further, turning left onto East Lake and running to near the entrance of Crescent Oaks.  It felt long again, but the pre-run dread of running the length of Trinity Blvd was gone this time, it was just something I was going to do.  Weather was good again, it's been pretty much perfect running weather lately.  I was chilly at the start but had to take off my hat after the turn around because I was getting hot.

After work saw Jacob run his his second middle school track meet (I missed his first one), he did well running the 800m in 2:36 (1 second slower than his PR), he led for the first lap but got passed by two kids coming into the last turn of the second lap, splits were 1:16.5 and 1:19.5 so not a huge slow down for the second lap.

5.6 mi, 55:06, 9:50 avg

Ran with just Jamie at 7:30 in the neighborhood (Joe said he was running at 6:30 doing intervals but he ended up starting at 8:30).

Pretty good run overall, taking it easy on the pace.

15.75 mi, 2:23:01, 9:05 avg

Ran on Suncoast trail, starting from the trailhead near SR50 with Joe and Jamie.  We dropped off a cooler about 2.5 miles from the start since there are no water stops on the trail.  Nice morning, with a chilly low 40's to start but warmed up a little when the sun came up.  Joe had 20 miles to do, I was good with 15-16 and Jamie was good with whatever.

We grabbed a drink at the 2.5 mile cooler we left and Joe grabbed his big gatorade that he carried most of the way out.   I was feeling sluggish for the first few miles but felt better as the miles went on.  

At the top of the 6 mile hill, I did one extra repeat while Jamie waited and Joe was also doing some extra. We continued on almost to 8 miles then turned back.  In the 9:00's on the way out and mid 8:00's on way back.

I really enjoy these hills and the variety from the usual flatness is a good change.

Unfortunately, someone stole our cooler.  It was not visible except to someone who actually stopped there.  Fortunately, since it was cool out, no one was dying of thirst and it was only 2.5 miles back, but still felt bad for Jamie that her cooler had been swiped.

Joe ran some more extra (in addition to his extra back and forth while we were running) to get to 20 miles.