The Long Run

3.15 mi, 27:41, 8:46

I ran with Jacob from my house, just past the "zero energy" house and then back.  This is my first time running Sunday in a while (not counting races).  I was feeling a little stiff from yesterday's run so I warned Jacob I might be really slow until getting warmed up, but I wasn't any slower than usual and we picked it up a little bit each mile.  First run with Jacob.

6.26 mi, 50:31, 8:04 avg

Started from the little church near Longleaf and did out and back on the Starkey Blvd bike trail.  Once again I ended with a fast mile, it felt like maximum effort (similar to last 2 weeks where I did 6:50 and 6:33) - today I did 6:42.  It probably wasn't quite maximum effort but it did feel pretty hard.

In the evening watched Thomas run the 3200m at track meet hosted by Anclote HS.  He acheived a new PR with official time of 11:01.37 (I timed 11:00.92 on my iPhone stopwatch, pretty close to official time and about what I'm usually off by).  Improved a little on all of his laps, with laps 5,6,and 7 a little slower than goal and coming back in lap 8.  He ran with Jarod who also ran a similar pattern of staying behind Tom for at least the first half or more, and then sometime in 7th or 8th lap pulling ahead.  This time Tom stayed with him most of the time and kept on closing the gap until Jarod finally pulled ahead in second half of the last lap and finished with 10:55.  Tom says he's going to work on doing more tempo runs for improvement in lactate threshold - seems like a good strategy.

Tom was one of the few (maybe only) runner from Mitchell boys team to PR today.

Quote from Jenny to Tom (originally Tim Notke) "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard"

Wanted to congratulate him after the race but left so I wouldn't be in his face.

8.74 mi, 1:09:02, 7:54 avg

Ran from my house to Starkey Blvd and ran to just past the bridge and then returned back.  First two-ish miles were at an easy pace and then I started picking it up in the third mile.  At the end of my run my garmin told me it was a new 10K PR for me (new garmin specific PR 45:23).  That was surprising but not too surprising because I have not done any longer tempo runs or 10k races.  I did run faster for the second half of a 12 mile run two weeks before NYC marathon where I averaged 7:09 pace - but that was with the Garmin 310.  Anyway, it was a nice reminder of where I need to get back to and that I'm slowly improving.  

3.2 mi, 26:00, 8:07 avg

After yesterday's slightly faster than average run, my left knee felt a bit off even just walking around (a bit worrisome only a couple days before wanting to run a 50 mile trail race).  So, I went to the Y for my favorite knee fixing exercises.  Did 10 minutes on the stationery bike followed by 3 sets of 10 reps of leg extensions.

Next, got onto the treadmill with an easy start and gradually increasing speeds (some of it at 6:50-7:10 range but only short amounts).

Fingers crossed that there isn't anything wrong with my left knee that the right workout can't help fix.

5.53 mi, 55:46, 10:05 avg

Ran with Jamie in the neighborhood, 6:30ish start time.  Usual t-shaped route over near the golf course from one end of Robert Trent Jones Blvd to the other end.   Details include actually touching the Heritage Springs gate at one end and a brief stop at the far end at the corner of RTJ Blvd and Trinity Blvd.