The Long Run

No running today, but did manage to get over 13,000 steps for the day with various activities.  Met with Jessica's parents for brunch at East Lake Cafe, then went kayaking with Jess and her kids.  Before dinner took a walk through the park and stopped at the pull-up bar.  I could outdo Sophia on pull-ups (although she's making some good improvements), but she put me to shame with leg raises.

For dinner, went to Fireside Pizza.  This time I had the Sardinia pizza (meatballs, sausage, and ricotta) which I could not finish - saved two slices to take home.

5.61 mi, 1:03:03, 11:14 avg, HR 128 bpm

Ran from my house to the new trail past Lake Dan and then back. Did 3/2 run/walk with faster running portions, but not so fast that it wasn't easy to recover heart rate during the walk portion.  Ended up with exactly 128 bpm average.  Pace was about where it has been for the effort but maybe improving just slightly.

0.68, 3:55, 5:46 avg

After the easy part, did a few strides and an attempt to beat my last 400m, but just missed with 1:24 (a second too slow to tie).

4.65 mi, 51:23, 11:02 avg, HR 125 bpm

Drove to Longleaf and parked near the church.  Arrived a little after 7:00.  Had originally meant to get there by about 6:30 to see some more of the Striders at the end of their Tuesday run.   Karen and Regina were still there, Stella and I said hi.  Got started and ran into Beka and Melanie, got going again and saw Joe who said I had just missed Jenny and Tom.  Then, after that no more people.  Stella was pretty good on the run.  I was using the bungie-like leash that wraps around my waist.  Saw several rabbits which she did not chase but she really wanted to go towards the fence where last time there were cows (but none this time).

Turned right into Starkey Ranch and kept going to just past the Huckleberry Shuffle (a Strava segment).  

Despite the extra supervision of Stella this was one of the better recent heart rate runs, almost back in the 10's with heart rate in mid-120's.

Was going to run some more (a loop around my neighborhood) but ended up chatting with my neighbor Mike.  He had just won an award at a car show for the little hot rod he's been restoring, wasn't expecting to get anything, so those kinds of awards are especially nice.

8.24 mi, 1:13:20, 8:54 avg, HR 148 bpm

Warmed up with 4 easy paced miles (about 131 bpm for HR average for those miles).  I had run from my house down the new trail to Keystone Road almost to the point where it crosses over Keystone.  Turned around and picked up the pace.  Wanted to try and run the northbound section of the trail from Keystone Road to the county line at a pace under comfortably under 7:30 (i.e. I didn't want to have to pick it up at the end to try and get under 7:30).  I was in the 7:15 range and approached close to 7:00 pace, finishing that mile in 7:05, next mile in 6:56, then it was about another half mile to the end of that segment when I was running in the 6:40's.  Stopped briefly and was going to jog it out the rest of the way home.  Then I ran into Stacey, sitting down on the trail (she was waiting for the pesticide people to finish up and go away), chatted with her for a little bit and then got going again.  Despite the stop, found it easy to get back onto a low 7:00's pace for the remainder of the mile, then made it a 5K by doing one last pickup for about 0.14 miles.

Then slowed it down and jogged the rest of it out back home (about another mile).

Felt pretty good that I was able to run near a 7:00 pace for 5k with all of the slower running I've been doing (apart from the strides).  I'm going to try and get some more speed and tempo runs in over the next few weeks before the RAP River Run 5K (June 8th).  Would want to at least beat my time from last year, or better yet, pick up where I left off with 5k's (Turkey Trot this past November with 20:12)

7.11 mi, 1:16:34, 10:46 avg, elev gain 190 feet, HR 135 bpm

Today's experiment was 2/3 run/walk.  2 minutes of running to 3 minutes of walking, where I would run the run portion at a faster pace (a pace that in the past I would call my easy pace, like 8:30 to 9:15 range).  The time that I tried 1/3 run/walk my average pace was faster than I thought it would be for doing so little running and my heart rate was much lower than  I thought it would be due to all of the walking (it was like 12:15 pace at 118 bpm hear rate).

Results were a little bit different today than what I had hoped for, but to be honest I did not stick to the plan the entire run.  I took on the challenge of running the Strava segment called "the Everest of Klosterman" which is about 0.6 miles on Klosterman Rd between Alt US 19 and Belcher Road.  The hill is about 45 feet of climbing, so not that big but enough that it stands out in the otherwise flat terrain.  So, while running that portion I skipped the walk parts.  

After that, my heart rate stayed a little bit higher and my pace was just a little bit faster for the remainder, except for one of the miles where I was able to back down the pace and HR for a bit.  So, even though 135 bpm was higher than planned, I'd still count it overall as an "easy" run.

6.15 mi, 1:10:11, 11:24 avg, HR 127 bpm

Another HR run.  To and from my house in Foxwood and along Fox Hollow.  Kept the heart rate low and the pace stayed kind of slow with an 11:24 average.  Just getting in some miles and time on my feet.

12.09 mi, 2:14:48, 11:09 avg, HR 122 bpm

Ran from my house and met Jamie at the back gate, we then continued down to SR 54 and over to Starkey Blvd.  Nice and cool morning.  Saw Tom heading south on his bike.  We continued to Alico Pass, which would have made 10 miles total if we turned around there but instead we continued onto Diane's house.  She had just taken down her stand but was still outside so she offered us some gatorade and water.  Chatted with her for a bit, thanked her and headed back the way we came.

Were doing 5/1 run/walk.  This was Jamie's first run since the London Marathon.  She was up for 10, 12 was a little bit of a stretch but since we were taking it easy wasn't too bad.

Happy with the slightly faster pace than yesterday and significantly lower heart rate.