The Long Run

I went to the Y this morning.   I was going to run some inside and some outside.  While I was on the treadmill the sky kept on getting darker until it started dumping down (some very badly needed) rain.  I got off the treadmill after 5.1 miles at about 8:00 pace, saw that it was still pouring out, drank some water and a cliff shot (mango flavor) then got back onto the treadmill for another 3.1 miles at 7:56 pace average.    

I sped up the treadmill a few times for some variety and bumped up the incline twice for two minutes up to 5% followed by 1 minute at -1% then back to the usual 1%.

Finished off with some weights and then headed back home.

A good start for the week, one run in the bank.

Ran outside at the YMCA this morning.  Arrived about 5:25 and met up with Keith, David, Tim and Raj - Dixie had to cancel last minute.  Pretty big group for an early Tuesday.  Temp was back down to a cooler feeling 65 degrees with a light drizzle.  Felt great once we got moving.  We were all taking it easy today, kept pace pretty consistent throughout averaging an 8:15 pace overall.

After about 4 miles Keith split off to head back as he was just doing 5.  Then the rest of us ran a usual (about) 6.2 mile route ending back at the Y.  Finally, Tim, Raj and I headed back out for another 2 miles  or so for a total of 8.38 miles.

Headed back home for some stretching while Jenny headed out for 6.2 at 8:38 pace.  Our easy paces are slowly merging closer and closer.

More and more rain, but fortunately it stopped sometime early this morning.  I ran from my house and met up with Raj in front of Bonefish.  We then headed down 54 to Starkey Blvd bike path.  The streets were wet, and although it was very humid it was cool enough (high 60's) to still be comfortable.  We ran 1 1/2 miles at an easy pace, then we started the tempo portion.  Goal was to do about 7:00 pace for 5 miles on an out and back course, then finish up with another 1 1/2 miles easy.

The run went well.  As usual it took some time to get into a good rhythm.  At the 2 1/2 mile turn around Raj and I were both feeling good.  We pretty much hit our splits where we wanted with a couple of miles faster: 7:00, 6:58, 6:44, 6:57, 6:44

For the return trip cool down, the humidity had caught up with me a bit and my shirt was soaked.  There was a slight breeze so that helped make things feel a little cooler.  I continued on home past Bonefish and then once home, took a quick swim in the pool to loosen up.

I felt great on the run this morning.  Started off with a bike warm up and core/stretching inside the Y.  Got onto the treadmill for 4.14 miles at about a 7:50 pace which is a little bit faster than usual warm up treadmill miles.

Headed outside for another 4 miles.  Didn't look at my pace except when the garmin beeped for the one mile splits.  Ended up being faster than usual for this type of run 7:19 pace average.

It was two days since my massage.  This is usually when running feels the easiest.  On Wed. run Raj had mentioned the same thing, how two days post massage seems to feel the easiest.

So, the only drawback about today was it was supposed to be more of an easy run but instead it was a feel good faster run  but not quite fast enough to be a tempo run.  Hopefully these have some benefit too sometimes, even though some people might call these junk miles.

I ran with Jenny this morning.  She was planning on an easy 4.5 miles so that sounded good to me.  I want to start easing into 6 days a week so I don't have to do that many 10+ days during the week on weeks when I want to get more miles in.  It was a bit humid this morning but the run went by pretty quickly with the good running company.   I tried not to press the speed or be too bouncy (two of my annoying habits when I run with her sometimes).

Went to Starkey park this morning.  Arrived at the gate at 5:45, had to wait 5 or 6 minutes for someone to open up the gate (posted opening time is not til 6:30 but it usually opens earlier).  I'll start from some place else next week since I have to run longer and it might be hotter out.

Dixie showed up at 6:00 on the dot.  We got going just a few minutes later.  There were a lot of bats flying around this morning.  Maybe I'd never noticed them before, but they were everywhere.  I hope they ate lots and lots of those giant horse flies.

Went out at an easy pace, slowly picked it up past 4 miles.  We went out to the water stop on the Suncoast parkway, which was Dixie's turn around point, I had talked him into running 13 instead of 10.  I kept on going until I was out 9 miles.  At this point it was still just barely comfortable for running.   The clouds were keeping the sun back and there was a slight breeze, just enough to keep the humidity from being a problem.

Didn't try to do any sort of specific pace but I did go faster as I got closer to the end.  I put on my music for the last 4 miles but I only used one earpiece since one of the foamy things fell off someplace on the run.

Finished the last mile in 6:44. 

Average pace: 7:45

Overall pace for the run was a little slower than last week but I felt much better at the end.  Spent a little bit of time at the social hour before heading back home.