The Long Run

10.95 miles, 7:54 average pace, mostly easy with 8 strides at the end.

My plan was to go to the Y for the usual split treadmill and outdoor run followed by weights.  I woke up at my usual time and was arrived there a little bit ahead of schedule.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize they would be on holiday hours today.  So, I turned around and went back home.  Decided to run out and back up Starkey Blvd since I haven't done that route for a while.  I was carrying one bottle of drink with me and figured I could stop near the Longleaf pool where there is a drinking fountain.

I started my run, felt kind of sluggish for the first few miles.  I stopped by the Longleaf pool but the drinking fountain was out of order so I changed my plan once again slightly to not go out so far and do a little bit more back inside my neighborhood.  It was sort of cool out and first but humid.  The cool quickly went away, but I was ok as long as I was near trees for shade.

So, after the first 3 miles I felt pretty good.  Went out until it was time to turn around.  Grabbed my drink bottle on the way back then headed back to my neighborhood where I grabbed some water from a fountain that used to not have cold water but today did (very good luck, bad luck, good luck kind of morning).

Finished up with 8 strides, 25 seconds each, which felt good.

It was nice to see how many people had flags out in observance of Memorial Day.

10.13 miles @ 8:46 pace

Nice, easy run with Jenny this morning.  We are starting out a little bit earlier now due to higher mileage.  I can't think of anything too interesting on this morning's run.

Yasso repeats, 10 X 800m, goal pace 3:00/800m (3:00 jog between each one)

Started with Jenny this morning, doing one mile easy for the warm up.  She was doing an 8 mile @ 7:52 tempo run, her longest one for this plan.  We did the first mile of her run together before I started my repeats.  Weather didn't feel terrible at first, but it was certainly a little warmer than ideal.

I have never done this type of workout before and I've heard mixed things about the value of this workout both as a marathon predictor or a workout, but in any event it certainly was challenging and must have been doing something good for me.  Instead of heading to the track decided to just do them on the road.  Set my garmin up for 0.5 mile auto laps since that's pretty close to 800m.

First two repeats were slightly faster than goal pace, then the ones after that varied between a couple seconds faster and one or two seconds slower.  The plan called for 8-10 repeats, with the idea being that they should all be about the same pace.  So, I decided I would do the last two if I was holding my pace and not doing each one slower. 

Repeats: 2:59, 2:58, 3:02, 3:00, 2:57, 3:01, 3:01, 3:00, 2:58, 3:01

Since the 8th one was right at 3:00, I went ahead and did 9th and 10th ones.  I felt good that I was able to do all of these at about the same pace.  I have one more set of these on the schedule coming up in a few weeks, so I'll be interested to see how those compare.

After the 800's, did 3 X 200m with 1.5 minute rest between, followed by a jog back home.

Recovery pace run with Jenny.  10.15 miles easy pace.  Legs felt tired from yesterday's hard run but I ended up feeling better by the end of the run.  Weather was a bit hotter than last few days.  When we stopped for water I thought I saw a brown recluse spider.  Jenny said it was not.  I thought I could see the violin shape on it, she didn't think it had a violin shape, more of a "cello" shape.  Jenny is probably right because it certainly wasn't being very reclusive.

Tomorrow I get to run a little bit shorter.

Once again for my Friday "alone" run I ended up running with Joe.  As I was heading around the neighborhood loop I saw Joe starting out, so we ran together.  Always nice to have some company for a run.  Just before then, when I started out I had some weird pain in the middle of my back slightly off center.  I stopped after a few feet, walked a bit then got going again.  Was ok once I got going again but was a little bit worried that it might get worse.  Fortunately it got better. 

It was a good run which we kept at an easy pace.  It was also nice to have a small cutback and run less than 10 miles.  

Average pace: 8:46

Big run tomorrow! (ok, not that big but not that small either, 16 miles)

Hot and humid, but wonderful morning in Starkey Park.  16.1 miles @ 7:45 average pace.  Arrived just after 6:00, started running just after 6:15.  Set out with a good sized crowd, Dixie, Eudair, David, Dianne, Keisha and many others.  A few people turned around at the 4 mile point and then several of us continued on to the end of the trail (about 6.5 miles out).  I was taking it easy and mainly hanging out in the back of the group on the run out.  The morning's weather started out at 77 degrees and some place in the high 90's for humidity.

At the end of the trail I said good bye to the others and continued on for another 1.5 miles to go out for a total of 8 and then turned around.  Stopped briefly just before entering back into Starkey, then at 6 miles decided I'd go ahead and give some (goal) marathon pace miles a try despite the warm weather.  It would be a good test but I knew I might have to back off the pace if it didn't feel right.  Surprisingly, I didn't have a problem getting on to pace (sometimes this is one of the biggest struggles).  I held up pretty well the first mile and even into the second mile.  But the heat was getting to me, so when I got near the water stop at 4 miles I decided to break up the run.  Stopped briefly, and then decided I'd go easy for at least a mile and then see how things went.  By easy,  I meant I would at least try to hold onto an 8:00 pace. 

I'm not sure if it was the faster miles I had just done or what, but I found myself at a faster pace than what I expected, and I felt a lot more relaxed.  It wasn't the 6:52's I was hoping for but it was a 7:17, followed by 7:06, and 7:07.  Then with one mile left I found whatever I had left over and finished that mile at 6:46.  And that was about all I had.

Average pace: 7:45

It was Keisha's last day running with us for a while as she is moving so they had one of they giant cookies and a photo album for her as well as the usual assortment of goodies, such as nice cold fresh watermelon from Dixie (who finally has his Fast Running Blog up and running now)  and Carol's delicious, cheerio, peanut butter and honey bars.

68 miles for the week!