The Long Run

8.15 mi, 1:20:50, 9:55 avg, Elev gain 191 feet, no HR data

Did not have my heart rate strap so did easy pace "by feel" and breathing.  Southern route out of Westlake Village, past the Y, over to the Pinellas Trail until reaching the corner of Curlew and Alt 19, and then turned around and came back the same way in reverse.

6.38 mi, 1:01:31, 9:38 avg, elev gain 273 feet, HR 139 bpm

The AC guy was here for maintenance, so was literally running up and down the street for a couple of miles and then did 10x100m strides.  Then after he left, did another couple of easy miles.

5.54 mi, 56:31, 10:11 avg, elev gain 143 feet, HR 133 bpm

Relatively short run today, from Westlake house to the Palm Harbor Y, stopped in for a drink of water, small loop around the parking lot and then back the way I came.

Going to run the Kiwanis July 4th Midnight run 10k tonight.

Kiwanis Midnight Run 10K

34th male (35th overall), 1st age group - they had nice age group plaques (and they went 5 deep and for under 18 years old they had 2 year age groups, so lots of awards).

I've done very little speed or tempo runs and probably would not have signed up for this race due to fear of running a race without being prepared, but Jacob wanted to run it (Kudos to him since he has pretty much not been running except here and there with me and whatever they are doing in wrestling practice).

Weather - hot and humid and dark, as it usually is near midnight in July in Florida.

User error - I thought the race started at 12:00, actually started at 11:50, so my warmup was pretty abbreviated.  Also user error was not verifying equipment was working.  I had a headlamp for the very dark portion inside the park, but it was flapping around if I wore it on my head (it was supposed to stay at a set angle, but it was bouncing up and down instead), so I carried it instead.

My goal was to beat my time from 3 years ago, not that I'm faster now, but three years ago you could run the 5k and 10k.  Ran the 5k in 2016 in 21 minutes and a few seconds and was pretty wiped out, so did a moderate effort on the 10k with a 7:32 pace.

So this year, wasn't sure what kind of pace I would get on, but ended up with 7:14 for the first mile.  Ok, that's good, just hold onto that or at least don't slow down much.  Next mile was 7:21.  Ok, I think I can do this.  Mile 3 was 7:23, almost at the turn around, glad I had the headlamp in my hand.   Turnaround, mile 4 7:25.  Ok, a little bit slower but still holding.  Mile markers are getting a little bit off.  I think there was some weaving.

Mile 5, 7:23, felt very hard but I didn't slow down but really wanted to.  More weaving.  The 10k started at 11:50, the 5k started at 12:00.  So now, we are running into the slower 5k runners, had to run into the oncoming lane to get around some of the groups.  Tried a few "on your left" shouts but did not help.  Not a big deal, just part of the race experience.

With just over a mile to go was still looking pretty far away.

Mile 6, 7:20.  Ok!

But the finish still looks a little bit far.

The last I looked at the clock it said 46:07.

Finish time was 46:13.

Last 0.31 mile was 6:53 pace, I really wanted to get through that finish line.

Garmin pace was 7:20, but the official pace was 7:27, still beat 3 years ago time!

Jessica was at the finish with Sophia and Aubrey.  Scott was also there looking for Jacob. Grabbed some water and want back to the corner to look for Jacob.  He was hoping for about 50 minutes, came in around 55.  Was running with one of the CC girls from his high school.  They were together for the start, then he got ahead and was ahead until last quarter mile when she caught him and gained an extra 10 seconds on him.  He got 4th age group.

We stayed around for prizes.  When I got my AG plaque, the lady told me to also pick a prize from the door prize pile - I took a small hibachi grill.

It was after 2:00 am when we left.

Also, happy birthday Sophia!

7.55 mi, 1:19:12, 10:29 avg, HR 126 bpm

Ran with Joe and Jamie in the neighborhood.  Jamie had her watch set for 5/1 run/walk so that's what we did most of the way.  Usual y-shaped route and then finish up with a loop in the neighborhood.  Stopped twice at the golf club to use their water fountain inside.

Pretty happy with pace/heart rate, good easy run (not "easy")

11.76 mi, 2:04:37, 10:35 avg, HR 134 bpm

Started out from Longleaf near the little church.  Saw Tom running down Starkey with Lee looking like they still had a few more miles to go as the headed onto Towne Ave.  Got going and in a little bit ran into Melanie and Jason, said hi to them briefly and then kept on going.  Ran into Aristida neighborhood, down Diane's street to the end and then stopped at her house on the way back for some drink refills, glad she still had her stuff out.

Next, headed north a little more, into Starkey Park until a little over 7 miles completed, back the way I came, down Starkey Blvd but skipping the detour to Diane's house.

For mile 10, slowed it back down enough to get 128 bpm for that mile, needed to do some walking (12:32 pace), but then finished off the run going at a steady pace with a little bit of a pickup for the partial mile after 11.

Decent miles this week and a race (at night nonetheless), going to get out of the slow rut (but still go slow on the easy days).