The Long Run

Mix of indoor and outdoor running.  Heat outside was pretty bad but not as bad as the beginning of last week.  Went over to the Y, warmed up on the bike and did some crunches on the ball.  Hopped onto a treadmill for 2.15 miles with a pace just slightly faster than 8:00 average.

Headed outside.  Fortunately there was at least some cloud cover so it really didn't feel too bad.   Did another 5.5 miles at 7:39 average pace.  Tried not to look at my pace much except towards the end I picked up the pace and did about 0.2 at faster than 6:00 pace.

Then back inside for another 2 miles on the treadmill at 7:38 pace.

Headed home and finished up with some stretching.  I'll try another Inflict workout after tomorrow's run which I plan to do earlier (about 5:30).

One degree warmer this morning and more humid.  It rained last night and must have stopped just before I woke up.  I went to meet Raj at the Y at 5:30 but he wasn't there (later texted me that the rain kept him away).   I decided to go home and run with Jenny.  We ran 7 miles together, stopping a few times for water at the golf course (they don't seem to mind because no one is playing golf at that time).  Despite the heat, Jenny kept up a really good pace.

I added another short out and back to end up with 8.35 miles, average pace 8:36

Got into the pool to cool down, then started the (dreaded) Inflict intermediate workout.  It wasn't too bad, although I did go kind of light on some of the weights.  The two armed row while standing on one leg was pretty hard to balance.  There are a lot of different exercises that I wouldn't normally do, so I'm sure it is good in helping me get out of an exercise rut.

Jenny did not meet up with her running group at 6:00 this morning, the rain was really dumping down.  I left the house about 6:15 and went to the Y.  I was going to run on the treadmill either the whole time or until the rain stopped.

After some warm up, I hopped onto a treadmill for 4.27 miles at about an 8:05 pace.  I thought about pushing it here and there but my legs were a little heavy feeling from yesterday's Inflict workout.

Rain had stopped for the most part, temp was down into mid 70's now and so felt pretty good despite the just having rained humidity.  Another 4.12 miles, this time at 7:54 pace.  Legs felt pretty heavy at first but seemed to get better towards the end.

Another group run at David's house tomorrow morning and then one more Inflict workout once I get home.  Hopefully I can get a good 8 mile run in tomorrow.

Went over to meet up with the Suncoast Striders for what has become a regularly scheduled Thursday run (throughout the summer).  Rain let up for the run.  I went out with David, Nelson, Keith and Dixie onto Starkey Blvd. up to where some water was stashed at 2.75 miles.  Didn't have any takers for going farther (Dixie thought about it), so I continued on and ran to almost the end of Alico Pass and then headed back.  Picked up the pace a little bit after the stop, then a little bit more for the next 4 miles, with one of those miles at 6:55, and the others between 7:15 and 7:20.  Legs still felt a little bit heavy but much better compared to yesterday.

Went home, cooled off a little bit in the pool, and then tackled the second Inflict workout for me this week.  It was tough but I made it through ok and felt really good when it was all done.

Day off work today so I slept in until 6:45.  Looped around the neighborhood on my bike for a warm up.  Then ran a quick out and back.  I looked at my time at the turn around point and then tried to beat the time without pushing the pace hard, just a little faster.  Out was 18:55 and back was 16:51.  It was a good run, just long enough to wake me up and short enough so I won't feel worn out for tomorrow's long run.

Average pace: 8:00

I'm going to try and stick with 6 days and see how that goes.

HAPPY JULY 4th EVERYONE!

I was a little bit tired this morning, 5:05 came pretty quickly.  Jenny got home at about 2:20 from her midnight run 10K.  She did well, placing 2nd in her age group but was a little disappointed with her time, but not too bad due to the heat and how dark it was during one of the sections.  I was able to get back to sleep after talking to her for a bit about the race.  It was fun to hear about the race even though I knew that I'd have to get up soon, but I figured I could sneak in a nap later in the day.

 I went to Starkey Park this morning to meet up with the group, which I knew would be smaller than usual today because some people have gone out of town, some people raced the midnight race 10k/5k last night and others were going to run a 5K this morning, but we still had a pretty good sized group.  I got there a little bit late because I had to go back and get my Garmin which I forgot.  I thought about running with no garmin, but didn't even have a watch with me.  I showed up just before 6:00.  Keith, Jorge, Victoria, Jenny, and Laura were all set to get started.  I was almost ready but was waiting for my Garmin to get its signal.  The others had just left when one more car pulled in.   I thought it was Dixie at first as he was a definite maybe for showing up this morning.  But, instead, it was Andrea.

So, Andrea and I set out together to try and catch up to the group, which we did just past 3 miles.  It was a little bit faster than my usual starting out pace.  We all stopped briefly at the 4 mile water stop, then continued on.  Jenny and Keith turned back at 5 miles, and then Victoria and Jorge turned back at 6 miles.  Andrea was up for whatever, so she continued with me to the 7 mile point.  At the turn around we were at a 7:56 pace.  We picked it up a little bit for the return trip.  The sun was coming up at this point, temp was nearly 80 degrees with 95% humidity but at least there were some clouds, and a good portion of the trail has some shade, so it certainly wasn't the worst conditions ever.

We made it back to the parking lot and ended up with an average pace of 7:47.  Andrea said this was her longest run ever.

There were about a dozen or so of us for social hour.  Someone (probably Barb) had brought some colorful 4th of July mylar balloons.  I chugged a bunch of gatorade, had one of Victoria's home made apple oatmeal muffins and some of Jorge's authentic Columbian coffee.

I'm pretty happy with my miles for the week and the fact that I ran 6 days and do not feel beaten up at all.