The Long Run

I was supposed to meet Dixie this morning at 5:30ish to start running no later than 5:45 in the hilly neighborhood.  I set the time on my alarm clock but forgot to actually turn on the alarm.  The dog was on the bed this morning blocking my legs from stretching out, I went to move him and saw the time, 5:43! whoops.  Texted Dixie to say I couldn't make it since I had to get Jenny and the boys to the airport.  Fortunately since I had the day off I had plenty of time to do the run.  It's much nicer of course to finish the run first thing, but good to run at different times, also.

Got back home from the airport.  Headed over to the Y and did some warm up on the bike.  It was still raining a bit so I did some miles on the treadmill, 3.2 @ 8:00 pace.

Headed outside, rain had now stopped.  It was close to 12:00 now.  Normally that would be a horrible time of day to run in July but with all the rain it's been a bit cooler and the clouds kept the direct sun away.  Run felt pretty good, and soon was on a pretty nice pace.  Finished up with 9 strides at the end.

Average pace: 7:30

Did some weights afterward - leg extensions, curls, lat pull downs, bench press

Amazingly, this was one of the coolest mornings ever in July in Florida that I can remember.  It warmed up later in the day but not nearly as warm as in the northeast.

Ran by myself, first mile just under 9:00 and then all the rest slower than 8:00.  I felt like running a lot faster because of the cool weather but I have a pretty big run planned for tomorrow.  I still wasn't feeling that great when I woke up, but better than I did on Monday.  But the nice thing about recovery runs is you often feel much better at the end of the run (almost like a new person) than before it.  It worked that way today.

Average pace: 8:20

P.M. - I was going to do about 15 minutes of yoga, but I got sucked into the end of (last 15 minutes of so) "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", silly movie, but it sure helped relax me after what turned out to be a stressful day.  Did a few sun salutations, so I didn't completely blow it off.

Today's run was choose your own adventure: 1) hill repeats, 2) fartlek, or 3) goal pace run 7-10 miles.  fartlek sounded fun and hill repeats would have been good if I had had a 6-10% grade hill nearby and didn't want to do the treadmill.

I chose goal pace run.  Weather was pretty good, just a tad warmer than yesterday, a little bit of cloud cover and a light breeze, but still humid.  Warmed up with 1.8 miles easy running over to almost at Starkey Blvd to run on the bike path there.  Plan was to do the first mile a little bit slower, then get onto pace.  I felt great for the first 8 miles, last 2 weren't bad but were harder than the first 8. 

It was mostly uneventful except when I was near my turnaround point there were three dogs out with their owner.  One of the dogs was running toward me and of course it was the largest dogs of the three.  The owner didn't seem too concerned and I've run by this house before with the dogs out and they usually just run to the edge of the property.  But for some reason, I figured I'd just turn around.  So, that was the big excitement.

I've never done a 10 mile goal pace run.  I was a little faster than I should have been but I'm happy with it.

Splits: 6:54, 6:42, 6:46, 6:37, 6:36, 6:37, 6:46, 6:44, 6:43, 6:46

Cooled down with a little over 2 miles to get back home.

Ran at Longleaf with the striders this morning at 5:30.  Great catching up with a number of people I hadn't seen for a bit.  Ran with Dixie and others for parts of the run including David, Alex, Jamie, Rudy, and some others.  It was another cool morning, about 72 degrees, thankful for each non-hot morning we've been getting.

Average pace: 8:00

PM - took the dogs for a walk then did my Wii yoga routine

Slept in a little bit until 6:10, although the dogs were stirring a bit before that so I didn't fully sleep in.  I took it easy the first mile, but the second and third miles I sped up a little bit but felt a little sluggish.  Shortly after that I started feeling more warmed up.  Saw some of Jenny's friends and said hi briefly before continuing on.  Weather was a little warmer than yesterday, but still in the nice zone.

Toward the end I picked it up for the last half mile for a 6:30 pace.  I was looking at my time and not my distance when I finished.  I might have gone the extra 0.05 miles had I known I was that close to 10!

PM - similar to last night, took the dogs for a walk and did my wii yoga routine, then organized my stuff for tomorrow's long run.

17.7 miles @ 7:50 average pace including last 7.6 miles at 6:45 pace

I did not manage to fall asleep until 12:00 last night and was feeling a bit tired when I woke up at 5:00 this morning.  Met Dixie over at Longleaf about 5:40.  David came by and grabbed our bags of stuff for after the run so we'd have dry things after the run.

Started out nice and slow.  The cooler weather we were having earlier this week was mostly gone but at least it was still below 80 degrees.  Made it into the park and detoured off the trail to the restrooms.  Outside the restrooms is a water faucet, but the water is of questionable quality and warm, but I was debating whether or not to top off my water bottles based on Jenny's experience last week finding no water available on the trail.  Decided to take my chances.

Continued on the main trail.  Saw a turkey on the trail (I later found out was a female turkey) who did not want to get out of our way and refused to leave until we almost ran over her. 

I stopped to check out one of the water stops - mostly empty, continued on to the 4 mile point.  There were some other runners who saw us heading to the water cooler - they said no water today or at the 5 mile spot.  At this point I had about 9 oz of slightly warm accelerade on me but figured I could make due with that.  Dixie turned around and found some other people to run with so he could get in 14 miles.

I headed out a little bit further before starting to MP miles.  Decided I would do the last 7 and not the last 8 miles to adjust for the weather and water.  Got onto my pace and it didn't feel bad at all.  The heat, the lack of water and the sun wasn't bothering me.  It was a rare and cherished run where things just started to click.  I finished the 7 miles at MP but still had a little ways to go to get to the parking lot, stayed on pace instead of slowing down, so ended up with 7.6 miles instead of the adjusted plan of 7 miles.

Splits: 6:55, 6:40, 6:39, 6:40, 6:42, 6:45, 6:41, 0.6 @ 6:37

Hung out for a bit at the social hour.  Carol had brought a big tub filled with ice blocks, water, and hand towels - very refreshing!  The "blocks" of ice were actually more of a cylinder shape, so I asked Carol where she got the ice from, she made them using her grand kids beach buckets.

I talked to Dixie about his run, and for the first time in several long runs he did not fade out at the end but finished the last 4 miles well under 8:00 pace.

Got a ride back to my car from Paul, then headed home for stretching, some relaxing and a lot of cleaning before the family gets back this evening!