The Long Run

AM - 6.01 mi, 54:45, 9:07 avg

Ran with Andy and Thomas (and cross country team) at McKethan lake park just north of Brooksville.  Kind of an adventure getting there.  Went to wrong place for caravan (wrong Target) so drove up by ourselves and got there early but gate to park was still locked.  Began doubting I was at the right place (although I had been there at least twice for the Red Mule 5k), tried a different entrance which showed a connecting road.  Road was dirt road and not really drivable with my little car (would have been fine for truck).  Got a stick stuck underneath which was dragging so stopped and climbed around to pull it out.  About ten minutes later I was getting bit by a large ant.

Eventually met up with everyone.  I did a couple loops with Thomas then some more on my own.  Was reasonably not too hot when under the shade but pretty hot in the few sunny sections.  Was planning on running a little more but already kind of late so left at it 6 miles for the morning.

PM -2.08 mi, 16:37, 7:59 avg, HR 125 avg, 141 max

Second running attempt, about 8:40 at night.  Rain was rolling in along with a little bit of thunder but tried to squeeze some in.  Just got a little bit wet.  I wore the heart rate strap but didn't look at it while running.  The second mile was a 7:41 but the average was only 132 bpm, only 1 beat outside of MAF range.  If this pace is true then that's a huge PR for MAF running.  I'll have to see if I can come close to repeating this.

AM - 10.56 mi, 1:36:06, 9:06 avg, HR 128 avg, 136 max

This morning's 77 degrees felt cooler than normal. It would have been a good day for tempo or speed work but still sticking to HR training a bit longer.  Ran at Longleaf where I did a little over 8 miles.  Was able to string together even more sub 9:00 miles while sticking to MAF range (121-131).  Finished up two miles at home.

I'll have to look back to last fall but I think this might be my best MAF run ever.

Unfornately, Andy missed his run with the group.  He had slept through his alarm, although he did do some miles by himself after I got home and will join the team for their evening run tonight.

PM - 2.6 mi, 24:20, 9:22 avg

Ran on the treadmill at the Y after doing a warmup on the elliptical and an abbreviated weight workout (no bench press tonight, they've both been busy on the recent nights I've been there).

AM - 9.53 mi, 1:19:00, 8:18 avg (no HR today)

Ran from my house to the new park to do 5 x 1k repeats around the small lakes.  Today's gift was nice 73 degree starting temperatures and a slight breeze.  It felt nice yesterday, but was a little bit warmer so I'm glad I waited until today.  Although I'm concentrating on base building I want to do a little bit of concentrated effort on 5k training so I can run 5k's and evaluate my fitness.   Park is about two miles away, so ran that at an easy pace, then speed warmed up with 3 25 second strides to goal pace.

Since I've had two 5ks recently under 20 minutes and two over 20 minutes I set a goal pace as 6:26 (or 4 minutes per 1k repeat) and ideally wanted to come in maybe 5 seconds faster.

Trying to hit the pace by feel I ended up faster.  It's hard to adjust downward without going too far down and since I might fade toward the end I decided to just go with the pace.  If I ended up too slow I'd try to at least hit the 6:21-6:26 goal.

Results exceeded goal: 3:49 (6:10 pace), 3:34 (5:45), 3:46 (6:04), 3:35 (5:46), 3:48 (6:08)

Jogged back home and felt good.  Maybe it is too early to tell, but I'm coming up on nearly a month of mostly heart rate training (aka easy running) and it might be starting to pay off already.

 PM - 2.33 mi, 21:19, 9:10 avg, HR 125 avg, 136 max

Short run around the neighborhood loop after dinner, and after a stick shift lesson for Andy (he can at least get to where he needs to go if he has to and should be pretty smooth with a little more practice).  Cooled down nicely just before I started running due to some rain nearby but not so close we actually got any here.

10.17 mi, 1:33:45, 9:13 avg, HR 128 avg, 137 max

Another easy paced heart rate run and fortunately once again a relatively cool morning (for which I am thankful, especially with several in a row now).  Started near Longleaf and did out and back run to Aristide neighborhood.  Pace not quite as fast as Tuesday but still pretty decent.

After grabbing the last cup of coffee from social hour headed home and ran two more miles by my house.   Glad to see Andy had left and did not oversleep meeting the CC team.  Woke up Tom and he did his miles in the neighborhood while I was getting ready for work.

13.12 mi, 1:58:59, 9:04 avg (no HR today)

Ran with Jamie and Renee on the Suncoast bike trail south to the Upper Tampa Bay trail, out and back route.  Pretty decent temperature but a little warm on the sections with no shade.  Stayed at a pretty steady pace (except for a post pit stop pick up to catch back up).  Was nice to get a mid week medium long run.  Pace felt pretty good but I'm sure I was probably out of maf zone for at least some of it.

Wore new Skechers Go run sonic 2 - pretty good but still like the original GoRuns (which seem to be hard to find).

16.4 mi, 2:31:42, 9:15 avg (no HR)

Started out just after 5:30 from Longleaf and ran up to Starkey park (with a short out and back into Aristide so I'd have at least 6 miles before the park).  Met Jamie in the parking lot just before 6:45 and then we did 5 more out and then back for 10 more miles.  Picked up the pace and ran the last mile fast at 6:56 pace.  Weather was ok and was pretty happy that I'm not feeling dinged up after running over 70 miles this week and was able to do a pretty good pace for the last mile