The Long Run

Last night I was battling a minor cold, but this morning I felt a bit more back to normal.  Woke up at 6:05, went to the Y and did a warm up on the bike and some ab work before heading outside.  Decided to split up the run between inside and outside like I often do on Mondays but opted for the outside portion first before it got too warm.

Pretty good run outside of 4.4 miles at 7:55 pace average.

Back inside, got onto a treadmill for another 4.8 miles, felt good after the warm up run outside.  Did some bursts of speed on the treadmill at varying times and speeds with recoveries at about a 7:30 pace.

Cooled down a bit then did some leg extenstions and lat pull downs.  Saving the real workout for tomorrow's session of Inflict.

Nice run with Jenny this morning.  8.25 miles @ 8:39 pace ( my Garmin 201 said 8.39 @ 8:31, but is not as accurate as her 205, so I'll go with hers).  Humidity was slightly down and there was a small breeze.  We started a little bit later (6:00) which was nice.  Looped around the neighborhood, then headed out towards the golf course, back towards home and another loop around the neighborhood.  I felt like going farther, maybe doing another mile, but I had Inflict workout lined up next and am in the process of shaking the remnants of a cold, so 8.25 was plenty good for today.

Did the Inflict workout (a little over 30 minutes, not counting warm up).  This one was better than the one I did last week because it was not all legs, good mix of upper, lower, and core.

10.12 miles @ 7:52 pace

Ran by myself around the neighborhood and out by the golf course.  A little warmer out than yesterday (partially because I left a little bit later).  Started out and felt good, but then after about 1.5 miles my legs felt kind of dead.  Slowed down a bit and loosened up eventually feeling better.  No specific distance in mind except for at least 8.  When I get back near my house, kept on going on another out and back and ended up with a little over 10.  Last 1.5 miles at about a 7:10 pace so I must have finally woken up.   It was also hot and sunny at the end so I jumped into the pool for a bit and followed up with a little extra stretching.

8.78 miles @ 7:40 average.  77° , 93% humidity

Thursday morning "race to the weekend" with the Striders.  Informal get together put together by David meeting at the Longleaf pool area.  New start time is 5:30 (5:25 meet up).  Guys were vastly outnumbered this morning.  We all started out together.  It was a slightly faster starting out pace for me but not too fast.  Andrea and Casi however had a different "easy" pace and they soon put a big gap between themselves and the rest of the group.  They have no problem getting onto a faster pace right away.

David, Keisha, and I were out on the Starkey Blvd. bike path and Alex caught up to us.  We made it to the bridge, which was the turnaround point for 6 miles.  I was planning on doing 8 but decided to turn around and do my miles back in the neighborhood.  Decided to pick up the pace.  Keisha caught up with me and we ran the 2.5 miles back at a mid 7:30ish pace.  Back to my truck to grab my drink bottle.  My garmin said 6.17 miles.  As I was grabbing my bottle, Andrea and Casi were just finishing up 7 miles!

I ran out another 2.5 miles and held onto just under a 6:50 pace, then cooled down about another tenth of a mile, followed by some walking. 

Headed back home after some quick socializing, then started on my second Inflict workout for the week.   I liked this workout because it had a good mix of exercises.  My favorite one was the push-up pull-up combo which consists of 2 push-ups, 2 pull-ups, repeat 10 times.  The tendon in my right arm which has been bothering me since January is finally starting to get better as I was able to do just about every exercise (except had to go light on bicep curls).

Nice run this morning with cooperating temperatures.  I ran by myself around the neighborhood and over by the golf course.  First 3.5 miles felt relaxed and easy but faster,  until I stopped and looked at my garmin and saw that I wasn't really that fast, about 8:35, if just felt faster than that for some reason, but at least it felt easy.

Picked up the pace for the second half of the run into the 7:20's and finished the last half mile or so strong.

Average pace: 7:51

I'm not sure how I did it but I almost beat my highest mileage month, but my body feels more like I've run an average number of miles.  I think I'm starting to like the 6 days a week.

Ran at Starkey park again this Saturday.  Group of runners seems to be growing especially the ones starting at 6:00 in order to get some miles in before the sun comes up.  Started out with Eric and Mike.  Went pretty easy the first mile, a little faster the second mile, then continued to get a little bit faster.  Originally I had thought about doing just 12 today, then decided one more mile couldn't hurt.  When I got to the turn around point, decided to go a little bit farther to stay with Mike and Eric for 14.

Shortly after turning back and getting back into Starkey park from the Sucoast trail, I must have had a garmin malfunction because it said I ran that mile in 5:51, it was probably close to 7:00 but still a pretty good pace.

As we made it to the 4 mile water stop, there was a big gap between Eric and Mike and a big gap between Mike and myself.  I wasn't feeling quite as fast this week.  It was a good deal more humid than last week, certainly not the best running weather.   Eric did not stop at the 4 mile water, Mike stopped very briefly.  I stopped a little longer.  My heart rate was up and I needed to cool down.  David was turning around at 4 so I got going with him.  We picked up the pace on each mile back, going from 7:40's to 7:20's.  Finally, I did the last mile at 6:45 and finally was feeling good again.

Average pace: 7:23

This was a harder run than last week with faster starting out miles and faster overall pace, but less solid second half