The Long Run

8.78 mi,  1:36:17, 10:57 avg, elev gain 228 feet, HR 143 bpm

8ish easy miles plus 6x100m strides at the end.  Headed south out of Westlake Village and over to the Pinellas Trail, then south until Curlew Road.  Was trying to keep it easy and relaxed but heart rate up a little bit higher than I wanted.  When I got to Curlew Road I thought I'd go into Publix to see if they had a water fountain.  Did not see one so just used the one outside on the trail near the street corner.

8.17 mi, 1:09:07, 8:27 avg, HR 151 bpm

4 mi tempo run with 2 mile warm up and 2 mile cool down.  Ran on the trail next to Lake Dan preserve.  Goal was 7:36 pace.

Able to hit each of my splits (7:26, 7:22, 7:19, 7:16) and slightly faster but also resisted thinking I should run them much faster.  It was challenging as-is.  Run was pretty good overall.

9.07 mi, 1:32:13, 10:10 avg, elev gain 192 feet, HR 131 bpm

Out and back run, from Westlake Village to Conservation Park just north of Wall Springs Park.  Took Pennsylvania Ave over to Pinellas Trail and headed north.  Shortly after getting on the trail saw a streak of lightning ahead with an almost immediate boom.  Got off the trail and found some shelter outside someone's garage.  Waited for a minute, didn't see anything else and it seemed to be passing.  Made it up to the park, rain started coming down steady for a little bit and then stopped.  The air cooled down a bit.  Waited a little bit, got going again.  

Made it to the underpass where a couple of cyclists were hanging out, thought about stopping again.  Got to Wall Springs.  More lightning, so found some shelter and waited for a bit.  It finally seemed to pass, so kept going and eventually made it back home.  

It was a little bit more excitement than I wanted!

9.48 mi, 1:24:07, 8:52 avg, (no heart rate strap today)

8x800m workout with 2 mile warm up and 2 mile cool down.  2 minute rest/jog between repeats.  Goal of 3:25 (6:50 pace).

Ran from my house to the new trail near Lake Dan preserve, warming up for 2 miles.

Ran two repeats going south, two heading back north, and then repeated for a total of 8.  Did this so I could grab a sip of gatorade if needed.  Was able to make them all within goal but not much faster (which is ok), splits ranged from 3:18 to 3:23

It's been a while since I've done 8 of anything  (last thing I can remember was doing 8 (or more) 400's while training for Jacksonville Marathon.

Got the job done today.

7.46 mi, 1:16:32, 10:15 avg, HR 127 bpm

Rainy morning run from my house out onto the trail next to Lake Dan preserve, then back the way I came.  Finished up on the street near my house with 6x100m strides.

Good morning run, happy with heart rate.

18.19 mi, 2:51:43 , 9:26:41

Long run and first Beer Mile

I had 18 miles scheduled and Escape Brewery was having their first ever beer mile which was at 9:00 am.  So, I made an adventure out of it.  Left the house in Palm Harbor at 5:50 am, heading north on Belcher until Klosterman, then over to US 19.  This was probably the worst part of the run but it wasn't that bad.  Traffic was still light and the sidewalk is set back pretty far from the road.  But some of the sidewalk was uneven and there were lots of parking lots to cross where someone might not have seen me although I was wearing a headlamp and green safety vest.

Also, mindful of my time, I did start out easy but slowly worked my way toward a 9:30 pace.  

Turning east onto Keystone Road, there were hints of light.  The sidewalk is extra wide and then I was on the Pinellas Trail which was even nicer.  Crossed over East Lake with no problems, and soon I was turning north onto the new trail along Lake Dan preserve.  Felt like I was almost home.

I swung by Escape to make sure race was at 9:00 and not 8:30.  Still had 2.5 more miles to do so stopped by my house to grab a gatorade, did a loop in the neighborhood and then back to Escape.

Got my bib, waited a little, warmed up a bit.  The race was very, very casual.  Original plan was for 4 laps around the little strip plaza but they couldn't do that for some reason, so they changed it to 8 laps in the front parking lot.  They had a table set up with little dixie cups of beer (those little 3oz ones, filled maybe 2/3 so about 2 ounces or maybe a little less).

I ran a little faster than expected, about a 7:31 pace, not bad for making 9 stops.  When I finished the 8th lap my garmin said 0.89.  I asked the guy in charge if I should do one more lap, he said if  I wanted to.  I might have won the race but no one was keeping time or places, it was all for fun.  I think there were about 25 of us.

We each got three tokens good for $1 off.

After the race, it started to rain heavily.  Earlier in the morning there were some light sprinkles.  The rain had held off.

Headed back home, showered and then got a ride from Andy back to Palm Harbor and we also grabbed lunch at Grain and Berry.   So, it was a pretty fun morning.