The Long Run

7.09 mi, 1:05:40, 9:16 avg

Ran with Joe and Jamie in the neighborhood.  Joe had been missing for a bit due to a family loss so was good to have him back for a run.  Nice conversational pace, about 6.5 miles together, then I woke up Andy, then went back out for a short cool down.  No HR monitor for most of the run.

PM

2.14 mi, 22:28, 10:29 avg

Went to the Y to take Thomas to swim team.  Did a short weight work out and did a short run on the treadmill wearing the heart rate monitor.  Went much better this time.  Start out slow, ramped up to about 9:40 pace until HR went to 133, then backed off.  Eventually settled into a 10:10 pace which I did most of the run.  After hitting two miles, slowed down to reach a 120 HR which was about 11:20 pace.

7.07 mi, 1:08:48, 9:44 avg, 128 BPM

Ran at the Y with the Striders, but mostly on my own.  Wore HR monitor and kept it under 132.  Felt pretty good and glad I was able to stay in the 9:xx range while keeping my HR.  Very light rain on and off for most of the run which was more pleasant than annoying.

7.25 mi, 58:35, 8:05 avg

First tempo run in quite some time.  Warmed up with about 1.5 miles easy, then ran 4 miles with a goal of anything under 7:00 pace.

First mile was good, stopped briefly to open a gate on the second mile (maybe a better route next time), hung on through the third mile ok, and then at the beginning of the 4th mile had to get through the gate again which was easier leaving so I didn't stop my watch and just made up the time.  During most of the 4th mile I was slower than 7:00 pace but gradually picked it up and was at about a 7:05 pace with about 0.1 left to go, then I concentrated on "quick feet" and out of nowhere threw in "happy feet" into my internal chant and then found myself finishing mile 4 at 6:55 (although it seemed much harder than it should have been).

Tempo splits: 6:46, 6:53, 6:50, 6:55

7.21 mi, 1:15:43, 10:30 avg, 134 BPM

Ran in the nbhd.  Did HR pace under 132 for first 4 miles and part of 5th, kept on getting slower and slower so just decided to run easy-by-feel.   So, still an easy run overall, just not as "scientific" or measurable.

8.56, 1:13:51, 8:38 avg

Ran with Joe and Jamie and also was pacer for Jamie's 4 mile tempo run which was supposed to be at 7:50 pace for 4 miles.  Somewhere in the 3rd mile we took a short break and then started up again with the last 2 miles being a bit faster than planned: 7:44, 7:48, 7:37, 7:31

Then did some cool down miles and I ran the long way around the loop to get over 8 miles.

I felt really good about this run because the 4 miles where I was doing the pacing felt really good and easy.  Although Wednesday's run was at a faster pace I felt better about this run for some reason.

20.3 mi, 2:59:18, 8:49 avg

Ran on the Suncoast trail near Brooksville, starting from the SR50 parking lot.  It was a great slightly cool and overcast morning and the parking lot wasn't desserted so it didn't look eerie this time.  Ran south for one mile, then turned around, quickly grabbed my fuel belt without stopping my watch and continued north for 9 miles.  Plan was to keep it slow and steady until turning around.  First mile was 10:15, next 10 miles were between 9:07 and 9:41. 

Once I hit the turn around picked it up to 8:30, then just stayed steady, until last two miles which were 7:39 and 7:38.  I took no stretching breaks or any kind of stopping.  I did slow down to a walk twice when taking power bar gels but just long enough to open it up and swallow it without spilling.

Overall, it was a pretty good run.  Not my fastest 20 but maybe one of my steadiest.