The Long Run

7.05 mi, 1:07:43, 9:36 avg, elev gain 247 feet

Today is the first day of being back on a marathon training plan, 24 weeks long, possibly targeting the Tomoka marathon.  I did not want to run very far.  7 miles is not that far but it seemed impossibly far starting out.  But, one foot in front of the other, felt better after about 2.5 miles and slowly gained some movement (first half mile was like 11:30ish pace where I just felt stuck).

So, ending up at 9:36 average is not bad - training pace range for "easy" is 9:03-9:57 which is based on 3 mile time trial I did last week.

The weather was amazing.  Sleep was not so good, baby slept pretty well then I woke up startled at 6:25 when a vase accidentally got knocked off and triggered the glass break alarm (one of the kids was up early to finish homework).  Fell back asleep for a bit and then woke up feeling less rested.  

I did postpone strides to tomorrow as a compromise.  Without the schedule I probably would have only run 3-4 miles this morning.

7.49 mi, 1:08:37, 9:09 avg

Day 2 of the marathon plan week #1.  Another 7 miles "easy" followed by 6x100m strides which I was supposed to do yesterday but moved today.

Ran from my house, south down the trail, past Lake Dan, and then a tiny bit onto Tarpon Ave. to get to 3.5 miles.  First mile, slower but not too bad at 10:07, then the rest were in the 9's execpt for one mile at 8:56, felt pretty steady overall.  Weather was a little bit warm but cloudy and some breeze so overall pretty nice.  Got the strides average pace down to 5:42, a little bit better than what I thought I could do.

They are continuing to replace uneven/cracked slabs of sidewalk on Robert Trent Jones Blvd (which for the past few years have had orange paint to warn about the uneven spots), so had to run around onto the street on the latest section to be repaired.

5.05 mi, 46:30, 9:12 avg

Day 3 of the training plan.  It's probably mostly in my head but I'm already feeling more fit (even though it's not completely different than what I've been doing all along).  5 good miles, from my house and over to the trail running north until it gets to 54 which is almost 2.5 miles, so then a little bit more on the sidewalk so I don't have to cross the road.   Weather was great again today, fallish.

10.02 mi, 1:31:01, 9:05 avg, elev gain 229 feet

Day 4 of the program.  "Easy" pace 10 mile run in Palm Harbor, heading up Belcher, past Klosterman and left onto Curlew Place to the Pinellas Trail and then south.  Stopped at Conservation Park for water about 5.4 miles into the run.  Continued down the trail, crossing Alt 19 at the crosswalk near the Casa Ludivico and made my way back to Westlake taking the cut through by the Y.  Had to overshoot the house a little bit to get the last 0.2 miles.

Weather was good and overall the run went well but it was heading toward not being easy (although Whoop app says average heart rate was 138 which seemed surprisingly lower than I thought it would be.  Hmm, maybe it was the beet juice I took this morning).

7.50 mi, 1:06;43, 8:54 avg  (HR 133 bpm from Whoop app)

Day 5 of sticking to the plan, one more day this week to finish week 1

Ran from my house, south down the trail past Lake Dan, down to Keystone Road and just far enough to hit about 3.5 miles before turning around. Day was pretty nice, saw a gopher tortoise hanging out by the side, enjoying the day as much as a tortoise does.

Got back to my house, grabbed an ice pop and ate part of it (came back for the rest later), back down the street a little ways to where someone has a hash mark painted, then 50m, then 100m (painted by either a runner or maybe utility workers I guess).  6x100m with an average pace of 5:39.

This will be my biggest mileage week in a while, but it feels like mileage I should have been running all along (except for week of baby and right after, but things have settled down with almost near normal sleep at night now).

12.02 mi, 1:50:46, 9:13 avg, elev gain 251 feet

Day 6, end of week 1 of the plan.

Last week  I watched Jacob run at a meet in Bradenton so I didn't get to run until later.  I thought I would be running earlier, but it turned out I'd help volunteer at a race, glad I did.  Xanadu racing was doing a 5k/10k from Indian Rocks Beach starting at a place called Caddy's.  They were donating money to Aubrey's cheer team the Panthers and were asking for volunteers to help with the race.  Jessica, Charlotte and I left the house just before 7:00 and helped out from 7:30 to almost 10:00 when they said we could go.

Jessica drove me a few miles north to Sand Key Park where I changed, filled up my water bottle and got going.  North out of Sand Key Park, up and over the Sand Key bridge, through Clearwater Beach, across the causeway and up and over the bridge.  I stopped briefly in Coachman Park and had part of a cliff energy bar, it was good.

I was afraid the run would be horrible, as it was getting later in the day and I didn't get much sleep the night before.  But it seemed to be getting a little bit better each mile.

After going through downtown Clearwater, got on the Pinellas Trail going north and soon I was running in the 8's, had been thinking I'd be looking to stay any faster than a 10 minute pace.

I did have a reward in mind. I was going to finish at 7th Sun Brewery in Dunedin.  That kind of helped to keep me going.  But also, I felt kind of like some fitness was coming back.

Passed by Dunedin and kept on going north, almost to Curlew Road and then turned around, back south.  Made it to 7th sun but had to go a little bit farther to make it to 12 miles.

I'd made it, and felt pretty good.  Jessica, who had been walking on the Dunedin Causeway came by and picked me up in about 20 minutes or so.

Oveall, it was a pretty fun morning.