The Long Run

AM: 3.14 mi, 28:48, 9:10 avg

PM: 4.05 mi, 38:07, 9:24 avg

Did not get up early enough and wanted to go with Jessica for Charlotte (Dani)'s checkup, so started off the day with a run up and down part of Alderman and some of Lakeview drive for 3.14 miles.

Later in the afternoon, picked up Stella and drove her back to my house to stay with Andy.  While getting ready to run, Andy asked if I was bringing Stella, which I wasn't planning on but didn't have a good reason not to.  So, Stella and I ran two miles out, down the trail near Lake Dan and then back.  We did take a few sniff breaks but we kept a pretty good running pace while running.  She seemed pretty happy when we got back.  My arm was kind of sore from my flu shot this morning which I'm glad is out of the way.

I was supposed to do 7 miles plus strides.  This is week 2, day 1 of the plan.  It was a small deviation but the miles are checked off at least.

7.03 mi, 1:02:14, 8:51 avg, elev gain 248 feet

Did some loops in Westlake Village.  First up was a 2.5ish mile loop, followed by a slightly different loop around 3.1 miles, then continued on the original loop far enough so that when I turned back and arrived back at the house would have 7 miles.  I was able to do this run without almost no stopping at all (very brief stop about 0.25 mile into run but nothing after that).  With these Westlake Village loops I'm tempted to stop after 1 or 2 loops, even if they are the shorter ones.  Getting a little discipline added back in.  Although, the perfect weather didn't hurt.

Then finished up with 6x100m-ish strides 0.43 miles, 2:23, 5:30 average pace

Maybe strides are the key.

5.06 mi, 44:52, 8:51 avg, elev gain 170 feet

Week 2, Day 3 of the plan.  5 miles at "easy" 9:02-9:57, so this was a little bit faster than the easy range but nothing too crazy.  First mile was 9:25.  This is an improvement, going faster than 10:00 pace in the first mile (have sometimes struggled to do 11:00 or faster).  I need some warmup, any warmup better than nothing, so here's today's warmup, forward leg kicks, 10 each side, 20 jumping jacks, high knee drills, hurdle trail leg forward and backward 5 each side, and a little bit of walking.  It doesn't seem like much but it does make a big difference.

Ran a t-shaped route in Westlake Village with the t's hat run on Alderman and a little bit on Belcher and Omaha to make it a fancier "T"

10.01 mi, 1:28:03, 8:47 avg, elev gain 139 feet

Day 4 of week 2 of the plan, longer mid week run, did 5 miles from Westlake Village working my way over to the Pinellas Trail heading north.  I was carrying a 10oz drink bottle with water.  Stopped at Conservation Park and mixed the packet of Liquid IV into fresh cold water from the fountain.  This was my only stop (except for some street crossings waiting for cars which were almost not stops at all) about 4.2 miles into the run.

Continued north another 0.9 miles then turned back, holding steady with miles 5,6,7,8, and 9 all at 8:36 (this was without looking at my watch except each time the mile beeped), 10th mile was a little bit faster at 8:11.

A little faster than prescribed range, I'll keep it in range for tomorrow's run which will be ok to be slower as it will finish up with 6x100m strides.

Weather was amazing again, ran shirtless, was almost chilly feeling.

7.05 mi, 1:05:13, 9:15 avg

0.4 mi @ 5:30 pace 6x100m strides

Ran from Foxwood, some of the miles with Joe who I haven't run with in forever.  Calf was bothering him so he turned back early.  I ran down the trail heading south until Keystone and ran a little bit there to get to 3.5 miles.

Returned back and finished up with 6x100m using the mysterious 0-50-100 hash marks painted on the road.

One more day sticking to the plan (week 2, day 5)

12.03 mi, 1:45:47, 8:47 avg

Week 2, day 6 - 12 mile long run, goal pace 9:02-9:57

I pushed the pace a little faster to make sure I was back in time.  Jessica wanted to get to a 9:00 body combat class at the Y.  No reason I couldn't be back in time with 7:00 am start which is not that early and 12 miles isn't really that long but of course it's not nothing.

Decided on a southbound out and back route, starting out from Westlake Village, straight shot on Alderman, across Alt19 to Crystal Beach Ave to the Pinellas Trail.  The intersection of Curlew and Alt19 would be just over 5 miles.  To get to 6 miles I decided on a left at Curlew so I wouldn't be stuck waiting for the traffic light - although going right would be more scenic.

I didn't know how long it would take me to get locked into a pace.  First mile was 10:36, but next mile was 9:09 which felt pretty good, so I decided to stick around that effort.

Effort slowly crept up along with the pace with the remaining miles between 8:44 and 8:18 (mile 12).

Made just one stop to top off water bottle at the Alt19/Curlew water fountain while on the return portion.

Arrived back at the house well before 9:00.