The Long Run

Run around the neighborhood, easy pace, great weather, nothing to complain about!

Average pace: 7:58

Another good run.  Everything was mostly like yesterday, except a little bit farther and slightly faster overall.  Picked it up a bit for the last mile.

A lady walking her dog who Jenny and I see a lot asked me what happened to my running partner.  I told her about Jenny's race in San Francisco.

 So, before I forget, here is a quick recap of Jenny's race at the San Francisco Nike Women's Marathon

 Time: 3:42:59

Nearly 16 minutes faster than her last marathon, just 1 minute slower than her best time.  This course was pretty tough with two really big almost 300 foot hills and lots and lots of smaller ones.  There was pouring down rain for the last hour.  At mile 11 she lost the 3:40 pacer, slowed down a little bit but did not fall apart or fade. 

Way to go Jenny!

 My legs were started to feel a little worn out so I decided I would run a little bit shorter than the last two days and try and go a little bit slower or at least not try to go faster.  The run went pretty well and it seemed to help because I felt better after the run than before and felt good for the rest of the day.

Average pace: 8:16

Building on to what I did last week, I decided to do a similar workout but add a little bit more on to it.  I wasn't feeling overly energetic or enthusiastic for speed work but decided to just try and get the job done.  After all, it's not a race, you just have to put in the proper effort.

I warmed up with just over 2 miles of easy running, then got started.  Plan was to do 3 X 2mi at about 6:25 pace.  The first mile of the first repeat felt hard and was a little bit slower than planned but the rest of them went well.  They were hard also but were doable. Splits were:

1. 6:32, 6:23

2. 6:23,  6:22

3 6:16, 6:17

It felt similar to last week's 2 X 2 + 1, except the beginning of the second repeat felt harder mentally.  The last mile of the last repeat felt the best.

I'm hoping these 2 mile repeats are what I need for the half marathon on 10/31.

Average pace: 7:24

I was going to just run with Jamie, but even though Jenny had just gotten back from her marathon, she was ready.  The three of us ran together for about 3 miles, then Jamie ran together for the remainder.  Another beautiful morning for running.  Kept the pace pretty easy.

Average pace: 8:44

Met up with Dixie in Starkey park a little bit after 6:00 this morning.  Also saw Mike who was starting out, so we ran together for about 5 miles.  Matt joined up with us along the way also.  Dixie and I turned around about 8 miles out then turned around.  We kept the pace easy for most of the running but started speeding up on the way back.  With 3 miles left, decided to try some faster miles, ran the last 3 just under 6:30 pace.  Just before I started the faster stuff I told myself that anything below 6:40 was fine and didn't think I'd be able to go much faster than that.  But, once I started , the pace felt good and I managed to hold it til the end.

Average pace: 7:48

Didn't spend too much time at the social hour but just enough to talk to a few people and congratulate David on his awesome run at Bay State Marathon.