The Long Run

Challenging Monday morning run.  I was feeling a little bit junked up from weekend fun when I woke up this morning.  Also, thinking about the miles ahead for the week.  But, I managed to get today's run finished and felt good at the end.

Went to the Y and warmed up inside.  First, did 10 minutes on the bike, then some crunches and stretching followed by 3.6 miles on the treadmill at about an 8:20 pace.  Legs, especially shins were tight at the begining but got better after 2 miles.

It was chilly outside so it was good that I was warmed up.  I was maybe a little bit underdressed as it was 49°, and being so used to the heat it was a minor shock at first.  After a mile or so the colder temps wasn't an issue and I started to feel good.  Took it one mile at a time until I had less than 3 miles left before I really started thinking about how much I had left.   It's odd how running 13 miles on a Monday seems so much different than 13 on a Saturday. 

Average pace: 7:30

P.M. - Did my Inflict workout at home with Jenny, good to get that out of the way a day early, leaving just a run tomorrow.

Feel better about the week now.

Forgot to blog yesterday (Tues), trying to catch up today.

I ran with Jenny around the neighborhood on our usual routes.  It was nice and cool this morning, maybe some place in the 50's, perfect for running.  We ran 9 miles together and the run felt really good.

After running together, I continued on to get 3 more miles in but sometime during the last two miles I started feeling a little worn and achey, nothing terrible but just didn't feel great.  Maybe feeling the effects of the previous evening's Inflict workout.

Average pace: 8:31

Fortunately I had a massage scheduled for later in the day which would hopefully help fix things a bit.

Good tempo run this morning.  Goal was 7 @ 6:37 pace.  Weather was still pleasant although temps had crept up a few more degrees from yesterday morning.

I did part of my warmup with Jenny before I headed out of the neighborhood over towards the bike trail on Starkey Blvd.  I was feeling much better this morning than I was yesterday so I was hoping that would translate into making my goals for the day.

Since I had gotten a fairly early start, about half the tempo portion was in darkness which made it a little bit harder to do - I couldn't see the Garmin very well to check my pace (had to turn the backlight on each time) and I was little bit worried I might not see debris on the trail until it was too late.  At one point I did very slightly roll my ankle when I stepped into some sort of depression, fortunately nothing bad happened but it did get me worried.

Anyway, the tempo portion went well and I didn't get hit with feelings of wanting to quit.  Splits were even at first with the final two miles faster:

6:36, 6:35, 6:35, 6:33, 6:33, 6:25, 6:13

Whew! glad to get that one done.  I have a few more tempo runs scheduled before the marathon but they will start to get shorter (but a little faster).

After the tempo portion my next mile was nice and easy.  Final mile, I picked it up but not on purpose.

I accompanied Jenny on her tempo run this morning.  She had to do 8 @ 8:21 plus warmup and cool down.  Weather was nice and the run went pretty well.  We didn't really have many glitches this morning.  Except, during the 2nd mile a little white dog came running after us yapping.  Usually dogs seem to stop once they get to their property line.  But, this one kept on going and I was afraid he would get too far from home so I ran towards the dog while Jenny kept on going.  The dog turned around and eventually made it home.  I had to catch up with Jenny which wasn't easy because the gap had grown a lot while I was dealing with the yappy dog.

That was it for the excitement.  The rest of the run was nice and Jenny met her time goals with some room to spare (8:10 average).  

We did a slow mile to get back home then I did a little bit over 2 miles on my own with the last mile picked up to under 7 minute pace.

P.M. - I did my Inflict workout.  I almost didn't do it because just when I was starting the phone rang and I ended up being on the phone for a while, but it wasn't that late when I was done so I went ahead and did the workout, then ate dinner.

Nice run with Jenny this morning on the usual routes around the neighborhood.  Uneventful overall which is not bad at all.  Kept the pace a little bit slower.  Ran 9 miles together, then I did a little bit over 2 more miles by myself.

Average pace: 8:56

It was a great morning for a run.  The plan was to show up at Starkey, run with whoever was starting out at the same time and do 16 miles.  I showed up about 6:10 and the parking lot was filling up.  We had a pretty big group starting out, probably about 10 of us with David taking the lead.  Joe G was also there as well as Joe M, Keisha, Renee, Jorge, Victoria and others.  I was feeling a bit sluggish so was happy to just trail the pack for the first few miles.  We had a brief stop 4 miles then got going again.

Finally I was feeling ready to start running about 5 miles and started running a little bit faster than the group.  It was nice to have a good group of friends to start out with as this is always the hardest part for me when it is dark and I'm not warmed up yet.

As I was approaching my 8 mile turn around point I saw someone ahead who looked not too far away and seemed familiar.  I ran up ahead and as I got closer I realized that it was Eudair (one of my first running mentors).  I chatted with her for a bit and thought about running another mile with her but I was already at over 8.6 miles, so this was not going to be a 16 mile run.  But it was nice and I never know when I'll run into Eudair again so it was worth it.

I found my pace picking up after I turned around and did a couple miles at 7:0x pace.  Stopped briefly to top off my water bottles then got going again.  My pace continued to pick up and I thought I would do one fast mile and then back down.  After the next mile I backed down a little bit but was still holding a good pace so I finally decided to just finish off the run at goal marathon pace.   I ended up doing the last 6 miles each under 6:50 pace and was very happy about that.

As I got closer to the end I came upon the turn around point for a big cross country meet, so I tried to stay out of the way as best as possible.

Average pace: 7:28

Hung out for a bit at social hour then headed home for some delicious pumpkin and oatmeal pancakes that Jenny had waiting for me when I got home, mmmmmmmm.