The Long Run

Even cooler out this morning than Saturday morning but still very pleasant.  I warmed up  inside on the stationary bike first.   Headed outside at a slow pace.  Felt ok at first, like I would shake off my slugishness after 1 mile.  But it turned out that the first 4 miles were tiring.   Started feeling a little bit better after 4 but not great.   Finally, the last mile felt pretty good.   No huge pace pickups, which was ok for what was supposed to be an easy run.

Some of this could have been due to eating junky on Sunday with cake and pizza and other snacks throughout the day for my son's birthday party.   My youngest was up at 2:00 throwing up and is home from school this morning.   What were we thinking?

Went inside and finished up with some lower body weights.   Between the stationary bike warmups and the moderate weight training my knee is approaching 100%.  This is a big relief for me as I was afraid it was going to turn into a degenerative problem. 

Average pace: 8:31 

Asics 

Pretty good run this morning.   Tried doing a little bit more warm up before actually running.   That may have helped a little bit.  It may have also helped that I seem to do better on the second day of running after a day off.  On the negative side I did go out last night with work to dinner for some customers.  I did skip dessert and did not completely stuff myself.

I finally started running just before 7:00.  I decided on an out and back course from the Y to the horse farm.  One of my goals was to try to keep the mile splits from being too spread out.   I did pretty good with the first 7 miles between 8:52 and 8:10.  Picked up the last two miles.  The final mile was at a faster pace for most of it but I was slowed down by a traffic light.

The weather was great outside, a comfortably chilly 51° and nice and sunny.

Average pace: 8:03 

Jenny was all set to start her run when I got home so I biked the kids to school.  This worked out well since she ended up having a great run.

Brooks 

I woke up a little bit earlier this morning than the past few mornings, about 5:30.  I wanted to get in a warm up and get to the track early enough so I wouldn't have to worry about being there as the school hours approached - which I'm not exactly sure when that is.  The weather was again near perfect, a little warmer than yesterday, but still very pleasant at 60°

It's been well over a month since I've done any speed work so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I wanted to do 3 1600's at 6:28.  On the first one I started out a little too fast, it felt like a good pace but I was not able to hold it, about a 5:45 pace for almost the first 1/2 lap or so, it slid a little bit and then leveled out.   I finished the first one in exactly 6:28.

Next one went ok, just barely faster at 6:27.  The last one was exactly 6:28.

These weren't as hard as I had remembered, but they weren't easy either.  I felt like I wanted to go faster but at the same time realized it was good to stick to the goal pace (assuming that this was the right goal pace).  I wasn't sure what to make of these results because they are not any faster than the last time I did then, however I've just recently completed my marathon recovery and have not been focusing about speed.  So, I'm not going to worry about it and just be glad that I made my goals.

Cooled down after the track with just under two miles to make sure I got at least 8 in for the day. 

Asics - 440 

Coldest morning so far this year - 46° at the start of my run.  I'm sure many people might say that is not cold, but for Florida it is definitely cold.  I had woken up at 5:00 sharp this morning hoping to meet up with some others from the running group but there didn't seem to be anyone there at 5:30.   So, I figured I would spend some time indoors warming up and raising my core temperature before hitting the cold.  Did 10 minutes on the stationary bike and 5 minutes on the arc trainer, just enough to feel warmer.

After, the warm up it did not seem so bad outside.  Easy pace first mile, gradual speed up over the next two miles.   Finally felt good for the 5th mile, then continued picking up the pace a bit.  I wasn't expecting too much this morning, just a recovery from yesterday's speed session and getting in more miles.  Overall it turned out pretty good.

Splits were:

9:34, 8:59, 8:30, 8:35, 8:00, 7:43, 7:35, 7:10 and .31 @ 8:05/mile

Average pace: 8:15

Brooks - 298 

Planned day off from running.

Did a little bit over 20 minutes on the stationary bike and then did about 40 minutes worth of upper body weights - just to help balance things out.

Long run tomorrow, easy pace - will get very close to 50 miles for the week.

This morning was crisp and cool, as it has been on other mornings this week. Originally I was going to run with Joe, but he was not able to make it. I waited around a little bit and some others showed up. They were not going to run very far but I figured it would be nice to have some company at least part of the way.

We started out running faster than what I am used to for the first few miles. It was actually a pace I would call easy if I was already warmed up. Between the cold weather and the faster starting pace my left shin on the outside got extremely tight as it often does. Bob and I stopped for some gatorade at about 3.75 miles. The short break was good for my shin. Bob headed back towards the Y and I continued on alone in the opposite direction. I slowed the pace until I could get rid of the tightness.

I ran a few miles towards a neighborhood which has a 1 mile loop with hills. I did two loops through there and started feeling better. On the return trip the pace felt much easier - up until I had gone about 13 miles. At that point I started feeling a little bit worn down but not too bad. I continued on and before I knew it I was heading into the home stretch.

Overall the run was a success even though it had a couple of rough patches. I didn't do lower body weights yesterday like I had done the week before, so I don't think that was the problem. I think I will do a short run next Friday and see if that helps.

Splits were: 8:25, 7:53, 8:08, .739@8:44, 9:22, 9:10, .62@9:01, 8:46, 7:52, 8:31, 7:44, 7:43, 7:45, 7:33, 7:56, 7:59, 7:30

Average pace: 8:13 

Glycerin