The Long Run

10.25 mi, 1:32:23, 9:01 avg

Almost long run day after faster long run yesterday.  Eased into the run with no expectations.  Out the north entrance of Westlake, onto Alderman, and then north up Belcher, then Klosterman over to the Pinellas trail.

Ran by the primate sanctuary but did not stop, kept going, through the tunnel and then into Wall Springs park where I ran to the lookout tower which was recently rebuilt after the old one burned down.  Checked out the view and then got back on the trail in the park and back out to the Pinellas trail.  Kept on going south until reach Pennsylvania Ave, then took the usual route back into Westlake and back to the house.

Weather was good and run moved along despite starting out with a little bit of soreness from yesterday.  

10.01 mi, 1:23:47, 8:22 avg, elev gain 136 feet

I wasn't afraid of this run, felt a little bit relaxed going into it, another Tuesday morning challenge with new combination of intervals run on slightly rolling terrain.

Workout plan - 2 miles easy, 2x(2k@half marathon pace, 1k@10K pace), then 5x400m @5k pace, followed by 2 miles easy warm down.

After the warmup, decided the 3k repeat course would be out 1k and back 1k followed by out 0.5k and then back 0.5k so I'd end up where I'd started and not have to climb any of the bigger hills.  Ran down Lakeview and right on Sandy Hook to the first big turn where I turned back.  Pace was going good, keeping a 7:02 pace for the first 2k.  Then I was supposed to pick it up down into the 6:40's, but my legs didn't do that, seemed to be stuck at the same pace.  Finally, got a tiny bit faster, doing the last 1k at 6:55 pace.

Altered my course for the next repeat, instead of an out and back with a 180 degree turn, made a loop by staying on Sandy Hook onto it got back to Lakeview at the top of the hill. This would make a bigger climb up but not too bad.  Seemed to do better for the second one.  First 2k at 7:00 pace, then picked it up to 6:45 pace for last 1k.

This pace on demand shifting is hard for me and 3k seemed like a pretty long interval.  But, now it was on to the 400m repeats.  I was able to go faster for these.  Ran these on a straight section of road with a slight incline, so going one way was slightly down and coming back was slightly up.  Pace splits for these: 6:04, 6:22, 6:00, 6:20, 5:47

I had been thinking about that last split from the start of the run.  I wanted to get through the work part to get to that last lap and experience a little bit of speed.

Next, finished up the 2 miles (and a little bit extra to get back to the house)

5.66 mi, 47:24, 8:23 avg, elev gain 87 feet

Day after hard run easy run which made easy pace faster but still feel easy and seemed to require less of a warm up.  Trying to perfect the 5 mile loop course where I usually end up a little short and do a smaller loop inside the neighborhood.  Exited Westlake at the north entrance and turned right onto Alderman, then right on Belcher, and right on Nebraska, making my way to the Pinellas Trail and then north until Crystal Beach Ave and back toward Alt 19.  Made the mistake of trying to cross right there instead of going to the Alderman light.  It didn't look too busy but it would never quite clear up enough, finally  did the right think and went up to the light and pushed the button.  Then it was a straight shot east on Alderman.  Hit 5 miles with still a ways to go.

I will adjust this loop to be 5 miles and maybe not cross Alt 19.  

Weather was nice.

I stayed on schedule timewise because I had to get back in time to drop Sophia off at school since I volunteered for drop off duty today.

4.64 mi, 39:38, 8:33 avg

Yesterday and today were scheduled as 4-5 miles easy.  Since I went over yesterday, I kept today's run within distance range.  Out and back run, snaking through Westlake neighborhood until near the Palm Harbor Y.

Another pretty good morning.

12.08 mi, 1:34:14, 7:48 avg, elev gain - flat

Best run all week.

Scheduled run today 2 mile warm up, 8 mile marathon pace "cut down" run, 2 mile warm down.  Ran a little bit faster each mile and felt great.  First two miles were out and back one mile each way so I could start again from my car.  Still right about 50 degrees, having warmed up a few degrees.

Shifted into pace which felt hard for just a short bit of time, with first mile at 7:41, next three miles each got faster.  Turned around just inside Starkey Park (just past 4 miles) and pace picked up a little more then did each mile back a little faster, except for the 8th mile which was more than a little bit faster at 6:44

MP miles: 7:41, 7:35, 7:29, 7:23, 7:15, 7:06, 7:02, 6:44

For the warmdown, kept heading south and ran a little bit on SR54 until I had gone far enough so I'd have 2 miles by the time I got back to my car.

Great to have a run where I easily made the goal paces and felt like the run flowed.  Sometimes I make the paces but the run feels clunky, and some runs it feels clunky and the goals are not met. Hoping for more of these!

4.42 mi, 38:56, 8:49 avg, elev gain 79 feet

Started later in the morning because it was nice to sleep in a little and the weather was nice.  Headed north out of Westlake, east on Alderman then north onto Belcher until I had just over 2.2 miles before turning back the way I came.  I usually use this section of Belcher as part of a loop and don't come back the way I came.  The hill going back up Alderman looks big when driving but didn't seem quite so bad while running (it's only about 60 feet climb over 1/3 of a mile or so).  Legs felt pretty good after yesterday's medium long run with marathon tempo.

Kept the mileage lower today for tomorrow's 20 mile run (schedule calls for 17-20, going to do 20 because I've not done a 20 in a while).