Where's the Donuts?

Obviously, Sunday was a rest day. A much-needed rest day.

Easy four miles today, just working out the lactic acid or whatever's in there making my hamstrings ache. After stretching I feel fine, though I still admire you guys for running the Striders half this weekend. Hopefully everybody has plenty of energy. Beautiful morning here, the sun is out and reflecting off the water. I'll have no trouble getting my base up to 35-45 miles/week (which is what I'm aiming for this spring) if the weather holds like this for a few weeks. It's the nasty rainy days that make things tough.

A typical 5 mile run (Warren Ave. bridge to Lions Park, back through Manette), after an unintended day off Tuesday (work-related). I kept the pace pretty easy, though stretched my legs out on a few downhills to stay loose. Feeling completely recovered from RDS. 

I think I was a bit over 4 today, but it wasn't much more. The middle two miles were tempo pace, probably around 6:30/mile. I didn't mean to do that, it was just really nice out and I was kind of in a hurry so I cut loose a bit. I relaxed the last mile in though, and I plan to get easy distance tomorrow. Incidentally, I completely credit this run to the blog. I didn't have much time for a run today, but reading the blog today stuck in my head (especially Paul's column about doubles, which mentioned that even short runs improve the blood flow, etc. and thus are important) so I got out. 

Beautiful morning for a few easy miles. I think I've found a few races this spring to target. There's a pretty popular local 10k/Half next weekend that I'm thinking about, I've been told it's kind of challenging and hilly. Not sure which I would do. Then there's a 12k up in a little tourist town called Port Townsend on May 20. Judging from the past results it gets some real good competition from Seattle/Portland and around here. It's a more moderate course, and has a nice decline on the second half of the race. 

 Good luck to anyone running in Ogden tomorrow, I'm looking forward to seeing how you guys do.
 

Weather finally changed and it's raining again. Not cold though, so I can live with it. I found a nice route for longer runs, a rolling stretch that hugs the shoreline I can do a nice out and back on. Good run, except for the corner where I forgot how mossy and slick the sidewalks are in Western Washington. Complete wipe out on my butt right next to the park, and I didn't want to stand around to see if anyone saw me so I took off right away. 

Easy 5 miles on the Burke-Gilman trail in Seattle, which is a fantastic urban running trail if anyone ever gets stuck in Seattle and needs a place to workout. Full of people also, even on Easter morning (didn't hurt that it was really sunny and nice). My legs felt fatigued, perhaps from the 9 miler yesterday since that equaled my longest run of the season. 

Yesterday's miles must have worked something out of my legs, because they felt refreshed today. Still, I took it easy, just covered some distance on a windy and gray Monday morning. Regular route through Manette to Bachman Park and back over the Warren Ave. bridge. 

Not a real long run, but I added 6 fast striders. One of my basic routes. I think that as the weather gets nicer in the morning I need to expand and find a few other loops, just to keep things interesting. There's a guy from my work who has started running the same neighborhoods in the morning and I end up passing him twice a week or so. I'd run with him but, quite honestly, he's really slow.

Easy day to rest up for a 10k I'm planning to run tomorrow. It's supposed to be a hilly race out on Bainbridge Island. I'm feeling ready to race again. Yesterday I planned for an evening run and ended up looking at houses much longer than I thought, so an inadvertent day off. Not a bad week though, and I'll cap it off with some speed (I hope) tomorrow morning. Then I have Mariner's tickets so I can sit on my butt watching baseball for a few hours. 

ToeJam Hill was the toughest 10k course I've run, and I didn't even try the half-marathon, which has an extra hill to it (winner of that race was 1:23). Easy first two miles, mostly downhill, and three of us in the lead pack flew through. We talked after the race and figured we were running 5:30 miles or so (no mile markers, it was a fun run). But I wasn't expecting the hills that just kept coming miles 3-5, and the two leaders left me as I lost my rhythm and pace. If I would have been more familiar with the course perhaps I would have stayed with them or tried to surge earlier, but I kept seeing uphills coming so saved some energy and tried to stick with a decent pace. The last mile was actually easier than I planned so I caught up a bit, but I was 1-2 minutes behind the leader and another 45 seconds-minute back of 2nd. Not a bad race considering it was a tough course, and I enjoyed getting out. 

1 mile warm-up and 2 miles cool down for the distance. Then I took the ferry over to Seattle and watched the M's beat the Rangers. I made sure to get up and walk around every three innings because I felt the cramps coming.
 

Took it real easy, my legs really got beat up on Saturday. Especially my calves, they ached all day yesterday and this morning they're still tight. Usually even my 'easy' runs end up with some brisk running because I'll feel a little pep at some point, but not today. I got a good stretch in so hopefully they'll feel better by tomorrow morning. 

Overall a relaxing run but it made me work a few times up hills, especially one in the middle of this loop that's pretty extreme (10 percent grade I estimate). I have yet to do a true hill workout, but doing this loop or another kind of like it once/twice a week is hopefully making me stronger. Legs feel totally recovered from Saturday today, I strided out on the downhill coming back.

Pretty typical run, plus 5x100 striders. 

Nice morning to run.

I planned for a bit longer run, but according to time that's about what it was (60 minutes). It started raining at the end, so I called it a morning. I did work in about 3 miles of what I believe is my Tinman tempo (7 min/mile, if I understand the concept correctly). Again, I didn't plan that but I found a nice rolling stretch along the water and my legs kind of took over. They do that sometimes. It felt good so I kept it up until I felt the strain, then I eased back for the last 2 miles. 

I feel good about my week. My mileage is almost where I want it to be sustained at for the next few months, by stretching out my long run to what it should be (more in the 12-15 range) and adding a longer mid-week day I'll get that. Next step will be adding more formal workouts, so far all I've done is striders on a regular basis and the random days when I decide to go uptempo for a few miles. Time to go make a cup of coffee and relax.
 

I ended up taking yesterday off, playing softball instead. That meant there was some rust to work out of my legs this morning, and it took about 4 miles to do so. I was pretty tight through the Manette-Bachman Park-Lions Park route, then loosened up near the end and my legs felt good coming in. Nothing else too spectacular, 40 minutes at about an even 7.30 pace. 

Had to rush this morning because of early meetings at work (it's usually not a good sign when your boss calls at 7:30, good thing I was back by then), and just got a few miles in through the streets and hills of Manette. I meant to add a few more in the p.m., but I got home late and gassed from a long, stressful day. So it goes. My legs were tight and pretty dead this morning. I'll see how they feel tomorrow, but I'm going to try and get something with a little uptempo in it, maybe just a tinman tempo for a few miles. I was thinking that 800 workout James and a few others have done recently, but that may wait. 

Five miles with an added tinman tempo from about mile 2 through 4 (maybe just shy of 4, actually, though part of the tempo was faster than I planned because of downhill). Then a mile cool down and 3x100 striders just to make sure my heart rate got up again and my legs felt some turnover. Legs felt good and loose, but that's probably because I ran in the evening instead of my usual morning. I'm going to try and continue doing that mid-week, since Wednesday is usually the day I get off work a bit earlier and it's nice to be able to sleep in and start the morning relaxed to break up the week. Back to the morning grind tomorrow.