Run Buffs Run!

Today was a good run to begin the week with. I am working a double shift today and tommorrow, so I had to get up early to fit the run in. Felt comfortable (about 6:30-6:40 pace for the whole run).

Easy run this morning before work. I swallowed a mouthful of gnats which was fun, but overall everything felt good. Once the engine got running I just cruised. I did some core strength drills afterwards.

Easy run today. A storm was approaching for the whole run, which prompted me to go a bit faster than I typically would have. In all, pretty sweet!

Eight miles this morning. I don't know what it is, but when I run a particular stretch of the Highline canal, I can't just take it easy. I began at 6:10 pace and finished just under 5:30 pace. Overall: 47 mins for eight miles. A couple more of these style runs, and I will be ready to begin racing again. Im just just putting money in the bank and waiting my turn (whew...another Running with the Buffaloes analogy). I did 8x150 meter barefoot strides in the grass afterwards.

I ran really easy today out in the greenbelt. I did core strength drills afterwards.

A steady ten miles today at 6:30 pace. I held off a bit for the first half, but kicked it up a bi on the way back. I finished with 8x150 meter strides. I think that I a numbing to the heat. Although it was 85-90 degrees today, I did not feel terribly uncomfortable. Who knows?

Easy day today, not too terribly exciting. I wan't much in the mood to run, but did so nonetheless. Tommorrow will be a longer run.

I did a pretty good run this morning. I was only planning on 13-13.5, but I accidently went into a section of private property. The owners forced me to turn around and leave the same way I came in. Ahhh...lame, especially since I was really close to being out. The rest went fine, just a bit hot.

Really easy run this morning. I did a longer run yesterday and worked for almost nine hours, so my legs were feeling lead-filled. I didn't wear a watch which was nice. Whenever I wear one, I am consistently pushing the pace. If I don't wear one, I can take it easy and rest up.

This morning was most excellent for runnin'. It was overcast, 62 degrees and partially misting. Some secluded areas looked like a landscape from Lord of the Rings, which was pretty sweet. Granted, this also made getting up for the run about 5,000 times harder. I threw in some strides at the end to keep things fresh.

Today was the medium-long day. From now on, I will have one long run and another medium-long run within the week. When I start hitting workouts, I will have two/three per week, and the rest will be easy days (two). My coach wants me to get used to the usual CU weekly progression which is as follows:

Sunday: Long Run (20-25% weekly volume)

Monday: Easy run

Tuesday: Workout (either AT run, economy or fartlek)

Wednesday: Medium Long (roughly 80% of the long run)

Thursday: Easy run

Friday: Workout

Saturday: Optional for team (some run, some don't), so I am getting used to running every day of the week

This general format is used by coach Wetmore to really target all aspects of running, from full aerobic to full anaerobic. I think that a bit of time getting used to this plan will really help me once I make the team!

Really easy today to recoup from yesterday. I will probably do about ten tommorrow. I also threw some strides in at the end.

I felt really sluggish and slow today. Time went by pretty slow, too. I definitely need to take a day off.

Rest...finally! This three weeks is the longest I have ever gone without a break. Before this, I had only run a week straight. Felt great to rest.

Today was the longer run of the week. I felt really good after taking yesteday off. I think that if you get in the habit of not taking days off, your body restores faster. Today I felt really good and energized. Good run! 

I ran really nice and easy today. Tommorrow I "officially" begin some faster paced workouts. As of now, I feel pretty un-sharp, but I think that a couple weeks of harder work will bring me to where I need to be. I just checked the calendar today, and I have only six weeks until XC time trials! Man, not too long. I can't wait! I am impressed with Kenenisa Bekeles win over Craig Mottram in the 3000 on letsrun.com. What really got me was Chris Solinskys 3rd place finish! He just graduated, and I'm sure his best is yet to come.

This was the first day of my current training session that a bit of threshold work was incorporated. I began with a three mile warm up, then did 4x1mile at threshold pace (my coaches goal was 5:32 pace). My splits were as follows: 4:50, 5:25, 5:31, 5:30. The first mile was way too fast. I think this is because I have not done anything fast in quite a while, so everything sort of subconsciously "poured out". The next mile was closer to goal pace, but still a bit fast. On miles three and four, I really came close to the target pace. It was also about 90 degrees out, which made things a bit tougher. Before doing a three mile cooldown, I did 8x150 meter strides. In all, this was a good workout. At least now I know I have not really lost any speed since BB10k. My pain threshold is a bit lower, but nothing a 5k or two can't fix.

I ran an easy ten this morning. Once again, it was way too hot for running, but I persevered nonetheless. Tommorrow morning I fly into SLC. I am looking forward to Draper Days and meeting everyone :)

Good run today, but I was a bit frusturated about the whole traveling to Utah issue. My body felt really good, though. Average pace was around 6:20/mile. I also did 8x150 meter strides at the end.

Today was nice and easy to prepare for the long run tommorrow. I did some strides at the end to work a bit of speed into the run. Awesome news!!! My bags just came back from SLC! It only took about 900 phone calls and several hours of nagging for the airlines to finally get their act together, and ship my bags back. What a dissapointment :( . I really wanted to run Draper Days, but I got denied at the last minute. I guess it is partially my fault for assuming that there would be space on flights, but the amount of ruckus this created was unreal, not to mention the loss of race fee money. Sad day.

I ran a good 16 miles at Daniels Park today. I covered the first half in 50 mins (pretty fast for a long run), but somehow I ran the second half in 48:30. Not only was this pretty good pace for a long run, but it was also negative splits (something pretty rare for me). I felt good with the effort. I can't wait to sharpen up a bit and get racing!

I ran slow and easy today, and threw in 8x150 meter strides at the end. I am going to do some core strength excercises later today, too.

Today was a scheduled threshold workout. I began with a three mile warmup, then did a bit of moving stretches. The plan was to do 5x1 mile repeats at 5:32/mile with a one minute rest between intervals. I started out conservative, as to not destroy the full workout in the first mile. My mile splits were as follows: 5:20, 5:20, 5:12, 5:18, 5:23. Overall, I felt pretty good and this pace felt very manageable (It also helped that I stayed conservative at the beginning). To finish, I did 4x200 meter repeats at 32-33 second pace. I was happy with the effort today, and I feel that with a few more of these types of workouts with some occasional speedwork, I should be ready to roll come time trials! 

Nice run today out to the Chatfield dam and back. Today was the medium-long run for the week, comprising about 75% of my long run. In all, I felt really good. It was hot out, so that slowed me down a bit, but besides that today was most excellent!

Easy run today with some strides at the end. It was way too hot for running.

Today was a fartlek workout, consisting of 12x1min at just sub-max pace with equal rest after intervals. It felt pretty good to hit some fast pace. I did a three mile cooldown afterwards. My right IT band seems tight; I'll have to use the roller for a while today.

Really easy today to rest for tommorrow, and to let my IT band loosen up a bit. It was cool and rainy today, a great change!

Long run for the week with my coach today. We ran in Daniels Park, and got a good workout in. My IT band was hurting a bit, so we ended up running loops on a grassy field at the end, which definitely seemed to dull the pain. Good run!

Really easy run today all on dirt/grass to help heal the IT band. I also did some strides to keep sharp, which actually seemed to help loosen up my leg and make it feel better. I did some core strength drills later, and used the foam roller for a ridiculous sum of time.

Today was a threshold run. The workout was 20 mins at threshold pace, two minutes of rest, then a final mile at threshold pace. The target pace was 5:32/mile. I started slow, mainly because I always tend to go out too fast on these runs, shooting myself in the foot early on. I ran the first mile in 5:30 (approx.), two miles in 11:00 flat, three miles in 16:22, three and one half in 18:50, and another minute at the same pace. After a two minute rest, I ran a mile in 5:26. This type of workout is weird in a way. The objective is to work at the peak of aerobic ability, without ever going "anaerobic". This is a hard line to draw, but if you go by feel, it is much easier to determine correct pacing. All too often, an AT run is mistaken for a speed workout. This ends up working a completely different energy system, eliminating the whole point of a threshold run. Ok, don't really know where that came from. I did 8x150 meter strides afterward, and did a good cooldown. My leg hurt a bit at the beginning, but as time went on it stretched out and did not hurt too bad. Overall, the run felt really good!