All about that pace.

9:00am

A new PR to start the year right! My pacing wasn't as consistent as it was in the turkey trot, but I can't complain about the end result. I really didn't think I could pull off another PR today. Maybe it was the fettuccine I had for dinner last night :)

Distance    Split pace
1.00    6:06
2.00    6:24
3.00    6:17
3.15    5:13

My daughter Karina, her husband Danny, Me and my beautiful wife Kym.

Official times are finally up:

Me 19:33

Kym 34:47

Danny 27:22

Karina 34:28

8:00am

I set out for a shorter long run this morning since I did 15 last Sunday. I tried again to slow my pace for the longer distance, but as I was listening to the book of Acts my thoughts would drift from running and my pace would creep down towards the low 7's. This is not really an "easy" pace although I do like the feeling I get at that level of effort :)

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:17
2.00    7:32
3.00    7:12
4.00    7:11
5.00    7:30
6.00    7:22
7.00    7:24
8.00    7:17
9.00    7:30
10.00    7:22
11.00    7:16
11.32    7:12

5:15am

Not much sleep last night and I started so late that I didn't have time to blog before going to work. I really didn't put a whole lot of effort into this run and didn't even want to look at my watch until I finished so my splits were a nice surprise. I finished the book of Acts for the second time today, not sure what I'll listen to next. I should probably just run my way through the whole NT in order over the next few weeks.

Funny story, well at least to me it is: Today one of the security guards at work said he sees me running almost every morning while he's driving in and asks me how far I run (He's standing outside in the rain smoking a cigarette when he asks me this). I told him 8 miles on my short days and 10-15 on the weekends. His reply was "That's just stupid! Why in the world would you want to do that?" I told him that I smoked for 13 years before I started running and it probably caused some brain damage :)

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:23
2.00    7:42
3.00    7:24
4.00    7:25
5.00    7:36
6.00    7:58
7.00    7:29
8.00    7:30
8.11    7:28
 

5:00am

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:17
2.00    7:28
3.00    7:10
4.00    7:05
5.00    7:12
6.00    7:29
7.00    7:06
8.00    6:53
8.07    7:01

1:30pm

My son came along with me on his bike today, but he got bored and left me for the library after 4 miles. The hill on mile 2 and 6 seemed a lot easier today.

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:27
2.00    7:21
3.00    7:05
4.00    7:09
5.00    7:16
6.00    7:20
7.00    6:55
8.00    7:03
8.08    6:54

2:00pm

No time for a long run today. I stayed up way too late and couldn't see getting up early and running on only a few hours sleep. After church we did have a little time to go to the Y in Puyallup which is right by Bradley Lake Park so I ran over there and did 7 laps around the lake while Kym and Jake worked out inside. I had planned on doing 16 today so I picked up the pace just a little bit to make up for cutting the distance. I don't know if that's a good idea or not but it seemed reasonable at the time. Next weekend I'll get a long run in for sure and the one after that is the Res. Run 10k.

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:15
2.00    7:00
3.00    6:58
4.00    7:08
5.00    7:07
6.00    6:59
7.00    7:00
7.26    6:50

5:00am

Lots of energy after two days off. That energy didn't last long though, I could really feel the pace during the second half. My fitness is starting to level out with this slacker schedule I'm on... I think a 10k PR is still possible next week, but not as big as my 5k.

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:14
2.00    7:21
3.00    7:03
4.00    7:05
5.00    7:20
6.00    7:36
7.00    7:11
8.00    7:13
8.07    7:28

4:30am

All that on 4 hours sleep. What was I thinking? It's naptime!

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:47
2.00    8:13
3.00    7:44
4.00    7:49
5.00    8:03
6.00    7:56
7.00    7:39
8.00    7:50
9.00    7:50
10.00    7:48
11.00    7:55
12.00    7:54
13.00    8:07
14.00    8:05
15.00    8:18
16.00    8:07
17.00    7:55
18.00    7:51
18.01    8:02

I bet it was the "Mighty Mikie" burger I ate late last night that got me through this one. Around mile 15 I'm sure I could still taste the sauce :)

2:00pm

2.5 easy miles with my brother-in-law.

11:30am

Tough run today. It was windy, I felt kind of sick and I just wanted to quit pretty much the whole time. I gutted it out and feel good about it now. Tomorrow will be better...

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:02
2.00    7:16
3.00    7:06
4.00    7:07
5.00    7:21
6.00    7:27
7.00    7:21
8.00    7:07
8.08    6:32
 

Great run this morning! My pace was good and my HR was down. The power was out so I couldn't download my splits, but avg pace was 7:23. I may do another 8 tomorrow and just rest Fri. before the 10k. I'm leaving work early today to sign papers for our new condo, finally, woohoo! We put an offer on this place back in Sept. and it's finally coming to a close!

Update: The internet connection is up so I have splits, but I am still not a homeowner :(  The mortgage company goofed up again and listed the credits we had coming as charges on the HUD so we could not sign and pay our final closing costs since we didn't have a solid $ amount. This has got to be the longest home deal ever... maybe not ever, but 4 1/2 months is too long!

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:26
2.00    7:36
3.00    7:15
4.00    7:17
5.00    7:21
6.00    7:42
7.00    7:16
8.00    7:00
8.07    7:26

5:00am

Felt good today, looking forward to 10k on Sat.

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:21
2.00    7:39
3.00    7:19
4.00    7:21
5.00    7:21
6.00    7:46
7.00    7:17
8.00    7:09
8.06    7:02

9:00am

The weather was perfect again for today's race; a little overcast, but dry and 51° with only a slight breeze. I did a warm-up lap around the track at about an 8:00 min pace right before the start. That is the first time I've ever done that, not sure if it helped my time or not, but I was feeling anxious and a little stiff and it seemed to help with that anyway.

The first mile went by pretty easy and when I looked at my split I could see why (I was shooting for 6:29's). Miles two and three had some rolling hills with a net elevation gain of about 125'. I didn't increase my effort quite enough to compensate for the hills and stayed in the 6:40's. My half-way point split was 21:02. Miles 4 and 5 were the reverse with a net elevation loss so I made up some time, but still wasn't averaging my goal pace. Mile 6 was mostly flat and I was almost able to maintain my downhill pace, but spent most of the mile wondering how I was going to muster up a kick at the end. I left everything on the track for that last .2 trying to catch a guy about 20-30 yards ahead of me... fortunately he wasn't in my age group and I still took first :) I had a nice negative split, crushed my previous PR, and was only a few seconds off my goal pace overall.

Distance    Split pace
1.00    6:46
2.00    6:41
3.00    6:46
4.00    6:21
5.00    6:19
6.00    6:24
6.28    5:35

My wife, my daughter Karina and her mother-in-law also raced today and it is Karina's 21st birthday so I went back to run them in and jumped out from behind a bush to hose her down with a bottle of champagne before they got on the school grounds. I am SO proud of her! We made this deal with our kids that if they did not drink before their 21st we would give them a thousand dollars on their bday and she did it! After the race we presented her with a wooden chest overflowing with 1000 crinkly one dollar bills :)

Lori, Karina, and Kym (Karina's husband Danny couldn't run with us because he's on his way to Afghanistan)

Karina and Me

Karina with her pile-o-cash :)

5:00am

It was hard to take the day off yesterday. I felt really good after the race and thought about going for a long run on Sunday. Then I thought again and decided I should relax a little and stick with my plan. I read over my race report from last year's FSRC 10k and it was sooo much harder than this year. This year I shaved off almost two minutes and didn't work near as hard until the last .2 I'm happy with my time, but looking back, I really think I could have put more into it on race day and done better. I'll try to keep that in mind during the 15k next month. Today's run was awesome! I was full of energy and felt good averaging 7:18.

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:22
2.00    7:39
3.00    7:14
4.00    7:13
5.00    7:12
6.00    7:33
7.00    7:08
8.00    7:00
8.05    6:57

5:00am

I had to work a little harder this morning to keepa quick pace. I think my post-race adrenaline is finally wearing off :)

I am finally a homeowner again so I'll be very busy for a while remodeling and moving. It will be tough finding time to run. It's a good thing that I didn't have any high mileage weeks planned for the next month or two. Hopefully I will still be able to get a long run in with Preston and Carl on Friday morning.

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:23
2.00    7:29
3.00    7:11
4.00    7:09
5.00    7:13
6.00    7:29
7.00    7:12
8.00    7:06
8.07    7:11

4:30am

Great run with Preston today! Our pacing was all over the place, but we averaged 7:31.

Distance    Split pace
1.00    8:13
2.00    7:59
3.00    7:46
4.00    7:41
5.00    7:26
6.00    7:31
7.00    7:38
8.00    7:40
9.00    7:29
10.00    7:24
11.00    6:48
12.00    7:04
13.00    7:32
14.00    7:50
15.00    7:41
16.00    7:18
17.00    7:49
18.00    7:38
19.00    7:20
20.00    6:40
20.01    7:20