All about that pace.

4:45am

First run from the new home today. Pretty much the same route as usual since I only moved 2 miles. I ran into Preston near the end of my run and went an extra mile or so with him to bring it up to 10 for today. February was a good month. My avg pace was faster and my avg HR was lower than January with only 30mpw. This month I'm increasing it to 40mpw if all goes well.

Avg pace today 7:24

4:30am

I went to bed at 7:30 last night and finally got a good night of sleep. I ran what felt like an easy 10 today that turned out to be a 7:29 avg pace. My legs feel great... I will see just how great tomorrow, I have a long run planned with Preston.

6:00am

Long run with Preston today. We had a couple of unexpected stops that mixed things up a bit, one at Carls Jr for a bathroom break and another at my new place to get some hand warmers. It was tough getting back up to speed after each stop, especially the second one. I rarely stop for anything during a run and now I know why. Cold water is a also a bad idea, I should have learned from the 15k last month, but I did it again at Carls Jr and cramped up pretty bad for about 20 min. The last 3 miles were really tough. Preston was going strong and I was gasping for air just trying to keep up and ended up falling back about 100 yards. I still finished pretty strong and put in a good day's work around the new house afterwards without too much discomfort. I am glad I have this one in the bank! I'll be able to look back on this during my next race and know I can finish no matter how bad I feel.

The sun will be out tomorrow and I'm getting some long overdue road-therapy on the motorcycle.

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:26
2.00    7:18
3.00    8:21
4.00    8:11
5.00    7:44
6.00    7:48
7.00    7:32
8.00    7:46
9.00    7:48
10.00    7:28
11.00    7:35
12.00    7:36
13.00    7:25
14.00    7:07
15.00    7:14
16.00    7:49
17.00    7:31
18.00    7:00
19.00    6:59
20.00    7:11
20.03    7:41

5:00am

I almost got hit by a car today. I had just left my house and a car coming towards me started pulling over to the shoulder. I thought they were going to stop or maybe just yell something at me, but no, the car kept coming right over the curb onto the sidewalk! I jumped out of the way just as the driver swerved back into the street. Another half a second for him and he would have smashed into a little rock wall that I jumped onto. Another half a second for me and I would have been sidewalk pizza. The car stopped in the middle of the road and just stayed there for a minute or so before taking off. I thought about going back to see if the driver had passed out or something, but he drove away before I could make up my mind. I was a little worried that he had done it on purpose. I saw the same car later in my run after I looped the neighborhood and the driver was delivering papers. I guess he had fallen asleep at the wheel when I first saw him. Or maybe he just hates runners?

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:28
2.00    7:38
3.00    7:35
4.00    7:31
5.00    7:36
6.00    7:35
7.00    7:35
8.00    7:42
9.00    7:31
10.00    7:28
10.13    7:09
 

4:30am

I didn't get all my splits today. Garmin says: "Lap database full"

Avg. pace 7:21

5:00am I got splits today, but didn't have time to download them to sporttracks and I'm too lazy to manually put them in if I can't cut and paste them :) I averaged 7:17 and felt great the whole way. I'm planning a medium-long run with Preston tomorrow and will cross-train on the honey-do list this weekend. Not sure what the plan is yet for next week, the 20th is raceday... I'll probably iron my "flame shirt" and do 3 10's between monday and thursday and rest friday. Well, I guess I do have a plan now :)

Update: Preston wants to run Saturday at 4:00am instead of Friday at 6. I think he's nuts, but I'm going to do it.

Splits:

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:16
2.00    7:16
3.00    7:30
4.00    7:06
5.00    7:15
6.00    7:26
7.00    7:15
8.00    7:23
9.00    7:15
10.00    7:12
10.04    6:41

4:00am

I planned a super early run with Preston so I could be at a 7:00am meeting and ended up having to skip the meeting anyway. Oh well, it was a good run and I got it out of the way early. Our pace was all over the place as usual, but we averaged a nice 7:32 per mile again this week. That's two weeks in a row of 40+ with no pain :)

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:32
2.00    7:24
3.00    8:13
4.00    8:00
5.00    7:46
6.00    7:28
7.00    7:17
8.00    7:29
9.00    7:32
10.00    7:23
11.00    7:26
12.00    7:06
13.00    7:25
14.00    7:39
15.00    7:57
16.00    7:42
17.00    6:56
 

5:00am

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:14
2.00    7:23
3.00    7:18
4.00    7:10
5.00    7:08
6.00    7:20
7.00    7:09
8.00    7:11
9.00    7:03
10.00    6:50
10.04    6:53
 

5:00am

I need to get started earlier. If I ran any slower I'd end up being late for work. ...4:30am tomorrow and I'm going to run the first 5 as slow as I can stand it. I'm taking Thurs-Fri off to rest up for the whoopin' I have in store for Thaine Filkins :)

Too Funny! I just googled Thaine Filkins and my blog title is the first result. I hope he has a good sense of humor if he happens to google his name. I also found some race results and he's fast! 19:01 5k last year. I better eat my wheaties on Saturday morning.

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:11
2.00    7:15
3.00    7:15
4.00    7:07
5.00    7:14
6.00    7:21
7.00    7:16
8.00    7:20
9.00    7:10
10.00    7:21
10.03    6:44

4:30am

I tried to take it easy until the last mile and didn't push it hard at all for a sub 7. I think I'm ready for Saturday.

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:25
2.00    7:31
3.00    7:32
4.00    7:09
5.00    7:18
6.00    7:22
7.00    7:15
8.00    7:27
9.00    7:14
10.00    6:47
10.03    6:38

9:00am

When I got dressed this morning Kym was like "What is that? Are you really going to wear that?" I said "Heck yes! I'm gonna wear this! And I'm gonna win!" Preston and Carl both thought I was over dressed too and made plenty of flamer jokes, but hey, I can take it and I finished ahead of them both :)

I started up front and went out too fast as usual and I thought I saw Thaine up in front of me, but I wasn't sure if it was him. I didn't talk to him before the race and I couldn't remember exactly what he looked like. I was trying my best to slow the pace down to about 7:00 for the first couple miles and eventually lost site of him since he was holding 6:50's. About a half mile before I got to the 10k turn around a different guy passed me on his way back and said "see you at the finish dude". Then I thought oh crud that must have been Thaine and he's about a mile in front of me now. Disappointed, I just kept it steady even though I was going slower than my goal pace. I figured I might still have something left in the tank later for a strong finish even if I couldn't beat him. After mile 9 I decided it was time to pick it up and at least try to beat my PR from last year since I definitely wasn't going to beat my 15k pace and probably wouldn't even beat Thaine unless he got lost or something. Now I'm doing sub 7's and picking off runners one by one and near the end of mile 12 I see the first guy I thought was Thaine and powered past him and another guy maybe 30 yards ahead of him. After that it was hard to keep motivated with no one in front of me, the 12th place finisher was probably already done by now. It turned out that the guy in mile 12 was the real Thaine so it was kind of fitting that his fate was the same as mine in the last race :) He ran strong the whole way and let me pass him at the end to win by less than a minute. Afterwards we shook hands, exchanged phone numbers and we'll probably do some training runs together since we live only a few miles apart. Thaine is a very cool guy and very fast! I'm sure he will keep me at the top of my game.

Distance    Split pace
1.00    6:51
2.00    6:50
3.00    7:10
4.00    6:48
5.00    7:15
6.00    7:15
7.00    7:05
8.00    7:11
9.00    7:11
10.00    6:53
11.00    6:43
12.00    6:48
12.43    6:29
 

5:00am

Lots of energy today. I spent the whole run thinking about which race to run in May. I'm pretty sure it will be Eugene.

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:04
2.00    7:18
3.00    7:18
4.00    6:58
5.00    7:06
6.00    7:11
7.00    7:17
8.00    7:23
9.00    7:17
10.00    7:23
10.03    7:08
 

4:45am

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:11
2.00    7:19
3.00    7:25
4.00    7:09
5.00    7:20
6.00    7:22
7.00    7:23
8.00    7:33
9.00    7:24
10.00    7:24

4:30am

This was the hardest run I've had this year! I just got a tetanus shot and my shoulder is killing me. They said it would be sore, but this is ridiculous. Anyway, about mile 15 the pain in my shoulder seemed to have spread to my other arm and both legs. I was so fatigued that all my limbs were achy and felt like they weighed 100 lbs each. I wasn't all that tired, I just felt heavy and very cold. I managed to finish my 20, but it took me forever to warm up afterwards and just walking upstairs to the shower was a chore. I don't know if it had anything to do with the shot or just that I wasn't rested and fueled enough for a 20 miler, but I'm glad it's over. Since then I've taken a nap, watched a movie, got a massage, had some food and I feel great! I love 3 day weekends!

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:28
2.00    7:50
3.00    8:44
4.00    8:14
5.00    7:49
6.00    8:04
7.00    7:52
8.00    7:27
9.00    7:35
10.00    7:30
11.00    7:43
12.00    7:31
13.00    7:32
14.00    7:24
15.00    7:27
16.00    7:33
17.00    8:07
18.00    8:20
19.00    7:42
20.00    7:36
20.05    7:52

9:30pm

This was my first night run in a long time. I changed my route a little to avoid traffic and did the park + farwest hill twice. I also saw.. well, heard my old friend lazydog on farwest. I may do a couple more of these night runs this week.

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:17
2.00    7:27
3.00    7:29
4.00    7:28
5.00    7:17
6.00    7:25
7.00    7:39
8.00    7:32
9.00    7:26
10.00    7:18
11.00    7:13
11.17    7:19

4:45am

Same route as Sunday night. I'm thinking about running this twice tomorrow; once in the morning and again after work.

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:32
2.00    7:48
3.00    7:42
4.00    7:34
5.00    7:26
6.00    7:39
7.00    7:55
8.00    7:45
9.00    7:43
10.00    7:32
11.00    7:18
11.16    7:21
 

5:00am

One down, one to go...

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:24
2.00    7:26
3.00    7:25
4.00    7:27
5.00    7:23
6.00    7:28
7.00    7:36
8.00    7:36
9.00    7:34
10.00    7:20
11.00    7:14
11.13    7:26

6:00pm

That wasn't nearly as hard as I expected. Definitely a workout, but not the killer I expected. I'll be sleeping well tonight :)

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:07
2.00    7:22
3.00    7:20
4.00    7:22
5.00    7:14
6.00    7:13
7.00    7:28
8.00    7:22
9.00    7:08
10.00    7:02
11.00    6:47
11.11    6:36