Everything Counts

AM: AEROBIC BUILDER

I usually do these on Tuesdays, but I have to go to Ohio again in a couple hours for work for the week.  And it's tough to get quality workouts in back there when I'm working, so I wanted to do this before I left.

Bret agreed to run with me, which turned out to be very nice and helpful.  Bret ran the first five miles at my pace and then he took a short break and finished the last three miles at 6:00.  I ended up averaging 5:27/mile for eight miles.  It was really nice to have Bret there for the first five; these aren't fun to do solo.  I thought this was a great effort for Bret too and his progress is coming along nicely.  I am happy with my effort this morning too.  It's about the same pace as two weeks ago only I extended it from 7 to 8 miles.  Ideally, I will be doing these for 10 miles at 5:20 pace in a few weeks. 

PM: 6.35 miles once we got checked into the hotel. Ran down to the Great Miami River Parkway.

11.1 miles easy and very early.

PM: 4 miles easy.

1,000 METER REPEATS

I wasn't able to do as many as I wanted but this was still ok. Goal was three sets of five reps with 1:05 rest between reps and 3:00 between sets. But crazy humidity and gi distress caused me to only do two sets. The humidity didn't slow me down or fatigue me as much as it just annoyed me. I was sopping wet and my shoes would squish out sweat out the sides with each step. That combined with a search for a bathroom after the tenth rep that took too long just caused me to call it early.

So I did two sets of five repeats or ten total 1,000s in an avg of 3:02 or like 4:52 pace.

Oh and I hate afternoon workouts now. I used to prefer them but now my stomach just struggles with them.

10 miles easy around the hotel early. Won't have chance to double today. Work and travel home today. Will be nice to run in the dry heat again.

10.2 miles easy in South Ogden with Dave and Albert. It was a very pleasant morning with cool, dry temps!  You gotta love that!

LONG RUN

We had a great long run this morning up in Morgan.  Brad drove from Heber to meet Bryant, Ben, and me.  Always great to see Brad.  We need to drive up to meet him one of these weeks since he's driven down twice now to meet us in Morgan.  We looped the Morgan Valley.  It was kind of cool at the start and a little hot at the end, but for the most part perfect weather.  We slowly worked the pace down to 6:00 pace by mile 6 and then held it around a 6:00 average the rest of the way on a very rolly, hilly course. It was a solid effort.  Ben is looking good on the comeback trail.  We had a stray dog run the first 6 miles with us and then it fell behind, unable to keep up.  Ben said that if it had ran the whole 20 miles he would've taken it home with him. 

I need more of these long efforts at 6:00 pace or faster.  I can't run a decent marathon unless I do these almost weekly.  But this felt pretty good today.  I would love to be able to run this route at 5:30 pace with relative ease; that would be when you know you're ready to hit a OTQ standard.