What ever it takes!

6:00 am.  Very easy recovery run with Nelle on the dirt trails.  Nelle is my geriatric Border Collie, and she is getting very slow.  She used to be a great running partner when I was slower and she was younger but now she has to be dragged up the hill the last 2 miles of our runs.  Good arm workout for me I guess.

6 miles in 50 minutes.  8:20/mile avg pace.

5:00 am.  Had kind of a Wow!  where did that come from? workout today.  I did my Monday treadmill ladder workout today except instead of starting at 8.5 mph I started out at 9 mph (6:40/mile pace)  then bumped it up .2 mph every 5 minutes.  I did cheat by starting at -0.5 decline but just wanted to get the speed in.   I honestly didn't think I would be able to get through the whole work out like this but every 5 minutes I kept bumping it up and was surprised that I kept finding it in myself to keep going faster.  At 50 minutes I hit 11 mph (5:27/mile pace) which was pretty much my max, set the treadmill at -1.5 decline. and hung on for 6 minutes at this pace, which I'm sure is my fastest mile ever and that was 8 miles into the run.  at 56 minutes I just couldn't hang on any more and finished the run at 5:42 pace.  Entire 10 mile run in 59:42.  5:58/mile avg.

Glad to get in a really good run to start the week, I'm at the airport now headed off to San Francisco for 2 weeks, home for 3 days and then back for another 2.  Hope to get some great runs across the Golden Gate bridge in.  I'm going to try and get one more 100 mile week in before my taper.

4:30pm, 5 miles on the Parc 55 Gym treadmill, horribly hot and muggy,  I thought it would never end.  Hopefully I can get most my running done early mornings outside.

5 Miles in 40 minutes 8:00/mile pace.

5:15 am.  Absolutely perfect morning for a run here in San Francisco.  Ran down Market Street to Peir 1, along the Embarcadaro street around all the peirs to the beach, over Fort Mason Hill and down along the beach to Crissy park.  Awesome views of Alkatraz, and the Golden Gate bridge all lit by a full moon.  Temperatures where perfect probably low 60's.  I'm going to really enjoy my time here if the mornings stay like this the whole time.  I just hope being at sea level for 4 weeks doesn't mess with me when I get back home.

Muscle Milk for breakfast and now I'm off to work, we seem to already be ahead of schedule on work so I should be able to get in some short afternoon runs too.

12.4 miles in around 1:26:00.  6:56/mile avg.   My Garmin was a little confused in the city until I got to the Embarcadaro.

Well, now I feel stupid.  I set my alarm for 5:00am, woke up went for my run and 2 hours later I realized I set my clock for 5:00 Utah time.  I actually went for my run at 4:15am this morning.  Duhh!!  I could have slept in a whole extra hour.

1:00 pm, 5 Miles on the hotel treadmill for lunch.  That gym is awful, it's so hot and muggy if I where just deciding to start running and started in this gym after about 1 week I would decide running is way to hard and would just give up and do something else.  5 miles is an eternity in this place, I'm glad I only have to do my recovery runs here.

5 Miles in 40 minutes 8:00/mile pace.

4:15 am.  Same route as yesterday except I continued on across the Golden Gate Bridge today.  Big hill going up to the bridge but running on the bridge is amazing.  Great views, cool sea breeze and very fast.  Made it about 3/4 away across before I hit 7.5 miles to turn around.  Was pretty slow the first 1/2 of the run, 7:23 average on the way back I tried to make it up by running around 6:45. Came pretty close to that ended the whole 15 mile run in 1:46:20.  7:05/mile avg pace over all.

Pretty busy today probably wont be able to get my double in.

4:30 am.  Same route as the last 2 days and probably the same route for the next 3 weeks.  Just such a great run that early in the morning, it's nice and lit the whole way, and no stopping for traffic after you get off of Market Street onto the Embarcadaro.  Nice and cool morning around 55, and a nice San Francisco misty fog which feels really nice.  Just kind of took it easy for the first 1/2,  was planning on taking it easy the whole run but then I decided since work seems to be keeping me from getting my doubles in and I didn't really want to go further this morning that I would just run faster coming back.  Averaged 7:21/mile pace for the first 5 miles, and then on the return I started out fast, 5:56 for the first mile, 6:16/mile average for the entire 5 mile return.

I was flying up Market Street back to the hotel, which isn't easy since there is traffic, homeless people to dodge, and slightly uphill.  People where looking at me like I just robbed the bank, but it was fun.

I doubt I'll get my 100 miles in this week, but I wont feel to bad with 90ish.

7:00pm, Went to the hotel Gym after a pretty successful day at work to try and get in a quick easy 4 miles before bed.  Absolutely struggled from the start, couldn't catch my breath, got dizzy and just had sore legs that wouldn't loosen up.  I guess my body isn't use to working out this late.  I just wasn't having any fun at all and gave up after 2 miles in 17 minutes.  Pretty pathetic.  Did some core excersises and stretches and ate an apple from the gym basket.  Off to bed nice and early, hopefully I feel better in the morning.

4:30 am.  Another nice morning, seems to be getting a little cooler everyday.  It's kind of strange, you would think that clouds would make it darker but they actually reflect the city lights and create a glow everywhere so I have stopped wearing my headlamp, even going over Fort Mason there is light enough to see pretty good.

Took it pretty easy today since I have a long run tomorrow which I'm fairly nervous about, I'm probably going to have to leave at 3:30 am to get back in time for work.   I did get in some ~100M strides,  I called them lamppost strides, I calculated that up the Embacadaro every 5 lamp posts where about 100M so on the way back I sprinted 5 jogged 3, I think I got 8 of them in but lost track.

9.7 miles in 1:10:30  7:16/mile avg.

3:30 am.  So apparently there is a buffer somewhere between 3:30am and 4:30am where the Early morning risers and late night bar crowd can stay clear from each other.  There is way to much of a culture shock if the 2 groups meet.  I made the mistake of encroaching in on the buffer, I couldn't believe all the people out at 3:30, they were everywhere.  

Anyway, I was pretty disappointed with my run today, I have been thinking about todays run for the last month trying to figure out how I was going to get my long 3 week out run in right in the middle of my biggest work conference setup of the year.  Luckily I got to bed at a decent time last night and woke up at 3:15, had everything ready to go and was on the street by 3:35.  Had the whole 21 miles mapped and planned out which included going across the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was very windy this morning which slowed me down a bit but I knew I could make it up coming back, got to the bridge at 4:30 only to find that the sidewalk is closed until 5:00am.  ahhh!  So I had like 30 minutes to waste, found a great little dirt trail that ran along the coast line but it was to un-even and dangerous in the dark, would love to run it in the day sometime, went back down the hill, mostly just wasting time.  Finally at 5:00 the gate opened right on time and I took off across the bridge, my wasting 30 minutes slowed my average time down to 8:00/mile so I knew I was going to have to run the rest of my run fast to make it up, got across the bridge took a gel pack and quick drink of water at the rest area and headed back.  Had a nice tail wind and pushed as hard as my tired legs would carry me all the way back to the hotel. 

My total run ended up only being 18.6 of the planned 21, I easily wasted 2.5 miles screwing around waiting for the bridge to open.  Actual run time was 2:19:30 7:30/mile avg.  Really wanted to get my full 21 in today, but I can't complain, I somehow managed to get in over 90 miles this week while putting in 12 hour work days on our biggest job of the entire year.

Lower miles next week, and then 2 weeks of tapper.  Looking forward to the lower mileage.