Sean's Running Blog

The idea this morning was to do a tempo run. That was until I woke up and it was 13 degrees outside. So I just went for an 8-mile run and called it good.

Again too icy to run in the dark in Snoqualmie. Looks like more of the same tomorrow before "warm" temps in the 40s and rain melt the leftover snow and ice once and for all.

So I went into work super early and ran along the Seattle waterfront. Still chilly but at least the footing was secure.

Early 11 miles along the Seattle waterfront.

Had to scramble to find a track not snowed over. Was unsuccessful so wound up doing the workout on the RR Days course where I have miles marked.

3x2M in 10:45 on 2:00 rest. Killed it. 10:12, 10:19, 10:28. Intentionally slowed it down on the last one. Everything felt good.  

A somewhat icy morning for a run...enough so that I had to watch almost every step.

Truly one of the windiest mornings I have even run in. Sustained winds of 25-30mph with gusts in the 40s made the wind chill 10-15 degrees. Snow is on the way.

 Tonight's workout was at the Issaquah HS Track so I could pick up my boys from Scouts afterward.

The workout was 3x 400 (69) +400 (69) +800 (2:23) with 1:30 rest after the 400s and 3:00 after the 800.

Hit 68 then 71 (oops) then 2:18. Great first rep. The second rep was was 68, 69, 2:20

The third rep omits the final 800m...not sure why. But the final 400s were 69, 68.

Solids workout on a cold but beautiful evening.

The cool down turned out to be more like a meltdown. I guess I was really dehydrated so i had to stop a couple of times during the cool down to rest. Weird.

It sucks when you are only a couple laps in to a long interval workout that you realize that today isn't the day. It also sucks when you get to the track only to realize you only brought your training flats on forgot your racing shoes. Bummer.

The workout was 2x1.75 miles at 5:00 pace...so 8:45. Four minutes rest between reps.

I cranked out the first mile in 4:59 but knew that the end was nigh. I did the first rep in 8:48. I'll take it. I seriously considered bailing on the second rep but somehow during the 4:00 rest jog I talked myself into at least giving the second one a try.

So I did. At the mile mark (5:12) I called quits. I just didn't have it today so I decided to cut my losses and finish out my longest run since the Indy Marathon. 19 miles.

6 miles in the morning to shake off the cobwebs of the day off Sunday. Dempsey Indoor workout tonight.

7x1000m in the Dempsey Indoor. It was really toasty in there tonight. I looked at the times Tom had down for me and was a bit leery. between 2:55 (4:40 pace) and 2:58, ideally alternating between the two. That seemed really fast. I did have two people to run with though which was nice.

2:55, 2:58, 2:56. 2:59, 3:01, 3:00, 2:57.

About midway through I stopped trying to alternate and just went pretty much as hard as I could. Had to make two trips to the bathroom during the 2:00 rest intervals. That was a bummer but managed to "git 'er done" in time to start the next rep. More of an annoyance than anything else.

I was pretty gassed by the midway point. The last few were all about being mentally tough. This is where having peers to run with helps. No body wants to quit early. So I hung in there and turned in a really solid final rep.

Good workout overall. Still several pounds heavy which doesn't help.17 miles for the day.

12 chilly miles. Was a bit underdressed. But it was peaceful.

Track workout this morning under mostly sunny skies.

8x800 alternating between 2:20 and 2:24 with just 90 seconds rest.

2:20, 2:24, 2:20, 2:25, 2:22, 2:25. 2:24, 2:23.

The last few were all about mental toughness. I was a couple seconds slow on each and I really wanted to quit at 6 but kept powering through. I was very pleased with the 2:23 final rep especially since it took a :33 on final 200 meters to get it.

Slow and short shakeout run this morning ahead of tonight's Dempsey workout.

Dempsey Workout. 4x1M alternating between 4:48 and 4:51 on 2:00 rest. Yikes.

Hit the first in 4:48. Felt good. Hit the second in 4:51. Nice. Third was was in 4:52. OK. A bit off. More importantly, I felt a tweak in the glute on the final lap so I opted to bail on the fourth mile. Not much to gain and a lot to lose by pushing it. It was also a good exercise in not letting the male ego get the best of me. I good part of me wanted to "save face in front of the guys" but I resisted.

Another wet day in paradise

Finally a dry run

My final 11 miles in Seattle for 10+ days. Off to Hawaii.

My first run in Hawaii!

We are staying the first half in Ko'Olina on the SW side of Oahu before heading over to the east side in Kailua.

14.5 gorgeous early morning miles. It was 71 degrees when I walked out the door at 7am. It was 36 degrees and raining in Snoqualmie at that same time. Bummer for them. :-)

The Ko'Olina resort area is a nice place to run. I found a 5-mile loop that I could do that ran along the shoreline. It is just beautiful here.

Our second full day in Ko'Olina and we are loving it. That is until today's first real encounter with the heat and humidity of paradise. 

This was my first "destination" run. The family activity for the day was to go to the Dole Pineapple Plantation and then head up to Waimea Park and hike up to some cool falls. So I thought it would be cool to meet the family at the Dole plantation which was 21+ miles away.

So I was smart. I left early...about 7am (just prior to sunrise) and carried with me two 17oz water bottles. Even better, i took money with me to buy more along the way if i needed it. Ummm....I did.

The workout portion was a fartlek of 2:00 hard and 1:00 jog...10 times. After a five mile warmup, which included drinking all of my first water bottle, I dug in to the workout. All was well for the first 6 but I couldn't cool off. 7 and 8 were a death march, but for whatever reason, 9 and 10 were fine. After the repeats, I stopped at the gas station and got a 32 ounce bottle of water. Yes...that is a lot to carry around, but I needed every drop. To try and cool my head off, i dumped several ounces of water onto my head. That was helpful for about 5-10 minutes. And then i would repeat until i ran out. So I drank about half of it anf pour the other half over my head.

By mile 18, I was really hoping to see my wife drive up along side me and rescue me. No chance. The next four miles just felt awful, but I was surprised to see that my pace for the last four miles was 6:45 or so. It felt like 8:45. So all in all, it was a good run. It was of course stunningly gorgeous.

The worst part may have been that my feet were sopping wet just from sweat. That squeeky squishy sound got to be annoying with every foot step.

Another lousy day in paradise. :-)  

Longest mileage week in three months.

Another destination run today. Our family decided to make Monday a Pearl Harbor day. So I took off from our place in Ko'Olina early and ran to Pearl Harbor. My observation of Hawaii (whether accurate or not) is that you either have money here or you don't. There doesn't seem to be a lot of in between, at least in the context of neighborhoods. Much of my run today was through neighborhoods you would not feel comfortable running in at night. That said, it was quite enjoyable. It was cool running from the house to Pearl Harbor. It made for a stinky rest of the day, but it's warm enough here that I would have been sweating anyway.