Sean's Running Blog

A very early 3:20am start this morning and 16 miles. A pretty nice morning. Didn't see a single car until the 1-hour mark. It was the paperboy.

8 more this afternoon under beautiful sunny skies. It was almost warm...~53 degrees.

Well...today's workout I had been dreading for a week. I knew they were mile repeats but I didn't know what pace my coach would put me at.

3x1M @4:48-4:50 (72s) w/2:30 rest. Hard. But to make it worse, I couldn't make it to the indoor track tonight to run with the group so I had to do it on my own in the 36 degree sunshine this morning.

If I had been asked to wager money on whether I could have hit the times by myself, I probably would have bet $100 against it happening.

I was down in Auburn for a meeting in the morning so I found the nearest track I could (Kent-Meridian HS) and ran there. The frost from overnight had burned off and the sunshine was bright but the temp was not exactly warm. Fortunately, the breeze was light.

4-mile warmup around the track and then rolled right into the first mile. As always, the first lap was too fast: 70 seconds. As usual, I overcorrected on the second hitting 73. Finshed the first mile in 4:48. I was happy not only because I hit the lower end of the time range, but because I wasn't completely wasted. One very slow lap around the track and a drink of water was what the 2:30 rest got me and I was off for #2. Finished that one in 4:47 and was tired but knew that a final mile in 4:50 was not crazy.

Another very short 2:30 of active rest and mile 3 was underway. First 200 was in 35 seconds...way too fast but I corrected and finished the first lap in 72. Second lap was the hardest of all. One of the challenges of running speed workouts by yourself is that it takes total and constant concentration. There's no one else there to keep you on pace and focused. Lap 2 was evidence of that. It was a 74 putting me two seconds behind with two laps to go. All I wanted to do on lap 3 was make up one of those seconds and not do anything crazy. Lap three was in 71 so I got one of the seconds back. The first 200m of the last lap was in 35. Not sure how I did that because at this point, I was wasted. The final 200 was all about gutting it out which I managed to do finishing in 4:49.

I was very happy with another solid workout. It would have been a challenging one even indoors and with other guys. This was a real confidence booster because now I know I can do it by myself if I need. to.

What is crazy to think about though is the pace I ran my 3x1M intervals at today is the pace the best marathoners run their marathons at. Absolutely insane.

Six mile this morning under clear skies and 39 degrees. Another 10 this afternoon under mostly sunny skies. It was supposed to be 60 degrees again today, which is why I saved the bulk of my run until the afternoon, but 49 is all we've managed so far.

36 degrees and clear skies this morning at 5:15am. Cool but beautiful morning for a run. Slowly but surely the sun is creeping up earlier and earlier.

It felt like it took forever to get moving this morning. First few miles were slower than 7:00 pace but i finally got going halfway through. Today's run marked the retirement of my first pair of Brooks Infinity shoes. They have served me well. Not sure which new pair I will break out tomorrow. The Trance 8s or another pair of Infinitys. Also retired another pair of ST3 racers this week.

A more typical winter weather day this morning with temps in the low 40s and drizzle. It actually felt kind of nice. Decided to go with the Trance 8s as my new pair of shoes. Not sure I like them as much as the Infinity.

Great workout today. I waited as long as I could for the weather to warmup. It was 40 degrees when I got started under beautiful blue skies. Four mile warmup before hitting the track for a 3x1.5M interval workout. My coach told me to do a slow:fast:slow @ 7:31:7:27:7:31 with ~4 minutes rest between each repeat.

Hit the first repeat in 7:23 (4:55 pace). Oops. I knew after the first lap I was going to be fast but I felt fine so I kept pushing. Second repeat I commited to taking a bit slower. Hit it in 7:28 which was still fast but slower still. During my two laps of rest I was thinking about doing an extra repeat but wanted to see how the third one went first. Third one felt good all the way through although the last 800m I could begin to feel the muscles burn a bit. But hit 7:24 nonetheless.

I was pretty spent so I didn't commit to a fourth repeat until the second rest lap. There's a lot of mind games that go into these workouts and I was determined to prove to myself that not only could I do these alone but that I could go farther and faster than the workout proscribed.

By the fourth repeat, the wind had gone from calm to 10mph. Didn't prove to be all that big of a deal but it was noticeable. I finished the fourth repeat in 7:28. I was very pleased. There wasn't a single mile that wasn't under 5:00.

I also learned to really love the 1.5M repeat and I think it's is my favorite. I like it because it breaks up into vey manageable chunks which is important for me when I'm working out, esepcially alone. At the 800 mark you have a mile to go. After three laps you are halfway done. At four laps, you have one mile down and just a half to go. These frequent check-in points are helpful.

Grest finish to another strong and long week.

Woke up to an inch of snow and heavy snow showers for most of the run. It was beautiful. Hoping to get at least 8 more miles in this evening and maybe even 10.

Almost 10 more this evening. I'm hating my Trance 8s now. They seem so much heavier and more rigid than my Infinity's. I will give them another few days to break in but may switch back tot he Inifinitys.

Tomorrow I turn 36. I felt every bit that old and more tonight at the UW Dempsey Indoor track. After several consecutive awesome workouts, tonight was a real stinker.

The workout was 4x1000m @2:50 (4:33 pace) with 90 seconds rest. Aftet the fourth 1000m, I was to jog 8 minutes before doing 2x600 @1:39 (4:25 pace) with 90 seconds rest and then 2x400m in 65 (4:21 pace) with 90 seconds rest. Let's just say things didn't go so well.

John Timeus and I warmed up together for about 5.5 miles, most of it outside. After stretching and changing into racing flats, we began the workout. I led the first one with the intention of trading off the lead each rep. After the first 200m we were 1 second slow. Not a huge deal except I ended up dropping another second every 200m after that for a finishing time of 2:55. Ugh. And to think I had three more of those. Second one was also in 2:55 and i was stinkin up the joint while John (albeit 11 years my junior) was right on. Getting gapped by five seconds never looked so bad. Third one was getting worse as I was really tired: 2:58. The fourth and final one came in at 2:57 and I was ready to pack it up and go except that would have been the only thing more embarrassing than botching my expected times.

After an 8-minute jog filled with "what the heck happened" we rolled into our 600m repeats. The shorter the distance the worse I am, but 2 laps (it's a 307m track) seemed doable even at sprint speeds (for me).

First one was in 1:42. Ugh. What a day. Second one: 1:43. I was ready to call a cab.

The good news was that I was only 2x400m plus a cool down away from going home and to bed. Oh...the thought of my pillow was searing my brain.

The two 400s came in at 66 and 67...the only two times remotely close to what I was supposed to hit. Keep in mind I have never broken 1:00 in the 400m. So 66 and 67, under the circumstances, were just fine by me. So was the nice 2M cooldown outside to my car.

Feeling old tonight.

Today was one of the hardest mornings in recent memory to get out of bed and go for a run. Normally on Wednesdays I run in the daytime hours to give myself some extra time to recover from my Tuesday evening workouts. But my schedule today is crazy so to get my run in I needed to start at 4:45. The first several miles felt slow and straight uphill which is to be expected. I really didn't enjoy my run until about mile 10.

I had a lot of time to think about last night's workout and after doing some math, I realized the times my coach set out for me were extremely aggressive. Doing repeats of 1000s and 600s at 4:30 pace or better is probably at the very edge, if not beyond the edge of my capability. I have never run the mile, but I think under the most optimal conditions, 4:30 would be a real stretch. I'm also back to running high mileage so I'm probably a bit tired. It probably also didn't help that the very tasty Qdoba burrito from lunch was still churning in my belly. Perhaps these are excuses but I was trying to cut myself a bit of slack after a very frustrating performance last night.

This morning I also unretired my Infinity's for one more morning. I am really hating my Trance 8s and my the new pair of Infinity's I have were upstairs and I was too lazy to get them so I just used my recently retired ones.

A glorious 14 miles along the East Lake Sammamish Trail. I wore my new pair of Infiniti's and I will never go back to the Trance. Felt really strong.

A chilly but beautiful morning run through the more rural parts of Snoqualmie and North Bend.

This morning the family and I went down to the Husky Classic, one of the largest and most contested indoor track meets in the country. Rohatinsky looked like an old man in the mile. The winning time in the 3000m was a ridiculous 7:47, a record in that facility.

By the time we got back home and I was able to start my run it was 2:30. I hadn't eaten anything but a bagel all day because I thought I was going to do my workout at the UW.

After a short 2-mile warmup, I jumped into the 3x2000m interval workout. 4 minutes was the rest period. The time to hit was 6:08 (4:56 pace). The first one was 6:07 and I felt fine. 2000m meters is a weird distance.

The second and third reps were in 6:05. On the third rep I apparently fell asleep on the second lap and spent the remaining three laps making up for it. Oh well. I thought about doing an extra repeat but opted instead to pick up the pace a bit for the cool down miles...hanging around 6:20s or so.

Despite a disappointing Tuesday workout, it was all in all a good week. Highest mileage in many, many months and feeling great.

A gorgeous day for a run in Seattle. 52 degrees and clear blue skies. i ran 14 miles along the east side of Lake Sammamish and I did it without a jacket and gloves. It's supposed to be this nice all week.

What a difference a week makes. Last Tuesday my indoor workout was a disaster. This week, things went much better. I met my coach and John Timeus and Uli Steidl for a "Ks" workout: 7x1000m in a fast:slow alternating format with 90 seconds rest. The fast time was 2:57 and the slow time was 3:00.

The four fast ones were all either 2:55 (4:41 pace) or 2:56. The "slow" 3:00 repeats were all in 2:58 or 2:59. So I beat all my times and did it feeling like I had a quite a bit left in the tank. I probably could have done each a couple of seconds faster and done a couple more reps without any trouble.

So last week was simply a stinker workout that everyone has from time to time.

 Ran another 11 tonight. Half way thorough I realized how dehydrated I was from the morning workout. I grabbed some water and that seemed to help.

Another gorgeous day in Seattle. 54 degrees and sunshine for my run along the East Lake Sammamish trail. The first three miles I felt really tired and dehydrated and I was getting farther and farther away from water so I turned back and headed toward Marymoor Park where there are water fountains. I felt OK most of the last several miles but I need to drink more water.

30 degrees and clear skies this morning at around 6am when I began my run. I actually got to finish my morning run in the daylight for the first time in a long time. It was a pretty slow start this morning. First mile took almost 8 minutes anf the next six were in the 7:00-7:05 range. But I'm healthy and feeling pretty strong. I drank a lot of water last night so hopefully I'm getting myself rehydrated.

A chilly 26 degrees this morning but another gorgeous sunrise. Seemed like it took forever to get warmed up and actually getting my legs to move. Shooting for 20-22 tomorrow.

Ate way too much last night but got some good sleep. Another stunning day. 51 degrees at 10:30 when I started my run this morning. That was the good news. The bad news was that the winds were strong...sustained at 20mph with gusts to 35mph. Not exactly ideal for a track workout. I considered going down to the Issaquah or Sammamish tracks but that was 30-40 minutes of driving I didn't want to do. So I just set expectations for a slower than expected workout.

The workout was 4x1M alternating slow/fast -- 4:56/4:53 with 3:30 rest between each interval. With the winds, I kind of figured five seconds slower on each would be acceptable.

But to my surprise, I was able to hit 4:57, 4:54, 4:56, 4:55. I was extremely pleased. My final 200m was in 72 so I ran strong through the end. The wind made things more difficult but it was a huge mental boost to have basically hit my times despite the conditions.

I then headed out for a 13-mile "cooldown." I averaged 6:25s which is quite a bit faster than I would normally do after a hard workout but it felt fine and the bright sunshine made everything a bit easier.

Gearing up to run my first ever indoor 5,000m race at the UW Last Chance Qualifier meet on March 7th. Hopefully there will be several desperate college guys trying to qualify for the NCAA championships. Not only will this be my first indoor 5,000m, but it will be my first 5,000m on a track of any kind. 16+ laps of pure enjoyment. :-)

It's supposed to be much colder and rainy all next week so I had to soak up the sun as much as I could today. First run of 20+ miles in probably 5 or so months. Felt really good. I got to remind myself of how terrible Gu tastes. Ick.

Snuck in 13+ this morning before my flight to SFO. Looking forward to a nice run this evening along the Embarcadero.

A very enjoyable 11 miles along the Embarcadero. It was dark by the end and it started to rain but it was pretty warm so it actually felt good.

You know you are spoiled when it's raining outside and 48 degrees and you wimp out and get on the treadmill. Well, that lasted about a 1/4 mile and then I couldn't stand it anymore and braved the elements. I was supposed to do a speed/hill workout, but two hours on a plane and nasty weather made me think otherwise. It was hard enough just running easy miles today after enjoying more than a week of gorgeous sunny, rain-free weather last week.

I felt like a postal worker today. Neither sleet, nor rain, nor wind, nor hail, nor snow could keep me from my workout today. All of the above were part of my 15-mile adventure this afternoon in what turned out to be miserable weather.

The workout was a 3M tempo run @ 5:09s followed by a 10-15 minute jog followed by 7x one-minute hills with 2:30 rest between hills. It was a good workout. It had been a while since I did hills. The 2:30 rest was probably overkill.

Man things felt slow this morning. They weren't really but they felt slow. Woke up this morning at 5 to run but the roads looked slick so I waited until after I dropped my daughter off at school. 31 degrees and snowing for the first half of the run. It was pretty as I ran the backroads of Snoqualmie and North Bend.

A stunningly gorgeous afternoon in Seattle. Not a cloud in the sky and 50 degrees. I love the sunshine. Ran from work through Marymoor Park along the Sammamish River trail all the way to Redhook Brewery which is where the Super Jock and Jill half marathon starts and finishes. Lots of people out enjoying the nice weather. One more nice day and then back to the rain.

It was very windy today on the Ridge so I went to Sammamish to the Eastlake HS track. Unfortunately, it wasn't much better there. The workout was 6x1200M slow/fast @ 3:39/3:36 with 2:30 rest. I hit 3:37, 3:37, 3:38, 3:37, 3:37, 3:39. So I hit the times but it was tougher going today than I had hoped. I just didn't have quite the energy I had hoped for.

After the workout I left the track and ran another 13...just enough to break 100 for the first time in months. There's no substantive difference between 96 miles and 100 but 100 just sounds cool.