Sean's Running Blog

Another Monday means another workout at the Dempsey Indoor. I had eight or so guys to run with tonight. Oh what a difference that makes. Of course running in 65 degree temps with no wind helps too.

Workout was 7x1000m in 3:00-3:03 on 90 seconds rest. I led the first two and we crossed in 3:00 and 3:01. Felt good. John Timeus led the next two and I was happy to sit back and draft behind everyone else. 3:00 and 3:01 for those two. Then things got interesting. Let's just say the bowels were not exactly cooperating. After #4 I had to visit the restroom. Managed to hustle back to the start just in time to begin #5. That one was tougher as I continued to have intestinal issues. Finished in 3:02 and then sprinted to the restroom for visit #2. Pardon the pun. Again managed to get back to the start of #6 to join the crew but halfway in dropped due to continuing issues. I waited for them to finish #6 and then joined them for #7 (my #6) This one went well. I finished in 2:57 which was at least five seconds back of the leader. They were smokin. They were done but I didn't want to finish one rep short so I did #7 on my own and finished in 3:02. Cooled down outside and seemed to be rid of the intestinal issues although I was pretty tired.

56 degrees and sunny. Just absolutely beautiful. Ran along the Sammamish River Trail before heading back to Marymoor park where I ran one mile barefoot on the soccer fields. Felt really good to take the shoes off.

Only had time for 10 today but at least I avoided the rain.

A threshold cutdown workout today at Redmond HS. 4 miles from work to the track and then 5 miles around it plus one more mile barefoot.

The workout was in a 1:2:2:1 format in 5:28, 5:20, 5:12. 5:04. It was beautiful weather but quite windy so I scrapped the final mile since the 5:12s were proabably 5:04 effort when factoring in the wind.

Hit 5:28, 5:20, 5:20, 5:12 then closed out with a 5:08. Then ran one mile around the track barefoot. Felt good.

Hill workout tomorrow.

Today I did a workout I don't think I have ever done before. It was a hill workout but instead of the usual short bursts of 1 or 2 minutes, it was 4x10 minutes with the rest simply being the return to the bottom of the hill.

I ran out of hill at 1.7 miles so I didn't quite make it to 10 minutes. My goal was 6:00 pace given the 6% grade but actually managed 5:45 or so. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to do the 4 reps so I only got in two. Good workout though. Long run tomorrow morning early before jumping on an long flight to Germany.

18 wonderful miles early this morning. Very windy but a mild 48 degrees at 6am. Off to Germany for the week. Looking forward to running elsewhere but not looking forward to the sub-freezing temps.

21 degrees and light snow this morning in Hamburg. Woke up at 1am local time and never really fell back asleep so by 5am I decided to venture out and go for my run. I was amazed and happy that there was such little traffic from 5-6:30 am in Germany's seconds largest metro area. The sidewalks are completely iced over so I had to run in the roads which made the light traffic very nice indeed. For the most part I didn't get lost but if you looked at my route map you might think otherwise. Basically, I never knew exactly where I was but I knew the general area. I was surprised how well I adjusted to the cold weather. Our winter has been so mild in Seattle this year that I didn't know how well by body would respond.

Interesting morning run. Woke up to fresh snow with temps in the low 20s. Some streets were very icy and some we perfectly fine. Unfortunately, the ones that were fine turned out to be in the Reeperbahn section of town. I've never focused my eyes on the pavement in front of me with such intensity. I was planning on doing a fartlek workout (3x 10 minutes at threshold pace) but the roads made it difficult plus I got an hour later start this morning which meant mor cars were on the roads. That said, I tried anyway. Did the first one and got started on the second before being pulled over by the Polezei halfway through. It was pretty funny. They informed me that it's not OK to run in the streets of Hamburg. I pointed to the sidewalks which all have 3 inches of ice on them and their response was "Yes...this is a problem." But nevertheless, they would allow me to run in the streets and resisting the urge to get arrested, I decided to abandon the workout, and finish up on the hotel treadmill. Ugh...forutnatelt, i has only four more miles to do. My plan is to try the workout again tomorrow but wake up an hour earlier and hope the roads are better and that there are fewer cars to compete with.

So the plan for this morning was to do the workout I was in the middle of yesterday when stopped by my favorite Polezie. That was before I woke up to a few inches of new snow and heavy snow falling. No worries. I would just do six or so outside and head back to the hotel to do the fartlek on the treadmill. That was great except the workout room doesn't open until 6:15. It was 5:30. Ugh.

So I just went back out and ran and ran and ran. It was fun to run in the snow. First time this year. I guess I will plan my workout for tomorrow.

A downright balmy morning at 29 degrees. Light snow, strong wind and sloppy slushy streets made for the most unpleasant run of my stay here.

The best part was actually my fartlek run on the treadmill. The plan was 3x10 minutes at 5:15 with 3 mins rest between each. It was my first ever workout on a treadmill and it wasn't nearly as bad as I suspected. The biggest problem was the hot and humid nature of the room. I did the first two reps in 5:08-5:10 pace. I was sweating profusely but wasn't cooling at all which had me concerned. So five minutes in to the final 10 minute rep I called it quits. I was starting to get lightheaded and dizzy so I was actually fearing some overheating problems. So I just bailed on the final 5 minutes and finished up with four miles outside in the sloppy mess.

Planning on a long run tomorrow morning early before heading off to Berlin for a couple of days. There is a track within 1k of my hotel there so i am hoping it is open so I can do some 1200m repeats on Saturday.

Got up early (4:30am) to get my run in before heading to Berlin. Balmy morning with light winds, 30 degrees and no snow. Best part was the roads were mostly clear of previous snowfalls so running was pretty safe. Off to Berlin where I hope to get an interval workout in.

Well, I had every intention of running on the beautiful track about 1000m from my hotel...until I discovered it was buried in more than a foot of snow. So...I got to do my interval workout on the treadmill again. Yippee. 5x1200m in 3:38 with 90 seconds rest. Only problem is the treadmill, as nice as it was, only went to 4:58/mile pace which had me doing 1200s in 3:43 or so. So I upped the incline a bit and shortened the rest to help make up for it. Again, the room was warm so i had to bury my head under cold running water in the middle of the workout just to cool off.

Ran for another six miles afterward through the embassy section of Berlin. A beautiful morning. First time I have run in daylight in several days.

Today will be a very long day. Since the last thing I will feel like doing when I get home at 4pm PST is go for a run, i decided to wake up super early before my flight from Hamburg to Seattle. 12 miles of laps through the airport at 3:30am Hamburg time. Can't wait to get back to sunny, warm Seattle.

Sooooo good to be back home. The day kind of got away from me so didn't start my run until late which gave me limited time. I was expecting a bit of a jet lag lethargy when running today but there wasn't any.

Another gorgeous and mild winter day, almost perfect for a speed workout on the track. Headed to Redmond HS which is an automatic 4 mile warmup. The workout was mile repeats...four of them on two minutes rest at 5:00-5:02 pace. I was admitedly worried about being able to hit those times, but despite a bit of a wind, was able to go 4:59, 4:59, 4:59, 4:58. I probably could have done another but was plenty happy to stop at four.

I know I sound like a broken record, but the weather continues to be insanely nice. 62 degrees with not even a cloud in the sky...and it's still February. So I took off in my sunglasses and short-sleeved shirt and headed out for a wonderful run this afternoon.

A chilly, but beautiful morning run from home this morning. Cloudless sunrise.

Another chilly but beautiful morning for a run. Got started around six ahead of the sunrise and headed for the Mt Si track for a mid run workout. 5M@ 5:16 pace. Hit 5:17 on the first one, then 5:16. 5:16. 5:14 and finished strong with a 5:08. Then a 10 minute jog followed by 5x150m hard. Then finished up with 8+ miles to notch my first 20-mile run on way too long.

I'm in Carlsbad for a work conference and had the privilege of running in chilly, rainy SoCal. It actually didn't rain much during the run but there was a strong onshore breeze which kept things perfectly cool. Turns our more than half of my run was along the Carlsbad Marathon route. not exactly a flat or fast marathon.

A gorgeous day in San Diego but a bummer of a workout. There are just days where you don't have it and today was one of those days. I jogged over to the UC San Diego track for my 7x800m workout. Goal was 2:21 on 90 seconds rest.

2:21, 2:22, 2:22, 2:24, 2:26, 2:30, 2:29. Just ugly. But I've learned everyone has a bad workout here and there and if they say they don't they are either lying or their workouts aren't hard enough. The important thing was I stuck with it and didn't quit. It would have been easy to.

Things got even more interesting on the way home. I took a slightly different way back to my hotel and what was supposed to be a 12-14 mile run turned in to 20+. San Diego is full of hills and valleys and apparently I got on the wrong side of one of the valleys and before I knew it, I was a lot farther from my hotel than I thought and had no short way to get back. Fortunately, I had brought some money with me so I could buy a water. But I was pretty dehydrated when i got back.

Only had time for 10 this afternoon. It poured for the last four miles of the run but the prize was a lovely set of rainbows.

Ran through a steady rain this afternoon. Fortunately it was relatively warm.

Managed to get a workout in between rain episodes. Ran a 7M tempo cutdown in 2:2:2:1 format in 5:28; 5:20; 5:12 and 5:04. Hit all of my times. I was especially hapyp about hitting 5:04 on Mile 7. Part B of the plan was to jog 3 miles or so before doing 10x1-minute hills on 2:00 rest. By the time I got to the hill I could tell 10x was going to be too many. My legs were pretty shot and it didn't help that the weather was starting to move in and it felt like the temp dropped 10 degrees in a matter of minutes. So I did 5 instead and then headed home.