Sean's Running Blog

Last run in Ko'Olina. We have loved this place and it is very condusive to running...especially if your running in the 3-5 mile range. So that meant running a few laps and getting creative to keep it fun but all in all, a great opportunity to run along the waterfront.

Challenging but solid hill workout today. 10x1:00 hills with 2:00 rest. Pretty easy to find suitable hills here in Kailua...or anywhere in Oahu for that matter.

What can I say...another lovely morning run in paradise.

14 lovely miles through Kailua. Got to see the sunrise.

Final run in Hawaii. I had considered jumping in unattached in a 5000m race at the UH twilight track meet this evening but I would struggle. I have loved my time here running all over but the heat/humidity combination just crushes me at race pace speeds.

My workout today was further evidence of that. I had a 4M tempo run at 5:10-5:15 pace followed by a 10:00 minute jog and then 10 x :30 hills on 90 seconds rest.

I hit 5:14, 5:08, 5:10, 5:14 on the tempo run. So I hit my times, but going much faster would have been pretty hard. I sweat like crazy but the humidity doesn't evaporate the sweat which is what cools you off. So I never get cool. Oh well. It will be plenty cool back in Seattle next week.

The hill portion was fine as was the long cool down. The heat doesn't seem to affect my stamina as much as it does the ability to maintain fast speeds for long periods of time. A marathon over here would be absolute murder.

Longest mileage week in three months.

Seattle is not Hawaii. Arrived early this morning at 5:45 PST exhausted. Got the kids off to school and then crashed until noon. Still pretty tired but went out in the cool rain and ran anyway. I miss Hawaii.

A chilly but beautiful sunny run from home down to Snoqualmie and back again. Even delivered my son's forgotten lunch to his school.

Today was easily one of my worst, most embarassingly disastrous workouts ever. Maybe the absolute worst. Certainly the worst in recent memory.

It was supposed to be a 1x1000m at 2:52 with :90 rest, then 2x800 at 2:18 with :90 rest, followed by 2x 600m at 1:38 with 70 seconds rest finishing with 4x400m at :65 with :60 rest.

I missed all of them...badly. Really badly.

2:55 for the first 1000m. The worst part is I was already DONE!

2:24 and 2:28 for the 800s. Not quite sure how I kept going after laying such a turd.

1:47 and 1:46 for the 600s. Good thing I didn't have a gun.

:68 and :68 for the 400s. Scary that the closest I came to hitting my times came on the shortest distance. I skipped the final two 400s. I was too upset not to mention tired. Ugh.

I don't even know what to think of this workout. To be honest, retirement sounds pretty good right now.

A.M. 7

P.M. 7.25

What better way to spend your 38th birthday than doing a long tempo cutdown run. Yippee!!! After the embarassing disaster that was Wednesday's workout I didn't want to wait until Saturday to redeem myself.

The workout was a 10M tempo with the first 6M at 5:36, the next two at 5:16 and the final two at 5:08. I did them all on the track to help me stay mentally focused.

First 6=5:33, 5:33, 5:33, 5:33, 5:30, 5:33, 5:35

Next 2=5:16, 5:16

Last 2=5:07, 5:07

A really solid workout especially after laying such an egg two days ago. The thing I was most pleased with was the pacing. After the first mile, I only looked at my watch every half mile rather than every quarter.

I LOVE my new ST 5 Racers.

This morning I awoke at 5:30 after a really poor night of sleep camping with my son at his Klondike Derby at Ensign Ranch just west of Cle Elum. To be fair, I was in a heated cabin but the "beds" were plywood bunks and I "graciously" gave my sleeping pad to my son. So it was me, my sleeping bag and a very solid piece of wood.

THe run was a bit spooky since it was dark and basically wilderness. The last 6 miles I did on the John Wayne Centennial Trail which goes from Snoqualmie all the way to at least Montana and maybe farther. Not a fan of running on gravel but it was a good way to kill some mileage.

Chilly, but I was prepared.

14 uneventful V-Day Miles.

Made the trip to Seattle to run in the Dempsey Indoor. I did see Uli Steidl for the first time in several months. Good to see him. He was doing a different workout but we got to cool down together. My workout was a repeat of one I did at Dempsey three weeks prior...Ks...six of them. But this time on 90 seconds rest rather than 2:00.

Goal time was 2:57.

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

Here were my times for the same workout three weeks prior when I did 7 repeats on 2:00 rest:

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

The other advantage three weeks ago was that I was running with a pack of guys.Nothing gets you running faster than being chased by a bunch of your running peers.

So I was pretty happy with the workout.

Today was one of those explorer runs. There actually are place on Snoqualmie Ridge that I haven't run...like the Children's Detention Center for example. Turns our they didn't let me past the gate. I guess that's a good thing.

Ran up to the highest point of the Ridge where they are just now starting to build some homes. A beautiful 360 degree view. I could see for at least 100 mile in all directions.

Little bit of rain. Little bit of rain. Snow tonight.

Challenging day today so the run was a great getaway.

A stunningly gorgeous winter day. Blue skies and temps in the mid 40s. I even broke out the sunglasses.

Opted to do my workout today rather than make it part of my long run tomorrow.

3x1.5M @5:08-5:10 mile pace or 7:45 on 3:00 rest.

Felt really good the whole time and probably could have done another one or two of these without too much trouble.

Hit 7:38 (5:03); 7:40 (5:05) and 7:34 (5:03).

Felt great to nail a workout. I got a bit chilled and light headed on my run home so I stopped to get some water and stretch. Seemed to do the trick.

A beautiful and wonderful 21 mile run from NBES to Rattlesnake Lake and then back to my house. The gravel trail up to Rattlesnake Lake is uphill...nothing crazy...but a gentle up hill for 7 miles. Things felt great so I looked at my watch and I was running 6:10s....way faster than my normal 6:45-7:00 pace for easy runs. Things just felt good. Coming back down the pace was about the same albeit easier.

Longest mileage in a really long time.

Ran from home down the Preston/Issaquah trail to Issaquah where I met the fam. Nice, fairly quiet run.

With an inch of snow on the ground and chilly temps, I opted to drive down to the Dempsey Indoor at UW and do the workout there. Glad I did. It's race week so I am backing off the mileage a bit and wanted to do the first-half workout today instead of tomorrow to maximize for recovery.

Workout was 3x2000m on just 2:00 rest. Target time was 6:15-6:17 which is 5:02-5:04 pace.

Ended up killing the workout without really intending to. crossed each mile mark int the 4:54-4:56 range and finished 6:06 (4:54), 6:09 (4:56), 6:08 (4:56). I could have easily done another repeat and maybe two at that pace. I haven't felt this good during a workout in a while. Hopefully it carries over to Saturday's 15M race.

Brought two of my kids with me. I had my 10-year old son do a broken mile. He was much improved over last year.

LOts of snow. I ran all trails this morning and it was very challenging and slow. More of a workout then I expected.

Today didn't go quite as planned but the weather didn't help. Mid-20s at the start and upper 20s at the finish. It didn't feel too bad once we got started but it certainly wasn't optimal.

This was my first race in nearly four month...and it showed. I led the entire way through 10 miles. Mistake #1. We had a pack of five guys that entire stretch and I didn't let anyone else do the work. Poor decision on my part.

We were 21:29 through 4 miles so running along at a 5:22 pace. I was hoping for more like 5:15s, but with the weather 5:20s were fine. We picked up the pace a bit on the flat stretch finishing the first 7 milesin 37:25 (5:20) putting us back on pace overall. At the 7.5M turnaround point we were 40:10. So we were well off my course record pace of 1:18:40 but I don't think any of us expected this to be a banner race. At Mile 9, the lead pace car cut us off and we had to make a very sharp and dangerous zig zag to avoid an accident. This turned out to be pretty unfortunate. At that moment, I could feel the lactic acid fill my legs and I was never really the same. To be fair, the inevitable was coming anyway...that just seemed to be the trigger. At Mile 10 we were still a pack of five which was awesome. I have never run in a pack that size for this long. We crossed in 53:16 (5:19) so we had picked up the pace a bit. I was still leading the pack but starting to feel tired. I was really poorly prepared. I forgot my GU at home which I had planned taking at Mile 5 or so. And by Mile 10, I was feeling a major shortage of energy. So I ceded the lead to try and catch a draft and before I knew it, the group had gapped me. The good news is that I was running slower...they just picked up the pace. The bad news is I couldn't follow. SO I spent the last 5 miles basically by myself plodding along and totally out of gas. The worst remaining mile was 12. It's an uphill mile and I had a miserable 5:43. The rest were in the 5:30 range.

This was a mediocre performance but a good chance to race and check in on where I am.