Sean's Running Blog

10 pleasant miles this morning under sunny skies and nice temps. At the beginning of the week my goal was to do 5 miles a day. I managed better than that with no apparent reaggravation of the groin injury. Ran 10 miles at 6:45 pace this morning and everything appears to be working properly. Shooting for mid 50s next week with a couple of speed workouts.

Beautiful and perfectly cool morning for a run. Ran 11 miles...longest in a few weeks. From what i can tell, I'm all healed up but my speed workout on Wednesday will be the true test. I will proabably keep it simple by doing a fartlek but who knows.

Another beautiful and comfortably warm day. I ran along the Sammamish River trail and everything seems to be clicking again. I'll know more after my tmepo run tomorrow. Jumped back into the Brooks shoes today after putting 100 or so miles on the Nike Vomeros I am testing. Good to be back in my shoes.

Well, today was my first speed workout since my injury and only my second or third since Grandmas in June. I feel like I 've let the summer get away from me.

My coach suggested a tempo run of 8M with the first 6M at 5:30 and the last two at 5:05-5:10. To be perfectly honest, I was nervous the whole morning about being able to even hit the 5:30s let alone the 5:10s. But after enough procrastinating, I headed out to the Sammamish River Trail to do the workout. Fortunately, it was overcast and very cool.

Averaged 5:23 on each of the first six miles but knew very quickly there would be no 5:10s in my future today. So I quit the workout after the first six miles actually pleased -- albeit tired -- that I was able to do that and that I had zero residual effects from the injury. I won't consider myself out of the woods in that regard until after Saturday's workout which is an interval workout with shorter, faster repeats.

I ran this morning with Drake DaPont, a 2008 graduate, and 1600m record holder at Mt. Si High School. He redshirted last year at WSU but will be running this year for the team. They have an outstanding team this year. It was good to run with him. I know his mom pretty well as she is the coach of the distance runners on the HS track team and she's been a big help in recruiting volunteers for my local races.

It was kind of funny...we both did hard workouts yesterday and were hoping to just run an easy 7:00 pace. At mile 4 or so he suggested we were doing 6:00 pace. I said no way but looked at my watch and sure enough, we were running 6:05s. OOOPS. We just got busy gabbing and lost track of the pace. Need to slow it down tomorrow.

Another cool overcast morning...something I've learned to appreciate since the heat wave snapped. Ran again with Drake daPont. Good kid and a bright running future.

We ran most of the run on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail so I got some good soft surface running in ahead of the interval workout tomorrow morning.

A perfect morning for a workout. Cool and overcast. Did a 3.5 mile warmup with the running club and then jumped into a 3x(400m/400m/800m) interval workout. 30 seconds rest after the 400s and 60 seconds after the 800. Time goals were 68 for the 400s and 2:25 or so for the 800. The first two went fine. I was within a second on either side for each split. I started to have a few stomach issues as I began the third rep and my left groin started to feel pretty tight so after the first 400 of the third rep I called it good mostly as a precaution.

That said, I probably would not have been able to hit the third rep in the goal times. For whatever reason, I'm not bouncing back as quickly as I had hoped and I'm more out of shape than I thought. Those times should not be that hard to hit. Maybe the big bump in mileage is to blame or maybe I'm just not that fast.

There is a big 10,000 race on the track on Wednesday that a bunch of guys are trying to break 31:00 at. I was going to give it a go before I got hurt. After these last two workouts, it's crystal clear I am not in sub 31 shape and probably not sub 32 shape either.

There is also a 10k in Woodinville on Saturday morning next week that I may jump into. It's lower profile and might be a good check-in for where I am fitness wise.

Another gorgeous morning for running. Threw on the long sleeve shirt but probably could have gotten by with the short sleeve. Ran a few more of the trails than normal in an effort to stretch my run from 10 to 13. Shooting for mid 70s mileage this week.

Easy 12 miles along the Sammamish river trail. Overcast but pretty warm. It was pouring this...first rain in almost a month. I havn't run in rain since early June.

A very long day today. I went to the Redmond HS track to do my workout but when I got there, discovered that they had just resurfaced it and it wasn't ready to be used yet. It looks like the nice new surface is extra squishy. Great for lower impact, terrible for speed. Oh well.

So I went back to work deciding to do my workout at the Shoreline Stadium track in Seattle later in the day where I was going to be volunteering at the final Club Northwest Allcomers Meet. Brooks was sponsoring this particular meet so there was a big push to get all the Brooks sponsored athletes to the meet so I agreed plus it turned out to be a good place to do my workout.

Shoreline is a pretty squishy track in its own right. The workout was 5x800m in 2:24s with 2:30 rest. On the first rep, my newness to this track showed in a big way. I took my 200m split at the wrong spot making my 200 split appear to be slow so I picked it up quite a bit only to cross the 400 in 68. Oops. Second lap I actually took the correct split and finished in 2:21. Oops. It was kind of funny. The rest were in 2:24. Good workout but it still feels like hitting these times are harder right now than it should be.

Anyway, did a quick cooldown to get in 10 miles which is all I had time for before my volunteering duties took over.

I was invited several weeks ago to compete with a bunch of training mates to run in a very competitive (sub 31:00) 10,000m this night. That was the plan until I got hurt a few weeks ago so I backed out not feeling prepared to truly compete. Smart decision.

However, spending that much time in an evening at the track and not competing at all is not really in my DNA. So despite already having done my workout for the day I jumped into two events. The first was a "jogger's mile" which is a mile where each participant has to predict their finishing time and the one closest to their predicted time wins a free paor of shoes. So I guessed a pretty easy 5:40. Why 5:40? Because the 10-year-old who had just finished the Kid's one mile jog did it in 5:41. I had to run faster than him right? By the way, this same kid was 3rd place in the event at this year's Junior Nationals.

Well, the kid was in the adult race too. No pressure. Oh...I failed to mention that you are not allowed to wear watches or any timing devices. In fact, they turn off the clock after the first lap so all you have is a 400m split to go off of. I ended up finishing in 5:30. I wish all miles felt that easy.

The second event was the 1500m. It had been almost 20 years since I last competed in a 1500m race. Weird distance. It was a blast though. With a lap to go, I was in second with some young college/high school dude ahead of me. I decided I was close enough to try and catch him. Things looked pretty good for that with 100m to go but in those final moments, i smartly backed off not wanting to have another injury in a meaningless event. I probably could have caught him but at what potential cost? Wasn't worth it so I coasted in to the finish in a time of 4:25. 13 seconds off my high school PR but it was a blast to run. I know I could PR in this if I wanted to. Maybe next year I will try it again with the intent of running it hard.

BTW...I ran these events in a sweet new Brooks shoe...the Launch. It's a racing/training hybrid. If you are a neutral runner -- which I am not -- and you don't like racing in true racers and despise running in trainers, then this shoe is for you. Plus it looks very cool and isn't that really what matters? It's a very soft shoe and extremely light. I absolutely love it. I won't be able to use it for training because of the lack of support, but I will likely use it for longer tempo runs.

So I walked away from the meet tonight reenergized and healthy. I was pretty happy with my 1500m and it felt WAY easier than the 800m reps I was doing a couple of hours earlier which had me much more optimistic about my fitness level.

By the way, Uli Steidl won the 10,000m in 30:58...one second slower than my 10,000m in April at the WWU Invite.

A wonderful run from upper Snoqualmie down to historic Snoqualmie almost entirely on trails going down and then on the bike path coming back up. Beat the rain so the streak is still alive.

A cool but rain free run this afternoon along the East Lake Sammamish parkway trail. It's such a beautiful run and the trailhead is less than a mile from work. Did a bunch of exercises afterward. Everything seems to be progressing.

A second good workout in a row. 4x1200m @3:43 was the goal. Hit all four in 3:41 and felt like there was more in the tank. I ran the whole warmup, workout and cooldown in the Brooks Launch. Totally loving that shoe and my gait seems to be fine in it according to my PT. Solid ending to a good week of decent mileage.

An absolutely glorious morning for a run. I had planned on 12 but couldn't stop myself until 15. I proabably could have gone 20 or 25 except for this thing called work.

Ran again tonight. Had my 12 yr old daughter biking along side. Good times. Just had some spare energy to burn off plus I want to hit 80 this week and I need to front load the mileage given I'm hosting a race this Saturday with more than 750 peeps.

It's getting hot here again. 87 degrees in Redmond by the time I was able to break free for my workout. And it was pretty breezy too and I felt like crap. I've been having stomach growlings all day and it definitely affected my workout. The workout was 3M@5:12s; take a 1:00 rest and then run a 4th mile hard...in the 5:05 range. First two miles were fine but I just couldn't hydrate enough and I think my 21+ miles yesterday didn't help either. I just felt flat the whole workout. The third mile was in a lousy 5:18. That's when my 1:00 minute break turned into 4:00 or so as I dashed for the nearest bathroom. Tried to do the final mile and just didn't have it. Oh well.

Didn't wale up in time this morning to run in the perfect mid-50s temps so instead I was in the 88 degree weather. I drank tons of water though. Beautiful day just a bit warm for running.

Another gorgeous if not muggy morning. It's always 90+% humidity in the morning but it's not usually 66 degrees to boot. We Seattleites are admitedly woosies when it comes to heat. It doesn't take much to put is into heat stroke. Good run though. Now if I can just nail more than two workouts in a row I'll be set.

With tomorrow being my race day, I did my second workout today instead. 4x1 mile @5:03-5:04 with 80 seconds rest between. Hit all of them in 5:00-5:01 and it felt great, Could have done another one or two of them. It was nice to have another good workout after a bummer one on Tuesday.

After a very long, long day I was able to sneak in 12 miles this evening. I was tired but it was a fantastic release. Looking forward to a good night's sleep.

A beautiful but quite chilly morning. Mid 40s to be precise. Short sleeve was almost not enough. A bit tired from the long, long weekend but felt good to get out running after a day off. Shooting for a double this evening.

8 more this evening with my daughter biking along side me.

A little bit shorter than I wanted to go today but I simply ran out of time. A gorgeous evening for a run. You can feel a little nip in the air. Fall is nigh.

Broke away at noon and headed for the Redmond HS track for my midweek workout. They just resurfaced the RHS track and let's just say there won't be any world records set on it. It's soft and slow. And it stinks. Whatever chemicals they use, they smell awful and they last a while. It smelled a lot like rubber cement.

Anyway, the workout was 5x1200m @3:45-3:47 with 80 seconds rest. Hit 3:43, 3:44, 3:45, 3:46 and 3:49. I felt really good for the first three reps but started feeling nauscious and by the time I completed the workout, I was having GI issues again. So the workout went fine but I felt sick the longer I went. Don't know if the chemical odor had anything to do with it.

Continued to feel nauscious during the cooldown which is why I stopped a bit short of my mileage goal today.

Another beautiful morning for a run although it was pretty cool...low 40s. Short sleeve shirt was never quite enough. No gloves yet though. Supposed to be hot today so I was glad to get my run in early. I realized that I have not run in the rain in at least two months. Of course in January I will be saying exactly the opposite.

Yet another gorgeous morning and a bit warmer than the past few days. Just perfect. My run took me through my familiar 13 mile route through the neighborhood. Felt great

Met the running club at 7am this morning and started out on my run and it started to rain pretty steadily. Knowing the rain wasn't supposed to last all day, I stopped and came back home...did some chores and then took off around 11am when the rain stopped. Despite the thick overcast, it was still quite warm and therefore a bit muggy. No worries though.

Workout was 4M@5:25 and then a "blind" 2M at a "9" effort. My coach said not to look at my watch until after I was done with the final two miles. Ended up with two 5:08s. Felt pretty good and felt like a solid "9" effort.

Despite eating way too much this weekend, I managed to feel OK for my run this morning.