Sean's Running Blog

Early morning workout before heading down to Portland for a funeral.

4.5 mile warmup to the track. 7M around the track with the first 5 @ 5:20 and the final 2 @ 5:05. All first five miles were within 5:18-5:21. Final two were in 5:06 and then 4:58.

I was really doubtful about this workout going into it. I ate too much the night before and the early hour seemed...early. But once I got into it, everything went pretty easy. In fact, even the 4:58 was not quite all out. I feel like I could have laid down another one or two miles that were sub 5:05. So a really good workout followed by a 4.5 mile cool down.

Rertired my 4th pair of Ravenna's after this morning's run.

Early evening run along the Seattle waterfront

Workout was 2x2M in 10:05 with 4 minutes rest. I was pretty sacred of this workout going in.

Turns out everything went fine. Perfect evening for a workout.

1st rep was in 9:58

2nd was in 9:57.

Super even splits. The only bad part is i only had time today for a total of 10 miles. Haven't run only 10 miles in a while.

I managed to miss the rain this morning which is always a welcome thing. The workout was a 9+1 at slightly faster than marathon pace...5:20 being the target. First five miles were all in the 5:15 range...too fast and a bit disappointing since the workout is not about how fast i can go but how fast I should go. It's a pacing exercise. The next four miles we at 5:20 with the "extra" mile coming in at 5:16. Good workout. Starting to get excited about the marathon. Four weeks to go.

A cool, mostly rain free morning. Really enjoyed my run this morning. 15 miles of mostly bliss. Dark bliss...but bliss nevertheless. Last week of big-time mileage. Aiming for 93-95 this week.

Another wonderful morning for a run. Upper 40s and clear dark/blue skies. I found thr perfect 5-mile loop from through the neighborhood and three laps did the trick. Did some plyos and other exercises afterward.

Nice morning...a bit breezy but a warm breeze.

Hit the track by 6:45. Still mostly dark but light enough.

Workout was 3x1.5M @5:00 pace -- 7:30 for the rep. 4 mins rest.

Hit 7:29, 7:30 and 7:31. The wind was a factor for the final rep. Good workout.

Feeling very fortunate that our Fall weather so far has been so pleasant. Another mild and dry morning. Nice weather makes the darkness much more palatable.

New shoes feel so good on the feet.

Managed to miss the overnight rainfall so another wonderful morning for a run. On track for 95 miles this week heading into the taper.

A chilly, foggy start to the morning. I admitedly was slow to get started on my run.

The workout was one final really long run with a speed workout at the end. The idea was to practice running tired.

So I ran 15 miles faster than I would normally run "easy" miles. All in the 6:20-6:30 range. I wanted to accelerate the fatigue as much as possible without leaving myself in a state of massiv recovery. After the 15 miles I rolled into what was supposed to be 4 miles at marathon pace. After three miles though, things were going so well that I decided to push it to 5 miles. At the 5 mile mark I said what the heck, let's just make this a 10k. So I pushed it to 10k which I finished in 32:54. I would kill for a 32:54 final 10k in a marathon. It wound up being a 5:17 pace but a couple of the miles were 5:11s.

This was one of the most satisfying workouts I have ever done. I ran a medium pace for 15 miles, then ran a very solid 10k afterward and felt like i could have maybe gone another 5-10k. I felt really good and it served as just about as good of a marathon sim workout as one could hope for.

Really looking forward to Indy. Just wish it wasn't three weeks away. I'm ready to go now.

A measly 12 miles this morning. I am already hating the taper.

Couldn't get my workout in this morning or this afternoon so it had to be this evening. It's dark by 6:30 so I tried to get to a track with lights. Found several except the reason the lights were on was because they were playing football and soccer games. So I headed for my home track arriving in the dark. Fortunately, we had a football game going on at our high school so the lights were on. The good part is that our HS track is completely separate from the football field and sits adjacent to it. So the light from the stadium was enough to light the track too so I wasn't completely in the dark although the back stretch was a little spooky.

Workout was 2x2M in 10:00 or better with just 3:00 rest this time. I think it was four minutes rest last week.

First rep was in 9:58. Felt pretty good but was also pretty tired and the temperature was plummeting which made the 3:00 rest less helpful as my muscles started to tighted pretty quickly.

Second rep was in 9:59. Was more tired at the end than I wanted to be but I'll take it.

Four mile cool down.

A lovely early morning run. A bit chilly and a little slow out of the gate given the short rest from last night's workout.

13 easy this morning after dropping the kids off at school. Managed to miss the rain...barely. Pretty mild temps in the mid 50s.

A really ideal morning for a run. Overcast, cool and no rain. Beat the rain by about 10 minutes.

Workout was a 7+1 with 7 at marathon pace and the 1 at something faster.

5-mile warmup.

M-Pace Miles: 5:20, 5:14, 5:20, 5:16, 5:14, 5:17, 5:17, 5:11

Everything seemed to feel pretty good.

Two weeks until Indy

A VERY windy run along the Seattle waterfront this afternoon. If I hadn't been paying attention, I would have been drenched by waves crashing against the shore of Elliot Bay. I'm pretty sure I was running at a 45 degree angle across the Magnolia Bridge. Nice run though. Trying super hard to not overeat during the taper. So far so good.

11 chilly by mostly dry miles this morning. A bit breezy but overall a good run. I've been very fortunate to have good weather during the final weeks of training.

With the shorter days, it's harder and harder to do the midweek workout in the daylight. So the alternative is to find a high school track that is lit. The only problem with that is that the tracks are lit for a reason...and the reason isn't so Sean can get his workout in. Weird.

So I ran 11 miles around the Issaquah High School track, while a JV football game was going on. Hope I wasn't a distraction.

From here on out the three remaining workouts are all marathon sims. Today was 6+2.

All six were in the 5:16-5:21 range and the final two were 5:12 and 5:11. Felt pretty good despite the wind that picked up for tha last half of the workout.

Was going to take today off but needed to step away from the office to catch my breath. So 6 easy miles along Elliot Bay. Drizzled the whole time but felt good.

Weird. Two one-digit mileage days in a row. Hate this part.

I little bit of rain but relatively mild for my next to last workout prior to the marathon next Saturday.

5+1 Hit 5:16-5:21 with a 5:09 for the final mile. Felt good.

I think I have settled on a target pace for Saturday: 5:24.

I know Paul will think that is too slow, but in the end, I don't have any data to support running a 2:19. So I thought about what I would be "thrilled to run" and I settled on sub 2:22...the old OTQ B standard. I would consider a 2:22 on an unaided course to be my best-ever run.

If my biggest problem at the end of running a sub 2:22 is wishing I had run faster, that is a problem I would much rather deal with than going out too fast and blowing up with 10k to go like I did a few years ago at Eugene.

So there you have it. Now let's get this race going already.