Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

59F, ENE 9 mph.  59 degrees in June!  Sweet cold front.  I got lucky today was track day.  12 x 400m, with 200m active recoveries.  My target was 1:26, which roughly equates to my goal 5K pace (17:59).

I averaged 1:24.5.  Individually, 1:24, 1:25, 1:25, 1:24, 1:24, 1:24, 1:26, 1:23, 1:26, 1:24, 1:26, 1:21.

5:40 AP overall, so basically almost 3 miles at sub-5k goal pace.  Lost a little bit of consistency toward the end but was able to keep it up for the most part.  Finally a decent day at the track for me.

Now that I look at my recovery 200s, it's pretty funny how I milked them in increasing amounts (62, 64, 65, 65, 66, 68, 67, 67, 68, 70, 72).  Meh, as long as the 400s were good, I'm happy.

64F.  8:18 AP.

70F, ESE 12-20 mph.  7:35 AP.  Got hot as the sun got higher.  Not looking forward to July and August.  I could also feel Friday's intervals a bit in my legs.  Hopefully my recovery time will decrease as I get used to doing more 5K workouts.

75F.  8:36 AP.  One of those days where even recovery pace felt hard.  I think I'll take another easy day before speeding it up again.  This week's going to be somewhat impaired anyway due to some travel.

72F.  7:46 AP.  Legs felt a little better today.  I don't think I will have time for a track workout on Friday, so I'm thinking 4 x 1600 @ LT or faster tomorrow.  Maybe split the difference b/w tempo and interval since it might be the only workout this week.

71F.  Today was 4 x 1600m with 400m active recoveries.  I was shooting for 10K-15K pace (roughly 6:05 - 6:20 per McMillan).  Splts (with recoveries) were:

6:06, (2:03), 6:11, (2:12), 6:14, (2:15), 6:01.

Typical SlowJoe intervals, paces all over the place, but overall I did what I wanted.

Got home and realized I was out of chocolate milk, so I recovered with a Coke and a stack of lunchmeat.  Just like the pros, I'm sure.

66F, drizzle.  8:21 AP on this recovery run.

Off to Gainesville, FL tomorrow for 4 days.  I think we're just bringing the ipad which doesn't work too well with FRB, I think.  So I'll probably just catch up with everyone Monday evening.

60F.  7:21 AP.  Early-morning miles in OK before leaving for FL.  Some random fartlek stuff on the way back.

73F, 90%.  Gainesville FL - we were there for a family reunion.  I ran with my cousin who is training for his first marathon, and his girlfriend Toni, who has a sub-16 5K, but has been taking time off of running since college and gunning for a 5k OTQ.  We ran about 18 min slow, then 20 min fast, then back home slow.  Unfortunately I forgot my Garmin at the hotel, but it was on some hilly trails anyway.  I ran the tempo part with Toni, who asked me my tempo pace and said hers was about the same right now (she's just been doing 20-30 miles/week these days).  Anyway, it was a good hard effort and a fun time.

74F, 92%.  7:23 AP.  Ran from the hotel in Gainesville again, but solo this time.  Just ran whatever I felt like doing, distance and pace-wise.

All caught up on my last few entries now, and back in OK.  I took today off as I was way behind on sleep with all the travel, and pretty tired.  I'll survive.

67F, 90%.  Back in Elgin for this one.  7:20 AP was faster than my usual Tuesday run but I was working out a solution to something that ticked me off at work last week.  I always tend to run faster when doing that.  Think I have it figured out though.

Doing my "slow tempo" tomorrow, the one between HMP and MP.

68F, ESE 10 mph, t-storms, raining the whole time.  6:52 AP.  I had to really think about whether or not I was going to run this morning as it looked pretty bad out there, but I'm glad I did because I got in a good tempo run AND did not get struck by lightning.

I did 5 ez, followed by 6 @ TT (target 6:37).  For the easy miles I did short out-and-backs from my house to make sure the lightning wasn't too close.  It was at least a few miles away the whole time.

6 tempo miles:  6:29 AP - 6:39, 6:33, 6:24, 6:32, 6:25, 6:19.

Finished with plenty of gas in the tank; at least as much as the last time I did this run which was at a slower pace and only 5.5 miles.  I think the rain actually helped me stay cool and helped my pace despite the waterlogged shoes.  Next time it rains in a race, I'm going to shed the shirt (even the orange shirt) like I did today and let the rain cool me off.

72F, 88%, SSE 11 mph.  8:25 AP.

70F, ENE 15 mph.  Back to the track today, this time just for speed.  I did 4 x 600m at 3k-5k pace with 200m active recoveries, then 6 x 200m at mile pace or better (200m active recoveries as well).

The 600s were 5:38 AP:  2:05, 2:05, 2:08, 2:06. (recoveries averaged 65 sec)

The 200s averaged 38.5.

I started at a dumb spot on the track and finished every repeat I did into a wall of headwind around the curve...didn't do myself any favors there, I probably should have thought that through a little better!  But I hit the paces I was after so all's well that ends well. 

When I got to the track, there was a lady there walking in lane 1, texting on her cell phone. That was a first for me. Lane 1 is where she would stay the whole time too.

After the workout, finished with the brutal "cooldown" from the track back up to my house.  It is only about 100' net uphill (a bit over 3 miles) but has some nasty steep climbs - the last thing I want to do after a track session.  I normally like my cooldowns to be around 0.01 miles and include some lying down.

76F, 84%.  slept in a little.  8:23/mile.

73F, 91%.  7:45 AP.  A real slog fest today, sucks that it is only going to get hotter for the next 2 months!  In fairness, I probably should've started earlier - as I was leaving, the sun was just beginning to rise, and shade does not exist out here on the plains, so I got a face full of sun the whole time.  Anyway, I really suffered through the last 6 or 7 but I feel like I should make some kind of long run attempt every once and awhile this summer since the marathon is my long-term focus.  So I guess I did that today.

70F, 93%.  8:33 AP.  Felt pretty wiped out today, even though it was a recovery run.  I think I will just repeat this run tomorrow.  2 workouts plus a long run every week is taking a toll and I think the only way to get through it is to make the other 4 days really easy like this.

73F, 85%, SSE 16-23 mph.  8:20 AP.  Another recovery run, trying to regenerate my legs for the next workout - 20 min threshold run tomorrow.  I think they will be ready, though I was still a little sluggish-feeling today.  Much improved from the last few days though.

74F, 85%, SSE 17-23 mph.  7:18 AP.  Goal was to get in 20 min @ LT pace (shooting for 6:20/mile).

7 easy, then a 5K in 19:29, then a short cooldown back to my house.

Splits were 6:19, 6:23, 6:09, 37.  Full disclosure: the first 2 miles were neutral, but the last mile dropped 40 feet.  Otherwise I would have been hurtin' a lot more.  This was hard.  Maybe too much warmup when it's already warm out.

Oh and I pulled a tick off my leg after a "pit stop" in a ditch on the way out.

71F, 92%.  8:12 AP.  more recovery..

70F, 95%.  Friday is track day, so I was back for more torture.  This time 6 x 800m, 300m recoveries, shooting for 800's between my theoretical McMillan 5K and 10K pace - so 2:55 - 3:02.  I was successful again; average was 2:57.  I think I'm getting better at these, finally.

2:58, 2:59, 2:58, 2:56, 2:57, 2:56.

Recoveries averaged 1:33.

Only downside today was all the gnat clouds around one of the curves.  They all seemed to be right on the inside of lane 1.  So the choice was to either run through the gnats, or take lane 2 and add a little distance....my chest ended up looked like a killing field with maybe a hundred dead gnat bodies stuck to my torso.  I think I ate 5 or 6, with one ending up in my eye.

72F.  7:31 AP.  Skipped a recovery run yesterday - Danielle was out of town and I had the kids; I didn't feel like getting the TM out and felt a little under the weather anyway.  But I woke up early to get in a solid 15 today.  Definitely felt better than the 17 last week.

Last summer I did 3 x 15-mile runs a week, in the heat.  Seems a little nuts but I think that is what was mostly responsible for changing me from a 3:16 guy to a 3:01 guy, the endurance I built from all those longer runs.  So I kind of want to stick with what worked, but I think I would get diminishing returns now that the base has already been built.  Going to aim for 1 x 15-miler a week now, and keep up the 5K training during the week.  I think I can still average 60/week (assuming I don't keep skipping recovery runs) and still be fresh for 2 workouts a week.  So that is the plan for the next 2 months, then I will build mileage up for a fall marathon - I'm leaning toward Tulsa in November now (39F avearge low for that Nov 18 race day!) so that I have time to get in some longer, cooler MP runs.

72F, 8:24 AP

78F.  7:59 AP.  Another easy morning, but a tempo tomorrow.  The high is 108 today so it'll probably be a little warm, even the next morning.

77F, 80%.  Intent today was 6 easy, 6 @ TT (6:37), with 6:40s being acceptable due to the warm morning.  After the 6 easy, I was pretty sure I didn't have my A-game but I started the tempo portion.  Amost immediately missed my turn and went a good ways before I realized it.  I got my bearings and found another way home, but the new route had a lot more ups and downs.  The first 2 miles seemed to have a lot of downhill, and sure enough, for the next 2 miles it was payback time.  I'd pretty much wilted at that point as the sun was fully out.  I did 1 more and called it good at 5, and jogged home.  Survive to run another day..

The 5 tempo miles were 6:45 AP.  6:41, 6:34, 6:51, 6:55, 6:44

Felt completely opposite from 2 weeks ago.  Well, this summer is bound to have some failed runs like this, just the nature of the beast when it's hot.  As long as I keep trying and get in some good efforts, I think I can make it worthwhile.

72F, 8:08 AP

73F, 70%.  7:06 AP.  Went to the track today with the intent of doing 5 x 1200, but I got there and half the track was ripped up - they were doing construction!  Well, this week was long intervals, so I decided I'd switch it to 4 x 1 mile, 2 minute recoveries, and just do it on the roads with Garmin.  I felt good today, and did some pretty good repeats.  Average was 6:08, exactly the same as last time I did this, but that was on the track, and these were on the roads.  3 of the 4 were net uphill - nothing dramatic, as you can see below, but definitely tougher than doing them on the track.

6:12   +14 ft

6:12   +27 ft

5:56   -28 ft

6:11   +23 ft

The last repeat was probably the best - it came out to only 23 ft net uphill on Garmin Connect but I don't believe the map data on that one...seemed like a lot more!  Either way, it redeemed me from Wednesday's tempo.

83F, SSW 12 mph.  mid-morning run, 8:18 AP.