Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

54F, 6:57 AP.  Ran down to my old high school to do mile repeats at their track (never even touched the track while I was actually in high school!)  The goal was 6 x 1600m at 10k pace, with 400m active recoveries.  Bam had 3 x 2 @ 10k pace on my plan, but I didn't think I was ready for that.  Anyway, I figured 5k pace was 6:00 right now, so maybe 6:15 for 10k pace.

Splits: 6:15, 6:15, 6:12, 6:11, 6:10, 6:03.

Recovery laps averaged about 2:15.  Good, solid workout.  In 3 weeks, I might try 4 x 1.5 at the same pace, then see if I can do Bam's sadistic 3 x 2 workout in 6 weeks.  I'm usually lucky if I can do HMP for 3 x 2!  Making progress...

56F, pace in the 8:30s, I think.

48F, 7:28 AP.  Felt good today, probably should have knocked out that 5k workout, since it'll be a little humid tomorrow.  Shouldn't be too bad though.

54F.  Today was the 4 x 1600 @ 5k, 90 sec rest that I'd been dreading.  As it turns out I was a little flat today and porked it.  By the end of the first rep I knew I would be in trouble, and after running/ dying in the second rep (2:58, 3:04), I knew I would have to bail or modify it.  Decided to do the last 2 miles as 800s, which worked out.  So in all, 4 miles at 5k pace:

6:00, 6:02, 2:58, 2:59, 2:58, 2:57.

After the first 2 miles kicked my butt so bad, the 800s were plenty tough, so I don't feel bad about cutting it down like that.  Live to fight another day!

62F, 100%.  8:53AP.  Felt really tired until mile 6.  And that's why we do recovery runs!

33F, 7:23 AP.  Brisk run, love this cool air.  Finally seeing the benefits of moving to San Antonio (it's going to be 5 degrees and snowy in our old OK town tonight).  Finished up with a MP mile.

45F.  7:10 AP.  Stayed out really late last night -- company holiday party.  I used the morning to try and recover (partied a little too hardy), but felt like crud as I started the run around noon.  The plan was to do the last 8 @ MP.  I made it about 5.5 with the paces all between 6:40-6:45, then just jogged it in.  The weird thing is I could have made it, I just really, really, didn't feel like running anymore.  Not too bad for a self-sabotaged run though.

Broke in a new pair of A5's.  Love that shoe.  This meant I could retire my A4's finally, after 3 years and ~700 miles on them.

43F, fog/mist.  8:40s and 8:50s...typical Monday run.

32F, 7:30 AP.  Did not see another soul out on the trail.  Had my legs back though, so I'm ready for some 3k-paced stuff tomorrow.  Well, at least as ready as one can get for that kind of torture...

35F.  Today was 5 x 800m @ 3k pace, 90 sec rest down at the track.  I was much improved from last time, partially because I actually looked up what 3k pace should be (was going too slow before).  Either way, I was definitely in better shape today.  Reps were 2:48, 2:49, 2:48, 2:48, 2:43.  A few weeks ago they were mostly 2:52.

I am throwing away these mizunos though.  They'd eaten up my heel in the past and I thought I'd corrected it (with scissors) but I could already see the blood soaking through my sock after the 2nd rep.  So I got 700 miles out of my Saucony flats and about 20 from these pieces of crap.  I only did 1 lap cooldown at the end to minimize the damage.

39F, 7:58 AP.

46F, 7:34 AP.  Short sleeve kind of morning.  Stride actually felt kinda choppy and inefficient today but got in the miles.  Gotta start bringing that mileage up (and actually do it rather than talking about how I need to do it).

AM:  30F.  11 mi total.  I went to the track this morning for a 2 x 5000m @ HMP, 1 lap active recovery.  Of all the HMP workouts I've done, this has proven to be the best predictor workout for me.  Right before my PR about a year ago in Houston, I ran a both repeats in 19:44.

Today I ran a 19:40 (6:21, 6:17, 6:15, 47s), 19:28 (6:17, 6:18, 6:09, 44s).

It's not quite an apples-to-apples comparison, as last year I was running higher mileage, but I think a PR in Houston this year is a very reasonable/attainable goal.

PM: 4 easy, 8:20s...I actually did a double!  Slowly easing them in now.

30F, 8:23 AP.

32F, 7:32 AP.  Um...nope, can't think of any comments.  Tomorrow is a workout so I'll probably have something to say then.

35F, fog.  Down to the track to work on 1-mile pace today.  I did my 8 x 400, 90 sec rest workout again today, just a bit faster than last time.  Average repeat was 1:17.3.  First 4 repeats were feeling a bit easy so I dropped the pace to make it hurt a bit more on the last 4.

81.3, 78.5, 78.7, 78.9, 75.8, 75.7, 75.9, 73.7.

Something like 5:10 pace average, with the range of paces pretty wide today: 5:27 for the first one, down to 4:56 for the last one.  Somewhere in the middle is mile pace.

64F, 94%.  7:37 AP.  No run yesterday.  Hard to believe I ran for three months straight with no days off earlier this year; now I can't even seem to string together a full week.

Anyway, nice warm run today - it was nice not having to fool with hats, gloves, etc.  or a shirt.  Hopefully Matt S. doesn't see this!

3 days of no running -- we had some traveling that included 16 total hours of driving, tons of fast food, and it was all overlaid with a nice stomach virus.  Anyway, I'm 80% recovered but the body still wasn't too pleased I was trying to make it run.  So tomorrow will probably be another day off or maybe another easy 4.  Hopefully I can build up to a lighter version of the 10k workout I'd originally planned on Sunday.  

Felt better today, merry Christmas all!

46F, raining.  7:30 AP.  Felt pretty good today.  Pitiful week of running though...

40F, 7:16 AP.  Kept a brisk pace, and picked it up to 5k-ish pace for the last half mile.  Still planning on a 10k-lite workout tomorrow.

Things I saw on this run (in Longview this weekend): several hot air balloons in flight, a crime scene being investigated outside a strip club, and Santa Claus walking off some holiday calories.

36F.  I ran on the longview high school track today which is probably at least as nice as the average college stadium.  Roughly 5 mile warmup, then 9 x 800m @ 10k pace, 200m active recoveries.  This is the 3 min on / 1 min off workout I go to when I need a workout but might not be at my best (see crappy last week of running).  It went well today, and I was able to meet/exceed 10k pace without working too hard.

Avg repeat was 3:00. (3:02, 3:03, 3:02, 3:00, 3:00, 2:59, 3:00, 2:59, 2:54)

Had to drop that last one in there to bring the average down.  I still like this workout; 800s at 10k pace are very reasonable, but the short rest keeps you moving (avg recovery was ~66 sec).

36F, 8:20 AP

36F, 7:02 AP.  Today was 8 ez, followed by 8 @ MP.  I was looking to go under 6:40 avg to start on my sub 2:55 goal at Boston.  I did the 8-mile warmup keeping an honest effort (7:20s and 7:30s), then turned around and did the mp miles:

AP - 6:33  (6:38, 6:35, 6:37, 6:35, 6:34, 6:30, 6:36, 6:22)

Good run.  Considering that my focus has been short, fast stuff, and I only had 1 easy day between workouts instead of my usual 2 or 3, this was definitely a good result.  After Houston, I will obviously start focusing a lot more on the long tempo.