The Long Run

4.67, 51:53, 11:07 avg, elev gain 101 feet, HR 126 bpm

Easy paced 4/1 run/walk south through Westlake out via the cut-through and past the Y, 16th Street to Florida Ave to the Pinellas Trail before turning around.

33 1/3 mile trail race tomorrow so keeping it easy

1.11 mi, 11:49 avg

Stop, sniff, shake off the rain, charge ahead, repeat with Stella.  I had skipped yesterday's run - one more recovery day from the 33 1/3 mile run on Saturday.  Started walking Stella and decided to run her.  Rain started and she kept on stopping to shake off the rain, then she'd try and charge ahead and I'd have to pull her back.  I stopped the watch at one point and we walked while some dogs went by the other way.  So, even though we completed the full 1.7 mile neighborhood loop I only recorded 1.11 which is still more then 0.  And Stella seemed pretty happy despite the rain.

7.41 mi, 1:09:15, 9:21 avg, elev gain 218 feet

First in a series of "hills with Joe".  Joe is running Boston this year, and due to a scarcity of hills around here he came down to Palm Harbor to run the small rollers in Westlake Village (lowest elevation 19 feet, highest elevation 78 feet).

We ran one loop around the perimeter at an easy pace, and then did 4 repeats of 400m uphill at 6:50ish pace, short rest, then back down the hill at 7:20-7:30 pace.

Good run to wake up my legs and nice to have the company.  Chilly and almost cold at 43 degrees.

6.6 mi, 1:02:00, 9:24 avg, elev gain 128 feet

Did run/walk at 4/1 from Westlake heading north onto Belcher up to Klosterman for a little bit before turning around.  55 degrees, low humidity, nice!

Another catch-up entry, working my way back toward the beginning of March.

5.51 mi, 54:30, 9:54 avg, HR 138 bpm

Ran in Foxwood and along Fox Hollow golf course, on the classic t-shaped route, sometimes called the "trout", although it's more shaped like a Y.

This is a "catch-up" entry so I don't remember much more, but apparently it was 60 degrees, so that sounds pretty nice.

3.28 mi, 34:58, 10:40 avg, HR 127 bpm

Horribly and terribly behind in my blogging due to getting backlogged on race reports starting with the Jacksonville Marathon on Dec 15, Croom Zoom 50K at beginning of January, Holloway Trail Half Marathon, and finally the Long Play 33 1/3 Ultra on 3/2.

So, not much time to run since I had to mess around with the pool equipment trying to get that back on track before heading to Clearwater HS to see Thomas at the track meet.  I've been trying to run easy to get my heart rate down hopefully indicating a more solid aerobic base and to give myself a break from the races between December and March - over 200 miles (although all but one of them at slower ultra pace).

Thomas ran the 3200 and 1600m races with the 3200m race being first presumably to let the longer race go in the cooler morning weather.  His previous 3200m race had a very impressive negative split 5:40 and 5:21 where he went from about 12th place and finishing in second place.  It was also the debut race for the new pair of Nike Vaporfly 4%.

So, this morning was another negative split, this time 5:20 and 5:19 for a new PR of 10:39, finally a reward for the hard work after getting much smaller increments on the order of less than 1 second improvements.

1600m race was later in the afternoon, about 4:00 pm, second heat.  After hanging back a little for the first lap, moved out into the lead and held it up until the final 50m or so with two kids squeeking by, giving him 3rd place.  But, this was also a new PR of 4:45.39 (about 2 seconds faster than old PR).  Big accomplishment with two significant PRs

But probably the biggest accomplishment was sticking with it through the practices and meets when it didn't look like things would get better.

1.21 mi, 12:42, 10:28 avg

Very little running this morning (was up way too late for work trying to figure out a problem for something that needed to be solved by morning).

So, combined the Stella walk with the run.  She does get easier to run the more she runs with me

4.35 mi, 44:31, 10:14 avg, HR 131 bpm

Started out running with Stella for 1.4 miles, then did the rest on my own.  Ran in Foxwood with one big loop around the neighborhood, 1 loop on the park path, and then some up and down the street.

8.55 mi, 1:18:12, 9:09 avg, elev gain 269 feet, heart rate 141 bpm

Joe ran with me in Westlake.  He has Boston marathon coming up and wanted to do some hills. We did an easy paced loop around the perimeter of Westlake and then headed over to corner of Lakeview and Village Way to do repeats up and down Sandy Hook Rd, 0.25 long, 6:50-6:55 pace on the way up, easy jog for 45 seconds at the top, then run down at 7:30ish pace then 1:30 easy jog, repeat 6 times.

We then cooled down with about 1.5 miles easy.

I was pretty happy with the heart rate, thought it would be higher with the repeats but the easy running helped cancel some of that out.  Was good that Joe could come down and hopefully helps him out as there aren't many hill options around here.

5.62 mi, 56:26, 10:02 avg, HR 134 bpm

Ran the Y shaped route from my house, trying to keep my splits pretty even and in the range of what I thought "easy" should be based on heart rate feedback.  I was aiming for about a 10:00 pace.  I ended up with a 10:02 average and heart rate not too far off from recommended "Mafetone" pace which would have been 128.  But I didn't want to stare at my heart rate the whole time because I think that can create a negative feedback loop.

It's a pleasant feeling to really run an easy pace and not worry about going too slow at the same time.  It takes a little more time so I'll have to set aside more time if I want to increase my miles.

Watched Thomas run at the track meet in the evening at Mitchell HS.  He was running the 1600m and 3200m but plan for 3200m was to to try and pace a teammate to break 11:00.

1600m went really well.  One of his teammates was trying to run 4:39 or better, so Thomas was going to stick with him as long as possible and then hang on.  The plan worked.  Stuck pretty close to teammate Paul for at least the first two laps, there was a little more of a gap in the third lap but not too far, then more gap in the 4th lap but by then, Thomas was already on his way to a PR, running 4:48 for a 6 second improvement and Paul ran 4:38.

3200m race went well, although the runner he was pacing was not holding on so they told him to go ahead, so he picked it up the pace and finished with a 10:47 while running a negative split again.  He placed high enough to score some points for the team.

5.76 mi, 1:01:01, elev gain 147 feet, HR 132 bpm

Ran from Westlake house to Alderman and then north onto Belcher, out and back.  Was running 4/1 run/walk and trying to average heart rate around 130 or so.  Pace for the heart rate was a little bit slower than yesterday but yesterday's route was flatter and still not sure what is better for pace/heart rate, steady running or run/walk?

Weather was good, cool and sunny.

8.01 mi, 1:19:19, 9:54 avg

Ran from Longleaf along Starkey Blvd bike path meeting Cynthia and Joe at 7:10 (originally planned for 7:00 but not too far off).  Joe had already done 9 miles and was going to do some faster miles at the end but stuck with us for nearly two miles before he took off.  Shortly after Joe left saw Tom coming back from his run.

We ran to the end of Alico Pass and then made a quick stop at Diane's house for refreshments.

We were mainly running right about a 10:00 pace but did 8:42 for the last mile, bringing down the average.  Did not look at heart rate until the end and happy to see 129 average bpm.  Seem to do better when running with others as far as effort.

5.15 mi, 49:27, 9:36 avg, elev gain 127 feet, HR 132 bpm

6:00 am run with Jacob, out and back in Westlake Village.  He hadn't run since the weeked we did 10 miles with Jamie and Cynthia.  Went out slow and took it easy until approaching the last mile.  I let him go ahead a little bit but still finished last mile in 8:15.  Overal heart rate was very good for the pace, 1 minute per mile faster at same heart rate compared to Friday's run.

5.28 mi, 51:37, 9:46 avg, HR 133 bpm

Ran in Foxwood, starting out as a Stella walk, and then ran with her for about 1.3 miles before dropping her back off at the house.  Then, did an out and back to Trinity Blvd via RTJ Blvd.  It was nice and cool with a very light rain off and on.  I picked it up for the last mile to 8:33 after having run slow enough to keep my heart rate in the low 130's.  After the 5th mile, ran in the 6:40's for a tenth of a mile and then cooled down for a little bit longer.

I've been neglecting upper body, so did 25 push-ups on the "perfect push-up" things, and then 5 pull-ups because I've forgotten what those feel like.

After yesterday morning's run, my garmin rewarded me with "new Vo2 Max detected - 52"

8.22 mi, 1:12:36, 8:50 avg, elev gain 228 feet, HR 141 bpm

Ran with Joe in Westlake.  He came down to run some hills.  We looped around the neighborhood at an easy pace for about 4 miles, and then did 3 repeats where we ran up a hill for half mile at about 7:00 pace, recovered a little bit, and then ran back down a little slower (7:20-7:30 pace) and easier effort because it was downhill.  Nice morning with low 50's for the temps.

7.08 mi, 1:13:22, 10:22 avg, HR 128 bpm

Ran the Lake Dan simple route with Jamie.  Unexpected text from Jamie as she was about to start her run in case I was going to run as I was getting ready to run.  Ran from Foxwood, across to Fox Hollow area, through the neighborhood with the gate you can contort through, onto the construction road to the new trail extension that should be officially opening pretty soon.  Run/walk at 5/1 which felt pretty much as easy as 4/1 but average pace slightly faster with seemingly the same effort.  Good average heart rate for the pace, inching my way down to doing sub-10:00 pace with sub 130 bpm heart rate.

Near the turn around point, saw a bunch of 9 mm spent shell casings on the ground, not sure what was up with that.

2.27 mi, 20:10, 8:54 avg, elev gain 53 feet

Quick run in Westlake Village, out and back from the house to the top of the highest point on Lakeview Dr., slow pace out at 10:04, and faster back at 8:19 pace, although the return trip was more downhill.

1.16 mi, 12:09, 10:28 avg

Run/walk with Stella in Foxwood, she was a happy dog and pretty good running on the leash today.

Later in the evening, took the boys out to eat at Outback.  Hadn't been there in quite some time.  Made sure to get a Bloomin Onion

13.01 mi, 2:17:47, 10:35 avg, HR 125 bpm

Ran with Jamie from the neighborhood out and back, across 54, up Starkey Blvd and to the end of Alico Pass with a quick fluid stop at Diane's lemonade stand.  Picked up Cynthia at Longleaf, so she did about 8 miles with us.  Jamie's back from her Asia trip and squeezing in a few long runs before she's off to London for her final Majors.  Did run/walk today, but 5/1 instead of 4/1 (second time now, did 5/1 for first time earlier in the week).

Average HR was surprisingly good even though my legs were feeling a bit lethargic it was not taxing my heart rate.

Managed to fix a couple of things - a toilet with a leaky seal causing on and off running, and the gate to the backyard which was falling apart.  Bought a new cordless drill which made the job a whole lot easier.

3.31 mi, 30:31, 9:14 avg, elev gain 61 feet

Did several small loops in Westlake.  First, did one on Park Ct, then did Pinewood to Village Way to Lakeside Terrace, then a loop in the park around the lake, then finally a bigger loop on Pinewood to Maple Ridge and a short out and back up the Lakeview hill, then back to the house.

Legs were very sluggish at the start but felt woken up after running all the turns and the small hills.

5.51 mi, 54:24, 9:53 avg, HR 136 bpm

Classic t-shaped route (actually more of a Y) in Foxwood and along Fox Hollow area.  Kind of sort of trying to run heart rate around 130 average but started looking at pace instead and ended up doing neither one very well, but then again not too far off from where I wanted to be.  Still in the ballpark of easy but not too, too slow.

Walked Stella after the run but did not end up running with her this morning.

In the evening, went to Anclote HS to watch Tom at the track meet.  First meet back after being off for break last week.  Fast freshman Paul was supposed to run the 1600 with Tom but was a little bit hurt and playing it safe.  Gulf HS runner John J ran but was also not fully up to speed.  Race started and not too far into it (but not the very start), Tom moved out front (can't remember if it was the first lap or into the second lap) and slowly opened up a bigger gap on the number two runner - also named Noah (Tom's real first name).  Down the last straightaway, Noah from River Ridge closed some of the gap but did not get dangerously close and Tom won the heat with 4:52.96, his second best ever time, and fastest time while winning the heat.

It was a nice night to watch the meet.

4.56 mi, 44:04, 9:39 avg, elev gain 138 feet, HR 134 bpm

Ran loops in Westlake with Joe to cover the rolling hills.  Started out nice, then gradually the rain started and it seemed like it would be ok for a while.  It started to come down heavy and thought about stopping by the club house to get out of the rain, but then changed our minds and just ran back to my house since it was only another 0.25 miles away.  Pretty drenched by the time I got back to the house.

Run was cut a little short. I thought about going back out once the rain had died down but by then I was feeling chilly from the rain and decided it was enough.

5.42 mi, 57:16, 10:34 avg, HR 127 bpm

Ran with Joe and Jamie in the neighborhood, run the y shaped route.  I felt a bit lethargic but fortunately I could just follow along.  Jamie was doing 5/1 run/walk in preparation for London coming up pretty soon.  Joe had already run about 8 miles before meeting up with us so he headed back a little early.

3.18 mi, 3041, 9:38 avg, elev gain 72 feet

Short run in Westlake.  Around Park Ct, then Village Way to Sandy Hook until at the top of the Lakeview Dr hill, then back the way I came.

12.02 mi, 2:09:58, 10:48 avg, HR 128 bpm

Met Jamie and Cynthia at the Trinity Y, then headed out through Trinity Oaks over to Trinity Blvd and then south to East Lake, and left on Keystone until we got to the new section of bike trail until coming back up to Fox Hollow.  Got some water at the fountain and continued on back to the Y.  It was about 10 miles at that point which was all Cynthia had signed up for so she walked from there and when I got back to the Y, drove back to get her while she had continued on at a walking pace.  Jamie did another 2.4 miles and with the miles she had before meeting us at the Y finished the morning with 18.

We did 5/1 run/walk.

We had tried a more direct route for this loop but it only saved us a mile, could use a cooler drop somewhere along the route next time.

In the afternoon went to see Tom running in the track meet at Steinbrenner HS.  He was running the 1600 today which ended up being at 3:30 in the afternoon, by which time it had heated up.  He was in heat 1.  Ended up with just over 4:52 (4:52.09 I think), which was almost one second faster than Tuesday's meet but a few seconds off from his PR of 4:48 on 3/14.  Splits were 1:09.7, 1:12.3, 1:14.4, and 1:15.3 (according to my unofficial timing).  I was standing next to his coach and he thought it looked like Tom had acclerated going around the curve after the start of the 4th lap but slowed just a little some point after that.  

Great effort I think but I know he's got his sights on something a little faster.