The Long Run

11.46 mi, 1:41:15, 8:50 avg

Today's run was 60 minutes easy, followed by 10x(1min 5k/1min MP), then 20 minutes easy.  At first it didn't sound bad but then I realized it might be kind of rough.  84 degreees, some clouds and fairly shaded course mostly in Westlake Village.  First part easy felt a little harder and that was even with backing off the pace to adjust for heat index.

After the easy part, topped off my handheld, took a gel, then got started.  Speed portion did not go great, not a total disaster in that I did all 10 repeats, but fell way short of mainining "marathon pace" for the minutes between 5k pace.   I did what I could.  5k pace portions were not quite what I hoped for.  But the main thing was I did not give up.

Last 20 minutes of "easy pace" after the intervals felt better and was a little faster than the first 60 minutes of easy pace.

It definitely feels like I'm out of my rut.

9.33 mi, 1:21:11, 8:42 avg, elev gain 172 feet

Yesterday was rest day, which I needed, today was back to hitting it pretty hard.  2 easy, 5x1km @ 10K pace, then 5x200m @5k pace.  

It was already fairly warm even though it was just getting light, but it at least felt a little bit cool.  Shortly into the warmup I soon realized the cool feeling was deceptive.  The repeats didn't seem like they would be too bad, and looking over the numbers I was just a little bit slow on tow of the first three (goal pace was 6:48), but I felt like it wasn't going well, wanted to quit, but then ending up doing the last two a little bit too fast.  Other small snafu was that I could not figure out how to get my garmin laps set up for 1km, so had to settle for 0.65 miles, no biggie.

Paces: 6:52, 6:54, 6:48, 6:23, 6:23

200's were a little bit faster then goal pace but felt great.  When I finished the last 1k repeat, I was in no mood to crank out the 200's, but fortunately, they were on the schedule so I did themm and glad I stuck it out.

The run was a little hillier than I would have liked but I wanted to stay in Westlake so I'd be near the nice water fountain outside the pool with the very cold water.

And in very sad news, I actually kicked a squirrel this morning.  Of course by accident, but still.  They usually do that indecisive move of running one way or the other really fast until finally getting out of the way.  Well, this poor little squirrel was not quite as fast and was taking a more casual approach assuming I'd go around him/her and I assumed we'd miss each other.  But we didn't, my foot made contact with the squirrel, putting the little creature slightly airborne but not too high, before landing and running away.

6.07 mi, 57:14, 9:26 avg

Ran with Joe this morning in the neighborhood and out along the golf course.  We can see actual work being done on the Starkey Gap trail with stakes and silt fences up.

Today was a scheduled easy run of 4-6 miles.  Plan calls for "easy" pace of 8:33-9:10 (assuming I'm in shape to train for between a 3:15 and 3:30 marathon).  I'm ok with the 9:26 average since it is easy day and some might say that 8:33-9:10 is not actually an easy pace.

Tomorrow calls for 6-7 mile "Aerobic run", 8:00-8:40 range.  

7.09 mi, 57:37, 8:08 avg, elev gain 116 feet

Another run completed from the new schedule, 6-7 mile "Aerobic Run" with goal pace between j8:00 and 8:40.  I wanted to get a first mile under 8:40 so I made sure to do a good little warm up routine with dynamic stretching, lunges, jumping jacks and a little bit of jogging.  Weather was pretty good this morning, just a degree or two cooler to make it not feel so warm.  Despite this, it felt like I was stuck at 8:42 for about 3/4 of the first mile, but got a little bit faster with the same effort after getting over the Woodcutter hill.  I ran past and through downtown Palm Harbor to the Pinellas trail where I had to weave a little bit through the morning school kid commute of kids and moms (and a few dads) walking to school, it wasn't bad, kind of nice to see, and the crossing guards where the trail crossed the streets made sure the cars stopped for me.

Did each of the miles a little faster except for mile 6 which was one second slower than mile 5, possibly on purpose.

I'm starting to feel those old memories of actually following a training schedule rather than training by feel and experience (both of which have some merit).  I have those up and down feelings of dread toward hard workouts followed by either the feeling of accomplishment or the let down of coming up a little bit short and then regrouping to try again.

After the run, cut the grass in the front yard which was getting kind of long due to missed windows of free time to cut it due to random rain showers.

Tomorrow was originally a scheduled day off but I'm going to do the long run so I don't have to worry about it on Saturday when Thomas has his first cross country meet.  He's trained hard (and smart) all summer logging more miles than any of the other kids on the team.  Last year he placed third place for the school at most meets behind two senior boys that have graduated - until the end of the season when several kids had caught up to him and passed his times.  I hope his hard work pays off, it takes some courage to go all in like that instead of not putting in the effort and say, yeah I could have done that if I had wanted to.

10.44 mi, 1:28:41, 8:30 avg, elev gain 140 feet

Partial failure.

This run was supposed to be Saturday's run but I didn't want to have to run super early alone in the dark before Thomas's meet or after the meet when it would get hot.  Scheduled run was 1.5 warm up, 4x3miles @ MP, with 3 min rest between, followed by 1.5 warm down.  Wanted to start a little earlier but got delayed and started about 7:20, but still felt pretty good starting out.  Cheated a little by finishing my warmup at the top of a hill.

I ended up not running the 15ish miles and did not finish 4x3miles.  Did the first three after the warmup at about a 7:50 pace, would like to have been faster but I'd be happy with a 7:50 average pace marathon, so ok.  First set started out ok with 7:44 for first mile but I was feeling really worn down.  The mile was actually slower for most of it until I bargained that I'd stop, regroup and try again.  Could not get back to goal pace, it suddenly felt difficult to maintain any pace.  

There was a fountain nearby, but not chilled, so drinking the water was not refreshing but pouring some one me helped.  At about 7.5 miles into the run, decided to take a left hand turn off of the trail early and head back to the house.  Other option was to gut out the next 7.5 miles to at least make my long run goal.  But, I decided on finishing early and trying again on Sunday which was supposed to be 7-10 miles easy.

Summertime running with goal paces can be challenging, summer heart rate training is much easier feeling.

Planned day off so I could watch Thomas race his first cross country meet of the season.  This was the Buccaneer XC Jamboree (combined Varsity and JV) for several area schools hosted at Gulf High School.  

He did very well with a new cross country PR of 18:13.3, holding onto third place overall throughout the race and was first for his school.  Course was three loops (although not the exact same loop) around Gulf HS campus with last 100m on the school's track.  One mile and two mile markers were near each other, each one with time clocks.  He came in at 5:33 for the first mile, 5:52 for the second mile, and then about 6:00 average for the last 1.1  Weather was kind of hot, course was twisty.

His hard work paid off and I hope this season is full of accomplishment and growth.