An Exercise In Utility

Ni!

Friday, August 17, 2007

1:08:08 :: 10 miles

Easy run. Averaged 128 heart rate, but felt somewhat tired from lack of sleep over the last few days.

7:31(116) | 7:00(125) | 6:54(126) |
6:50(126) | 6:35(132) | 6:56(129) |
6:44(130) | 6:42(133) | 6:40(134) |
6:14(140)

HR at easy pace seems to be coming down again.

Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury

Thursday, August 16, 2007

1:18:43 :: 12 miles

Easy progression run. Average HR 132 for the run. Gradually picked up the pace naturally throughout the run, but still kept the run at very easy paces.

7:00(122) | 6:46(126) | 6:45(128)
6:47(128) | 6:38(131) | 6:36(132)
6:36(133) | 6:27(136) | 6:25(136)
6:20(139) | 6:10(143) | 6:09(144)

Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

1:56:40 :: 16.2 miles

Easy run with six miles at Abadabajev Easy(tm) pace. Average pace 7:13, with average HR of 123. This has to be my easiest run ever. Ran for a while on my own, and then caught up with my neighbor for another 10k to discuss Ron Paul (why libertarianism is good for individuals but bad for societies), and some random musings on restoring old cars. Good stuff.

7:13(120) | 6:55(126) | 6:46(128)
6:50(127) | 6:50(127) | 6:49(128)
6:51(127) | 6:47(129) | 6:45(130)
6:42(132) | 7:47(115) | 7:56(115)
7:47(118) | 7:47(117) | 7:46(118)
7:43(119) | 1:24(120)

Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

1:15:35 :: 11 miles

Easy run. Average HR of 129 at 6:52 pace. Good run. Calf feeling much better with no tightness or pain.

7:21(122) | 6:49(129) | 6:50(129)
6:47(129) | 6:42(131) | 7:08(128)
6:47(129) | 6:49(130) | 6:46(132)
6:44(133) | 6:46(132)

Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury

Monday, August 13, 2007

No Run

Right calf has a very sore knot a couple of inches below the knee. Started last night out of the blue, and feels worse this morning, so I'm going to take a day off out of an abundance of caution. Also because I haven't taken a day off in a long time. This is one that I will enjoy.

Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury

Sunday, August 12, 2007

1:00:28 :: 8.5 miles

Recovery run. Average HR 128 at 7:11 pace. Feel really good following the half marathon yesterday. I didn't follow my normal recovery routine as closely this time, but I don't seem to be suffering from it.

7:31(119) | 7:49(123) | 6:52(130)
7:02(131) | 7:02(132) | 6:54(132)
6:58(130) | 7:20(129) | 3:38(131)

Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury

Saturday, August 11, 2007

YMCA Half Marathon :: 1:13:15

Felt really good today, and really had a pretty easy time of it. I really didn't feel like I was racing, and looking back on it, I am kicking myself a bit for not getting myself in gear the last 5k to sneak under 1:13. I have the Beardsley 1/2 coming up in less than a month, though, and that race will provide more incentive to run a fast time. Hopefully I will feel as good or better on race day as I did today.

The weather was okay, about 70F with a 67F dewpoint. Not quite hot, and no sun, fortunately, but extremely humid. I went out with the idea that if the first mile or two felt uncomfortable at 1:13 pace, I would fall back to something like marathon pace and run with Lee, who was out for a training run during the race today. I was firing along really well through two miles, so I decided I would just try to hit 5:35 or better and see how long I could last. I slowed or sped up a couple of times due to slight hills or wind, but my overall pace stayed right at 5:35.

Here are the splits:

5:37(157) | 5:34(166) | 5:22(169) | 5:26(169)
5:34(168) | 5:32(169) | 5:48(168) | 5:46(164)
5:34(167) | 5:31(169) | 5:36(170) | 5:40(169)
5:29(171)

Mile 3 and 4 were just from feeling good and realizing it was going to be a good day, then mile 7 was windy with a couple of good uphills, and mile 8 was just a mental lapse, I think, after being out on my own since mile 2, and having to decide, as the pace started to hurt a bit, whether I was going to keep working or start coasting. I coasted while I sorted that out, and started back in to running hard again. I tried to make a shift with 5k to go, but ended up just bleeding less than I would have had I not increased the effort. Coming in to the finish, I could see that I was close, but wouldn't break 1:13, so I gave a final 7/8 effort stride to close out the race.

Night and day difference from last week. I'm very happy I decided to jump into this race and 'redeem' myself from the poor race. I'm really looking forward to the Beardsley Half now as well. Today will give me a lot more confidence at HM goal pace. Today's time was officially a PR by 1:11, which is cool, however that former PR was in a workout situation, and I certainly wouldn't have broken it by so much if I had raced at the previous half. I may not have broken it at all. =)

Have a good weekend!

Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

52:00 :: 7.5 miles

Easy run. Everything felt good, nothing to write about really. ~6:45 pace, 134 average HR. Standing around HR was 60. I have noticed that since I started doing the more intense anaerobic workouts, my standing around HR seems to be consistently around 5bpm higher (~60bpm) than it was when I was marathon sharp (~55bpm). Conversely, my easy runs seem to register about 5bpm lower at aerobic training paces than when I was marathon training (135 for today's run vs. 140 for the same pace several months ago.) Interesting.

Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

1:12:31 :: 12 miles

I don't think I've made as smart a decision in all my years of running as when I dropped out of that 5k on Saturday. Things just seem to be rolling along since I did that, and I have to think I would still be recovering from that race if I had tried to pound out the last 2k.

The workout went very well. Here's the breakdown:

6:53(128) | 3:07(138) :: 1.5 miles

5:49(149) | 5:50(151) | 5:49(151) |
5:49(151) | 5:48(153) | :55(155)[5:46pace] :: 5.16 miles

6:26(144) | 6:29(142) | 2:04(145) :: 2.3 miles

3:10.5(161-1:01) | 3:12.4(159-:54) |
3:11.5(159-:50) | 3:08.1(161-:52)

Everything felt well under control. The 3:08 was the result of just relaxing and not holding back, and the 30 minute segment required a good amount of concentration to keep from slipping into a sub-5:45 pace. The toughest part was the 15 minutes at 6:30 pace--it felt like I was walking, and I couldn't wait to get going again. I did notice the legs felt a bit thick for the first 400m of each of the 1000s. Otherwise things were very solid.

Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury

Monday, August 06, 2007

1:12:00 :: 11 miles

Easy run. Nothing to report. Another good, easy run. A few miles in the 6:00-6:20 range at the end. Standing around HR of 50 this morning. Legs felt good.

First full day of day care for the kids. As King Arthur said in Search for the Holy Grail, 'You make me sad. So be it!'

Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury

Sunday, August 05, 2007

1:31:48 :: 13.5 miles

Easy run. Felt pretty good. Averaged 135 heart rate at 6:48 pace. One of the better easy runs of late. No apparent ill effects from yesterday, reinforcing that stopping was a good idea. Looking forward to late summer and fall racing!

Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury

Saturday, August 04, 2007

5K Race :: DNF

Really I just didn't feel good today, and the numbers during the race backed it up, so I dropped. I've got races that I'm much more concerned with performing well in on the way, so stopping was the right thing to do. Not sure what the cause was. I felt sluggish at the start, but usually that lifts right away. Today my kilometer splits just stacked up, 3:05, 3:14, 3:24 while my heart rate averaged very close to my max. Something just wasn't there today.

Have a good weekend, everyone. Time for a beer and some work around the house. Cheers!

Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury

Thursday, August 02, 2007

54:33 :: 8+ miles

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

38:24 :: 5+ miles

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

41:12 :: 5.5 miles (3x800)

Sharp speed workout. 3x800 hard with 1:30 recovery. Definitely more mentally challenging than physically. The anticipation was the hardest part!

I did my 1200m loop, starting and ending at the same point with a 100m jog back to the start. The GPS showed 811m, 812m, 821m for the three reps, so I must have been running wide of what I laid out. Time isn't really relevant, though it is a nice bit of mental candy floss.

2:16.90(165), 2:19.23(171), 2:19.22(171)

I definitely charged in, head first. I was relieved that I had gotten under 2:20, which relaxed me a lot (rather than freaking out about going too fast). The first was the easiest of the three, then the second and third were very tough--very strong, deep vents, constantly fighting to relax, trying not to allow the rigging up to pull the form apart. The only difference between the last two was that I was able to change gears in the last 150 on the third one.

I'm sure I have run that hard before, but I don't remember it. Today was something else. Excellent workout!

Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury

Monday, July 30, 2007

57:36 :: 7.5 miles

Sunday, July 29, 2007

1:04:27 :: 9 miles

Saturday, July 28, 2007

1:26:18 :: 13.5 miles

Friday, July 27, 2007

1:10:15 :: 10+ miles (10x1000m)

The workout this morning went very well. After yesterday's miscalculation, Mystery Coach asked me to try the workout again with closer to 3:20 for the reps. Fortunately, I quit yesterday before getting too much volume in, and I was ready for the workout this morning. No problem getting 10 reps, with the majority holding back slightly to 3:18-3:19, and a few relaxed at 3:13-3:14. The faster pace came easily, and the slower pace felt, well, slow and heavy. Recovery was excellent.

3:19(152-:50) | 3:19(158-:42) | 3:14(159-:52) | 3:18(159-:49)
3:18(160-:47) | 3:19(161-:51) | 3:13(162-:64) | 3:18(162-:62)
3:19(162-:64) | 3:14(164-:54)

Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury

Thursday, July 26, 2007

35:32 :: 5 miles (4x1000m)

Busted speed workout. Instructions for 5-10x1000m on 5:00 from the coach didn't include a time for the 1000s, so I guessed around 3:03-3:05, or about 5K goal pace. I guessed wrong. This should have been a volume workout, around 3:15-3:20 for the reps. I found that out later. Anyway, here is the workout:

3:00.8(164-:58) | 3:01.6(166-1:22) | 3:06.5(166-1:20) | 3:09.9(166-1:22)

The first two felt good, and then the wheels fell off one at a time. I briefly considered waiting a few minutes and then doing a few more at 3:05-3:10, but ended up jogging off the last recovery and calling it a day.

Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury