June 2008 Archives

Run: 4.5 miles* - Pace: 10:31/mi* - WeeK: 4.68 miles - Total: 486.16 miles

Nice little run today. My right hamstring felt sore, but it settled down after the first mile. I'm not sure why this run was so off when my pace was pretty close to my track run last week. Oh, and this was up at UMKC. I may take tomorrow off instead of two days off before the 10K, just to make sure I'm recovered before I try another run. The 3-miler tomorrow (or Wed), will just be nice and easy. I'm sure I'll push myself enough on Friday.

Run: 12.08 miles* - Pace: 11:37/mi* - Week: 24.65 miles - Total: 481.48 miles

Well, I knew a few minutes into this run that it wouldn't be easy, but before I get into it, let's see those splits.

• Mile 1 - 11:29
• Mile 2 - 11:25
• Mile 3 - 11:19
• Mile 4 - 11:11
• Mile 5 - 11:16
• Mile 6 - 11:21 -- First Half - 1:08:00
• Mile 7 - 10:50
• Mile 8 - 12:04
• Mile 9 - 10:50
• Mile 10 - 11:07
• Mile 11 - 11:17
• Mile 12 - 11:11 -- Second Half - 1:07:19

Well, to look at those splits (with the understanding that they are slightly too fast), it doesn't seem so bad. I still managed a negative split and only had one mile over the 12 minute mark, or over 11:30 for that matter. Still, it felt awful.

About a minute into the run the entire back side of my right leg hurt, or rather was in a fairly solid amount of pain. This was very irritating, as I had absolutely no indication from the week's runs that I would have some trouble. Also not wanting to get up again tomorrow and try again, I decided to see how it felt after a couple miles. As it turns out, inside of about 20 minutes it was only feeling stiff and not the pain I had at the start. So I decided to push on.

This was an altered route I tried today, and it turns out that there were way too many hills. The two extensions I made added about 4 significant hills. By the time I got to the Sunset hill (mile 8, obviously), I was struggling and ready to quit once I made it up that hill. I still am not sure how I managed to finish the last four miles. I basically said to myself that odds were I would feel like this at some point during the marathon, so I just gutted it out. I tried to pay attention to my ankles or anything else that might take longer to heal, but basically it was both of my hamstrings that were just getting to me. I'm definitely going to have to bike tomorrow to make sure my legs get loosened up.

(Why didn't I blog those last two runs edition...)

Runs: 3.14 miles and 4.49 miles- Pace: 10:14/mi and 10:03/mi - Week: 12.19 miles - Total: 469.02 miles

So the 3-mile run was just something that I wanted to be nice and relaxed as I was shifting my usual Wed day off to Mon and cramming in three runs back to back to back. This being Friday, I don't recall anything that particularly bothered me. I take that back, there was a driver who blew through a stop sign while chatting on her phone and didn't even give me a second look. It wasn't close enough to be scary, but close enough to be very irritating. This is why I don't run with my headphones outside.

The 4.5 mile run yesterday, though, was inside up at UMKC, and I desperately wanted to have my headphones and podcasts as I ran 36 boring laps around the 200m track. It was nice running in air conditioning and without hills, though. I just tried to keep everything relatively slow, only allowing myself to take off for the last half mile (hence the odd graph). There is something fun about really pushing those last 200m after a strong run. It felt great.

Tomorrow is a 12 mile run, and I've gone ahead and mapped out a 12-mile route rather than doing what I originally planned (my 10 mile loop + my 2 mile loop). We'll see how I feel tomorrow morning. The only thing I worry about is that at 73rd st (the home stretch normally) I take detour that is rather hilly. We'll see.

Run: 4.56 miles - Pace: 9:47/mi - Week: 4.56 miles - Total: 461.38

Nice run this morning, but now I really miss that low humidity. The iPod was again on target pretty closely, so I'm not sure what it was off before leaving for CO. The pacing is a bit on the fast side, but I didn't feel like I was really pushing it too much, mostly just right at a comfortable effort. Notice my right hip still isn't entirely happy, and both ankles were not anxious to get back to running, but that settled down after a while.

To make up for missing Monday, I'll just skip the rest day that would be on Wednesday and make the MTuTh runs TuWTh.

Run: 6.0 miles - Pace: 10:13/mi - Week: 15.13 miles - Total: 456.82

Quick post that is a bit late due to travel. This 6 mile run went well, and on the bright side I got to pet a horse. The sensor was actually quite accurate, which may be due to the complete lack of hills on this run. Not much more to add, aside from the fact that I'll really miss the lack of humidity.

Run: 2.01 miles - Pace: 10:34/mi - Week: 9.13 miles - Total: 450.82 miles

Ok, so this was supposed to be 4.5 miles, but my hamstrings were feeling rather tight after two miles, so I cut it short. I still haven't fully recovered from my not-so-smart run on Tuesday. Hopefully I'll be able to hit the planned 6 miles this Saturday, but I'll have a lot of hiking between now and then.

Run: 3.13 miles - Pace: 8:41/mi - Week: 7.12 miles - Total: 448.81 miles

Oh shoot. I don't know what got into me but I ran this really hard. My best 5K since getting back into running was at a 8:12/mi pace. Why oh why did I try this at a higher altitude. The run didn't go too badly, though I certainly did my share of huffing and puffing. My right hamstring though has begun a complete revolt. This is definitely the first time this season that I've really hurt after a run. If it's worse tomorrow, that could really be bad news. I just hope I didn't hurt myself trying to do too much in a new environment. :( We'll see how everything feels tomorrow and the day after.

On a separate note, I really appreciate the 10K I ran at an 8:36/mi pace. With a 10K coming up in 2 and a half weeks, I'm wondering if I can best last year's time.

Run: 4.0 miles - Pace: 9:35/mi - Week: 4.0 miles - Total: 445.68

Ok, so the first run here in Grand Junction, CO. On the plus side the humidity was 20% instead of 90%, though apparently that is rather high for this time of year (10-15% being more usual). On the down side, I did sleep in a bit after yesterday's driving marathon and it was pushing toward 80° by the time I got back. Also, I didn't drink enough yesterday and felt rather dehydrated.

Still, I was obviously able to maintain a strong pace. The run itself was 2 miles out and back along a straight and flat road. It was intimidating to see the full 2 miles laid out in front of me (it looks sooo much longer than anything I ever see). I'll make sure to hydrate well today so that tomorrow's run goes a bit better. Oh, on a side note, I saw about 6 goats on the sidewalk. I guess they escaped from someone's pen. They just kind of looked at me fun and then went back to their business, whatever that was.

Run: 9.96 miles - Pace: 11:43/mi - Week: 20.79 - Total: 441.68

• Mile 1 - 12:30
• Mile 2 - 12:15
• Mile 3 - 12:17
• Mile 4 - 12:00
• Mile 5 - 12:00
• First Half - 1:01:02
• Mile 6 - 11:38
• Mile 7 - 11:34
• Mile 8 - 10:58
• Mile 9 - 11:01
• Last 0.96 - 10:31 (10:57/mi pace)
• Second Half - 55:43

Well, aside from being nice and slow, those splits look really good. I managed to run the second half basically 5 minutes faster than the second half, or 1 min/mile faster. It was also a beautiful morning for a run, with the starting temperature being 58° and only getting up to 67° by the time I was done, though of course the humidity is still hovering around 90%.

Just as a funny note, I saw a raccoon this morning, which I've never seen since starting up at UMKC. Also, the runner's edge group apparently intersected with my run as I saw easily 75 runners coming at me from the opposite direction. For what is usually a rather solitary experience for me, it almost made me laugh to see so many people running together. It kinda looked like fun, but I was glad to be by them as I was much too conscious of trying to look like a good runner. Probably helped contribute to such a negative split on this run.

Run: 3.95 miles - Pace: 10:25 - Week: 10.83 miles - Total: 431.72 miles

I definitely waiting too long this morning to do my run. By the time I got out it was 78° with 90% humidity. It only took a couple of minutes before the heat felt oppressive. My calves felt tight at first, but after about 2.5 miles it was my hip joints that seemed to be giving me some trouble. I'll have to make sure I'm good and rested for my 10-miler on Saturday.

Ah! My first missed blog. Ok, two runs to do.

Runs - 3.88 and 3.0 miles - Paces - 10:53 and 10:06 - Week: 6.88 miles - Total: 427.77 miles

Well, yesterday's run was good. I can't think of anything to especially report save that I'm noticing the iPod is getting off and needs recalibration. Today's run was great. I went into Kansas to not do hill work specifically so much as just run 3 miles with lots of hills. The best part was that my legs felt fresh for the first time in a couple of weeks. That first mile was a breeze. Things seem to be going well (knock on wood), and after this week I'll have my first week without a long run. Yay!

Oh, and next week I'll be running at an altitude of 4600 feet.

Run: 9.17* miles - Pace: 11:43*/mi - Week: 19.77 miles - Total: 420.88 miles

Not a bad run this morning, though the heat is starting to get to me. I knew it would be bad when I stepped out the door and already felt warm. Within a mile I was already sweating quite a bit. When I got back, the temperature was 78° with 85% humidity. As Paris Hilton would say, that's hot. Ok, time for splits:

• Mile 1 - 12:21
• Mile 2 - 11:42
• Mile 3 - 11:23
• Mile 4 - 11:09
• Midpoint (4.5 miles) - 52:19
• Mile 5 - 11:27
• Mile 6 - 11:42
• Mile 7 - 11:05
• Mile 8 - 11:12
• Mile 9 - 11:01
• Second Half - 50:44

Ok, so as usual those splits don't include anything past 9 miles, just in case you added up the first and second halves and realized I was a bit short. So, the numbers don't look too bad. Nice slow first mile to get warmed up, and then gradually getting faster to the midway point. That miles 5 dropped a bit in pace doesn't surprise me as that was a rather steep hill I was coming up during that mile. I guess it took a while to recover as evidenced by mile 6. Still, I was able to finish strong with a negative split, but the heat was definitely getting to me.

As far as those sport beans go, much better this time around. There are 15 in a pack, so I ate 5 during the three breaks at 59, 1:09, and 1:19. That seemed to work pretty well. I didn't have any of the nausea of last time, so unless I get some evidence to the contrary, I'm going to stick with these. As the runs get longer, I'll add a pack each hour.

The only real pain came from my feat, specifically the balls of my feet and my left toes. I still blame the run earlier this week where I used the crappy socks and am still paying for it. Still, if this persists I may have to look into some solutions. Other than that, the only thing I was dealing with was fatigue. It's amazing how much those little hills can get to you after 6-7 miles.

As a final note, I must be much better next week about my diet. Last night I had steak and a couple of beers, which I know is not exactly a good training diet. :) Pasta next week and tons of water should help...

Run: 4.01 miles - Pace: 10:42/mi - Week: 10.57 miles - Total: 411.45 miles

Good run today, not too much to report save that at 7:00 the temperature was already 78° with humidity above 90%. Good times. I took this run easy today to hopefully give myself some time to recover more before Saturday's 9-mile run. My legs still didn't feel very fresh today, but at this pace I was very comfortable the whole time.

*Run: 2.55 miles - *Pace: 7:53/mi - Week: 6.56 miles - Total: 407.44 miles

*As usual when the pace is really off the calibration, I'll post the real miles and pace, but keep Weekly and Total miles. From now on, I'll just use the * to denote this.

Supposed to be a tempo run today, but that didn't exactly happen. Should have been more like 8:40-9:00/mi pacing. I had two 30-second walk breaks. Ok, so this was the third run in a row where my legs didn't feel fresh and ready to go on the run, so I won't do any biking tomorrow and will take Thursday's run rather easy rather than about 9:30/mi that I might otherwise try for.

Run: 4.01 miles - Pace: 10:09/mi - Week: 4.01 miles - Total: 405.12 miles

Nice run this morning, though it was a little warm. Temp was just under 70°, but rain was moving in fast, so the humidity was approaching 100%. Good times. To note, I can't wear cheap socks or cotton shirts anymore. The shirt, obviously, but I was wearing some old athletic socks that had lost a good deal of elasticity. I didn't bother me during the run, but as I was walking home I noticed that my toes were hurting from the increased rubbing. For a Monday run, it was a bit fast, but considering how tired I felt at the beginning I managed to settle into a nice pace after the first mile and didn't have any trouble after that.

Bike: 8.58 miles - Time: 44:23 - Pace: 11.6 mph

Same basic ride as before, down to the plaza and back. A little hot, but otherwise fine.