Recently in Speed Work Category

Run: 3.5 miles - Pace: 8:45/mi - Week: 3.5 miles - Year: 74.5 miles - Total: 836.06 miles

So, again I ended up going some accidental speedwork. Definitely one of the fastest runs this year (July 27 was a bit faster, but only 2 miles). Splits were 9:16, 8:35, 8:41, and 4:05 (0.5 miles). Felt pretty good considering, I'd say. Of course, I have two more runs in the next two days to consider, so we'll see.

Oh, and we just had some rain, so it was pretty cool (72F), though the humidity was up around 86% or so.

Run: 3.0 miles - Pace: 9:19/mi - Week: 8.0 miles - Year: 55.0 miles - Total: 816.56 miles

Little cooler outside today. I reversed the route (as I think I'll do every other week) and that kind of got me energized. Knowing I had a rest day tomorrow I ran each mile much faster than the previous, giving me splits of 9:59, 9:19, and 8:43. Left calf still tender, but nothing that really concerns me at the moment. The only reason it's odd is that it keeps lingering, though not getting worse. I'll have to be careful that things to progress in the wrong direction.

Run: 2.0 miles - Pace: 8:34/mi - Week: 5.0 miles - Year: 40.0 miles - Total: 801.56 miles

I think I might have to classify this as speedwork given how quickly I ran. I set my garmin pacer to 9:20, but after finishing the first mile in 8:56, I decided to keep going. I kept my breathing at a steady rate and was a bit slower than really pushing myself. Hopefully this wasn't too fast.

Run: 5.0 miles - Pace: 9:04/mi - Week: 19.43 miles - Total: 751.69 miles

Race pace for 5 miles, and I managed to stay 5 second per mile under that pace. It wasn't easy, though. It was kind of depressing to see myself 200 feet behind my electronic pacer after the first walk break. By the end, I wasn't quite to the point where I didn't fall behind with walk breaks, but I was pretty close. Hopefully, in the half, I'll find myself solidly ahead of the pacer at 6 miles, allowing me to fall behind if I happen to.

Since I can, here are the splits:

Mile 1 - 9:00
Mile 2 - 9:09
Mile 3 - 9:04
Mile 4 - 8:58
Mile 5 - 9:07

I felt better after the first mile, and didn't feel like I had to work as hard being warmed up, but that could have been the slightly slower pace. :) Actually, using the pacer kept me within 11 seconds on every mile, which is pretty awesome. Tomorrow, 10 miles at 10:30/mi pace. Eek.

Run: 6.5 miles - Pace: 9:25/mi - Week: 11.43 miles - Total: 743.68 miles

Hard workout today. 9x400m intervals at 5K pace. Thanks to the Garmin, I was able to just do this outside. I ran a mile to a nice relatively flat area to do the 400m repeats and then got to work. It was nice that it told me when I needed to speed up or slow down, but it got on my nerves late in the workout as I had to strive harder. :)

Here are the paces per mile for the repeats, I went easy then hard:

#1 - 10:54, 7:41

#2 - 10:12, 7:30

#3 - 10:01, 7:41

#4 - 10:07, 7:44

#5 - 10:14, 7:29

#6 - 10:27, 7:33

#7 - 10:13, 7:37

#8 - 10:17, 7:41

#9 - 10:24, 7:29

What's remarkable is that those paces don't reflect how much harder the last 3 were compared to the first six. I probably shouldn't have jumped in with such a hard workout, so we'll see how I feel tomorrow. I used body glide on the toe, and it held up pretty well, though there was still some damage.

Boy, that was hard, but I love my Garmin.

Run: 3.0 miles - Pace: 9:38/mi - Week: 7.0 miles - Total: 715.25 miles

First Garmin run, last run before the half. Boy the Garmin is cooooool! Now I just gotta find a program that'll allow for easy blog export. :)

Ok, so I did a 3-mile run, with a 10-minute warm-up, 10-minute race pace, and then the rest for a cool down. The splits were: 10:10, 9:06, 9:37. I pretty much nailed the race pace, and it felt pretty good. So here's hoping for Saturday!

Run: 5.0 miles* - Pace: 9:04/mi* - Week: 15.73 miles - Total: 673.35 miles

5 Mile pace run today, and I did pretty well. I'll be shooting for 9:10/mi, so this was much closer to the pace than my previous attempts. I'm still surprised how hard this is, and can't believe that I'll be able to do this for another 8 miles. Again, today I ran under bad conditions. It was late in the day, relatively warm at 72°, I was not well hydrated, and had slept about 9 hours in the past two days. All in all, perfect conditions for a run. :)

Now onto 11 miles for tomorrow. :(

Run: 5.0 miles* - Pace: 9:12/mi* - Week: 10.91 miles - Total: 668.53 miles

One day I'll slow down a bit. This is just about right on race pace and it felt good for 4.5 miles. I did, however, run my usual 5 mile route backwards, which was interesting, and it also meant that instead of mostly downhill for the last mile, I had a fairly significant uphill. At 4.5 miles my legs felt like lead, as though the energy just left them entirely. Granted, I was running at an odd time and didn't bother eating beforehand, so that could be it. Also, I was definitely not running on fresh legs. Still, it is concerning that 5 miles at that pace is pretty rough. We'll see how things go on Friday.

Run: 4.84 miles - Pace: 9:31/mi - Week: 9.32 miles - Total: 643.99 miles

Well, I filed this under Speed Work because I actually ended up making it a bit of a tempo run. I think when I factor in the Nike+ underestimate on distance, I end up with around a 9:12/mi pace, which is just over a 2-hour half-marathon. I say ended up, because it wasn't exactly what I intended to do, but as I noticed my first mile split I thought, "Why not?" I've been missing some runs due to comps this week, so I'll do an easy 4 miles tomorrow and then the 10-mile long run on Saturday.

My ankles felt a bit odd at the start of this run, but otherwise fine once I got going. I will say that my shoes seem to be doing better. I didn't notice the rubbing on my feet nearly as much. Mostly only when going uphill later in the run.

Run: 4.0 miles* - Pace: 9:35/mi* - Week: 7.62 miles - Total: 625.66 miles

Tempo run today, and I definitely need a garmin. :) 10 minute warm-up, 20 minutes of acceleration, 10 minute cool-down. The 20 minutes was divided into 4-minute units, with the last minute being reserved for just shy of all out. During the run, my calves were giving me some trouble, and afterwards they hurt quite a bit. I iced them both for 20 minutes and they immediately feel better. I'll see how they are tomorrow. I think I'll have to retire those shoes, though. Maybe I'll use them for easier runs, but can't use them for speedwork anymore. Hopefully I won't have to cut tomorrow's run.