OBJECTIVE
9 mi. @ 8:20/mi.
ACHIEVED
9.48 @ 7:51/mi.
7:31 AM 44° 97% 0 mph
It was a beautiful Saturday morning. Jonathan and I had arranged to meet in Conroe to run League Line Road. We heard about this location about a year ago and have wanted to get out there for sometime. For flatlanders at sea level like us, we'll drive 45 minutes to find some hills to run on.
Have I said the morning was beautiful? It was. We saw cardinals, a deer, Texas wild flowers, and much more in an impressive display of nature's beauty. This along with Jonathan's excellent conversation and superb pacing resulted in a very good run. The miles just seemed to roll by without much effort until the very end.
The infamous hills of League Line Road were okay but weren't as impressive as I had built them up to be in my mind. Over the out-and-back route, we had about 9 good climbs ranging from 50' to 100' ... some decent rollers I suppose. I envision this being somewhat like the first half of the Ogden marathon course. The maximum elevation was 325' and the minimum was 200'. I suppose that's about the best we're going to get for a long hill route near Houston.
Jonathan is great. I really enjoy his company. I'm not sure this workout required that much of an effort from him. He's been running high mileage weeks with speed workouts over the last several weeks. He just won a local 5K last Saturday. His times and conditioning really seem to be improving at a rapid pace but he's been paying the price to achieve those gains. I look forward to running with him in Ogden.
I worked on my downhill technique today. Jonathan suggested keeping my knees lower and not over-striding. This seemed to help a lot. Now if I can just hold that form near the spillway in Ogden Canyon!
The goal this week was to get back to 100% healthy. I think I'm close. I didn't have any problems while running today. I'll see how I feel tomorrow. Based on how I'm feeling now, I think my left knee and ankle will be a bit achy. But as long as that is post-run rather than while running - it's all good.
The coming week steps up the pace and mileage culminating in a 20-miler next Saturday. This will be my last 20 below the marathon. I really need a good one!
PRE RUN
oatmeal & skim milk
POST RUN
2 SlimFast
Later, Kashi GoLean cereal with skim milk
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Taking the "S" out of LSD ....
OBJECTIVE
9 mi. @ 8:20/mi.
ACHIEVED
9.02 mi. @ 8:16/mi.
4:30 AM 64° 78% 6 mph
In runner parlance LSD is long, slow distance run and, as I understand it, there's a purpose in going slow over a long distance. I think I took the "S" out of my LSD this morning. Okay, so you look at my time and wonder, what am I talking about? An 8:16/mi. pace isn't that fast. Let me explain.
I had planned on running from work last night but I didn't get away from the office early enough. So I knew that I'd be going out this morning. ... I wasn't looking forward to it for some reason. I drove to the Y and started my run at 4:30. I figured that I would just run based on how I felt. That's what I had done on Monday on the same course over the same distance and I ended up quite happy with the result in the end.
Today's opening mile was around 9:00. My ankle was being cranky and I just wasn't feeling it. I thought the next 8 miles where going to be long if I felt this way the whole time! So I decided that I'd try to run negative 10 second splits for each mile. That way I could ease into a faster pace and still finish around my goal of 8:20/mi.
With this challenge laid down, my mind had something to focus on and I "went to work". Of course, this isn't anything heroic but I was able to do it. Here are my mile splits:
8:59/8:51/8:33/8:26/8:16/8:08/7:52/7:47/7:34
I didn't get exactly 10 second negatives but I was close and I did get negative splits over the whole distance.
I was pleased when this run was over.
Interestingly, this run was about 1 minute slower than Monday's run but the runs felt completely different. Monday's run was close to flat splits while today's was negative. It's interesting how each run takes on a personality of its own.
Okay, so back to my original comment that I took the "S" out of my LSD. I fairly certain the the last 3 miles were technically too fast for a textbook long, slow run.
PRE RUN
Clif bar & water
POST RUN
SlimFast
Later, Kashi GoLean cereal w/skim milk; water & multivitamin
9 mi. @ 8:20/mi.
ACHIEVED
9.02 mi. @ 8:16/mi.
4:30 AM 64° 78% 6 mph
In runner parlance LSD is long, slow distance run and, as I understand it, there's a purpose in going slow over a long distance. I think I took the "S" out of my LSD this morning. Okay, so you look at my time and wonder, what am I talking about? An 8:16/mi. pace isn't that fast. Let me explain.
I had planned on running from work last night but I didn't get away from the office early enough. So I knew that I'd be going out this morning. ... I wasn't looking forward to it for some reason. I drove to the Y and started my run at 4:30. I figured that I would just run based on how I felt. That's what I had done on Monday on the same course over the same distance and I ended up quite happy with the result in the end.
Today's opening mile was around 9:00. My ankle was being cranky and I just wasn't feeling it. I thought the next 8 miles where going to be long if I felt this way the whole time! So I decided that I'd try to run negative 10 second splits for each mile. That way I could ease into a faster pace and still finish around my goal of 8:20/mi.
With this challenge laid down, my mind had something to focus on and I "went to work". Of course, this isn't anything heroic but I was able to do it. Here are my mile splits:
8:59/8:51/8:33/8:26/8:16/8:08/7:52/7:47/7:34
I didn't get exactly 10 second negatives but I was close and I did get negative splits over the whole distance.
I was pleased when this run was over.
Interestingly, this run was about 1 minute slower than Monday's run but the runs felt completely different. Monday's run was close to flat splits while today's was negative. It's interesting how each run takes on a personality of its own.
Okay, so back to my original comment that I took the "S" out of my LSD. I fairly certain the the last 3 miles were technically too fast for a textbook long, slow run.
PRE RUN
Clif bar & water
POST RUN
SlimFast
Later, Kashi GoLean cereal w/skim milk; water & multivitamin
Monday, April 14, 2008
Early 9-miler
OBJECTIVE
9 mi. @ 8:20/mi.
ACHIEVED
9.03 mi. @ 8:08/mi.
4:27 AM 42° 81% 0 mph
This is "recovery" week. I'm doing three 9-mile runs this week at an easy pace. This is the last recovery period prior to the marathon so I'm hopeful that by next Sunday, I'm feeling very good physically.
At this point, I'm happy to report the only thing that bothered me this morning was my left ankle. It's still achy and doesn't seem to be improving but it does seem to loosen up after a couple miles.
I didn't really feel like going when the alarm sounded at 4 AM but drug myself out the door. To illustrate how simple my mind is, I've always been very eager to run when I'm going out in new shoes. Well, today was the maiden voyage of my new Mizuno Wave Rider 10's. These are the same model as my last two pairs and are getting harder to find now that Mizuno is selling newer models. This pair is red, blue, and silver and look pretty good. But not even the lure of new shoes was motivating this morning.
On days I start out like this the runs usually aren't that great but this one turned out okay. I drove to the Y and ran the bayou trail out and back for 9 miles. The morning air was surprisingly cool and for the first couple miles I wished I had worn long sleeves and gloves. My hands were very cold at the finish.
There was low lying fog which turned the bayou into something like the Michael Jackson Thriller video. Maybe the thought of zombies at 4:30 in the morning darkness prompted me to pick up the pace! Actually it was pleasant. I sat on my desired pace (8:20) during the trip out and cranked it up a bit on the way back in. I noticed again this morning if I sync my breathing with my strides that I ran faster.
Interestingly, I can clearly remember this "recovery" week in preparation for the St. George marathon last fall. I'm not sure why it's such a vivid memory ... maybe because it was a new route that I hadn't run before or since ... ??? I pulled my training log to see what pace I ran these 9-milers. I ran one on Monday and another on Thursday. The planned pace was 8:51. I ran 8:49 and 9:41. This made today's 8:08 feel even better!
May 17 and the marathon will be here before you know it. I checked our flights yesterday and they still look very good (we're flying standby). Paige's training for the half seems to be going well. She got new shoes last week too. Cameron has now decided he wants to run the half but I checked yesterday and it's sold out. I'll add him to the wait list today. I've been tinkering with elevation-based pace charts. I've still got some work to do there but a plan seems to be formulating.
I'll post again after Wednesday's run. At the moment, I'm not sure if it's going to be AM or PM. I would like PM but think I have a scheduling conflict so it may have to be another early morning extravaganza.
PRE RUN
Clif bar & water
POST RUN
SlimFast
Later, water & oatmeal w/skim milk
9 mi. @ 8:20/mi.
ACHIEVED
9.03 mi. @ 8:08/mi.
4:27 AM 42° 81% 0 mph
This is "recovery" week. I'm doing three 9-mile runs this week at an easy pace. This is the last recovery period prior to the marathon so I'm hopeful that by next Sunday, I'm feeling very good physically.
At this point, I'm happy to report the only thing that bothered me this morning was my left ankle. It's still achy and doesn't seem to be improving but it does seem to loosen up after a couple miles.
I didn't really feel like going when the alarm sounded at 4 AM but drug myself out the door. To illustrate how simple my mind is, I've always been very eager to run when I'm going out in new shoes. Well, today was the maiden voyage of my new Mizuno Wave Rider 10's. These are the same model as my last two pairs and are getting harder to find now that Mizuno is selling newer models. This pair is red, blue, and silver and look pretty good. But not even the lure of new shoes was motivating this morning.
On days I start out like this the runs usually aren't that great but this one turned out okay. I drove to the Y and ran the bayou trail out and back for 9 miles. The morning air was surprisingly cool and for the first couple miles I wished I had worn long sleeves and gloves. My hands were very cold at the finish.
There was low lying fog which turned the bayou into something like the Michael Jackson Thriller video. Maybe the thought of zombies at 4:30 in the morning darkness prompted me to pick up the pace! Actually it was pleasant. I sat on my desired pace (8:20) during the trip out and cranked it up a bit on the way back in. I noticed again this morning if I sync my breathing with my strides that I ran faster.
Interestingly, I can clearly remember this "recovery" week in preparation for the St. George marathon last fall. I'm not sure why it's such a vivid memory ... maybe because it was a new route that I hadn't run before or since ... ??? I pulled my training log to see what pace I ran these 9-milers. I ran one on Monday and another on Thursday. The planned pace was 8:51. I ran 8:49 and 9:41. This made today's 8:08 feel even better!
May 17 and the marathon will be here before you know it. I checked our flights yesterday and they still look very good (we're flying standby). Paige's training for the half seems to be going well. She got new shoes last week too. Cameron has now decided he wants to run the half but I checked yesterday and it's sold out. I'll add him to the wait list today. I've been tinkering with elevation-based pace charts. I've still got some work to do there but a plan seems to be formulating.
I'll post again after Wednesday's run. At the moment, I'm not sure if it's going to be AM or PM. I would like PM but think I have a scheduling conflict so it may have to be another early morning extravaganza.
PRE RUN
Clif bar & water
POST RUN
SlimFast
Later, water & oatmeal w/skim milk
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