OBJECTIVE
14 mi. w/progressive pace over final 7 mi. ending w/6:52

ACHIEVED
14.59 mi.@ 8:21 final 7 mi. (7:54/8:34/8:24/8:18/8:26/8:19/7:24/3:58=6:44)

5:38 AM 82° 79% 2 mph

Had a nice group of ten starters for today's run: Stephanie, Stuart, Augie, Josh, Randy, Michele, Christina, Israel, Jonathan and me. It was good to be running with the group for this 14-miler. There are varying distances scheduled for today's group. I think Christina, Josh and Randy ended up running 18 while the rest of us broke it off at earlier points along the way.

I didn't execute the progressive part of this run over the last half very well. I ran Mile 8 about where it needed to be than flopped until pulling it together over the last mile and a half.

PRE RUN
oatmeal w/brown sugar & skim milk

POST RUN
SlimFast, Amino Vital & water

OBJECTIVE
2-6 mi.@ 8:30-9:40

ACHIEVED
6.17 mi.@ 9:03

5:12 AM 79° 90% 2 mph

Recovery run in the books. Kept it nice and easy. Felt ever-so-slight sluggishness. Also, seems I tweaked my left hamstring during yesterday's tempo ... nothing serious.

Tomorrow's big progressive looms ....

PRE RUN
weight=162

POST RUN
SlimFast, multivitamin, 500 mg glutamine & brown rice farina w/brown sugar & skim milk

Analyzing Today's "Failed" Tempo Run

The image illustrates the pace for today's run. The slow sections of approximately 1.5 miles at the beginning and end of the run are the warm-up and cool-down. The faster-paced sections represent the 4-mile tempo run broken into quarter mile increments. My target pace today was 6:32 per mile. As you can see, I faded - getting progressively slower then scrambled to "stay fast" and "save the run" as I approached the end of the tempo. This isn't how a tempo is supposed to be executed. Ideally, the pace is constant throughout. My target pace today approximates my threshold pace which shouldn't be easy for me. It's also a high wire act to stay at that pace. The risk of going faster is that I'll end up going anaerobic and won't be able to recover. Thereby, dragging my pace and endurance down such that I slow down markedly. However, the threshold pace is a stretch that almost puts me at that point anyway. It's a huge challenge to hold on to the pace because I'm generally feeling like "Man, I can't sustain this. I've got to slow down!" It's all very strange. I believe the purpose of this workout is to put myself on the precipice and hold it there for what seems like eternity. This should build my fatigue resistance in the long run.

Remember, I'm not a scientist but I sure don't mind playing one ... on my blog ....

Not Ready for Primetime

OBJECTIVE
dynamic stretching warm-up
1.5 mi. warm-up
4 mi. tempo @ 6:32
1.5 mi. cool-down

ACHIEVED
1.60 mi. WU
dynamic stretch
4 mi. tempo @ 6:40
1.52 mi. CD

total time = 56:00
total distance = 7.13 mi.

4:58 AM 77° 89% 0 mph

Things (i.e., life) have been a bit crazy lately. In summary, I missed yesterday's recovery run (bad) because I went to the theater to see Wicked Tuesday night (good). Upon getting home very late, my son wanted my help registering for his freshman college classes (good). Registration opened at 1 AM (bad). The computer system must have been overwhelmed because we couldn't get in (bad). Finally got in but most of his preferred classes were taken (bad). This caused the process to take longer (bad). I got to bed very, very late for me (bad). Work has been fairly unforgiving with the recent ramp up in merger-related integration activities (bad for my running and most likely my career opportunities with my current employer).

Okay enough excuses for missing yesterday's run. But is there something hidden in them that caused this morning's tempo run to be a flop? I'm pointing to the lack of sleep. I believe the physiological scientific evidence suggests that we "run on the night before's sleep". I'm hoping that's true. Because I felt like I was running on about half a tank today and, conveniently for my theory, I got about half a night's sleep Tuesday night. Anyone out there buying it?

PRE RUN
Amino vital & 500 mg glutamine

POST RUN
Amino vital, multivitamin & SlimFast

OBJECTIVE
dynamic stretching warm-up
1.5 mi. warm-up @ 8:30-9:40
3x1k @ 6:18/mi. w/3 min. active recoveries
1.5 mi. cool-down @ 8:30-9:40

ACHIEVED
1.65 mi. WU
dynamic stretch
3x1k (6:02/6:05/6:15) w/3 min. active recoveries
1.45 mi. CD

total time = 48:54
total distance = 5.82 mi.

5:22 AM 79° 89% 3 mph

Pretty good run today. The impact of the Saturday's 5K result seems to be boosted confidence for me.

I obviously started these intervals too fast. I would have preferred my times to be the reverse of what they were (slowest to fastest rather than fastest to slowest). But I hit all of my times and was able to stay relaxed for the most part.

Looking forward to tomorrow's recovery run.

PRE RUN
weight=162
diet V-8 splash & 500 mg glutamine

POST RUN
water, multivitamin & brown rice farina w/brown sugar & skim milk

OBJECTIVE
8 mi.@ 7:38-8:29
2x20 sec. high knees
2x20 sec. bounding

ACHIEVED
8.15 mi.@ 8:24
2x20 sec. high knees
2x20 sec. bounding

5:00 AM 78° 90% 3 mph

Decent run today. Felt a little beat up from Saturday's race. More concerned about my tight calves than anything else; especially my left.

Today starts the second build phase of my training for St. George. I recalibrated my target paces based on my 5K race time from Saturday. I actually think I'm in pretty good shape. As long as I hold together, I'm not too far off my best shape from earlier this year.

PRE RUN
weight=162
water & 500 mg glutamine

POST RUN
weight=158
water, multivitamin, low-fat vanilla yogurt & skim chocolate milk w/soy protein