Freethinker ~ Freerunner

Friday MLR of 13 miles at a 7:42 AP.  34 feels like 28 at 6 mph.  Finished before 7:00 AM.   

I felt really strong, until around mile 6 when my right calf started tensing up a bit.  I still feel it a little.  I will make sure to stretch a little today and tomorrow.  I've got to be strong for my pace run on Sunday. 

Now its off to my first of two meetings before we open the store today.  Alisha and I are going to do our budget tonight.  I have a feeling this day is going to fly. 

Marathon Pace run with 12 miles at GP.  Total AP 7:07.  30 feels like  24.  

I feel awesome!  I was not sure exactly how this run was going to go since I missed my last tempo run due to weird injuries that sidelined me for about four days.

First four miles warmup: AP 7:40

Last 12 miles at marathon goal pace or better (7:00):  AP 6:54

I feel really good about this workout.  I have missed way too many runs and other workouts, including a long run this cycle which broke one of my cardinal rules.  I have a long list of life event things getting in the way, but I'm putting all that behind me and I am going to focus like a laser on making 100% of the rest of my runs and workouts.  I feel like with my current level of fitness and with good weather in Oklahoma City I have a real shot at attaining my coveted BQ.  

General aerobic run of 9 miles at an 8:03 AP.  WINDY!  39 feels like 31.  14 mph winds. 

My legs were still quite sore from the pace run Sunday morning.  It didn't help that I only got 5 hours of sleep last night.  Between ten hour days at work and preparing the house for our renters, sleep has been made a low priority.  Thankfully we are just about finished with the make ready process and will sign our tenants on Saturday morning.  

V02 Max workout.  9 miles with 6 800's with 400 jogs between repeats.  27 feels like 21.  

I actually used half miles and quarter miles for my intervals, but I figure it should be close enough.  

My 800's:  3:10, 3:02, 3:00, 3:05, 3:09, 3:09

My legs still felt a little sore from the pace run on Sunday.  I keep reminding myself that it is during these grueling high mileage weeks sprinkled with quality workouts that builds the endurance to go 26.2 in under 3:05. 

Recovery run.  37 feels like 32.  I dressed way to warm somehow.  I should have worn shorts.  

My legs feel fully recovered from the past weekend and interval run yesterday.  Onward!

MLR.  7:33 AP.  45, feels like 39.  Shorts weather is back!  Woohoo!  

I looks like it's going to be a nice couple of days.  I felt really good this morning.  I'm liking this recovery week.  I actually had to hold myself back during this run.  I was tempted to run the last half at marathon pace.  

General Aerobic run of 8 miles with 10x100's.  

52 feels like 52.  Actually it feels like spring. 

I think my overall endurance has improved since training last Fall.  My heart rate range for this type of run should be between 144 and 166.  I averaged 153 even running at a 7:31 AP.  I will need to go back and look at the data, but I believe I used to have to run closer to 7:50 or 8:00 AP to keep my heart rate down near 153.  

MLR - 15 at 7:22 AP.  54 degrees with some rain.  The rain felt nice.   I wore my new compression socks for the first time. 

PR training run! 

With the time change last night I only ended up getting four hours of sleep!  I somehow felt really good this morning when I woke up and I still feel great.  Fortunately this was a recovery week and I only had 15 miles to get in this morning.  That helped.  Now I'm ready to relax.  This is the first Sunday of the past six that Alisha and I can just sit back and relax a little bit. 

6:00 AM.  6 mile recovery run at nice and easy 8:26 miles.  I'm feeling good. 

I'm going to try to get some core exercises in some time today before my second act of 4 miles this afternoon.  

6:05 PM. 4 mile recovery run at an 8:00 pace.  I wasn't sure that 8:00 minutes would truly be considered recovery pace, but I made sure to keep my heart rate under 150.  I average 147 for this workout. 

I'm feeling good and ready for my MLR tomorrow morning bright and early.  I was able to sneak in an hour and forty minute nap today during Ty's nap. 

Mid-week MLR with 8 miles with Shane.  7:27 AP.  

I ran this whole run under 8:00's with the last 4 miles at 7:13, 7:18, 7:08, 7:13, and 6:53.

I'm feeling pretty good about my fitness levels right now.  I just need to figure out how to get some more sleep and stay injury free until Oklahoma City.  

Recovery run an 8:01 pace.  My legs needed this after the mid-week MLR yesterday that I hit pretty hard.  I'm looking hit it hard again tomorrow with a tempo with 7 at 6:50 pace. 

12 mile tempo with at tempo pace. 

Conditions were beautiful this morning at 57 degrees.  The only thing that would have made it better was if the power had not gone out at about 3:45.  When that happened the alarm system alerted us that the power was out.  It was a strange morning to lose power since there was no storm or weather of any kind.  The utility company website said that over 10,000 customers were without power across Broken Arrow, Tulsa, and Coweta.  I really wasn't able to fall back to sleep before my alarm went off at 4:30.  

When I took the trail out of my neighborhood and came out on 71st street I saw a local news station prepping for a live remote. 

As for the workout I was very pleased with my self.

Three miles warmup: 7:48, 7:50, 7:42

7 miles at tempo: 6:41, 6:37, 6:41, 6:41, 6:40, 6:42, 6:48

2 miles at cool down: 8:24, 8:11

According to Garmin this is a PR for me for this distance.  According to Strava I clocked my 2nd best time in a 10K during this workout.  My best 10k ever recorded was during the 15k Tulsa run last October in which I recorded a 40:14 time for 10k. The 10k from the workout this morning came in at 41:24. 

I'm happy! 

Recovery run at a nice and easy 8:31 pace.  So warm this morning at 62 degrees.  

My right calf felt a little too sore this morning.  I hope it heals up nicely for my monster 22 mile long run tomorrow morning  

BAM!  New PR on 22 miles.  44 feels like 36.  It was cold and windy and misty.  

As for my PR time I beat my previous PR from last September by over 11 minutes.  My AP was 7:32.

My final five miles:  7:08, 7:09, 7:13, 7:01, 6:48

I did feel a slight twinge in my right calf muscle throughout the day yesterday.  I was a little concerned about how the long run would affect that this morning, but I put on my new compression socks and headed out the door.  I really did not feel a thing throughout the run.   Go compression socks!  I'm now looking forward to resting the the rest of the day and tomorrow. 

I could not be feeling better about heading in to the final six week stretch for Oklahoma City. 

VO2 Max run of 9 miles with 5 600's.  37 feels like 33.  

I messed up on the third repeat and did not go the full 600 meters, but on the first I went just a little bit longer than I should have.  

600 meters is about .37 miles.  My goal was to run them in 2:20.   

.40     2:29

.37     2:16

.27     1:40

.38     2:20

.38     2:22

Mid-Week MLR.  36 feels like 31.  7:31 AP. 

I'm still feeling really good with my training.  When I compare my training logs to these same workouts last fall I'm consistently running faster and feeling like I'm maybe I'm not as fatigued as I was back then.  I feel as though my body is responding to the stimulus of the workouts really well.  

6:00 AM.  6 miles at recovery pace with 6 100's.  I'm feeling good.

7:15 PM. 4 miles.  Nice and easy 7:57 pace.    

Nice and easy 5 miles at recovery pace.  The trails were very wet and it looks like it's only going to get more wet as we head into the weekend.  

I probably should have substituted my recovery run this morning for some type of workout.  The schedule calls for a tune-up race tomorrow morning, but I don't have a race to participate in.  I think I'm going to run 10 to 13 miles with a portion of it at tempo or something like that.  Then I'll close out the week at just over 70 miles, which will by my highest volume week this cycle.  

6:00 AM.  9.04 miles at a 7:37 pace with 6 100's at the end.  The last mile time was 7:00. I got home and uploaded my data and realize that I missed the 70 mile mark on the week by .76 miles.  I mentioned this in the Oklahoma Mileage Club on Facebook.  When several members challenged me to finish out the 70 mile week I decided to go ahead and make it happen after work tonight.  So that's what I did. 

8:13 PM: 1 mile in 7:30.  I ran out of the neighborhood and around the pond once and then back to my house.  This was just about exactly one mile.  

Ka-Chow!  That's what I say when I'm excited.  I finished this run feeling good, but totally beaten down and devastated by the vicious 20 mph winds out of the north west.  I felt devastated because I thought there was no way I made my pace goal. 

I should start at the beginning.  The goal of this workout was to warm up for 4 miles, and then to run 14 at marathon goal pace.  The weather turned sour in a real bad way last night.  The forecast called for a 90% chance of precip. by 5:00 AM, my usual start time, and 20 mph winds throughout the morning and into the day.

I stepped out into the street and took off feeling like the winds were not as bad as the forecast suggested.  And fortunately there was absolutely now rain or snow.  Once I headed into the north for the first time I received blast of 'kick in the butt' old man winter's wrath.  I thought this was Spring.  What happened?  

Miles 1-4:  7:42, 7:44, 7:38, 7:16.  The first mile was run mostly against the west wind.  The second, third and fourth were run with the north wind at my back.  The scary thing about this wind was that I could actually feel it whipping around and pushing me onward.  This was scary because usually you are not aware of the wind when it is at your back.  You only become aware of it once you turn around and are now running into it.  I knew a majority of the back end of this run would be heading back into the northwest, which worried me. 

Miles 5-9:  6:54, 6:50, 6:53, 6:54, 6:46.  These were all run with the wind.  Thus my pace was working nicely.  I knew that after mile 9 I would be running into the wind, which was why I ran a faster pace so that I would have some time in the bank for the return trip.

Miles 10-15: 7:01, 7:05, 7:12, 7:01, 7:26, 7:21. These sucked royally!  This whole way I was running directly into the wind as I was running either west, north, or northwest.  The wind gusts were really beating me into submission.  I felt exhausted after a couple of these miles.  I forgot to mention that the rolling hills out in this area are enough to kill your energy, with wind not needed.  There were however a few glimmering moments when I hit certain remote areas that either trees or land blocked the wind just enough that I could tell I still had enough gas in the tank continue running at my goal pace.  I went through several areas where I was able to recover before suffering a wind set back again and again.  This was a real growing moment for me as a runner.  I know now that I possess the ability to overcome adversity on a long tough run and finish strong.

Miles 16-18: 7:17, 7:04, 6:58.  Miles 16 and 17 were run into the north.  The wind was either coming right at me, or occasionally it would change to the west and I would get a small break.  This area is also a slow and steady uphill for both miles.   The last mile I finally got the wind at my back and I was able to really crank the pace back to where I would have run for this entire workout had I not had the wind.  

Conclusion:  I felt good about the strong finish, but I thought there was no way that I made my goal pace.  And maybe I thought this because I've been shooting for just a few seconds below 7:00 on my pace workouts.  When I got home and analyzed the data it turned out that I averaged exactly 7:03 on the 14 miles I set out to run at marathon goal pace!  I am really happy because I know now that I'm capable of averaging this pace even on a wicked 20 mph windy day like today.  This happened even running a majority of the workout (about 8 miles) directly into the wind.     

V02 Max run.  9 miles with 6x600's.  25 degrees.  

It was a nice cold morning to work up a good sweat. 

The first three miles were a warm up.  7:30, 7:28, 7:19.

I ran the 600's with 1 minute jogs between repeats. 

600's:  2:14, 2:13, 2:10, 2:10, 2:15, 2:12. 

The last three miles to cool down went like this:  7:58, 7:38, 7:18.

Other than the fact that I did not get up to make my customary 5:00 AM start time, I'm feeling really good about this workout.  Also, my shoe came untied during the second repeat.  So technically it doesn't really count since I had to stop and stop my watch to tie it back.  Because of that I made myself run a sixth repeat.  Coach Pfitz only wanted me to five this morning.  For anyone other than Joe reading this entry, coach Pfitz refers to Pete Pfitzinger and his book Advanced Marathoning from which my training schedules come.     

MLR - 15.  32 feels like 26.  7:23 AP.  

This run did not exactly go as planned and was thus a little unconventional.  I planned on meeting up with Shane about 4.5 miles in.  I got to the meeting point a little bit late, and he had turned around rather than keep heading my direction.  I eventually caught up with him, but I had to 7:10, 7:21, and 7:14 to do it rather than my planned 7:45 pace.  After I caught him we slowed down 7:21, but then we followed those with a 7:13 and 7:07.  I was obviously not able to sustain that for throughout the rest of the run.  My ideal MLR starts out a little bit slower and then builds to a fast finish just about 10% or less slower than marathon pace.

I still had a good finish time overall, but I think I could have set a new PR if I'd run this one a little smarter and had been more organized. 

Recovery run with 10x100's with Channing.  It felt good to take it easy this morning after the past two days.   

MLR - 12.  7:36 AP.  56 feels like 56.  

I basically started out in the 7:40's and finished in 7:20's with my last mile at 7:09.  I did not take any GU or liquids of any kind on this run.  I've been toying with the idea that training with less carbs will build the body's endurance so that during the race when you take carbs you will receive a true extra boost of energy.  I'm not cutting it completely because I also know you should practice training how you are going to race so that there are no surprises in your digestive tract on race day. 

Recovery run at a nice and easy 8:02 pace.  55 degrees with 94% humidity.  Yuck.  

My legs are a little too sore for this point in the week.  I probably could have run my two MLR's this week a little slower.  

I will try to run smart this week since I have the half marathon tune-up race one week from today.  I'm looking forward to setting a new PR in the half. 

Long run of 17 miles at a 7:32 AP.  57 degrees.  

There was an isolated thunder storm that started to develop at the beginning of this run.  I lucked out and did not get rained on, but the wind was whipping around like crazy from the North.  Fortunately it had died down somewhat towards the latter half of the run. 

I took the Creek trail to the West this morning, which I haven't done in a while because it has been closed for several months.  I knew the wind would not be as bad if I went that way so I decided to risk running on construction.  It turned out to be safe and passable, but there was one muddy spot that coated my shoes in mud that I did not see in the dark. 

Last five miles: 7:22, 7:14, 7:15, 7:11, 6:48.  I felt strong near the end so I finished a little faster.