Freethinker ~ Freerunner

I have got to remember to stop running my tempo runs on the hills.  I was not able to get up to my top end pace of 6:30 because of them.  I get in such a habit of running out of my neighborhood and down the street to the nearby hilly trail.  I need to remember to keep it in the neighborhood where it is flat for this run so I can see what I am capable of.  I planned on running splits that looked like this.

8:00

7:30

7:00

6:30

6:45

7:00

7:30

8:00

But the most vicious elevation on my route came at mile 4, the 6:30 planned split.  I ended up finishing that mile in 6:53, but it killed me and I just didn't have much left to make my goal splits.  My actual splits looked like this:

7:41

7:24

7:02

6:53

7:11

7:23

7:49

7:30

I ran 3 miles at what felt like a pretty easy pace of 7:20 per mile.  This was a brick run after a 13 mile bike ride.  I'm feeling strong and ready for my 2 and half hour run tomorrow bright and early.  

It was a warm and windy run this morning.  Even at 5:30 AM it was 73 degrees with strong southern head winds of up to 20 miles per hour.  We took it nice and easy and ran at an 8:24 pace.  It was well deserved since Kevin had done over 100 miles on the bike the day before, and I had increased my running mileage by over 37% last week from the week before including two pretty strenuous speed sessions.  I'm going to rest up today and probably tomorrow too.  Fortunately I don't have too much yard work to do today so I can take advantage of the rest. 

On a physical observation I have been taking 20 grams of whey protein powder mixed in water within fifteen minutes of my longer or more strenuous speed workouts for the past two weeks.  I think it is really helping to reduce my recovery time.  My ball of my left foot felt a little bit tender after the run this morning, and indeed still feels a little tender.  I've been wearing my Adidas soccer sandals around the house and it really seems to feel better walking on it.  

I ran 4 400's on the treadmill today with about one and half minutes rest in between.  I ran most of them at about 1:30 pace or 6:00 minute miles.  After running I immediately got in the pool for a 20 minute swim workout.  My legs felt a little tired in the pool.  

I ran a 30 minute tempo run today.  I need to get better at holding my pace as I begin to descend back down to the slower end of the run.  As of the last couple of weeks I tend to slow down too much too fast after my peak pace.  

Splits:

7:23

6:52

6:36

7:30

I need to be able to do my fourth split at 7:00, only 30 seconds slower than the third split rather than a full minute slower. 

I ran 3 this morning after riding 16 miles on my bike.  My pace was 6:51.  I'm feeling so good about my running pace on these shorter distance brick runs.  I can't wait to enter another 5K race to see how much I can improve my PR.  That will have to wait until after the triathlon this month and the half marathon in June.  Or I suppose I should run a 5K in May before the half marathon.  We will see.  

The goal was to run for 3 hours today at no faster than an 8:30 pace.  We actually averaged 8:18 and negative split.  I was wishing we would have started at 5:30 instead of 6:00 because it was 73 degrees when we left and close to 79 when we finished.  It started to get pretty warm when the sun came up.  Fortunately the wind was blowing at 15 to 20 miles per hour and gave us a nice breeze to cool us off.  

I considered not training this morning so I could rest the day after my 21 mile run, but when I got out of bed I felt good so I decided I better take the opportunity.  I only had scheduled a short bike ride followed by a three mile run so it ended up being a nice and easy recovery workout.  

I only have a few days left until the Spring Fever Triathlon this weekend.  

Today I ran 4 x 800 repeats at roughly 6:00 minute mile pace with about 1:30 minute rest in between each repeat.  It was hot and sunny at 79 degrees.  I ran one mile to warm up and one mile to cool down at the end.   

Splits: 

3:04

2:57

2:57

3:00

I ran a 45 minute tempo run today in about 50 minutes.  I need to focus on getting my peak pace down to 6:30.  The closest I got today was 6:54.  In fairness to myself, I am trying to hold back a little this week since I have a Sprint Triathlon this Sunday.  Today was my last day of training so that I will have two days of rest before the race.  I will probably go swimming tonight one last time.  

Race Details
Swim 400 meters

Bike 12 miles

Run 2 miles

This was my first Tri and I had blast.  I learned that swimming 400 meters during a race is much harder than swimming 400 in training.  I have much work to do in the pool if I am to get competitive in Tri. 

The biking was a lot of fun, but the 6 miles back was into the wind and on the hills.  'Brutal' was the word most people have been using to describe it. 

I felt a serious stomach cramp develop about two miles into the bike portion of the race.  It stayed with me throughout the rest of the race.  I think it took about 1 to 2 minutes off of my run time.  

I'm looking forward to my next Tri.  I'm probably going to join a training group so I can get better.  

Finish time:  1:10:06

Swim:  8:24

T1: 2:40

Bike:  43:34

T2: 1:46

Run:  13:44

I ran 3 x 1600 repeats at 6:30 pace with about 1:30 rest in between.  I opened with 1 warm up mile and one cool down mile at 8:26 and 8:19 respectively.  

Splits: 

6:26

6:30

6:28

I feel like I'm getting a handle on my tempo runs.  Hal Higdon says to run easy for 10 to 15 minutes followed by gradual increases in pace.  The hardest running should come about two thirds into the workout.  He suggest holding the peak speed for only about a minute or two.  The suggested speed near the middle is 10k pace.  During this workout I peaked at 6:49, which is probably slightly slower than my projected 10k pace.  I held the 6:49 pace for a full mile rather than only a few minutes. 

I going to run an easy 6 tomorrow just to keep the blood pumping.  On Saturday I'm going to run 5 miles at my race pace of 6:52.  

7:53

7:41

7:11

7:04

7:02

6:49

7:51

Since I missed my easy run on Monday and Wednesday for a total of six miles lost, I decided to use my rest day today to make up the six.  I ran at an easy pace of 8 minute miles.  It was a warm and humid 68 degrees.  I'm starting more and more to question the judgement of holding a half marathon so close to June when the average temperatures and humidity might be higher.  

I'm am looking forward to my 5 mile pace run tomorrow.  

Yes!  I needed to run 5 miles today at my goal race pace of 6:52 per mile.  I finished with an average pace of 6:38.  I ready for my 2 hour run tomorrow with an accelerated finish.  I'm going to see if I can get my pace down close to 7:00 for the last half hour.  I think that my fast run today will help me tomorrow.  That's the theory I'm going with in my own head anyway.  

Today's Splits:

6:28

6:45

6:37

6:48

6:38

We got lucky today that it did not rain on us for the first 35 minutes of our two hour run.  Sometime after that point it began to lightly sprinkle and continued to get harder until about and hour and half in.  At that point it turned to a heavy down poor with big lightning strikes all around.  I qualify this as a rave run.  The only problem with the timing of the down poor was that it was during the final quarter of my run which I had scheduled to run hard at near race pace.  By about one mile in to my final four fast miles my shoes were soaking wet and I was running into the wind.  I also had three hills to overcome during this part of my run.  Considering the challenges of the course and the elements I feel pretty good that I average 7:00 minute miles.  I was going for my race pace goal of 6:52.  

Average moving pace: 7:47

Final four splits at fast pace:

6:59

6:48

7:11

7:10

Easy recovery run this morning at a 7:49 pace.  I really felt the soreness in my calves this morning from the previous two days of fast miles.  I could still feel the soreness a little at work today as well.  I'm hoping that I get a good recovery during sleep tonight so I can run some fast 800's tomorrow.  

I'm stoked.  My goal was to run 5 800 repeats at 6:52 pace or 3:26 for each repeat.  I ended up with an average pace at 3:07.  I also felt so good after I ran my fifth that I decided to run a sixth before jogging my last cool down mile.  

Splits: 

3:15

3:05

3:15

3:06

3:01

3:05

I took the past two days off because my calves were really sore.  My right calf was too sore.  I was afraid that I may have pulled something again because I did have problems with my right calf back in January.  So I rested Wednesday and Thursday instead of running my easy three mile run and my tempo run.  I opted to run my tempo run today.  I felt my right calf only a little during the first mile.  On my last mile I noticed my thighs were pretty sore/fatigued feeling which I thought was weird.  My chest was also feeling sore, which is leftover from my strength workout on Tuesday.  I guess I went a little too heavy on the weight. 

I think I will do pilates tonight and rest again tomorrow.  Hopefully I feel good on Sunday to run my mock half marathon so I will know where I'm at.  

Splits:

7:52

7:00

6:45

6:56