Freethinker ~ Freerunner

I had a good first run back after my planned two week break.  I had no plan for this run other than to run about 30 to 45 seconds slower than my usual long run pace and otherwise take easy.    

I made a mistake in my weights workout on Tuesday and squatted too much weight.  I must have mildly injured my right knee, because I have been feeling it for the past two days and it affected my run this morning.  I hope it heals up nicely as I begin building higher mileage off of my pre-break thirty plus mile weekly base.    

I swam tonight in lieu of my run this morning since I believe my knee has been jarred a little bit.  I think I'll be good for an easy run tomorrow morning.  

I swam for half and hour.  I think it was baby seven or eight hundred meters.  Unfortunately my goggles snapped in half about ten minutes in to the workout.  Had it not been for a nice lady who overheard me telling someone about it in the next lane, I would have not been able to finish.  She loaned me hers for the rest of my workout since she was finished and going to sit in the hot tub for a while. 

I ran for forty minutes easy this morning before sunrise.  My knee felt fine so I'm going to resume course and start building up my mileage before the start of Route 66 training in mid July.  

I ran for thirty minutes this morning at a very easy 8:11 pace.  I'm going to be taking it easy all week.  

I ran an easy thirty minute run this morning at a 7:46 pace.  I felt really good and I'm looking forward to my long run tomorrow.  

Kevin and I ran at 6:30 this morning which is about the usual time for us to meet.  As we started off down the road he told that he put in 2.4 miles before he got to my house.  He is participating in the GU challenge on Strava.com and trying to hit 150 miles by tomorrow.  I would have easily hit the 100 miles needed to win free GU had they not launched the challenge right in the middle of my planned two week break from running.  Kevin is going to end up with 150 miles and will be awarded Roctane instead of peanut butter GU.  

I told him I could tell that he had been putting in more miles than me recently because for the first time in several weeks I felt like I was slightly behind his pace.  I was happy though because I like the challenge.  We ended up averaging 7:43 on the run of 8.53 miles this morning.  

I meant to only run three this morning, but I ended up running longer.  During the run I forgot that I changed up my program from minutes to miles.  I turned around at fifteen minutes instead of one and a half miles. 

I felt pretty good save for a few minor aches and pains from the long run yesterday.  

When I finished my run I put week killer on my yard.  Hopefully this application will take care of the enormous problem with weeds in my back yard.

When I was finishing up on the front my neighbor told me he was going to hire a lawn service this summer, but he wanted to give me the first opportunity to do the job for him.  I told him that I am interested and thanked him for the opportunity.  Now I just need to give him a bid.  

I feel great!  That is worth repeating.  I feel great!  I left the house without liquids on a mission to run six miles.  I pretty easily ran the first one at a 7:30 pace.  I decided that I will reserve my Mid-Week MLR for a more relaxed pace, and that if I am going to run at a moderately fast pace I should do it on Tuesday.  Of-course I will be bringing my fast pace down over the next few months, but for now I'm simply going to focus on building mileage.  

So today I ended up wishing that I had brought liquids.  I did not drink enough water this morning.  In fact I mostly drank coffee, which has never been a great hydrating force for me.  The sun came out after about two miles and I got a little hotter than I imagined I would.  Despite sweating and feeling a little ill prepared on the hydration front, I was able to bust out an average pace of 7:24 per mile.  I got home, downed some Gatorade, and started feeling really good about my run. 

I also tested out a new pair of Sunglasses called Switch.  They are made with magnets built in to the lenses so they can be easily switched out depending on the light conditions.  This is the technically the second time I've worn them.  The first time was in the dark and calm early morning hours.  This was the first during the day.  I was very pleased with their air flow design.  So far they have not fogged on my once.  Today I sweat quite a bit and I was very pleased that no sweat dripped on the lenses.  So far I give them an A+ overall. 

I ran seven this morning at a pretty relaxed pace of 8 minute miles.  I am still concentrating on building mileage, so I'm not going to run very hard for a majority of my runs for the next several weeks.  I do have one speed workout per week scheduled beginning next week and leading up to the Full Moon 5k on May 12th.  My goal is to best my previous PR last year of 19:34.

I probably made a mistake by not fueling  before I left the house.  I had about a half a glass of water that was leftover from the night before.  I figured since I was not going to run fast I would be fine, but my stomach was feeling a little bit empty on the run.  

I ran 3.1 at about 30 to 40 seconds slower than my 5k pace this morning.  I could have run it a little faster but I'm trying not to do too much to soon to fast.  I'll begin running drills this Friday at faster speeds in order to prep for the 5k on May 12th.  

Splits: 

7:12

7:05

6:59

I can see by looking at my splits that I probably should have run a warmup mile or half mile like I usually do before drills.  It actually felt easier to sustain the faster speed towards the end of this workout as it often does.  

I ran ten miles with Kevin this morning at 6:15.  I knew it was going to rain on us because severe weather warnings had been issued for our area all weekend.  Aside from a tornado that hit the Woodward area, most of northeastern Oklahoma seems to have been spared.  Of-course the heaviest part of the storm which included a massive down poor for about an hour and half coincided exactly with our run.  It must have started coming down a few minutes after we left and did not let up until a few minutes after we got back.

The best part about this is that I knew it was going to rain when I set out my shoes the night before.  My Ravena's had already been through a heavy rain run so naturally I wanted to use them again and save my 1260's, which had never been wet.  I don't know what happened, but we were about three miles out when I realized I was wearing the 1260's.  I must have grabbed them instead somehow in my haste to set out my gear last night.  So now my two current shoes have both been soaked through to the core.  I put the 1260's directly in front of a powerful fan as soon as I got home.  Hopefully I can dry them out quick and reduce some of the damage.  

I felt good on this run especially considering my already heavy 1260's were soaked making them even heavier, and I was running into heavy winds.  I am very pleased with my average moving pace of 7:45. 

I ran an easy three this morning.  My legs felt surprisingly fresh given my long run yesterday in the pouring rain.  

I ran an easy six this morning without taking any Gatorade with me.  I used to always take Gatorade with me if I was doing anything over three miles.  I'm not sure when I started pushing myself further distances without liquids, but I think it started about a year ago when Kevin told me about a study that was done on this matter.  I can't remember all the details and I certainly don't want to discount the importance of hydration, but the basic take away was that runners who drank less during workouts outperformed those to drank more.  I think they were using sports drinks in the study.   

I ran an easy seven this morning.  I am basically done with my week in running.  I have one more speed workout planned for Saturday, but since I have the next two days off it feels like the end of my running week.

I wore my new B.O.A. shorts today.  This is the second pair I have had of this brand.  I have to say they are the most comfortable running shorts that I own, although they are quite short.  I thought the first pair that I bought was short.  When I bought the second pair from Runningwarehouse.com I thought I was getting the same size, but after they arrived at my house and I tried them on it turns out they are even shorter.  I never would have worn shorts this short when I started running, but it is easy to see the benefit of a good pair of shorts after having run numerous fifteen milers in shorts with a less comfortable liner and overall fit.  The high split leg up the side allows for ease of movement like no other shorts I've ever owned.  They feel like you are wearing nothing. 

I've been running some form of speed training on Saturdays for the past couple of weeks now.  Today I tried a Runners World 5K speed workout for advanced runners, because I have a 5k race coming up on May 12th.  I think I might use this workout again once or twice before the race .  

1x800: 3:13

2x400's: 1:30, 1:32

4x200's: 0:49, 0:49, 0:46, 0:51

2x400's: 1:32, 1:32

I'm looking forward to my easy twelve tomorrow.  Kevin is in Texas so I will be running solo. 

I ran twelve this morning at a 7:59 pace, which was about as easy as I could make my self run.  I felt a little bit of a soreness in my right achilles after I got home from work last night, so I decided that taking it easy would be prudent this morning.  When I got out of bed this morning it felt good, but I still wanted to play it safe.   

It felt so nice out at 52 degrees with a little bit of wind out of the north.  These are the Sunday morning long runs that I live for.  

Easy three this morning.  I felt pretty sore from the Saturday speed workout and the twelve mile long run on Sunday.  I used to take a lot of Mondays as optional rest days, but I've been trying to be more diligent about sticking to the easy three to let the lactic acid out of my legs from the day before.  

I ran six this morning at a 7:20 AP, which I'm considering to be relatively fast for my current level of training.  I think the temperature was about 48 degrees when I started just a few minutes after 6 this morning.  

7:30

7:29

7:15

7:31

7:08

7:06

I ran seven this morning for my mid-week MLR at a 7:33 AP.  I originally thought that I would go a little easier, but I felt good after the first two miles at 7:40 that I decided hold it at that level.  

I hadn't weighed myself in several months because Alisha moved our scale to a less convenient place.  I usually hold pretty steady in my weight, and I have been logging it at my last measured weight at 152 for the past few months.  I was surprised to find my weight today at 148.  In order to compensate I made some grits with my bagel egg sandwich this morning, and packed some extra calories in my lunch as well.

I ran 4 1600's at my 5k race pace this morning.  

Splits: 

6:24

6:29

6:21

I ran one mile to warm up at an 8:36 AP and a little over half a mile to cool down at a 7:37 AP.

I will do this workout one more time next week, and about 6 800's the week of the race. Hopefully I will be able to pull off another PR at Full Moon. 

I have spent three weeks adjusting to running thirty miles per week, and I'm feeling pretty comfortable.  As I look back over my log my RPE ratings seem to be averaging about two on a five point scale.  I did have a couple of threes on the last week, but I think that's because I pushed the speed a little bit.  

So since I've adjusted to the distance, I decided I would try my long run a little bit faster today.  My original plan was to run the first eight at a 7:40 pace followed by the final six miles at a 7:20 pace.  That turned out to be a little too lofty a goal for the distance and the evil hills on miles twelve and thirteen.

I have included the GAP (Grade Adjusted Pace) for miles nine to fourteen.  Strava calculates this automatically when you upload your miles from your Garmin.  It basically estimates what your pace would have been had you been running flats instead of hills.  If I look at the GAP I can see that I only missed my 7:20 goal pace on one of six miles.  I think I will consider this a win, and will continue to work on moving my pace closer to seven and then eventually to sub seven on my long runs.   

Splits:

Miles 1 to 8

7:36

7:44

7:37

7:39

7:53

7:39

7:44

7:38

Miles 9 to 14

Actual Pace   GAP (Grade Adjusted Pace) Source: Strava.com

7:23               7:10

7:19               7:21

7:23               7:10

7:46               7:08

7:44               7:27

7:30               7:19

whole run AP: 7:37 (actual pace)

First 8 AP:       7:42

Last 6 AP:       7:31

I laid in bed this morning and almost considered skipping my recovery run.  I'm glad I decided to get up and get out.  My legs and joints were a little sore on the first few hundred meters, but eventually it started to feel good.  

It was 59 degrees with some wind and a light sprinkle throughout this run.