Freethinker ~ Freerunner

Long run.  For some reason I did not even hear my alarm clock this morning and I overslept about an hour.  Usually I wake up before my alarm anyway, but I think my body was catching up on sleep from vacation.  I still got 14 miles in before we went to breakfast with Alisha's mom and step dad at Cracker Barrel. It was good.  

2:00 PM.  77 degrees.  Hot and humid.  I worked up a really good sweat today.  General aerobic run.  7:50 AP.  

The storm interrupted my run this morning.  

General aerobic run.  

7 mile run. This was supposed to be 6 at tempo, but the heat put a stop to that. I got one really good warmup mile followed by three fairly decent tempo miles considering the heat (6:31, 6:45, 7:00). The last three felt like junk miles. I had nothing left.

MLR.  I started out planning a 13 mile run, but my 98 degree heat index tempo last night took too much out of me.  I cut this one short.  I almost called Alisha at the 7 mile point and asked her to come pick me up.  I felt exhausted.  

I ran 8 miles this morning.  The breeze felt nice.  I'm still feeling a little fatigued from the hot tempo run on Tuesday night.  It's crazy how much that workout took out of me.  I think I'll run a recovery 5 tomorrow and then go long like normal on Sunday.  

Recovery jog.  My legs felt really worn out.  I was a little surprised.  I hope I am fully recharged for the long run tomorrow.  

14 - LR.  72 degrees. 100%.  

I ran out to Hunter Park and back.  My legs felt a little tired, but I think they will recover nicely after my rest day tomorrow.  Especially since I cut the LR short by 2 miles today. 

The sun rise was absolutely stunning this Father's Day morning.  I'm offered to take Ty running or fishing today.  He just walked into the room and announced he wants to go running.  I'm a proud daddy!  

Tempo - 6.  66 degrees, 100% humidity. 

This was a tempo run with 2 to warm up and six at tempo.  I am not quite up to speed with where I was this spring. 

6:50, 6:41, 6:49, 6:56, 7:11, 6:49. 

That 7:11 was mostly on a slow steady incline, but I need to be better than that.  I need to be able to hold my tempo somewhere near a 6:40.  That is my goal for this cycle.  

The temperature felt nice with the wind from the north this morning keeping things feeling cool. 

MLR - 12.  It was a really nice cool morning.  I ran 12 miles with no liquids of any kind.  I was feeling quite thirsty on those last few miles.  Pace: 8:03.  64 degrees, 100%. 

2 on 1x10 off + 4x200's.  70 degrees, humidity 100%.  

I ran a workout today that I have not run before.  I ran for 2 minutes hard and then jogged really slowly for one minute for rest.  I repeated this ten times.  The 2 minutes on was supposed to be a 3,000 meter race pace, but since I've never raced that distance I set a goal of a little bit faster than my 5k pace (6:16 last August).  

 2 minute splits AP for each: 6:10, 6:13, 6:23, 6:15, 6:11, 6:45, 6:28, 6:26, 6:31, 6:27.

I was only able to run four of them faster than my 5k pace.  I feel a little bit like I'm still in a rut that started somewhere a few weeks before Oklahoma City in late April.   I going to run an easy recovery jog tomorrow and reflect. 

Recovery jog.  8:35 AP.  75 degrees, 94%.  

I really needed this recovery.  Kevin is meeting me tomorrow morning for another easy run.  I hope to be fully refreshed for my long run Sunday.  

8 mile general aerobic run with Kevin.  8:28 AP.  73 degrees, 94%.  

This makes my first 6 day training week sine the Marathon at then end of April.  I finished the week at 56 miles.  My left ankle was feeling a little gimpy this morning when I got out of bed, but I don't think it's anything to worry about.  

16 miles at an 8:32 AP.  My legs felt like jelly this morning and I felt like I lost 5 pounds through sweat.  It was hot and humid.  My last several long runs have averaged closer to 7:55, so I was a little down on my self for feeling so fatigued.  I had to remind myself I worked really hard last week and finished at 56 miles, which was about 26 miles beyond what I'd been average for the week. I had two really good workouts during the week too.  I think I'm probably just experiencing the adjustment from the change.  

Recovery jog.  I did not enough sleep last night to run a tempo this morning and still partially hung over from the hot and humid long run Sunday morning.  So I just went for an easy five mile jog.  

Tempo Run Fail.  I set out to run a 7 mile tempo with a one mile warm up and one mile cool down. 

Splits: 8:07, 6:58, 7:05, 7:11, 7:12, 7:42, 8:29, 8:57, 8:39.  (Temp: 75 degrees)

Only one week ago I ran 6 miles at tempo pace that looked like this:

Splits: 8:11, 8:13, 6:50, 6:41, 6:49, 6:56, 7:11, 6:49, 8:26. (Temp: 66 degrees)

Getting back to the tempo run from today I felt totally exhausted.  I've never felt a workout just fall off a cliff so bad like I did on this one.  I'm going to take a few days off.  The past two mornings I've gotten out of bed my body has felt tired and worn out rather than revived and refreshed.  I think a combination of excess summer heat, lack of proper sleep, and stepping up my training recently has taken a toll.  I think I'll four or five days to get good sleep and let my body recover fully.  I think I'll still have time to get a few good runs in before the Fire Cracker 5k and run a good race. 

After taking 3 days to rest my over-trained body I started back today with a 10 mile long run.  I felt really good and averaged 7:51.