Freethinker ~ Freerunner

Easy 10 with Kevin.  Temperature 77 with 77% humidity.  7:59 AP.  

I must have slept on my neck wrong last night, because about half way into this run I realized I could not really look down.  I think I might apply some heat to see if that helps.  

I did some speed intervals today for the first time in a couple of months.  I warmed up with two miles and then did three one mile repeats with 1:30 walking recoveries.  I did a one mile cool down to finish.  

It was 74 with 82% humidity.  My AP was 7:21 overall.  My AP for the repeats was 6:36. 

Splits:

6:32

6:40

6:38

I will take my usual rest day tomorrow, and then run the Firecracker 5k on Wednesday morning. 

I finished the race this year 5 seconds slower than last year, and even though I did not place in my age division this year I'm feeling good.  The course was changed up a little and is a little hillier than it was before.  My Garmin clocked 90 feet of elevation gain as opposed to 58 feet the year before.

I placed 5th in my age division with a gate time of 20:34.  This is down 2 places from number 3 last year.

I'm also going to have to report that I have been consistently running higher mileage these past several weeks, but with very little speed workouts. 

Delicious Marshal ale was served at the post race festival along with eggs and beans.  We all had a great time.  

Well it's Independence Day.  Happy fourth of July everyone! 

I felt a little sore this morning from the 5k yesterday so I decided not to push it too hard.

75 degrees with 70% humidity.  

7:54 AP

I'm calling this "recovery run part II."  I could still feel my quads this morning from the race on Wednesday, so I decided to take it easy.  

About 70 degrees.  I'm not sure what the  humidity was.  AP 8:21.  

Easy run this morning.  My legs are still feeling slightly fatigued from the race on Wednesday.  I almost took the day off, but decided to go ahead at an easy pace.  AP 8:14.  78 degrees with 71% humidity.  

I ran 15 today in my new 1260's.  The heat and humidity of 77 degrees and about 72% respectively took away from the usual new shoe excitement.  It also squashed my plans to run the final third of this run at a moderately faster pace the the first two thirds.  I believe my time goal this morning was also compromised by me still going through the learning curve on proper recovery runs.  More on that later.  

I planned on breaking the run into five miles segments running at AP's of 8:40, 8:24, and 7:44 for each successive segment.  My actual AP's came in at: 8:30, 8:12, and 8:08 respectively for the three segments.  I suppose if I'd slowed it down for the first two segments and stuck with the plan I would have had an easier time hitting the goal pace for the third segment.  I should note that this particular stretch of 15 miles, which is a nice out and back from my house, has the hills in all the wrong places.  The final 5 miles include 100 feet of elevation gain.  This total run has 453 feet of elevation gain. 

I'm still learning about proper recovery.  That is one of the things I need to get better at.  I have a tendency to go out too fast and then get faster when I'm feeling good on the days that I should be taking it easier.  I have known this for some time, but I still have a hard time make myself slow down.  This week I'm going to focus on proper recovery runs starting tomorrow.  I'm not sure what distance I will do tomorrow, but I will keep the pace at or slower than 8:30.  

Recovery run at AP of 9:02.  It feels good to simply jog sometimes.  Temp 77 with humidity of 87%.  

I took four days off because I was feeling slightly over trained, and I wanted to begin marathon training feeling strong.  I think this little bit of time off was just what I needed.  I could tell my legs and muscles were healing up and getting stronger by yesterday morning as I walked through the parking lot to work.  

This morning I ran a real easy 3 miles at an 8:30 AP.  The temperature was a very nice 68 with a very not nice 96% humidity.  I'll be in Branson next week so I will be training on unfamiliar trails and blogging about it here as I go.  I've been looking forward to this trip since March.  

I ran an easy 10 with Kevin this morning.  8:01 AP. 69 degrees.  94% humidity.  It felt freakishly cool along one low lying area of trail.  I thought if felt more like October than July.  

My first full day of vacation in Branson, MO.  I had a rest or cross train day on the schedule so I decided to go check out the fitness facility on my resort. 

Let's just say I'm glad I workout mostly with calesthenics and light weights.  The fitness center consisted of a treadmill, a bike, and an eliptical trainer.  There was a bench, but there were no free weights.  There were strech bands that I was able to make use of for biceps and shoulder exercises.  Oh, and there was also a Swiss ball.  I was really happy about that because I use mine at home pretty regularly for ball squats and quadriceps. 

I also took today to drive around a little bit.  This is mountain territory.  Technically I'm in the city of Reeds Spring just outside of Branson.  The elevation change out here is absurd.  You literally can't drive more than a few hundred feet without massively, mountainous hills.  Fortunately there is one direction outside my resort property that rolls up and down for about 2 miles before ending up at a loop of highway that is more flat.  Not flat, more flat.  I have a feeling I will be doing the majority of my runs out here. 

7:52 AP.  Tempo Run on the wicked hills in Branson, MO.  I'm not sure if my internet connection at my resort is capable of uploading my Garmin so I may not get my splits until I get back home.  UPDATE:  I was eventually able to upload my data manually to Garmin.  My elevation gain on this run was 984 feet. 

3 warmup miles followed by 4 at lactate threshold pace.  I cooled down with 2.25 miles on the rolling and wild hills.  Fortunately I was able to run a portion of highway that included hills only on my warmup and cool down for the most part.  My lactate threshold miles were on a relatively flat loop, although there was one incline that was pretty rough.

3 warm up at    AP 8:03

Lactate threshold pace splits:  AP 7:29

7:39

7:32

7:24

7:21

2 cool down at     AP 8:21

I was really anxious to see if I could hit my pace goals on the hills on my second day running in Branson, MO.  I not only hit my goals, but I exceeded them by a few seconds per mile on the last half of the run.  I can already feel the soreness coming on though, and I am looking forward to putting the hard easy principle to work tomorrow on my recovery run. 

Temperature 78 degrees.  Humidity 64%.  Elevation gain 472 feet. 

My goal was to hit 8:24 AP on the first half and 7:42 AP on the last half of the run.   

My actual AP: 8:04.  First 6 splits AP: 8:25.  Last 5 splits AP 7:37. 

Recovery run. 78 degrees. 68% humidity on my third day on the rolling hills in Branson, MO.  9:10 AP.  Yeah, I took it real easy this morning.  I wanted to finish this run feeling stronger than before I started it.  I believe I accomplished that goal. 

This was my fourth day running in Branson, MO. This morning I ran a general aerobic run at an 8:21 AP. 72 degrees. 64% humidity.

I felt pretty good and would have run this a little faster had it not been for the rolling hills out here.

5th day running in Branson, MO.  Recovery run.  8:41 AP.  76 degrees. 74% humidity.  I think I'm starting to get used to running these hills that are everywhere.

I definitely felt better this morning than on my recovery run Thursday morning, although that was to be expected as the Thursday run was after two hard days.  Today's run was after two relatively easy days.  

8:01 AP. 72 degrees, 72% humidity.  

This was my last run in Branson, and I must admit I was a little nervous about it the night before.  I was nervous because the hills are atrocious out here, and I had just come off what was a pretty intense week for me on said hills.  I was afraid I might not be able to make my goal pace.  No matter though.  I was able to maintain my goal pace up to the end even with the extra distance, which was a nice boost for me psychologically.  I ended up running a little too far out on a particular out and back on my course and overshot my goal distance by almost a mile.

First 5 splits: 8:23 AP

8:43, 8:14, 8:17, 8:19, 8:24

Second 5 splits: 8:00 AP

8:05, 8:13, 7:59, 7:57, 7:49

Last 5 full mile splits: 7:48 AP

7:47, 7:39, 7:38, 7:39, 7:48

If you include the last .79 mile average mile pace, my final 6 splits AP would be 7:42.

When I realized I was going to go beyond my 15 mile goal distance I almost decided to walk back the final .79 miles, but I did not want to wait that long to get back.  I also needed to get back so we could load our stuff and drive home.  I should have gone ahead and just finished out the last mile, but I figured I couldn't waist anymore time and I was over expending unnecessary energy with every step that I took. 

General aerobic run with 10 striders of approximately 140 meters each at the end.  I jogged for an equal period between repeats.  I ran most of this run at around an 8:00 AP before the sprints at the end.  I felt good throughout the whole workout including the end.  The end was challenging, but not completely over taxing on my body.  I'm enjoying the payoff from all that hill running I did last week in Branson.       

Temperature 82 degrees.  AP 7:50.  

7:50

8:09

7:53

7:57

8:15

8:02

7:26

7:22

.34 at 6:57

Mid-week MLR.  AP 8:05.  82 degrees.  I felt like I was dragging during the first few miles, and I was never able to make up for it during the middle and end.  I should have been able to pace this one faster than the 15.78 mile run (AP 8:01) on Sunday and on hillier terrain.   

I think I can chalk it up to a combination of factors.  The first might be that I ran a little too fast on the aerobic run yesterday (AP of 7:51).  The second is that I spent some time at the pool in the sun after the run yesterday.  The third was that my home's AC unit croaked at about 5:00 PM yesterday and I had to sleep in warm conditions for which I am not acclimated to.  I will be taking it nice and easy tomorrow on my recovery run.     

Recovery run.  82 degrees. 56% humidity.  AP 8:50. 

It really felt so good to wake up this morning in an air conditioned house.  I think the heat on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning must have had an effect on my Wednesday morning run.  

General aerobic run.  AP 8:04.  Temperature 75 (nice) Humidity 92% (not nice). 

I felt pretty good through most of this run.  My last two miles were my fastest at 7:49 and 7:52.  I got in a good workout and did not finish feeling overly exhausted, which is the point of this type of run.

I'm looking at getting a heart rate monitor to train with.  I can buy one for my 110 as an add on, or I might just spring for a new watch.  I read reviews of the 305 and it seems like a better watch with many more features.  One appealing thing about the 305 is that it works well for both cycling and running.  The main attraction for me right now is that it displays the heart rate on the screen at all times, whereas the 110 has to be switched over from the timer to the heart rate by pushing the menu button.  I'm not sure if this will be irritating to me to have to toggle between the screens while running.  If anyone has any suggestions I'd appreciate the input.   

Recovery run.  72 degrees.  76% humidity.  8:38 AP.   54 Miles to close out the week.   

Long run today.  AP 8:05.  My goal splits were not anywhere close to where I wanted them to be.  I am feeling a bit defeated.  I may have to reevaluate my marathon pace goal, although I hope I can work out the kinks this week. 

I thought I would be capable of more after running the hills in Branson at an 8:00 AP over this same distance.  The main difference besides the hills between that run and this one was the heat and humidity.  Last Sunday in Branson the temperature was 72 degrees and the humidity was also 72%.  Today the temperature was 82 degrees and the humidity was 54%. 

I know I sweat a lot, and I believe more so than the average person. I think that the heat just causes me to run out of gas due to such a loss fluids on the run. I drank about 12 to 16 ounces of water before, 16 ounces of Gatorade during the run, and I don't know how many ounces immediately after.  I will guess based on how many of my cups I remember drinking when I finished.  I had 32 ounces of water, 11 ounces of rice milk, and 24 ounces of Gatorade when I finished.  So 67 ounces of liquids plus the 16 ounces I replaced during the run makes 83 ounces total.  I then weighed myself after I finished drinking, and I was still about 3 to 4 pounds lighter than my usual weight.  This is all very unscientific as I did not accurately record the number of ounces, and I also did not weigh in immediately before the run.  I was startled none the less.  I need to run an experiment whereby I weigh in immediately before and do not drink during the workout to determine how many ounces of fluids I lose.  

Splits: 8:09 AP for the first 8 miles.  8:01 AP for the last 8 miles.  I completely ran out of gas about mile 12.  After analyzing the splits from the back to back weeks I have discovered that I could have probably gone a little bit slower for the first 8 this week in order to finish stronger in the end.  It did not seem like much of a difference out there today, but looking at the splits I think it would have helped.    

                               7-29-12     7-22-12

                               16 Miles   15.79 Miles

I'm hoping that when we get past the heat and get into the nice cooler temps I will be able to pick up the pace in my training figuratively and literally.

MLR (Revised schedule see below) AP 8:04.  Temperature 85.  Humidity 35%.  The low humidity felt nice.  The weatherman said this was the hottest morning on record for Tulsa.  Yikes!   

Today would have been a rest day, but I have altered my schedule for the next two weeks so I can watch the Olympic marathon.  Live coverage airs this and next Sunday morning from 5 to 8 AM.  Of-course that falls perfectly within the normal period of my Sunday long runs.  If we were not in the midst of the hottest part of the year, I would simply run a little later in the day.  So I decided to move everything up one day in order to make my long runs fall on Saturdays for the next two weeks.  

That said, I was not sure how this morning was going to go since I am accustomed to resting after a day of long, hard running.  Yesterday's long run in particular felt like it took a lot out of me.  I felt like I did alright this morning considering.   

Recovery run with barefoot Kevin this morning.  He rode 11 miles barefoot to my house and ran 5 miles barefoot with me.  

8:33 AP.  85 degrees.  I felt good.