Freethinker ~ Freerunner

VO2 Max run.  9 miles.  6 600's at 5k pace.  74 degrees.  40% humidity.

Alisha and I worked on our budget until late last night, this I was not able to run early this morning.  I had two dentist appointments this morning the first of which was at 8:45, which took until about noon before I made it home.  I got my crowns on today, and aside from some minor adjustments that still need to be made this 27 month process is now coming to a close very soon.  I bring this up because it all delayed my usual early morning run until about 12:15 today in the warmer temperatures.  Since I had lain my clothes out the night before I mistakenly wore all black when I should have worn white.  I also ran the trails and I should have made my way to the track for my 600's.  There are no such things as flats out here unless you go to the track.  

600's:  AP: 2:24 (Goal of 2:20, but I'm happy since there were hills)

2:24, 2:21, 2:26, 2:23, 2:27, 2:26

I jogged for about 2 minutes between each repeat.  I ran 3 miles to warmup: AP 8:07.  My cool down was 2.88 miles.  9:07, 8:32, 7:08.  I was spent after the last 600 repeat.  Overall AP 7:55.   

MLR.  AP 8:01. 49 degrees.  94% humidity.  It felt great out this morning.  

AM:  Recovery run with 6x100 strides.  55 degrees.  88% humidity.  8:39 AP.  My legs are pretty sore from yesterday.  Hopefully I can run that off with 4 miles after work.  

PM:  Recovery evening run.  8:05 AP.  67 degrees.  56% humidity.  I got 4 miles in after work just before sun down.  I felt really energized and actually had to remind myself that this is a recovery run and to slow down.  I kept my heart rate under 155 beats per minute so I think I did alright.  

Recovery run.  8:19 AP.  Nice and chilly 56 degrees with cool north winds and a light misting near the end of this run.  The switch flipped on the weather.  This Sunday morning conditions look to be wintery at 35 degrees.  It is time to test cool weather running gear.   

Long run - 18.  7:46 AP.  42 degrees (chilly). 

First time wearing full winter gear.  Gloves, ear warmers, pants, thermal.  I probably could have worn shorts and left off the ear warmers, but I figured I was not yet adjusted to the cold so I didn't want to take any chances.  We had a cold front move through the area and thus saw a drop of the high temperature by over 20 degrees in one day.  

Kevin ran 10 miles of this with me.  He joined me at 129th Street, which was four miles in and ran 10 miles right in the middle and left me at the same point so that I ran the last four miles by myself.  I think it is working quite nicely to have him pace a portion of my runs with me.  It allows him to run a faster pace than he otherwise would had he run the full load.  As it worked out today, his pace was just slightly faster than I otherwise would have run those miles in the middle.  When I got to the final four miles where he dropped off I was able to focus and really crank it up.  I had a good run today.  It was my 2nd fastest time for this distance.  My fastest time was the marathon pace run (18 w/ 10 at marathon pace) 7 weeks ago.

I should also disclose here that I skipped my Saturday run so I got an extra day of rest which most definitely helped me this morning.  I had a tune up race on the schedule of 10 to 13 miles.  I did not get enough sleep this week, and came down with something Thursday and Friday.  On Friday morning I woke up with a sore throat and decided not to compromise my immune system any more.  Had I ran the 10 I would have logged my first ever 70 mile week.

First 6: 7:53 AP, Second 6: 7:54 AP, Last 6: 7:27 AP.  

10 mile run with 6 1000 meter repeats.  44 degrees.  40 degree wind chill.  

I ran most of this on the school track.  

1000 meter repeats: 3:50, 3:40, 3:46, 3:45, 3:42, 3:33

I jogged about 70 percent of the interval time between repeats.  I know I ran the first one faster than 3:50 because I forgot to hit the lap button until a few clicks past the 1000 meter mark.  I feel good about this workout since my goal split time was 3:54 based on my 5k race PR.

Mid week MLR.  15 miles.  7:46 AP.  Beautiful morning.  47 degrees when I left.  I think it was 45 by the time I got back.  

I felt strong and was able to pull a pretty good negative split.  This made me happy since I ran some pretty hard 1000's yesterday as part of my 10 mile run.  

First 5: 8:04, Second 5: 7:41, Last 5 7:31.   First 5: 8:04, Last 10: 7:36 AP.  

AM - 6.05.  Recovery run.  Nice and easy.  8:35 AP.  64 degrees. 

PM -  4.09. 8:45 AP.  It was actually a bit faster than this, but my Garmin lost satellite connection when I first started out and was registering 15 minute mile pace for a few minutes.  I think I actually ran about 4.5 miles tonight.  Recovery run.  Still nice and easy.  I forgot to check the temperature a 7:00 PM when I ran, but now at 10:44 it is 68 degrees, 82% humidity.  It was humid for sure.  I definitely sweat more this evening than this morning. 

I need to get to bed now so I can get up at 4:30 to run my 12 mile MLR. 

MLR - 12.  8:02 AP.  68 degrees, 89%.  S.W.E.A.T.  I thought this high humidity was over.  Not quite.  

I felt a little drained this morning.  I think it has more to do with a lack of sleep plus the humidity that it was the cause, but it could be the hard miles this week.  

Finishing this run put me at 65 miles this week, which is a record high number for me for one week.  

Recovery run.  8:45 AP. 66 degrees, 89%.  

This completes my longest week on record.  70 miles!  

Tomorrow is a pace run.  I hope the warmer temperatures with high humidity we've been recording do not interfere. 

Pace run.  PR!  Yeah baby!  62 degrees, 74%.  7:19 AP. 

I beat my previous 18 mile PR by 6 whole minutes exactly to the second.  I ran a half marathon somewhere in this run in 1:33:27, which beat my half marathon race PR time of 1:39:19.  I ran a 15K somewhere within this run in 1:06:11, which just barely missed my 15k race PR of 1:05:29.  That race by the way is coming up in two weeks.  Now that I have this run accomplished I aim to smash that previous 15K race record.      

I also achieved PR's in the 10 mile (1:11:04) and 20k (1:28:34) distances according to strava.

First 4 miles: 7:58 AP, last 14 miles: 7:07.  My goal was to run the last 14 at my goal marathon pace of 7:15.  I am quite happy that I averaged 7:07.  It really helps to know your course as I know these trails near my home.  I made sure to bank as many miles under my goal pace as I could on the portions that I knew to be relatively flat.  This way I knew that if I needed to clock a few miles slower than 7:15 on the hillier parts coming up near the end, then my overall AP would still make 7:15.  As it turned out I was able to make 7:15 or better on all but two miles, and those two were 7:21 and 7:16.   

I am feeling great about my training and all of the work I have put in. 

Now I'm looking forward to a relaxing Sunday, and going to see the long awaited Atlas Shrugged Part II later.  It's going to be an awesome day!     

V02 Max run.  9 miles with 5 600's on the track in the middle of this run.  62 degrees.  7:52 AP.

My legs are still a little sore from the pace run on Sunday.  My calves are feeling pretty good, but my quads are definitely still recovering. 

600's;  2:13, 2:12, 2:11, 2:14, 2:11

I jogged about 72% of the time duration of each split for my recovery which came out to about 1:36.  Goal pace was 2:20 per split based on my 5k race pace.  I really think if I had a nice flat 5k to run again I could get very close to 19 minutes right now. 

Mid week MLR. 14 miles, 8:01 AP.  65 degrees, 89%.

I felt a little drained starting out.  I'm still recovering from the pace run Sunday, and the VO2 Max run yesterday.  

Recovery w/ 10 100's at end.  50 degrees, 48%.  8:18 AP.  

Recovery run.  53 degrees, low humidity.  I think it was 38%.  

A dust storm blew in last night.  I could see dust in the air everywhere this morning in the dark near the street lights.  I felt like I was having trouble breathing and was very glad I only had a recovery run this morning and not something longer.  

The schedule called for a tune up race, so I opted to run 9 miles at somewhere close to my goal marathon pace.  7:14 AP.  40 degrees, 88%.  

I felt pretty good.  I'll be going out to Tahlequah tonight after work to assist my friend who is the captain of an aid station in the T.A.T.U.R. Pumpkin Holler Hunnerd.  I will probably not get any sleep tonight, and I will not return home until around 7:00 tomorrow morning.  I'm not sure how I'm going to make my 17 mile LR on Sunday or if I will make it at all, but I'm looking forward to the experience of volunteering in an ultra.  

LR -17. 76 degrees, 72%.  8:10 AP.  

No sleep, no energy, no fun.  Not enough drink, not enough GU.  I'm going to whine a little bit on this post. 

I volunteered at the T.A.T.U.R. Pumpkin Holler Hunnerd last night.  I left work at 7:00 and drove straight to Tahlequah.  By the time I got to the Mad Dog aid station on the course being captained by my friend Kevin, it was about 9:30 PM.  I talked to Kevin and assisted with the 100 mile runners who were beginning to make their third and final stop by our station at this point.  I slept from about 10:45 to midnight during a lull in activity, and awoke so we could watch the meteor shower.  It turned out to be less than spectacular, but it was nice sitting under the clear starry night.  Kevin's family was there as well.  It was nice getting to talk to Ashley for about half an hour until she went back to bed.  I then held down the fort so Kevin could get about an hour or so of sleep.  The last two runners to come by our station at about 5:30 decided to drop out at that point with about 26 miles left to finish.  After Kevin drove them back to the finish line, we started taking down the fort.  It took us until about 8:00 to get everything packed in his truck.  I then headed home, ate breakfast, and caught about 3 hours of sleep.  I woke up and ate a big lunch at about 3:30. 

After we put Ty to bed at 6:45, I decided to go ahead and try to get my 17 miles in this evening.  I started out feeling great, but by ten miles I couldn't keep my pace under 8:00 minute miles.  I even had two miles just over 9:00.  My right ankle was aching pretty bad, I was sweating profusely from the humidity, and I just overall felt like I had no energy tonight.  I feel good that I made my scheduled miles, but I'm not sure what this run did.  I have to be stronger than I was yesterday!  

AM - 6 miles recovery run.  65 degrees. 8:08 AP.  

I'm still stinging pretty bad from the weekend's all night aid station work in Tahlequah, and the grueling 17 mile run on Sunday night on very little sleep.  I've got to snap out of this before the Tulsa Run on Saturday.  I will definitely be taking it easy this week.  

PM - 4 miles recovery run.  80 degrees.  8:15 AP. 

I felt much better this evening.  I'm starting to see the value in these recovery runs.  Now I intend on getting a good nights sleep and have a good speed workout tomorrow morning. 

11 miles with 5 1200's at 5k  pace.  65 degrees, 80%.  7:30 AP. 

3 mile warmup: 8:24, 8:18, 8:17

1200's (.75 mile): 4:33, 4:32, 4:39, 4:33, 4:32

.50 mile jogs between intervals: 3:57, 3:57, 4:00, 4:06

My goal was to run each split in under 4:40.  Mission accomplished.  I am still feeling pretty hung over though from the weekend.  Since my tune up race is this Saturday, I think I will have to run back to back recovery runs Thursday and Friday to refresh.  There's just no way I can run an MLR between now and then and still be able to perform.  At least I don't think so in my current condition.  

Recovery run.  8:24 AP.  70 degrees, 81%, 19 mph winds @ south. 

I am glad I chose to run a easy recovery run this morning instead of the MLR that was on the schedule.  I will run another even easier tomorrow morning, and I think then I will be fully recovered for the Tulsa Run on Saturday morning.  

New PR!  Woohoo!  6:39 official AP.  32 degrees with 6 mph winds. 

Going in to this race I was gunning for the 60 minute mark, but the nice hill on the last mile had other plans for me. That and the running into the wind at the 4.5 mile turn around point.  I ran the first 5k in exactly 20 minutes, but then I slightly fell off from there.  I didn't think the wind was affecting me at first, but about a half mile into it I looked down at my Garmin and saw that it was.  My take away from this race is that I might be in shape to run 6:26 miles for 9.3, but probably only on a flat course with no wind.  

I missed this race last year due to injury, but in 2010 I clocked a 1:05:12 time for 7:00 minute miles.  Overall I'm happy with the PR by taking 3:07 off my previous time.  If I can knock another 3 minutes off my time next year then I will get that 60 minute award. 

My Tulsa Run history:

2009:  1:09:05

2010:  1:05:12

2012:  1:01:48

2013:  I'm projecting to come in under 60 minutes!

This year's statistics:

Age division: 14/258,  Men 89/1956.    

First 5k (3.1):    20 minutes

10k (6.2):          40:43

15k   9.3:           1:02:05

Long run of 20 miles at an AP of 8:12.  31 degrees, 84%.  

Since yesterday was the Tulsa Run, I wasn't sure how far I was going to run today.  The schedule called for 20, but I noticed that the schedule usually calls for 17 the day after a tune up race.  I wasn't able to fit the prescribed two tune up races on the weeks called for so I had to do some rearranging.  So when I woke up sore this morning from busting out a 15K race PR yesterday, I thought I should take it easy and only go 17.  When I got almost to the 8 mile mark I realized that taking it easy should allow me go ahead and get the 20.  I turned around at the 8.5 mile mark just in case I decided to stop at 17, but I ended up looping around my neighborhood and adding on the extra three to make the full 20 before I finished.  I am so glad that I decided to go ahead and run the full 20.  I know I'm going to be doubly sore from this workout, but I felt strong on my finish today.  Although my AP for this run was 8:13, my last four splits were 8:07, 8:06, 7:07, 6:56.  I think I got the maximum benefit from running today.  

Recovery run this morning w/ 8 100 meter striders at the end.  8:01 AP. 37 degrees.  

I met up with Shane this morning, a new running buddy that I met on the trail a few weeks ago.  Shane ran track in college, and may prove to be a very valuable training partner in the future.

MLR this morning of 13 miles.  7:30 AP.  45 degrees with wind chill of 42.  

I ran the middle 7 miles of this one with Shane.  I certainly ran those miles faster that I would have had I been out there on my own.  

Negative split:  first 6 AP: 7:38, back 7 AP: 7:22

My half marathon PR in a race is 1:39:19 on May 21st, 2011.  My previous training run PR was 1:38:37 at a distance of 13.22, which was a few weeks before that race.  Today I ran just short of 13.22 at 13.01, so I may not have made the PR since I finished in 1:37:34 today.  I feel good about this run though, because I got close to a PR and I really wasn't trying to do that this morning.