Freethinker ~ Freerunner

This was my first run of the new year.  I decided to take one week off to recover from a mileage build up towards the end of the year.  I need to focus on creating a training schedule that includes more trail runs, hills, and intervals for my upcoming trail races.  

Kevin and I ran this morning for the first time in three weeks.  He had not run since our last time so he ended up dragging the last 1 to 2 miles.  I was fresh off my week of rest, but I took it easy.  I felt my left knee a little as I usually do on my first run back after some time off.  

I ran Turkey Mountain solo today.  It was only my third time out there and my first time on my own.  After today I feel I've gotten my bearings and sense of direction a little bit out there for the first time.  

With more training runs planned out at Turkey Mountain and two trail races upcoming, I'm looking forward to the first half of 2012 being my foray into trail running.  

I wore my Nike Pro Combat tights underneath my regular cold weather running pants this morning.  I put a nylon jacket over my Nike turtle neck cold weather top.  I wore my Trail Head full head mask as well.  This morning the temperature was 21 with winds of 12 to 17 miles per hour.  Because of that I kept my time close to 30 minutes since the wind chill chart shows frost bite can occur within that time frame.  We got a light dusting of snow last night, and there were a few icy patched on some of the sidewalks, but nothing too bad.  

I'm planning on fartlek running tomorrow at a distance of about 4 miles. 

 This morning was just as cold as yesterday, but fortunately the wind was not blowing very hard.  So that made it not feel nearly as cold.  I thought my thumbs were going numb up until about the half way point. 

I ran fartleks this morning.  I did not gauge the distance between each one I just picked random markers up ahead along my path and ran hard until I got there.  I really have never done fartleks that much.  It is definitely are more fun, although less structured way to get in your speed workouts. 

Easy 6 at 35 degrees.  It looks like it's going to be a nice weekend.  

Kevin and I ran our usual Sunday easy 10.  He talked about having slacked this week and was thus not feeling his best.  He did pretty good to hang in with me the whole time though at an 8:17 pace.  I told him I've been ready to hit a higher gear since the start of last week.  I plan to gradually increase my mileage and include once weekly trail runs.  

We are running Turkey Mountain on Tuesday. 

Kevin and I had a really nice run on Turkey Mountain today.  This is the longest trail training run I think I've accomplished so far.  I should add that the hills out there are brutal.  I should also add that because Kevin took three weeks off around the holidays he has fallen a little out of shape, his own admission, and therefore we averaged a pace a little slower than I would have had I been alone.  

I'm looking forward to making my Tuesday run a regular trail running day. 

I was going to run a 45 minute tempo run this morning, but when I awoke the temperature was only 18 degrees.  I was also feeling a little bit sore from my hour long trail run yesterday.  Those two things together almost were enough to make me take a rest day today.  I compromised on a 30 minute tempo instead of a 45 minute tempo.  As is always the case, I was glad that I ultimately decided on running versus not running by the time I was nearing the end of my workout.  

I ran 8 400's today at about a 6:40 mile pace.  I ran 1 warm up mile and 1 cool down mile.  I jogged for 30 seconds between each set.

The temperature was bitterly cold this morning at 19 with a wind chill of only 7.  I wore only my Nike turtle neck and hat with ear warmers.  I really should have worn my Trail Heads ski mask.  About half way through my 55 minute run I really began to think about the wind chill chart and the dangers of frost bite.  I decided that when running sub 8 minute miles the body must be generating enough heat to counter act the standard model, hopefully.  Then I started to wonder if I did get frost bite how that might effect my scheduled dental implant surgery for Wednesday.  Would I have to delay?  Hopefully not as I've been waiting about two years to get to this point. 

I was going to run seven miles easy today, but due to the bitterly cold wind I could not make myself run any slower than about a 7:52 pace for most of the run. 

This morning only 24 hours after yesterday morning was a whole 28 degrees warmer.  We went from 18 feels like 7 to 46 feels like 34.  Crazy Oklahoma weather!   We locals say that so much that it has become a cliche. 

Kevin and I averaged an 8:05 pace this morning.  

It was a nice breezy 32 degrees this morning.  I ran 4 miles at a 7:49 pace.  I'm going to be off for the next three days minimum due to dental implant surgery.  I will see how I feel on Friday and may decide to run an easy 3.  Hopefully I will feel up to making my scheduled 90 minute run on Sunday.  

I ran an easy three miles this morning a 7:46 pace in a beautiful 29 degree sunrise.  There was hardly any breeze.  The morning truly was nice.  I came home and told my wife how nice it is out, and she asked me if I had been correct when I told her it was 29 degrees before I left.  She was just telling me last night that she will run when the weather gets  nicer.  I have a hard time convincing her that this weather is the nice running weather.  

I am just coming off of three days rest due to my dental implant surgery.  I am feeling really good and looking forward to running 90 minutes tomorrow morning with Kevin.  

I ran 90 minutes this morning in a nice 7:55 pace.  I will call it slightly faster than easy.  My fastest mile was the last one at a 7:24 pace followed by .32 miles at a 7:05 pace.  I was feeling a little sore in my legs and upper body from my weights workout on Friday, the first such workout I had done in over five weeks if my training log is correct.  I thought it had been closer to two weeks.  

Tomorrow I'm either resting or running an easy three.  I may decide to rest since I felt and feel a little sore today.  I will run three tomorrow, because if I don't I will not hit 30 miles this week.  I'd like to keep my mileage at or above that level throughout the rest of my half marathon trail run training.  I really like to break out into higher mileage this year and set my self up for a BQ at the Route 66 in November.  

Easy 3.  I dressed too warm for 39 degrees.  We have been experiencing unusually warm temperatures for this time of year these past couple of days.  

I ran Turkey Mountain by my self today.  It was absolutely beautiful at 62 degrees and partly cloudy.  I really can't believe it is late January.  I'm getting more excited about my upcoming trail runs in February and in March.  

I ran a 30 minute tempo run this morning.  Since I missed this workout on Wednesday and Thursday was a rest day, I ended up running the tempo today.  Today was actually supposed to be interval training, but I really enjoy tempo runs much more so i opted for that instead.  

 Special Note:  My Garmin was not properly synced the first mile.  I'm not sure what my actual split was, but I know it was faster than what it recorded.   

I ran an easy 4 this morning at a 7:40 pace.  I actually have been able to wear shorts for 3 of 5 days this week.  Unbelievable!  I'm going to run for 90 minutes tomorrow.   

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I had a pretty good run today.  I would feel great if not for the fact that I noticed my throat was getting a little sore last night and was a little worse this morning.  I ran pretty even splits this morning with Kevin.  I had to leave him with about one and half miles to go in order to make my 90 minute finish time and not run a positive split.  

As I look ahead to this coming week I'm not sure if I will run tomorrow morning or not given that Monday is an optional day.  I'm running seven miles on Turkey Mountain on Tuesday.  I have three days of speed training later in the week.  Now that I think about it three sounds like too much, so I will probably take it easy on my tempo run.  I have some 800's to run and a 4 mile pace run on Saturday.   

It was 14 degrees with a wind chill of 8 this morning.  Kevin and I ran five and half miles on Turkey Mountain.  I had not gone running since Sunday due to having come down with bronchitis.  Today was the last day of my anti-biotic, and although I still don't feel 100% I felt good enough to run.  

I had a 1 hour 45 minute run scheduled this morning, but since Kevin and I ran Turkey Mountain yesterday I decided I could afford to shorten this morning to only 8 miles.  As much as I wanted to hold to the schedule, I figured I would be better off lightening it up a bit given the five day break I had to take to recover from bronchitis.  

It was bitterly cold this morning as it was yesterday morning at 16 degrees.  I'm looking forward to a slight warming trend later this week.  

Kevin and I ran Turkey Mountain today.  It was 36 degrees, but the sun came out and we quickly realized we have over dressed.  I could have worn shorts and shorts and maybe even short sleeves.  We got a good workout in at 6.26 miles in almost an hour.  

I almost skipped this mornings run because the rain began falling right at the point I began.  I went ahead and took a chance.  It ended up not being so bad, although it did poor on me a little about half way through.  In the end I was very glad as usual that I pushed myself to make it happen.  

3 1600's today.  1 warmup and about 1 mile to cool down with 30 second jogs between each set.  

Splits

6:28

6:37

6:43

I ran an easy 5 this morning at a 7:59 pace.  I still can't get over how nice our weather has been.  It was 47 degrees this morning.  I have run in shorts in February a handful of times.  Simply amazing.  

Kevin and I ran 1 hour 45 minutes today.  I feel really good considering that I had to take a 2 minute 10 second bathroom break during mile 11.  Even with the break I almost caught up to Kevin before the end.  I convinced I would have caught him if I'd had a little more distance.  If you take out the stop my average moving pace was 7:42 per mile.  For a long run of this distance I feel pretty good about that.  The Post Oak Lodge Trail run is one week from today. 

Kevin and I ran Turkey Mountain today in beautiful sunny 50 degree weather.  The Post Oak Trail run is this Sunday.  I'm looking at a thirty minute tempo run tomorrow and a five minute easy run on  Friday.  

I ran a thirty minute tempo run today.  My calves felt pretty sore from yesterdays trail run and weights workout.  I'm now going to rest tomorrow, run an easy five miles on Friday, and then rest the day before the race.  

Easy five this morning at 36 degrees with a wind chill of 29.  I actually felt I was dressed a little too warm.  This was my last run before the Post Oak Trail run on Sunday morning.  I picked up my race packet yesterday and bought a new pair of Brooks Cascadia trail shoes.  I may be risking it a little in using brand new shoes in a race.  Ideally I would have bought taken them for a spin this morning, but it would have been too inconvenient to drive out to Turkey Mountain at the last minute.  I think I will take them Sunday morning and do some warm up jogs, but I will take my backup pair just in case. 

This is the second time I have done the Post Oak Lodge Trail run.  I am so happy that I did it this year and finished, because in 2010 I recorded a DNF for the first and only time.  I'm still waiting on the results, but according to the runner who finished just ahead of me I placed 7th.  Again I am waiting on the official results, but I am very excited about my place if that runner is correct. (As I finished typing this post the official results came in and I placed 6th overall and second in my age division).   

I have to say that the course was organized so much better this year than in 2010.  I ran the first couple of miles in a small pack of runners.  I eventually moved out ahead of the pack and came up behind two kids that looked to be about 11 or 12 at most.  I later learned that they had doubled this weekend, meaning that they participated in races both days.  After running behind them for about half a mile on a more narrow part of the trails, I eventually passed them as I began to notice our pace slow down from 8:00 minute miles to about 8:30 per mile. 

After I passed them I was alone for probably seven or eight miles.  I came across more people but they were running other races and most of them were walking as I passed them.  It was not until the start of mile eleven that I caught up to at least one of the runners who had been leading me in the half marathon. 

I caught another one on mile twelve and hung in with him for until we got to the bottom of the "Hill From Hell."  They call it that because it is 166 feet of elevation change in about three quarters of a mile.  The local Fleet Feet store had an aid station at the bottom of the hill with water, Gatorade, and beer.  I made a snap decision to take the beer, even though the guy I was trying to hang with at the end skipped the aid station completely.  He ended up finishing about 10 seconds before me.  He had pulled ahead right before the beer stop, and I doubted that I would have caught him even if I hadn't stopped.  This doubt became a little less clear as we chugged up the hill.  He was actually not that far ahead of me most of the way up.  He pulled slightly ahead near the top.  After I got to the top I could see him and I felt I could have caught him if I'd had a little bit more distance, but alas there was the finish.  Had I known that I was in a battle for first in my age division I would have tried harder.  As I have been typing this I checked back online for the results and it turns out that I placed second my age division.  He beat me by only ten seconds. 

I may try for the doubler next year or perhaps one of the 50k.  I'll have to wait and see how the Grasslands goes next month in Texas.  Kevin and Ashley both said my time should be much better since there really aren't any hills at that race.  I will also be at the end of my training program, and hopefully slightly more fit than I am now.  

Alisha and I drove out to 71st and 169 to get on the trail at the Med Center.  I pushed Ty in the jogging stroller as we did two miles together.  Alisha then took the car back home and I ran back.  I ended up getting nine miles in and a fair amount of rain to boot.  I could have dealt with a little less wind.

I'm feeling pretty good considering I raced two days ago and did a thirty minute weights workout at the gym about an hour before we went running.  I guess I didn't run hard enough at the race.  I intend to rectify that at the Grasslands Run next month. 

I ran a fifty two minute tempo run this morning.  I started out at 8:00 minutes per mile dropping down in half minute mile increments peaking at a 6:30 mile.  I usually try to pyramid back up in even increments until I'm finished, but I was a little over spent after that 6:30 mile this morning.  My next split was 7:44.  My last two splits were 7:23 and 7:47 respectively.    

I ran 4 1600's at a 7:00 minute per mile pace, which is somewhere between my 5k race pace and my half marathon pace.  I jogged for 1 minute between each set with one warm up mile and a little over half a mile jog to cool down.  

I ran an easy 5 this morning in 32 degrees at an average pace of 7:57.  I closed out this week at 40 miles.  I haven't done that since last July, which was also the same week I began to notice the pain in my arches that eventually forced me to take several weeks off and miss the Route 66 Marathon. 

Like a boss!  I ran two hours today with the last third at a faster pace on what Hal Higdon calls a (3/1) workout.  I averaged about 7:55 for the first ten miles, then I dropped down to about 7:20 for the last five and half.  I feel very accomplished in the sense that I was able to stick to the plan by even pacing the first ten, and then still had enough left to run the last five at a faster pace.  So many times in the past I've run out of energy by then end because I spent it all up front.  

Kevin and I ran Turkey Mountain today.  It was a beautiful 60 something degrees, all be it very windy.  Kevin ended up bailing out at 4.3 miles and I decided to keep going.  I wanted to hit my planned seven miles.  Kevin had run his long run yesterday and was therefore spent.  I was having a great time by myself running on one of the trails that I had not run on before.  I was about one mile from my finish when my left foot came down wrong on a rock and I heard a snapping sound as my ankle twisted outward.  I could tell immediately that I had suffered a mild sprain, although not bad enough that I was able to jog and eventually resume a bit of a run until I got back.

I stretched a little bit back at the car and could immediately feel the loss of range of motion, not good.  The good news was that I did not appear to be swelling.  I drove the twenty five minutes home and began icing it fifteen minutes on and fifteen minutes off.  About twenty minutes ago I decided to wrap it.  I probably ice it a little more tonight and see how it feels in the morning.

I have the Grassland Run in exactly eleven days and I anticipate given the severity of this particular sprain I will be 100% recovered by then.  

I decided my left ankle was healed up enough to resume training this morning.  I can only feel remnants of the sprain in the slight tight feeling when I roll or stretch it inwards in the direction of the roll that caused the injury.  I don't believe it will affect my running going forward so long as I don't land on any uneven surfaces and roll it to the same side again too soon.  I will be cautious for sure.  

This morning I ran 6 800's at about a 6:50 pace.  I feel good and am looking forward to my last long run this Sunday before the Grasslands Trail run in Texas next week. 

I ran an easy four this morning just to prevent the soreness from setting in from my 800's yesterday.  Tomorrow morning I run for two hours as my last long run before Grasslands one week from today.  

I ran this morning with Kevin and Mike.  It rained on us for about the first hour and ten minutes and then it let up.  We started at 5:30 so Mike could join us.  It felt like 4:30 with the time change.  I was so worried I was going to oversleep that I set multiple alarms.  I ended up waking up at 4:30 on my own without alarm assistance.  I believe I have been gradually conditioning myself to become an early riser.  It has been a goal of mine for the past year or two to become an early riser.  I believe early rising is a characteristic of more organized and productive people.  

We talked a little bit about the GOP primary and it was determined that each of us voted for different candidates and none of those candidates were Romney.  Kevin voted for Gingrich, Mike for Santorum, and I for Paul.  I believe this pretty well represents Romney's problem all across the country. He is leading in the polls and winning most states, but not by large margins because he has been unable to close the deal with the various factions within the Republican party.  A liberal politician named Elliot Spitzer observed this morning on This Week that the Republican party is split into three segments; the religious, the mainstream corporate, and the libertarians.  His analysis was that Romney has thus far been unable to pull all three of those together because the three segments don't get along so well.  He may be right about that, but I still think that the three more than likely will unite against this President's failed economic policies and vote for the nominee (Romney) in November.  With the independent voters who will hold Obama responsible for high gas prices and an economy that is not recovering fast enough, he will more than likely lose the election.  I will admit I'm less sure about this prediction today than I was six months ago, but I'm not changing my mind just yet.   

We also discussed the casino that is in the midst of construction near our running trail.  I said that I sort of feel sorry for the tribe who got the appropriate permissions to build, but has since been stonewalled by an opposition group of citizens.  Mike was less sympathetic to the tribe stating that he believed the casinos were connected to the Chicago mafia.  I should have said that I oppose on principle Indian tribes special rights to build and operate businesses which other citizens can not.  I usually try to keep running conversation light so maybe that is why I did not speak my mind, but after I got home and thought about it I decided that was my default position and I should have just said so.  I read a great letter to the editor in today's Broken Arrow Ledger making this very case.  The letter said something to the effect that if you are for certain races or ethnic groups having special rights which other groups do not have you are for racial discrimination.  I concur.  

I ran six miles at a moderate intensity (7:36 pace) in my New Balance 1260's followed by one mile at a lighter intensity (8:55 pace) in my friend Kevin's Vivo Barefoot shoes. 

This was my first experience running in a true minimal shoe.  This shoe has absolutely not padding whatsoever.  It is basically just a rubber sole to protect your feet from being impaled by rock and other sharp object in the road.  It felt really strange with my feet slapping the asphalt streets and the concrete sidewalks.

I may experiment with it a little bit more after the Grassland race on Saturday.  

Today was a very productive day.  Alisha and I worked out for about half an hour at the gym on upper body weights and some leg exercises as well.  After we got home I ran my seven miles.  Immediately after that we trimmed our bushes in the front and back yard.  We also put up three shelves in the garage and did a little organizing out there. 

It is currently 83 degrees and feels unbelievable like a summer day.  We just grilled some burgers so I must end this post and go eat. 

I ran a 30 minute tempo this morning and felt pretty good.  I now have three two full days and three nights to recover for the Grasslands Race on Saturday.  

Splits: 

7:38

7:25

7:03

7:05

This was a St. Paddy's Day race in Forth Worth, Texas.  I ran it this weekend because I was in Texas for another race that I ended up not being able to run.  Long story.  Perhaps I will fill in the detail later, but as for now I'm going to finish unpacking as I just got home.  

I am in the midst of my two week rest from running.  I will have hopefully the last of only two more dental surgeries tomorrow morning.  I should be fully recovered from surgery by the time my two week rest is over.  

Tonight I swam laps at the gym for about 25 minutes.  I think I swam about 900 yards, but I wasn't really keeping track that closely. 

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.  

I ran speed intervals this morning that I got from Runners World.

8x500's 4 at 6:20 and 4 at 6:10.  The first four were run at my 5k race pace and the last four were run ten seconds faster.  I ran one mile to warm up and .85 miles to cool down.  I walked for 30 seconds between each of the first four and about 40 to 45 seconds between each of the last four. 

Splits:

Time     Pace

1:58      6:17

1:56      6:22

1:58      6:17

1:57      6:24

Last 4

Time   Pace

1:56     6:11

1:54     6:13

1:53     6:07

1:54     6:11

 I'm not sure why the pace for some of these splits is different for the same time, but these are the results that my Garmin recorded.  Hmmm...makes you wonder about the accuracy. 

I ran an easy ten this morning, and I kept it real easy with an 8:03 AP. My legs felt tired and my back felt a little sore.  It must have something to do with the two yards I cut yesterday on my day off.  I guess I'm still getting adjusted to the extra work.  I'm looking forward to my two rest days.  I may swim some laps tomorrow if I'm not kept at work too late.    

I did some speed work today by way of a one mile warmup followed by three 1600's and then a .63 mile cool down.  The goal was to do better than my 5k race pace.  I accomplished the goal so far as two of the splits are concerned.  On the third one I just had nothing left and fell a little short.  I have one week to go before the Full Moon 5k, and I would really like to best my time last year of 19:34. 

Splits:

6:09

6:14

6:28

I ran 14 this morning at a nice easy 8:08 AP.  I think I was still feeling the lingering effects of the three 1600's that I ran yesterday at slightly faster than my 5K race pace.  I knew I was not going for any speed records this morning so I only brought Gatorade instead of Gu and Gatorade.  I probably should have brought some Gu anyway, because I really started feeling drained somewhere around miles ten or eleven.   

I re-injured my right foot.  Several hours after my run on Sunday I started to feel a gradual increasing soreness and pain in my arch.  It feels very similar to the micro-tears my my doctor told my I had in the ligament of my right foot last May, only I did not ever feel the ligament tighten up like it was about to snap during my run.  I have decided to take some time off.  I got a sports massage tonight courtesy of my wife's well timed anniversary gift idea that I'm hoping will help. 

Hopefully the pain is gone by Saturday in time for the Full Moon 5k.  I'm thinking I will rest until then and gradually ease back into running after that.  

I am overall really happy with my results.  I originally planned to PR, which would have required a time of 19:33, but all things considered I'm quite happy with a second best time.  The things I'm considering are a strained ligament in my right arch from an old injury that I re-aggravated last weekend and thus had to rest for 7 days leading up to the race.  I have never taken that many days off prior to a race, and I did not know how my foot was going to feel once I got going.  Fortunately I'm happy to report that it felt fine throughout the course, but just to play it safe I'm going to take a few more days off.

I love this course because it is so flat.  It runs out and back along Riverside drive and the view of the sun setting beyond the river is extraordinary on the route back to the finish.  

Pyromania, the Def Leppard tribute band, after the race was awesome and there was plenty of beer to go around as always.  Kevin was able to join us this year since he stayed home with the kids last year so that Ashley could run.  Alisha's friend Chandra and her fiance Kyle were also there.  I finally got the opportunity to meet Kyle and Chandra's brother in-law John who has run 8 marathons in past couple of years.  John was really excited to talk about running the New York City marathon and is looking forward to running it again.  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again.   

Brick workout.  I had not taken the bike out since December 2nd.  I felt like something easy today after the race last night, so I decided I go for an easy ride.  About half way through the nine mile ride I decided to make this workout a brick.  I ran 1.5 miles and felt really great.  It was nice and sunny at 78 degrees with a slight breeze.

I think I'll take tomorrow off and then get out to Turkey Mountain on Tuesday for some trail running.  

Turkey Tuesday.  I ran over five today with Kevin on Turkey Mountain.  It was good to get back out on the trails.  I'm pretty sure the last  time I ran the trails was before the Post Oak Trail run in February.  

I ran an easy 4 this morning at a 7:54 AP.  This was my first run in ten days.  I decided to ease up for a little while before marathon training.  I'm planning on running an easy ten in the morning, and then we'll see what the rest of the holiday weekend has in store.  I'm just going to play it by ear.  

I ran ten this morning, which I am unable to refer to as an easy ten since I was off for ten days prior to the four mile run I completed yesterday.  I felt my left knee a little bit as I usually do if I've taken more than about five days off.  I'm may do cross training tomorrow or a brick workout followed by a trail run on Tuesday if there is time. 

I wasn't going to run today, or if I did I was only going to run about 3 miles as part of a brick workout.  I decided at about noon just to run an easy 5 or 6.  I am not really accustomed to running in the heat yet since I do a majority of my runs early so the 88 degrees was quite a nice test.  I kept the pace easy at 8:19.

I started out this morning not knowing exactly how far I wanted to run.  After about one mile I decided that I would run for an hour instead of focusing on a distance.  I think I will focus all of my workouts on time for the next couple of weeks rather than distance.  It is nice to be able to just run sometimes. 

I ran an 8:15 AP.  The temperature was a very nice 68 degrees.  We had some storms come through last night that cooled everything off a little. 

I have been so fortunate to have nice cool mornings yesterday and today.  The temperature was 65 with winds of about 10 to 20 miles per hour.  I woke up at 5:15 for some reason, which is 45 minutes earlier than I usually wake up.  I went ahead and got my run out of the way early.  I think I might go back to running at 5:30 instead of 6:30 on weekdays.  It is so nice get back home and have a couple of hours to relax before I have to leave for work.  

I did not go to bed early enough to get up for a 5:30 AM run.  I need to try to get back in the 10:00 PM bed time habit.  That said, I did feel I had a pretty nice run this morning.  The temperature was a perfect 54 degrees when I left the house.  My average pace was 7:57.  

A nice long run today at 65 degrees, but with high humidity and little to no wind.  8:13 AP. 

The gnats were out in droves on certain parts of the trail like I've never experienced.  I was attacked by killer swarms of them multiple times.  At about three miles in I had them all over my face, up my nose, and in my mouth.  I could not use my forearms to wipe them off my face because they were all over my arms as well.  Yuck.  I'm sure in light of the other more  disgusting things we runners put up with a few gnats aren't so bad though.  

Kevin joined me at my two mile point and ran about 9 miles with me.  It was good to have the company for a majority of the morning. 

1 hour run this morning.  It was about 64 degrees with a slight breeze and a full moon.  8:05 AP.  I got 7 miles in before 6:45 and then got my neighbors yard cut and edged by 8:00.  It's going to be a good day!  Now off to work.  

One hour easy run at an AP of 7:54.  66 degrees with winds at about 6 mph.  It felt really nice out this morning.

It was beautiful out this morning.  Temperature about 57.  AP 7:45.  Since I had to stop once to tie my shoe and another time at a cross walk I will also report my average moving pace of 7:42.  I have been planning most of my weekly runs at relaxed even splits, but I felt like finishing strong this morning.  

Splits:

7:51

7:52

7:59

7:50

8:10

7:44

7:23

6:59 (AP at .74 miles)

I felt really good this morning.  Since I finished strong yesterday morning I set out to run an easier pace (8 minute miles) this morning.  When I finished my first two miles with ease faster than that I decided to push it just a little bit further.  I ended up finishing with an AP of 7:33 with my fastest miles on the back half. 

My short term training plan has been to run my long run on Sunday as usual, but to run nothing but one hour runs the rest of the week.  I have now done that for two weeks.  It is good way for me to see my progress.   I am able to gradually run farther distances within the hour each time I run with relative ease.

 I think I may do one more week of the one hour runs to see some more improvement before I begin to increase my run time.  I will then spend about three weeks at the new time gradually increasing distance within that time.  I did not get this from anyone's training plan.  I'm just sort of making it up as I go. 

Splits: 

7:51

7:43

7:38

7:33

7:32

7:34

7:20

7:07 (average pace of .95 mile split)

Easy 15 today.  It was a beautiful 60 degrees with a very nice breeze.  8:08 AP.  

My legs felt so sore getting out of bed and on the first mile.  I ran progressively harder on towards the end of last week and capping it off with my 15 mile long run.  It definitely caught up to me today.  AP was 8:21 today. 

I believe it was 70 degrees at 5:45 this morning.  Yes it is about to get hot out here.  

I ran Turkey Mountain with Kevin today.  I think it was somewhere in the upper seventies.  9:45 AP.  Both of us were pretty sore and walked a couple of the more technical hills.  I'm still recovering from the end of last week, and he is recovering from the xterra race in Arkansas over the weekend.   

I'm not sure what happened, but I think my entries from Monday and Tuesday vanished from the blog.  I'm going to have to go back and re-post them.  I admit I can't fully remember posting on Monday, but I know I posted on Tuesday about my Turkey Mountain run with Kevin.  

Today I ran with a nice cool breeze and about a 68 degree temperature.  AP of 8:04.

Now that is really bizarre.  After I posted this entry and hit the publish button, the missing entries from Monday and Tuesday had reappeared on my calendar.  Freaky.    

I woke up this morning to thunder and the sound of rain.  I checked my weather app and it appeared that I would have to wait about half an hour for the severe weather to pass.  So I went back to sleep for a little bit.  When I woke back up it was still raining but it looked like the worst was over.  I set out on my one hour and ten minute run with hardly a sprinkle of rain.  By the time I was 20 minutes into the run it had started coming down harder.  It was one of those runs where the rain gradually builds up to a bit of a down poor.  I ended up finishing soaking wet, but it did feel nice and we certainly needed the rain.  

AP of 7:51.  I think it was about 68 degrees with light winds and rain.  

I made it out the door at 5:40 this morning.  It was 69 degrees.  AP of 7:45.  This closes out 55 miles this week for me, which I believe is a high for the year. 

Update:  I just check my training logs back to January 2010 and discovered that my max mileage for one week is 54 miles.  So at 55 miles I just set a personal maximum for one week.  Woohoo!     

When I left the house I could swear I heard a rooster crowing somewhere in my neighborhood.  This is about the third morning this week I noticed it.  When I told Alisha about it she joked that it could be the reason why Ty started waking up at sunrise this week.  

I ran 15 this morning at 70 degrees at an 8:19 AP.  I decided I might start tracking humidity as well as temperature. 

I'm pretty sure the temperature is pretty close to what it was last week, but this week kicked my butt.  My AP last week was 8:08.  I can probably assign most of the slower pace to being a little (read: a lot) worn out from coming off of a 55 mile week as opposed to a 44 mile week the week before.  I could tell by the second or third mile that an 8:00 minute pace was feeling way to hard that early on.  By mile 10 I pretty much had nothing left in the tank, which is discouraging because I fueled more this week than last.  I took two gu's during this run as opposed to one.  I think I will need to definitely take a couple more weeks at this mileage to let my body adjust.   

Recovery run this morning at an 8:13 AP at 74 degrees with 77% humidity. 

I felt a strange kind of strain in the ligament or tendon that runs along the outside of my left foot up towards my ankle.  I think I just landed on it a little too hard coming around a hard turn as I got close to the neighborhood on my way back.  I felt the strain for about a quarter mile.  I am only mentioning it because I felt the same strain in what I think was the same foot yesterday during my long run about one mile from my half way point.  Just like today it showed up for about a quarter mile and then vanished.  I'm not sure where it came from yesterday, but I know today I cornered too hard and strained it.   

I felt pretty good this morning after not running yesterday.  I did cross train yesterday though.  I cut two yards and went to the pool.  Well the pool was more leisure than workout, but I'm considering it cross training since I did do a few laps.  

This morning the temperature was 76 with humidity of 77%.  There was a pretty good wind blowing from the south at 15 mph.  

My AP today was 8:04. 

71 degrees, 94% humidity.  I felt really strong this morning, and ran a pretty easy pace of 7:56.  Taking yesterday off really helped overcome the lagging soreness I felt when I woke up. 

I'm going to focus on sleep and nutrition going forward this year.  I have only been averaging about 6 to 7 hours a night, and I can tell I'm going to need more than that in order to fully recover from each workout. 

I've also been reading Scott Jurek's new book Eat and Run.  I'm about half way through it, and I highly recommend to it to other runners.  He chronicles his life story, including how his plant based diet helped him win Western States seven times.  He has lots of recipes for vegan meals at the end of every chapter as well for those interested.  I've been impressed with his running career ever since I read about him in Born to Run, and I've been slightly interested in the vegan or vegetarian diet since late February of this year.  It seems to be that many of the great ultra runners are either vegan or they incorporate a vegetarian diet into their daily nutritional plans.  Jurek claims that after he switched to the vegan diet he was able to recover much faster from long runs.  This all sounds appealing to me.   

I felt really good this morning.  It helped that it was about 67 degrees.  I think the humidity was 85% when I checked at 5:20, but now at 8:25 is is 69%.  My AP was 7:29.

I have been consistent in running my week day workouts without fluids, and only taking fluids on my Sunday long run for the past 4 weeks.  I will see how that goes as the summer warms up and as I begin to work tempo runs and intervals back in to my training here in a few weeks.  I think I have learned that I can run up to an hour and ten minutes at up to a 7:28 pace without needing fluids.  

Splits:

7:47

7:38

7:32

7:27

7:16

7:15

7:36

7:13

7:25

2:48 (.38 miles average pace 7:25)

It was 72 degrees this morning with 74% humidity.  The slight breeze made it a beautiful morning for a run, especially for this time of year. 

Kevin ran about 11 miles with me.  My AP was 8:08.  I would have had an AP much closer to 8:00, but Kevin slowed us down a little bit around miles 10, 11, 12, and 13.  It was no big deal though, because I was able to finish strong and make my last mile my fastest at 7:42.  And there is the benefit of having someone to talk to on these long runs.  Another benefit to slowing it down a little during the final third was that I finished and did not feel completely wasted.  I doubt I will even be really that sore tomorrow, which is awesome because I ran yesterday at a relatively harder pace than normal.  

8:07

7:56

7:50

7:56

7:48

7:48

8:05

7:59

8:03

8:18

8:47

8:40

8:53

8:07

7:42

I woke up feeling a little bit sore, which was a surprise because I thought I would not be that sore.  It was one of those Monday mornings where I had to tell my self just to put on my shoes and head out the door.  The first few steps are the hardest.  

The temperature was 74 and the humidity was 84%.  I saw quite a few bikes out this morning, and other runners.

I planned on today simply being a recovery run as is usually the case on Monday after the long run, but I ended up finishing a little faster than I started. 

8:37

8:11

8:16

8:01

7:53

7:57

7:35

7:45

5:41 (distance .75 AP 7:34)

Nice morning at 80 degrees and 55% humidity.  AP 7:36.  We finally got a break from the high humidity, which made it really nice out.  The winds felt a little stronger out of the south, but my weather app says only 8 mph.  

I planned on running the first six at a 7:30 pace and the last three at a 7:00 pace.  I was not able to do that.  I hope I'm still just adjusting to the higher mileage.  I thought that after taking yesterday off from running that today would be the best day to try some speed work.  To be fair to myself I did do about 40 minutes of strength work yesterday including squats, quads, and calves. 

I might try for this same run again on Saturday.  For some reason I usually clock my fastest times on Saturday, which is the day before my long run.  I've wondered if it is because it the the furthest day from my long run and my body just takes that long to fully recover.  

Splits:

8:23

7:49

7:42

7:43

7:33

7:34

7:23

7:26

7:05

AP 8:06.  Nice and easy this morning.  68 degrees and 62%.  

Easy run this morning.  72 degrees with 62% humidity.  When I returned I checked again and the temperature had actually dropped 2 degrees.  Weird.  I think we are finally moving away from highs in the 105's.  AP of 8:01.   

I felt like I was dragging a little bit this morning, and it probably has to do with getting less then 6 hours of sleep last night.  

I can think of nothing else to say about my run so I'll digress.  I'm a little shocked that the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare and the individual mandate in the historic ruling yesterday.  Is there no limit to the power of the federal government now?  It was a truly sad day for America and what's left of our free society.   

So now that I'm in my fourth week of 45 plus miles I've decided to start flirting with speed workouts again.  I haven't done anything fancy yet, meaning no track workouts or road intervals with recovery periods.  I've just done a few tempo runs.  

I may start with some interval training next week, although I've got the Firecracker 5k on Wednesday so I'm not sure how I will work around that.  I may try something on Monday and then rest on Tuesday as usual. 

Mile seven was my slowest.  This mile has a hill within it that is an increase in elevation of 53 feet.  The hill actually starts before I clocked the beginning of this mile.  If you look at the whole hill it is about 90 feet of elevation.  You can see from my splits that I never quite recovered from mile the hill on mile seven.  I think part of my problem this morning was that I did not fuel properly.  I was sweating a lot and I probably should have brought some Gatorade.  I'm going to try drinking a sodium blend before my next run of this type to see if it helps me last longer. 

8:32

8:04

7:44

7:37

7:12

7:12

7:58

7:23

7:21

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.  

Lactate threshold run.  AP 7:43. Elevation gain 245 feet. 

I checked the temperature this morning on my Weather Channel app and swear I saw 88 degrees.  Some time after I got back I saw 83.  I've never seen a drop between 5:30 and 8:00, so I'm not sure if my reading this morning was accurate or not.  Either way it was damn hot out there.  

3 warmup: 8:08 AP

4 at lactate threshold: 7:08 AP

2 cool down:  8:14 AP

Splits:

8:38

7:59

7:48

7:14

7:16

7:00

7:03

8:29

8:14

MLR.  84 degrees.  54% humidity.  AP 7:49.  Felt strong.   

New flash: I saw lightning to the south east somewhere near mile 7.  I then felt light sprinkles followed by a little bit of what I would actually call rain for about one mile this morning!  It was amazing.  I've never been so happy to be rained on during a run.    

I must admit I woke up feeling a bit of soreness in my calves from my lactate threshold run two days ago, but that feeling disappeared as soon as I started prepping to leave the house.  I was reading an article in Runners World last night about forming habits like running daily.  One of the tricks was to do the same thing before everyone run.  This thing, whatever it is, will act as a switch to tell the mind that "it's time to exercise now."  I realized while reading this article that I am super ritualistic about my morning routine between 5:00 and 5:25 before I step out the door.  I have been making use of this mental technique to prime my body and mind for my runs and did not realize it.   

First six miles AP: 8:04

Back six miles AP: 7:37

Recovery run.  8:45 AP.  86 degrees.  I was feeling the aftershocks from the MLR yesterday when I first got going this morning, but by the end I felt pretty strong.  

15 mile MLR.  AP of 8:05.  74 degrees. 83% humidity.  I'll take it. 

I've been comparing equal distances and times over the past couple of years, and I'm pretty close to some of my spring and fall PR times.  I'm looking forward to the payoff this fall when things cool down a bit.  

General aerobic run.  7:57 AP, with 10x100 meter strides at the end.  74 degrees.  61% humidity.  

I think I need about 1 more hour of sleep at night and I will be good.  I felt like I was dragging a little bit this morning.  Fortunately the temperature has dropped to a tolerable level for the time being.

MLR.  81 degrees.  63% humidity.  AP 8:07. 

I felt a little too worn out after this one.  As soon as I got home and finished stretching I began chugging water and stuffing strawberries and blueberries in my mouth as if I'd just finished a race.  Looking forward to the recovery run tomorrow.    

Recovery run.  8:49 AP.  73 degrees. 83% humidity.

Kept the pace nice and easy this morning.  It felt good to work the soreness out of my legs.  I also got great sleep last night.  8 hours!  I can't remember the last time I got 8 hours of sleep.  

MLR.  70 degrees.  75% humidity.  Very nice conditions in the middle of August. 

I was sweating a lot in the beginning of this run, but I actually felt like I cooled down slightly towards the end.  There was a nice wind out of the north.   

I adjusted my MLR and Long run goal pacing to more accurately match the 10 to 20 percent slower than marathon goal pace for these runs.  I was running 10 to 20 percent slower than a 7:00 minute pace because that was the closest pace in the table in Advanced Marathoning.  I figured if I trained at the slightly faster pace I would end up banking a little extra endurance and make sure to hit my goal.  I'm not sure if it is just the heat or if I'm not quite ready for that pace yet, but I've been a little too worn out of MLR's at that pace, and sometime struggling to maintain that pace.  

So my new 10 to 20 percent 'slower than marathon goal  pace' for my 7:15 marathon goal pace is now 8:42 and 7:58 respectively.  I ended up running the final five miles this morning between 7:55 and 7:37.  I'm hoping that by leaving a little extra gas in the tank during the week I will be able to more effectively run my long run on Sunday, and especially make my marathon pace long runs on target. 

Amazing cool temperature. Only 61 degrees.  71% humidity. 

My legs and upper body felt a little sore from the MLR yesterday and the core and strength training on Thursday night.  

18 solo tomorrow for my long run.  It should be a nice workout both physically and mentally since I will have no company for any portion of it.  Kevin's duathlon is tomorrow.  I am a little bummed I will miss the Olympic marathon coverage tomorrow.  Hopefully Ryan, Meb, and Abdi will rock out and maybe one of them will score a medal.  

This morning Mitt Romney announced Paul Ryan as his running mate.  Having been a follower and a fan of Paul Ryan's work in Congress for the past couple of years I am very excited by this choice.

BAM!  71 degrees.  60% humidity.  8:03 AP. 

Long run with goal at 20 to 10 percent slower than marathon pace.  I actually ran this slightly faster than my goal pace, and not only that I feel great physically afterword.  It has now been close to two hours since I finished, and I feel very strong and not at all drained or exhausted.  What a difference the cooler temperature makes after having done so many long runs in high heat and high humidity.  

This is not a PR for me for this distance, but it is only 1:15 slower than my PR.  Consider that I was not trying to PR, but rather get in a good solid run without going all out I feel very good about the shape I am in right now.

First 8 miles AP: 8:33

Last 10 miles AP: 7:45

Lactate threshold run.  7:28 AP.  Temperature 67.  Humidity 76%.  

I'm feeling pretty good about myself after this run.  I drank a little less than 8 ounces of Gatorade during the run.  I took a drink about every two miles.  

2 warmup miles AP: 8:16

5 at lactate threshold AP: 6:52

2 cool down AP: 8:13

Splits:

8:30

8:02

7:03

6:55

6:46

6:48

6:51

8:15

8:12

Mid-Week MLR.  8:02 AP.  67 degrees.  87% humidity.

Kevin joined me for ten miles of this, then he slowed up a bit.  

I probably ran this one a little bit too hard considering my lactate threshold run yesterday, but I felt good.  I need to make sure and really not go too hard on Friday so I can hit my marathon pace run on Sunday.  

Recovery run.  9:04 AP.  Temperature 77.  Humidity 76%. 

I'm glad the heat decided to wait until today for my recovery run to return.  Hopefully it cools back off by Sunday morning for my marathon pace run. 

My legs felt very sore starting out, but by the last half of this run they felt nice and relaxed.  

MLR.  8:08 AP.  67 degrees.  60% humidity.  We have been fortunate to have such beautiful, cool mornings this week. 

I am still feeling hung over from my 15 mile MLR on Wednesday that I ran at an 8:01 AP.  I am hopefully that with a really easy recovery run tomorrow I will be in tip top shape for my 18 mile pace run on Sunday.  Fortunately I was able to take off work today, so I just may get some extra R&R.  Maybe even a mid afternoon nap.  

Recovery run.  68 degrees. 90% humidity.  8:51 AP. 

I feel good, but a little fatigued.  This completes my longest week ever at 63 miles.   I'm going to try to get good sleep tonight so I can bust out an 18 mile pace run tomorrow.

Ka-Chow!  18 miles at a 7:38 pace.  61 degrees with 90% humidity.

PR run for this distance.  The plan was to run the last ten miles at my goal marathon pace of 7:15.  I fell a little bit short of that (Actual AP 7:17), which I think was mostly because of a few of the hillier miles that slowed me down a bit.

Kevin ran with me from 2 miles in and fell off at about mile 9 when I started to speed up.

My right gluteal felt a little strained from about 8 miles in and seemed to feel a little worse towards the end.  I noticed that it was worse on the down hill sections towards the end of this run.  I will try to massage it out today, because I can still feel it. 

I jumped in an ice bath after the run.  Hopefully that will ease any on coming soreness. 

First 8 miles: AP 8:05

Last 10 miles: AP 7:17

General aerobic run with 10x100 strides at the end.  63 degrees.  Humidity 40%.  8:34 AP. 

I felt surprisingly better on this run than I thought I would considering the marathon pace run on Sunday took quite a toll on my legs.  I was careful to monitor my pace and slow down on the hills.  I felt strong for the 10x100 strides at the end. 

I started running with a heart rate monitor on Sunday.  My average heart rate was 141, which was right where it should be for this type of workout.

Mid week MLR.  65 degrees.  80% humidity.  8:12 AP.  

I tried to keep it nice and easy this morning on the pace.  I felt a little fatigued on the first 3 miles until I got warmed up.  I'm going to go real easy on my recovery run tomorrow.  

The temperature feels like fall.  It was almost felt cold. 

Recovery run.  63 degrees. 80% humidity.  8:53 AP.  

I feel like I'm still recovering from the marathon pace run on Sunday. 

Alisha and I are running a 5k called the Glow Run this Saturday night.  I plan on skipping my usual 5 mile recovery run Saturday morning, and then taking it easy on my long run Sunday morning.  Over 5,000 people have signed up for this race.  It looks like it should be pretty fun.    

Aerobic run this morning.  Nice and easy at an 8:28 AP.  70 degrees, 56% humidity. 

My knees were bothering me a little bit during the day yesterday.  I felt fine this morning, so hopefully it was just minor aches and pains.  

I'll be skipping out on my recovery run tomorrow morning because we will be racing in the Glow Run 5k tomorrow night.  From looking at the pictures of previous races it looks like a really cool event. 

Not yet official, but I think I achieved a new PR tonight!  I clocked my self at 19:32, which beats my previous record of 19:34.  I will update when they post the results.  I believe that I placed 5th overall, but again I anxiously await the results to be posted which are taking quite a while post. 

This was strange race.  It took place at Mohawk Park after dark.  The theme involved all the runners wearing glow sticks, necklaces, bracelets and anything else that glows in the dark.  The course was adorned with glowing objects was well. 

I know I finished very near the lead pack because I kept the pace car in view up until the last K.  I thought I heard a race coordinator shout out 5 to me as I approached the finish line.

UPDATE:  I just got the official results and I placed 5th overall, 2nd in my age group, and recorded a new PR 19:28.85.  There were 4310 total runners.  Feeling great!  

About 74 degrees.  89% humidity.  Pouring rain for about half this 2 hour and ten minute run.  8:42 AP.  

I planned on running slow this morning.  I ran the Glow Run 5k late last night and was pretty stoked about the events that transpired.  In fact I was so excited that even though we got home a little after 10:00, I was still not able to get to sleep before 12:15.  So I ran my 15 miler this morning at 5:30 in the puddles and rain on slightly less than 5 hours sleep only eight and half hours after racing.  Gotta love it right!  

I would have run this morning a little faster, but Kevin had run 14 miles yesterday and I did not feel like pushing the pace.  I figure my legs will thank me for it over the next couple of days.  

Lactate threshold (tempo) run.  69 degrees. 81% humidity.  This workout was tough, but I hit my goal pace.   

3 warmup miles

5 at lactate threshold pace

2 cool down miles.

Overall AP 7:42

5 at Lactate threshold AP: 7:01

This workout felt harder than I thought it should.  I must still be recovering from the weekends activities (5k race Saturday night and long run Sunday morning on four and half hours sleep).

MLR.  69 degrees. 80% humidity.  8:02 AP.

It felt nice and cool out this morning.  It almost felt a little too cool.  I considered that it won't be long before I'm running in fall gear.  

Recovery run. 9:01 AP. 66 degrees.75% humidity. 

My right calf felt a little bit tight this morning.

MLR.  11 miles at an AP of 7:54.  About 70 degrees and 88% humidity.  Pretty disgusting.  We should be getting some rain later today from tropical storm Isaac.  I got a few sprinkles this morning, but not nearly enough to mitigate the horrible humidity.  

My schedule gets a little tougher this week.  Instead of my usual recovery 5 mile run tomorrow, I'm doing an 8 mile general aerobic run with 10 striders at the end.  Then on Sunday I'm running a monster 21 mile run.  I'm so glad that it just happened to hit on Labor Day weekend.  

General aerobic run with 10x100 strides at the end.  8:16 AP.  I can't remember what the temperature was, because I'm logging this run the morning after.  The blog servers must have been down yesterday morning as I was not able to log on. 

I've been feeling like I need a re-charge.  I'm able to make my time goals, but not without my legs feeling a little too stressed.  I should note that I only feel the fatigue those first 2 to 3 miles most days this week.  After that point I seem to warm up and I can run pretty easily without feeling too much fatigue.