Sneakers Mile

Larry and I did 5.7 miles today including a 6:48 sneakers mile. Total pace was 7:44 (or something). I'm starting to feel improvement, although the Asics blister came back. $90 dollar shoes, you'd think they could make them right - and to late to send back. I'll have to avoid doing speed work in them - it must happen when extra pressure is used in the stride.

Some other gripes: the itunes music search isn't working and my vpn-client isn't working. wtf?

2nd Set of Hills

Today was the second set of hills. I managed a more consistent set this time at an average pace of 7:39 (down from 8:12 last week, although still slower than a year ago). The back felt better but still tightened up on the downhills.

One Week, Four Runs

Did my fourth run this week, a 5.8 miler with Dave and Larry. Like Wednesday, this proved to be another good 'variable paced' run. I only got mile splits in two-mile chunks: 8:32 (first 2 miles), 8:27 (second 2 miles) and 7:18 (last 1.8 miles). The last pickup is great because it include 'the bitch' - our little hill that's ~100 feet in about 1/5 of mile, yet the pace was in the 7:20-7:10 range that I've been shooting for (hill not included).

My weekely total milage was 17.4 - which is the best I've been able to do since last fall. I'm looking forward to next week.

Three in a Row.

I did my third day of running this week: a 5-miler with Chris and Larry. I was aiming for a 8 min/mile pace to take it easy and recover from the hill workout yesterday, but ended up feeling pretty good and pressing the pace at the end: 8:09, 7:52, 7:51, 7:45 and 7:04 - overall pace was 7:44 - not bad for a recovery run. Also of note, my asics blister problem has mysteriously went away. Must have taken a few runs to break them in properly.

Oh, and here is the link to the Trick Yourself Fit article in RR. It gives some nice simple race training plans.

First Hill Workout

Brutal. Absolutely brutal. Today was the 6x60 second repeats. My pace went: 7:10, 8:31, 8:06, 8:22, 8:08 and 8:53. The average was 8:12. Total milage (including trip there and back) was 3.25 miles.

March Madness

After much time spent couch-potatoe-ing this weekend, I eased into the week with 3.3 mile run at a 7:22 pace. The splits are difficult to get even running around this area. I started out with a 7:30 first mile (up and down), then did a 7:03 second mile (mostly down), then a 7:29 third 'mile' (0.9), before coasting in the last 1/2-mile at a 7:28.

Real madness starts tomorrow with the team hillworkouts. The weather is still cool and blustery - today had a ~15 mph breeze that felt pretty strong during the last uphill.

March Noreaster

Another great day for running if you don't mind getting pelted in the face with little sharp ice particles. Fortunatley, Larry and Chris (who is training for the Big Sur Marathon) dragged me along for the 5.15 miles (8:21 pace, or 8:10 by Chris GPS). Conditions aside, I really died out there. Maybe the Jorge lunges from last night tired out the legs - maybe it's bad karma for calling Billy Packard an idiot. I'll have to be nicer.

Whatever, I'm just happy I was able to get over 15 miles in this week - my longest week in awhile. Next week I should get out Monday, Tuesday and then either Thursday or Friday - so the mileage should start to build up as the weather warms.

First great run of the Spring

Today's weather was spectacular - perfect for running. I did about 5 miles with Larry at ~8:30 pace, then did a 2 mile pickup at ~7:15 pace to close. It felt great - probably the best I felt since last November - maybe October as far as training runs go. The seven miles is enough to count as a decent distance workout and the 2 mile pickup add a little intensity at the end.

Monday I squeezed in a 3.25 miler at a 7:34 pace. I still had viral effects, so I pretty much died after the first 2 miles.

Tomorrow I'll watch basketball and if the rain isn't horrible, I'll try and go out Friday.

Billy Packard

...is an idiot.

Jim Mora, is not.

Variable Paced Run

Today I did a 5.78 mile 'distance' run with Larry. I only marked the pace every 2 miles, they were: 8:37, 8:28 and 7:38. The temperature was about 17 with a calm wind. Hopefully it's the coldest we'll have for awhile. I may try and make it out both tomorrow and Friday, with one of those being a ~7:20 tempo-type run.

Goal: Run More

Well, I've decided that my 3 months of relatively low activity should probably be coming to an end if I want to push the 6:30 pace mark at this years races. So my goal is to get out a little more often. To that end, I'm going to try and make it out 3 or 4 times/week for a little while. Starting today. I did 3.8 miles at a 7:54 pace. A 6:56 second mile was in there, but then so was an 8:40 third mile. I definatly need to work on pacing a little. Tomorrow looks cold and windy, so I'll try for the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday runs.

First run of March

I made it out for another run this week. 2 runs in one week. Amazing. So it was a little slow, an easy 3.5 miles at a 8:30 pace with Dave. It felt pretty good to actually do a slow, short easy run.