Pumped!

I'm still pumped from Sunday's run. 7:20 pace over 13.1 miles! Whoop! So this year I've set my 10K and 1/2-marathon PRs. That's pretty good. Moreover - I think this is the first time I've actually liked the pictures - am I getting into better shape? I actually thought of getting the prints - $49 - seems a little steep. Maybe $25 I'd bite.

So this week I made it out the day after for 5 brutal miles. Then for some reason I tried doing 8 with Greg on Wednesday. Again - brutal. At least I had the race dialed in!!! Whoop! It's suppose to pour tomorrow - so I'm thinking of hitting the pool.

A Good Half.

This morning I headed over to Rocky Neck state park for the Niantic Bay half marathon. Since I decided not to do full this year - my goals have been to (1) lose a little weight, (2) gain some strength and (3) run a good half marathon. I had done 3 previously, but never as a goal race for the season. This year it all came together as I did 1:36:08 ~ 7:20 min/mile pace. That's well over 10 minutes faster than previous attempts! I ran a pretty nice even pace and felt strong throughout. I even passed a few people on the last few miles. Confidence is a funny thing - I think last years marathon made this much easier from a mental standpoint. Even after feeling like I was working hard after 2 or 3 miles, I still kept pushing - I wasn't going to have a bad day - and I ended up running a very good half.

Still Sluggish

Monday I did 5 with the boys from work. Felt awful. Yesterday I did a short 4.2 - first mile easy, 2 mile pickup, one mile cool down. I did the 2 mile pickup practicing race pace - about 7:30-7:40 range. The good news is that I was able to hold it without much pacing help. Can I keep it up for 13.1? That's the question.

ITB Issues

So I felt great during the 10x400s last Tuesday - but I had pain on the outer nub of my knee - which I'm chalking up to ITB problem. Shoulda known that bare foot beach race + 10x400s on consecutive days would result in some sort of injury. It was pretty acute on Wednesday and Thursday, felt a little better yesterday and good enough today to do my final long run. I ended up shortening it from 12 to 10 miles while running - so I feel a little bad about not getting in the distance. Worse still is that the run felt horrible - only 8 days before the race. So my new plan is to continue with a taper and try and hit it hard next week.

Beach Run and 10x400s

Monday I headed out to Misquamicut for the end of summer beach run. They flipped the course again - I believe because a fairly large dead sea turtle washed ashore and they didn't want people running into it??? Anyway the flipped course and the fact I brought my Asics instead of my beater shoes meant that I was going barefoot. I hit the 1.5 mile turnaround in 10:48 and then eased up slightly to finish the race in 21:50. A sub 7:20 effort - could have went faster but I didn't want to trash my toes on the sand like I did a few years ago.

Yesterday I did 10x400s at the ConnCollege track. Each one was around 1:30 (6 min/mile pace) and the average below that - so it felt good and pretty fast. One more long run and I'm pretty much done with this training program!

Hay in the Barn

So week 6 is done (almost) and I've only just completed a run longer than the 1/2 distance - which is a little disturbing. Last week's Earlgasm really messed up my distance run plans. To summarize: I did 14.5 miles today in 2:10:30 - about a 9 min/mile pace. I ran from my house, to GLP, mumford's cove, bluff point - did the loop there and then came back. The trails were great - temperature was perfect for this time of year. Still my distance runs are: 11.6, 8.2, triathlon, 12, 10 and 14.5. I feel as though I may do another 14. 5 next week - that be 9 days before the race. Is there really a point to tapering before that?

Yesterday I did pool work. A little different this time. Warmup: 1x200; 1x50 (back and breast). Then I did 1x400; 1x50 (back and breast); 4x100 (breadth every 6, 5, 4 and 3). The 100s felt hard. Cooldown. Shorter total distance but those 100s crushed my lungs...

Week 6 half plan

Monday I did a 20 minutes tempo/threshold run. I think I managed about 7 minute miles for the tempo part - the whole run was 5.5 miles. Today I was suppose to do 5 miles at race pace. My training partner was dragging ass though - so I think we were short of the goal pace of 7:30 pace. I did the last mile at 7:30 pace, but maybe slower. 15 miles Friday.

Earlgasm!

I made it out for 10 miles today before hurricane Earl roars into town. Well, the problem is that all the schools were letting out, so I had to drop off kids at 9, run, pickup kids at 12. The ten miles took one hour and 28 minutes. I had a 15 miler planned, but that wasn't gonna happen in that time frame. And the humidity was solid 100% - so 10 was fine.

I took yesterday off and swam 1600 on Wednesday. Very humid all weak - I'm hoping for a monster week next week: Monday - 5 miles with 20 minute tempo, 3EZ Tuesday, Wednesday - 7 with a 5 mile race pace (7:30 or so), swim Thursday and a 14-15 miler on Friday. I may not be able to push it to 15 since my previous long was 12 - but we'll see how I'm feeling.