James Joyce Ramble

Yesterday was the James Joyce Ramble - my first race since last month's sad 5k.  Going into this race, I had similar lower back concerns as that last 5k.  I was hoping to beat my 10k record - which isn't that great - but was a little concerned with my back. 

The day was drizzly and cold - but kind of perfect for running.  The race started with a down hill and felt real easy - 6:45.  The next mile starts to have some small undulating hill and the effort required was getting difficult - 6:47.  Mile 3 starts with a hill, but was otherwise not so bad - 6:51 and cruising.  Mile 4 had probably the hardest hill of the race and I stopped to drink a water for about 10 seconds - 7:01 - my slowest of the race.  Mile 5 had a nice down hill to start - 6:52 and feeling tired.  Mile 6 is going back up the hill that we went down at the start of the race - 6:55.  I covered the last 0.2 at a 6:48 pace (also going up).  All in all a good effort - still a few seconds off of my best 10k.

It is a fun race - but after two years of trying - probably not one that i'll break my 10k pr on. 

AZ week

So I capped last week with 3 runs in AZ.  All along this nice stretch of canal that separates mesa from Tempe.  The first run felt great: 4.5 miles at about 8:00 min/mile - nice and easy.  The next day I did 5.4 miles during a 4x800 workout.  The canal is nice and flat - although I think i struggled to do 6:35 min/mile - maybe a little slower than that - but that is how off-track workouts work.  The last day was just 1.25 miles with my kid - still counts! 

The last day in AZ i did an easy 3.5 mile leg stretcher at 8:10 pace.  I was back in Arlington for some hills: 6x60 - it is suppose to be 10x60 but i didn't really have the time for it - and it seemed a little risky for the ol'knees - so i dialed it back.  Today was my final tuneup for the 10k sunday - I did and 'easy' 5.8 at 7:45 pace - the gap pace had a nice progression: 8:04, 7:55, 7:36, 7:19, 7:28 and 7:14.  That's pretty much what i need from my arlington runs.  Also had over 800 feet of climbing the last 2 runs. 

This weekend I have the 10k pace at, um, 10k pace.  next week i am spared another tempo - and rather will have more 4x800s at 5k pace.  in 9 days i start the serious speed tuning with 6x300 at mile pace.  That will be followed in subsequent weeks by 6x400 and 2x800; 2x400 all at mile pace.  Those are really the meat of the mile training. 

Week 1 of speed training

Incredible Boston Marathon yesterday.  I took the day off. 

Last week I finished with an 8.3 mile 'long' run.  Had a nice pace of 7:47 and GAP pacing of under 7:30s for the last 3 miles.  Nice effort.  Saturday I did my 8x200 intervals.  About 40 seconds each.  Didn't really feel like I could hold it up for a mile - but I guess that is the point of the speed training.  Had a good 3 days off and then headed out today for a repeat of last week: 2 miles at 5k pace.  So i did 6:39 and 6:37 this time.  A tad slower, but negative splits.  I capped the day off with 2x400s - off track hard effort.  Trying to hit my mile pace - but was probably a little off.

Week 0

I had thought i was starting my mile training program last week, but the race is a week later than i thought - so i'm going to basically combine last week with this week. confusing. Anyway, after last week's mile I did a really nice 9.4 mile run around Alewife/Davis/Arlington at a 7:45 pace. Like a lot of my runs lately - felt very good. Sunday I went to Belmont's track and did my 4x800s. These were run at ~6:00-6:15 pace. Didn't feel great. Today's run is suppose to be a 2-mile tempo at 5k pace, but I need to do it again next week - so this one is kind of a practice go. I don't remember ever doing a 2 mile 'tempo' - not sure it even qualifies - but i'm looking forward to it.

 Update: did the two mile at 6:33 and 6:37. I am pretty pumped about that. My breakfast mile was 6:02. I had a recent 3-mile tempo of 7:18, 7:20 and 7:08; and a recent 4 mile tempo of: 7:19, 7:21, 7:19, 7:19. The two miles today felt really hard. I was pretty sure the second mile was going to be significantly slower - so i'm pretty happy that it was only a 4 second drop. And it's still 'week 0' - haven't really done much of the speed training yet.

...And Another...

Another great weak of training. Very similar to the previous two. I started with my final hill set. (45, 90, 120)x2 - eight and a half minutes of climbing. I followed that the next day with a 3 mile tempo run: 7:20, 7:18 and 7:08 - 7:30 overall pace for the 5 miles. Felt great - amazing weather that day. Friday I had some time at work and did 7.9 miles at a nice 7:45 pace. Felt pretty easy most of the way. The goal was something just under 8 - and i was a bit below that even. So 3 solid workouts. Today I started mile assault on the 46 year old dude mile. Today was just a time-trial to baseline where i'm at. Headed over to the AHS track at 6:30am and did a 6:08 mile (6:02 according to the GPS - but the whole point of the track is to go by the watch and laps). So pretty good. The track was slick and I didn't have my spikes - so i'm guessing i'd have been close to sub-six to start this training cycle. Hopefully the heaps of intervals will help lower that.