AM - Around the hood.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue...

6:04 AM. Clear, 68 degrees, muggy. From the house to LPT out and back.

The days are long but the years fly by.

6:10 AM. Clear, 64 degrees. Humidity 78%. From the house around the hood/Lagoon trail. Most of my miles have been very slow and easy this week. My lower right leg issues (achilles/shin) feels about 90% healed at this point. I'll build up my mileage slowly over the next 9 weeks before tapering for TOU and hopefully stay injury free and lactose tolerant...

 Good luck to all the racers tomorrow!

Happy 4th of July weekend to all. We're pretty lucky folks here in the USA!

1100 AM, 80-84 degrees, sunny skies. LPT.

Drove to the legacy parkway trail and ran. Stayed up late. Slept late. Ran late. 

After 4.5 miles I ran 5 x 1/4 mile @ 7:50 pace with 1/4 easy. Was going to do 6 quarters but didn't have enough left. Hopefully running in the heat today will make the morning runs seem easier. Hopefully someday I'll be a faster runner. Hopefully I'll find $50,000 in a dusty old crate behind a false wall in the basement.

Noon. Clear, hot (88F), and dry (humidity 18%). One mile boardwalk loops at the nature preserve. Except for the birds and critters, had the place all to myself today. Ran miles 3, 5, and 7 "faster" than the others, (7:50, 8:03, 8:02). 

There's something so cleansing about running in the heat. 

630 AM, clear, 65 degrees (nice). House/hood/LPT.

Easy eight.

11:15 AM. Sunny, 79 degrees, humidity 29%. One mile boardwalk loops at the nature preserve. This location is ideal for 2nd runs in that the surface is flat and soft, and the environment is peaceful, quiet, and traffic free.

4.5 miles. As always my pace was notoriously...slow.

AM -78 degrees. Easy, easy, easy on the fire break road with the dogs.

Late lunch run. Sun, 85 degrees, light cooling breezes. 

It's been awhile  since I last ran on the cattle road and out to the dykes the criss cross through the marshes of the bird refuge. It's awesome out there. No traffic, lots of birds and other critters, and bugs, especially at dusk/dawn. I carried my 16 oz. hand held water bottle w/strap and a 32 oz bottle of powerade. At 1 1/2 miles I turn off the cattle road and enter the marshes (hopping over two gates), find a place to stash the powerade, run 7 miles, refill, and it's a mile and a half back to the car. A little overkill on the liquids for a ten miler. But it's good to know I could do 15-17 miles in the heat out there with the same amount of hydrationary preparation.

Achilles feels good. It's stiff in the mornigs and nags a little during the runs, but there hasn't been any pain for awhile. I'm still not confident about putting in any speedwork yet. Maybe next week.

Supposedly I'm not running today...

we'll see about that.

           (Time Passes)

No run today...run tomorrow.

Ohhhh the drama!

7:00 AM. Overcast, 75 degrees. Nice morning.  Bluff trail.

I lack experience with this consistent running/training stuff. I am a little frustrated that three or four months ago I could run twelve miles a half minute per mile average pace faster than today, AND today felt like it took a lot of effort. What's going on? I have been going easier for the last five weeks because of a sore achilles, but I've been keeping the weekly mileage around 50. Could I lose that much fitness that quickly? Is it my age? (45 yrs.). Is this normal? I know I'll never be a "fast" runner. But I was okay with that as long as I could improve/maintain. But lately it feels like I'm going backwards! Argh.

That being said, I sure do love running...

Add: In spite of my little whine fest, I should say that I felt stronger on this run than I have for a while.

7:10 AM. Clear, 77 degrees, humidity 44%. Fairgrounds/Glovers Lane loop.

9 nice and easy. Lots of sweating.

Spent the day dealing with sprinkler system issues. No heavy lifting, just lots of digging, sawing, glueing, 2 trips to Home Depot, exposure to heat all day, shook up my eating/drinking routine, frustration, etc. Now I'm stiff from being bent over for hours. No run.

Good times!

Early lunch. Sun, 74 degrees. Bluff trail out and back.

Felt good at mile 6 so I did 6 x 2 mins. @ 7:30 avg with equal recovery. Then I basically bombed the last mile and a half.

5:57 AM.  7 miles. Clear, 59 degrees. Round the hood/LPT etc.

Moving really slow this morning. Passed a smoker, inhaled 2nd hand smoke...what's that, like, 48 seconds taken off my life?

Early lunch run. 6 more. Clear, 80 degrees. One mile boardwalk loops at the nature preserve.

There was a tour group out there today, about thirty people. I ran the opposite direction they were going. The boardwalk is 6 feet wide, as I was approaching the goup on the first lap, they parted for me and I ran through the middle of the group while they cheered, gave me high five's etc. It was pretty cool!

Lunchtime run. Clear, 91 degrees. Heat and hills on the fire break road.

Well, I'm not going to run today. Gasp! I'm pretty worn out for some reason. I feel fatigued all the time lately. I'm hoping an easy week will help me get rested and get  the miles I need over the next six weeks to prepare for TOU, before the taper.

It's 100 degrees today! For lunch I'll go get me a couple of books I've been wanting to read, "Born To Run", and "Once A Runner", and some GU since I've got to do some longer runs here soon.

Good times!

Add: I also picked up a book called "Why We Run" by Bernd Heinrich. Looks pretty darned interesting.

Nice run this morning on the pipeline trail in Millcreek canyon with Lysa (on the blog) and Scott (not on the blog). 

Good to catch up with old friends, running in a beautful place on a beautiful summer morning! 

9:00 AM. Clear, 80 - 90 degrees. LPT/Fairground/Glovers Lane loop.

So much for a long run. It just wasn't in me today. Again, I couldn't get to sleep last night. My alarm went off at 430 AM, and at that point I'd gotten about 4 hrs of sleep. So I went back to sleep. I finally got the run started at 9:00 AM, 80 degrees, 90 by the time I finished. It felt hot but I figured I'm somewhat acclimatized so it shouldn't stop me from running 20 very easy miles. By mile 9 I knew I was done so I headed back to the car thinking if I felt better after refueling/resting a little, maybe I could do more. Nay. My demise today was probably due to several factors: poor sleeping the last little while, heat, accumlative stress over my dad's health issues, a general lack of conditioning. I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet for TOU, but if I don't have some kind of physiological epiphany soon, I may not be able to get in the training I need. I'll just keep plugging away I guess.

Still had a lot of fun out there today, in spite of my heat/fatigue induced pace. Found a new suburban trail called "Buffalo Ranch trail" and look forward to hittin' that again and seeing where it goes. Near the fairground I passed a guy who was doing some work in a creek that runs through the area. When I came back that way an hour and a half later, he was still there and the creek was transformed as he had built a small eath/rock dam that slowed the creek and created a little pond. Just him and a shovel was all it took.

5:30 PM. Clear, light breeze, 93 degrees. Mystery field.

Over the last year I've noticed this field, with an asphalt track around it, from the Legacy Parkway Trail, but I never knew how to access it until last week when I stumbled upon it during a road run. It has a huge parking lot, but no signs indicating I should stay out. Easy access, no locked gates, and I've never seen anyone there. So today after work the dogs and I went over to the "Mystery Field". Thusly named because I have no idea who owns it, what it's used for, or how it got there. Maybe it only exists in my head! Anyway, it turns out the track (about 5 ft wide) is a half mile long. Sprinklers were going on the east side of the field, and they bled over onto the track, so every half mile I got sprayed by a couple of different sprinklers. That, and the breeze kept me cool during the run.

After 5 miles, I ran a 1/4 mile barefoot on the asphalt. Quite a bit slower as this was my first barefoot experience off grass. Very different foot strike of course, and much slower. The only discomfort was the bottom of both my big toes got very hot. I can still feel it, like a blister, but not.

5 miles/42:44/8:33 avg.

.25 mile barefoot/10:12 pace.

6:03 AM. Clear, 67 degrees. From house/Lagoon trail/LPT.

Easy 8.

5:12.39 PM. HOT. 3 more on the track, easy, while catching up with my brother who's in town from California. He's a triathlete.

Got out late (7:15:37 AM) so just ran 4 around the hood. 74 degrees. Sweating buckets. Scaring walkers. More miles later...

Early lunch (10:58:49 AM).  Easy 8. Frickin' hot! Bluff trail. Probably the easiest pace I've run in a year..

6:07 AM. Clear, 73 degrees. From house to LPT out and back.

First time in shoes that were not manufactured by Asics. Getting out of my comfort zone; really thinking outside the box...I'm a renegade!

5:52 AM. Partly cloudy, temps start 78 degrees end at 82 degrees. The intermittent cloud cover was a big help. Ran from my house, meandered to the fairground/glovers lane loop and back. Mile 15-18 were at the Mystery Field.

20.4 miles/3:15:02/9:34

I've been dealing with a lot of niggling little injuries the last few weeks, and some fatigue issues. I'm really glad to have gotten this long run in but I know I can do better. So, although my pace was slow here's the splits:

Miles 1-7 avg. was 10:12 per mile. I wanted to start real slow and make sure I could go the distance today.

Miles 8 & 9 were MP 8:31, 8:25 (8:28 avg for the 2).

Mile 10 & 11 9:31, 9:59

miles 12 & 13 were MP 8:44, 8:38 (avg 8:41, about 10 seconds off).

Mile 14 & 15 10:05, 9:53

Miles 16 & 17 were MP 8:22, 8:10 (avg 8:16 for the 2).

Miles 18 - 20.4 avg 9: 43.

Probably drank around 40 oz. of water. Had gu at miles 14 and 18.

So, there it is...

The bad: I'm slow, especially lately.

The good: negative split of  4:12 for the run.

My six miles of intervals (3 x 2 miles with equal recovery) averaged 8:28 per mile, my goal marathon pace is 8:30.

My last 2 mile interval at miles 16 & 17 were good splits for me, and felt good to do them that far into the run.

I finished feeling great, the run didn't wipe me out.

My weekly mileage for Saturday through today is 71 miles!

7:02:37 AM. Clear, 75F, humidity 53%. From the house/Lagoon trail/fairgrounds.

Easy 8.

A real soaker.

5:52 AM. 8.4 miles. Clear 68F, humidity 65%. From house, Lagoon trail/LPT etc.

2:30 PM 5 miles. Clear, 91F, nice breeze out of the West. Hill/trail action on the fire break road.

Early lunch. Clear, 80F. One mile boardwalk loops at the nature preserve.

Miles 1-7, progression run: 9:35, 9:12, 8:58, 8:39, 8:37, 8:17, 7:56, then 1.5 mile cooldown.

8.5/1:15:55/ 8:56

5:54:12 AM. 9.3 miles. Clear, 68F. From the house, Lagoon trail/fairgrounds etc.

Slog-O-Rama.

Early lunch run. 5.7 miles. Sunny,  79F. Bluff trail.

Started feeling a little light headed/weak after a couple of miles. This happened a few months ago, and I remembered that it only lasted maybe a mile and then passed.. I wonder if it's a fuel issue. Like maybe I've depleted my carbs and my body is switching over to fat burning mode. I consumed probably about 1,000 calories between today's runs, in a period of  4 hours. So, who knows.

My total mileage for the week ending today is 71.8!

Taking.

A day.

Of rest. 

Hallelujah.

5:30:01 AM. Clear, 66F. From the house, Clarke/Glovers lane loop.

4 mile tempo (miles 6 through 9) avg. 8:22.

That's 8:22 average for the 4 mile tempo. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be able to maintain that pace for about 6 times that distance...