Practice To Suffer So Racing Becomes Easy

Afternoon:  3 miles easy

Evening:  7.55 miles easy 7:38 avg

Evening:  Big workout 8x1 miles with 60 sec. rest.  This workout is no joke.  It was probably harder than it should have really been for me today due to DLS (Dead Leg Syndrome).  I wish I would have felt better.  Mentally, I did very well in not getting down about the slower pace.

2 mile warm-up around high school area

5:38, 5:32, 5:32, 5:38, 5:38, 5:37, 5:37, 5:23

2 mile cooldown

Avg run pace with rests 6:52

Avg interval pace 5:34

Not my greatest workout in terms of even splits, but because the winds were high and I was feeling like crap I decided to run based on feel rather than kill myself running solo to hit splits.  I rarely looked at the watch.  The last one I ran the last lap hard, otherwise on pace the same as the other ones.

On a side note the high school track is way slower than the middle school track.  It's soft, but too soft!  It probably saved my feet and legs some abuse though. 

Morning:  1.12 miles with stroller cheering Jen on during her 1st tri in 3 years.  She made a great come back after 2 years of surgeries and setbacks to place in the top 20 females overall.

Afternoon:  Squeezed in a quick 3.54 miles around graduation parties and the track banquet.  Avg pace 6:40 

Evening:  10 miles on Glacial Drumlin Trail  out and back - no watch  (1)

6.25 miles easy around Dorothy Carnes West Park + 6 barefoot striders (1)

2 mile warm-up

4 x (200m R pace with 200m jogs) + 3 x (1,000m I pace with 3 min jogs) + 2 x(400m R pace with 400m jogs)

2 mile cool-down

32, 35, 34, 34 - 200's

3:02, 3:07, 3:06 - 1,000's

68, 69 - 400's

Used a full rest between everything, just focusing on a touch of VO2 max and some faster repetition running.  Great night for a workout - finally no wind to contend with. (3)

8.79 easy miles around Fort (1)

Evening:  9.81 miles with Andrew at Camrock trails.  We dodged the heat running in the evening, so that was nice.  Nice to run an easy conversational run with Andrew for a change.  Usually, we only have time to run a hard workout together.  I wanted a faster tempo workout tonight, but Andrew wasn't feelin it and didn't want to push it being only a week out from his 1/2 marathon.  Oh, well I'll just try to get in tomorrow before I head out to Vegas.  I don't want to run anything too long or hard out there in the heat if I can avoid it. (2)

Evening:  2 mile warm-up - didn't feel well so I stopped back at the house laid down on the bed and fell asleep for an hour.  I must have been run down and just needed the sleep.  It was really hot and humid too, so maybe my body was trying to tell me to wait till the sun started to go down.  I woke up a little before 8:20pm jetted out the door with my new Saucony Type A racers for my 3-2-1 tempo workout with full rests (1 min for each min of tempo).  The idea behind the full rests is to feel good doing the workout.  Just working on fast tempo running and trying not to wear myself down with only a week to go until Grandma's 1/2.  The sun was down and the temps were down to the low 80's, which felt much better than earlier in the evening.  Tempo went 6:12 slooow, 5:32, 5:38 (all uphill) (4.5 min easy running), 5:19, 5:37(a lot uphill) (3 min easy running).  Still not exactly sure how I ran a 5:19 considering it was rolling to mostly uphill, but it certainly didn't feel like a 5:19 to me.  5:26  for the final mile on the flat trail in the dark.  All of these felt really good, I'm loving the miles in the 50's.  It's so refreshing not to be grinding out volume.  It's also strange to think that I can run 5:19-6:12 and easily change gears.  I really feel like my speed is coming back.  It will be important to keep that in check to have successful pacing next weekend.  Only 1 easy speed session to go. Something focusing on my goal 1/2 pace is in need because today was not very even split running. (3)

Avg pace 6:47

Avg tempo pace 5:37 with the slow 1st mile

Morning:  4 very easy miles w/Jen on a nice trail in Vegas.  Not much sleep for us since we went down to Freemont. (1)

Evening:  6 miles on the treadmill (3).  I didn't want to mess with the heat and we had dinner plans so that left an afternoon workout.  Avg 7:45 pace

Morning:  7.3 miles around some nice Vegas neighborhoods.  Avg 7:45 pace.  I ran a few faster miles in the middle around 6:20 pace just to do some faster running.  I was shocked I woke up to run.  We visited the strip last night.  Very little sleep for the 3rd night in a row. (3)

Evening:  2 mile warm-up then 4x1200 @ 1/2 mp w/400 easy pace rests. 4:09, 4:11, 4:12, 4:09, 2 mile cooldown.  Nothing too difficult, but a little pace recognition. (2)

Avg 1200's 4:10

Avg run pace 6:40

Afternoon:  5 miles w/4x200 on 200 off 33, 33, 33, 33 (3)

Afternoon:  Nice easy 5 miles around the canal with Jake and Andrea in downtown Duluth (3).  

Grandma's 1/2 marathon

A+ Goal = 1:13's (5:35 per mile pace)

A Goal = 1:14's (5:39 per mile pace)

B+ Goal = 1:15's (5:44 per mile pace)

B Goal = 1:16's (5:48 per mile pace)  Got my B goal on a muggy day.

C Goal = 1:17's (5:53 per mile pace) 

 Big shout out to Andrea and Jake for setting me up with a place to stay in Duluth after my resort gave away my stay to someone else.  They also hooked me up with VIP guest passes, which got me a free dinner and some other perks!  Andrea and Jake are nice as they are fast!  

I started my day with a tough choice, do I run the 1/2 or the 1/2 Champs?  I chose the 1/2 Champs because I wanted to run against the best and see how I stacked up, plus the race started a full 1/2 hour earlier which I thought might be an andvantage, but turned out not to be.  I was out to a fast start at 5:18, but settled into high 5:40's for the majority of the race.  I wound up running about what I figured was a B Goal pace and I'm happy with it because like Jake said I didn't have a lot of experience in the 1/2 with this being only my 3rd 1/2 marathon race and my 1st in about a year.  I finished strong and averaged the same I was averaging in my 10 mile tempo workouts, so I think if I would have had more runners around me during the race I would have ran a little faster.  IN the 1/2 race I would have placed 18th and probably would have had a little more competition, but I'm very happy I ran the 1/2 champs instead.  

2 mile cooldown a dip in lake Superior and free breakfast made for a great way to top off the morning! (2)

Evening:  7.25 miles on Glacial River Trail - hot, humid, and very windy 103 degree heat index. 

Morning:  14.33 miles Glacial River Trail - hot, humid, and windy 

Morning:  5 miles Hwy M.  The legs felt like junk this morning, must be lingering fatigue from the 1/2 marathon.  They seemed to come around toward the end of the run though.  I'm not running fast enough right now to produce much soreness, so my best guess is my body is taking a little longer than usual to bounce back.  You'd think with 2 days almost 3 off, plus two more days of really easy running I'd be feeling better.

Evening:  11.44 miles to Dr. Kinds Angus Farm and back, well almost made it to the farm.  I turned about a 1/2 mile short, but when I start running faster I'll be able to make it just in time for my turn around.  I'm sure they'll be a good water stop this summer.  The legs felt much better tonight (73 degrees & no wind).  Just another nice easy run just above 7:30 pace.  I threw in 6 light striders during the end of the run using the light poles on the running path.   

Morning:  4.69 miles toward Maffiola's, ran into Todd T. on the way back and then ran with him for a few more miles.  Nice to catch up with him.  Sounds like he's doing Grastons' with movement now to help with range of motion.  So I might get in to see him for my achilles and runner's knee that have been giving trouble since last September.  The act of doing Grastons with different movements seems to have fast results on breaking adhesions and gaining ROM in tendons. 

Here's a link talking about GTS vs GTM

 Afternoon:  11.66 miles  on Hwy 106 West.  I had to get my run in earlier in the afternoon then would have liked, but the heat wasn't terrible today with the low humidity.  7:30 avg pace today was faster than I expected.  I thought I was running 8:00 min pace.  There isn't much out there near the road to help with judging speed.  

Morning:  4.96 miles pushing Jameson in the stroller along Glacial River Trail.  Got a late start this morning so it was a little more muggy than I would have liked for a morning run.

The men's 10K OT was not a let down with 11 guys under 28 minutes and the top 3 breaking Meb's trials record from 2004! 

The women's 10K OT had it's fair share of drama 

Evening:  12.19 miles at Kettle Morain w/Jen.  We actually got a babysitter for Jameson and spent a date at Kettle running.  Some people would consider that weird, but we thought it was a blast!  We finished in the dark, so it got a little tough to see the ankle busters.  Did 5 strides in the parking lot after the run.  I saw a huge coyote that didn't seem to be bothered by me, hopefully he was eyeing me down as food!  Also, saw a ton of deer.  On the way home we went out for a fancy dinner at Quedoba and topped it off with McDonald's ice cream.

Morning:  18.36 miles Hwy 106 West.  My run came early this morning with only 7 hours of sleep, but I've got to carpet my camper addition today and I didn't want to chance having enough energy to do it later in the day.  Slow start to the run, but found a grove midway through. (1)

Morning: 5.24 miles along Lake WI  on a nice cool morning.  Ran a little faster due to the cool temps, but felt like easy pace. (3)

Evening:  11.19 (3) miles Macintyre to Hobbs road. 

Morning:  4.87 (1) miles pushing Jameson in the stroller to Jill's house today.  Left the stroller at Jill's and ran back home without the stroller.  The run this morning put me over 100 miles for the past 7 days.  It hasn't been since last fall that I've been up this high in mileage.  Granted the miles were all easy miles, which isn't nearly as difficult when doing 2 or 3 quality days with the mileage.

Evening:  15.55 miles on Glacial River trail toward Jefferson.  I was only going to run 11, but decided to put the extra miles in today to beat the heat of tomorrow.  The next couple of days are calling for record highs with humidity pushing the heat indexes to 110.  It's been so dry here I feel like I should be doing a rain dance for the farmers. (2)

I also capped off my last 7 days with highest 7 day lifetime mileage total hitting 119.43 miles.  It feels good to know I can mentally and physically handle the mileage when I have the time to train this much.  Not sure I could sustain much speed work at this mileage yet, but I think with some more time it would be doable.  

Morning:  10.38 miles Glacial River Trail, hot, humid, and windy again.  I got a late start too, so it wasn't pleasent.  I needed the sleep, with the late night trying to get my masters course work done.  Nothing like waiting till the day before class to finish up 10 hours worth of work.  Thats what happens when you start running hundred mile weeks, time suddenly gets tight! (1)

Evening:  5.22 miles in town loop after my class.  I always have a hard time going to bed after my course, I guess mind gets going and I have a hard time turning it off.  I decided waiting to do my run until after class might be a good idea for calming the mind.  Plus the sun would be down and hopefully cooler.  My predictions were right!  Very nice evening, little to no wind  with a clear view of the stars and moon.  Threw in 6 striders using the lights on the path to mark my distance. (2) 

Morning:  4.92 miles Hwy N.  The run this morning came early due to the late run last night.  The legs felt good once I got going though.  Wow, it was muggy this morning! (2)

Evening:  13.31 miles large in town loop.  I decided not to run during the heat advisory since it was a heat index of 105 and no wind.  That left me with a late run again, but gave me the opportunity to see a beautiful sunset and a little cooler temps.  Everything felt great tonight, one of those runs you live for.  Added 6 strides in the last mile of the run. (3) 

Morning:  8 miles - 2 miles up to McDonalds to get Jameson breakfast and some time to play in the play area.  Then I ran him to daycare for the day and back home.  Now it's time to pack for my trip to Wyalusing State Park for some trail running.  This is one trip I've been looking forward to.

Amazing races in the Men's and Women's OT 5000m!  

 Evening:  10.76 miles of trail running around waterfalls, bluffs, cliffs, and prairies.  Finished it off with swim in the Mississippi.  

Morning:  10.49 miles out at Pike's Peak State Park in Iowa.  Not much sleep last night, the raccoons kept trying to get into our gear and my body wasn't digging the ground sleeping.  Amazing views at the Park over looking the Mississippi and Wisconsin River waterways.

 Evening:  4.51 miles Glacial River Trail - Humid, Humid, Humid