Practice To Suffer So Racing Becomes Easy

Evening:  6.47 miles in town loop + 4 striders Avg Pace 6:54 

Morning:  8.92 miles K to Cremery with Voss.  Humid and hot, but the sun stayed behind the clouds making it easier.  Avg 7:04 pace

The body is already rebounding back from the high mileage wear down I experienced this past week.  It feels good to feel fresh again.  

Evening:  5.4 miles in town loop with another heat index over 100.  Avg pace 7:04

Another hot and humid 10K led to a less than ideal time, but another win for me.  This one I won by a minute.  I guess I should have run the 5K for more competition.  Not many people are running 10K's in this kind of heat.  This is my 4th 10K in the past 6 weeks, so I guess you could say I'm getting used to running in hot weather.  At first I was a little upset with the time since I've only run 50 miles this week, but the heat was a huge factor in this one.

 The course has some small to medium rolling hills, but it's not very flat.  The 10K follows the 5K course for two loops, so I got out to a fast start running with the 5K runners.  The 1st mile was a 5:26, but I was happy to finally get out hard in a race.  Something I need to start doing more often.  A runner by the name of Kimundo who has a personal PR of 2:14 was leading way.  I ran on his shoulder through 1.5 miles where he gapped me a little at the 1st water station.  I got some water down the wrong tube and lost about 10 meters of distance on him.  Mile 2 wound up being slow with the coughing fit going 5:45, but I was also already feeling the heat and Kimundo was picking up the pace.  He's a good runner, but he recently only ran a 1:16:15 1/2 marathon so I knew he wasn't at full speed.  I thought he might be running the 5K and not the 10K.  As I came through the 5K finish a runner passed me right at the line and I didn't see Kimundo standing around anywhere so, I assumed he was around the corner leading the way in the 10K.  At this point I was struggling up a short steep hill and questioning if I should be going the whole 10K.  I had been feeling run down the past week from high miles and tough trail running.  I came through mile 3 in 6:01, so I was still somewhat holding it together.  Mile 4 was a repeat of the 1st mile in topography, but not in time.  I dropped a big goose egg in that mile running a 6:07.  Lucky for me no one was even close and I figured I was still contending for 2nd place, maybe 1st since I couldn't see Kimundo anywhere up front.  Mile 5 got really ugly splitting a 6:18, I didn't let it get me down though.  I was really overheating and I was fighting a side ache, so I'm certain the effort was max.  The last mile was all about just staying strong splitting a 6:06.  I finished with a very easy kick and almost had to sit down at the end of the race.  I managed to walk it off, but had to sit down under the shelter for a few minutes.  The last .2 (6:33 pace)

Hopefully, I can find some magic to run faster in a couple weeks for the Madison Mini, otherwise it could be tough to finish in the top 20.

Morning:  8.46 miles along Lake WI + 4 striders Avg pace 7:17

 Evening:  6.38 miles with Voss and Flynn around Fort Avg pace 7:36

Finally, got a cool day and it felt so good! 

Morning:  13 miles with Voss + 3 miles (6:35, 6:35, 6:42) on my own at a harder effort for a total of 16 around Fort.  Avg pace 7:09 with a couple of water stops.  Started out cool, but was getting steamy by the end of the run.

Morning:  6.53 miles Starschool + 4 striders Avg 7:26

Evening:  9.3 miles with a ladder @ 3K-5K pace with Andrew.  

2x200 (34, 35) w/200 recoveries

2x400 (74, 75) w/400 recoveries

2x800 (2:29, 2:32) w/400 recoveries

2x400 (72, 69) same recovery

2x200 (?, 32) same recovery

The air was thick, but it was nice and cool!  It had been raining all day, which is the 1st all day rain we've had in over 3 months.  My legs felt strong, but my breathing was more labored than I care to admit.

Evening:  7.46 miles on starschool + little extra loop in the city Avg pace 7:00 min + 4 striders

Nice cool day.  Temps in the low 70's 

Dressed as the chicken again for the chicken challenge.  Beat the chicken and win free registration for next year.  The plan was to let 5 beat me like every year.  The race started out so slow as I sat back for the 1st 1/2 mile.  When I noticed no one was going to work for the free registration I decided to take it to the front and push the pace.  Came through the 1st mile in 5:25 and opened up a wide gap.  Good thing I surged to the front.  The lead biker (my wife Jen) took a wrong turn.  The 2nd mile is all down hill so I was chatting with my wife and cruised through at 5:33 pace.  I took a look back and noticed I increased my gap, so I decided to just maintain pace and not push the last mile.  After all this race wasn't for me to PR, it was just to promote a little fun.  Jen and I reasoned I should finish through 3 miles and wait for the 5th runner.  So I stopped at 3 miles and cheered on the competition.  When the 5th runner came up I ran along the 5th place runner and pushed him in for a free registration next year.

After the 5K I ran with the kids in the mile fun run race and cheered them on along the way.  It was a very nice cool sunny day.  Many people ran PR's and our registration was up from last year so we raised a good amount of money.  

Avg pace 5:33 for the 3 mile 

Morning:  10.75 miles with Griffin Hwy K loop with in-town add.  Avg 7:36 pace.  Nice and cool.

Morning:  Hwy M 7.63 miles steady pace, but naturally progressed down to 6:26 pace + 5 striders.  Avg pace 6:49 - Nice and cool, light rain during the striders

Evening:  11.94 miles on Glacial River Trail with Andrew.  Did a 4x3k w/1k moderate pace shooting for 30 sec slower than intervals on recoveries.  I ran too fast on intervals and too slow on the recoveries, but did a good job keeping things steady throughout the workout.  Temps right around 80 and low humidity.

3K's 3:41, 3:41, 3:45, 3:44  Avg 3:42k/5:57mi

Avg 1K recoveries  4:20k/6:58mi

Avg run pace 6:29mi 

Workout turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I think I was a little low on energy today.

Morning:  6.98 slow miles in town + 5 striders Avg 7:58

Evening:  8.38 mile progression run from 7:59 down to 5:39 pace.  The legs were a little sluggish, but they woke up along the way.  Cool temps - Avg pace 6:52

Evening:  5.08 easy miles in town loop + 5 striders.  Avg 7:31 

Just what I was hoping for.  Not far off my best on a more difficult course.  Ran very even splits.  Just missed top 10, but finished with some gas in the tank.  Should be a quick recovery.

Today was nice and cool with low humidity.  It made for some fast times this year.  You never know what kind of temps you'll get in WI this time of year, we really lucked out.  The plan was to run even splits and keep the race within limits, which is exactly what I did.  I'm running 2 more 1/2's in Sept. along with a 30K, so it was important to come out healthy and feel like I could do more.  I certainly didn't want to put myself in a hole with this race because the main focus is marathon training for the Twin Cities Marathon.

The race split into 2 groups and I led the 2nd pack through the 1st 2 miles running 5:40-5:50 pace.  My goal was to average in the 5:40's, my watch says I went 5:47 pace - officials results say 5:52.  I'll pretend I was in the 5:40's.  I was able to count my place on a downhill through mile 2 and figured I was in 14th or 15th place.  I dropped all the way back to 25th as people made some strong moves in the early miles, but battled my way back into 10th place with even pace running.  I would get passed by 2 runners in the last mile, but passed one back for 11th overall.  I was really happy with this race for a couple of reasons.  #1  I felt I didn't run a smart race at Grandma's 1/2 and I wanted to prove I could run smart.  #2 I didn't change my training intensity or volume for the race, but still managed to finish about 20 seconds off my best time on a much more difficult course than Grandmas.  #3 I finished with gas in the tank, so it shouldn't impact my marathon training too much.

Splits went:

5:42, 5:39, 5:51, 5:50, 5:49, 5:45, 5:54, 5:50, 5:45, 5:56, 5:39, 5:45, 5:53, with 5:02 pace for the last .2 = 5:47 avg pace, which would be 1:15:50ish for 13.1.  Maybe this was a PR if the course was long??

Evening:  4 miles very very easy 8:00 min avg pace.  Not as sore as I thought I'd be.  Was able to run 7:30 pace at the end of the run comfortably. 

Evening:  6.86 miles at an easy pace out on Star School loop + 6 strides Avg pace 7:11

Evening:  9 mile progression run to see how the legs are doing from the 1/2.  I decided to switch My BIG Tuesday workout with my smaller progression run Thursday to give the legs some extra rest.  I kept the progression light in terms of intensity.   Progressed from 7:55 down to 5:58 pace. Avg pace 6:43 per mile 

Evening:  7 miles easy on random route out toward River Rd. + 6 striders.  For the 2nd time in 2 years I was hit by a bat while running.  The last time I was hit in the side of the head, this time I was hit in the nose.  They were buzzing all around a small section on the bike path tonight.  Avg pace 7:26

Evening:  15.17 miles with 5k-4k-3k-2k-1k down and 1k recoveries over rolling course.  Goal was to keep the interval pace and recovery pace within 30 seconds.  It was hot and I'm still only 5 recovery days out from the 1/2 so I wanted to keep the paces @ or slightly slower than marathon pace to make sure I could get through the workout and not put myself in a hole.  Was a little off on the recoveries by a 5 sec. average.  I can live with that on a hot humid day.

5K -  20:06   4:01.12 k/6:27.8 avg pace

4K - 15:43   3:55.75k/6:19.8 avg pace

3K -  11:45  3:55k/6:19.8 avg pace

2K -  7:44   3:52k/6:13.3 avg pace

1K - 3:55    3:55k/6:19.8 avg pace 

Avg Interval  3:55.77k/6:19.8, Avg Recovery 4:30.29, Avg Run Pace 6:51 

Evening:  6.28 miles with a cold.  Didn't have any energy for this run, but somehow managed to drag myself around town for a slow run.  Avg around 8 min pace

Decided to take yesterday off to give myself some rest.  I've been battling a cold and it's really zapping my energy and motivation.  Today, I wasn't feeling much better, but wanted to give it a try. During the run I noticed I wasn't really feeling any better so I tried to keep the pace honest, but not too difficult.  I think I did an okay job through 12 miles, but the last 4-5 miles were too much.  I tried to put in a faster marathon pace effort, but my legs and body started shutting down.  Ran a 6:31 and then hit a 6:46 at the same effort.  The sun was out and the humidity was high by the end of the run.  I managed a death march home, took a shower, and sat on the couch the rest of the evening.  Hopefully, my lazy evening will make up for the tough run I put myself through.  Tomorrow is going to be really easy running if any at all.  It's going to be a very busy week, only 1 left before school starts up again. Avg pace 7:20

Evening:  7.52 easy miles Star School w/add on + 4 striders.  Still not feeling well, low energy general cold/flu feelings.  

8.27 miles random route to River Rd.  Still sick, but managed a strong finish to the run 7:09 avg

Evening:  6.68 miles + 6 striders - hot, but not too humid.  Didn't feel good, still sick.  Getting better though.  Avg pace 7:27

Evening:  10 miles on Glacial River - Hot and windy, but not humid.  Didn't feel all that good on this run, but better than yesterday - still sick.

Evening:  6.44 miles around Fort Avg pace 7:30 + 5 striders