AZ Run Dad

Some easy miles with 4 x 200 in 31,34,33,32 with 200 jogs. I'm running a 10k in the morning and this was just a leg awakener. We'll see if it worked. 

Not a great race today. I've been a little off lately physically and mentally and that came through today. Workouts have been tougher than they should be and a little bit of "why am I doing this" has been creeping in. Post marathon blues? I'm not sure but I'd like it to change it. Anyway, I got a good warm up in and the weather was great for running. 55 and cloudy.  My splits were 5:26, 5:25, 5:29, 5:29, 5:35, 5:32, and 1:12 for the last .25. I was 5th place and had people around me to help push. I never felt comfortable out there which is probably due to my weak mental attitude. I was thinking low to mid 33 going in so this is pretty far off. This is just a couple of seconds per mile faster than my half marathon in Nov. The course was fast and flat so I can't blame that. I hope things turn around but maybe I have just pushed a little too hard and too quickly post marathon. I wrote down 32:30 for my goal for this race at the beginning of the year. Maybe I was expecting too much. Time for some chili and cornbread and the first half of the Super Bowl. I won't be able to stay up much past that. 

AM: 6.25 miles very easy. No soreness which is good after racing yesterday.

PM: 4 more easy miles. Ran at Freestone Park on the way home from work. Incredible weather. No shirt for this one. Perfect.  

AM: 8.5 Easy miles including strides at the end. 

PM: 4 Easy miles at the park on the way home again. No shirt. AZ weather at its finest.

Legs feel good and it's been nice taking it easy. I started taking naproxen for my bursitis in my hip. I have a feeling that limping the first mile of every run may have been eating at my confidence without me thinking much about it. I've dealt with bursitis a lot and I always get rid of it fairly quickly. I just don't like to take anti-inflamitory medicine because it has been shown to slow down improvement. It's feeling better already. 

10 miles moderate with a push the last .6 for some excitement. 5:16 pace for that but felt like 5 flat pace. 

AM: Hilly Half Marathon today: 13.1 6:29 pace

Ran 3.5 miles from work up to the canal and 32nd then did 6 straight miles at marathon effort up and down the hill from the canal to Lincoln up 32nd St (125-130 ft over a mile). Splits were 6:18,5:55,6:08,5:47,6:08,5:37. Felt pretty good on those. Finished easy/moderate back to work and felt like I still had a lot of energy. This run helped me in a lot if different ways.

PM: 4.35 miles w/4 easy and 6 strides in the grass. Legs were tired from the morning session but it was another very enjoyable run with the perfect weather we've been having.

8.25 miles: a mini workout this morning. Warmed up 2.85 w/ drills and strides and threw on my Saucony A4s. I did 4 x 800 in 2:26,2:26,2:27,2:27 w/800 jogs on the road. They were pretty hard but it's good for me to sprinkle in some of the sub 5 stuff for a good speed foundation. This was probably 3k pace for me. I hope I can turn that into 5k pace in a couple months. Work to do!

16 miles with a 7.5 mile warm up then 2 x 3 miles with 1 mile jog between in 16:56 and 16:58. Target was 17 flat and hopefully not too hard. First set fit the bill and second one got tough. I'm still happy with this run and it's definitely a positive for me. Pretty good week after a bad race last week. 

AM: 7.25 Easy including a few strides. 

PM: 4 easy miles at Freestone Park on the way home from work. 

AM: 10 miles: Ran to the track and did some drills and strides before doing the following workout: 5 x (1200 in 3:54, 100 in 30 sec, 300 in 54) with 3 min walking rests. So basically it was a more interesting way of runnin a 5:18 mile and I got to practice kicking it in when tired. This was a tough one but I feel pretty good about it. It's not that easy to get these type of workouts done by myself in the cold and dark but when I get done it feels great and I don't have to yell lane 1 at other runners at that time of the day. Have a great day!

 PM: 5 miles easy on the way home from work. 

10 slower miles around the park and on the canal on a perfect day.

10 miles starting easy and then ending with a moderated progression run. Never worked hard but was getting there by the end of this one. Ended up skipping my second run to get a sitter and go to dinner with my wife. Best training decision of the week.

4 Easy and some strides

10 miles with some speed reps: Ran a couple miles to the track and did some drills and strides then did 12 x 400 w/400 slow jogs. I averaged 71 for these. The reps where I hit 70 felt like a little too much effort and loss of smooth form but 71-72 felt better and much smoother. A slight difference but I definitely could tell. This turned out to be a good workout and a good start to the day. 

This was a last second choice for me. My goal race is the Eugene Half in April and the Phoenix Half in a couple of weeks is a major one on the schedule. My planned workout for the day was 18 with last 8 at 5:45 which I knew would be a tough one. I decided last minute to email the race director for the Lost Dutchman Half and ask for an comped entry which was $100. He very generously said yes so I decided to do my workout in the race where there would be competition and water stops. Perfect. When I told my coach what I was planning he actually told me to go for 5:45s and then pick it up at the end which was more aggressive but I was fine with it. I didn't look at my watch much during the race and went off effort as much as I could. I ended up in third for most of the first half and I felt like I was giving a pretty decent effort but holding back just a little. Most of my splits were between 5:40 and 5:55 depending on the terrain. The course had no major hills but was very rolling and always changing. I thought it was kind of a tough course (I live in extremely flat area). Anyway at the turnaround I turned my effort level up a notch and started to close on the top two. On the long incline in the 10th mile I was about to catch the top guy but I was starting to wonder if I would have enough left to race him to the finish. We ran a couple of miles together trading a few surges before I finally was clear of him for good with just over a mile to go. I ended up getting a nice boost of energy and was able to close in 5:20, 5:24 over the last two miles. The highlight of the race for me was seeing my wife and kids going around the last turn and getting to see them as I was coming in for the win. My daughter says I always get second so it was nice to win one! This turned out to be more of a race effort than I was hoping but I'm happy with the way it played out. I was not tapered at all (workout yesterday and a big mileage week for me) so I was happy with it. Also, the course was challenging and I think I should be able to take a nice chunk of time off at the Phoenix Half in a couple weeks. I cooled down with the second place guy afterwards and we got to talking and his brother is Andrew Wheating who is one of the US's top 800/1500 guys. I thought that was pretty interesting. He is a triathlete just getting into it and that was his first non triathlon half marathon. He was 1:15:40 which I thought was pretty impressive. All in all good day. Always nice to win a race.

AM: 6 miles easy. Body didn't feel bad at all. Pleasant surprise.

 PM: 4 miles easy. Soreness setting in. 

10 miles easy: I had a big workout on the schedule but since I gave a hard effort in the race Sunday I decided to push it back. Sounds like an easy decision but it's always difficult to do less. I could tell I wasn't ready during the run so I was happy with my decision.

AM: 8 Easy + Strides: Legs were feeling almost back to normal again. Really windy but I had a good run and felt good. Broke out a brand new pair of Kinvara 2s. I loaded up on them about a year ago. This is my last pair.

PM: 4 easy. Really cold for AZ. It snowed on the Superstition Mountains which are about 30 minutes from me and where I ran the half marathon Sunday. Nice to see snow on the mountains around here for once. 

This was the big workout on the schedule this week that I had to push to later in the week because of the half marathon I did Sunday. I warmed up 2.85 miles including drills and strides and then did 8 x 1 mile LT repeats with 1 min jogs on the road. Splits were 5:29,5:31,5:29,5:30,5:29,5:29,5:31,5:27. This was a tough workout both mentally and physically but I'm very happy with the results and how I felt. Since I ran the marathon in December things have been coming back very slowly but I'm starting to see some substantial gains now.

I was attending the Running Summit in California so I was able to run along the beach in Newport with my coach John. We did 8 miles or so with some faster 20 sec pick ups at 4:30ish with full jog recoveries pace in the last few miles. It was quite a nice run with the sunrise on one side and the ocean on the other. 

12 miles in Newport Beach. We had to get up earlier because classes for the Running Summit started earlier so we are on the beach path in the dark at 5 am. It was extremely windy but we still got a good workout in. We went out 6 then flipped and turned into the wind for another mile before starting a progression run (sort of). I did 5:54, 5:38,5:31, 5:39. These were into a 15mph headwind so the third mile kind of did me in and I slowed for the fourth one. Pretty happy given the conditions.

8 miles easy

10.25 miles with 8 x 1k w/200 jogs done on the roads. I did this workout about a month ago and it was a grind. Today was hard but much better. The first one was 3:13 and last one was 3:14. Other than that they were all 3:18-19 and I didn't have to push to hit those times. Nice to see some improvement.

8 Miles easy after work. Legs tired.

8 miles with 10 x 1 min on/jog at 5:20-5:30 pace in the last 4 miles. Felt okay today.