Rainy Wet and COOOOOOLD!!!!1

Well, for us here in Southern AZ....the weather here has been what we would consider cold. Yesterday I scrapped the plans of my morning workout for a bit more sleep. The forecast was supposed to be windy, rainy and cold, but that's not how it turned out at ALL! It seems as though all the predictions just kept pushing themselves out, and I ended up outsmarting myself. So, I figured it was important to get that mid-week long run in! Once i got home, I changed into my running gear and went out for an hour and a half run through the neighborhood. My goal was to run parts of the workout with some intensity, as I wasn't sure what this morning would bring. It was also a weird feeling, I don't usually run in the evenings, and for that matter, I don't ususally run well in the evenings. I started out on the course that I did last Wednesday, my typical 9.5 mile course. As I went out, I noticed that my starting pace was a bit higher then what i do in the morning, but it felt good, and I didn't have to wait for my legs to wake up....So I just went with it. Miles 1, 2, and 3 were very nice and even. For miles 4 and 5 I figured that would be a good place to do a little race pace scenario. 4 is a continuous and gradual uphill segment. Along the way, I saw a pair of runners out who had a nice lead on me, and I used them as a rabbit that I could catch and overtake. I passed them, and kept up with the great leg turnover and motored my way along trough 4 and the downhill mile 5. From there I backed out of the throttle a bit and settled into a nice 8:15 pace and pretty much stayed there up until mile 10, where I struggled a bit as the course changed to again going slightly uphill, but added in the wind in the face factor as the strom front finally decided to make it's appearance. I'm sure your sitting there going...but he said above that the course is 9.5 miles, how'd he get to 10....Well, at mile 8 I decided that I was running well, so I took a left turn through a neighborhood that ended up taking me down to our marked path, and I extended the run from 9.5 to 11 rather easily. Mile 11 was nice and even as I made the right turn for the 1 mile straightaway home, which turned the wind to cross and slightly at my back. Some great things to focus on, my 7 mile time was 59:04! 4 seconds slower then Tuesday, and still 1:51 faster then Monday! I did the full 11 miles in 1:28:50. Dr. Garmin put that at a 8:34 pace....Not bad for a average everyday run! Sheesh, I can remember plodding along at 10 min/miles thining I was cruising. That was so 33 pounds ago, and a totally different stressed out me.

Today did finally getting washed out. I may actually do the workout this afternoon as it looks like the front may have mosved through for good. The suns back out, and it's a balmy 52 degrees. It's the standard 12x400m repeat day, so I can run across the street and do them in the seclusion of a nice and quiet retirment neighborhood. Today also marks my last day of work for this Calendar Year. that means I get to sleep in tomorrow and go running when nanna and pop pop show up. 9ish...10sh...Whatev! I get two full weeks where I can focus on nothing but training, just like it was my JOB! I'm going to give myself the gift of working out as if I'm a pro athlete. I'm going to see if I can get 60 miles in each week, and break out the bike for a few afternoon rides.

Anyway, I should finish up those last few things I need to get done before I'm off for the year. Until tomorrows Blog adventure, LIVESTRONG and train HARD!

The quest for More Cowbell.....Errrr......7s....

HA....And I'm not talking about gambling! I'm talking miles. Today's workout plans with the group got scrapped when I took a look at the workout and saw that they were only doing 2 1/4 miles. I thought to myself...What the?? After not running the prescribed 15 miles in the rain on Sunday, I've got a little bit of makeup to do, and 2 1/4 miles wasn't the prescription. No, my workout had a fever! And the only perscription was more COWBELL....errrrr....Miles. So I did the same run that I did yesterday, the 7 mile run through my neighborhood. My goal though was to be yeasterdays time since Tuesdays was a more of a speed day. As usual, I took the first mile easy to wak the body up. Once the alarm went off, I then gradually started to ratchet up the speed. I started at 8:35, down to 8:25, and then 8:20. At thispopint I decided miles 4-5 should be at my hal marathon pace, so I ratched up to a 7:40. After that I dropped back into an 8:15 and stayed there till the end of the workout. I managed to take 1:55 off of yesterdays time, and still got some speed training on my legs.

There's not a whole lot to report out there. Last night I did the unthinkable and went into my pools 58 degree water. WHOAH!!! You talk about an ice bath! Thankfully I got the Hot Tub back up and running, so the transition to the hot water was oh so nice.....You know, you can't not do a double dog dare from your nine year old son!

On that note.....Until tomorrow....LIVESTRONG and train hard!

Mixed Weekend of Results

This past weekend was a mixed bag for me. I knew that Sunday's run was going to be jeopardized by the weather, and that held out to be oh so true. Needless to say, as the downpour raged on at 4:30am, I made the command decision to call it and go back to bed. I had a long day ahead and starting off soaking wet wasn't going to help the cause. And I felt as though I had kind of earned it with the effort I put out on Sunday in the 50 minute workout where every five minutes we altered from 10K pace back to Half Marathon pace.

This whole new running experience is quite an experience. We're in that cycle where we we have about 3 to 4 week between same workouts. This I like because you can really see how far you've progressed. This particular workout we did 3 weeks ago, and I had a GREAT run, so I was a little unsure how much I'd progress. What I didn't expect was what happened....

My first 5 mins on, I set out on a blistering pace, one that was FASTER then my 30 minute tempo the previous Saturday. I felt great, but I was running in a territory that I'd never seen before. We're talking 7:04 pace. But it was only 5 minutes, so I wasn't too alarmed that I went out too fast. My off set I trottled back to 7:45 and my legs just felt GREAT and overall I was running nice and relaxed. Set two started, and I took off like a greyhound trying to get the rabbit. I didn't even realize how fast I was going until I passed the 2 mile mark at 14:04.....yes, you read that right...14:04. I was TRUCKING!!! I looked at the pace of Dr. Garmin, and it read a 6:40 pace, and I still had 56 seconds to go on the on set. I kept it going as I figured that it was only less then a minute of effort.....But When the set ended, I had a little discussion with myself. I didn't need to go out there and blow up on sets 4 and 5. So I made a concious decision that I needed to slow down a bit. I set my target on pace at 7:15, realistically where it should be. And with that when the on set came, I settled very nicely into the 7:15, and that's where each of the 3 remaining sets were, ON THE NOSE. there was absolutely NO variation. And, I finished the 50 minutes at 6.75 miles. The last time I ran that workout, I only managed to get 6.4 miles. That's a FULL 3 tenths further, in just 3 weeks! Another MAJOR step towards where I want to be. In two weeks, we get another version of this workout, but we add one more set. I'm thinking that I should be able to do a full long loop, and close the short loop by then. That's my ultimate goal. In fact, I should go past closing the short loop, as where I finished was about a mile from that point, which I'll cover more then a mile in 10 mins. So all looks very very promising. This coming Saturday, we'll get an official reading to where my Long Loop 5 mile time trial is. I'm going to have to go deep into the spreadsheets to see what my PB is. When I find it.....We'll set the goal to CRUSH that time!

And I started the week off by doing a nice 7 miler this morning. Since i didn't run yesterday my legs were incredibly fresh. I kept the last 6 miles under 8:30 pace, as I always take that first one pretty easy. Today, that was a 9:15. I'm really starting to evlauate the caledar and see where to work in that marathon. Right now I'm looking for a fast March timeframe event, but I don't see any. If anyone knows of a close marathon to Tucson in the March timeframe...lemme know....I'm in the HUNT!

Until tomorrow, Train Hard and LIVESTRONG!