dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I had to hurry my run a bit this morning because I was late getting out the door.  My problem is that once I start getting moving a little faster than normal my runs generally turn a lot faster.  I started around 8:00 pace, but progressively got faster until I hit a 6:35 mile about 5 miles in.  I finished in 1:03:39 for 9 miles.

At school I helped another student with some research she was working on and I ran an additional 2.2 miles on the treadmill at 8:00 pace. 

The buses were all messed up today because the President was on campus, and I had to walk home.  I ended up running the last half mile because a bus finally passed by and I wanted to see if I would beat the bus home without pushing myself.  Later on I ran an additional 10 miles, running 3 x 1 mile repeats with 0.5 mile recovery.  I decided to run the first repeat a little easier and then progressively get faster.  I ended up with splits of 5:22 (mild downhill followed by 3:54 recovery), 5:11 (flat with a 180 halfway through followed by a 3:57 recovery), and 4:56 (mild uphill, the same as the first repeat but in reverse).  The 4:56 mile was the first mile I have run all year where I have broken 5:00.  I then ran easy for just under two miles before running one final hard mile in 5:06 and finishing at my apartment.  This mile is hilly and has lots of turns.  I had trouble making a few of the turns because of the speed and how sharp they were.  Based on my measurements from the course tool I may need to add a second or two to make this a full mile.  My total time for 10 miles was 1:05:50.

I ran 1:34:39 today giving me approximately 12 miles.  I did not run a direction I normally go, so I am not sure exactly how far I went.  I purposefully took it really easy today after the speed work I ran yesterday.

11 miles today in 1:24:56.  I am running my first race in over 9.5 months tomorrow evening, so I decided to try to get a feel for goal race pace by running a 400 on the track in 75 seconds.  I ended up running a 72, but the second 200 was a 37.  I then ran a 200 to try and get a little more practice and I ran a 38 or a 39.  Overall I felt kind of tired during the run, but that may help me come tomorrow because I ran fairly slow as a result.

I ran my first race in over 9.5 months this evening.  It was a local 5k that gets some fast guys every year.  I warmed up for a little over 3 miles before the race started.  I had the runs all afternoon and my stomach didn't feel the best but I was hoping that I would still be able to run well.

The race started and I went out in the front pack of guys.  My plan had been to try and hit about 5:00 pace, but once the race started I got excited and went with the guys on the ISU run club hitting the mile mark in 4:46.  Shortly after the mile mark I started to fall back as the fast first mile was too much considering my fitness level right now.

I struggled to maintain pace the most when the course went uphill, leading me to think that I am lacking strength right now and I may benefit from some time in the weight room.  After about a mile and a half I also started to experience chest pains consistent with what you feel when you push too hard and overexert the muscles between the ribs.  This highlights the aerobic deficiency that I still have, and also caused me to realize how unaccustomed I am to running at this effort level for a long period of time.  This was the bigger problem of the two, as late in the race my legs still felt like they had more in them but I was being limited aerobically.  Considering that I had not run a single mile under 5:00 all year until earlier this week I guess I should not be surprised.

I hit 2 miles in 9:59 (5:13 mile), in 5th place but gaining on 4th who had dropped off of the front pack about a half mile after I did.  I passed that guy and took 4th place only to be overtaken by another runner who was smarter and started off a little more slowly.  It stayed this way until the finish and I covered the final 1.1 miles in 6:03 to finish in 16:02.  My official time was 15:58.3.  I am not sure where the discrepancy came from, but I will take the official time as 15:xx sounds a lot better than 16:xx.

Overall I feel that this race gives me a good starting point to improve on as I move forward and continue to improve my fitness once more. 

I ran 16 miles this morning with a bunch of the guys in the running club.  I wantedto get the run finished fairly quickly so I took the initative to speed things up and I finished in 1:48:24.