dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I ran a shorter run than normal this morning, because I needed to run from school to a funeral in the evening, and I didn't want to put in too many miles, because I wanted to let my calf rest a bit.  So, I ran 6 miles in the morning in about 46 or 47 minutes.  My calf felt decent, but there were brief moments when I would take a funny step, or go down a sharp decline and I would feel a short stabbing pain lasting about a second or so.

PM: I ran from school until Kimia was able to pick me up.  I will call it 3.8 miles.  I decided to test and see how well my leg was holding up while I was running.  I picked up the pace some (I was running sub 7:00 pace, but I am not sure how fast) and I just tried to cruise along at that pace.  My leg felt surprisingly good.  I felt some of the same twinges I felt this morning, but I didn't have to deal with the sharp inclines/declines so the calf felt better overall.

I ran to school this morning.  I ran faster than I normally do, although I was not trying to run faster, so I was happy with the organic speed increase as opposed to forcing the pace.  My calf felt better than it has on any day in the past week, as I only started to feel some minor twinges in the calf muscle during the second half of the run, and they were minor nothing more, no pain.  Total time for 8.6 miles was 1:00:46.

PM: I ran home from school finishing 8.6 miles in 1:00:23.  I was surprised to finish as fast as I did, seeing that I only hit the 5 mile mark in about 37 minutes.  It ended up being a mix of downhill, and a strong tailwind the last few miles that caused me to want to slow down on the last steep downhill, despite not trying to run fast at all.  My calf hurt a little at the beginning of the run, and I stopped to stretch it out before continuing.  Overall the calf felt worse than this morning, but I didn't really feel any pain other than the minor discomfort at the beginning of the run.

I wanted to run a tempo run today as long as my calf was feeling good.  I decided to run the tempo in the morning because I figured that my calf would hold up better during the tempo if I hadn't already run earlier in the day.  So, after warming up for a little less than three miles I started my tempo. 

The first mile was into a strong headwind (approximately 5:58), but I turned on Eastern Ave after 1 mile, and I got a nice tailwind for the next 3 miles as the wind was blowing from the Southwest, and I was heading West and North.  I don't really have accurate splits for the wind aided miles, but my average pace per mile was about 5:05.  I turned onto Tropicana Ave just past the 4 mile mark, and I hit the headwind again for the last mile.  I pushed this mile harder than the others since I wanted to finish strong, and I closed with a 5:33 for the last mile.

Total time for the tempo was 26:46 (5:21 pace).  I was happy with this, as I felt the headwind and tailwind canceled one another out pretty well despite having more tailwind miles than headwind miles (it felt like the headwind was stronger than the tailwind as the wind was not blowing directly from the Southwest, but seemed to be more of a WSW wind, although that may have just been my imagination).  Anyhow, my workouts over the past couple months have made me feel good about my fitness, and this workout gives me confidence heading into the marathon I am running in Illinois in a couple weeks, knowing that I didn't loose anything last week when I did not get much quality mileage in due to the calf issues.  I am also encouraged by the practice I have gotten running in windy conditions (Illinois can get windy) as I feel that I can run well in the wind as long as I get a matching tailwind too (loop course... check!)

I finished running to school after finishing the tempo, and ended 8.6 miles in 54:57

PM:  I ran home from school, finishing 8.6 miles in 1:01:28.  The wind was nasty on my way home.  Luckily, I only had a nasty headwind for about 3.5 miles, while the rest was tailwind.

I ran to school this morning.  I finished 8.6 miles in 1:03:08.  My legs felt somewhat fatigued this morning after I woke up, so I made sure to take it easy for the first mile, and I wore long socks to make sure that the muscles didn't get cold and tight.

PM:  I ran most of the way home from school, but I asked to Kimia to pick me up because I don't want to push my mileage too high this week.  I will call it 6.1 miles in 46:50.

I felt pretty good this morning, but I shortened my run by a bit because I don't want to get my total mileage too high this week with the Illinois marathon coming up in just 2 weeks.  So, I only ran 8 miles finishing in 57:14.  Tomorrow will be my last 20 mile run before the marathon.

I ran my last 20 mile run before the marathon I run in Illinois in two weeks.  The original plan was to run the same 9.5 mile tempo that I ran a few weeks ago, but as I started I decided to run a 5.4 mile tempo (2 x sunset park loop), followed by a 5.7 mile tempo (1 x sunset park loop + 3 miles towards home).  I ran 6.7 miles easy before starting the first tempo section at just faster than 6:40 pace, however around 5 or 6 miles my calf started complaining again (same calf as before, but the opposite side, so maybe the result of some overcompensating).  So, after the first loop of the park (2.7 miles in 15:00/ 5:33 pace) I stopped the first tempo run.  I ran easy for a little while, and stopped to massage my calf and stretch it out, and eventually started the second tempo run right when I had originally planned.  The second tempo hurt more than the first, although the pain seemed to relax away to a certain degree near the end of the park loop.  I finished the second 2.7 mile loop in 14:53 (5:30 pace).  I stopped the second tempo at that point rather than risk any damage, but I ran 1 mile out of the last three miles of the planned tempo section in 5:23.  I made it home to finish 20 miles in 2:10:28.

Wind was not bad during the run, but it was swirling around everywhere, so I never really got a good tailwind to offset the headwind, which is why the tempos were so slow.  A tornado cloud even formed in the middle of the park as I was running easy and I got pretty close to it, watched it for a minute or so, and then started running again.

I went to the running store, and got new racing flats after I finished my run, so I added a little extra mileage.  I will give myself an extra 0.5 miles for it