dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I ran 10 miles today in 1:20:08. My average HR for the run was 130, so it was still a little higher than it would normally be, but it seemed to be a little closer to normal than it has been recently.

I ran to school this morning, and I ran a speed workout (1 + 2 + 2 miles) on the way there. I ran the first mile in 5:13 with an average HR of around 174 running slightly uphill the whole way. I was happy with the HR on this mile.

I had a recovery of about 4 minutes after the first hard mile (3 min running and 1 min at a stop light) and followed that with my first 2 mile repeat in 11:00 (5:29, 5:31). The slow splits are mainly due to wind which got progressively stronger during the second mile, although there was no uphill during this stretch. My HR was lower (average around 170-171) during the 2 mile repeat than during the first hard mile, which was also good considering the effort was not as hard, however there was a brief stretch when my HR spiked for some unknown reason before returning to normal (possibly due to HR monitor error, but possibly not).

I had a longer recovery after the first 2 mile repeat of about 9 minutes. The second 2 mile repeat was a 10:48 (5:18, 5:30) with the first mile possibly being just a tiny bit short (but no more than 5-7 seconds I would imagine). This repeat was also windy, but flat just like the other. My HR did not agree with me on this repeat, averaging around 175 for 2 miles. This told me that while my breathing issues seem to slowly be getting better I am not 100% back to normal yet.

Total time for 8.6 miles was 56:15.

PM: I ran home from school. I missed restarting my watch at a stop light and didn't notice until I had gone almost a mile. Total time was 58:27 and the missed time brings me up to 1:06:10-1:06:20. Average HR was 130 for the run.

I ran to school this morning with a total time of 1:06:11. Average HR was 129. Overall results appear equivalent to last night (average HR of 130 and total time that was similar), but I think that this was a better result as running to school gives me a net increase in elevation of over 200' whereas running home is the opposite.

PM: I ran home from school this evening in 1:06:35 with an average HR of 129. I started off pretty slowly, and by 4 or 5 miles I was running near 7:30 pace without an increase in HR in comparison to the beginning of the run when I was going slower.

I ran to school this morning with a total time of 58:36.  I was in the mood to run a little quicker, so I just cruised a little under 7:00 pace for most of the run (although the first mile was more like a 7:45).  Total of 8.6 miles.

I ran at school for my second run today.  I ran over to the track, and after a brief warm-up I ran a 400-800-1200-1600-1200-800-400 ladder with 60 seconds rest (just over 100m running on average) between repeats.  The goal was to try and relax as much as possible while hitting splits right around marathon OTQ pace (5:18/mile).  It was somewhat windy and temps were in the 80's so the effort was harder than what my effort will be when running my next marathon on November 12th, but that was fine.

Splits were 1:16, 2:34, 3:52, 5:15, 3:54, 2:33, 1:10.  The wind was not very strong during the first three repeats, but it picked up a bit during the 1600 and the following 1200 before dying back down again.  I was surprised at how easy the final 400 felt.  My general feeling while running was that a 36 second 200 did not feel much different than a 40 second 200.  I will need to make sure to not press too hard early on in the next marathon, which may be difficult when differing efforts do not feel too different.  I guess that is what the HR monitor is for, but I can not become too dependent on that either.

Total of 6.4 miles for the run, with 4 miles of total speed work. 

I ran in Reno this morning after driving all last night from Las Vegas to attend a conference.  Luckily I did not have to drive so I was able to sleep some in the car.  Unfortunately I was not able to sleep more than a few hours, so I was very tired by about 10am.  At 11am I was able to go to sleep and I slept until 3pm, so I felt much better.  I ran an estimated 10 miles in 1:17:58 at 6am.

I ran an estimated 20 miles this morning in Reno in 2:12:04.  I suspect that it may have been a little longer than 20 miles because of some mile markers I saw on the roads while I was running.  I ran the last 5 or so miles at a marathon effort.  It was hard to gauge the effort being at altitude for the first time in months, with much colder temperatures than I am accustomed to (around 40 degrees).