dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I ran with Jeff Shadley this morning, as he is in town for work.  It is the first time that I have run with anyone in a while.  I ended up being pretty chatty during the run due to my long layoff from running with people, and I forgot to turn around at the right time, and ended up running a couple miles farther than planned.  Total of 14.5 miles in 1:39:XX.

I ran to school this morning, and ran intervals of "2" and "1" miles on the way.  I finished the first "2 miles" in 10:52 (5:26, 5:26) although the second "mile" was probably a little longer than the first as I had to cross the street mid interval.  Both miles were slightly windy (and they call Chicago the windy city... the wind here is incessant).  After a recovery of about a mile and a half, I ran one last "mile" in 5:06.  I think the last mile was a little short (probably more like a 5:16 I am guessing based on the effort).

On the way home, I ran a "fat mile" in 6:02.  Again, a little windy.  Minus the wind the effort would have probably given me a low to mid 5:50.

I ran to school today and I ran a few sprints mid run.  I didn't time them, and I wasn't really trying to make it a specific distance or run a specific speed.  I was just trying to sprint as fast and as smooth as possible until I felt like stopping.  I ended up running 4 or 5 of them.

On the way home, Kimia picked me up halfway between Eastern Ave, and Pecos, so I will guess it was about 5.3 miles based on the car measurements I have taken. 

I ran 7 x "400m" intervals on the way to school this morning.  As there are stop lights all over the place I couldn't really keep a set time or distance to space the repeats out, so I ended up taking long rest between all of them, with the minimum rest being approx 3 minutes, and the max being approx 8-10 minutes.  The first three repeats were just estimates for distance, which means that I ran, and when I felt like I had run equal to or just a little farther than 400m I slowed down.  Times mean nothing for these, (especially since the first two were run on a slight uphill grade) but the first three repeats were 1:14, 1:13, 1:08.  After this I was able to run a few repeats in areas where the streets have been arranged such that the measurements have been done for me, so the distance is pretty close to accurate, but not necessarily exactly 400m.  Finished these repeats in 1:05, 1:11, 1:08, 1:05.  The first 1:05 was a really hard effort, because the sidewalk was winding all over the place (so probably longer than 400) and I ended up slowing for a couple seconds as I ran through some ground cover, so I would guess that the effort was worth closer to a 1:00, 400 than a 1:05.  I ran the next a little slower just to relax a bit more, and then ran the last 2 at a good effort, but still easier than the first one in 1:05.  So, based on all this I think that the first three 400's were all a little long, as the effort was similar, but they couldn't have been long by much.

After school I ran home fairly quickly because I had an appointment with the missionaries.  I didn't run any mileage that I will count as marathon pace mileage, but I was going sub 6:30 pace the entire way home, and probably dipped under 6:00 pace near the end when I was running downhill.  I ran about a half mile extra on the way home, because I had to pick up the car from Kimia.  9.1 miles total on the way home.

I ran a little shorter this morning than I had originally planned, because I ran farther than planned yesterday (originally Kimia was going to pick me up partway home so that I could keep the mileage a little lower, but that didn't work out).  I ended up running 8 miles in 1:01:XX.  I felt pretty good.  In fact I have felt really good these last few days.  It gives me a little confidence heading into my taper week.  I guess that today actually counts as my first official taper day, even though my long run last week was shorter than normal, and mileage the last 2 weeks has barely broken 70, but whatever, all that really matters is how I do on race day and I feel like things are falling into place nicely.

I ran short today as I am now tapering for the marathon next Saturday!  Only 12 miles, however I ran 1 mile all out about 8 miles in, plus a tempo mile a mile after that.  The original plan was to run the mile on the track after a three mile warm-up, however there was a nasty wind blowing, and when I got to the track there was a pee wee football game going on that looked official enough that I thought it was a better idea to just not run on the track.  I ended up picking a section of trail to run my all out mile that is just slightly slower than flat ground, however I couldn't start the mile until I was 7.75 miles into the run.  I don't know how the longer warm-up affected me.  The wind died down a bit about a mile before I ran my all out mile, so it wasn't as bad, however I was running away from the wind during the mile, so it was actually a tail wind.  Even though it was a tail wind, I actually feel fortunate that the wind died down a little, because it means that my mile was aided less.  Took a vpb in a drainage tunnel off of the trail, then started.

I don't have any splits for the mile, but I know more or less where the quarter marks would have been if they existed, so I know general elevation change for each quarter during the mile.  1st quarter was flat for about half of it, then downhill into a tunnel going under the road.  I started off a bit too fast, and realized it and slowed down around the same time I started heading downhill.  2nd quarter was uphill for the first part as I came out of the tunnel, and then climbed a little more until it flattened out the last 100m or so.  3rd quarter had a solid downhill for about 150m near the beginning, then flattened out, followed by a slight incline near the end of it.  I realized about 3 min into the mile, that I had forgotten how to run the mile (I haven't raced a 1600 since high school, and even then it wasn't my main event, and I was slower than I am now, so I could never really hammer the pace because I didn't have the leg strength to do it) as I wasn't hurting yet and I was almost 3/4 of the way into it.  I started picking up the pace here, but I do wonder how much I cost myself by not pushing hard enough for the second and third quarters.  The 4th quarter rolls a fair amount, as it starts with a slight uphill, has some downhill followed by a little more uphill, and then flattens out near the end, but has a nasty turn that almost makes you stop about 40m from the finish.  I was pushing this quarter, and I was finally feeling like I was running a mile, but then I hit that last turn, and it killed all momentum that I had.  I sprinted to the finish from the turn, and stopped my watch at 4:31.

So, it was a mile pr for me, which is more indicative of how weak my pr was then the shape I am in, as my previous pr (actually for 1600m, but close enough) was only a 4:34, and was set in practice when I was a freshman at BYU.  I think that the terrain for the mile (overall slight net downhill) was probably slower than on flat ground or the track, however this was negated by the tailwind that I had, so I am guessing that given the conditions it was equivalent to something flat.  I wish that I would have pushed the pace more during the middle section of the mile, as I feel that I could have gone significantly faster, but I still achieved my purpose, which was to really get my legs working hard for a short distance in the lead up to the marathon next Saturday.

I took a mile to get my legs back under me after the all out mile, and then ran a tempo mile, which ended up somewhere around 5:30 (I wasn't really focusing on pace at all, I just wanted to go fast, so I didn't look at the time too closely).  I then finished by running home.  Not sure on the total time for the run, but average pace was pretty quick for most of the run, including the easy stuff early on (I made it to 7 miles in about 50:30 before I stopped paying attention, and eventually zero'd out my watch for my hard mile).