dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I ran 10 miles today in 1:14:56.  No HRM today.

I ran to school this morning.  On the way I ran 2 x 1 mile in 5:09 and 4:56 with about 11:00 recovery running between repeats.  The first repeat was using mile markers that are painted on the street.  This mile has a solid net uphill (almost zero downhill), and there was a mild headwind.  The second mile was along the same stretch where I ran a 4:36 mile a few weeks ago.  The headwind was stronger during this mile, but it is almost completely flat.  I also had to deal with a UPS truck pulling right in front of me, costing me a few seconds as I had to run around it.  I don't know how much time the uphill/wind/detour cost me on the repeats, but the HR was similar on the second repeat to what I was getting when I ran the 4:36 mile a while back, while the effort felt slightly easier.  I would guess that eliminating the wind/detour on the second repeat would get me somewhere in the 4:40-4:45 range.  On the first repeat I am less sure, but as HR was lower I imagine that minus the wind/uphill I would have been in the 4:50-5:00 range.  Who knows.  Total time for the run was 1:00:46 for 8.6 miles.

PM: I ran home with a total time of 1:01:43.  I ran 1 mile hard about halfway through the run in 5:08.  I felt very smooth and comfortable during this mile (4:56 mile from this morning backwards) and there was no wind, so nothing extra to slow me down.

I ran to school this morning in 1:06:02.  I kept the pace pretty easy, and my average HR was only 129.

PM: I ran home from school, and Kimia picked me up just over a mile from the house so that we could take the kids out.  I ended up running a total of 7.5 miles in 57:14.

I ran to school this morning.  I kept the pace easy, but it was faster than I normally run on the way to school.  Total time of 1:00:50 for 8.6 miles.

PM: I am starting to taper down a little more with the marathon coming up next Saturday, so instead of running home Kimia came and picked me up from school.  I did my second run on the track at UNLV and I ran 4 x 400m with 400m recovery between each repeat.  The goal was to remind myself what it feels like to run fast without killing myself, with an aim to hit 65-66s for the 400's.  I did a 2 mile warm-up and then ran a couple strides which added an extra 200m.  I then started the 400's.  Splits plus recovery were: 1:06, 1:59, 1:04, 1:51, 1:06, 1:55, 1:05, 1:55.  My total time for 2 miles was 12:01.  There was another guy at the track running 1600m repeats while I was running my 400's.  After I finished I asked if he wanted me to pace him through the repeat he was running (he was just finishing the first lap).  We ended up running the last 1200 in 3:58.  Running just under 5:20 pace felt so easy.  It kind of shocked me how easy it felt.  I know that it should feel easy because it is my marathon goal pace, but I did not expect it to feel that easy.  After finishing I ran just a little extra to get a total distance of 5.5 miles, plus that extra 200m I ran early on.

I ran 10 miles easy this morning.  Total time of 1:15:48 for 10 miles, with an average HR of 129.  It was windy (and uphill) on the way out, and I had a tail wind on the way back, so my time returning to the house was much faster than the first half of the run (39:13, 36:35).

I only ran 12 miles today as I am now fully into my taper for the marathon next Saturday.  I ran a 3200 time trial as part of my workout.  It was somewhat windy (not terrible, but windy enough to cost me a fair amount of time), so I was not entirely sure what to shoot for time wise.  I decided to just run hard and hope for the best.  Splits were: 1:10, 1:12, 1:11, 1:10, 1:12, 1:14, 1:14, 1:11.  Total time was 9:34.  I felt strong through 5 laps, but struggled some during laps 6 and 7.  I was a little peeved because I felt like I gave up mentally.  If there was someone with me, even if I was leading I think that I could have maintained 1:11's.  I also know that I had more left in the tank on the last lap.  Overall, despite my annoyance with myself, I was very pleased with how things went as I equaled my weak 3000m pr from 2003 splitting 3000m in 8:58.  If this would have been a race I think that I would have finished in the high 9:20's, as I would have been more motivated, and the wind had to have been worth something in the vicinity of 10 seconds.