dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I ran easy today.  I ran the first few miles with the cross country team, and then added on more after they finished.  Total of 11 miles in 1:21:51.

I ran mile repeats with the cross country team today.  I just stayed with the guys at the front, so it wasn't all out.  We finished the first in 5:24.  We started out too fast, and then needed to speed up the second half.  I ran the next two in 5:18.  The first and third repeats were run on the track, and the second was run mostly on the grass.  We had about 4:00 rest between repeats.  I then talked with the guys for about 20 minutes before finishing up, running a few extra miles to get to 10 for the day.  After finishing I found out that Kimia wasn't going to be able to pick me up, so I had to run most of the way home before she was able to make her way over to where I was at to get me.

I ran 7 miles with Sasha this morning.  We ran pretty slow, and finished in 58:33.  I was feeling kind of tired all day, probably due to running almost 16 miles yesterday, so I didn't run again after I rode the bike home.  The biking gave me a three mile equivalent.  I hope to be able to get in 11 or 12 miles tomorrow.

I ran hill repeats with the cross country team today.  They were short, and I didn't run too hard on them because I was thinking about my workout on Saturday, and I didn't want to kill myself sprinting up a hill.  Afterwards I ran more to get a total of 12 miles.  While I was running, a dog decided to try and play with me and it ran up by my side.  I tried running with it, but it kept running into me.  Finally I started playing with it;  I threw a stick, and when it looked the opposite direction I took off sprinting.  The dog tried to follow, but it was not fast enough to keep up.  After about a quarter mile, once the dog gave up, I slowed down again.  Total time was a little over 1:32:00.

I had to get up early this morning in order to work on a project for school that I didn't find out about until last night, so I didn't sleep much.  I felt fine, so I hope that I am not too tired tomorrow.  I just ran 8 miles, because I am trying not to get my mileage too high right now.  I want it to be in the 70's, but I don't want it too high.  Maybe early next year I will start getting my mileage up into the 80's again.  I finished my run in 57:36.

Today's workout was brutal. I ran with Sasha, and after a warm-up of about 2.75 we went into our tempo. We ran it on the same course as the 5 mile tempo. Sasha ran the first 10 miles, and I ran 15, which meant that I had to go back and forth on that 2.5 mile stretch 6 times (5 turn-arounds... yuck). Anyhow, here are my splits:

5:43 - Just getting warmed up

5:36 - Sasha is pushing the pace

5:39 - I take the lead at 2.5 (first turn-around in 14:08) and it stays that way

5:33 - Not trying to push the pace too much.

5:37 - Second turn-around at the finish of this mile (splits: 2.5 miles - 14:00; 5 miles - 28:08)

5:28 - Got confused and thought we had slowed down, so I ran a 1:19 final quarter to this mile

5:41 - Sasha wanted to slow down just a little so he could recover from the previous mile

5:33 - Third turn-around (2.5 mile split - 13:56? not completely sure)

5:32 - Feels good

5:36 - Fourth turn-around at the end of this mile (splits: 2.5 miles - 13:54?; 5 miles - 27:50; 10 miles - 55:58)

5:25 - Alone now, starting to push the pace a little more (half mile splits: 2:44, 2:41)

5:26 - Backed off a bit the second half (splits: 2:41, 2:45)

5:23 - Last turn-around halfway through (splits: 2.5 miles - 13:33; 800 splits - 2:42, 2:41)

5:23 - Originally thought it was a 5:24, but realized that I was wrong when I figured out my splits later. Tried to push it faster, but couldn't. (splits - 2:40, 2:43)

5:27 - Really started to fade this mile. Sasha joined me for half of the last mile, and half of this one, but it didn't seem to make a difference. (quarter splits - 1:23, 1:22, 1:22, 1:20) (other splits: 2.5 miles - 13:31; 5 miles - 27:04; last 10 miles - 54:54; 15 miles - 1:23:02)

All in all, this was a really good workout. Hopefully this will help my body to store more fuel so that I don't crash in my next marathon. I actually ran the last 5 miles just 13 seconds slower than my PR for the 5 mile tempo, so I am pleased with that. I am not happy that I faded as much as I did the last 1.5 miles. It was all I could do to not slow down any more than I did, and the last quarter (1:20) was all out. Afterwards, we did a short cool down to Sasha's house, after which I ran home. Color markers indicate corresponding sections of the 5 mile tempo either for 1 mile, 2.5 miles, or 5 miles, as well as for 10 mile splits.