Today I Run

OBJECTIVE

5 miles : no pace

ACHIEVED

5.12 : 38:36 = (7:32 min/mile)

9:20 AM 47° 30% 12 mph

I felt very good today once I was out the door. I'm not sure what to attribute it to ... it could be the two day break from running or the better conditions here in Houston than in Utah or better sleep and nutrition or full recovery from my lifting session at the South Weber Recreation Center last week ....

I didn't check my watch until I heard the mile indicator for the first time. I felt strong and felt that I had started at a stronger pace than I've been running lately but I was surprised to see that I was at 7:28. I felt good and figured that I'd just try to maintain the pace. You can see that I fell off a bit (thanks to the last couple miles) but I was happy to run strong and not have ITB issues. My right calf flared up slightly but it wasn't a factor in today's run.

I extended my usual 4-mile "Stuebner-Airline" route to pick up an extra mile. I ended up down on Cypresswood across a section of the Bearkat Bash 5K course.

I expect to pick up my mileage a bit this week and am looking forward to my next race on January 12, the Run The Woodlands 5K. Hopefully I stay strong over the next week and a half. Turning the calendar to 2008 is also exciting in that it's now the year in which I plan to qualify for the Boston Marathon. ... here's to a great year of running!

PRE RUN

Clif bar & water

POST RUN

SlimFast

Later, waffles w/syrup & 2% milk

OBJECTIVE

35 min tempo : no pace

ACHIEVED

4.05 miles : 35:42 = 8:49/mi.

4:48 AM 37° 78% 5 mph

It was warmer today. I generally felt okay. Strange how the mind works ... I was running for time this morning ... 35 minutes. I planned to run the 4 mile route and knew that I'd have to add on a bit to get the time. I was mentally prepared for the 4 miles but was groping around for the best way to add on to the run. Finally, I decided that I'd best circle the block back in my neighborhood to get the additional time. I wasn't thrilled about that but figured it would be fine. Interestingly, after completing the 4 mile route I found myself back at the house. I checked my watch ... I had been running a little over 35 minutes! Somehow my mind had worked as a governor to restrict my pace such that I wouldn't have to run in the neighborhood! I've had a few similar occurrences over the past several months. It is proof to me the the mental side of running can be a powerful tool or an obstacle. Of course, I have no idea at the moment how to harness this power but I convinced that it's there. I analyzed my splits at home and found that I was generally slowing over the whole run. I didn't feel it but somehow I mentally "made it happen" because I didn't really want to run the neighborhood. I need to give this concept more consideration.

PRE RUN

Clif bar & water

POST RUN

SlimFast & multivitamin

Later, Kashi GoLean cereal with skim milk

OBJECTIVE

8 mile easy : no pace

ACHIEVED

8.38 miles : 66:35 = 7:56/mi.

8:05 AM

Had a good run this morning. This was my longest since November 17's 17-miler. I'm happy to report no problem with ITB's or right calf. The best part of today's run was that Jonathan drove up to run with me. Although we've met for lunch a few times recently, I don't think we've run together since October 21 in Baton Rouge the morning after the LSU - Auburn football game.

Jonathan is tapering for next Sunday's Houston Marathon. He's looking for a 3:10 to qualify for the Boston marathon. He just missed the qualifying time at last month's White Rock marathon in Dallas; coming in at 3:11:55. That was his first marathon effort after starting running the same night I did back in March (2007). I wish him the best with next weekend's effort. I'm betting he'll do it. For anyone interested, his blog is at Run for Speed. I'll admit his blog is more entertaining and informative than mine!

Anyway, it was great to run with him and we shared good conversation over the whole 8+ miles. He wanted to cover the distance at 8 minute miles which I knew may be a bit of a stretch for me. But I felt great this morning and with the distraction of the conversation, the miles rolled by easily.

It had rained this morning before we ran so it was a bit steamy but overall it was a great morning to run ... good weather, great company, feeling solid ... I'm happy with how it all went down this morning.

Thank you for making the drive to run with me this morning, Jonathan!

PRE RUN

Earlier, Kashi GoLean cereal w/skim milk & water

Clif bar & water

POST RUN

SlimFast

Later, water, multivitamin, & water

OBJECTIVE

3 miles : no pace

ACHIEVED

3.37 mi. : 26:39 = 7:55/mi.

6:36 AM 64° 94% 8 mph

I just wanted to get out today and see how I felt after yesterday's good run. I had the idea in the back of my head that I just wanted to finish strong. This concept was balanced against the fact that I just wanted to stretch it out.

It was warm this morning. For the sake of next weekend's Houston marathoners and especially my friends who are running, I hope that it's cooler next Sunday morning than it is today! A marathon start in the mid-60's most likely would not result in a good day.

While stretching out before I got started, I noticed that my hips had a bit of tenderness in them. I'm guessing it's the ITB "connection" at the hip. It didn't bother me at all during the run but it was there pre-run. My right calf felt good before, during, and after. I think I'm ready to officially declare that injury as behind me. I should probably wait on any "free from injury" declarations until after next Saturday's 5K. My body will encounter some stresses that it hasn't been subjected to in a while ... so until then I'll tread lightly ....

Today's run was decent. Nothing especially noteworthy. I tacked on a little extra at the end just to force myself mentally to run in my neighborhood. For some reason, I seem to have a mental block about doing that.

PRE RUN

Nothing

POST RUN

Nothing

OBJECTIVE

3 mi : no pace

ACHIEVED

3.01 mi. : 25:07 = 8:20/mi.

5:29 AM 46°F 64% 6mph

Missed yesterday's hill session due to work (year-end close). Thought I'd do an extra mile mile today and go 4 but woke up late and as soon as I started my left ITB flared. This was/is a surprising development. The left has always been secondary and never too bad. But today it got my attention early and often! I pulled back the reins just hoping to get the run in. By the time I was on the third mile, the knee had numbed. This is a obviously a frustrating development. Today was supposed to be my last training run before Saturday's 5K but I'm not exactly sure how the play this latest set back. I also have no good idea what led to this. Hopefully it's short-term but I'm starting to have my doubts.

PRE RUN

Clif bar & water

POST RUN

oatmeal w/skim milk, cinnamon, & honey, multivitamin & water

OBJECTIVE

Test my legs (ITB's & right calf); Run a good race; Assess fitness

Stretch goal - if everything's going well, press for a PR

ACHIEVED

3.1 mi. : 20:37 = 6:42/mi. NEW PR

8:00 AM 44° 88% 0 mph

Very strange race today .... I'm thrilled with shaving 11 seconds off my PR. The fact that it follows no speed workouts since before Thanksgiving is a huge surprise. There hasn't been much intensity to my workouts since the 2 week layoff after Thanksgiving. From that point, I've run more frequently but with reduced intensity and mileage. I've only been around 20 miles a week with my longest run an 8 miler last Saturday. What's more surprising to me is that since Wednesday my legs have felt terrible. The left ITB seems to have only gotten worse since Wednesday morning's run. I didn't run Thursday or Friday. This break was planned. But noticed that throughout each day after sitting for extended periods at work, my left ITB and, to a lesser degree, my right ITB really felt ... strained ??? or maybe inflamed ... ??? This morning I wondered if I should even go to the race but decided it was scheduled and, if I had to, I could just shut it down mid-race.

The race was lightly attended today. I'm sure tomorrow's Houston marathon played into the participation. It was cool. I wore tights and my Nike jacket over a technical t-shirt. I also wore gloves and knit hat.

As usual a few younger runners pressed the pace as we circled the bus loop at the elementary school twice. Shortly before leaving the loop I checked my watched and, if I recall correctly, I was at a 6:08/mi. pace. This was a faster start than I wanted. There was a group of 4 or 5 guys ahead of me leaving the school. I was able to put them behind me over the next 1/3 mile.

A little less than a mile in, I was aware a couple of the guys were hanging with me. I thought I did a good job running my race and not letting their presence impact my pace.

I covered the first mile in 6:25. I had planned to be at 6:27 so I felt good. My legs were not bothering me in the slightest which really surprised me based on the past few days. My focus shifted to holding the pace. One runner was still with me. It seemed that he was drafting off me but there was no wind. The wide sidewalk is winding and I was staying on the tangents as much as possible. This most likely made it difficult to pass me ... if in fact that was his intention. I hoped that I would be able to drop him but it became clear that he was going to stay with me. My next hope was that it came down to a kick; hoping I would have something in the tank even without any speed work since before Thanksgiving. I felt my form breaking down slightly and my pace falling off a bit. Aerobically I felt fine but I think the fast start was catching up with me.

Somewhere around 2 miles, I was passed. I had covered Mile 2 in 6:46; had planned for 6:42. So I was slightly slower (+2 seconds) than my goal through 2 miles. I stayed on the heels of the runner who had passed for somewhere around 1/3 mile before he started stretching it out on me. I hoped to see him closer to the finish but I didn't. I think he ended up finishing 20 seconds in front of me. I tried to focus on holding my form together. For me that usually means resisting the urge to lean back at the waist. I do this by working to keep my shoulders over the balls of my feet. I also felt like I was overstriding a bit so I tried to shorten my stride a bit and increase my turnover. I feel like all of this helps me. However as usually happens, I was only able to keep my mental focus for short distances. I persisted but wasn't able to stick with it as much as I would have liked.

Based on how I was feeling when I was passed, I had decided on a two-stage kick. I don't know if this technique has any value at all. It may even be counterproductive. For me this means that with a 1/2 mile to go, I really hit it at about 90%+ effort. I'm not able sustain this for long ... maybe 200 - 250 meters. From there, I naturally slow. This allows me to recover ever-so-slightly for a final push. Today's data shows I made a strong push for about 200 meters before falling back to the overall pace. Then with 200 meters left, I made a good final kick.

I finished at 20:37 (based on times being called at the finish line). I was happy and surprised. The the last several weeks training and the past few days leg issues. I really doubted my ability to pull anything like this off. I'm looking forward to my next phase of training.

The weather was cool and I think it's supposed to continue for tomorrow's Houston Marathon.

Good luck to all of tomorrow's marathoners and especially my running friends!

PRE RUN

Earlier, Grape Nuts w/skim milk & water

Multivitamin, 800 mg Ibuprofen, & water

1/2 Clif bar & water

POST RUN

Water, SlimFast, & 1/2 Clif bar

Later, flax seed pancakes 2/syrup & skim milk

Later than later, French toast & skim milk

OBJECTIVE
3 mi. : no pace

ACHIEVED
3.02 mi. : 25:03 = 8:18/mi.

5:07 AM 36° 93% 0 mph

Strange run this morning .... My left knee was bothering me pretty intensely from the outset. I figured I'd just take it slow and easy to allow myself the opportunity to "gut it out". A little over a mile in, the pain eased up and continued to improve until it was gone. Very strange .... I don't know what to think of it. It probably has something to do with Saturday's race effort. That's the first time I've been that intense since Thanksgiving. But it didn't bother me during the race at all .... I did do some heavy leg extensions yesterday but I doubt that contributed.

Anyway it was really nice to just keep running and be able to get some relief along the way. I ended up with negative splits at around 34 seconds each.

I went to watch the Houston Marathon yesterday. I first stopped around the Mile 5 but quickly determined that I was too late to see most of my friends. From there, I drove to a spot a couple blocks before 20K. I sat there for quite a while and took some pictures. It was a cool, breezy morning ... great conditions to run in except for the wind. I saw Joe Oviedo, Jonathan Bennett, Laurie Aaron, Stephanie Burlet, Josh Rayner, Miranda Jamieson, and Bob Bond come through. I then relocated to Mile 22 and saw everyone except Stephanie come through. It was an interesting perspective to watch a marathon from the spectator's vantage point.

PRE RUN
water

POST RUN
SlimFast & multivitamin
Later, oatmeal w/brown sugar & skim milk; water

OBJECTIVE

3 miles : no pace

ACHIEVED

4.00 mi : 32:27 = 8:07/mi.

3:25 AM 52° 92% 0 mph

I couldn't sleep so I got up and went for a run. There's a lot going on at work which occupied my mind for most of the time. I stretched the run an extra mile to get more "thinking time".

Going to try to get some sleep now.

Oh ... almost forgot ... my Garmin wasn't working this morning so I used my IronMan watch. Not sure what's wrong with the Garmin. Seems like the battery dead and won't recharge ....

PRE RUN

Clif Bar & water

POST RUN

SlimFast & multivitamin

GOAL
3 miles : no pace

ACHIEVED
3.04 miles : 23:10 = 7:37/mi.

Had a good run this morning which I expected since I missed my weekend long run due to work. Tried Sasha's ta-ta-ta cadence (which honestly I don't really know what it is, how to do it, or what it's supposed to do) and it seemed to speed me up and allow me to keep a strong pace.

Run nice, negative splits.


PRE RUN
Clif bar & water

POST RUN
SlimFast & multivitamin
Later, oatmeal w/b.sugar & water

OBJECTIVE
5 miles : no pace

ACHIEVED
5.13 miles : 42:30 = 8:17/mi.

4:24 AM 57° 95% 1 mph light rain

My left knee was cranky for a little less than a mile this morning but got with the program thereafter. It was warm with a very heavy mist/light rain. It was a quiet morning. I only saw a couple of cars over the whole run. Although one of them was a speeding SUV on a dark section of Cypresswood Drive that came closer than I'd like. I think it may have been a law enforcement vehicle .... I'll assume the best ... they were responding to an emergency and the abrupt lane change that took the vehicle into my path was necessary ... ???

My mile splits were tightly bunched today (slowest mile - 8:22; fastest mile 8:12). I suppose that qualifies this as a tempo run. Although the pace was slower than my tempo run should be. I'm still running at "no pace". I thought I'd switch to defined pacing this week but since I missed the long run over the weekend and re-read some of Daniel's stuff, I'm not sure what the proper pacing should be at this point. At the moment, my plan is to roll off of Hal Higdon's plan that I'm currently following (not enough detail) and shift over to Runners' World Smart Coach. Next week will be 16 weeks out from the Ogden marathon which is an ideal point to start. The other thing I like about Smart Coach is that it better fits my schedule for now. I've recently taken on additional responsibilities at work and am "drinking from a fire hydrant" right now. I like running as a release during this time but there are late hours and suboptimal nutrition and rest ahead. It's just a fact. Smart Coach should allow me to properly prepare for Ogden and better manage the other aspects of my current situation. Smart Coach also worked well for me at last year's Ogden half and St. George.

Yesterday was a bad nutrition day for me and I felt it during this morning's run ... just a general sluggishness. It wasn't that I ate bad food ... just that I didn't get enough calories and carbohydrates to properly fuel for today's run.

PRE RUN
Clif bar & water

POST RUN
SlimFast, multivitamin, & water
Later, oatmeal w/b.sugar & skim milk, water

OBJECTIVE
3 miles : no pace

ACHIEVED
≈3.00 miles : 23:52 = 7:57/mi.

≈4:30 AM 42° 92% 1 mph light rain

Got 3 miles in under light rain and cooler temperatures. About 150 yards from the house a car passed and sprayed me big time. At that point the hope of staying as dry as possible had been eliminated! My left knee was slow to start again but, as has been the trend, finally got into the act a little before the 1 mile mark. My Garmin didn't work from the outset so I switched to the IronMan and followed the regular 3 mile route. Overall I felt pretty good this morning. Tomorrow is a scheduled day off before going out for 5 miles on Friday and 9 on Saturday. The cool temperatures and rain are supposed to continue throughout the weekend. There are times when the rain doesn't bother me at all; other times it absolutely drives me crazy!

Paige is planning to run the Galloway Gallop 10K with me on February 2. I'm just hoping my work situation will allow me the time to do it! To make an incredibly long story as short as possible, we condensing 8½ months work into 5 weeks! The "pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow ... so to speak ... is that the summer should be much lighter than usual.

PRE RUN
nothing

POST RUN
SlimFast & multivitamin
Later, Kashi GoLean & water

OBJECTIVE
9 miles : no pace

ACHIEVED
9.01 mi. : 1:10:50 = 7:52/mi.

6:06 AM 43° 87% 1 mph

Today was a GOOD run. There really wasn't really reason for it that I know of and I certainly didn't see it coming. It surprised me so much that I kept expecting to fade as the run progressed but "it" was there the whole time.

I was out of bed early this morning but slow to get going. It was cool this morning and I wasn't really that eager for this morning' run. By the time I made it over to the Y, ChampionsFit was gathering for their "unofficial long run" scheduled for 10 miles. I didn't want to have anything to do with them (long story) and was happy that I didn't see anyone that I knew while stretching in the parking lot. I let there band of about 20 set off while I was still stretching. I don't know how much time passed but it was a while before I started. Their group includes runners of all paces going all distances. I'm sure by now you're anticipating what happened .... As I began reeling them in, my pace quickened as I looked for more. My first mile was 8:16 - about 30 seconds faster than I'd planned. I started thinking I'd be in trouble later in the run for this fast start. Of course the faster runners were still ahead. I don't know why I had something to prove but it seems that I did. Second mile - 7:46. I had passed them all. Now I was sure I'd be hurting later. But I figured I was around 8:00 miles and was feeling pretty good. Even though this was supposed to be a long, slow distance run (my longest since before Thanksgiving), I decided I'd try to hold the 8 minute pace for as long as I could.

Mile 3 - 8:05
Mile 4 - 8:09

I was still feeling fine. Legs felt good and cardio was strong. I turned around at 4.5 miles. I had not planned on seeing the CF group again but obviously since it's out and back, I was going to. I started pushing it a bit because I wanted to pass them as far back the path as I could.

Mile 5 - 8:13
Mile 6 - 7:40

Passing them here and there. Some going back from shorter runs; some still going out. It really spurred me on. I was still feeling good. I decided that over the last two miles I'd try a legitimate pickup. I've only tried this a couple other times and it's never really worked out for me. I wanted to see if I could run the last two miles faster than any other mile up to that point. In the back of my mind a wondered about stressing my old injuries but figured I'd been playing it safe for a long time and it was about time for a test. Since everything was going so well, today seemed as good a time as any.

Mile 7 - 7:46
Mile 8 - 7:33
Mile 9 - 7:16

I did it and I felt great! I passed a couple guys over the last mile had run a shorter distance and were running at a good pace. That really helped me focus on working my way up to them.

Again, I have no good reason why this happened for me today but I'll take it! There are plenty of days when it's just not there so it's extremely nice to get a good day like today.

As a reference, yesterday I ate a small pasta marinara for lunch, a PBJ smoothie in the afternoon, a hard boiled egg in the early evening, and cereal in the evening. I went to bed around 9:30 and woke up around 2:30. Had a hard time getting back to sleep. After tossing around until about 4:30, I got up and surfed the Internet for a while before going for the run. [Just wanted this on record as I will probably try to replicate today's run sometime in the future!]

PRE RUN
Clif bar & water

POST RUN
SlimFast
Later, Kashi GoLean w. skim milk, water, multivitamin, zinc