Today I Run

OBJECTIVE

10 mi. : no pace

ACHIEVED

10.05 mi. : 8:55/mi. (1:29:39)

6:39 AM 60° 41% 7 mph

Since my last run 10 days ago much has happened. I became sick Thursday ... the day after I ran. It lasted 5 days. My fitness both literally and figuratively went down the toilet. I was starting to feel a bit better this past Monday so tried to run Tuesday morning. I made it 9/10 of a mile. It wasn't happening. I couldn't even jog home ... had to walk. My training schedule has been comprised and I missed the race I had planned on running last Saturday. Work has been extremely challenging and time consuming. I expect that will continue to be the case for a couple more weeks.

This morning I just "felt" like running. I hadn't even really planned on it. I went over to the Y and planned on 10 miles but realized there was a chance I'd be cutting it short. Two other runners invited me to run the first 3 miles with them. I wasn't eager to join them but it ended up helping me a great deal. We clocked 3 miles at 9:45/mile. They turned back and I felt good so went out 2 miles then turned back for the closing 5 miles. My pace over the last 7 miles was 8:30/mile which is where I preferred this run to be. It worked out well that I had started slow and got my feet under me.

I'm now off to work. I need to consider revising my training schedule. I am pleased that with the run today and how I felt overall.

PRE RUN

oatmeal, brwn sgr, skm mlk & water

POST RUN

Water

SlimFast

Waffles w/maple syrup & skim milk

OBJECTIVE

Easy 5 mi. @ 8:30

ACHIEVED

5.12 mi. @ 8:19 (42:36)

5:07 AM 52° 97% Fog

Decent run this morning. Felt Saturday's long run a bit. Also, a slight tightness in my left hamstring. It's just a matter of building my fitness back up.

PRE RUN

Clif bar & water

POST RUN

SlimFast & multivitamin

Later, Kashi GoLean cereal w/skim milk; water

OBJECTIVE
5 miles - 1 mi. WU; 3 mi. tempo@7:05/mi.; 1 mi. CD

ACHIEVED
1.00 mi. WU @ 9:06
3.05 mi. Tempo @ 7:03/mi. (21:30)
1.05 mi. CD @ 9:56

4:40 AM 39° 70% 5 mph

Just wrote a long description of this run which was lost. Don't have time to rewrite.

7:02/7:04/7:03

Run wasn't as good as it looks on paper. I have a hard time finding and holding the 7:05 pace. Pace was all over the board. At one point I was 6:15 which means I either went all the way up to 7:45 OR drifted well-above the desired 7:05 pace for an extended stretch. Need to focus on keeping pace of tempo runs in a tighter range to reap all the benefits of this type of workout. Probably reset the Garmin to .25 or .50 mile lap intervals rather than 1 mile to see if that keeps me on pace. Right now, it seems I'm either "banking" time by going fast at the beginning of each mile or "playing catch up" over the last .50 or .33 in order to "make" the pace. I don't think this is the way tempo runs are supposed to work.

PRE RUN
water & ginger snaps

POST RUN
SlimFast
Later, water, multivitamin & oatmeal w/brn sgr & skm mlk

OBJECTIVE

10 mi : no pace

ACHIEVED

10.13 mi @ 8:33 min/mi.

6:48 AM 42° 86% 5 mph

I just wrapped up 33 consecutive days in the office including a couple of back-to-back 17 hour days. This has made it incredibly difficult to stay consistent with my training.

I wanted to see how it felt today so rolled out for 10 miles. The first 6 went okay. In fact, I felt quiet strong and comfortable. Just short of 6 miles my left ITB started bothering me and got progressively worse. The pain moved into my calf and became pretty intense. I pressed on through it which I doubt was the right thing to do but I just wanted to finish a run since it's been so long.

I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to reclaim my training plan yet but I intend to ....

PRE RUN

Kashi GoLean cereal w/skim milk; water, Clif bar

POST RUN

SlimFast

Later, water

OBJECTIVE

6 mi. w/ 4 mi. Tempo Run @ 7:05

ACHIEVED

WU 1 mi.; 4 mi. @ 7:17 (29:07); CD 1.13 mi.

4:57 AM 41° 76% 0 mph

I was apprehensive about this run for a couple days. It was my first effort at speed since my latest attempt at a return to fitness.

The warm up went fine. My legs felt okay and my left ITB was only hinting of any issue. The first mile of my tempo effort went fine too. I hit my time but could already feel that making it 3 more miles while holding the pace probably wasn't going to be in the cards. I thought about cutting a mile off the run but convinced myself otherwise. If I didn't hit my times at least I'd get my planned mileage for the day.

I was surprised that I held up through the second mile. The run was going better than expected and really better than I was feeling. From there, I really lost the pace. I was running in an unfamiliar area and the streets were windy-er (is that a word?) than I anticipated. I'd tried this route one time before and ended up inadvertently cutting the run short. As I floundered around - both for directions and for pace - I finally emerged from the neighborhood onto a familiar street. I'd given up on looking at my watch and just tried to press it to the end of the fourth mile. It wasn't a surprise that my overall conditioning just wasn't there but it was still disappointing. I made a good push to the end and took some consolation that I didn't cut the run short like I had considered earlier.

My splits:

7:03 / 7:07 / 7:28 / 7:29

Obviously I've got some work to do but at least I'm not starting from scratch. I finished out the run with an easy cool down mile back to the house. I'll monitor my body - primarily legs - to see how I'm feeling after this effort. There's a long run on the schedule for Saturday but I'm going to let my body "tell" me what the right thing to do is.

PRE RUN

Clif bar & water

POST RUN

SlimFast, multivitamin, & Kashi GoLean cereal w/skim milk