Best week running ever!!

This week was an awesome week as far as running was concerned except for one minor (hopefully) setback. Every run this week, I kept the pace around or above 10k pace (except for the long run) and I had ton's of gas in the tank at the end of all the runs. These were 4 and 5 mile runs, so I was pretty happy with that.

The minor setback occurred today at the very beginning of the long run. (8 miles w/ hills) The great thing about the run is its the 2nd fastest Corey and I have run it together, so her speed is increasing. The first fastest run was on a completely flat and paved course, and this course followed road routes around the county we live in. It is not flat.... in fact, there is a pretty long hill near the beginning 1/3 of the route, and a smaller, but steeper hill at mile 7. She was pretty stoked about the time, which is in the 11 minute range. I'm hoping that by the time the half rolls around, we are running the 13 miles at that pace. If I run with her, it wont be an issue. If she decides she can do it on her own, then I figure I can probably pull a 9-10 minute pace out of it. Under two hours would be great, but its too early to try for that right now. The setback was when I was running on the road. I run against traffic so I can see trouble when its coming. A car was coming my way, and I ran onto the shoulder of the road, directly on a medium sized stone. I felt a twinge in my ankle, but the pain was momentary and I ran on. Whenever I had to run on the soft shoulder the rest of the run, my ankle/heel was in some pain. Luckily, the rest of the run was on the pavement for the most part. Ill see tomorrow what holds for the ankle. I have a pretty hard trail run next month, so I may have to baby the ankle. That means alot of treadmill running. (it could be worse I guess)

For a recap for the week, the runs were as follows:

Monday - 4.1 miles @ 8:31 pace
Tuesday - 4.0 miles @ 8:45 pace
Thursday - 4.0 miles @ 8:37 pace
Friday - 5.0 miles @ 8:45 pace
Saturday - 8.0 miles @ 11:45 pace

This next week, I plan to run around the same schedule. 4 miles on Monday - Wednesday, and then 5 miles on Thursday with a rest day on Friday. Saturday will be another 8 mile run.

Late Entry

The graph shown shows that practice at least improves! I found out how to print an average line with the Polar software. Now, I only have 2 1/2 months worth of data, but there is already a distinct trend in faster times! This is pretty exciting because I have also increased my mileage from when I started. As for last week, it was a pretty uneventful week as far as running was concerned. I did not get all the miles I wanted in, and Saturday's run was awful. The weather forecast was for 80's by noon, so we started off early. Unfortunantly, it hit 80 earlier in the morning. It was fine up to the 5 mile mark, but we were way too hot after to make it the full eight at full speed. We ended up slowing up quite a bit. If this happens again with the heat, we will probably split the run up into two seperate 4 mile runs.

My runs for last week are as follows:

Monday - Intervals 10x400 @ 7:03 pace with 45 sec cooldown in between

Friday - 5.2 mile run in 47 minutes

Saturday - 8 miles 1:26 pace for the running part, and 1/2 hour walking included to add to time.

That was it! I was working out of town so missed on most of the week. I also made the mistake of trying to catch up to some of it on Friday, which probably wasnt the smartest thing!

That's it!

Hiatus Forgotten!

This week was a return to my schedule after a two week break. (work and training intruded!) I could have run during this time frame, but it just didn't happen and I'm not going to dwell on it. After a very slow and painful start, I finished the week feeling like I had made up for the time off. Today's 8 miler went extremely well. Corey didnt feel real good at mile 1.5 through 3, but she eventually ran through the discomfort and we ended up finishing around where we usually do. Today's route was new, and included a massive hill around mile 6. I was impressed we ran so close to our flat course time. I like these long runs with Corey for two reasons. One, it keeps me within the middle zones of my heart rate. During the rest of the week, I'm running 5/10k pace runs or intervals. I don't do alot of easy runs unless I'm not feeling well. Also, we like to run together as I've mentioned before, although she sometimes curses my back towards the end of runs.

This weeks running was as follows:

Monday - 3.5 miles at 9:18 pace with .6 mile @ 10:00 pace, with last quarter at 6:30 pace
Tuesday - 3.0 miles at 9:44 pace (did not feel real strong)
Wednesday - 4.6 miles at 9:04 pace
Thurday - 4.5 miles @ 8:48 pace
Saturday - 8.0 miles @ 11:52 pace

For those that don't know, Corey and I have entered a half marathon this fall. I have run close to the 13.1 miles necessary in training runs already. Corey is working up to that point with Hal Higdons intermediate training schedule. This week was week one of training, but I maintain a modified week 8 year long at around 24 miles a week. Corey is right at week 8. At this point, both of us will run the half together; neither of us have raced this distance before. This is why we are running at the 11:00 ish pace which Corey can maintain fairly easily over an 8 mile distance currently.

No races until September, where we will run two is looks like. Mackinac Island was going to end up being a very expensive race, so we will most likely opt for a local race. We also have the Harvest Stompede, which is always difficult.

That's it! Hopefully next weekgoes similary to this week (out of town the whole week). We shall soon see!

A 2 week Hiatus???

I had to work of of town and work late every night, so needless to say, I did not run the week before last. Last week, I was in the Baltimore/DC area on business. While I could have and should have ran....I did not. Monday starts a new week, and I will be resuming my running schedule. The 1/2 marathon training schedule starts this week. Luckily I have been training somewhere around week 6-7 for a while so the break wont be too detrimental.

Our next race isnt until September, where we have two races. Both races are under the half marathon distance (5-k and 8 mile) Ill update again later in the week.