Its Getting Closer!

This week's running went great with the Harvest Stompede yesterday ending with a new best time. I was out of town (yet again) for work, but kept up with running although I did run less than I wanted this week.

The Harvest Run was as expected. We arrived early, with the temp's in the mid 50's. This quickly changed of course with the start of the run at the sweat starting. There were more runners this year, and I felt like the first mile of the run went much slower, due to race congestion. For anyone thinking of running this race, you are not getting a PR on this race; its just a very fun race to run in. After the first mile, I hit "the hill" which really is one kilometer of up. This is a trailish run through a grape/wine orchard. There is minimal footing, rough terrain and no real easy spots, save the first mile of which is usually pretty congested. This year, I ran up 1/4 of the hill, and fast walked up the rest. Last year, I killed myself trying to charge up the hill. Being the first time I ran it, I didn't have anything left for the last part of the race and ended up walking a majority of it. After the top of the hill, I resumed near my normal pace and finished 2 1/2 minutes faster then last year. (30:24). I could have finished it probably in the 29:00's if I would have pushed it after the fill, but miscalculated how far I had left. (will not make that mistake next year)

We have less than one month until the Grand Rapids Half Marathon and have one race before then, the VASA 5k trail run on October 10th. Corey and I ran that yesterday afternoon after the Harvest Stompede as a gauge to see where we were at. I finished that in about 29:00, and that was with a couple slow down/stop breaks because we had the dog with us. I hope to finish that race in the 27:00-28:00 range.

As a recap, the week's runs were as follows:

Monday - 3.5 miles @ 8:50 pace
Tuesday - 4.0 miles easy @ 9:36 pace treadmill
Wend - 4.0 miles easy @ 9:36 pace treadmill
Saturday - 3.1 miles Harvest Stompede - 29:24 finish
3.1 miles VASA run - 29:10 finish

Another Great Week!

This week was somewhat of a challenge as I was out of town on business, but was able to get in two days of running while gone, and still was ready for the 9 mile run on Saturday.

Now before I recap the week, I feel I should admit to something I'm not proud of. I fell back into smoking momentarily the past couple months. At first, it was a one smoke every day, and eventually progressed back to the point where it was 1/2 pack a day. While it hadn't affected my running up to that point, I knew that it was likely keeping improvement muted. I'm not a spring chicken anymore, and my goal at some point in my life is to qualify for Boston....so this past week was quit week. (yet again) My wife (who does not smoke) is understanding and supportive. I am using the patch again, which is a little difficult because I don't want to use it anywhere near my run. The morning run (today) was great, but by the time I put the patch on, my body of course went into nicotine craving mode. I fought it off by drinking water, not leaving the house and completing this blog entry! Besides the health issues, the fact that the half marathon is 1 month away and the cost, its just time to kick it for good.

Now this past week went great again! The runs were as follows:

Monday: 3.2 mile hilly run in back fields. Finished at 9:27 average pace.
Tuesday: 4.0 mile flat run @ 8:37 average pace.
Wednesday: 4.0 mile flat run @ 8:34 average pace.
Saturday: 9.0 run w/ Corey @ average 11:30 pace.

Now as for Saturday, I have mentioned it before, but my wife and I are running the Grand Rapids half marathon next month (our first) and have been on Hal Higdon's training plan with some modifications. My wife would appreciate it if I ran this first half marathon with her. I don't have any issues with that, and have been the pacer on these past long runs. (we train the other days on our own) I have been gradually increasing our pace on the long runs from the high 11:00 range to the mid 10:00 range. I haven't told my wife yet, but we lost about 8 minutes total time on the run due to traffic stops, one water break and a break at the half way point. The half way point break was nearly 5 minutes, but was something she needed. (first 9 miler for her) Without those breaks, we would have been at nearly a 10:30 pace. My personal goal for the run is to try and pace her to an 11 minute mile pace, or about 2 hours and 23 minutes. If I really tried and ran hard this first half marathon, its possible I could break 2 hours but that's not important this first race.

Lastly, the Polar is still working perfectly, and is really helping we with my pacing. The Nike Pegasus shoes are holding up great, although its about time I change to a new pair. I have about 400 miles on these and although they still look nearly new, I have noticed increased calf pain on my long runs. I bought two pair on Eastbay for half what I would have paid for at the local running store, so I'm fine for awhile with the shoes. The sprain has alleviated itself (thank goodness!)

Ill post my results next week after the Harvest Stompede 5k on Saturday.

Two Week Post!

This blog entry will be a two week combined entry. I forgot to enter last week, and by the time I realized it, it was better to just combine the two.

Last week went extremely well with the exception of the long run. My runs were as follows:

Monday: 3.3 miles @ 9:21 pace. It was very windy and hot where I was running. I was out of town, so didn't know the exact route, which didn't help matters. The run frankly kicked my butt.

Wednesday: 4.1 miles @ 8:04 pace. This run went much better, and I felt I could have gone quite a bit faster.

Thursday: 4.0 miles @ 7:43 pace. The first 5k I could have pushed the run faster. I let off in the beginning starting at the previous days pace.

Friday: 5.0 miles @ 8:25 pace. Again, this run went extremely well. I could have run faster, but had a long run planned for Saturday so didn't want to push it too much.

Saturday: Rained all day long. Ran 5.0 miles @ 9:14 pace on treadmill. I was not prepared to try and run the long run on the treadmill and couldn't get going. Not tired, just bored.

It had become apparent this past week that my training has been improving my times by a considerable margin in the past couple months. My 5k times are now below 24 minutes, and my 10k times are in the 52 minute or under range.

As for my ankle, it also became apparent that I have been favoring my other leg because of the discomfort. My ankle still is a little sore, but the calf on the same side now will tighten up. I've been doing more of my fast runs on the treadmill because its softer. The Harvest Stompede is two weeks away, so the last thing I want to do is blow out the ankle.

As for this week, the good runs have continued. Today's long run was a little different, but well get to that.

Monday - Intervals. Did 5 x 800 with the interval at 7:15 pace and the cooldown (400 m) @ 11:00 pace.

Thursday - 4.0 miles @ 7:43 pace. Great run. Took break Tuesday/Wednesday due to ankle issues.

Friday - 4.0 miles @ 8:04 pace. Could have run faster and further but long run on Saturday.

Saturday - 8.0 mile TART trail run with Corey. We didn't get out until around noon. During the run, the temp climbed into the high 70's/low 80's. Corey and I ran the run together the first 4 miles, and did it in 46:54. The last 4 miles was actually harder due to the heat, and we had split up at that moment. I ran that 4 mile section in 43:16. If my addition is correct, the time for the total run was 1:30; a pace of about 11:21. Included in this time was a 4 minute rest break Corey took at the end of the first 4 miles.

Next week, the long run goes up to 9 miles. We will be doing this run on a flat course. I have talked to my wife also about doing the runs much earlier in the day, so we don't run into the oppressive heat. We will see how that goes. The following week in the Harvest Stompede so we will have to split up the runs that weekend to reach the long run goal.

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.