The Next Step

I missed the last 3 days running. My oldest daughter graduated from High School (hard to believe) and we had a lot of family in as well as many activities.  It was a great time and very proud of her.

Today was a beautiful day.  Temp around 60 and sunny with some wind.  I felt good (probably from the rest) but just ran easy to get back in the flow.  

63:11 (7:54 avg) 

Beautiful morning.  Temp in low 60's and light wind.  Went to the track today.  Plan for today was 12 x 400 at 90 then 4 x 200.

Ran a 1 1/2 warm up then ran the 400's with 200 m jog between.  Felt pretty good on these.  Was starting to feel it in my legs around the 10th one but didn't have to push too hard.  Ran the 200's fast but tried to stay controlled.  Felt like it was a good workout and starting to make some progress.  Here are the splits:

400's: 90, 89, 89, 90, 89, 90, 89, 90, 89, 90, 89, 89

200's: 38, 39, 39, 39

Nice morning today.  Temp around 60 and no wind. Felt a little sluggish this morning.  Probably from the workout yesterday.  Started feeling better as I went along.  Just an easy recovery run. 

65:30 (8:11 avg) 

Nice morning.  Temp around 60 and light wind. Still felt tired today and the legs didn't have any zip in them.  I still wanted to get something out of the workout so did 4 miles at MP (around 7:10).  It was a little struggle because I was tired but was a good simulation for how you feel at the end of a race.

 52:47 (7:33 avg) 

Got out a little later this morning.  It was still nice around 60 and cloudy.  Felt pretty good today and just crusied along.  Nice to get in a longer run.  Ended up being a decent week and now need to build on it.

1:36:17 (8:02 avg) 

A little warmer (67) and humid this morning.  Ran down to the park and ran on the trail.  Felt good this morning.  Had to hold back some to keep it easy.  Hoping to build this into a good week.

62:30 (7:49 avg) 

Getting warmer each day.  It was 68 and humid this morning with some wind.  What a difference a day makes.  Felt great yesterday but was dragging this morning.  Plan for today was 4 mile tempo at 6:45 pace.  Would have liked to have felt better but decided to stick to the plan.  Did a 2 mile warmup and then jumped into the tempo.  The first mile wasn't bad.  Felt ok on the second but had to start pushing some on the 3rd.  The 3rd and 4th miles were back into the wind so that didn't help.  Had to push it quite a bit on the 4th mile but glad I stuck with it.  

 Here are the splits: 6:41, 6:42, 6:44, 6:43

Good workout and glad to finish a 4 mile tempo.  

51:50 (7:25 avg) 

It was hot (78) and humid this morning with some light wind.  I was a little tired this morning and the heat didn't help things.  I just took it easy today on a recovery run. Supposed to have a weather front moving through today so looking forward to some cooler weather this weekend.

66:10 (8:16 avg) 

Had some strong storms this morning so ran during lunch.  Went to the track to do 6 x 800 with the goal at 3:05 and 400 jog recovery.  Did a 1 1/2 warmup then ran the 6 800s.  Here are the splits:

3:02, 3:03, 3:02, 3:04, 3:02, 3:05

Felt good on the first 3 but started feeling the effort on the 4th.  Had to push on the 5th one and was really feeling it on the 6th.  The pace is probably a little faster than I should be running these right now.  I would like to run these at 5k pace but this is faster than 5k for me right now.  However, it was good to finish them and gives me some confidence going forward. 

Nice morning today.  Much cooler (60) and less humid.  Felt pretty good today.  Legs were not tired from workout yesterday which is good.  Got a busy day today so short run.

48:51 (8:09 avg) 

I was busy all day Sat and then again yesterday with Father's day so missed a couple of days running.  It was good to be able to get back out today.  It was warm (70) and humid.  Felt good today but just ran easy.  Just getting back in the flow.

64:16 (8:02 avg) 

Honolulu, HI: Flew out today.  I was up early for the flight and didn't get in until around 5:00 so just got in a few miles to shake the legs out after the long flight.  I was pretty beat and just took it easy.

24:02 (8:01 avg) 

Honolulu, HI:  I was out early today and it was warm and humid but not much wind.  Today I wanted to do a 4 mile tempo at around 6:50 pace.  I was pretty tired from the trip so didn't want to push too hard.  I did a couple of miles for warmup and then ran the tempo.  It was hard to get going on the first mile.  The first two miles were into the wind so that didn't help.  I started feeling better about a 1 1/2 into it and picked it up from there.  Felt pretty good the rest of the way.  Ran the miles in 6:58, 6:56, 6:40, 6:41.  Was glad to be able to pick it up the last couple of miles and turned into a pretty good workout.

61:10 (7:39 avg) 

Honolulu, HI: It was a nice morning today.  Ran up around Diamond Head then ran up and down the hills on the backside.  I got a cramp in my left calf around 7 miles.  I think I might have overdone it on the hills.  I slowed down and it got better.  Felt a lot better when I got back down on the flat.

1:30:50 (8:15 avg) 

Honolulu, HI: Warm and windy this morning.  My left calf was still a little sore so I ran down the canal and back around by the beach to stay off of the hills.  It felt better as I went and didn't cause me any problems.  Just a nice easy run.

65:38 (8:12 avg) 

Honolulu, HI;  Played an early round of golf with my customer and flying back this afternoon so didn't get in a run.

It was warm (72) and humid today. I was tired this morning after the trip back.  Still have some jet lag.  After a few miles felt better and turned out being a nice run.  

64:02 (8:00 avg) 

Huntsville, AL: Warm (72) and very humid.  Today I planned to do 4 x 1200 at around 6:10 pace.  I was still a little tired from the last trip but started off with a 2 mile warm up.  I did the 4 x 1200 with 400 job in between.  I did these on the road so the first one I was off on my pace but felt pretty good.  Picked it up on the second one and felt good.  Started to feel the effort on the 3rd and had to push it.  The last one I was really feeling it.  Felt like stopping to pushed through to get it in.  The pace slowed but was glad to get them done.  Here are the splits (4:44, 4:34, 4:32, 4:39).

Huntsville, AL: Warm and humid again this morning.  Had some early meetings so did a short run today.  Felt good today after yesterday's workout.

48:31 (8:05 avg) 

Huntsville, AL: Was cloudy and just finished raining so a little cooler today.  Just nice easy run.  Felt good today.

57:26 (8:12 avg) 

Have a crazy busy day today so just got in a quick run.  Glad to get in a few miles.  I am trying to make sure that I at least get some running in 6 days a week.  Felt good today even though it is was hot and humid.

39:45 (7:57 avg) 

I didn't plan on running this but saw it advertised yesterday and thought I would make a decision when I woke up today.  It was a nice morning and the family was sleeping in so decided to give it a go.  I was in a wedding last night so was on my feet alot plus didn't get to sleep until late so thought of this more like a workout.  It was a really small race (maybe 50 runners).  There some some young HS runners who went out hard and a few others that followed them.  I was in about 10th place the first mile but then started to pick off people as they slowed.  First mile was 6:20.  Started felling better the 2nd mile and moved up into 4th where I stayed the rest of the way.  2nd mile was 6:15.  Was feeling the effort on the 3rd mile and as we were coming back one of the volunteer's sent us the wrong way so ended up making the course about a 1/4 mile short.  Held my pace pretty good to the finish.  The 3rd mile avg pace was 6:18.  So avg for the distance ran was 6:17.  I figure I could have easily avg 6:19 for the 5k so that would have been a 19:37.  I was hoping to break 20 so was disappointed that I didn't get to run the whole distance to see.  Still it was a good workout and gives me something to gauge my fitness off of.  Would like to do a couple more 5k this summer just to see how my fitness is progressing and work on my speed.  Would like to get down under 19:00 by the fall.