Sep 29
2009

One pitfall that I’ve fallen into is not being able to push the pace as necessary on my runs.  The beauty of this run is that it was both the second run of the day and got me to 25 miles in two days:

  • The first mile went off at a nice, steady, 9 minute pace.
  • The second mile was a nice, comfortable, easy stride–8:18.
  • Miles 3 and 4 I pushed the pace a little–8:01 and 7:51.
  • The final mile I pushed for a 6:30 pace and was on track for at least 6:40 when my cough reared its ugly head.  I broke stride and jogged out the remainder of the mile for a 6:54 pace.
  • The last 0.7 mile was a recovery jog at a nice 8:21 pace still.

I don’t know that I’ve ever run a sub-7 mile before without being in an actual race or on the treadmill.  I just haven’t had the will to push the pace that much on my own.  Today was a small breakthrough.

RunningAHEAD – Strings_n_88keys’s log: View Workout.

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Sep 28
2009

I ran 12 miles (just below 10-minute pace), mostly in the dark, on a clear morning in Fern Creek this morning.  When away from main roads, I could clearly see more stars in the sky than I ever did growing up in my old neighborhood.  The sun came up by mile 10.

The wind was brisk for the first four miles, the pace sluggish from Saturday’s long run, my throat dehydrated from the remains of a sinus infection turned hacking cough.  All things considered, a good run:

Continuing with the direction begun on Saturday’s 22-miler, I decided that running outside was going to be my best option for getting my miles in today, and for staying healthy the rest of the week:

  • No treadmill means no artificially forced pace, too fast or slow.
  • No treadmill means the inclines are realistic.
  • No treadmill means I don’t have to rush through my workout because I’m watching the clock or trying to finish before the toddler wakes up.

RunningAHEAD – Strings_n_88keys’s log: View Workout.

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Sep 27
2009

I’ve logged 5555.5 running [and run-walking] miles since I started In April 2007.

I also completed my second 70-mile week ever this week, roughly 8 weeks after my first.

Tons of mileage volume, but how to turn it into marathon-distance speed is the question I’m struggling with now.

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Sep 26
2009

I’ve been mostly “treadmill-bound” for the last several weeks.  Part of it is due to schedule conflicts–it’s hard to run outside when your only options are in the middle of the night and before the sun is up in the morning, especially when you have kids to watch.  However, part of my treadmill is due to making excuses on why I couldn’t run outside.  Here they are:

  1. It’s hot (took care of that one this summer)
  2. It’s rainy out (I added this one after overcoming my aversion to hot weather)
  3. My wife worked last night, so I can’t go run all over the place at 5:30 am [on a Saturday]
  4. Midday runs in my neighborhood are congested and cross busy streets.
  5. I can watch football most of the day if I run my long run on the treadmill.

I let my wife sleep in today, so I was going to run the treadmill downstairs for 3 1/2 hours for 22 miles.  I decided that, for some reason, that wouldn’t be very productive or enjoyable.

Second option, I decided to work out a 7-1/3 mile loop to run 3 times.  I figured that I’d just attempt to bail out of the run after the first loop.

Instead, 2 miles into the loop run, I decided to go catch up with my wife at Seneca Park for a Filipino gathering (starting in Fern Creek)… here’s the map for the first half:

Second half: I hung out a little while there before attempting to continue on to the Cherokee Park Scenic Loop [almost found it, too]–my wife was headed to Bellarmine for the Irish festival, so I planned to finish up there. Getting lost in the hills between Cherokee and Seneca was rough, as was the muscle pain from stopping my run for an extended period of time, but I managed to fight through it:

This run was actually slower than my last 20+ miler, but the average incline was about 1% greater, and the stop in the middle really killed my momentum.

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Sep 22
2009

Monday morning/lunch:

  • 6.27 Miles in 1:00:00
  • 6.01 Miles in 54:35

Tuesday morning/lunch:

  • 6 Miles in 55:30
  • 6.02 Miles in 57:33

I finished my second consecutive day of 6 mile double runs.  I’m aiming for 70 miles this week, and I’d prefer to do 5×10-mile days and 1 20-mile day, but 10 miles at a 9-10 minute pace don’t fit neatly into the work day, nor does waking up and running outside at 5:30 am work that well, plus kids…  you get the idea.

So, instead, I’m breaking runs up into 6-mile segments, which is manageable for squeezing into the schedule.  I may stretch my long run to 22 miles and run it on the treadmill while watching football on Saturday.  Who knows.

My rolling 7-day total is 70.3 miles.  The last time I ran a 70-mile “week” (Monday-Sunday), my rolling 7-day total was in the mid-80s for a couple of the days, and I felt my sacroiliac joint pain flare up.  I’ll try to run more evenly this time.

RunningAHEAD – Strings_n_88keys’s log: View Workout.

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