Tuesday 30/30 Speed Workout

Ran a 4 mile warmup with Sean, Luis, Bill and Sam. Goal was to run 3 miles of 30 seconds hard/30 seconds medium somewhere in the 16:00 - 16:30 pace. Temperature around 80 degrees and humid like every other morning for the last couple of weeks. Sam and I got a 30 second head start on the rest of the guys. Sean told us our 3rd mile should be the fastest, but I didn't really follow his advice too well. I hit the first mile in 5:18 and was feeling really good and thought that I could go 16:00 for the 3 miles. I was doing good until a little before 1-1/2 miles where I hit the uphill section along Memorial Dr. Sam had dropped back a little bit and I thought that I wouldn't see him again for the workout. at about 1-3/4 miles Sean and Luis and Bill caught up and I heard Sean telling Sam to keep running hard to try to catch up to me. Sam caught back up and my mile 2 split was 5:42 which was a little disappointing. With about 1/2 a mile to go, Sam ending up pulling ahead of me and I never caught back up to him. My mile 3 split was 5:55 and my total time was 16:55 which I was a little disappointed with. I ran a 1 mile cooldown afterwards for a total of 8 miles.

Monday - 7 miles

Another hot, slower run. I ran at lunch with on of my coworkers. He was only planning on doing 5 miles, but I convinced him to run 7 with me. It was 93 and the heat index was 98 when we were running. We did the seven miles at about 7:30 pace. When I got to 5 miles I wished that I had only gone 5 miles because I was ready for the run to be done with. It was hot and I was tired. Hopefully tomorrow morning's speed workout will go well. Sean, Luis and Bill will probably all be there and Sam may be out there too. Sean said he was only going to go run the 30/30 for 3 miles in 15:30 so they will probably give me a 30 second head start and I'll see if I can hang with them if they catch me in the last mile.

Sunday - Slow and Easy

I stepped outside about 7:30 pm for my run and I almost passed out from heat exhaustion after about 20 seconds. I thought it was supposed to cool off a little bit when the sun was going down behind the trees. I ran 6.5 miles in 52 minutes - 8:00 pace. It was way too hot out. It was still 93 degrees out and the heat index was 102 during the run I discovered when I finished. It's probably a good thing I didn't check the weather before I left to go on the run or I might not have gone out for a run. I needed an easy day after the hard workout Friday and the long run on Saturday.

Kenyan Way Long Run - 14 miles of torture

My alarm clock went off about 5:15 this morning and any excuse I could think of for turning off the alarm and going back to sleep went through my head but after a couple minutes I dragged myself out of bed to get ready for the run. It was 80 degrees and 90% humidity when we started the run. I saw Sam when I got to base and I was downing my powergel and some water when our group took off so we started about 25 or 30 seconds behind them. We were both pretty tired from yesterday's workout and it took us about 2 miles to catch our group at the first water stop. After the water break, Sam and I ran with Andrew and Jenna and pulled away from the rest of the group. We ran the River Oaks loop and then back to the park, an extra loop at the park and then back to the base. I was in pain from about mile 2 - 14. I would have been happier to run about 15 seconds/mile slower, but I made myself stay with the guys. They weren't running too fast, but between the weather and the workout yesterday it was tough. When we were doing the extra lap at the park I wasn't sure if I was going to hang the whole time, but I managed to hang on and when we got to two miles to go, I knew that I could stay strong the last two miles. I averaged 7:18 pace for the run.

My splits were:

1- 7:53

2- 7:23

3- 7:16

4- 7:15

5- 7:14

6- 7:14

7- 7:23

8- 7:13

9- 7:22

10- 7:20

11- 7:13

12- 7:11

13- 7:14

14- 6:56

Friday - Russian Fartlek - 9.5 miles total.

This was a tough workout, but I felt pretty good and had a strong workout. The weather was miserable like usual - upper 70's, very high humidity. I met up with Sam and Sean and Luis and ran the workout with Sam. I ran about 3/4 of a mile warmup over to the tennis center and then ran a 3 mile warmup with the guys, did some strides and started the workout. The workout was to run a mile at 5k race pace, 1200, 800, 400 all at 5k pace or hopefully faster with an 800 at 6:30 pace recovery between each interval. Sean told us on the warmup to try to go for 6:30 pace on the 800, but we could slow it down if we weren't able to hit good times on the hard part. My goal was to do the mile in about 5:25 and then try to pick up the pace on each successive interval. That was a little slower than my 5k pace, but the weather was nasty and I didn't want to go to hard to start and end up having a bad workout.

Actual splits:

1600 - 5:24

800 - 3:21 (6:42 pace)

1200- 4:01 (5:21 pace)

800- 3:22 (6:44 pace)

800 - 2:38 (5:16 pace)

800 - 3:33 (7:06 pace) - stopped at a fountain to get a swig of water

400 - 1:11 (4:44 pace)

1.75 mile cooldown easy after the workout.

I was happy i picked it up each time and was able to have a strong finish on the last quarter. I just need to kick it in like that in my race next weekend.

Thursday - 6 miles easy

I took Wednesday off. I was thinking of taking Thursday off, but when I drove home on Wednesday evening and the temperature on my care thermometer showed 104, I decided I'd just take Wednesday off instead.

I made sure to run easy on Thursday to try to have fresher legs for Friday's hard workout. I ran 6 miles at 7:50 pace in 47 minutes. Not too exciting, but I didn't feel tired after it which was good.

Progressive Run

I met up with Sean, Luis and Bill at the park this morning for a progressive run. They were going to run 7:00, 6:45, 6:30, 6:15, 6:00, 5:45, 5:30, 5:15, 5:00 and I was going to hang as long as possible. I thought I would be able to stay on pace through 5:30 and then see what happened on the 5:15 mile. It was 77 degrees and 90% humidity when we started. I had run an easy warm up mile to get going before we met up with the group. I felt pretty good the first 5 miles, but I started struggling in the 5:45 mile. I didn't drop off pace, but I was really struggling and I knew I wouldn't be able to hang on the 5:30 mile which I thought I should have been able to do. Sean had told me that before I dropped out I needed to come up to the front and lead for 1 minute. I pulled up to the front near the end of the 5:45 mile and ran about .1 miles into the 5:30 mile before dropping out. My actual splits were 6:56, 6:42, 6:30, 6:14, 5:59, 5:40.

It was a tough workout, but I feel like I should have been able to hold on longer. I've done tempo runs where I get down into the low 5:40's for several miles so I felt like I should have been able to do better than a 5:40 finishing mile. I know the weather conditions were bad, but I was kind of embarassed at how early I dropped out because I was sure I had at least another mile in me before we started. I wonder if I'm running too hard on my easy days. I'm running ~7:00 pace on a lot of runs, but in 90+ weather that is a much harder effort than doing it in 70 degree weather. I don't have any trouble acclimating to the hot weather when I am just cranking out mileage and I can maintain a pretty decent pace without falling apart, but the heat and humidity has just been kicking my butt on the hard workouts and races. I'm not sure what I need to do to acclimate better to running hard in bad weather but it seems like I am tanking a lot worse than a lot of the other guys in the heat.

Monday - 7.25 miles

I started out my workout on a treadmill for the first 2.25 miles so I could watch the end of the US Open. I did a couple of longer hill sections to break up the monotony Once it ended, I decided I would rather suffer in the heat for 5 miles over the boredom of the treadmill for another 5 miles so I headed outside. It was rough out there. I think the heat index was above 100. I ran the 5 miles outside near 7:00 pace, but it felt much harder than that in these conditions.

Sunday - Recovery Day

After a quick overnight trip up to Ft. Worth, I decided I needed to get a run in after we got back. I headed out around 8:00 pm, but the temperature was still 86 degrees and the heat index was 93. I did my usual 6.4 miles including two loops of the park in just under 49 minutes. I was pretty slow to start out with, but was hitting 7:20 pace by the end of the run.

Dad's Day 5k - 16:52 - 7th overall

I think this is the highest I've ever placed overall without getting any sort of age group award as I was 4th in my age group. This was a brutal race and I did ok I guess, but I wasn't really that pleased with my results. The temperature was 83 at race time, the whole race was in the sun and the humidity was ridiculously high too. I met up with Sam, Bill, Sean, Luis, and Joe Oviedo and did about a 3 mile warmup over most of the course. I was sweating pretty good by the time I had finished the warmup. I went into the race with a goal of breaking 16:30. I was within a couple seconds of that at the Astro's 5k and I thought this course might be a little easier because I didn't think the hills were quite as bad. At the end of the day, I think this was the harder race because of the weather and the hills were probably pretty comparable. I wanted to run about 5:20 in the first mile, pick it up to about 5:15 on the second mile which was flatter and then have a 5:20 3rd mile or whatever I had left.

The course started at the Wortham center on the edge of downtown by Memorial drive and was just a straight out and back course with no turns. When the gun went off, it seemed like a ton of guys who had no business being near the front really took off, but I passed most of them in the first 1/2 or 3/4 mile. I got into a groove and was running with Joe and Sam. I had finished ahead of them at the Astros 5k, but I knew they were gunning for me today. My garmin told me I finished mile 1 in about 5:24 and then I passed the spot where they were calling out times for mile one 4 or 5 seconds later. I was feeling pretty good at this point and I think I was in about 8th or 9th place. Luis was pacing Sean and they were well ahead of everyone and Bill was in 3rd place. Junior Mitchell and Jose Lara were up there near Bill and Joe Flores and a high school guy were still ahead of me and Joe was right with me. After mile 1, I thought that I probably could catch everybody between Bill and me and finish 3rd overall since Luis was planning on just pacing Sean through 2 miles.

I picked up the pace because i thought I was a little too slow. I passed Joe Flores and the high schooler and wanted to start going after Jose Lara. I hit the turn around point and I think I was up to 6th place behind Sean, Luis, Bill, Junior, and Jose, but things started going downhill from there. I quit making up ground and Joe Oviedo and the high schooler caught up and passed me back. I stayed with them and let them push the pace so I could relax a little. My garmin said I hit mile 2 in 5:25 so I was on pace. I felt ready to stop at this point and started to give up mentally. Instead of thinking about catching guys ahead of me, I was just hoping to hang with the guys right ahead of me and have enough to outkick them at the end of the race. I stayed close to them until a little before 2.5, but then I started falling back and I knew I wouldn't be able to catch up. My Garmin said I did mile 3 in 5:43, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't quite that slow because I would have had to run about a 25 second last 1/10th of a mile to hit my finishing time and I know that didn't happen. Right near the end of the race I heard somebody getting close and Joe Flores almost caught up to me with about 30 meters to go, but I had a little left to outkick him into the finish and get 7th.

I know that I missed some running and workouts and probably lost a little bit of fitness, but I need to figure out how to run tougher in hot conditions. Sean ran sub 15 and Bill was in the 15:40's which are awesome times and even more impressive in those weather conditions. My next race will be the July 4th 5k so hopefully I'll be able to improve some then. Even though I wasn't really that happy with the race, I did stay under 17:00 so I have been under 17:00 for every 5k that I have run this year which is a big improvement compared to last year.

Friday 5 miles easy

I went running at 10:00 am and it was hot out. There didn't seem to be a cloud in the sky. I ran a loop at the park and then added on some around the neighborhood. I felt pretty good considering the heat. Ran at an easy 7:20 pace or so and finished in about 37 minutes.

Thursday - 5.5 miles

Fairly easy 5.5 miles in 38 minutes with some random fartleks/strides mixed in. Didn't want to do a hard workout, but wanted to get a little leg turnover in preparation for Saturday's race.

Wednesday - 7.25 miles - hot!

I ran 7.25 miles fairly easy at lunch- I'm not sure if any run qualifies as easy in the sweltering heat. I finished in 52 minutes. It was hot and sunny and I think the heat index was in the mid to upper 90's. I stopped for water at about mile 5 and I worked on concentrating on keeping good form the last few miles of the run when I was getting tired.

Tuesday - 30/30 speedwork

Ran 3 miles of 30 second hard/30 second medium with Sean, Luis and Bill. I put in an easy 4 mile warmup - 1 mile to the park near the tennis center where I met up with Bill and Sean and then we did a 3 mile loop warmup together. It was probably about 80 degrees and very humid out. Luis had warmed up separately and met us when we finished our warmup. I did drills and strides and stretched out and was feeling pretty good. Sean told me I should try to aim for running about 5:10 pace on the hard 30 seconds (about 5k race pace) and then 5:50 pace on the medium (about tempo run pace). Sean gave me a 30 second head start over Bill and then I'm not sure how much of a head start Sean and Luis gave Bill. That way we would all be finishing fairly close to each other. I set my Garmin to beep every 30 seconds, but I forgot to change the autolap to change every 30 seconds so I only have my average mile splits and not the avg pace for each hard/medium effort.

I started off and probably ran a little too hard the first 30 seconds because I really didn't want Bill to catch me before two miles. I looked at my Garmin, but the pace was always changing since there is a little bit of a lag on it so it was hard to tell how quick I was going. When I slowed down, it gradually came down so I would look at it midway through and try to estimate how quick I was going, but it was kind of tough. It seemed like at the end of the hard 30 seconds it was still getting quicker and it was still getting slower at the end of the medium 30 seconds. After a couple, I felt I had a reasonable handle on what the paces should feel like and just went by effort and glanced at my Garmin once to make sure I was somewhere in the right ball park. I hit mile 1 in about 5:23. The first mile was a little quick because I had a lot of adrenaline going and I started and ended on a fast 3o second interval. The second mile was definitely tougher and it had the small hill in the middle of memorial drive on it, but I seemed to be staying pretty consistent on my hard/medium paces. I would typically get down to about 5:10 on my garmin by the end of the hard part and be up in the 5:50's at the end of the medium. My mile 2 was 5:39 but nobody had caught me yet. I figured if Bill caught me, I was just going to stay with him as long as possible and try to hang until the end.

At about 2-1/4 miles I heard footsteps coming up behind me on one of my medium efforts and I figured that it was probably Bill catching me. My watched beeped and I started my hard effort and I could still hear the footsteps right behind me and I was trying really hard not to get passed. At the end of my 30 seconds hard I eased up a bit and Sean goes blowing by me. I guess my hard pace was his medium/recovery effort. Near 2-1/2 miles Luis catches me and goes by right at the end of a medium and I start my hard and stay with him for 30 seconds. I think he ran the first two miles of 30/30 at Sean's pace and then just cruised in the last mile. He went by and I knew that I didn't have too much further to go which was good because it was getting tough. I got close to 2-3/4 miles and started a hard interval and I knew that I only had a hard/medium/hard left to go. Since Bill hadn't caught me I felt like maybe I would be able to hold him off or at least hang with him if he caught me. I started my last hard effort and I was still ahead of him as I was getting close to the port-o-potties and all of a sudden he just blew by me. I probably had about 20 seconds to go when he caught me and I think he ended up beating me by about 5 seconds over that last little bit. I finished in 16:35 which worked out to about a 5:33 3rd mile. I think I was able to keep my 5:10/5:50 pace for most of the workout which would get me to 3 miles in 16:30 so I thought it was a pretty successful workout. Sean told me my form was horrible at the end and I needed to work on improving it. I asked him what to do to improve my form and he told me to do more hard workouts like this where I have to run fast when I'm tired, but don't worry as much about my time at the end as keeping good form. Afterwards I did a 1 mile easy cooldown and some stretching.

Monday - 6.5 miles easy

Ran a very easy 6.5 miles Monday evening in 51 minutes. Temperature in upper 80's/Heat index mid-90's. Was holding back so I would be fresh for speed workout Tuesday morning. Ran workout at avg pace of about 7:50/mile.

Saturday Long Run

12.5 miles - warm and humid. I didn't feel the greatest today, but I made it through the run and was able to pick up the pace and finish strong the last couple miles. I was pretty wiped out Saturday morning after a couple recovery days that were harder than I really needed. We started out around 7:30 pace and I was content to run that pace. I was tired and not real well hydrated so I was just looking to run an even pace. One of the high school guys who has run with us a few times took off ahead and Andrew commented that we'd probably end up catching him later. Most of my miles bounced around between 7:10 and 7:20 - probably depending on whether we had some uphill or downhill in the mile. I made sure to get plenty of fluid at the water stops. Once we left Memorial park on the way back, we picked up the pace and run a couple of sub 6:50 miles to finish. When we were about 1/4 mile from the finish Andrew and I had left the rest of the group and we saw the high school guy up ahead walking and looking pretty tired. We laughed a little bit about Andrew's prediction coming true and as we went by him he decided he needed to try to kick it in with us. He stayed with us for about 1/4 mile before he hit the wall again. I averaged between 7:15 and 7:20 pace for the 12.5 miles. Nothing to write home about but it beat trying to run 12 miles later in the day when the temp was in the mid 90's

7 miles - hot

I ran with a friend a lunch today around a loop that is about 7 miles long in 50:30. The temperature was about 90 and the heat index was in the mid 90's. I was a little tired today after yesterday's quick run so I was planning on taking it a little easier. We ran at a comfortable conversational pace most of the run until the last two miles where my friend wanted to run sub 7:00 pace. We ran the last two miles in the 6:50's and averaged about 7:15 pace for the run. I probably would have run 10 or 15 seconds a mile slower if I was by myself, but it was nice to have somebody else to run with. It was hot at lunch, but I just checked the weather and the heat index is currently at 102 so at least it was cooler than than if I ran this evening.

Thursday - Easy Day

Today was supposed to be a nice easy day just to get some miles in at the park. I ran at the park and the temperature was in the upper 80's when I started. Usually if I am feeling good, I get to the "0" mile marker at the park in under 5:50. I looked at my watch today as I passed it and did a double take when I saw that it was at 5:31. I ended up running my 7.6 mile run in 51:00 flat. My splits were 7:06, 6:56, 6:54, 6:51, 6:44, 6:36, 6:24, 3:31 for 0.6 miles. I guess that's what listening to Linkin Park on the iPod will do to your run. I was really surprised how good I felt and how quick I was moving considering how warm out it was. Tomorrow I will run slow and I'll be out early for the Kenyan Way long run Saturday morning. My wife told me she heard on the radio that it could hit 98 sometime this weekend. I can't wait.

Wednesday - Speed Workout

I've been completely swamped at work but it should be easing up by this weekend, but I made plans to go running at lunch and make sure I got a workout in. My schedule called for 3 x 2000m with 4:30 rest between each one. I was contemplating just putting in 6 - 8 miles, but I decided that I needed to get a hard workout in after Monday's workout that didn't go quite so well. I checked the weather before I headed down to the locker room and it said that it was 88 degrees out and the heat index was 94. Note to self: Do hard workouts inside on the treadmill when heat index is above 90. I stepped outside and it was hot and muggy. I probably should have just done easy miles in that weather, but I decided that I needed to work on my mental toughness and do hard workouts in tough conditions. I ran a two mile warmup in about 14:30 and did some drills and strides. I stopped to stretch and was just dripping in sweat. I planned my route where I would finish each 2k near a drinking fountain and I could get water. My schedule had initially given me a goal time of 6:20 - 6:28 or something like that, but I knew i had no chance of hitting a time like that in these conditions so I decided that I would try for 5:20/mile pace which would be 80 second quarters and finish in 6:40. While I was warming up there was a little cloud cover, but when I got ready to start the workout the sun came out.

I started out and hit my first qtr in 81 seconds. I managed to keep knocking out about 81 second quarters and finished in 6:44 which was about 5:24 pace. The last qtr of it was pretty tough but I knew I only had a little farther to go. The rest flew by and I started my 2nd one. I hit the first qtr and looked at my watch and it was 82 seconds, but I didn't feel like I had a lot in me to pick it up. I hit the half mile in 2:47 and 1200 in 4:12. At this point I decided that I needed to pick up the pace so I figured I would just go as hard as I could for the next 400 and then see what I could finish in. I managed 77 qtr and managed to go through the mile in 5:29. I ran an 81 second last qtr and finished in 6:50 and thought I was going to die. I was so dead and dry heaving at the end of the 2nd 2000 I decided to call it a workout at that point and jog back in. I probably would have been above 7:15 if I would have even been able to finish it. I did a 2 mile cooldown at about 8:30 pace. As I was slowly jogging in under the blistering sun, I had not so fond flashbacks to the 2007 Chicago marathon where the weather was pretty bad. The weather was just too nasty today to get a good speed workout in outside. My project will be finished later this week so I should be able to get back to more consistent running.

8.5 mile progressive run - sort of

I decided that I had time this morning before I flew back to Houston to get a run in and I would rather do it in the cooler weather in the morning than in the 90 degree weather in Houston.  I planned on doing an 8 mile progressive run starting at 7:00 pace and dropping 15 seconds a mile and ending at 5:15 pace.  My allergies had really been acting up yesterday so I took a claritin pill this morning right before I went out on the run.  I haven't used Claritin much and I haven't been able to figure out yet how much of an effect if any it has on me.  It was warmer and more humid than I was expecting.  It was in the mid to upper 70's, humid and sunny out.  I started out and my left achilles was pretty tight and I could feel the plantar fasciitis in my foot.  I hit the first mile in 7:06 and by the middle of the 2nd mile I was pretty well loosened up and it wasn't bothering me anymore.  Mile 2 was 6:43 and Mile 3 was 6:31.  Mile 4 was mostly downhill and I hit it in 6:06 without much effort.  After another 1/4 mile I turned around and headed back.  Mile 5 was mostly uphill and I just destroyed myself trying to go sub-6:00 back up the hill which was pretty steep.  I'll have to download some of the data off of my garmin and see how much elevation change there was, but my hard run was basically over at that point.  I think I was getting a little dehydrated and the sun was beating down so I stopped and walked to recover at the top of the hill.  There were a couple more hills on the way back so I ran easy to the hills and then ran hard up the hills and then ran the last couple of miles at about 6:45 pace for a cooldown.  i did the 8.5 miles in about 55 minutes.  I'll do an easy 7 miles tomorrow and then a hard workout on Wednesday and then work on just getting some good mileage in the rest of the week.

Recovery Week off

I think I have Plantar Fasciitis in my left foot and my left achilles has been kind of tight lately and I think they are probably related.  I had a really busy work schedule the past week and was traveling and had very limited opportunities to get my running in so I decided to take a week off to see if there was any improvement.  The pain really doesn't bother me much while I am running after the first 5 - 10 minutes.  I'm not sure if training through it will be making it worse or not, but it doesn't really seem to be getting worse as far as I can tell.  Unfortunately the week off didn't really seem to make much difference.  My achilles and foot were still tight/sore the first mile or so, but the discomfort seemed to fade away once I got warmed up.

On an unrelated note, I can't stand the airport security at O'Hare airport in Chicago.  It's almost like they try to pick the people with the least common sense to run things there.  I checked in for my flight today and headed over to the security checkpoint.  We get there and they are roping it off and they tell us it is closed and we need to walk over to the other security checkpoint.  I guess the middle of lunch hour is the best time to shut down a security checkpoint in a busy airport to make sure all the TSA employees are properly fed so they don't make a mistake because they are too hungry.  We walk for a couple of minutes over to the next checkpoint and the lines are so long they are almost backed out the airport doors.  To make a long story short, I didn't check a bag that we normally would have in order to save some time so we could grab a quick bite to eat before we got on the plane.  I had my carry on bag, a camera bag and my laptop bag so technically I was carrying too many bags.  I've done this several times before and nobody has said anything about it and I could always stick one of the bags into my suitcase if they made a stink about it.  So as the long line is going nowhere, an airport security employee (non-TSA) comes up and tells me I have too many bags.  I told her that I could stick one in my bag, but I would do it after I went through the security checkpoint since they have to x-ray the laptops separately and I've been told in some places that they want to x-ray the camera equipment separately too.  That wasn't acceptable to her and she was going to kick me out of line if I didn't stuff a bag into my suitcase now and she told me I could take it out when I got to the x-ray scanner.  Seriously, why does she have to make a big deal about it.  Then as the line is crawling along and my dreams of a lunch are starting to fade away, they let two families with small children bypass the entire line and they put them in right in front of us.  Since when does traveling with small kids let you bypass the whole security line?  Then the TSA guy checking to make sure that your ID matches your boarding pass spends literally 3 minutes chatting with the little kids and the family while about 18 people go through in the other line.  Finally we clear security and we have to walk back past the first checkpoint we tried to go through to get to our gate and as we walk by we see that it is up and running with people breezing through it.  Go figure.