Monday Hills - 9 miles total

I headed out the door before work this morning for the Monday morning Kenyan Way hill work. I noticed yesterday when I finished my run that I had a blister/raw spot on the inside of my left foot. I got some new shoes a few weeks ago and my feet still seem to be having some issues with them. I'm wearing the Adidas Adizero Boston and I like the shoe in general, but I've had some issues with the shoe fitting real tight in the forefoot. The shoes were laced pretty tight out of the box and I got a raw spot on my right foot the first week I was wearing them and you could see the blood seeping through the shoe and there was a nice red spot. I loosened up that shoe and haven't had any problems with that one since. I wore the shoes on Sunday's run and I wore some socks that were thicker than what I usually wear. That may have made the fit a little too tight in the midfoot. I could really feel it rubbing during my warmup and when I got to the workout this morning I taped some anti-blister stuff on my foot which helped some.

The workout we did was 4 x 1 mile on the cloverleafs where we ran up the first one, down the second, up the third and down the fourth so we didn't have to walk down the steep hills. Sean said the loop was probably about 5 seconds short of a mile. We were supposed to run each one faster than the previous one and I got 2 minutes rest in between. The first one was basically a warmup and I didn't quite understand all the instructions so I didn't run it exactly how I should have. We were supposed to run a fast mile all the way through, but I ran hard on the uphills and then eased up between the hills so I could have run quicker if I ran an even pace on the first loop which I finished in 6:00. It was a good warmup to get moving a little quicker and start running faster on the next three. I ran the 2nd one in 5:32 and it felt pretty easy. I picked up the pace on the 3rd one and finished in 5:18. I lost a few seconds when I got stuck behind some slower runners I was lapping on the bridge and there was too much traffic to hop onto the road to go around them. I knew the last one would be tough, but I wanted to come in below 5:10. I really pushed the last one and fortunately I didn't really get stuck behind too many people and I finished in 5:03. After the workout I did a 2.5 mile cooldown back to the house. When I got home I could see a nice big blood spot on my shoe from the raw spot on my foot. I like the shoes other than the rubbing on my feet. The weight is nice and I like the feel of them when I am running. If I can get them to fit right and not give me blisters or raw spots, then I will probably use this model to run the marathon in.

Sunday - 8 miles

I headed to the Park Sunday morning planning on running 6 - 7 miles. When I got to the tennis center I saw Sean, Luis and Gerardo waiting around. Sean said they were going to run at a relatively slow pace so I stretched out for a couple of minutes and then we took off after a few more guys showed up. We ran around the park and out to the Polo fields and around the Polo fields and back to the park. We started out about 7:30 pace the first mile, but I was down to 6:30 pace hanging on Sean and Luis tail the last mile and I finished the 8 miles in a little over 57 minutes. It was nice having some people to run with. If I were by myself, I probably would have done most of the run at 7:20 - 7:40 pace.

16 mile long run

This was one of the best long runs that I've had in a long time. I ran 16.2 miles and averaged 7:07 pace. Probably the best news of the day is that I didn't run into the steel cable around the edge of the parking lot this morning! We ran the River Oaks loop and then we added on a little extra mileage at Memorial Park on the way back. At mile 10 we dropped down under 7:00 pace and I stayed under it the rest of the way to the finish. The weather was actually fairly reasonable out and felt cooler than it had the past few weeks. When we would stop at a water stop, I would actually feel cool when I stopped moving. When we got back to the base I was right at 15 miles, so I decided to add on an extra mile on the cloverleaf hills at Waugh and Memorial as Sean had suggested. I ran the last mile with 4 hills in 6:35 running hard on the hills and recovering between them. My legs felt really good at the end of the run. I don't remember the last time they felt so fresh at the end of a 15+ mile run. I could have easily gone at least a couple miles further. I think the combination of having a couple days off last week and cooler weather really helped out a lot.

Friday - 8 miles

This wasn't a particularly great running week for me. I skipped running on Wednesday and Thursday because of lack of time and motivation. Friday morning i got up and put in 8 miles at the park. I wasn't real motivated Friday either and had thoughts of cutting the run short, but I convinced myself I needed to do the entire run since i had just skipped two days. I saw Sean midway through my run and he was warming up for his speedwork so I ran a couple miles with him during his warmup. I ran the 8 miles in 57 minutes and averaged about 7:06 pace.

Easy Recovery Day

My legs were dead today. I ran ~7.1 or 7.2 miles in 58 minutes at lunch. It was slow, but I needed to get the miles in. I'm not sure I could have gone much quicker if my life depended on it. I did quite a bit of stretching and some foam rolling on my calves and quads after the workout. Hopefully I will be recovered enough for a hard workout Wednesday morning.

Monday hill workout - 8 miles total

I went to the evening hill workout after work since I had run moderately long and hard on Sunday night and wasn't up for doing a hill workout 10 hours later. I did a 2.5 mile warmup and arrived just before the workout was starting. We were doing 25 minutes of hill relays on the cloverleaf where we would run hard around the cloverleaf to the finish at the top of the hill and when we passed the finish cone our partner would take off and run the loop while we walked down to the start. Sam was there and had already partnered up with a guy named James, but I joined their group and just ran the workout with Sam. We got in 16 hills in the 25 minutes. The starting cone was a little farther back than the last time I ran here so the times aren't really comparable. My first hill was 45 seconds, but then we dropped down into the 42-43 second range for most of them and my fastest was a 40 second hill and we had about 50 seconds recovery from when we finished to when we were starting the next hill. It was a tough workout and my legs were toast by the end of the workout.

Sunday - 11.25 miles

After two days off, I felt really good on my run Sunday evening. I didn't head out until a little after 7:00 so it had cooled off a bit. The temperature was still in the mid-80's, but the sun was low enough that I didn't have to deal with the blistering heat from it. I ran from my house down to Memorial and Shepherd, then ran a lap of the bayou and back to the park and most of the way around the park and back to home. I didn't have my Garmin, but I think it was about 11.25 miles or just a little more. I was cruising around the bayou and was well under 7 minute pace for most of the run. I finished the workout in 1:16 which works out to about a 6:45 average pace. Since I ran Sunday night I'm not going to do the Monday morning hill workout and I'll try to make the evening workout instead. Hopefully I didn't overdo it with this run for the Monday hills workout.

Friday and Saturday - Rest

I had planned on Saturday being a day off since I was golfing with some friends at 7:00 am and had a full day planned. I put off my run Friday until the evening and wasn't able to get a run in because of a massive thunderstorm. I'll need to start taking workout clothes to work every day so I can run on the treadmill if I run into bad weather in the evenings.

Thursday - 6 miles

Today I ran an easy 6 miles at 7:40 pace with strides. After the workout I hit the weight room for the first time in a while and did assorted upper and lower body weights while focusing in my quads and hamstrings. My legs were pretty tired after the weight work, but if I can do it consistently I think it will help me stay healthy throughout marathon training season.

Wednesday - 800m repeats

I was too wiped out to get up early and run before work so I got to enjoy another hot lunchtime workout. As I increase my miles, my body definitely needs more sleep and I could tell Wednesday morning wouldn't have been a good workout if I'd tried to do it then. The heat index was 99 when I did the workout which probably cost me a couple of seconds on each interval, but I still had a pretty good workout. I did a 3.5 mile warmup and drills and strides before starting the workout. The workout was 6 x 800 with 3 minutes recovery in between. When I put 16:30 in as my 5k time, the schedule told me I should be running them at 2:31 - 2:37. I wouldn't be able to run a 5k in that time in this weather, but I didn' t want my 800's to be too slow. Fortunately the section of the path I was running my 800's on was probably about 70% shade from trees. When I do these intervals, I don't want my first one to be the fastest and it usually takes me a little while to get settled into the right pace. I was slow at the halfway point of the first 800 and ran it in 2:39. I felt a little better on the pace on the 2nd 800 and ran 2:36 and I hit 2:34 on the 3rd. I only came in at 2:35 on the 4th and I was worried that I might start slowing down on all of the intervals. I was only about 1/2 a second slower, but I was definitely starting to work harder than on the first couple. I focused on the 5th 800 and was determined not to run it any slower and I finished strong the last 150 meters and came in at 2:33. The last one was tough, but once I got to about 200m left, I pretended it was the end of the race and I needed to kick it in to the finish and I finished with my fastest one at 2:31. I was pleased I was able to hit the times despite the ~100 degree heat index. After I finished I did a slow 1.5 mile cooldown back to the office.

Tuesday 8.25 miles

I headed out for a run at lunch under the blazing sun. Fortunately I got a little bit of cloud cover during the run. My legs were kind of fatigued from Tuesday's workout so I didn't push it too hard. I got down to 7:20 - 7:25 pace and held it there for most of the run. I did 4 strides at the end of the workout. My splits were 7:48, 7:24, 7:22, 7:22, 7:20, 7:14, 7:25, 9:13 for last 1.25. This may be my highest mileage week since the Boston Marathon so I need to be careful not to push too hard on tired legs and risk getting injured.

Monday hillwork

Today's workout was one of the toughest hill workouts we'd done in quite a while, but I think I had a really good workout. After a 2.5 mile warmup and drills and strides we started our hill circuit. The workout was 30 minutes of hills on all 4 cloverleafs at Memorial and Waugh with jogging a recovery from one cloverleaf to the next and walking across the Waugh bridge when we had to cross Memorial. Sean said that each full lap of all 4 hills was 1 mile total. I didn't time any of the individual hills since the start and finish points on each hill were different than some of the previous times I'd run on the various hills so I'm not sure that I would really have anything valid to compare it to. I completed 4 miles with 16 total hills in 30 minutes. I felt like I was flying and really felt strong on the workout. My total lap time improved on each mile so I was picking up the pace throughout the workout. Other than it being a tough workout and my legs burning on the last few hills, I didn't have any problems with sore calves or hamstrings or any lingering effects from feeling like I might have tweaked my groin a little on Saturday's run. After the workout I did a 2.5 mile cooldown for a total of 9 miles today.

I think this is the best shape I've been in at this time of year over the past few years. Hopefully that will translate into some PR's in the fall races starting in a couple of months.

Sunday - 6.5 miles easy

I got up and did an easy 6.5 miles at the park. My groin felt ok, but my legs were pretty tired. I ran the first lap at the park and Sean and Luis were out running and went flying by me. They had stopped at the Tennis center and I talked to Sean for a minute and then continued on my next lap. I was feeling a little better and more awake on the 2nd lap and ran it at about 7:40 pace. Sean and Luis passed me again and I could have stayed with them, but I didn't feel any need to get out of my rhythm and run any faster than I should. I finished the 6.5 miles in 51:30, a little under 8:00 pace. I did 4 strides at the end of my workout. I figure since Bill is getting crazy fast running strides, I will try to incorporate a few into the end of a few of my easy days. Unfortunately I think the days of me finishing 10 seconds behind Bill in a 5k are behind me, but hopefully I'll give him a run for his money in some of the longer races this fall.

In other news-

I traded Thomas Jones for Reggie Bush on my fantasy football keeper league team. It gives me a little more roster flexibility and will hopefully help me out this upcoming season.

Did anybody see the women's 10000 at the World track and field championships yesterday? The race came down to a sprint over the last 150 between 2 Ethiopians and a Kenyan. The two Ethiopians were ahead and one of them had a lead with about 50 meters to go, but the other one was right behind her and reeling her in. The Kenyan had looked out of it with about 100 to go, but hung in there and started getting back into the race on the far outside. The 2nd Ethiopian passed the first one, but was unaware that the Kenyan was flying up on her outside. The Kenyan just won the race, but the Ethiopian started to raise her hands in victory as she crossed the line since she had passed the other Ethiopian woman and she thought she had won. Just as she's raising her hands, she sees that the Kenyan had passed her on the outside and quickly lowers her arms. It was kind of funny, but a little awkward.

Now we know how fast Usain Bolt is when he actually runs a whole 100m race instead of showboating and cruising the last 20 meters. 9.58!! That was quick. Tyson Gay ran a great race with a new American record in 9.71. He was as far ahead of 3rd as Bolt was ahead of him, but Bolt is just in a class of his own.

Kenyan Way long run - 15.6 miles

I was running a little late like usual and pulled into the parking lot right about 6:00 and I'd never seen so many cars in the lot. I turned on my Garmin and tied my key onto my shoelaces and started jogging over to the base. Earlier this week I noticed this bruise on my upper left thigh that looked like it came from running into something, but I couldn't remember what I had run into. This parking lot is surrounded by these metal posts with a metal cable that runs between them to keep cars from driving into some grassy areas around the lot. I remembered last week running in the dark not seeing the cable and running into it so I was a little more careful because I didn't want to hit it again. I saw a driveway where it looked like the cables stopped so I cut through there and...bam...I run right into the cable and almost somersaulted over it. Now I have another bruise on my left thigh and a matching one on my right thigh. Hopefully the third time will be a charm.

When I got to the base, my group had already left so I set to chasing them down. I skipped the first water stop at 2 miles and saw the group a little after that. I eased up on the pace once I caught them and we continued running towards Rice. When we got to mile 4, the water stop wasn't set up there so I knew I definitely needed a water stop when we got to mile 6. We added an extra lap around Rice before heading back and we were down under 7:00 pace by this time. We got back to the base and I was at about 14.6 miles, but I wanted to do at least 15 so I ran an extra mile up Snover to Floyd back to Jackson Hill and back to the base for a total of 15.6 miles. My garmin showed me averaging 7:03 pace for the workout. I felt really good, especially the last several miles in stark contrast to last week. After the workout my groin was a little sore like I had tweaked it a little, but after some stretching at home it was feeling ok. I'll see how it feels on the Sunday run and if it is still sore I'll skip the hills and just do an easy run on Monday.

Mile 1 7:30

Mile 2 6:58

Mile 3 6:51

Mile 4 7:06

Mile 5 7:20

Mile 6 7:16

Mile 7 7:09

Mile 8 7:15

Mile 9 7:10

Mile 10 7:03

Mile 11 6:58

Mile 12 6:53

Mile 13 6:49

Mile 14 6:46

Mile 15 6:43

6:20 pace for last 0.6

Friday - 8 miles

After taking Thursday off, I needed to make sure I got a run in so I headed out the door about 10:15 for a nice warm 8 mile jaunt through the park. I'm not sure what the temperature was, but the heat index was probably in the mid-90's and there wasn't too much shade out. I felt pretty good and started out my first mile a little under 7:30 and then dropped the pace down after that. I picked the pace up each mile and got down a little under 7:00 pace. I was moving quick, but pretty relaxed and I didn't want to hammer it too hard with my longest run since Boston coming up on Saturday morning and I needed a little energy for an afternoon round of golf. I finished the 8 miles in 57:30.

Kenyan Way Speed Workout

I might set a record by running in the wee hours of the morning every day this week. This morning I did a 3 mile warmup, form drills and a couple of strides before I started the workout. Today's workout was a 5/4/3/2/1 ladder running hard followed by an equal time recovery jog. My warmup was fairly slow and I only got down to a little below 7:40 pace by the end of the warmup as I was still trying to get my body up and going. I only got out of bed about 30 minutes before I headed out the front door. After drills and a few strides I was definitely feeling a little quicker and ready to go. My goal was to run the first 5 minutes at 5:30 pace and then pick up the pace on each successive hard section. I didn't have a garmin, but I estimated my pace from the 1/4 mile markers along the path. I did the 5 minutes hard at 5:25 - 5:30 pace which was right on target. For the 4 minutes hard I was under 5:20 pace and covered just over 3/4 of a mile. It got pretty tough after that. For the 3 minutes hard I wanted to be running about 78 second quarters which would be 5:12 pace, but I was only doing about 5:16 - 5:18 pace. The 2 minutes hard had the hill on Memorial drive which slowed me down a little bit, but I was able to maintain about the same pace as the previous interval. Fortunately I had a nice kick left in the tank and ran the last minute at sub-4:40 pace. I passed a qtr mile marker on my slow jog with about 12 seconds left before I had to start the interval and I got past the next 1/4 mile marker just before the end of the 1:00. It was a hard workout, but I felt good and was pleased with the results. I did a 1.5 mile cooldown and finished with 8.75 miles for the day.

Easy Recovery Day - 7.75 miles

I had to run in the morning before work if I was going to get a run in and I had missed enough other days recently so I made sure to get out of bed and get over to the park. I was pretty wiped out and I knew it was going to be a pretty slow day. I had just gotten to the tennis center and I saw Andrew just about to start his run so I joined him and ran with him for a couple of laps. He's putting in some crazy high mileage weeks building up a strong base and so he was running slow. I think our first two miles together were just under 8:30 pace. We gradually picked it up and I finished the run at sub 8:00 pace, but it was definitely one of the slowest runs I've done in a while. It was amazing how good my legs felt afterwards though. I'm not sure I would have made it almost 8 miles at that pace if I were running by myself, but it was really nice to have someone to run with to take a little of the boredom away. I finished up the run in 62:30 and did about 7.75 miles.

Kenyan Way Hills - 8 miles total

Monday morning I hit the Kenyan way hills and did 13 200 meter hills on one of the Waugh/Memorial cloverleafs. After a 3 mile warmup and drills and strides we headed across Memorial to the hill we were running on. Before the workout Sean was telling us not to kill ourselves on the hills and run them too fast. He said the first time he ran them he was averaging 33 seconds per hill and was just about staggering down the steep hill back to the start and the next time he ran them at 35 seconds/hill and could handle it much better. I had run this course once with Sean - actually running on the course at the same time that Sean was running it is probably a more accurate description - and ran all my hills between 37 and 39 seconds and I was just dead on the recovery portion and I probably took 50 seconds to 1 minute recovery before starting the next hill last time. I made it through 11 hills last time.

This time I started out slow to ease into it since I had run on Sunday evening less than 12 hours before the workout. I made it through 13 hills in a little under 19 minutes. I ended up starting behind a few guys that I passed on the first hill and I was running way on the outside so the first one took 44 seconds which I knew was a little too slow, but I'd rather go easy and get faster instead of start fast and then die. I felt good during the workout and gradually picked up the pace. My 2nd hill was 42 seconds, the 3rd and 4th were 41 seconds and the 5th was 40 seconds. By the 7th hill I was at 39 and I stayed right around 39 until the last two where I dropped it down to 37 seconds. My recovery times started at 45 seconds and actually dropped to about 40 seconds midway through the workout as I was jogging down the bottom part of the hill and feeling pretty good. After the workout I did a 3 mile cooldown back to the house.

7.6 miles

After the afternoon storms, I went running at the park on Sunday evening. The rain basically turned it into a sauna outside. I didn't want to push myself too hard since I was going to be doing a hill workout on Monday morning. I got into a groove and was knocking out 7:20 miles for the first 4 miles. During the 5th mile, I caught up to a guy who was working hard to stay ahead of me and I hit mile 5 in 7:12. I wasn't pushing it too hard, but I just stayed about 5 yards behind him and was cruising. Any time I would get closer he would pick up the pace a little bit. Mile 6 we hit in 7:00 and he was pretty tired at that point and I just cruised by him. I don't know if he just stopped for water or really slowed down, but I didn't see him again. I cruised it in and finished the run in about 54 minutes. I felt pretty good for running in a sauna the day after a long run and my legs didn't feel too thrashed.

13.1 miles

The weather Saturday was miserable. I ran 13.1 miles with Andrew, Sam and Mike. I was running a little late (like usual) and I missed the start of the run. I was in the parking lot and saw the fast group go by so I took off after them. My first mile averaged about 7:00 as I was trying to catch up. I caught up to Sam and Andrew and a while later Mike who was running later than me caught up to us. We averaged 7:09 pace for the run and I was feeling pretty decent. We got back to the base and had to add a lap around the bayou and Sam and Andrew took off after the water stop on Sabine. I was really tempted to go with them, but we were running sub-7:00's and I didn't want to inadvertantly turn it into a race. I had been thinking of trying to do 14 - 15, but I was done once I got back to the base. I was toast and I had to sit down on the sidewalk since I was so worn out. Once I got back home, I ended up napping for almost 2 hours later in the morning. Next week I really need to try to start adding a couple of miles to my long run.

Friday - 6.5 miles

I've been working 13 hours a day all week so if I didn't get up early and run in the morning I didn't have a chance to get a run in, but we finally finished the project today. Friday I got up and run a couple laps at the park and did 6.5 miles in 47 minutes. Nothing too exciting, but I finished the run with a couple sub 7:00 miles at the end. There was a guy wearing these shorts that looked kind of like a US flag and he was moving at a pretty good pace when I had about 3 miles to go. At first I thought it might have been Bill and I was trying to catch him, but when I got closer I could tell from the guy's form that it wasn't. I never quite caught him so I don't know who it was. I closed the gap and almost caught him, but I had to turn off the trail to head back home.

Wednesday - Progressive Run -9 miles total

I've got a really busy work week and missed my run Tuesday. Wednesday morning I ran a 3 mile warmup to where the Kenyan Way group was set up at the park and saw that the schedule had a progressive run. According to the chart I was supposed to finish sub 5:45 pace. Since I had already run 3 miles, I decided to run 6:45, 6:30, 6:15, 6:00, 5:45 for 5 miles and then cool down. I was running by my self and my actual splits were 6:32, 6:25, 6:15, 5:56, 5:35. Even though the times were pretty similar to what I was running when I did the runs with Sean, Bill and Luis, this one felt easier. I think it was easier for me because I could adjust my pace how I felt instead of just trying to keep with the group and worry about getting dropped. I think finishing at sub 5:45 pace is a lot easier than trying to target doing my last mile at 5:30 pace so it was easier for me to run hard on the 5:45 mile since I knew it would be the last one. After the workout I did a 1 mile cooldown.

Monday - 30/30 for 3.25 miles

I needed to be in earlier at work so I wasn't able to go to the Monday morning workout so I got to workout in the heat of the day at lunch. What a difference a day off and enough sleep and a massage over the weekend make. I think I slept a little over 9 hours on Friday night and about 8.5 hours Saturday night and I also took an hour long nap Sunday afternoon. I didn't want to do hills on the treadmill so I went back to the old 30 seconds hard/30 seconds medium workout. There is a 3.25 mile loop with markers every 1/4 mile near the office that I often run on with water fountains. I think the loop was about 65% shade from trees and 35% in the blazing sun. I did a 2.25 mile warmup and spent a little extra time stretching and did a couple of strides before I started the workout. It was 88 and the heat index was 96 so I knew that I wasn't going to be breaking any speed records, but I wanted to have a solid workout. My goal was to run it somewhere around 5:45 pace and I was determined to finish the workout even if I had a really slow last mile - I wasn't going to throw in the towel early.

I started out relatively easy and I didn't want to get too crazy the first mile and hit it in about 5:56. I thought I had been going a little quicker, but I guess I was easing up a little too much on the easy parts. I picked up the pace on the 2nd mile and made sure that I kept cruising at a fast but relaxed pace on the 30 seconds medium effort and hit mile 2 in 5:40. I knew mile 3 would be tough and the last 1/2 of it was pretty painful and I didn't feel like I was getting to recover at all on the medium effort, but I hit mile 3 in 5:38. I was tempted to stop at 3 miles, but the whole loop is 3.25 so I kept going and ran the last 1/4 in 1:23. It was tough in those conditions, but my legs felt really great and I was much more relaxed on this run than I have been lately. I did a slow 2.25 mile cooldown back to the office for a total of 7.75 miles followed by stretching.

Sunday - day off and massage

My legs needed a break today and I was able to get a massage in the afternoon. My calves and quads were pretty tight. My massage therapist told me I needed to do a lot of stretching and that I should warm up for a few minutes and stretch before I run as well as after. I usually skip the before hand stretching on days I'm not doing hard workouts and just stretch afterwards, but I'll try to make it a point to stretch before as well.

Saturday - 9.5 miles - 69 minutes

I ran 9.5 miles by myself mid-morning on Saturday. I had set the alarm clock to get up and go running with Sean and Mike and whomever else showed up, but I woke up about 4:30 and decided to turn the alarm off and sleep in. I just felt exhausted and I didn't want to go out there and get dropped a couple miles into the run. About 10:00 I ran a 9.6 mile loop from my house up Memorial to Chimney Rock to Woodway and back through the park and home. Fortunately I had some cloud cover for almost the entire run which made it a lot more bearable. The temperature was probably in the mid to upper 80's during the run. My splits were 7:53, 7:24, 7:31, 7:09, 7:17, 7:05, 6:53, 7:03, 7:18, 7:17 pace for last 0.6 miles. The run was easier than I expected it to be, but my legs felt pretty beat up from the past week of running.