5 mile tempo run

Today was the first tempo run that I've done in quite a while. With the cool front we've had knocking the temperature and humidity down a bit, I decided to run at lunch since I'd be more awake than early in the morning. When I headed out it was 81 degrees which was a nice change from the usual upper 80's - mid 90's lunch time temperature. I ran a 2.5 mile warmup at about 7:15 pace and did some drills and strides and stretched out. My goal was to run the 5 miles at 5:40 - 5:50 pace based on a 16:30 5k time. I wasn't sure if that was too fast a goal time or not since the last couple times I had done progressive runs I had trouble dropping down below 5:40 pace, but the weather conditions were better today so I figured I'd give it a shot. My goal was to run just under 6:00 for the first mile and see how I was feeling and then pick it up from there if I was ok or keep it in the mid 5:50's if I was working too hard.

I hit mile 1 right at 5:56 and felt pretty good. Mile 2 was 5:47 and mile 3 was 5:45. I felt good, but my breathing wasn't quite as easy as I would have liked. Mile 4 was 5:44 and I was feeling it by the end of mile 4. I knew that I could keep the pace for the last mile, but I had to step my effort up some. I finished the last mile in 5:42, but I was definitely working harder than tempo pace at the end. I'm not sure if I would have been able to do another mile at that same pace which is generally where you would like to be for an anaerobic threshold run. I did a 1.25 mile cooldown for a total of 8.75 miles on the day.

I was pleased with the times I hit, but the effort was a little more than I would have liked. I didn't finish the workout feeling as good as I did at the end of Monday's workout, but overall I think it was a pretty good workout. I put a bandaid and medical tape over the raw spot on my foot and loosened the laces on my shoe, but it still was really uncomfortable the entire workout. When I took off my shoe, my sock was kind of bloody and I'm not certain if it was bleeding again and coming through the tape or if the blood soaked into the shoes from Monday's workout was just staining my sock. I think it was a little of both. My other shoes which are a little heavier don't bother my foot as much so I'll just have to wear them for all my runs until this heals up. I have noticed that since I got rid of my Nike Skylon's and replaced them with the Adidas Adizero Boston my plantar fasciitis or whatever was causing the pain in my foot seems to have gone away. I guess I've just traded it for a shoe that rubs my feet raw. I hope that when it heals up I can run in the shoes without them giving me problems because I like the weight and the feel of the shoe (other than the problem I just described) and I think it would be a good shoe to run the marathon in.

Tuesday - 7.6 miles easy

I ran at Memorial Park after work and it was packed. I'm glad I was only doing an easy run and not trying to do a work out because I had enough trouble trying to avoid running into people. I ran 7.6 miles in 53:08 which was about 7:00 average pace. With the weather a little cooler and it not as humid out, it was a nice evening to be out running and obviously I wasn't the only person that realized that. I got down to 6:50 pace by the end of the run and I felt really good. I could have run quicker, but 7:00 pace was fast enough for me for a recovery day with a tempo run coming up on Wednesday.

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.