3/9, 3/10 - no runs

Between a crazy work schedule and not real good planning I didn't get runs in on Tuesday and Wednesday.

3/8/10 - Kenyan Way Hills

Today was one of the best hill workouts that I had in a long time. I ran a 2.5 mile warmup and got there right as the workout was about to start. We were running relays for 25 minutes where somebody would run up the hill and when they got to the cone at the top the next person would start at the bottom. Since most of the people had already paired up and started, Sean said I could just do repeats by myself or run with on a 3 person team with another guy who was out there who was pretty quick, but I hadn't seen him around before. I decided to run with the 3 person team so the two of us would start and run together. The first few laps the guy I was running with wanted to have the lead. If he would slow down and I would catch up or start to pass him, he'd pick up the pace. I don't know if he didn't think I was fast or just wanted to be out in front, but I could tell midway through the workout he was struggling a little and having trouble staying out in front. With about 4 or 5 hills to go, I started dropping him on most of the hills and I finished the workout really strong. The hills we were running were taking me about 50 seconds at the beginning and I was down to 45 second repeats at the end of the workout. I ran about a 2.75 mile cooldown back to the house afterwards.

Sunday 3/7/10 - 8 miles

Sunday evening about 5:30 I headed out to the park to do 8 miles. It was tough to force myself to do the entire 8 miles, but I got it done. I had all sorts of excuses in my head to cut it short - I was going to get up early and run hills in less than 12 hrs, after a long run 6 miles would have been enough for the day, but I knew that I needed to stay mentally tough so I knocked out the full 8 miles in 59 minutes. My legs are doing alright and my training is going a lot better than it was leading up to the Houston marathon.

3/6/10 - 16 miles

I didn't get a total time for my run. I managed to stop my Garmin a couple of times and at the end of the 16 mile route it only showed 10.5 miles. I know the route was 16 miles and I think I averaged 6:50 - 7:00 pace for most of the run. I was really tired and a little late getting out the door and missed the start which was probably just as well. Sam was out there and he was cranking pretty fast and I'm not sure that I needed to hammer 16 miles with him which I probably would have done. I caught up with a guy named Gary who is also running Boston and ran with him out to the turnaround point. A 1/4 mile before I got to the turn around I saw Sam and Andrew heading back in. I chatted with Sean for a minute while I got some water and then headed back. After a couple miles on the way back Andrew was stretching on the side of the road and waiting for me. He said this was his longest run back after recovering from a stress fracture in his foot and he hammered it as long as he had wanted. I hadn't seen him since sometime in October or November so it was good to catch up with him.

On the way back we passed a guy out running a little before one of our water stops and he came up and talked to us when we were getting water. The guy was wearing sweats and brown boot looking leather shoes and it was kind of amusing to see someone running with that outfit. He was asking how to sign up for the Houston Marathon and after a bit we realized he wanted to know how to run in the Olympic trials in 2012 since they are here in Houston. We had a good laugh about it since I don't think he is anywhere close to running sub 3:00, much less 2:19 or whatever the qualifying standard. I had been planning on adding a couple of miles on at the cloverleafs to get up to 18, but I was sore enough that I called it good when I got back to the base at 16 miles.

3/5/10 - 6.5 miles

I ran 6.5 miles Friday evening at 7:15 pace. I had wanted to try to go up to Conroe on Friday afternoon and do a 16 - 18 mile long run but I had too many things to do at work and couldn't leave quite as early as I would have liked. It probably would have been getting close to 4:00 by the time I would be able to start the run and I didn't really like the idea of running as it was getting dark with possible evening rush hour traffic so I did the easy 6.5 and then would just go run the normal Saturday long run with Kenyan Way.

3/4/10 - 5 miles

Didn't have too much time to get a run in, but went out and did an easy 5 at 7:30 pace at lunch. Legs still felt a little tired after the long tempo run, but it felt good to get a nice easy run in.

Wednesday 3/3/10 - 12 miles including 8 mile tempo

This was the best workout that I've had in a long time and I didn't have this strong a workout in the month leading up to the Houston marathon. The weather was great - upper 50's or low 60's and sunny out. I headed out at lunch and did a 2.5 mile warmup in 18 minutes. My goal was to do 8 miles at ~6:00 avg pace, but I would have settled for 8 miles at 6:15 (sub-marathon pace) if my hamstring wasn't feeling good. I felt pretty good starting out and hit the first mile in 6:08. I wasn't pushing it too hard and i planned to start a little slower and try to pick up the pace to average 6:00. I hit the 2nd mile in 6:03 and the 3rd in 6:01. I finally got under 6:00 pace on the 4th mile and hit 5:58. My 5th was 5:56 and my 6th was 5:58. I took a quick 20 second water break right after I finished the 6th mile and then got right back up to speed for the last two miles. My last two splits were 5:54 and 5:50. I felt pretty strong and could have kept going at that pace longer. I could feel my hamstring, but it never really hurt or felt like I needed to stop the run. After the workout I did a 1.5 mile cooldown in about 8:00 minutes for a total of 12 miles in 1:16 and I averaged 5:59 for the 8 miles.

Tomorrow will be an easy day and I'm thinking of doing my long run on Friday afternoon up in Conroe. Since I work in the Woodlands I'm already 2/3 of the way there so I might take a couple hours off on Friday afternoon and go do an easy 18 in Conroe. That will give me another long run in the hills and let me sleep in on Saturday morning.