Month: May 2005

I’m constantly surprising myself with my running.

Yesterday I felt like I’d overdone it, pushed myself too hard and too far and paid a price. I’ve done 5.5 miles before, and faster, too, but never before with so many hills. And running on the street is harder than any other kind of running except for trail running, and I even did a bit of that, too, since there are groomed trails through the parks on my long route.

Plus I was trying something new in my stride, something that’s more of a push along the ground, to generate more speed and use more of the muscles in my legs and butt, rather than the normal, up-and-down jogging motion I normally use. For the record, I read that in this article. I’m not training to be a superfast elite runner but a little more speed or a little more efficiency would be nice. But even though, technically, using a larger group of muscles for the same effort is more efficient… the technique has its costs.

Suffice to say that after my run yesterday I was tired and sore. A bit more tired and sore than I have been for a while.

But, today, I knew I wanted to run, but didn’t want to push too hard and didn’t want to go too far. And it seems that everytime I set out to just go along and coast and yet try to just keep going… I exceed my expectations. There’s a lesson in that…

Today, I ran a planned 2.5 mile, down-to-the-river-and-back, somewhat hilly route. And managed to average a 9:28 pace!

Here’s my half-mile splits:

1. 4:46.31 (04:46.31)
2. 4:45.41 (09:31.72)
3. 4:26.18 (13:57.90)
4. 5:22.04 (19:19.94)
5. 4:20.39 (23:40.33)

I told myself, as I started the last half-mile, that since I had held back for the previous 2 miles, that I had every reason to push for the last half-mile. You know, since I didn’t really care about overall time, if I pooped out and had to walk the last section, it wouldn’t matter in the long run. And, damn if I didn’t turn in a great time, both for that section and for the overall run.

Surprising that my soreness and tiredness from the day before has vanished today… so far, at any rate. Ask me again in a couple of hours. Right now I need food.

Running schedule for the week:

• Monday: 2.5 miles
• Tuesday: 3 miles
• Wednesday: Rest day
• Thursday: 3.5 miles
• Friday: 5.5 miles (Run to work!)
• Saturday: 4 miles
• Sunday: Rest day

Total of 18.5 miles.

I’m sticking with the same total miles of last week, but shifting around the schedule to go a bit easier on myself in the early part of the week. Not sure which day I’ll try some speed work on. Probably Saturday.

Finally did my “long run” for the week. I slept in late, then figured I’d be no good on my run if I did it on an empty stomach, so I ate a small breakfast, then waited another two hours after that to be sure I wasn’t running on a full stomach. Does that seem contradictory? It does? Don’t care. Mainly I was stalling.

Plus I have a blister on my left heel, from my new/old shoes, the replacement Brooks Adrenaline GTS 5s. Bummer.

Five and a half miles is a long way. When I originally planned it, I was going to do the “run to work” thing — bringing a change of clothes and toiletries to work the day before, then getting up the morning of, throwing on some running clothes and heading on in. Unfortunately, that plan was done in by lots of other things that caused me not to be ready. No laundry done by Wednesday, for example. Also, I had plans on Thursday night which precluded my going to bed early for my run. So I pushed it back to Saturday.

Then Friday came and went and I was tired ’cause it had been a long week and no running, which pushed both my 3 mile and my long run back another day.

I did the 3 miler yesterday. Which brings me back to where the post started; my 5.5 mile run. Yes, I’m even stalling about writing about the long run.

Since I couldn’t do the “run to work” thing, my second plan was to run from work — put on my running gear, grab my bus pass, take the bus downtown and then run home. But that didn’t seem very fun, for some reason. So I decided to run in my neighborhood. Since my normal route is either a 3.5 or 4.0 mile loop, and I already know the half-mile marks, I planned on running along my normal route for 3 miles, then turning around and going back for 2.5.

The major difference between this new 5.5 mile out-and-back-again run and the 5.5 miles I run to-and-from downtown is that there are way more hills in my neighborhood. So it’s a tougher run.

With all that in mind, here are my half-mile splits (elapsed time in italics):

1. 4:49.29 (04:49.29)
2. 4:55.84 (09:45.13)
3. 5:03.51 (14:48.64)
4. 4:45.00 (19:33.64)
5. 4:34.49 (24:98.13)
6. 4:59.86 (29:07.99)
7. 7:40.09 (36:48.08)
8. 5:49.13 (42:37.21)
9. 5:47.62 (48:24.83)
10. 4:50.30 (53:15.13)
11. 6:16.36 (59:31.49)

Yeah, I died after 3 miles, my turnaround point. My average per-mile pace was 10:49 or so. I’m tempted to recalculate it after tossing out the high one… but what’s the point? I did what I did, and that’s what I record. Oh, well. I did have one good half-mile after that but felt dog-slow for most of the last half of my run. Not sure why I’ve been so slow this week but, as I’ve said before, I’m not going to let it get me down. Just keep runnin’.

I’m slower this week than I was last week. Not sure why but I’m not going to stress over it.

I didn’t run at all on Friday, so I ran my 3 miles today instead. I actually did OK for the first 2 miles but couldn’t maintain it for the last mile, as you’ll see. I suspect it’s because I slept in late and didn’t have any breakfast, so I was running on an empty tank and without much warmup.

My half-mile splits (total elapsed time in parentheses):

1. 4:34.99 (4:34.99)
2. 4:46.92 (9:21.91)
3. 5:13.44 (14:35.35)
4. 4:38.04 (19:13.39)
5. 6:09.54 (25:22.93)
6. 5:47.26 (31:10.19)

For the first two miles, I maintained a nice 9:36 pace, but just couldn’t keep myself going for the last mile; I had to stop and walk a bit. And my final average dropped to 10:23 or so.

Ran this morning. Had some plans for after work, and it’s been warm and will be warm again today, so wanted to avoid the heat of the day. It still seemed warm to me, even shortly after sunrise.

Just did a quick 2.5 mile run down to the river and back. 24:14, or a 9:41 pace. Not bad. Felt a bit stiff since I’d taken yesterday off as a rest day for running… but still walked home from work.

I will likely swap my planned “run to work” tomorrow morning with my planned 3 mile run on Saturday. Won’t affect total miles and may give me better performance on my long run. Actually, what I will likely do is take a bus downtown, and then run home. That way I won’t have to leave a change of clothes and toiletries downtown Friday night.