Camp

I am writing from the library at JMU today as I am helping out a few days at blue ridge running camp. I ended up hitting 35 miles for the week last week with 25 of that coming from the weekend. I got in a decent 10 miler on Sunday where I got dropped coming up the final hill. I am fine with that after pretty much taking the week off.
I am feeling refreshed and ready to get back to some serious training now. I dont have a set schedule, but I think I will come up with something after I see how this week turns out.

Actually ran a little today

I ran 10 miles this morning from store...the farthest I have been a week and a half. I felt a little off but the run still felt easy and I was still upbeat about running. I was so upbeat about running that I ended up getting out and running another 4.5 at night.
All the running was fairly slow but at least its a step in the right direction. I am going to give a workout a go at some point next week, so we will see how that goes.

Crappy Run But...

I ran 6 today and I was dead after I finished. There were a couple positives that came out of todays 6 miler at least. First was that I realized that I have been feeling like crap the past couple weeks. For me that means I am in better than 25:46 shape for 8k and I just need to let my body come around.
The second positive was that I at least didnt feel like I didnt want to be out there today. Usually I just want to turn around or stop and walk and that didnt happen today which was a nice relief. I have been waiting for the day when I could enjoy running again and that is the first major step back into the right direction.

4

Ran 4 miles from the store today. It was everything I dreamed of and more. I am hopefully going to get in an upbeat run tomorrow to add on to my mileage of 9.

A little break

After a not so stellar performance on Saturday, I decided to take some time off to regroup. I ran 25:46 for 8k and I was in pretty good shape coming into the race. I am just going to take it one day at a time and try and get back into the groove.

Patience

Patience is the name of the game. I havent really had a chance to go after it this week and last week was a disaster workout wise. So now I am just kind of running with no clue of the kind of shape that I am in.
This unfortunately will put a lot of pressure on the race this Saturday. I am not even sure what to really expect after the past couple weeks. If I can at least run mid 25s I will at least come away with some positives. If not, then I will just go out and have some fun for the next couple months. I guess I win either way.

Tempo

I got in a 4 mile tempo in 21:56. It was completely effort based, I didnt check my watch until after I finished. I started with 5:46 and finished with a 5:08, so I at least gradually squeezed it down.

I am happy with the effort. I would obviously have loved to run it faster but the plan for the week is just to hit peak mileage and put a good effort in at the rockville twilight race on saturday night.

Tomorrow will hopefully serve as a recovery day with two easy runs planned. Thursday medium with two run as well. Friday easy, Saturday race, Sunday long.

Long Run

I ran for an 1:50 tonight in dc. It was somewhat hot but the sun was going down throughout the run which helped out. I think this might be last run of this duration because I think it is a little longer than what I can currently handle. From now on I probably wont go much past 100 minutes.

The run went fairly well. I ran out for a little over 55 minutes and almost made it to maryland. Im pretty sure I made it over 17 miles, but I am just going to say I hit 17 for the day. I would say that I spent a little over half of the run under 6:10 pace. I ended up struggling at the end, but I never really hit the wall which is nice. I think at the end I might have slowed down to 6:30 pace, which isnt that bad considering how long I went.

No Workout

I had planned to do 3x3 mile today with 5 minute recovery. I got through the first one which was above 16:30 and I called it quits. My legs felt heavy and I didnt think it would do me any good to run a pace I could run on a medium day.
The next planned workout is Sunday. Hopefully I can get in an up tempo 13.

Sweat

I ran a medium 8 today in some new Brooks shoes that I got at Superfeet University. The pace was slow, but the effort was definitely medium. I think the shoes has something to do with the pace. They are definitely the firmest shoes I have ever trained in and I think it stressed my muscles in a way that they arent used to being stressed. My legs are still a little beat up from Sunday, but I should have felt better than I did. Ill blame the shoes for the lack of recovery.

Workout/Long Run

I did my first combo workout long run today. I didnt get in as much mileage I had planned but I am happy with how the workout turned out.
After a 2 mile warmup, I did 4x1 mile with one minute recovery. The mile times were: 5:18, 5:23, 5:17, 5:25. The 1st and 3rd miles had a slight downhill for the first half mile, where the 2nd and 4th had a slight uphill the last half mile.
I followed this with 33 minutes easy. I had originally hoped to get in 45 minutes but the heat and my muscles would not allow it.
I changed back into my racing flats and somehow managed to get through 3 miles in 16:18.
Given the workout I can say that I am in better shape than I was last week and thats all that I really hope to accomplish as the weeks go by.

More Miles, No Race

So I didnt have any battles along the Potomac today, thats always a good thing. I just took it nice and easy on both of my runs. Wait I took it fast and easy, which at times can be nice and easy. I ended up getting a total of 12 in 2 runs.
Tomorrow will probably be more of the same, with 8 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon. Hopefully this will be followed by a night out...I havent had one of those in some time.

Another Day, Another Race

I got worked today by some guy who was running to the pentagon. I passed him and then he picked it up significantly to pass me back. He ended up turning off the mt vernon trail a half a mile later. This makes the second straight loss I picked up.
Overall I felt really good today. I got in a little over 10.5 today in 2 runs. I am definitely not hitting the original 75 miles as I had planned after only getting in 9 miles the first two days. Tomorrow.

Race Report

I ran the Yorktown Freedom Run 5k this morning and finished up with a 15:23 for 2nd place. Going into the race, I thought I had a pretty good shot at winning. I was still running side by side with the eventual winner going up the final hill with 800 to go and just didnt have it in the end.

The first mile I felt kind of queezy but that slowly went away as the race went on. I felt good but not as relaxed as I should have been. I ended up coming through in 4:52, a few seconds back of the guy who ended up getting 3rd. He ended up pulling away and I had almost given up on catching him. But I decided to really go after it the next mile and ended up running 9:40 for 2 miles. At this point I felt like I was running really quick and I knew unless the guy with me died I was going to have to settle for second. I ended up holding it together until we hit the final hill and that was the end of me.

Overall I am happy that I finally got to go out and hit some sub 5 miles and that was the plan going in. The next goal is to run some sub 5 minute miles for an 8k in a couple weeks.

Race Schedule

Depending on how healthy I can stay, here are the races that I plan to do:

July 4 - Yorktown Freedom Run 5k
July 21 - Rockville Twilight Festival 8k
August 18 - NYRR Team Championships 8k
September 16 - Philly Distance Run

That is the plan for now. I seem to have something new that tends to nag every week so none of the races are set in stone.

Long Run

I got in my longest long run ever tonight. It was nowhere near my best but it was 10 minutes longer than I had ever gone before. My goal is to to improve the long run every week for the next few weeks until I can feel fairly strong throughout. Im happy, but 6:30 pace is kind of embarrassing for a long run.
I am also happy that I hit 65 miles for the week in 6 days. I think that is my highest mileage since 2005.

The plan for next week is to hit about 75 with a 5k on the 4th of july. I also have a pretty intense workout planned for this weekend.