Runs #5-#7

Good morning fellow bloggers,

I have been off the grid for a few days so I am catching up on my blog. Here is a breakdown of the most recent runs and thoughts:

Run #5 - Open 4 miles: We had storms and LOTS of rain on Thursday night. When I got up t 6:30am Friday morning, it was cooler (70 degrees), but still really humid. Since I had the day off, I went into Bethel to run on the walking track (1.3 mile loop) only to find part of the track under water, so I had to modify my route a little. The run went well. There were no time requirements on it, just get the miles in. I averaged a 11:11 mile over the 4 miles, improving on my time each mile. Besides the humidity, it was a nice run. I talked to a gentleman on the track who told we we his rain gauge showed we received 3.5" of rain the night before. I also saw something that I have not seen before. There was a large leech (yes, a leech) crawling across the walking trial. I have never seen them out of water, much less crawling across pavement before.

Run #6 - Distance 8 miles: This was my longest run since the pig. I had been training inside with an occasional outside run on a relatively flat course. Since the "Spirit of Columbus" is a point to point downhill run I decided to go to the dam and run the "Ascent" in reverse. I parked at the top and then started out running the 3 mile downhill jaunt. Then I would run out to the highway and back, getting in 8 miles. There was not any "set" time requirements for this run so I started out at a pace a little slower than my target pace. Again, the humidity was pushing 80%. The other thing that I didn't think about was that whatever I ran down, I had to run back up, so the last 1/2 of the run was basically all uphill (some at a pretty good incline). The run was humbling to say the least. I made the entire 8 miles, but it was painful. I also shot myself in the foot by not eating before I started running.

Run #7 - Speed work (5 miles): Monday was a speed work day. I ran varying intervals at increasing speeds 1x1200 at PI (pace interval 11:00/mile), 2x800 at CI (cruising interval 10:40/mile), and 4x200 at SI (speed interval 9:30/mile). I was under on every run and taking the tines out to a mile, all of them averaged at 25 seconds faster than the targeted time. I was really psyched, but also concerned since it means I do not know how to pace. Anyhow, with all of the jogging intervals and warm up/cool down I ended up with 5 miles.

Soccer Conditioning Run: 3 weeks ago I started "unofficial" conditioning runs for the girl's soccer teams (9 year olds and 7 year olds). We meet at the Dairy Barn in town and run a 1 mile loop. My goal is for all of the kids to be able to run a mile by the end of summer and those who already can, do it faster. My 9 year old daughter ran a 9:52 mile, which I thought was pretty good since she does not "run", but little brother (who was no older than 6) of a girl on my 7 year old's team finished with my oldest. We had a great run

Well, I am off to bed. Tomorrow is pace training.

Peace,

Romans 8:31

Run #4 - Pace Intervals

Good morning,

Yesterday was my 4th "official" training run. The plan I am following called for 2, 2 mile runs at my PI (pace interval) separated by 1/2 mile recovery run and then 4 S (stride intervals) runs separated by 1/8 mile intervals. Since it seemed sort of cool outside, I decided to get my runs in on the road in front of the YMCA rather than the indoor track. My first 2 mile split was great - which was my problem. The first mile was 1 minute under my PI (11:00 mile) and the second mile was slightly over my PI. That is my ongoing problem, pacing. That, and the fact that the humidity was 80% killed my next split. I averaged a minute over my PI for each mile. The stride work was OK. I have never done it before so I have no benchmark to compare it to at this time.

We are planning on taking the family swimming today once we get the house cleaned so that will be today's cross training. My plan is to run 3-4 miles on Friday and then 7-8 miles on Saturday or Sunday, working on downhill intervals in preparation for the Spirit of Columbus.

Peace,

Romans 8:31

Run #3 - Speed Plus

Good evening all,

I am a day behind in blogging about my run so here are the details. We have VBS at church this week and I am doing the music and other "various" parts. Monday morning I did my speed work out. I am following a 9 week plan this time that has me running 4-5 days a week AND I am trying to be more diligent about the cross training and core muscle strengthening.

Anyhow, I ran a variety of distances at ever increasing speeds and hit every target. My 1200 was under my PI (Pace Interval - half maerathon target pace of 11:00) by 25 seconds. The 2x800's averaged out 5 seconds under my CI (Cruising Interval my 10K pace (target) of 10:00) and my 4x400's averaged out 6 seconds under my SI (Speed Interval my 5K pace of 9:30). I felt great afterwards and added enough to get a total for 4 miles in.

Today I did core muscle training and realized that the muscles above my waist suck. I did intervals of jack knives, planks, and push-ups. Over the course of this training regime I will be throwing in swimming as well.

Tomorrow is a Tempo type training - 2x 2 miles at my PI and then 4x200's S (Strides - starting out slow and building to 90% of a full sprint and hold it for 10 seconds, then backing off to a walk to recovery). We'l;l see how I hold uop and I will give a full report tomorrow or Thursday.
In Him.

Romans 8:31

Training for the Next Races - Spirit of Columbus and USAF Half

Hello all,

Well after a short break and some maintenance running I am back on the training track.  I did run one official race, the "Red Legs Run for Home" 5K at the end of May.  In 9 weeks I am running the "Spirit of Columbus" half marathon and then 2 weeks after that is the "USAF Half Marathon".  I am psyched about both races.  I want to beat the race that hurt my back last year (Spirit of Columbus) and the USAF will be a reunion with a great friend from college as well and we have recruited a large group of people to run with us (some for their first half marathon) and the list keeps growing!!!

As before, I will be blogging my training runs and other random thoughts.

On a side, yet very cool, note while running the Pig I saw a couple of shirts with the motivational bible verse I picked to get me through the training and my first marathon, Philippians 4:13.  Come to find out there is a running ministry group that has that as there mantra.  They are TEAM 413.  I became a fan of the group on Facebook and have ordered a shirt from them.  They are worth checking out.

Anyway, back to my training runs.  I have done 2 this week:  Tuesday morning was speed work.  I am mixing 2 training programs that I have found.  One is the one I used last year training for my first half marathon and the other is a little more advanced.  I'll let everyone know how it works out.  So my first run was at the YMCA on the inside track.  2x 1/2 mile (averaging 4:57) 4x400 1/4 mile (averaging 2:16) and 2 stride runs.  The workout was great and I felt awesome afterwards.  A grand total of 4.5 miles with the warm up and cool down intervals.  The second run was this morning, Friday, in Bethel.  IT was a 3 mile tempo run.  That run kicked my tail.  The heat and humidity was already bad at 5:45am and it wreaked havoc on my time.  I average a 10:37 mile, which was slower than my target speed, but you have days like that.  I did rack up another 4 training miles though.  I need to get a distance run in this weekend if at all possible.

In addition to my training regime, we started the "Unofficial" soccer conditioning runs for the U8 and U10 girls soccer teams that I coach (my kids teams).  we get together once a week and the kids (and some parents) run a 1 mile course I have laid out which starts and ends at the local dairy barn - ice cream good.  Several kids are showing up and running. 

Well, I think that is all for now.  I will blog at everyone again soon.

Peace,

Romans 8:31 - My "Old/New" motivational verse.