It's hard to believe one night of rain could cause so much flooding. This is what it looked like on the drive home a few days after the rain.
To the left of me was Bear Creek Park. Normally a very very nice park, but it was totally submerged under water.
Many Bear Creek residents experienced flooding in their homes. For many, this night/early morning of rain ended up being worse than hurricane Ike.
Your mission should you choose to accept will be to do 3 x 1 mile. Each between 4:40 - 4:50 pace. No more than 10 minutes rest between each rep.
Mission Accepted. Here is how it went down. I did a warm up of 4 miles. I didn't use my Garmin for these mile since it was acting up. Here are the results:
| Mile 1 | 4:54 |
| Mile 2 (.87 miles then quit) | 5:00 |
| Mile 3 (.88 miles then quit) | 5:01 |
I made a deal that if I couldn't maintain sub 5 minute mile pace then I would quit. After the workout I ran a 2.25 mile cool down. No worries, no searching for answers, just moving on from this workout. The good news is I got some practice at sub 5 minute pace.
Well after skipping 2 days of running because of the major amounts of rain, I finally got some running in. The last few miles were done with a friend, so that explains the big pace difference at the end.
| Mile 1 | 7:37 |
| Mile 2 | 7:10 |
| Mile 3 | 7:08 |
| Mile 4 | 7:07 |
| Mile 5 | 7:14 |
| Mile 6 | 6:59 |
| Mile 7 | 7:06 |
| Mile 8 | 8:00 |
| Mile 9 | 8:44 |
| Total Average Pace | 7:27 |
A day after the torrential downpour the park was pretty much back to normal.
At Memorial Park there are probably a million running groups. Sometimes the different groups will run into each other and flash their gang signs.
There were only small remnants of the previous days' rain.
All in all another pleasant day at the park.
Bob made a comment about my unique shoes post:
Funny he made that comment because I just so happen to have those crazy shoes that help you jump higher :)
I had obligations at 8am sharp so I postponed my run till evening then the storm came.
Better luck tomorrow.
I hope.
A coworker of mine introduced me to some shoes he's been wearing. Pretty strange looking. They are called z-coils and they are pretty expensive, about $200. He swears by them. Apparently he had been having pains in his foot and decided to get these. They have coiled springs and are pretty springy.. Hmmmmmm....interesting. I guess that's one way to do it.
Met up with Sean again today. He showed off the new colorful Kenyan Way singlet. I have to say that if you are a Kenyan Way runner, you have not seen a KY singlet like this. It definitely will stand out. I will say no more. Anyway we did a few miles together, boy was it humid out there! Welcome back humidity, I didn't miss you a bit. I ended up doing this run mid day.
| Mile 1 | 7:00 |
| Mile 2 | 6:44 |
| Mile 3 | 6:49 |
| Mile 4 | 6:43 |
| Mile 5 | 6:57 |
| Mile 6 | 6:54 |
| Mile 7 | 6:54 |
| Mile 8 | 7:02 |
| Mile 9 | 6:44 |
| Total Average Pace | 6:52 |
A pretty low key affair. Sam Rodriguez recently completed the Boston Marathon and he was there for our long run. He basically gave me the low down on the Boston Marathon, and all of the pain, the hills, etc, etc. He confirmed my decision to not do the Boston. I have no desire to submit myself to such pain in the near future. :) I'm also one of the guys who "doesn't" have the marathon bug. Although I do plan on doing the Houston marathon every year.
Mile 1 | 7:48 |
Mile 2 | 7:35 |
Mile 3 | 7:26 |
Mile 4 | 7:07 |
Mile 5 | 7:16 |
Mile 6 | 7:28 |
Mile 7 | 7:21 |
Mile 8 | 7:21 |
Mile 9 | 7:32 |
Mile 10 | 7:35 |
Mile 11 | 7:51 |
Mile 12 | 6:37 |
Mile 13 | ? Left my Garmin running @ water stop |
Mile 14 | 6:42 |
Last .19 | 9:06 |
Total Average Pace: | 7:23 |
I ran a low profile 8 miles today, not too fast, not too slow. I was going to do 9 but the body wasn't feeling it. Here is how it went down.
| Mile 1 | 7:39 |
| Mile 2 | 6:56 |
| Mile 3 | 7:01 |
| Mile 4 | 6:53 |
| Mile 5 | 7:05 |
| Mile 6 | 6:47 |
| Mile 7 | 7:01 |
| Mile 8 | 6:59 |
| Total Average Pace: | 7:03 |
Today's session would consist of the following:
| 2 x 1 Mile with 1 minute rest 5:20 |
| 5 minute rest |
| 2 x 800 with 1 minute rest 2:30 |
| 5 minute rest |
| 2 x 400 with 1 minute rest 68-70 seconds |
Here's how it turned out:
4.5 mile warmup @ 6:44 pace
| 1 Mile | 5:20 |
| 1 Mile | 5:20 |
| .5 Mile | 2:28 |
| .5 Mile | 2:30 |
| .25 Mile | 71 |
| .25 Mile | 67 |
1 mile cool down @ 8:37
All in all a great workout.
After doing 10 miles easy the day before I decided to do 8 miles easy. I ran a few miles alone before I hooked up with Sean to finish up the run. Here are the splits:
| Mile 1 | 7:13 |
| Mile 2 | 6:53 |
| Mile 3 | 6:54 |
| Mile 4 | 6:33 |
| Mile 5 | 7:25 |
| Mile 6 | 7:05 |
| Mile 7 | 6:53 |
| Mile 8 | 6:50 |
| Total Average Pace: | 6:59 |
1 day after hill work and my legs felt strong. I stepped on the trail and my legs just took off. It was a good feeling and made running my miles that much easier. I ran into Sean and jumped in with him and ended up running an extra mile. I will subtract that extra one from tomorrow's run. My Garmin stopped tracking my last mile.
On another note my sister Janel has had a great few weeks. My dad told me she ran 17:01 5k at a track meet recently. No sooner than I congratulated her and told her that sub 17 should be next, she went ahead and ran a 16:49! She also won another award, I believe it's called the Image award. I'm hoping her times keep dropping like a sinking stone.
Here are my splits:
| Mile 1 | 7:04 |
| Mile 2 | 6:45 |
| Mile 3 | 6:38 |
| Mile 4 | 6:41 |
| Mile 5 | 6:51 |
| Mile 6 | 6:39 |
| Mile 7 | 6:46 |
| Mile 8 | 6:58 |
| Mile 9 | 6:51 |
| Mile 10 | ??? |
| Total Average Pace | 6:49 |
I decided to do the hill work. My body felt good, no ill effects. I started out with a 4 mile jog which ended up being around 7:10 pace. From there I ran the hill course that Sean laid out for us. I ran the course with medium effort but still was able to get a decent workout. I ended up running about 3 miles on the course.I did another 2 miles of flatland running. My overall pace was 7:30 for all 9 miles including the hill work.
I'd like to congratulate the finishers of the Boston marathon. Especially a couple of Kenyan Wayers, Geoff and Sam. They worked their butt off today and worked even harder during training. We also had 2 very good finishes by Ryan Hall and Kara Goucher, 2, 3rd place finishes.
Good Stuff
The objective today was to run anywhere from 90 to 120 minutes based on how I felt. I cut the run short at 9 miles of which I ran about 8:30 pace. I got rid of my Garmin at about the 6th mile because it started to rain. I probably ran for under 80 minutes. The groin/adductor region felt better today. After the run I pretty much slept and did nothing all day. That's the first time I've been able to do that in about a year. Tomorrow I'll probably run about 3 miles. Next week it will be business as usual.
I woke up Friday with a strain in my groin area from the workout from the previous day. So I decided to just cut my run to just 3 miles really easy. After my run I saw Coach Sean finishing up his run. It was good to see him back out there running. He's been lifting and has put on about 12 pounds of muscle. He had a believed stress fracture and has been out for 8 weeks. Now he's out running regularly again and so we'll see how it goes. I told him about my previous workout and how I felt. He said I made a mistake when on my 14th rep I ran a 68 second quarter and then decided to run the next 2 reps. I should have finished with the 68 second quarter. So you live and you learn. I'll take it pretty easy the next few days as I try to recover enough to go at it again next week.
3 miles @ 7:32 pace
Another great day for running. I was a little bit nervous because the forecast had a 40% chance of rain. My Garmin doesn't like to behave in rain, but I needed to have it on hand for my workout. Today was a tough workout. It would be 16 x 400 meters in 70 secs with 1 minute rest.
A few months ago I would never have come close to completing this workout. But today I did. While doing this workout I came to realize what kind of change these types of workouts bring about. I noticed during the first the set my legs were tiring quickly. My theory is that my legs were more than capable of running at this speed. But they aren't used to running this pace so they tire quickly. The reason I say this is because my legs were tired on the 3rd rep but by the middle and end of my run I was actually running with less effort than before and sometimes running faster. So the purpose of these workouts is to get your legs used to moving at this pace or close to this pace for a race. By the 12th rep I was debating on whether to quit or not because I wasn't hitting 70 seconds but I realized I needed as many opportunities as possible to run sub 5 minute pace. So I made a pact that if I had difficulties staying below 5 minute pace I would quit. On my 14th rep I thought it was my 16th rep so I busted out a 68. I was feeling great about it when I realized it was only rep 14! So the next rep was run at 76 seconds. The last rep I recoverd with a 71.
One thing I learned from this workout is sometimes you don't have to focus too hard on hitting your time exactly. What you need to do is make sure you come close and run it smoothly and consistently. Overall it was a tough workout that I thoroughly enjoyed. Here are the splits.
16 x .25 miles in 70 seconds with 1 minute recovery
| Lap 1 | 69 |
| Lap 2 | 69 |
| Lap 3 | 70 |
| Lap 4 | 70 |
| Lap 5 | 70 |
| Lap 6 | 71 |
| Lap 7 | 72 |
| Lap 8 | 71 |
| Lap 9 | 72 |
| Lap 10 | 71 |
| Lap 11 | 73 |
| Lap 12 | 73 |
| Lap 13 | 72 |
| Lap 14 | 68 |
| Lap 15 | 76 |
| Lap 16 | 71 |
As you can see I'm not quite ready to ace this workout yet. But I don't think I'm far off and a few more speed sessions should do me some good.
| Mile 1 | 7:11 |
| Mile 2 | 7:11 |
| Mile 3 | 6:54 |
| Mile 4 | 6:35 |
| Mile 5 | 6:41 |
| Mile 6 | 6:44 |
| Mile 7 | 6:32 |
| Mile 8 | 6:41 |
| Last .83 Mile | 6:35 |
| Total Average Pace | 6:48 |
I'm skipping my easy run today. It's been over a month since I've taken a day off so I figure today is as good as any other.
I did some hill work for the first time in a couple of weeks. We did 4 minutes of 5 sets of hill repeats. I took it easy the first rep and then gradually picked it up from there. I didn't really keep track of any kind of metrics but I know had a decent effort. I ended up a running just under 8 miles.
45 minute run
| Mile 1 | 7:31 |
| Mile 2 | 6:44 |
| Mile 3 | 6:45 |
| Mile 4 | 6:33 |
| Mile 5 | 6:43 |
| Mile 6 | 6:31 |
| Last .64 | 6:32 |
| Total Average Pace | 6:47 |
Since I didn't have a race this week I decided to run with the Kenyan Way group. Sean recommended that I run in 7:30 range since this was going to be an easy week. I ran with a group of guys doing 7:10 - 7:30 range. Nothing too interesting here. I ended up doing 12.83 miles at 7:13 pace.
45 minutes 6.64 miles
| Mile 1 | 7:10 |
| Mile 2 | 6:45 |
| Mile 3 | 6:49 |
| Mile 4 | 6:43 |
| Mile 5 | 6:47 |
| Mile 6 | 6:31 |
| Last .64 | 6:35 |
| Total Average Pace | 6:47 |
About 5.75 miles at 7:50 pace. My legs still need to recover from the long run Sunday. I will be taking this week pretty easy and try to take a mental break from racing and training.
I ended up doing 9 miles easy at around 7:40 something pace. But that wasn't the story. The story was what I saw almost happen at Whole Foods today.
I was eating my lunch and I saw a family waiting around looking for a free table. There was a mentally handicapped guy who had just finished his lunch and got up. He is there every day and everyone knows he is handicapped. He reads the funnies every day and laughs out loud at the paper. He also microwaves raw meat to make a sandwich. He doesn't necessarily have the physical look of someone that is mentally retarded. Well anyway the family sat down, the mother, grandmother, and teenage son. The father had come back with some items as well. Next thing you know the mentally handicapped man was exchanging words with the father. The father exchanged words back. I don't think the father knew that the guy was handicapped. Actually, it was interesting watching the father getting so riled up by the words coming out of the mentally handicapped guys mouth. So one of the managers escorts the mentally disabled guy out of the store while he mouths off at the father. The father flips the mentally disabled guy off. That was shocking because the guy was totally white collar and with his family and it just seemed so out of place. Well the situation seemed to have been over but it wasn't. Not yet.
So the father sits down with the family. Next thing you know the retarded guy comes to the window making gestures and mouthing off. Seeing this and feeling his manhood threatened, the father gets up and starts to run out of the store. The manager tries to calm him down. The father doesn't listen. And I start to think to myself, OH BOY. This guys is going to beat down a mentally disabled man. This guy probably doesn't even know the guy is mentally disabled. So he still runs out to parking lot after the mentally disabled guy and the next thing you know the police have both guys handcuffed and everyone in Whole Foods are looking out the window. The father really looked pathetic. He was handcuffed and leaned over a vehicle. I sat next to his family, they looked puzzled, embarrassed. I felt bad for them. This guy's temper put himself in a stupid position. Not only him but his whole family. I wonder if his wife is going to scream at him for putting them in that situation or maybe he might lose his temper with her as well.
It was good I saw this happen and no one got hurt. This will force me to think twice when I'm in situations where my testosterone may get the better of me. We men are funny people. Today I saw how dumb we can get sometimes.
I headed out to the park for a run with no set miles but just a set time to run my long run. The day was good for running, at least up to "my" standards. I started my run and right away I felt pretty good. No ill effects from yesterday's race. I ended running my long run at a pretty good pace, and I made sure to keep my effort easy. I ended up running a little over 15 miles at 6:50 pace. Here are the splits:
1 hour & 45 minute run
Mile 1 | 7:24 |
Mile 2 | 6:58 |
Mile 3 | 6:57 |
Mile 4 | 6:51 |
Mile 5 | 6:45 |
Mile 6 | 6:52 |
Mile 7 | 6:35 |
Mile 8 | 6:45 |
Mile 9 | 6:51 |
Mile 10 | 6:42 |
Mile 11 | 6:38 |
Mile 12 | 6:50 |
Mile 13 | 6:33 |
Mile 14 | 6:48 |
Mile 15 | 6:50 |
Last .36 | 7:15 |
Total Average Pace | 6:50 |
What a race! Where do I begin? Why don't I start out by giving props to some special runners.
Let's start with Sabra Harvey. Sabra Harvey is a 60 year old woman who happens to be world class fast for her age at the 5k. Al Lawrence made a very special announcement at the beginning of the race that she was shooting for an age world record for 60 years old. The record she had to beat was 19:4something I believe. She shattered that with a 19:11. Wow. If I wasn't racing I would have loved to see what a 60 year woman looks like moving that fast. Congrats to her.
I'd also like to congratulate my Kenyan Way running partner, Geoff Streit, on his win at the "Four for the Park" race at Memorial Park. He ran a strong 21 minute 4 miles which averages out to 5:15 pace. He is continuing to improve and get stronger as he prepares for Boston later this April. Look out for this guy as I expect he'll be contending for more race wins in the future.
Also congrats to Luis Armenteros for winning a 5k race...again :) It was definitely a good showing for Kenyan Way this weekend.
Ok back to the race. I arrived at the race and was very excited. After all, this race had quite a reputation as a fast course. It is pancake flat and many of my friends had PRs on the course last year, including myself. This race also had special meaning to me. Afterall, I had broken the 17 minute barrier at this race last year with a 16:50. This year I was hoping to break the 16 minute barrier. I had run a 16:23 last week on a course that was long and was very windy and in late January I had ran a 16:01 at the Rockets run. Coach Sean had told me that breaking 16 would be imminent, so I was eager to run this race.
I did a warm up run and did some stretching. I noticed this older gentleman that I always see at races nowadays that is quite a character. Sometimes he'll break dance during award ceremonies. Today he was running the race in loafers. If that wasn't strange enough he was doing ballet spins in the air while jogging. Very interesting, and he gave people a good chuckle before the race.
Ok back to the race. I lined up at the start and recognized quite a few of the runners. A nice field. The gun went off, and we were out. I was forced to make a quicker spurt than normal. There was so many quick starters that if I was too passive then I would have been closed off by a lot of the slower runners and would have had to waste time and energy going around these guys. So I had to out run these guys and give myself some space. I did this and things started to spread out a little more and I was able to relax and get into my normal mode. Still, there were quite a few people in front of me...as usual. I was running about 5:06-5:07 minute pace and had 8 people in front of me. Mile 1 I finished in 5:05 and I was still in 8th place.
During mile 2 I continued my same pace. Things were easy so far. I was relaxed and focused. In mile 2 I passed a few guys. I moved past Gerardo Mora to be in 7th place. Then Rudy Rocha for 6th. Then a masters guy, Dave Matlock to be in 5th place. I finished mile 2 at 5:06 pace and was currently in 5th place.
Mile 3 was verrrry ineresting. I was feeling pretty good by now. I was running well, hitting my splits, and effort wise it was all pretty easy so far. It would get a little tougher during this mile. In the middle of third mile I ran by a young guy, D.J. Bean to move into 4th place. Now I must remind you that I didn't know what place I was in. There were too many people in front of me to know this. Next, I came upon Jose Lara, last year's winner. I moved ahead of him to move into 3rd place. A short distance in front of Jose was Junior Mitchell who would end up giving me a tough battle. Eventually I ended up overtaking Junior. He was obviously laboring but this guy did not go away. I passed him with about .7 to go. So there was plenty of race to go. He stayed on my tail. Through the halfway point of mile 3 I was running at 4:53 pace so I was surprised that he was able to turn it on and stay with me so long. At one point he got so close to me with the finish line in sight that he clipped me from behind and I almost tripped. Undeterred I just kept running and eventually I put some distance between us. I ended up finishing Mile 3 at 5:00 minute pace. With a little more effort I think I could have done a sub 5 3rd mile.
The last .1 was anti-climactic because my position was solidified at 2nd place. Luis Armenteros who looked like a speck from far away had already sealed the deal. I finished the last .1 at 4:26 pace. Mahta Mesfun and a few others cheered me on and motivated me to finish strongly at 15:43.
Once I finished I thought I had finished in 3rd or 4th place but Mahta told me I finished 2nd. That was a surprise. I was sure that there were more guys in front of me but there wasn't. What a race! Here are the splits:
2009 Bellaire Trolley 5k
| Mile 1 | 5:05 |
| Mile 2 | 5:06 |
| Mile 3 | 5:00 |
| Last .1 | 4:26 |
| Average Total Pace | 5:03 |
Finish Time 15:43
Total miles run: 8.7
I've done quite a few races in recent weeks so I'm going to take a little bit of time off from racing and get some more training in. With a result like this, I'll have a good taste in my mouth for a while :)
Put in my 3 miles the day before race day. I ran at a very easy pace, 7:20. I held back some for tomorrow's race. There's also another race at Memorial Park tomorrow, 4 miles. Geoff, one of my Kenyan training partners will be racing that one and I'll be racing the Bellaire Trolley. I'm hoping the weather will be decent. It doesn't have to be perfect but it doesn't have to be extreme either. Well anyway, its late and I must get some rest for tomorrow.
Good Night,
Bill
I ran yesterday without my Garmin so I don't know the times. But I felt good. I picked up my packet for the Bellaire Trolley 5k. I'm hoping the weather will be good on Saturday.
The last few days my legs have felt pretty good. I have been taking it easy the past few days. I felt great the day after my last 5k race. I also felt great today, a day after my fartlek run. When I started my run I immediately started moving pretty fast. I can't really remember an easy run where I started off my first mile at 6:56, but that's what I did today. When I saw that pace I knew I was going to be in for a good run. It was short and sweet. Here are the splits.
6 Miles Easy
| Mile 1 | 6:56 |
| Mile 2 | 6:40 |
| Mile 3 | 6:44 |
| Mile 4 | 6:36 |
| Mile 5 | 6:38 |
| Mile 6 | 6:36 |
| Total Average Pace | 6:42 |
I haven't been able to write much in the past few weeks because of a huge project at my job. But that project is going to be slowing down after 4/3 so hopefully I can be a more interesting blogger after that time. In the meantime I have registered for the Bellaire Trolley 5k. I'm hoping the weather cooperates and the course is the same because that is one fast course!
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