3 Mile 30/30 Fartlek - 8.75 Miles Total

5:00, 5:41, 5:03, 5:41, 5:04, 5:19, 5:02, 5:30, 5:03, 5:34, 5:15, 5:26, 4:55, 5:23, 5:03, 5:32, 4:58, 5:42, 4:59, 5:18, 4:53, 5:26, 5:03, 5:34, 5:07, 5:28, 5:28, 5:41, 5:06, 5:31, 4:53, 5:01

Time 15:39

Pace 5:16

Sean and Luis helped me along on this run. They ran 15:30ish and I just tagged along right behind as long as I could. I finished about 6 seconds behind. Sean was just taking it easy in preparation for the Peachtree race. They definitely did help me to even out my pacing and hit the splits I needed to hit, especially on the recovery parts. This was a PR for this workout.

6 Miles Easy

Mile 1	7:02
Mile 2	6:46
Mile 3	6:52
Mile 4	6:45
Mile 5	6:44
Mile 6	6:42
Total Average Pace	6:49

I felt great today. I can't wait for the fartlek workout tomorrow. Only a few more days till I leave for Atlanta for the Peachtree 10k road race. My sister Janel will also be running with me in the race. She will be one of the local elites. It will be cool if we'll be able to line up near each other and share the experience. If I could run with a video camera I would...

60 Minutes - 8.47 Miles

Mile 1	7:02
Mile 2	7:05
Mile 3	6:47
Mile 4	6:48
Mile 5	6:55
Mile 6	7:03
Mile 7	7:18
Mile 8	7:36
Last .47 Miles	7:11
Total Average Pace	7:05

I'll be the first to say I started this run off too fast. I had 2 high school guys running right behind me to start off the run and my competitive side took over. This usually doesn't happen but every once in a while I'll say forget it, and mess around a bit. In actuality my body probably wasn't really up to putting in the kind of effort I actually put in so you can see I slowed quite a bit at the end.

60 minutes - 7.9 Miles

Mile 1	8:35
Mile 2	7:49
Mile 3	7:38
Mile 4	7:25
Mile 5	7:22
Mile 6	7:17
Mile 7	7:18
Last .9 Miles	7:18
Total Average Pace	7:36

The whole purpose of today was to just get through the run. I did the workout yesterday and my legs weren't interested in doing anything fast today. The heat is really making its presence felt and if you aren't feeling in tip top condition, you just aren't going to move very fast. I don't if it hurts or helps your running but it sure does mess with your head sometimes.

Dad's Day 5k Pictures

Russian Fartlek - Total 8.93 miles

Distance	Desired Pace	Actual Pace	Time
1 Mile	4:50-5:00	5:09	5:09
800m Recovery	6:30	6:37	3:18
1200m	4:50-5:00	5:07	3:50
800m Recovery	6:30	6:59	3:29
800m	4:50-5:00	5:10	2:34
800m Recovery	6:30	6:57	3:28
400m	4:40-5:00	5:02	1:15
Totals		5:47	23:05

Didn't have any speed today, but had a lot of strength. Didn't feel too tired after the workout but whenever I tried to call upon any speed, there was none.

9 Miles Easy

Mile 1	7:20
Mile 2	7:06
Mile 3	7:12
Mile 4	7:06
Mile 5	6:56
Mile 6	7:13
Mile 7	7:34
Mile 8	7:32
Mile 9	7:39
Total Average Pace	7:18

Ridiculously hot and humid, probably about 82° with about 90 something percent humidity. I felt good today but made a concerted effort to take it easy. Tomorrow I will be introduced to the "Russian" Fartlek. Sean told me it should be harder than the torture workout.

6 Miles + Cross Training

Mile 1	7:13
Mile 2	7:04
Mile 3	7:07
Mile 4	6:56
Mile 5	7:01
Mile 6	6:52
Total Average Pace	7:03

• Curls
• Squats
• Leg Curls
• Leg Extensions
• Toe Raises

I can really tell that the cross training is helping to avoid the injury bug. After last weeks 5k my calf was slightly sore but I could tell that it wouldn't be that much of an issue because the pain was more on the outside than the inside of the muscle. The soreness has gone away and the nagging calf issue seems to be on its way out.

Progressive Run - 9.93 Miles Total

Progressive Run

Mile 1	7:02
Mile 2	6:42
Mile 3	6:26
Mile 4	6:16
Mile 5	6:01
Mile 6	5:37
Mile 7	5:27
Mile 8	5:17
Last .64 Miles	5:30

These are the types of workouts that make you tough on race day, no matter the conditions. The weather was horrible, the workout was difficult, but I got it done. I'm happy with the way I'm coming along. It isn't happening all that fast but sometimes slow and steady progress is the way to go.

6 Miles - 7:51 Pace

I actually was supposed to run 9 miles today but I guess yesterday's run took the last 3 miles out of me. Actually during today's last 3 miles I could feel the leg pounding the dirt and I knew I was only going to run 6 today. We have a progressive workout tomorrow so there's no reason to struggle through 9 today.

60 minutes 8.71 miles

Mile 1	7:06
Mile 2	6:36
Mile 3	6:43
Mile 4	6:57
Mile 5	6:46
Mile 6	6:59
Mile 7	7:05
Mile 8	6:49
Last .71	6:54
Total Average Pace	6:53

The goal was to go easy today after the race. I met up with a guy I run with sometimes, Ryan. After the first mile I told him that today was going to be a fast day since we started out the first mile at 7:06. We met up with my good friend Josue at the start of mile 2 and he definitely was up for the challenge. He told me had biked 40 miles earlier in the day but he took off and led the charge on miles 2, 3, 4. Ryan was right behind him and I brought up the rear. The running actually felt pretty good. Eventually Josue dropped off and Sean jumped in at mile 6. He was just warming up so we slowed the pace down a bit. He sort of chastised me a bit for running so fast, but hey...sometimes I just have to be a rebel.

Dad's Day 5k - 15:47 2nd Overall (9+ miles total)

I came into the race ready to see what I could do. I was told the course had a couple of hills that would add at least 8 seconds to my time. That didn't discourage me because I was convinced that my added fitness would supercede all of the disadvantages.

I was encouraged by Sean to get to the race on time because he told me "This is why we train!". Meaning we train hard as heck for these moments so don't just piss them away. So Sean, Luis, and I warmed up for bit. Met up with Sam and Geoff to finish off the warm up. By the time the warm up was done we were definitely heated up and ready to go. The temp was 83 with 90% humidity. And that was in the shade. I ended up doing about 6 strides and stretching a bit before lining up.

When I lined up I had set up my new Garmin and I thought I was ready to go for the race. Uh oh, I forgot to change the display to show my mile splits. So I accidentally pressed the start button and my watched started. We were 30 seconds away from start time and I was still jabbing away at my watch. I eventually stopped my watched and was trying get the display right again when the gun went off. It was hilarious. For the first 1-2 minutes I'm just looking down at my watch trying to set it up all over again. There must have been other guys looking at me thinking "What the heck is Bill doing?". Looking back up I finally realize if I don't pay attention this race could get away from me. So I just said "Forget it" and run it cold turkey without the Garmin. Looking up I saw Junior Mitchell and Jose Lara ahead of me and Sean and Luis further up ahead. Right then and there I had to make tactical decision. Should I try to run ahead of Junior and Jose this early in the race or should I just coast behind those guys for the 1st mile? I decided to run ahead because I really didn't want these guys dictating my race so I pushed ahead. Junior picked up the pace as well but eventually he let me run by and then he drafted behind me for a while. Early on in the race it felt like I could catch Sean and Luis before the first mile marker. So I had another decision to make. Should I just be aggressive and just run by how I feel or should I keep my distance behind Sean and Luis and run the same pace? This time I decided to be less aggressive and decided to maintain my current pace. I have to admit, not knowing my pace really, really bothered me. I didn't know if I was running too fast or too slow. At a certain point in the race I just had to make peace with myself and just run the race that was in front of me.

Finally I had some semblance of where I was at time-wise at the mile 3 marker. The girl called out 15:19 so I knew I better high tail it for the last .1 because that would make the difference between a 15:4x and a 15:5x. I finished the last .1in 28 seconds for a 15:47 finish. There are several things we know for certain. Death and taxes. Add a couple more to that list. Bill running 15:4x and Bill finishing 2nd overall to one of my training partners(That's 4 times in a row now) :)

I ended up finishing 2nd to Sean who ran an awesome 14:54. Insane. Luis ended up pacing Sean through 2 in 9:38. So Luis did his job. Sean told me that this race was much more impressive than the Heights race where I PR'ed. I believe him too. Between the oppressive heat, the crazy hills, and Garminless run, I'd say it was a strong run.

After the race I had the chance to hang out with Junior Mitchell. He's a pretty cool guy. I found out a few things about him I didn't know before, like he's from Trinidad and that he used to be a sub 4 minute miler. If you've seen him race you could tell he has some crazy speed when he needs it. He had a little tweak in his calf coming in to this race so he kind of kept it under wraps and coasted to a 16:25. He told me I did a negative split in the race. Seeing how the race unfolded, I probably did.

Well anyway I ended up learning something about myself during the race. Garmin or no Garmin I can still run a pretty similar race.

• The results to the 2009 Dad's Day 5k can be found here
• 4 out the top 10 finishers were Kenyan Way guys (Geoff & Sam being the other 2)

3 Miles + 10 Strides

Mile 1	6:45
Mile 2	6:33
Mile 3	6:29
Total Average Pace	6:36

I'm ready to go for tomorrow. I added in strides at the end as recommended by Sean. He's been getting on me lately about slacking on my strides so I'll be making a concerted effort to do them. One reason why I hadn't been doing them is that it usually felt like I was taking away rather than adding speed. Usually at the end of my runs I was really in no mood, with aches and soreness, to do strides. These days I'm feeling pretty good. One thing he said clicked with me. He told me to do them at 5 minute pace. That made total sense to me. So from now on I'll try and do them at my 5k pace. That shouldn't be too bad.

Like I said, I'm ready to go for tomorrow. One thing that I will try to improve upon is to get to the race on time so I can warm up and run the course, do some strides, then stretch. If I'm able to do all 3 things I'll put myself in pretty good shape for the race.

6 Miles Easy and Upcoming Races

Mile 1	7:37
Mile 2	7:09
Mile 3	6:58
Mile 4	6:50
Mile 5	6:45
Mile 6	6:32
Total Average Pace	6:59

Not a bad run. A few things worth mentioning. I will be doing the Dad's Day 5k this weekend. Sean, Luis, Geoff, and Sam will be there as well. So Kenyan Way will be represented well. Another thing worth mentioning is I received a nice birthday present when I found out I will be lining up with the elites at one of the biggest races in the country, The Peachtree Road Race 10k in Atlanta, Georgia. Some of the fastest runners in the country and the world come to run this race and I have a front row seat in the action. This race will have over 50,000 runners. Sean helped me get in and I truly thank him for it. The race will be held on July 4th. Now all I have to do is to figure out how to run fast with a camera phone.

6 Miles Easy + Cross Training

Slow and steady today. After yesterday's workout there was no way I was going to be moving at a fast pace.

6 miles @ 7:18 pace

Then I did some cross training... Squats, leg curls, leg extensions, arm curls, toe raises. I continued to amaze the personal trainers with how little weight I was lifting.

3 Mile Fartlek - 8.74 miles total

5:31, 5:44, 5:05, 5:53, 5:09, 5:30, 5:02, 5:56, 5:01, 6:02, 5:12, 5:58, 5:03, 5:55, 4:55, 6:22, 4:53, 6:16, 5:13, 5:53, 4:38, 5:42, 4:41, 6:29, 4:57, 6:05, 4:46, 6:02, 5:00, 5:40, 5:00, 4:03

Time 15:59

Pace 5:22

I ran this one with Sean, Luis, and Geoff. All I can say is Sean is just hammering these workouts. This was our usual 30 seconds fast, 30 seconds slow workout. Even though my total time was longer than my last fartlek, I believe this one was probably better. The reason I say this is because I was fiddling with my new Garmin during the first split, trying to get it right. So that was easily around a 30 second loss there. So I think my time would have been closer to 15:3x. Another thing to mention is that I think I have gotten faster. As you can see above, my last medium was 5:40 which I followed with a 5:00 and then a 4:03 for 30 seconds. Tack on the fast split before the 5:40 and you can see that 3 out of my last 4 splits were at 5:00 pace or lower and one of them was a 4:03, and my only slow was 5:40! Not too bad. The last time we did a fartlek my fast split at the end was a 4:14.

Where's Gerardo?

Here he is in today's online issue of www.RunnersWorld.com. Gerardo is one of our top local master's  runners (and Beach 2 Bay Relay Teammate) and was fortunate enough to be in one of the random race pictures they throw up on the home page. Hopefully he doesn't get a big head and start demanding appearance fees at races :)

Birthday Run - 6 Miles

I planned on running for 60 minutes but just didn't have it in me. Besides, it's my birthday and I should be able to do what I want to do on my birthday right?

7:23 pace

Easy Run 9 miles

Felt strong today. I ran fast in the middle of the day in 95ish degree heat. Didn't set out to run in the middle of the day but I had stayed up late the night before and could only get myself ready by midday.

Mile 1	6:59
Mile 2	6:45
Mile 3	6:38
Mile 4	6:47
Mile 5	6:42
Mile 6	6:47
Mile 7	6:47
Mile 8	6:52
Mile 9	7:00
Total Average Pace	6:49

Saturday Long Run 90 minutes - 12.39 miles

I just wasn't feeling it today. So I just took it easy and ran the allotted time (12.39 miles - 7:15 pace). Needless to say it was hot. When I finished my run I noticed this mix between Fabio and Hulk Hogan looking guy with long blonde hair running around in bright striped color Speedos. Man, where is my camera when I need it! The picture would have been perfect for the blog.

Fartlek 45 secs Fast 45 secs Slow ~9 miles Total

This morning was humid again. I might as well start getting used it. It just means that I better not come to any workouts unprepared. Luckily, today's workout was a break from the difficulty level of our previous workouts. Sean didn't want to push it and press his luck so we decided to do this easy fartlek. I call it easy, although it wasn't all that easy to me since I was trying to run the same pace as Sean and Luis on the fast parts. My watch flaked out on me so I didn't get a chance to record our splits but while we were running on the fast parts we were running in the 4:30s - 4:20s. It wasn't too difficult at first, but towards the end of the workout I was breathing hard and couldn't stay with them. We basically did 45 seconds fast and 45 slow for 3 miles. On the slow parts we were probably doing 9 or 10 minute pace. A good workout.

60 Minutes Easy

Tomorrow we are going to do a work out so I thought I would do 60 minutes of easy running. I ended up running faster than usual. One thing to keep in mind is my effort was the same but the results were different, even in the hot, sticky, humid weather. I ended up running 6:45 pace. Go figure.

Mile 1	7:02
Mile 2	6:38
Mile 3	6:41
Mile 4	6:45
Mile 5	6:40
Mile 6	6:36
Mile 7	6:52
Mile 8	6:48
Last .88	6:44
Total Average Pace	6:45

I also got this picture from the Beach To Bay Relay. I like it. It's one of the few times you'll catch me racing with a singlet.

Heights 2009 5k Pictures

Hey! The blog has been looking rather drab recently. Let's add some pictures.

Oh boy, what was I thinking?

The payoff...

3 Miles + Cross Training

I switched it up today because I wanted to get some weight training in today. I basically want to strengthen the muscles in my legs to help prevent injuries. Right now I've been having a nagging calf that keeps coming and going (It's gone right now). Hopefully a regular weight routine will help alleviate that.

Well anyway I ran the 3 miles pretty fast. It looked something like this:

Mile 1	7:23
Mile 2	6:42
Mile 3	6:36
Total Average Pace	6:54

Boy was it hot and muggy. I was dripping after just 1 loop(~3 miles).

For cross training I did squats, leg curls, and toe raises. Very light weight, with a lot of reps. The trainers were looking at me like "Man, don't  you want to put on some more weights?".

Slow Torture Workout - 10+ miles

I came to the workout a little dreary. My legs had been sore all week since the Heights 5k race and my legs felt a tiny bit better today...not much better. Lucky for me Sean had devised this slow torture workout for us. Even more lucky was the fact that the humidity was of the extreme variety. Oh well, I grabbed my lunch pail and went to work.

We warmed up for 2 miles and then went over to line up. Well, what do you know? We run into a who's who list of Houston runners doing workouts as well. We meet up with Joe Flores, Jose Lara, Vaughn Gibbs, and JP Machemehl. We chatted a bit and then went our separate ways. My workout was a killer. Here it was:

1 Mile	5:10
800 Meter Cool Down	6:30 (Pace)
4 Mile Tempo	5:30 (Pace)
800 Meter Cool Down	6:30 (Pace)
1 Mile	faster than 5:10

To make a long story short, I adjusted the times above to match what I could do with the humidity as a factor. I ended up doing something like:

(I didn't set up my new Garmin to record the times very well)

1 Mile	5:15
800 Meter Cool Down	~6:45 (Pace)
4 Mile Tempo	5:5x (Pace)
800 Meter Cool Down	~6:45 (Pace)
1 Mile	5:15

The torture was at a pretty high level during the tempo but it never got any worse so I just kept running. Sean says these are the types of runs that make you tough during racing. After the tempo I finished very well with a 5:15. That's excellent considering how tired my body was. Sean wasn't as interested in my tempo time as he was interested in my final mile time. He said not to worry about the tempo, just make sure I could finish the run strong.

Speaking of Sean. He's turned into an animal. He hammered a much faster version of the above workout and seems to be getting better and better.

Easy Run 60 minutes ~7.44 miles

Ran pretty slow again. 8:03 pace. The legs don't feel so hot. Tomorrow we have another workout. Hopefully my legs will feel better.

Long Run 90 minutes ~11.58 miles

Ran with my friend at slower than 8 minute pace.

Height 5k - 15:40 PR 2nd Overall

First of all I'd like to huge props to my coach, Sean Wade, for turning in a huge performance today. He, with pacing provided by Luis, ran a 14:49 road 5k! This age grades to about a 93% performance (Maybe #1 Master in the country). If he remains healthy, he is going to have a huge year.

I woke up today at the appropriate time but for some reason I was dragging. Before you know it I was rushing to get to the race. I arrived a little late and I got less than a mile warm up in. Sean asked me why I was late. I couldn't really give him a good answer. He told me to go out slower, at 5:05 pace. I told him I was going to go out at 5 minute pace and just see what happens. There were quite a few fast guys and gals. My training partners, Sean, Luis, and new partner Sam were there, along with others like Vaughn Gibbs.

After the usual pre-race ceremonial routines were finished the gun sounded and we were off. Luis and Sean took off ahead of everyone else. I knew what the game plan was for them today. Luis would bring it out to 2 miles for Sean at about 9:30. This would place him in good position to go sub 15. Depending on how Luis felt he would drop out or continue on. Knowing this, I figured the real race would be for 2nd place. My main rival was Vaughn, but there was another guy I didn't recognize who started out pretty strong. I believe his name was Paul Riley. Luis and Sean had started building a nice lead and Paul was in third place with me about 3 seconds off of him and Vaughn about a second off of me at a half mile. I finally caught Paul at 3 quarters of mile and Vaughn was right behind me. I finished mile 1 at 5:01.

Mile 2 was pretty uneventful. I was moving along, maintaining pace with Vaughn still behind me. Somehow I had the feeling Vaughn was pacing off of me because he was right behind me the whole time. This was a little different than usual because usually I'm chasing guys down. Nonetheless I maintained my pace for the most part. Sean and Luis were way ahead and later I found out they had a 2 mile split of 9:28. I finished mile 2 at 5:02 pace with Vaughn still right on my tail.

At mile 3 I was slowing pretty significantly. I was running in the 5:07 range and was struggling trying to run any faster. Shortly after the completion of mile 2 Luis had dropped out. He accomplished his goal of getting Sean in good position to hit his target. Meanwhile I was in the unfamiliar position of doing a race with positive splits. I just held on for the remainder of this mile. I looked back and I could see that Vaughn was about 10 seconds behind me. I finished mile 3 at 5:06 pace. Which amounts to hang on pace for me. I picked up the pace a little bit when I saw the clock ticking at 15:30 and finished the last .1 in 31 seconds for a total time of 15:40. Basically a 3 second PR. Sean and I expected for me to hit the 15:3x mark but it wasn't a total lost cause. Vaughn finished right behind me at 15:50.

5k Splits

Mile 1	5:01
Mile 2	5:02
Mile 3	5:06
Last .1	4:42 (31 secs)
Total Average Pace	5:03

I feel I could have run at least a 15:35 if I had warmed up properly and ran the race the way I normally run it. But I'm happy I at least PR'ed once again. So it's back to the drawing board again as I don't know when my next race will be.

Maybe I need to get used to finishing in 2nd place as its happened 4 races in a row now.

3 Miles Easy, A New Partner, Race Time

I did 3 miles easy today and guess what? I did it with my new 405 Garmin. You know...I think I really could fall in love with this thing. Give me a few days. I still need to get used to the bezel (touch pad type interface). When you are in a relationship for 2.5 years (Garmin 305), you get used to their habits(interface). I don't know, the 305 had a lot of features that I used so I will reserve my final judgement. Currently I have my 305 sulking in the corner. If the 305 had kept doing its job we probably never would have parted.

As far as race preparation is concerned I'm feeling pretty good physically. I did 3 miles at 6:43 pace. I didn't record my mile lap splits because I didn't figure out how to do that until after my run. But I looked down a couple of times and I saw that I ran 6:56 pace after mile 1 and somewhere in mile 2 or 3 I was running 6:20 pace. Physically, this is probably the best I have felt before a race since right before the Rockets 5k. All physical indicators are pointing to a good race, but you never know until race day. One thing that I'm sort of nervous about is me not figuring out the Garmin 405 on race day. I believe I set up the mile lap splits correctly, and the "lap pace" in the data fields correctly, but you never know. Also, I may press some wrong buttons under pressure. The 305 is just so ingrained in my head! Oh well, I'll probably figure it out, no big deal. It's just me trying to find something to worry about.

6 Miles Easy And A Pending Breakup

I did 1 mile at 7:01 pace when my Garmin said "Nope, I'm not going to work anymore". So I ran the remaining 5 miles Garminless. I'm pretty tired of my Garmin's shennanigans and pretty soon I'm going to put him out of work. I'm going to need a reliable Garmin for this week's race and the workouts next week so I'm probably going to kick my current Garmin to the curb. It's a shame. We've had this relationship for 2.5 years. But all good things must come to an end. Currently I have been eyeing some of the newer hotter Garmins and I give no apologies for having a wandering eye. When me and my Garmin first met, it was a reliable workhorse. It would do anything and everything for me. Now that it's gotten comfortable it only works when it wants to. So goodbye Garmin 305, our relationship is probably over.

6 Miles Easy

Hot, muggy, but I didn't feel too bad. Especially since I was only doing 6 miles today. For the first time in a long time, no aches or pains. Knock on wood.

Mile 1	7:21
Mile 2	6:52
Mile 3	6:54
Mile 4	6:47
Mile 5	6:51
Mile 6	6:42
Total Average Pace	6:55

Fartlek - 8.8 Miles total

Today was a pretty fun workout. Sean and Luis were there as usual. But this time we had a new guest, Sam Rodriguez. Technically Sam has known Sean and Luis longer than I have so I probably shouldn't be calling him a guest. Nevertheless it was good having him join in.

Today I had a major break through as far as fartleks are concerned. My previous best around the Memorial park loop was 16:21. I shattered that time with a 15:44. I really don't know what to make of the time. When I did the 16:21 and the 16:22 I ran the 15:46 5k last Saturday. My fartleks have always been 30-60 seconds slower than my 5k times. So I'm not sure if this still holds true or my body has just figured fartleks out. Either way I believe that this signals a big change in my body. I still had trouble maintaining a respectable recovery time, but the big difference was my fast times were a WHOLE lot faster than before.

4:49, 5:51, 4:59, 5:26, 4:55, 5:40, 4:57, 5:48, 5:07, 5:33, 5:05, 5:39, 5:11, 5:29, 4:58, 5:47, 4:53, 6:00, 5:30, 6:07, 4:39, 6:11, 4:52, 6:02, 4:50, 6:07, 4:52, 5:53, 4:47, 5:51, 4:32, 4:14

Time 15:44

Pace 5:17

6 Miles Easy

7:20 pace. Tomorrow fartlek with Sean, Luis, and Sam Rodriguez.