3 Miles Easy

Mile 1	7:35
Mile 2	6:56
Mile 3	6:40
Total Average Pace	7:04

Jump Rope (110)

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that physically I'll be okay for tomorrow's 4 mile tempo, my first fast stuff since the injury.

9 Miles

7:21 pace with a little soreness. Nothing much but enough to have me thinking about just running 3 miles tomorrow. I have a 4 mile temp run that I’m doing on Tuesday so I want to make sure nothing is strained.

Jump Rope (100)

9 Miles Easy

Mile 1	7:30
Mile 2	6:50
Mile 3	7:03
Mile 4	6:58
Mile 5	6:56
Mile 6	6:51
Mile 7	6:52
Mile 8	6:56
Mile 9	6:35
Total Average Pace:	6:57

Am I back ? Well…for the first time since the injury I ran under 7 minute pace for a mile. Not only did I do that, but I ran 7 of the 9 miles under 7 minute pace with the last mile significantly under 7 minute pace. So my legs are indeed stronger. Alas, I’m still not 100% though. I’m going to keep a watchful eye over the coming week and see how my body responds to the additional stress I will be inflicting on it. Tomorrow I add the jump rope back into the mix.

12:56 5k

It’s on now…

Lay it all on the line...

I love this picture. You got to love the triangular symmetry of agony from some of this generations greatest marathon runners. Priceless!

9 Miles Easy

I was a little sore from the massage yesterday. Therefore I was a little slower today at 7:38 pace. No worries. It seems like a dodged a bullet as far as injuries are concerned. I've been rather fortunate over the past 3 years of avoiding major injuries. I think that has been key for me.

9 Miles Easy

I reached the milestone of 7 straight days of running. No issues today. I ran at 7:15 pace, the strongest pace yet since coming back. Later on I received a massage by Connie and she gave me a clean bill of health. Everything looks good. I'm going to spend a couple more days at 9 miles then next week I'll do workouts.

8 Miles

8 Miles at 7:25 pace. I graduated to running 3 miles with Sean today. No adverse effects.

7 Miles Easy

I did the mileage at 7:43 pace. I felt very strong, no soreness from running. I'm still not 100% but I'm well on my way. I should be able to do my normal easy runs now. The only things I see that are questionable now are long runs and workouts. We'll have to see where I am at the end of the week. The injury may have a silver lining. It will give my muscles some time to catch up to my workouts. By the time I get back to workout fitness I should be even faster.

6 Miles Easy

Today was the big test and I passed. Not with flying colors but I did complete the run. I ran pretty slow at 8:00 pace but a lot of that was due to me starting my run at 4:55 in the morning. I had to take my son to his first day of school ever, Pre-K. My running revolves around my life and not vice versa. So running can be quite difficult at times. But I got it done today. I'm debating whether or not to take a day off tomorrow since I've run 4 days in a row successfully. I want to make sure my groin/pelvic area is getting full recovery now that I will be up to 7+ miles in the coming days. It was little bit more sore this morning but has rebounded pretty well though. I'm taking it easy this week and I'm slowly adding back things that I was doing before I got hurt. This week it is the calisthenics. Next week it will be the jump rope. The following week...strides.

5 Miles Easy

Working my way up the ladder. Today...once again, I felt stronger than the day before. I ran my 5 miles at 7:36 pace with the last 3 in the 7:20's, maybe lower. The true test will be tomorrow when I do 6 miles. I had some issues on my last attempt at around 5.7 miles.

On a side note, I ran at Memorial Park today. I got there at 6:30 am and it was like a who's who of top Houston runners convening for a morning run. I'm too lazy to list them all, but suffice to say it was impressive. This should happen more often.

Lastly Mary Davies who lives and trains here was in the Track & Field World Championships for the Womens Marathon. She did very well as she ended up PRing by 2 minutes (2:38). I'm not going to say too much because I'm sure if I wrote a lot it would only embarrass her. So congratulations to her.

4 Miles Easy

Did 4 miles at 7:35 pace. Felt stronger than yesterday. See a pattern? Hopefully this is a good sign. I'm still far from 100% but hoping I'll get stronger and stronger everyday. Still have to wait and see.

3 Miles Easy

I managed to do 3 miles at 7:45 pace. I was able to do some things I couldn't do yesterday and also ran a little faster. The legs felt stronger but I'm still not 100% yet. Time to build it all back up slowly.

Sean and Luis did their 800s today and it looks like they are rounding into form. Hopefully I'll meet them on the flip side :-)

5.63 Miles Easy

I attempted to run 6 miles and I made it up to 5.63 and had to call it a day (8:16 pace). I'll try and do 3 miles tomorrow and then I'll see where I'm going to go from there. Thanks for all the positive vibes.

Day Off - Recuperating

No running today.

Day Off - Recuperating

Watched the World Championships.

Day Off

I'm taking the day off. I just need to let my groin recuperate and do it's thing. I'm probably going to take tomorrow off as well. It's a shame but it's a lesson learned. I probably made my mistake when I attempted to do strides after my run Saturday. Not a good idea since I had a breakthrough track session the day before. Racing the last 2 miles on Saturday probably didn't help either. I'm disappointed that I'll have to miss tomorrow's hill session but oh well. The bright side is that I'll get some extra shut eye for the next few days.

Attempted Long Run - 7 Miles

What can I say? Just a bad day. First off, I was supposed to meet Sean and Luis at 6:30 and I was late. I ended up getting to the park around 7. So they had already run a loop by the time I got to the park. I jumped in with them but realized my Garmin had a low battery which eventually ran down after a minute. Awesome. It was also awesome that Sean and Luis were already warmed up and I immediately had to test my legs. That lasted about 2.75 miles until I felt some twinges in my groin area so I stopped and stretched. I decided I would try to finish up the long run at my own pace, alone. Well that didn't work. After mile 7 I felt the strain in my groin so I decided to walk it in. It was a long walk back. About 1.2 miles.

In other more positive news, what about the Worlds Track & Field today? Usain Bolt with a 9.58 100 meters. What the heck? I hope this guy is clean but this is so hard to comprehend. I grew up watching the 100 meters and now that I have actually seen a guy run a 9.69 and then a year later run 9.58, I don't know what is and what is not possible anymore.

9 Miles Easy

Mile 1	8:13
Mile 2	7:52
Mile 3	7:29
Mile 4	7:13
Mile 5	7:24
Mile 6	7:27
Mile 7	7:13
Mile 8	6:33
Mile 9	6:34
Total Average Pace	7:22

Jump Rope (200)

Strides

1. 4:57 21 seconds
2. 4:39 15 seconds
3. 5:00 10 seconds

I'm pretty mad at myself. I went into the run with my legs feeling trashed. I should have put in the requisite mileage at a smooth pleasant pace. I should have. But I ran past some guy probably doing 7:50 pace. He then sped up to about 7:00 minute pace and then slowed up right in front of me. I was thinking to myself what is this guy doing? If you want to run by me, go ahead and run by me. Just don't speed up and then slow down and get directly in my way. Annoyed I just ran past the guy. Then the guy ran with me. What the heck? The stupid race was on and hence the 6:30 last 2 miles. My legs weren't in any type of shape to do 6:30 miles today. I have to keep my ego in check. And yes there is no denying it to myself I do have an ego. The thing I have to learn now is that from now on I have a target on my back. I was used to being the chaser and now I'm the one that is going to be chased. That's fine. The only thing is that when I run on my recovery days, I need to stay true to the mission. If guys wants to informally race me and stick a feather in their cap...then fine I'll just have to ignore it and just keep trucking. This is what I do 90% of the time. But today was another story.

Then I went and did strides. My watch changed up on me. Normally I set it at 15 second intervals and wait for the beep so I can stop. So I started my stride and I ran. And I kept running. And I kept running. Where the heck is the beep? So I stop and find out that somehow my watch got set to mile intervals. Luckily I didn't run a mile to find that out :-S. But I did end up running 21 seconds. After the 3rd stride I felt a tenderness in my groin so I stopped.

Track Workout: 1600/1200/800/400 Ladder - 8 Miles Total

3 Miles Warm Up

Jump Rope (100)

6 x 100m Strides

1. 5:36
2. 5:10
3. 5:02
4. 4:17
5. ?
6. 5:19

Ladder (400m jog recovery)

1600	4:47 (71,74,74,67)
1200	3:32 (72,73,67)
800	2:13
400	64

2 Mile Cool down

Sean had been riding me pretty hard about doing well in this workout. After last weeks debacle 800m workout he tried to impress upon me the seriousness of this workout. He basically was challenging me to show up. This is in direct contrast to my mental approach to workouts. Since I almost never do well in my workouts but consistently race well, I have developed a laid back attitude towards workouts. If I hammer a workout it's a bonus. Since I've been working out with Sean and Luis, Sean has been challenging that notion. Today I had every excuse in the world ready for Sean:

1. I just got a massage Wednesday and my legs were still sore.
2. My legs felt flat.
3. I ran too fast the day before.
4. Yada, Yada, Yada...

To tell you the truth I really didn't expect to run well. But I really tried to have an open mind. When I was doing my strides Sean said it looked like I was jogging. I had trouble getting up to the pace I needed. He joked I should keep doing strides till I got on pace. He told me to shoot for 4:52 for the 1600. I thought to myself if I ran that fast then I would bonk the rest of the workout. The we did the workout.

During the 1600 I initially was feeling as bad as I expected to feel. I got way behind Luis and Sean early. By the 3rd lap I thought to myself I don't feel dead yet so I'll pick up the pace. Well I ended up shooting another 74 but I had enough energy to throw down a 67 to get under 4:52 by 5 seconds. At the end of the 1600 I felt pretty confident and I didn't feel dead.

I told myself I would be aggressive on the 1200, and I was with a 3:32 and another 67 last lap.

I was beaming with confidence on the 800 as well as ran a 2:13. I didn't get to catch my splits but I'm thinking I ran probably a sub 65 last lap.

I was confident but tired on the last 400. I ended up running in the second lane next to Sean. I really think I ran a 63 since I had to run in the second lane for much of the lap but my watch got me down for 64 officially (a little longer than 400m). So whatever.

I think I earned a little respect today from the guys. I actually pushed them a little bit and I believe that's what they expect from me. Otherwise, why am I here?

6.67 Miles Easy

Mile 1	7:29
Mile 2	6:46
Mile 3	6:38
Mile 4	6:34
Mile 5	6:31
Mile 6	6:40
Last .67 Miles	6:38
Total Average Pace:	6:46

Jump Rope (190)

15 Second Strides (60 seconds rest)

1. 4:41
2. 4:08
3. 4:40
4. 4:19
5. (3:50)
6. 4:25

Total Average Pace: 4:19

I ran miles 2 onward with Sean which is why the pace picked up. Along the way, Marco from California hopped in there. He won the Lazy Hazy Days 5k race last weekend. He's only here temporarily and will be going back to California tomorrow. I got Sean's blessing to cut the 9 mile run short since we were going to have a workout tomorrow.

Oh, and did I mention I got a massage by Connie yesterday? The massage went a lot better the second time around and I was able to converse and joke around during the session. We were both happy with the state of my legs since the first session. This gives me more confidence as I train for the fall races. I'm less worried about injury and more concerned with getting good quality training in.

The strides keep getting better and better. I broke 4:00 minute pace convincingly today with a 3:50. I had to do a double take because I thought the time was wrong when I looked back at the times. It will be interesting to see how this will affect my racing. I'm curious to see.

On final note, I did some house cleaning and changed the site up a bit. I wanted to get some more pictures and stuff up to give the site a little more life. I'm content for the time being, only because I really don't have too much time at my  disposal. If I did...

9 Miles Easy

9 Miles @ 7:05 pace including 3 or 4 at sub 7 pace. That's good news.

Jump Rope (180)

15 Second Strides (60 Second Rest)

1. 4:51
2. 4:09
3. 4:19
4. 4:12
5. 4:27
6. 4:02

Total Average Pace: 4:19

My speed is going way up on the strides. It seems like the strategy of incorporating strides into my runs is working. I've done strides before, but I really never paid attention to the metrics. So I didn't take them too seriously and so they didn't work.

After speaking with Sean I decided to put a maximum slow pace of 7:30 on my runs and minimum length of an hour. Strength is something that I need to work on with the Fall series of races coming up. Strength is also something that will help me with the shorter stuff as well.

In other news I think I was mistaken for Sesar Figueroa today. I was doing my strides and a lady ran up to me and asked if I coached for HBU. She had to be thinking of Sesar. Sesar is probably the #1 runner here locally so being mistaken for him isn't really an insult :) That's not the first time I was mistaken for another runner. Last year when I was running in the park some guy running the opposite direction says "Hey Vaughn". I look around and Vaughn Gibbs wasn't in the vicinity and so they had to be talking to me. A while ago I was in the park and a lady came up to me and told me "You know who you look like?". My obvious response was "Hmmm... Barack Obama?". She said "No, Bill Blanchett". I said "You mean Bill Blancett" (the c is pronounced like an s). She corrected me and said "No, his name is BLANCHETT!". Wow I even got corrected on my own name. Well at least she recognized me...Sort of.

15x200m Hill repeats - 9 Miles Total

15x200m Hill Repeats (35 seconds recovery @ clover leaf #2)

Time	Pace
35.25	4:38
36.90	4:43
36.65	4:37
35.76	4:38
35.45	4:38
35.27	4:20
35.06	4:32
35.28	4:33
35.72	4:43
35.47	4:39
35.53	4:37
35.70	4:33
35.67	4:39
34.86	4:14
33.32	4:00
Total Average Pace	4:32

We did a 5 mile warm up and then went to the hills. We had about a 35 second recovery after each 200. This was definitely my most impressive performance so far on this workout. I stayed within contact of Sean and Luis during the whole workout (about .5 second away). The last 2 reps I increased the pace and I hit 4:00 minute pace on the last rep. Maybe next week I'll increase the pace on the last 3. I felt good during the entire workout. Speed-wise I am making great strides. Now I just need to focus on doing the 9 mile runs consistently and no slower than 7:30 pace. Since I plan on doing the marathon and a couple of the longer races, I need to incorporate the requisite strength training for them.

4.2 Miles Easy

4.2 Miles @ 7:59 pace

15 Second Strides (45 seconds rest)

1. 5:01
2. 4:15
3. 4:22
4. 4:13
5. 4:37
6. 4:30

Total Average Pace: 4:29

Jump Rope (170)

I just wasn't feeling it today so I cut it short.

6 Miles Easy

6 miles at 7:45 pace.

Jump Rope (160)

15 Second Strides (45 Seconds Rest)

1. 5:31
2. 4:37
3. 4:30
4. 4:38
5. 4:23
6. 4:24

Total Average Pace 4:39

This was not a day to be trifled with. The humidity was stifling. I waited till about 1 pm to do my run. My legs just couldn't go 9 today. I've been running really slow the past few weeks on my recovery, easy, and long runs. I'll take this month off from racing, train, and then scope out some races for September. October will be a very important month of racing as well with the 10 miler and half marathon coming up.

12 Mile Long Run

Legs were trashed from the track workout yesterday. So I just ran 12 miles @ 7:45 pace and called it a day.

Those of you that think Sean is a nice guy, here is a recent exchange between me and him about today's long run.

Me: "You running today?"

Sean: "If you want to run @ 9 or 9:30 I might go."

Me: "My wife would kill me. I have to go to church."

Sean: "Pray for faster 800s next time."

Drum roll please...

6x800m Track Work - 9 miles total

3.29 mile warm up 7:20 pace

4 strides approximately 100m (pace)

1. 4:58
2. 4:49
3. 4:59
4. 5:02

Jump Rope (50)

6x800m - Jog 400m recovery

1. 2:29
2. 2:29
3. 2:30
4. 2:32
5. 2:33
6. 2:23

Cool down jog

If you look closely at my 800 splits you might think, "Oh he was just sandbagging". My splits weren't all that impressive, especially when I busted 2:32 and 2:33 back to back. Then I pulled a 2:23 out of my butt. Being that I know myself pretty well, I'll take the results in the workout. I just need to get my slow splits down to respectability. Sean and Luis were there and Sean was busting out 2:16s and looking pretty good. Luis is coming off of a short layoff and was easing in to it. Good work out. I need some more of these. There is still a lot of work to do.

8.66 Easy

Ran the above mileage @ 7:11 pace with 1 mile @ 6:58 pace. Felt pretty good.

Jump Rope - 150 reps

12 Second Strides (45 Second Recovery)

1. 4:52
2. 4:25
3. 4:14
4. 4:11
5. 4:27
6. 4:06

Total Average Pace: 4:22

Strides are becoming more efficient.

6 Miles Easy + Cross Training

6 Miles @ 7:21 pace

12 Seconds Strides (45 Seconds rest)

1. 4:28
2. 4:37
3. 4:33
4. 4:38
5. 4:27
6. 4:17
7. Total Average Pace: 4:30

Jump Rope - Reps 140

Cross Train

• Squats
• Leg curls
• Toe Raises
• Arm Curls

I got a lot of stuff done today. The speed is coming together nicely but there is still a lot of work to be done. At the end of the week we head to the track.

Hills - 9 Miles Total

37	4:50
37.13	4:52
37.01	4:53
37.78	5:02
36.78	4:52
37.30	4:55
37.35	4:51
37.31	4:57
37.92	4:53
37.99	4:52
37.58	4:59
37.38	4:52
38.17	4:55
33.77	4:20

There was a 5 mile warm up and then a cool down after the hills. I ran these with Sean and Luis. They ran the hills in 35 seconds for the most part. As you can see I hovered around 37 seconds until the last repetition where I blasted out a 33. During this run I was only concerned with getting good consistent efforts up the hill. This effort felt right when I was hitting 37 seconds. I was able to stay with Sean and Luis by catching up to them on the recoveries. The 37 second splits also allowed me enough time to recover. The 37 second splits felt kind of like strides. On the last rep I ran a 33 second split alongside Sean. The next time we do hills I may try to do the last 2 reps at 33-35 seconds and work my way backwards each week.

7.08 Easy

Ran the 7.08 at 7:45 pace. Nice breeze.

Jump roped 130 reps

12 second strides 30 second recovery

1. 4:50
2. 4:46
3. 5:07
4. 5:41
5. 5:13
6. 5:03
7. Total Average Pace 5:06

8.69 Miles Easy

Mile 1	7:15
Mile 2	6:46
Mile 3	6:37
Mile 4	6:45
Mile 5	6:40
Mile 6	6:43
Mile 7	6:44
Mile 8	6:38
Last .69	6:37
Total Average Pace	6:46

6 Strides 12 Seconds (30 seconds rest)

1. 4:53
2. 4:41
3. 4:43
4. 4:33
5. 4:03
6. 4:10
7. Total Average Pace 4:36

Jump ropes (120 reps)

Nothing special today. Ran with Sean. Did the whole 9 with him, the jump rope with him, and the last 2 sets of strides with him.

Word on the street...

Word on the street has it that Junior Mitchell won the Outriggers 5k and Gerardo Mora won 1st Master and 2nd overall. Hear all about it on Gerardo's blog.

Competitive Fire: Long Run 12 Miles

I ran with Ryan today. Ryan just graduated from high school and is going to be running in college next year. He had just came back from training in Colorado at altitude and wanted to get in a run with me. When we were about to start the run it seemed like it was going to rain so I left the Garmin in the truck. I know the Garmin's are supposed to be water proof to a certain extent but I have not had too much luck with Garmin's and rain. So I don't have any feedback from our run except that we ran probably around 7 minutes for most of the run. But there were a few instances of some major deviations of pace. On the 6-9th miles Ryan dropped the pace significantly and probably was ahead of me by 90 seconds. It didn't really bother me but underneath my laid back exterior I have a real high competitive streak. I usually keep it under control and save it for races but today my competitive fire was repeatedly stoked. I usually like to run with a purpose and I really wasn't interested in racing a long run today. So every time he kept pushing forward I just maintained my pace...Until the final mile. Since we were finishing up I decided to pick up my pace a little and finish strong. We were in the middle of mile 11 and I noticed that he would always try to stay in front of me whenever I picked up the pace. That was enough of a poke to my competitive fire that at the start of mile 12 I asked, "Do you want to race?" He said "Sure, last mile." After that I just blazed away to probably a 5:30 last mile. I have to admit I was a little annoyed that I did something like that. I knew I had easy days Sunday and Monday, but I pride myself at running with purpose, not pissing contests. I'll give myself a pass on this one since I'm usually well behaved. But I always have to remember that underneath my easy going nature is a streak that is as competitive as hell. So I just have to remember not to put myself in situations that will stoke the fire and make me forget what I'm running for.