| Mile 1 | 7:12 |
| Mile 2 | 6:52 |
| Mile 3 | 6:38 |
| Mile 4 | 6:09 |
| Mile 5 | 6:05 |
| Mile 6 | 5:54 |
| Mile 7 | 5:32 |
| Mile 8 | 5:18 |
| Mile 9 | 5:25 |
| Mile 1 | 5:00 |
| Mile 2 | 5:08 |
| Mile 3 | 5:25 |
| Last .27 | 5:58 |
| Total Average Pace | 5:15 |
I've already vented to the race director about all of the mishaps of the 5k. This was basically the 1st annual race, so a few things didn't go according to plan. I believe they did an excellent job on about 95% of the things they had to take care of(Mainly the 10k). Unfortunately the things they didn't take care of affected my race VERY BADLY. The director was very humble and receptive to all of the suggestions I had so I'm not going to bash him here. Although it was definitely one of the more interesting racing stories I've had. Now I have to go back to the drawing board.
Tomorrow is race day.
7:18 Pace
The results from this workout came out of left field. If you would have asked me or ANYBODY before the workout what my main objective was, I would have told you it was to try and run around 5 minutes for a mile. As you can see that objective was destroyed. This is not totally unusual though, as I had a similar experience almost exactly a year ago. I ran a freakish fast workout(for me anyway) and then I injured my adductor muscles and was never able to duplicate or better the workout again. Until now. I'll try to build upon this. No marathon or long distance training to distract me. Just honing the speed and increasing the strength.
Luis, J.P., Joe, and Jose were the cast of characters. There were some fast times put down out there today.
7:54, 7:23, 6:38, 6:10 – 7:01 Pace
That’s a wrap – Another 60+ mile week in the books. Now time to take it easy this week. I will be racing next Saturday.
Not the most impressive of workouts, 1 Minute fast, 1 Minute slow, 2 Minutes Fast, 2 Minutes Slow, and so on and so forth… I expected to hit more sub 5 minute splits. The legs felt good, I just didn’t run fast. Didn’t force anything, stayed relaxed and didn’t look at the watch.
| Mile 1 | 7:09 |
| Mile 2 | 6:42 |
| Mile 3 | 6:33 |
| Mile 4 | 6:14 |
| Mile 5 | 6:00 |
| Mile 6 | 5:47 |
| Mile 7 | 5:28 |
| Mile 8 | 5:15 |
| Mile 9 | 5:26 (half mile) |
Cool Down
We had a big group this morning. Let’s see if I can get this right. We had Me, Sean, Lu, J.P. Mac, RJ, Mahta, Joe Flores, and Jose Lara. Eight strong guys and we sounded like a thundering herd, errr, maybe more like light-footed gazelles. Good run and I made a tiny improvement upon my time in this workout. But it was a lot easier this time around and I had something left in the tank. I stopped a little early in the last mile as I felt my pace dropping. As soon as I stopped J.P. ran by me. I was a little disappointed as I felt I had enough left in the tank to try and finish it up with J.P. had I known he was still behind me. But no big deal in the grand scheme of things. J.P. has been improving pretty quickly and Luis has been running extremely well. Next time we do this workout I’ll try and finish it up with back to back 5:15s instead of the 5:05. Definitely doable.
This was a shake out run. It was meant to get a little speed in without taxing the body too much. Not a bad workout. One of the main things I battle these days is running well with massive fluid loss. It seems like I’m losing so much water even before the workouts start and that gives these workouts an extra challenge. I surprise myself sometimes with how well I’m able to maintain speed and strength while my body is dehydrated. On the bright side, I should feel quite refreshed once the first fall cool front moves in.
Another 60+ mile week in the books.
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these so here I go. I haven’t been too descriptive about the state of my running or even my state of mind. I have been wanting to do this for a while but I just have not found the time to do so. Life has just been getting in the way. What I have been able to do is just post quick summaries of my daily progress. While I think this can be a tad bit boring, this has been a great help to me because I have been able to track my progress over a nice period of time. I still go back and read previous workouts or try to find the last time I ran a particular workout in a decent manner. But I also realize this can be rather mundane to the faithful reader. So alas, I have time, and I offer you a break between all the stats and details.
My running has finally gone on the uptick. I feel I’m getting stronger every week and gaining more confidence day by day. The hard work has been getting done and the results will be reaped in a short time. Last July 4th, I got things started with a nice rust buster 5k victory. Although I didn’t push myself in that race, I gained confidence that I wasn’t too far off from where I needed to be. I then decided upon a course of action to get where I need to be. Granted, all previous plans had failed in the previous 6 months, but that would not keep me from trying something new. I decided I was going to work even harder than I was working before. But I wouldn’t focus so much on huge mileage. I would focus on higher intensity. So for 3 weeks I would be working my tail off. On the fourth week, I would take it easy. Very simple but it has been effective!
My first test came when I ran a 30/30 fartlek at the end of July. I had not run a fartlek in a while but the previous time I had run one it was a pretty sad site for sore eyes. I passed the test with flying colors as I had run the second fastest 30/30 I had ever done at 15:41. Feeling high as a kite off of this workout I traveled down to Lake Jackson to truly test the fitness. I blasted out of the gate expecting a solo time trial effort but found myself in a race versus an Aggie harrier. I came up a bit short but once again I was able to find the silver lining as I felt I was still on my way up. Since then I’ve run a progressive workout and a tempo and a few other workouts and all were pretty darn good. So as I sit here typing I feel I am in uncharted territory since I believe I am in the best shape I’ve ever been in.
One of the things I have tried to do when I picked up this running habit is to not try to analyze too deeply what it is I’m doing or all the possibilities out there. I’ve simply made very simple easy to reach goals and I’ve accomplished pretty much way more than I ever expected. So I feel I’m playing with house money here and whatever I do now is gravy. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t expect bigger things, because I do. I just try not analyze it all and just enjoy the experience. One of my favorite British phrases is “To just get on with it”. And that is what I’ll be setting out to do the rest of the year.
And finally, I appreciate you, the faithful reader, for showing an interest in my running exploits. Hopefully I can generate a few performances worthy of your interest in the future.
Yours Truly,
Bill
6:59 Pace
7:00 Pace
I did the strides after my easy run and that isn’t going to work. Not in this weather. I’m going to do these in the middle of my easy run from now on.
6 Mile Tempo (Goal Pace 5:30)
| Mile 1 | 5:27 |
| Mile 2 | 5:19 |
| Mile 3 | 5:22 |
| Mile 4 | 5:44 |
| Mile 5 | 6:18 |
| Mile 6 | 6:21 |
| Total Average Pace | 5:46 |
I ran this with Sean, Luis, and Dan. I ended up betting the farm on this workout. I told myself that I was going to really test my fitness here and that’s what I ended up doing. I ran from the front and ended up running out of gas at the 3.5 mark. I ended up running the first 3.5 miles around 5:24 pace. The weather was pretty difficult as it was extremely humid. I believe I lost a good amount of water even before we started the tempo. With all that said, I’m happy with the workout and I know I’ll do better next time. The other guys did extremely well and left me in dust. After the workout and the rest of the mileage I was worn down to a nub and I was left in a catatonic state for a while.
7:19 Pace
7:31 Pace
If it wasn't for other runners I know, I probably would be running a lot slower sometimes. Today was one of those days until I ran into Sean and Dan. I went ahead and finished the run with those guys.
6:56 Pace
The legs are still pretty sore. Another 60+ mile week in the books.
This workout consists of 5 minutes fast, 5 minutes slow, 4 minutes fast and 4 minutes slow, and so on and so forth. The objective was to hit 5:05 pace for the first repetition and then get faster on each of the following repetitions. I didn’t quite manage to do that but at least I didn’t blow up and was able to maintain pace. The next phase will be to get those next few reps faster and faster. I give myself a B- on the workout.
6:52 Pace
Progressive Run
| Mile 1 | 7:04 |
| Mile 2 | 6:55 |
| Mile 3 | 6:37 |
| Mile 4 | 6:09 |
| Mile 5 | 5:59 |
| Mile 6 | 5:42 |
| Mile 7 | 5:24 |
| Mile 8 | 5:15 |
| Mile 9 (1/2 Mile) | 5:31 |
Today was a real treat. Three time Olympian Justin Chaston joined us for part of our workout. It was basically Justin, Sean, Luis, JP, Me, and later our Ethiopian friend Mahta. It was a lot of fun especially since I took another step forward in this workout. I was able to hang through Mile 8 and ran a quarter of a mile at 5:15 pace on mile 9 but then blew up and quit at the half mile point. Later on Mahta joined me at the gym as I worked out on my legs and he worked out on his core.
It's so nice to finally be able to see some progress after 6 months of no progress at all. I'm way past due!
8:19 Pace
Legs trashed from Saturday
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