Kenyan Way Long Run 14.08 Miles

Alternate River Oaks Route with an add on of the bayou with Luis, J.P., Carlos, and McKim on the bike.

8:10, 7:10, 6:01, 5:44, 5:38, 5:40, 5:33, 5:38, 5:51, 5:46, 5:54, 6:05, 5:45, 6:37
Total Average Pace: 6:07

There is so much time between now and any significant race that I really don't know what I'm going to do with myself. Any ideas?

Kenyan Way Long Run 13.7 Miles

The run started out with Me, Luis, J.P., Andrew, and Jenna. Carlos was too busy winning the Lunar Rendezvous Run to run with us. We started out slow then the real pow wow session started. Andrew and Jenna hung for a mile and then decided the pace was a bit rich and then dropped off to a more reasonable pace. I'd like to call the pace we ran this week suicide pace since we were running pretty hard in nice humid, soupy conditions. Luis, J.P., and I hung together for the bulk of the run and I finished my miles with it looking a little something like this:

8:11, 7:31, 6:40, 5:53, 5:43, 5:43, 5:47, 5:47, 5:46, 6:00, 5:46, 6:49, 7:30, 6:53 for .7 miles
Total Average Pace: 6:25

The middle miles were a lot more intense than last week's long run but we only ended up running 8 quality miles as opposed to 10 last week. It doesn't matter because this run felt a lot harder. I was able to hang on and hold my own though, so I was pleased. Next week should be even more intense as Lu want's to do 15 miles at the same or higher volume and intensity. Lu was a beast during this run as he pushed the pace and I didn't want to antagonize but every time I tried to run along side him he would push harder. Boy am I a glutton for punishment. Great run and I feel it was another physical and mental break through for me. Next week will probably be the last hard long run before we start workouts. This should be very interesting!

New Race Post

The Baytown Bud Heat Wave 5 Miler race report can be found here...

14~ Mile Long Run With Kenyan Way

It's been a while a tell ya. It's been a long time. It's been over half a year since I've done a long run outside. It might have been over a year and a half since I've done a long run with Kenyan Way. In any case that is way too long to stay away from good friends and challenging runs in the Bayou City heat. As you know I've been doing most of my runs indoors on the treadmill and I finally reached a point where I couldn't take any more. I needed a new stimulus and when Luis told me that he and Carlos were doing long runs with the Kenyan Way I couldn't resist. I had reached a point in the last 2 months where I was doing all of my runs indoors since Wade's injury. It gets pretty boring sometimes I tell ya. Not only that I kind of missed the competition and rivalry of training with a group of guys. So here I was at the Kenyan Way base.

I saw many familiar faces and saw many more new faces. It was as crowded as it has always been. For some reason I was pretty nostalgic about the whole thing. I spotted Lu and he told me Carlos would be joining us after 2 miles today. So then around 6am Sean started us off on our long run. It was good seeing familiar faces again. Andrew Sharenson and Sam Rodriguez were with us and it was good getting caught up with Andrew's progress as he starts to win various masters races around the area. After a few miles Carlos caught up with us.

So this was our route. We basically left the Kenyan Way base on Jackson Hill and traveled through the Heights neighborhood. Then we diverted through a trail in the Heights neighborhood and headed downtown. During this time Sam dropped off at the heights and continued on with his own pace. Andrew stuck around in the middle of our downtown run and then dropped off. So it was just me and Carlos with Luis leading the pace for the most part. Carlos held his own and I brought up the rear. Then we headed from downtown to the bayou and then back to the base. From there we started another loop of the bayou and then Lu, dropped off. From here it was just me and Carlos the last 3 miles. We finished up in great fashion as Carlos held his own.

Looking back on the splits on our run I can be nothing but pleased with how it turned out. First of all running outside on pavement and various other surfaces is an acquired skill for a treadmill runner. It isn't the same. So I didn't know what to expect. I kind of expected to be fine cardio-wise but for legs and feet to struggle a bit as it acclimated itself to the new stimuli that it was facing. With all of this being said, I pretty much had the best long run I've EVER had in the middle of the humid Houston summer, outside. That's a good sign. The humidity and heat never really bothered me too much. For the most part I just paid attention to how my legs were feeling and they were doing just fine.

Here are the splits. During the last 2 miles my Garmin died so I can only approximate how fast Carlos and I ran them.

7:15, 6:42, 5:58, 5:53, 5:59, 5:59, 6:02, 5:49, 6:07, 5:52, 5:52, 5:52, 5:25 for .11 miles then Garmin died. I believe Carlos and I were anywhere from 5:30-5:40 pace for the last 2 miles for an overall 6 minute pace long run.

As you can see we were under 6 minute pace for most of the run. Oh and did I mention Carlos is still in high school? I can't wait to run with the guys next Saturday.

How to Structure Workouts Around Important Races To Get Peak Performance

This information may be something that you may already familiar with but it is brand spanking new to me and explains the reason why sometimes I complete these great workouts but I'm unable to even run the same pace over equivalent distances come race time. For example this paragraph makes complete sense to me:

"The goal of each type of workout is to stress a particular physiological system and produce an adaptation that ultimately allows you to run faster. For example, and in admittedly simplified terms, V02 max intervals, such as kilometer repeats at 5K race pace, improve your heart's ability to deliver oxygen to muscles. Tempo runs increase your capacity to process and clear lactate. Short, fast repetitions enable you to run fast yet relaxed by decreasing overall energy expenditure and improving communication between working muscles and the brain. Long runs encourage capillary and mitochondria growth. Over time, these changes produce faster races."
Link To Article

My Tour De France Coverage

You are not a serious runner or cyclist unless you have numerous bulging veins protruding out from your leg. Case in point...here

Thoughtful Question...

Anonymous said...
Since you pretty much have been dominating the 5k scene in Houston, do you ever get formal invites to regional road races or elite racing teams? Just curious, Thanks!
---------------------------------
Anon,

Thank you for using so generous a word such as "dominating" to describe my performances. To tell you the truth I don't think I've been dominating the 5k scene all that much. Guys like Sesar will show up and win whatever 5k he so chooses locally. That guy truly has been dominating. To tell you the truth I have a hard enough time beating my training partner Luis Armenteros, which I have never done when he's been in shape. I do think I've been pretty competitive though and I've won my share of races around town although I am definitely hungry for even more. So once again thank you for your kind remark. Now to finally answer your question! Yes I have been invited to various events (crowning event was Peachtree 2009) but I've had to turn down everything recently since my family has grown. I just can't leave my family for even a short period of time. I guess it's good to be loved. I can live with this. However, I will be working on getting a formal invite to the Houston Half next year. This is one of my low key goals for the year and I will finally make a serious go of it! Now excuse me if I don't talk about this anymore for a while. As far as elite racing teams is concerned, I have been approached a couple of times but for better or for worse I've always felt a bit of loyalty to Sean. He's basically made me who I am as a runner so I guess I'm just a loyal S.O.B. for better or worse. One team had some pretty sweet deals in my opinion which I won't get into, but I decided to stay with my boy, Sean. Thanks for such a thoughtful question that provoked me into answering in such a long-winded reply!

Regards,

Bill

Gained a Few lbs...

Seriously, every serious runner should have a fat version of themselves. I like fat me. Alot.

Baytown Bud Heat Wave 5 Miler 26:39 (1st Overall)

I had to leave the house quite early. The start time was 7am and I was not familiar with the area or course location. Eventually I found the race location and was able to find a parking spot right next to the starting area. I picked up my packet gathered myself and was ready to start my warm up when I saw Rudy Rocha.

Rudy was a fine runner in his day. When I first picked up running he was on the down swing of some of his faster times. But I believe he was still hitting high 15's low 16's for 5k. So he was someone I was always finishing behind for quite a while. Well Rudy and I had never formally met each other until today. He joined me for my long run and gave me some tips for the course. After all, I was in his backyard and he actually worked at the school that was located at the starting line. He was a very gracious host. He gave me some background on some of his running history which did happen to coincide alot with Sean's history. He had run sub 15 for 5k 33 times. Very beastly if you ask me. He mentioned that back in the day at one of the bigger road 5ks he ran 14:17 and ended up finishing something like 13th. Crazy! Back in the day those guys trained like animals. Well anyway we ended up finishing our 2 mile warm up and started to get ready for the race.

It ended up being a little hot and muggy at start time. Jon Walk had just come back from Hawaii and was announcing the race. He did a great job. He added some course history tidbits such as Sean Wade had the course record at something like 24:19. He also mentioned a couple of our names which was a nice touch. As the start time neared all of the contenders started to appear at the front of the starting line. Junior Mitchell, Vaughn Gibbs, Joe Oviedo, and my boy Carlos Arias (young assasin) were the cast of contenders.

Eventually the gun sounded and we were off. We didn't get out too fast as I believe everyone was a bit hesitant because of the heat and because it was 5 miles. So I took my time and was patient the first mile. Eventually Junior Mitchell overtook me but I thought to myself we can do this, let's relax and enjoy the run. We click off 5:16 for the first mile. The 2nd mile was relaxed and Junior let me take the lead. I didn't really mind because I didn't feel like we were moving terribly fast. We clicked off 5:18 the second mile. The 3rd mile is where I believe Junior sort of fell off the pace a bit but something funny happened during the run when the 2nd Corvette pace car got stuck in a narrow lane because the runners were making the course lane too narrow for it to pass. So I stopped for a little bit to see if he could make his way through. The Corvette pace car signaled for me to go around so that's what I did. This allowed the guys behind me to catch up a little. Eventually the pace car figured it out and overtook me. I finished the 3rd mile in 5:19. Somewhere at the beginning of mile 4 Carlos caught me and really worked to stay with me. I just relaxed and decided to save a little something extra if I needed it at the end of the race. Mile 4 was 5:14. It was during the 5th mile that I started to put some distance on Carlos. I looked back and he wasn't there anymore. Last mile 5:17.

5:16, 5:18, 5:19, 5:14, 5:17 (13.5 extra seconds on the Garmin)

Not a terribly fast time but it just shows I can run pretty comfortably at or near 5:15 pace for 5 miles in hot weather.