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.
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.
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.
Hey! The blog has been looking rather drab recently. Let's add some pictures.
Oh boy, what was I thinking?
The payoff...
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?".
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.
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.
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