Three Days, Three Runs To Report

On Friday night Steve Schroeder, Brian King and I went out for what's become nearly a weekly long-run of 14+ miles. We intend to keep it up through the summer so that 18 to 20 mile long-runs will be old hat come fall. I read last fall that to target an aggressive marathon pace you need to have 6-8 long-runs of 20 miles or more under your belt before toeing the line. I think few of us can say we've done that - I know I've never managed that many.

Anyway, we went 16.01 miles at a 7:43 pace, including two water stops. It was a piece of cake really.

I took Saturday off, mainly because I was busy all day helping my sister-in-law move. I felt like I had run a marathon at the end of the day so I didn't think I needed anymore milage.

On Sunday afternoon I went out at 1:20 PM to work on my acclimation (and tan!) in the blazing sun. I went 3.43 miles and probably couldn't have made to four miles. But it was a good experience and good for heat resistance. Then the family and I went over to Steve's house for his daughter's birthday party. During the party Steve mentioned that he was going to run later that evening. I mentioned that I was hoping to get in something of quality later. At about 7 PM Steve called me to see if I had gone yet. I told him I hadn't and he was welcomed to join me, but that it would be aggressive. He said no problem and we agreed to meet at our old stomping grounds, the 3.53 mile Greatwood loop, for twice around.

We knocked out a first loop in 24:34, a brisk but not terribly uncomfortable 6:57 pace on a not too fast course. The pace picked up as soon as we got into the second loop and we became less conversational. We were dipping deeper into the sub-seven pool and getting faster each mile. After about 1.5 miles I told him we had two miles of hard-hat running then it would be over and we could look back at a solid workout. There wasn't much talking after that as the pace continued to dip.

I covered the final .8 miles at a 6:06 pace and finished loop two in 23:02, one of the three or four fastest loops I've ever done. The two loop total came in at 47:36. It's a rare day that I've covered two loops in under 48 minutes and it sure felt good (once I was done). Who says you can't run hard in the summer?

Speedwork Yesterday, A Run With The Boys Today

Yesterday I met Steve Schroeder at the Memorial Park 1/4 mile track for 12 X 400 repeats. They were no fun but we got 'em done. Here are my splits:

1:20, 1:18, 1:17, 1:17, 1:16, 1:18, 1:17, 1:19, 1:20, 1:19, 1:19, 1:12

Then tonight I went for 5 mile run with my two buddies. No, not Steve, or Brian, or Assynt. My 2 and 4 year old buddies - my sons. I hadn't taken them out in the jogging stroller since last fall, or at least this past winter. They enjoyed it and with one being almost five (Aug. 1), and the other being closer to three (Oct) than he is to two, they made for quite a load. But we had fun though. Ran beside the bayou and saw some turtles along with lots of folks walking their dogs.

Hey Minken

Minken said...
"We Canadians are so nice, aren't we?!!

Lance - I will be in town July 26/27 and Andrew and I have the following run scheduled: 2 mile warmup, 12 miles at 6.45-6:52 (you know this pace well)}+ 2 mile cooldown. Are you and the rest of the Sugar daddies in?"


Dave, I wouldn't miss it for the world. But I'd sure rather do it at 7 PM than 7 AM. We'll talk. We have a new route out here in Sugar Land that has water on the course and is an out-and-back. We've done up to 18 miles on it.

Read my next post to see if I'm up for it.

Raise Your Hand If...

With daytime highs in the mid 90s (it hit 99 Sunday), morning lows only briefly dipping into the upper 70s, and high humidity around the clock, it's hard to get in good quality runs during Houston summers. Oh, you can run long and slow, or you can run short and fast, but you need that rare window of blessedly cooler air to combine both and run long and fast. Tonight was such a night. Raise your hand if you took advantage of it.

At about 7 PM this evening the rain started coming down in buckets out here in Sugar Land but when it was over 45 minutes later it was noticeably cooler. Even though I had eaten at 6:30 PM I headed over to Riverpark to take advantage of the moderate conditions and run the 10.2 mile route over there at an aggressive pace.

It was tough going for most of the run as it felt like I had a brick in my stomach. My pace was compromised because of that but I hammered as best I could. I felt a little better for the second half of the run. The Garmin wasn't charged so I had just the stopwatch on, and with no benchmarks for this course I knew only that it would be roughly 10.2 miles when I finished, and nothing short of that. In other words I had no way of knowing how fast I was going until it was nearly over.

I had calculated what total number I'd need to hit in order to average 6:30 (1:06:18) so as I got within a mile of the finish I really started moving. I knew it was going to be close. I finished in 1:06:20, a 6:30 average. I'm sure there was at least another five seconds a mile to be had in my pace if I didn't have the digestion issue so I'm pleased with the effort. I've been needing a run like this for a while. Speedwork and long, slow stuff will only get you so far. You sometimes have to combine speed and distance.

Sunday Morning Long-Run With Steve And Assynt

Steve Schroeder and I really screwed up. With us being dads three times over Sunday morning was the one day of the entire year where we could have legitimately stayed in bed late and had the wife and kids bring us breakfast and the paper. But no, like typical runners we scheduled a long-run for Sunday morning, at 5:50 AM!

Steve and Assynt McCleod met me at my house for a long-run out through New Territory, through Telfair, under 59, over into First Colony by where the Fired Up 5K is held, then back. We covered 14.7 miles (though I can't figure out for the life of me how we went 7 miles out but only 6.7 coming back on virtually the same route) in 1:59:09 for an 8:06 pace. It was miserably warm and sticky. I already can't wait for October.

Response To Another Reader

"tiny frog said...
Did you pick off all the cheese and paper towel down the slice to make sure every last ounce of grease was out of there??? ;o)"

Actually, yes, I do do that. I'm actually wondering if you know me and have seen me do this?!

Response To A Reader

Looks like I picked up a new reader from Canada. They write:

"Hi There!
Just found your blog! You're really fast! What distances do you run?
I really like what you said at the top of your blog and the attitude that you take toward running!

>> You can't run better (faster) without training consistently. Running is one of the best examples of getting out of something what you put into it.

And it's so true!:)

Happy trails!
Tiger"

Tiger, I've raced distances from 1 mile through the marathon. No interest in going any longer than that though. But then again, I used to say that I had no interest in every running a marathon so the lesson is never say never I guess. And thanks for your kind words and concurrence with my attitude toward running.
-LC

Friday Moderate Tempo

Went out tonight for whatever pace I could muster after pizza with the wife and kiddos. Despite a stomach full of dough and tomato sauce I managed 8.75 miles at an overall pace of 7:22, with the final .75 miles run at a 6:30 pace. I'll take it. Nearing 40 miles for the week with Saturday and Sunday still to come, and hopefully a long-run on Sunday.

More Speedwork And Some Recovery Milage

Met Steve Schroeder at Memorial Park yesterday after work for some 400 repeats on the track out there. Needless to say, at 5:30 PM it was hot. Normally we try to do 12 of these, with a short walking recovery in between but yesterday we called it a day after 10. Here are the splits:

1:20, 1:17, 1:17, 1:19, 1:19, 1:17, 1:19, 1:19, 1:20, 1:20


Then this morning I did an easy 3.5 before work. Tonight I went out for six at a fairly brisk pace, though I didn't time it or wear the Garmin.

Week To Date

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I'm going to try to do a better job and at least post the bare essentials of my training and racing.

Starting with this past Sunday I did 15.95 miles Sunday evening at around 7:30 PM, 7:52 pace, two short stops for water that are included in the overall pace. Ran this workout with Steve Schroeder. Nice long relaxed run, good conversation.

Monday I did 8.89 miles here in New Territory with Assynt Macleod at around 7:45 PM. Actually I ran half a mile to get to where Assynt was waiting, then half a mile home when we were done so I did 7.89 with him and 1.0 on my own. Overall pace was 7:39 including one stop for hydration.

Tonight I did my mile repeats. I've been pretty demoralized regarding these ever since I got a Garmin a few weeks back and got an accurate measurement that showed my one mile route to be a bit short. We knew originally that the figure eight course we do these on was about .9 miles but we had added some distance to make it a mile. Apparently not enough. In surrender mode I decided to just do the old .9 (actually .91) route four times fast. Here are the times and what they convert into for one mile:

5:27 (5:59)
5:22 (5:54)
5:21 (5:53)
5:27 (5:59)

As far as racing goes, I've done two 5Ks in the past two weekends - The Astros Race For The Pennant 5K and the Heights 5K. I placed first in my age group at the Astros race but that was more of a matter of who showed up and who didn't rather than any special performance by me. In fact, I ran 20 seconds faster this past weekend at Heights and finished 4th in my age group. But I did get a pair of Asics for the age group award for the Astros race so I'll take it.