Silicon Labs Austin Marathon Relay - 26.2 Miles, 4:03:14

This morning I ran the 12K leg of the Marathon Relay. I had a great team. The nicest part is, we all ran about the same pace. I managed run the 12K in 1:08:50. According to the chip time, that puts me at a 9:14/mile pace. That's faster than I originally thought. The run was a lot of fun!

Many thanks to Shelley Metcalf, Chalio Flores, Christy Tashjian and Jonah Tashjian.

Intervals

I'll be honest, I forgot to document what I did this morning. I ran intervals of 800, 400 and 200 but can't remember how many of each?? So annoying.

11.77 Miles, ~2:00:00, pace 10:12

Ran with a good friend this morning. Was scheduled for 16 miles but my body said I was done at 11. Chalio really pushed me this morning. He's also new to running and training for the marathon in Feb. It was a nice run but my left leg tightened up on me. I'm also adjusting my form a bit from hitting heal first to trying to land a little further up on the ball of my foot. Its supposed to be better for your joints but it sure it harder on the muscles.

Lots of changes this week. I also added in weights. I've been working on my upper body but this week I added legs to the weight workout.

1x1600; 2x1200; 1x800

Have I ever said that I really enjoy intervals. I've been trying to run longer intervals.

6.0256 miles, 0:58:25, pace 9:42

Felt much better this morning. Its nice to be back in the routine. I made it to the Y yesterday and got my weights in. I also ended up walking on the eliptical for about 30 mins. This morning's run was much better than Saturday.

Interesting experience this morning. There's a section of my 6 mile loop that takes me off of the sidewalk and onto the road for approximately 200 yards. I've never really worried about a vest or anything even though there are no lights in that area. Its usually fairly deserted at the times that I run. This morning, a black Licoln Navigator, with dark tinted windows and big rims stopped after passing me in that area and waited for me to catch up. I was a little nervous when I approached the window. The young man in the car just said "man you need a vest, I couldn't see you!" and handed me a worker's yellow and orange vest with reflective sections on it.

I'm sure my mumbled "thank you.", as I accepted the vest, didn't fully expressed my feelings. I was taken aback that this man would take the time, not only to stop and warn me that I wasn't visible, but to choose to do something about it. Since I will probably never see him again, and would probably not recognize him if I did, I can only express my thanks here on the web and hope it makes a difference.

~7 miles, 1:10, pace 10:00

Wow, tough run this morning. I have been slacking on running . A tropical storm (Hermine) dropped 12-14 inches of rain on Austin this week. I haven't run all week and when I went to the Y to workout, it was closed because they were nervous the dam on the other side of the highway may give.

Excuses aside, I had planned to run 15 this morning. I got my new hydration belt. The ampiphod velocity full tilt. It holds a 20 oz bottle that rides right in the small of your back. It took some adjustment to get the belt to ride correctly. When I first started it wasn't tight enough, so the bottle was bouncing all around. I had to cinch it down pretty tight. Even with the belt riding correctly, it caused my shorts to rub a bit on my lower back. I'm going to have to work on that.

I also tried my first gel during a run. I tired the Strawberry Clif Shot. The flavor and palatability wasn't bad but it didn't do much for my energy. I'm not sure I can blame the gel for this one though. I chose to stay awake until 2:00 AM reading when I knew I was getting up at 4:00 to run. I only made 7 of the planned 15 and had to walk 3 miles home from Twin Creeks.

7.195 miles; approx 1:15; pace 10:00

I had planned to run an easy 10 this morning. I should have probably turned around and come home after the first mile. It was kind of a hard morning. Starting off with dropping the peanut butter on my foot. No seriously, i did. and it hurt. a lot. This was one morning that I shouldn't have pushed through. I made it through seven, which I'm proud of, but I did end up having to walk the last 2 miles home.

To top it off, I dropped my MP3 player and cracked the screen. The good news is, it still works. I just can't read what's playing. Ah well, probably time to invest in a new one with more than 128mB of memory anyway.

6x800

Missed my Thursday workout due to rain so I made it up on Friday. I took the kids with me to the Y and ran an interval workout on the treadmill. It was fairly easy, although an hour on the treadmill is pretty close to my limit.

I ran a simple 6x800 workout at 4 minutes. Its a few seconds faster than I do on the track, but its also a little easier on a treadmill. Mile and a half warm up and cool down.

6.0256 miles; 0:59:03; pace 9:48

Started off strong on this one but petered out in the middle. I have become a firm believer in the old adage that its not the heat its the humidity. It was upper 70's when I left the house but I was dripping sweat before I left our street; and that's only about 100 yards. Regardless, I made the entire run and managed to pick the pace back up in the end so I feel good about it.

I think I've settled on the Amphipod Velocity Full Tilt belt. The water bottle rides in the small of your back. I'm going to stop by REI sometime later this week and check them out.

13.2828 miles; 2:21:16; pace 10:38

What a beautiful morning! The weather cooled off this week. I was up early and got a cup of coffee in before my run. Because of the cooler weather, the first half of this run felt fairly easy. The last 2 miles were fairly challenging. This is the first time I've run 13 miles since the Austin Half-Marathon in February.

Besides the cooler weather there were two other difference in todays run. First, I got new shoes. I decided to try the Asics Gel Durango 5. I did research and found that Asics had one of the favored running shoes. I figured out after the fact that it was the Kayano. The Durango's are really meant to be more of a trail running shoe. Honestly, they felt pretty good this morning so i'm going to stick with them.

The second difference this morning was that I took a bottle of water with me to hydrate during the run. Wow, what a difference. Normally, for 10 miles, I don't worry about hydrating but I've noticed the last couple of weekends that I really drag at the end of the run. Today, I felt fairly good throughout the run and I'd have to attribute most of that to the extra hydration.

4x1200

I confess. I guessed at my target time on these this morning. I read an article that described the goal of your track workouts. The article explained that you really don't want to run your intervals too fast and that you're really better off running longer intervals than 400. So, I decided to aim for 6 minute 1200s. I ended up running between 6:22 and 6:38.

I came home and checked my McMillan timings and I actually ran within their recommended targets. In other words, I overestimated how fast I should run.

I really enjoyed this workout. The 1200's were just challenging enough without being painful. The weather is fantastic. It took just the right amount of time.

I would like to take a moment to thank the couple that passed me on my jog home. I followed them for about a mile. I tried to hang back a little bit but still use them to pace myself. I think I made them nervous. So thank you guys and I hope you had a good run this morning.

6.0256 miles; 0:58:16; pace 9:40

I have not been slacking on running but I have been slacking on blogging. Really nice run this morning. It was HOT when I first stepped out. I'm not sure it ever made it out of the 80's last night. One benefit to running early, sprinklers. They all come on about 5:00 and when its nice and warm outside, they do cool you off.

10 miles; 1:47:00; pace 10:42

Hard, Hard run today. I don't know if its the heat or the end of the week but today's run was especially hard.

1x1600; 2x800; 4x400

6.0256 miles; 58:14; pace 9:40

ahh, routine. It is so nice to be back into it. This morning's run felt fantastic. The temperature is down a bit (though humidity is up). I was a bit worried I would feel fatigued after my long run this weekend but I wasn't at all. I started off slow (10:30 first mile), but picked it up over the distance. I'm looking forward to Thursday's intervals. I'm trying to decide if I want to go longer or shorter intervals.

10.358 miles; 1:52:05; pace 10:49

Wow, busy weekend. I got up yesterday at 4:30. I finished up my run at around 6:45. Then rushed off to tee-ball and soccer games. Really felt good during the run. I could tell this was my first week back from vacation. My legs were tired when I started the run but I felt like I got stronger the further I went.

I'm going to have to work on mapping out longer loops around our neighborhood.

6x600; 4x400; 2x200

What a difference a week (or two) makes. Last time I ran intervals I blogged about how incredible they were. This morning wasn't nearly as fun. I blame the 2 week hiatus from running. The workout really wasn't that bad, it was just more difficult than the last time I did intervals. I was fairly consistent with my target times. Typically I was slower on the first run in a series than the last.

I wasn't alone on the track this morning either. There were a couple of other people crazy enough to be on the track at 5:00 in the morning.

6.0256 miles; 1:01:59; pace 10:17

Vacation has ended and it is time to get back into the groove. As you can tell, I took it easy on vacation. No, I didn't run and not blog, I just didn't run. So far, I've started off pretty well. I got to the Y yesterday and did my cross train and got out of bed this morning and got my 6 miles in. It was a little slower than before vacation but not so bad. According to McMillan, I should be slowing down my runs anyway.

I'm looking forward to running a pace workout on Thursday and, perhaps more importantly, sleeping in tomorrow.

4.1 miles; 38:00 (approx); pace 9:16

Haven't had much success in sticking to a schedule on vacation. I'll have to hit it hard when I get back. I did get out to the Roswell Rec Center here in Georgia this morning. Ran about 4 miles. The time and pace are approximations.

8.63 miles; 1:27:24; pace 10:08

Beautiful run this morning in Dayton, OH. We're staying in a Courtyard Marriott near the University of Dayton. It's right on a river (I should probably look up which one). I ran on streets, across a bridge, for about three quarters of a mile and then turned on a hike and bike trail that ran next to the river. The trail was marked every half mile so I was able to track my progress. I ran on the hike and bike trail out three and a half miles and back. It was early enough that I had the trail to myself until I turned back. The weather was awesome. It was about 60 degrees this morning and low humidity. I could handle running in this weather on a regular basis.

6.3568 miles; 1:03:10; pace 9:56

What a difference a day makes! I felt tons better this morning. I ran the same 1K loop around the lake as on Sunday. This time I ran 5 laps one direction and 5 laps the other. It was nice and cool and, although I felt like I was trudging a bit, i was surprised by my pace at the end.

2.6689 miles; 28:24; pace 10:38

So, i went out this morning and attempted a long run. I'm not sure if its the air, the heat or just a general lack of sleep but i felt terrible. I'm going to try again on Tues. I actually really like this route, its around a lake and a little hilly, so I feel like I'm getting a great workout.

2x800; 4x400; 8x200

I started interval training this morning. I jogged the mile and a half up to the middle school track. To be honest, I wasn't 100% sure the gate would be open at 5:00 in the morning. It was. It was also fairly dark on the track. Unfortunately, the light on my watch is out so it was a bit tricky to see my times.

The workout was incredible. I was consistently ahead of the target times that I got from the McMillan calculator. Also, I didn't need as much recovery as I anticipated. I recovered for about half the distance I ran. In other words, I walked a half lap between each of the 400's but only 100m between each of the 200's. And I really only recovered for a half lap between the 800's. I didn't fully appreciate the workout until I started home. Talk about fatigued, my legs were jello. What a great way to start the day!

McMillan Running

I have to say a big thank you to a friend of mine for pointing me to the following site:

http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/

They have a fantastic calculator that takes your time on any run, from 100m through marathon or any distance in between, and calculates a realistic goal time for other distance races, the pace required to reach that goal as well as various training paces. I can't wait to incorporate this into my training plan.

6.026 miles, 56:52, Pace 9:26

I managed to shave about 15 seconds off of my 6 mile pace this morning. I felt really good. Part of it may be that I got out before 5:00 AM. It was nice and cool and there was a nice breeze. Surprising how many runners are already out on the road by 5.

This morning as I was hitting a long, straight 2 mile stretch, i saw a light I hadn't noticed before and it was coming toward me. It was too small to be a motorcycle and moving to slowly to be a bicycle. As it got closer, I realized, it was a runner with a head lamp on. It made me chuckle but it also made me think. I'm not sure I could wear a headlamp but I am going to have to get used to wearing a belt. What's your favorite? Do you wear it on shorter runs or only on long?

Intervals

This is going to be an interesting couple of weeks. I've gotten off to a good start. It has been much easier than when I started training for the half marathon last November. That being said, we're leaving on vacation this Friday. I'm trying to figure out how to work that into my training plan. I've decided I'll push my long run to Friday morning (meaning no rest before but 2 days of rest after).

I'm also going to try to work in intervals on Thursday. I'm not entirely happy with my pace. I'd like to see if I can get into the low 9s or upper 8s for my half marathon (my goal for the full is just to finish). It may be ambitious, but life has taught me that I push myself harder if I fall short of ambitious goals than if I exceed uninspired goals.

8.25 miles, 1:23:24, Pace 10:06

Today I have begun to increase my weekend distance. I have to say, the last 2 miles were actually easier than the first 6. When I left my standard 6 mile loop (about mile 5) I wasn't sure I was going to able to finish 8 miles but once I crossed 6 miles, i felt pretty good. My plan had me running 7 this weekend. I decided to push it to 8 and actually ran 8.25. So far this week, I've run a total of 24 miles.

As you can see, i've decided to post my milage, total time and pace as the title of my posts. Hopefully this will make it easy to see my progression toward the marathon.

Alyssa's 5K

I have to take a moment to congratulate my wife. Today she completed a 5K. She participated in a program called Couch to 5K (C25K) with some of her friends. They started a Facebook group and each trained individually for 9 weeks. They all went from not running at all to running a 5K. Congratulations, Alyssa, Elania and Amanda. You guys rock!

Whew

6 miles again this morning before 7:00. The first mile and half was all in my head. I'm beginning to appreciate the quiet solitude of running. As I walked in the door this morning, I could already hear the yelling. "He coughed on me!" "No I didn't" "Aidan/Alex!" Kinda want to go run another 6, think they'd notice?

Early Mornings

Got up at 5 this morning to run my six miles. Its awfully early but worth it. I've noticed I keep a consistently faster pace in the early morning. That's the good news. The bad news is that its too early for my brain. As I rounded the corner into the last mile, I realized I couldn't really remember thinking about much of anything during the entire run.

It's an addiction

I've found that now that I've been running, I look for opportunities. Today, I dropped off our Durango at the mechanic. I decided instead of getting a ride, I'd just run where I needed to go. SO, I ran the mile from the mechanic to the Y. That wasn't such a big deal, since I normally do a warm-up before my workout. After my workout, I ran the 2.5 miles home. It isn't really the distance as the fact that 9 months ago, i'd have never even considered running home from the Y.

Off we go

Last November, 2009, I decided I wanted to train for and run the Austin Half Marathon. I put together a plan and managed to stick to it and completed the Half marathon in February 2010. Since then, I have been trying to decide if I want to run the marathon.

Recently, I made the decision that I do want to run the marathon in February 2011. To accomplish this, I have registered for the Austin Distance challenge. The distance challenge is a series of races beginning in September that lead up to the Austin Marathon.

I suppose there is some accountability to putting your milestones out in cyberspace, so I guess I'll give it a shot. As you might imagine, running leaves me with an abundance of time to think. Hopefully that means I'll come up with some good material. Unfortunately, it's difficult to type and run and since I have the memory of a 32 year old father of three, I make no promises.