Long Run - Cut Short

It was a little chilly this morning.  I started with an 11 minute mile warmup and some stretching.  I planned on running 4 laps around Lake Ivanhoe near downtown Orlando.  Due to the cool weather, I was very dehydrated and had to stop every lap.  Mind you, each lap is 2.5 miles, but that made me slow down and start back up too frequently.

I did the first lap in 19:47, so just under 8 minute per mile pace (7:55).  The second lap was 40:12 total (20:25 split), so just over 8 minute pace (8:10) for the second 2.5 mile set.  That brought the average of 5 miles to 8:02.  I continued to slow down on the third lap and was having to focus on my form, which was being altered due to another blister on my left food.  At the end of the third lap, I decided to stop.  I could have done another lap to complete a 10 miler, but I just didn't feel like beating myself up today.  That blister would have been killing me after another 2.5 lap.  Anyway, my final time was 1:02:45 which is exactly 8:14 average pace for the entire workout.  That means I ran the last 2.5 mile lap in 21:33, which is an average of 8:37.

Although shorter than my recent long runs, it felt good.

April Fool's Day Run

I ran 5 miles on Tuesday with the intention of running 7.5.  My legs were just too heavy.  Well, I made up for it today.  I did 3 laps around Lake Ivanhoe and got my 7.5 miles logged.

My mind played an April Fool's joke on my legs.  My legs felt heavy for the first 2 miles during my warmup, but my mind fooled them into running 5 and half more.  I felt really good up until the last mile.

Warmup was 10:30 and 11:00 pace for the 2 miles.  A quick retie of my shoelaces and off I went.  Of my workout mileage, the first 2 miles were 8:30 and 8:45.  I don't know what my times were after that, because of how the loop is and I don't have everything measured.

I died the last mile of my run.  I felt like quitting and walking the rest of the way home.  There was a headwind most of it.  My right foot obviously had a blister and was starting to unnerve me.  Where does the runner's high kick in exactly, because I needed it about then.

It started easy and turned into a hard run.  7.5 miles logged and I feel good about it.  I will take off tomorrow, but I hope the blister (which popped on its own during the workout) heals and hardens into a callous by Saturday.  I would like to log another long run.

Mile Repeats (Kinda)

2 mile warmup at 11:45 pace. Seemed like forever, because I ran it on the track. Mile repeats. 6:59, 6:52. It almost doesn't seem like a repeat workout only doing 2 miles, but it is what it is. Half mile recovery and then one mile cool down.

I intended on running 3 miles @ 7:20 like a couple of weeks ago, but I took off too fast. I still feel good about my workout since I went sub 7 minutes on 2 runs back to back.

One week till my next 5k race. Can't wait.
 
Oh yeah, and the blister I started during my beach run on Saturday is now 4 times its original size.  Awesome!

Beach Running Without Socks

Saturday was a perfect day for running.   It was a perfect day for anything outdoors for that matter.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the morning temps were in the 60s and the high hit 80.  I did my run almost as soon as we got to the beach to get it out of the way and also because it was still cool.

We were at New Smyrna Beach by the way.  Did I mention that I forgot my socks.  I brought extra everything except socks.  Well, so much for the perfect day.

I wanted to run from our parking spot up the beach to Ponce Inlet Jetty and back for a warmup.  Then, I planned to run down a mile or so and back.  I already started getting a blister on the way up to the jetty, which was less than a mile.  I probably should have just run bairfoot.  Hindsight is always 20/20 as they say.

I least I got a little mileage in for the day.

The next day, I ran 5 miles around the neighborhood.  The blister is already starting to harden into a callus, so that's a plus and didn't really affect my run.

I started out with a warmup 2 miles in 22:22.  Crazy, right?  I then did a quick hamstring and quad stretch and off I went.  Not so fast.  My first step at a faster pace has me feeling like my left knee is going to buckle.  I have to go back to my slow warmup speed for the first quarter mile before I can start to pickup the pace and broaden my stride.  I ended up running around 9 minutes for the first mile.  Both the second and third miles were run in 8 minutes each.  I felt good about that.  I need to bring that down on race day, which now only a week away.  I ran the 3 miles in 25 minutes even.

I have tonight as a rest day.  If the weather holds up, tomorrow brings the speedwork.

Pushing Through Pain

In the past 6 weeks, I have had bronchitis, a broken toe, influenza, and a weekend full of worrying while my significant other has been in the hospital.

The bronchitis was 6 weeks ago, the broken toe the following week, the flu 2 weeks ago and Thanksgiving weekend was spent at the hospital.  I have been holding on to something in my lungs and I could feel myself getting out of breath too easily.

I went out for a run this evening to the tune of 4.85 miles.  It felt great despite getting a blister on my left foot.  I started slowing down and a sinking feeling started to take hold.  No, sir.  I remembered how we used to show each other our blisters in the locker room in high school.  You start feeling the blister and if you just push through the pain for a minute or two, it will start to go numb.  I haven't done that in a long time.  Tonight, I remembered.  Tonight, I pushed through the pain until it faded.  I kept thinking about my pace and my form and I got through it.

Conditions:  cool 65 degrees, slightly humid