rest of: week of last GPX race. LungStrong 15k

Tuesday (10/4) met Brinkley (he jogged over) at my house and headed out for an 8 mile tempo. Not much of a warm up (for me), as we went right into the first mile at nice but conversational clip. The route was going to be hilly, as we were going to go out towards Huntingtown Farms, but do the standard loop in reverse. The second mile we brought the pace down a good bit, and started to hold it and ride it for the hills in miles 2,3, and 4. Mile 5 was pretty flat, as we were on the greenway, and mile 6 was the beast of Colchester Hill (which is .3 miles long and rises over 100 feet. Still, we held a strong pace, and miles 7 and 8 we dropped the hammer a little bit for our fastest splits of the day. The run was almost a progressive tempo with the splits, and with the hills, it was a GREAT workout. Found myself hurting, and having to push - something I haven't had in a while, and no doubt, it helped train me mentally as well. CHECK OUT THE SPLITS AND ELEVATION CHANGES. (9.12 miles for the day in total)

6.32 average ppm (for 8 mile tempo)

Wednesday (10/5) arrived in Dallas, checked into my room, and headed out the door for a warm easy recovery run. Legs were tired, and a slow pace was in order. Garmin stats.

6 miles, 7:55 ppm

Friday (10/7) got home, and slipped on my new racing shoes and jogged around for a few miles, making sure they felt alright. Shoes felt fine, and so did my legs. Ready for a good race.

3.19 miles, 7:54 ppm

Saturday (10/8) LUNGSTRONG 15k.
Last race of the Charlotte Run For Your Life Grand Prix 2011 series. I was 4th going into the event, and it seemed I would settle there unless I would run out of my mind and win or something.
The weather was perfect, and I had a decent week of training, sleep, and nutrition leading into the race. Warmed up with David and went to the line for a couple strides to loosen the legs. The gun went off, and I got with David and we settled into a nice comfortable pace of just over 6 mins. The first few miles clicked by easily, and it was actually conversational as David and I and the group would converse just a little bit as we got into the meat of the race. I was ahead of my time after 3 or 4 miles, from last years race, and I was feeling okay. In the back of my head though, I felt I might be pushing it a little hard if I was going to have a second half of the race that was just as quick or faster. I wasn't suede, and in the 4th mile I started to pull away slightly and only momentarily from David and the group. We started passing the group ahead, and once I was alone, I looked back and called up David to come join me. We ran side by side, with only Eric Bilbrey up ahead in our sights. I said, "let's go get him," and we focused on trying to reel him in. We encouraged one another until about 6 miles, when I started to fade and David got some gap on me. I could tell I was starting to hit my wall, and wasn't able to go with him. Now, I just was going to have to make sure I didn't fall apart. As the 7th mile split passed, I looked at my watch and thought I would have really slowed down, but was pumped up when I realized I hadn't fell off too much. I closed my eyes as I ran right into the sun going up the hills on the 8th mile, and felt as if I could have drifted to sleep, while my body kept being pulled to the center of the road. I was just trying to hold on here, and not let the group behind me, have an easy time catching up. The 9th mile, 2 guys behind me came up. The first guy I went with for mabye 200 meters, then he got a little gap on me, and I tried to keep it as close as I could. With less than half a mile to go in the race, another guy came up with me and this time I went with him about 300m and he pulled away. Here, we clicked the 9 mile split, and had .3 miles to go. I remembered last year I fell off at the .3, and decided I was going to have an all out kick. I started my kick and immediatly passed the guy who had just passed me, and started reeling in the other guy who had passed me about a mile ago. I caught him on the last turn to the finish, and sprinted in the last 100 meters with everything I had, and came across the line in a new 50 sec PR. I was happy.

My pace for the run was the same as my pace for the Hit the Brixx 10k race, so that is something right there (although I was sick with strep thoat that race). I felt I ran as best I could, and I was happy.

Splits: 6.10, 6.14, 6.06, 5.59, 6.10, 6.03, 6.13, 6.20, 6.18, 1.47 (.3)       for what it's worth, I didn't wear a GPS watch, and recorded my splits as I hit the mile markers on the course. David, who was wearing a GPS watch, recorded the course as 9.44 miles. Also, I was in a group who went the long way around an island in the road as we made a turn, not taking the inside lane as the course intended, no doubt extending the distance we ran.

Cooled down 4 miles with John Compton and Brian Baum, and went and had a nice breakfast at Toast afterwards with the guys. It was a great day of running.

miles for day: 15  ;    race: 6.10 pace

last year's post: http://danjeggers.blogspot.com/2010/10/lungstrong-15k.html

Sunday (10/9) didn't get to my recovery shake out run until almost 8pm. Just did the standard 4 mile loop at just a hair under 8 min pace. Needed for the legs.

4 miles, 7:59 ppm

Miles for week:  41

I like hills

Yesterday I couldn't find my watch, so I ran without it. David ran with me and I was happy to not run alone, as I had been for a while. He has a GPS watch so I figured that would be good enough for me.

going into the run i wasn't totally sure how i would respond to the demands of 8 miles, with 5+ of them at a hard effort. (Still not feeling 100% and sleep interuptions).

I had the route all picked out. Going to get some hills in as we ran through Starmount, and would head towards the bridge which would lead us to the park and Huntingtown Farms where we would pick up that common route which is full of hills too. Purposefully, we took the first mile easy and clicked a 7.54 and I noticed my legs were feeling actually better than the day before.

From mile one, we started grooving into low 7 pace and kept it conversational. We actually clicked off a 6.48. Okay, a little quicker for mile 2 than desired, but nothing to do but keep the momentum going. Mile 3 we started to talk less and run faster aided by a lot of downhills. 6.22. Hmmm, quicker than planned - but not feeling too bad...yet.

The forth mile I seperated from David as I was trying to hold the 6.20 pace, and I probably slowed a little bit. Approximiatly 6.30 for mile 4, and now I was just trying to fight and hold and not slow up, despite my plans of progressing faster each mile.

As I hit the hills I was feeling strong, just not quite as fast as I wanted. I was happy with my effort, but was considering ending the push a little early once I got to the top of the hills and onto Old Reid. But once I came to the top, I made up my mind to keep the push going because I had a nice straight away I could work on my turn over, and then it was just one more big down and up, that I could end with.

As I slowed for the rest, David came up and told me we were 6.5 miles into the run. Okay, mission accomplished. Just a nice mile and a half cool down together and we were finished.

We talked about how the run was tough, and that perhaps we were a bit too quick early on...and how downhills can actually zap your strength if you are not careful.

I loved the workout though. I know that route so well, and it was actually fun to run it (the H-Town hills part) back to back days.

Link from David's watch. I was 1 minute in front at the end of 6.5, before we cooled down 1.5.

total miles for day: 8

new shoes, cool weather, cliff shots

despite all the positive things, as mentioned above in the title, this run wasn't a breeze. Since Friday last week, I have been slightly under the weather. My daughter has been worse. Last night she was up 5-6 times in the night battling a fever, so sleep was not solid for me.

I felt like I was pushing, but I was able to hold the pace evenly throughout the run. Ran the old standard hilly Huntingtown Farms loop. Since I know it's not quite 8 I tacked on some at the end to even it out.

Miles: 8
Time: 57.33
Pace: 7:11

hot sunny hills

After Monday off, David showed up around 540pm after work at my house and we set out south out of Madison Park/Montclaire and into Starmount. Started off not feeling sore, just not feeling I had much turn over. Still we hit 7.25-30 for my first mile. Basically my legs felt kind of tired. After a mile I guess my legs woke up a little bit, as we hit just under 7.10. Yea we had some downhills but I was still surprised the pace was that quick. I felt fine from here on out. As the second half of the run has a lot of large rolling hills and elevation climbs, I was able to keep the pace despite that, and ended on a solid clip. We got back to my house and I was just under 6 miles for the day, and I wanted to run 45 mins regardless, so I tacked on a little bit while David ran home. Happy about my "performance" for this regualr maintenance run.

Time: 45.53
Miles: 6.4
Pace: 7.10

David's Run: (he started and finished at his house) I was pretty much with him for miles 2-6
The run I did, mapped out. Notice the "add on" at the end. Map My Run

Charging up Hills

Went into the run just expecting a normal 730's easy run on the chosen hilly route. After feeling pretty good the first mile and splitting low 7's, I was surprised.

This run was great. It didn't get too fast, but it served as a great training run with the hills and quicker pace.

I am going to try and link David's Garmin recap HERE

Miles: 5.74
Pace: 7.04

fizzeling at the end

Distance: 5
Time: ~ 37
Splits: 7:12, 7:18, 7:49, 7:28, 8:04

Out and back down Colchester and then back up - why the 3rd mile was slow. Such a hilly run, but the last mile I was just dead so let my legs dictate the slow need.

hilly way (h-town>starmont>montclair

going from home, to H-town, down colchester, is the only easy part of the route. When you have to go back through starmont after, it's 4 big hill climbs. My legs felt totally wasted from the get go, so this was a run in just fighting to not walk!

miles: 5.8
time: 46
Pace: 8

Soaking up mountain trail running!

After the best night's sleep in 4 weeks, (hotel/first night away from newborn daughter, Avery) I was up and lively as I drove into the Arboretum / Ponhatan Lake trails along Bent Creek in Asheville. I remembered this spot from a time earlier. Having gotten lost last visit, I decided I would keep this run to "out and backs" to make sure I avoided being lost again.

The first trail lead me up a mountain, where I climbed 20 mintues before turning arounud to come back down. I approached a summit, not sure it was THE summit, but set off back feeling pretty good about the climb where I kept the pace easy and light.

Approaching the bottom in a cumulative time of approximatley 35 minutes, I decided to set off and run a lap around the lake to bring me to a close in the mid 40's - time wise.

Again, the setting was awesome, weather perfect, and the trails were a treat. Sure makes me miss what I had every day when I was running for Appalachian State University!

Miles: > 6
Time: 46.20
Pace: 7:45-50ish

old bell hill workout

(6:00, 6:14, 13:52, 6:21). Goal was 6:10 for .9 mile hill loop, which is 6:50 pace per mile. After the second repeat, I decided to call an audible and run the loop twice on the third one. First repeat I ran a little too hard, and my legs felt burnt from there on. I thought since I was going to struggle to hit my times, I would run the the third one twice to keep my heart rate up and to work on a longer effort which in essence may be better for marathon training. The workout was great. I was pleased with the effort, despite the 90 plus degree temps and doing it solo. I did a 3.5 mile warm up in 29.15, and the work out was 4.5 miles. Between repeats I allowed 3 mins rest. I concluded the run with a mile cool down in 9:17. 9 miles total for the day.