May the Mass x Acceleration be with you

Great, fun run in Santa Nella, CA. I ran out from the hotel to the aquaduct, then along it until around 16 minutes. Then I ran down into the orchard next to me and explored a bit. Up and down a couple rows. No Garmin, no splits.

Hot, not feeling great, but the run was ok anyway.
Splits: 7:33 - 7:35 - 7:35 - 7:26 - 6:45

Not a good day. I was not feeling very good ahead of time. Stomach has continued to be iffy for more than a week now, and I was feeling a little weak, too. Plus it was pretty hot out. I took water with me, though.  Afterwards I was in pretty bad shape the rest of the day, feeling feverish, nauseated, chilled a bit. By eveninig I was doing better. Because of the way this run went I decided not to run anymore the rest of the week while at Disneyland, so as not to risk ruining another day in the park.
Splits: 7:38 - 7:39 - 7:48 - 8:04 - 7:53 - 8:02 - 7:41 - 7:46 - 3:58

AM - 3 miles. After 4 days off I was a little off this morning. However, my usual leg tightness that follows a few days off doesn't seem to be so bad. Hopefully all the walking I did at Disneyland helped make up for the lack of running.

Noon - 7 miles on Allison loop in 52:56 (7:34/mile).
Not too bad. Legs still doing ok. A little weak and sore, but not as bad as usual. Hopefully tomorrow I will be ready to handle a 12 miler.
Splits: 8:03 - 7:37 - 7:35 - 7:38 - 7:29 - 7:28 - 7:07

12 miles in 1:26:51 (7:14/mile).
Definitely coming back from days off quicker than usual. Warm, but not hot. I ran without water and was fine. Stomach still giving me a little trouble, but nothing serious.
Splits: 7:51 - 7:32 - 7:34 - 7:18 - 7:21 - 7:17 - 7:17 - 7:08 - 7:01 - 7:02 - 6:57 - 6:33

AM - Easy 3 in 23:30. Feeling pretty good for a morning run. Weather was cloudy and cool at 60 degrees. Perfect for a run.

Noon - Speed work on the track:

12x100m with 100m jogs
19.86, 20.21, 19.32, 19.16, 18.65, 18.67, 18.51, 18.52, 18.80, 18.26, 18.15, 16.91

Easy 5 on the trails in 40:16

AM - Easy 3.09 miles in 25:48 (8:21/mile)

Just realized I'm already about 115 miles over my last year's total! Amazing what no major injuries will do for you!

AM - 3.03 miles in 24:45. Today's route is much better for pre-dawn running. A lot more street lights.

This effort was probably closer to time-trial effort than it should've been. Still, for the most part it was not too hard. The first two miles I kept trying to ratchet up the pace a little more because I didn't feel like I was going fast enough. Only the 3rd mile, which is uphill and I pushed pretty hard, was really tough.

Splits:
1 - 06:24
2 - 12:29 - 6:05.5
3 - 18:43 - 6:13.9
4 - 24:44 - 6:01 (3:11 - 2:50!)

Allison loop - 7.17 miles in 55:47 (7:47/mile)
Surprisingly I'm not feeling too tired or sore from yesterday's workout.

Splits: 8:13 - 7:47 - 7:43 - 7:45 - 7:40 - 7:42 - 7:37 - 1:20 (7:54/mile)

12 miles on Vickory in 1:30:34 (7:33/mile)

I don't think it was supposed to rain today. There was just a very faint sprinkle at the start, but it came down pretty good in the middle of the run for about 15 minutes. I didn't apply enough vaseline for that amount of rain.
I took it easy today so I could get a good workout in tomorrow.

Splits: 8:08 - 7:40 - 7:35 - 7:39 - 7:29 - 7:24 - 7:27 - 7:28 - 7:19 - 7:34 - 7:28 - 7:24

Noon - circuit training and intervals

7xLM, 2.4 mile warmup in 18:17 (7:36/mile)

Circuit Training with 600m intervals @ 8k pace (sub 6/mile) and several exercises in between
600s in 2:12.7, 2:11.6, 2:10.3, 2:13.7, 2:14.5 = 11:02.8

A little risky jumping into this for the first time with 600m intervals. 400s would've been too easy. I made up for it by trying to run a little slower, 8k instead of 5k pace. However, on some of them I still ran closer to 5k pace.

After 8 minutes of rest I did the other intervals on the road:

2x 1/2 mile@5k pace with .28 mile recoveries
2:54.1, 2:54.9

Some decent quality today. The first 1/2 felt pretty easy, I held back. The 2nd one I was way behind pace with only .15 to go, so had to seriously pick it up.

Cool down - 2.4 miles in 19:15 (8:01/mile)

Easy 5 miles on trails in 40:11

Speed work. Due to scheduling conflict I couldn't run at noon like normal, so had to do this after work, which I'm not used to. Thankfully it was warm, but not hot. As expected I felt a little sluggish and lethargic. My warmup jog was slower and felt uncomfortable. However, once I got to the track the times were normal. I'll be running in the afternoon again on Friday. This may work better than running early now that it is dark in the mornings.

7xLM, 2.4 easy miles warmup in 19:07 (7:58/mile) (8:06 - 7:49 - 3:13)

2x500m@1/2 marathon pace
1:59.6, 2:02.1

2x150m@5k pace
31.2, 31.3

16x100m sprints
19.14, 19.24, 19.05, 19.33, 18.97, 19.05, 18.75, 18.58, 18.61, 19.17, 19.50, 18.95, 19.37, 19.31, 19.21, 16.90

2.35 mile cool down in 18:59 (8:05/mile)

Easy 4.25 miles on trails in 35:22 (8:19/mile).

Couldn't get it together. My legs were much tireder than expected. Garmin was doing strange things. Not sure why my first mile was as quick as it was, but I'm sure it's not accurate. Also, the 3rd mile seems way off.

7:42 - 7:59 - 8:57 - 8:33 - 2:10 (8:38)

12 miles on Vickory in 1:31:23 (7:37/mile)

Right now 12 miles counts as a long run for me. Just because it is the longest run I'm doing, and I'm only going that far once a week. Up till today, though, the distance has felt easy and well within my means. Today, on the other hand, I found the last mile or two to be somewhat of a challenge. Probably need to grab someone to run with me on my next "long" run! Of course, there was the fact that I was running in the evening, a time I don't usually run, and it was 85+ degrees out, warmer than I'm used to at 11am or earlier.

Splits: 7:59 - 7:44 - 7:42 - 7:36 - 7:30  7:31 - 7:26 - 7:31 - 7:27 - 7:41 - 7:44 - 7:33

Another easy 5 miles in the evening, instead of morning or noon. 39:19 (7:52/mile)

I ran a little late, starting at 12:40. I was waiting for the stormy weather to die down and weather.com indicated that closer to 1pm would be dry for a couple hours. For the most part that held true. I got rained on a bit, but mostly just light rain. The wind, however, kept things interesting. I had some good 20-30 mph winds off and on throughout the workout, with a few stronger gusts thrown (blown?) in for good measure.

The warmup

2 mile easy warmup in 15:37
1 1/2 miles with 2x2:00 or so @ 1/2 marathon pace or so. Took a bit to get up to speed.
2:15 (6:42/mile), 2:02 (6:38/mile)

The workout:

1x 1 mile, 1x 3/4 mile, 2x 1/2 mile @ 8k, 8k, 5k, 5k pace with 1/2 mile, 1/2 mile, 1/4 mile recoveries
None of the intervals were all that hard. I wanted this to be more of a moderate workout. Otherwise I would've pushed a bit harder and added in another mile or so of intervals. I held back a bit on the two 1/2 miles because the goals was 5k pace and, what with 30 mph winds and wet roads it felt a little harder than that.

Mile - 5:54.2
3/4 mle - 4:26 (5:55/mile)
1/2 mile - 2:55, 2:51

Cooldown

1.76 mile cool down in 13:29 (7:40/mile)

8.24 miles on trails and road in 1:04:40 (7:51/mile).

This started out as an easy day, 5 miles on trails. However, I found, after a mile or two, that I wasn't very tired or stiff from yesterday's workout. Looks like my plant to keep it moderate yesterday worked out.

It only rained for about 30 minutes today, but it was during the last half of my run. I don't know how people with glasses handle running in the rain. I usually wear contact lenses, but I've been wearing glasses to give my eyes a break and heal up a scratched cornea. 3 minutes into the rain my glasses were soaked. After about 10 minutes I decided I couldn't see anymore so I tried to clean off my glasses on my shirt. Not necessarily the best thing. Wrong kinid of shirt. My glasses ended up being smudged and foggy after that, plus they just got drenched again. Thankfully, the rain stopped with about 5 minutes left and the sun came back out.

Splits: 8:12 - 8:12 - 7:44 - 7:33 - 7:40 - 7:49 - 7:37 - 7:49 - 2:04

Easy 4.22 mles on the trails in 33:33 (7:58/mile). For some reason I was tireder and sluggish today. Everything was slower than expected. I tried to throw in a short surge at 1/2 marathon pace that ended up being about 20 seconds/mile slow. Then I tried to do 1/4 mile @ 5k pace in prep for tomorrow's race, and it ended up being about 15 seconds/mile slow. In my defence, it was on a slight uphill (1-2%), enough to slow me a little on a harder effort like that. I decided to cut the run short and not worry about it. Hopefully tomorrow will be great!

WHS XC Alumni 5k race in 18:44 (5:57/mile)

Didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I went in hoping to run at least 18:30, but really wanting to see something closer to 18:00. It was warmish out, but felt fine during the race. I went out a little too slow the first 1/2 mile, and allowed too much distance to open between me and the early leaders. Still, I picked up and passed a bunch of runners just after that and was in 7th by that point (5 WHS, 1 alumni ahead of me). I'm disappointed that I only ran 16 seconds faster than last year when last year I ran this as a training run, and today I really tried to push it. Maybe I would've run faster if I'd taken a more laid back approach, though.

I moved up to 6th during the 2nd mile, and closed the gap on the two guys next up, but never caught them. I probably could've if I'd made a run for them early in the 2nd mile, but I just didn't seem to have it today. Maybe just a bad day. Oh well, not a big deal I guess.

Splits:
1 - 5:55.8
2 - 5:59.3
3 - 6:02.1
3.15 - 0:47.3 (5:21/mile)

Day off