Puttin' Money In The Bank (L.A.D.)

9am and 70 degrees today. I'm recording the miles under yesterday to keep them consistent with weekly totals. (See note for yesterday)

This was an interesting run today. My plan was to get in 12 miles as 3 warm up, 6 tempo, 3 cool down. Things started out ok with my first 3 miles in 22:09. It was actually a touch under 3 miles. I was averaging about 7:30s through 3. I started my tempo run at what I thought was probably 7:00s to slightly sub 7s. I didn't know the mileage markers too well in the middle, and in fact, wasn't sure exactly where the 6 mile mark was, but I had a close enough approximation that I could find the exact mileage on googlemaps when I got home. As I continued my tempo run I started adding some things up and realized that if I did a 3 mile warm up and cool down, my tempo run would end up being 7 miles unless I altered my route. As I was trying to recalculate what I would shave off, tempo, cool down, or just keep it at 13 I began to realize that maybe I was running a bit faster than I wanted to be and saw just how cashed I really was and bagged the 6 mile tempo run, turning it into just a 3. There is good reason for this. At the 3 mile mark my time was 19:20. So I was running my tempo run at 6:26 pace. Fine enough, but too fast for a 6 mile tempo run 1 week out from a target race. I wanted to be more around the 6:45 ave/pace for the whole tempo run, and I almost always run negative split tempo runs. So I slowed the pace down and hit the next 1.25 in 8:50 (7:04s). At this point I had in 4.25 in 28:10 (6:37s - so I was still below my tempo pace expectations, despite the slowdown.) At this point I switched over to a pace that I felt was probably consistent with Marathon Pace, given my tired state, for the remaining 5 miles. Boy was I off. I hit my next 4.25 in 30:00 flat (7:04s). So at this point I've essentially run an 8.5 mile tempo run in completely positive split fashion. Running time on the 8.5 would be 58:10 (which puts me around 6:50s - time wise this places the 8.5 at a pace just slightly slower than I hoped to achieve for the 6 mile tempo, despite the fact that to my body it felt like I was running Marathon pace for over half of it. I'm not sure what to make of this. I do believe that I will be running around 7:00s for my next Marathon, but that isn't in the works for at least 6 months.) I finished the run with a .9 mile cool down in 6:39 (7:23s). This places my average pace for a 12.3 mile run (the segments were rounded somewhat, but this was the exact total) at 7:04 (Running Total 1:26:59).

I don't know what to make of this run. The times were spectacular for a training run, but the way my body felt was odd. In retrospect, given that I did a training run 1 week out from the 1/2 Marathon race at an average pace of 10 seconds per mile slower than my PR for a 1/2 Marathon [I've only done 1 last fall] my body should have felt shot. The thing that has me scratching my head is that I wasn't able to recognize the pace I was actually running. Usually I'm very good about being able to estimate a pace without the use of a watch and markers. I don't know if this is good news (I'm running faster) or bad news (I pushed myself harder than I should have 1 week out). I'll be doing a 40 mile week (Monday - Friday) at almost all 7:30s and above leading up to the race next Sunday so that I'm good and rested. Time shall tell I suppose, but I'm still targeting sub 6:45s for the race.

Nike Vomero - 293.45

9am, 75 degrees and humid. Somedays I just have a hard time figuring out why I can't slow down. That almost sounds stupid, but it is my biggest problem. When I ran in high school I ran as hard as I could, everyday. No one recognized that I wasn't taking the easy days easy. I just thought that was how you did it, you worked, and worked. No one ever taught me the importance of recovery. And by the time my freshman year in collegiate track ended, I was burned out. So much so, that .... I qualified to run in the Division III Nationals in the 800 meters and chose not to run them because I didn't want to spend the extra three weeks training as the school year had come to a close! I figured if I could qualify at 18 as a freshman I could do it again. Never ran competitively again until last year. Oops. And again today, here I am again, back to my old trained tricks. I did a hard workout yesterday and what did I follow it up with? 6.2 in 43:40 (7:02s). The good news is that I recognized I wasn't able to slow myself down ... despite numerous attempts during the run to do so ... so I cut the run down from my intended 8 miler to a 6 miler. I'll go out tonight and try to do an easy 4.

6pm, 80 degrees and humid. So tonight I ate 2 pieces of french toast with peanut butter and syrup and drank a glass of water and headed out the door. I figured that maybe I could put myself in a position where my body just couldn't let go. It partially worked. I had hoped to hold my pace in the 7:35-7:45 range. I almost made it. [I just read this over and felt the need to comment -- ok, so I didn't really even come close, who am I kidding] 6.2 miles (somewhat hilly) in 45:17 (7:18s). Tomorrow I'm going to try to meet up with Nancy and a few of the women that run out the Webster YMCA on Tuesday mornings and run with them. That should force me into the pace I want. I'm really going to have to focus the rest of this week to taper properly for this race Sunday. I've been targeting it as a major PR 1/2 Marathon for some time.

Nike Elite - 324.65

9am, 61 degrees today. Perfect running weather. I couldn't find my watch this morning, not sure what I did with it. All in all its probably a good thing for the time being. Did my best to stay easy today, but don't have the watch to know for sure. Ran 1.5 miles down to the YMCA. Met up with the women's group and ran with them 2.5 miles up to the track where I dropped them off. They were going to do a few pick-ups. I would guess that the 1.5 to the Y were run around 7:45 and the next 2.5 around 8:15-8:30. I ran another 5 after that, most likely bouncing between 7:20 pace and 7:45 pace. All in all I think it was a fairly good run and I plan to do more of the same tomorrow.

Nike Vomero - 302.45

Did an easy 4 today, followed by a 2 mile pick up, and finished with 1.2 mile cool down. 5pm and 80 degrees. First 4 miles in 29:37 (7:24s). 2.1 mile pick up in 13:25 ( mostly flat with about a 200 yard downhill and a 300 yard uphill at moderate grades [6:23s]), and finished with 1.1 in 8:56 (8:07s).

Nike Elite - 331.85

7:30pm, 80 degrees and light rain. 6.9 mile light and easy run tonight in 52:12 (7:34s). Not sure if I will take 2 days off before Saturday or just 1 yet. I'll decide for sure tomorrow.

Nike Elite - 338.75