1.0 + 2.9 miles

Didn't get up early enough to run this morning before work, so I packed my running togs into my, um... pack... and figured I'd run after work.

The weather after work was awesome: warm, clear skies with just enough high light clouds to give the sky a texture, slightly windy... I haven't run around the Esplanade in a long time, so that was where I was going to go.

However, I wanted to have a total of 4 miles tonight, and the loop around the Waterfront is just under 2.9. I did a mile on the treadmill at the gym prior to heading out into the evening sunshine, at about a 10:00 pace (actually started near 11:00 and then cranked the speed up incrementally until I finished the last tenth of a mile at a 9:00 pace).

And my run around the Esplanade was awesome. I managed to just keep going for the majority of the run, with the exception of about a 30-second walk on the Hawthorne Bridge near the end. Felt good, although I was definitely breathing hard.

Music for the run was provided by my sexy NanoPod and the musical stylings of Harvey Danger's second album, "Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone?".

8.0 miles

Got up early today, 6:30 AM. Grabbed a half-bagel with peanut butter and blackberry jam (200 calories), drank lots of water, and then went out for a run around 8:30 AM or so.

Weather was perfect for it - not too sunny, no wind, and about 65° F. I ran my 4.0 mile loop, out-and-back, for a total of 8.0 miles.

Stopped four times for water, and had my Cliff Shot Blokz (3 blocks, 100 calories; the Black Cherry ones with caffeine... shhhhh! Don't tell Dr. Gillian!) at the 5 mile mark.

With the stops for water and Blokz, and other walking breaks, I managed an average 10:48 pace, in a total of 1:26:29 for the whole 8 miles, which makes it my second-best time.

I'm now more convince than ever that the heat and humidity profoundly affect my running. I know, I know - duh.

That gives me a total of 16.5 miles this week, in three days of running.

Update for mileage

Frigging heat. Ran four times since my last update. Twice outside, twice at the gym, on the treadmill. Both times I lost 10 lb of sweat.

Tuesday - 4.0 miles. Slow.

Sunday - 3.0 miles. It was already 90 degrees at 9:30 AM or so when I went out to run. So. Slow.

Tuesday - 3.5 miles. Slow.

Thursday - 5.0 miles, but due to, um, stomach problems, I split it into 3 segments: 1.25 miles, 2.0 miles, and 1.75 miles, with a little walking and a bio break in-between each segment. Slow each time.

I need to do some speedwork. I also think that the humidity, in addition to the heat, is affecting my breathing, so I'm going to start up with the neti pot again and see what I can do to open up my sinuses and lungs. There's got to be something I can do about all that...

8.0 mile run - ugh

I ran 8.0 miles today, starting out around 11:00 or so, after the temperature had already gotten to 70° F, which sounds nice and all but keep in mind that internal temperature or perceived temperature rises by 20° F after a couple of miles. So I was looking at slogging through my longest run as if it were 90° F.

Ugh.

I knew I'd run 8 miles previously, but I thought I'd mapped out a full loop. Looking back I found that I had simply run my 4.0 mile loop as an out-and-back course.

So that's what I did today. I got up early to eat a bagel with delicious peanut butter, so I wouldn't be running on an empty stomach. I took along Cliff Shot Blokz (lemon-lime flavor) to replenish myself during the run. I stopped at each water fountain along the way (total of 6 stops), and downed the Cliff gels at the 5 mile mark along with copious amounts of water.

And... I finished. I didn't do it faster than I did it before. I timed myself but I don't have my watch and it really shouldn't matter because I haven't run that far in a while. And I've been running hard lately, no breaks like I'd had last time I did this.

I just finished. Yay for finishing.

6.0 miles easy / 4.0 miles

On Tuesday I ran my 6.0 mile loop. Weather was cooler than it has been and I didn't push myself much at all. Took along 3 Cliff Shot Blokz, which I downed at around the 4 mile mark, along with copious amounts of water. Since I forgot to blog about it immediately after, I don't have much detail to report.

Today I ran my 4.0 mile loop. It was a bit warm today, at least later in the day, but since I waited until after 7:00 PM to start out, it wasn't too bad, especially in the shade - and there's lots of shade along this route. Nice breeze, too. I ran too fast the first mile (about a 9:19 pace) but I do that all the time because the first mile is almost entirely downhill, then ran between a 10:00 and a 10:30 pace for each remaining mile. That time includes at least two stops for water and two brief (10-15 seconds?) stops for traffic, and a couple of 30-second walking breaks.

Overall I averaged almost exactly a 10:00 pace which felt good, especially considering I had originally planned another easy run.

Next up is an 8.0 mile run on Saturday, and maybe a light training run on Sunday with Max, now that he's back from Costa Rica. Depends on if he's available and I've got a car...

Bad runner

I am a bad runner because I chose to sleep in this morning instead of running in Beaverton.

Beaverton is a pointless place, anyway.

Sapphire Bullets of Updating-y-ness

Sorry I haven't been updating here lately. I've missed a couple of weeks... and can't remember them all. Here's a quick bulleted list to bring my milage totals up to date:

• 6/29 (Thursday) and 7/1 (Saturday) I ran 4.0 miles each day.
  
• 7/3 Monday I ran 4.0 miles.
  
• 7/5 (Wednesday) I ran 5.0 miles, and made it a training run: 1 mile warmup; alternating half-miles of fast and slow for 3 miles; then 1 mile cooldown.
  
• Today I did 4.0 miles slow.

I can't remember what I did further back.

Two days from now, Sunday July 9, I'm running in the Midsummer Meltdown 10K. My rock star friend Tom mentioned it to me, so I'll be with a group of like-minded folk, and they're all probably way faster than I am, but oh, well, it's only rock-and-roll. Race starts at 8 AM, in Beaverton's Greenway Park. I've missed two runs I really wanted to do (the Mt. Tabor 5K I missed due to a family tragedy, and I just completely spaced on the Beat the Burnside 8K) so this will be my first race in 2 months!