Longest run ever - 9.0 miles

I planned a 9 mile run today. I went and re-measured my 4.0 mile route and my 5.0 mile route, using the rockin' Google Earth, figuring I'd just run them back-to-back. I discovered that the 4 mile run is a bit short, which is good to know.

I'll post updated images of the routes... sometime. It's a project. I want to give them actual pages and descriptions, instead of the bare directory listing they have now.

I had a small 300 calorie breakfast around 8:30 AM (cinnamon and apple oatmeal with vanilla soy milk, yum), and lots of water, and left the house about 2.5 hours later. The temperature was around 63° F, perfect, no wind, cloudless. No music, sleeveless singlet, Brooks (duh).

I jog-walked, which is to be expected, especially on the last half. Stopped several times for traffic, and several times for water. Stopped three times to eat some Cliff Bloks during the run, at around the 3 mile mark, just past the 4 mile mark, and the 7 mile mark, and that helped a bit.

I did try to keep track of my half-mile splits but messed a couple up. That's not so important, anyway, since this is my first time running this distance; I"m just happy to have done decently, for me, and glad I finished well (nailed a 5:00 pace on the last half-mile).

My overall time was 1:10:18, which gives me an overall average pace of 11:08 per mile. I'm just hoping that these long slowish miles will pay dividends for my shorter distances.

Monday will be an easy, un-timed run and probably short, then I think I'll do some hills or somethin' on Wednesday. I'll just play it by ear. Oh, but I do want to run to work next Friday, to my new office... which is 2 miles farther away than my old work location. That'll be fun.

Plus... it'd be nice to reward myself with a massage or something for this long run. I thought about giving myself permission to not count calories... but that's not gonna happen. My diet is working again and I don't want to stop that now.

5.0 miles - easy

Ran 5 miles tonight. Didn't take my watch. Since it was still 84° F around 5:30 PM, I waited until close to 7:00 PM to head out, and because of the days getting shorter, it was dark by the time I finished.

The actual running part felt good. But running in the dark without a light or even reflectors felt a little scary. I'll have to dig out my reflector bandolier for the rest of the fall and winter.

3.5 miles

My regular 3.5-mile loop. No watch. Sunny warm evening.

Easy run.

Felt good.

6.5 Miles

I ran approximately 6.5 miles today. I wanted a long run, but I didn't want a long boring run. I decided I would do my hill workout, which is about 2.5 miles, and a 2.0 mile tempo run. Those, plus about a mile warmup and cooldown, gives me a total of 6.5 miles.

It was warm today, over 85° F. I headed out close to 6:00 PM but it was still pretty warm.

The hill workout wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. OK, I'm kidding, it was hard. Here are my uphill times:

1. 02:27.4
   
2. 02:22.3
   
3. 02:12.2
   
4. 02:11.4
   
5. 02:12.6

Yeah, I kinda peaked on my next-to-last run (by less than a second). Oh, well. I tossed down some Shot Bloks and water, and headed down to the trail. One mile out and one mile back. I wanted to aim for a 9:30 pace. Here are my half-mile times:

1. 04:41.6
   
2. 04:41.8
   
3. 05:10.4
   
4. 04:35.4

Yeah... I had to stop to walk for 20-30 seconds at the turn-around point. Still, my total time was 19:09.1, giving me an average pace of 9:34.5! Whoo-hoo! That was so close to my goal pace. And I ran 3 out of the 4 half-mile sections at better than my goal pace. And I did it all after my hill workout (and a short break and stretching session), so I am extremely pleased with my performance. Good workout.

3.5 miles - fartlek

I just love saying "fartlek".

I kinda love doing it, too.

I did it tonight. My 3.5 mile loop, and I alternated (approximate) half-mile segments of slower and faster running. My total time was 35:37, for an overall average of 10:10 or so. It felt great; the sun was out but it was cool; perfect for running.

3.5 miles in the rain

It was pouring down rain when I got home from work today. And yet, I ran. It took some convincing (of myself) but I did it.

Wore my long pants and a sleeveless shirt under a long sleeved CoolMax shirt. Oh, and a hat.

Did my 3.5 mile loop. I pushed the pace, partly because I wanted to make it a hard run, and partly because of the frickin' rain.

Didn't see too many other runners out there. Saw one girl on a bicycle, and three male runners. I was the only one out there wearing long pants. Not sure why I noticed that.

I slowed down a bit in the last mile or so, and had to stop for a couple of lights along Bybee. Stopped for water in Westmoreland Park.

And my total time was 33:48, for an average 9:39 pace! Rock on.

Oh, and my nipples are sore. Combination of lots of water and two layers means that I had a little chafing goin' on. Owie.

8.0 miles

I ran a long run after work tonight.

The weather was cool and humid - in the low 60° F range, I think (haven't checked). Overcast but not raining.

I left the house shortly after 6:00 PM, wearing my new Brooks Adrenalines. I did my 4.0 mile loop, forward and backward. Maintained a steady pace, pushed myself several times, really only stopped for traffic or water (5 times for water, once at around the 5.0 mile mark for Cliff Bloks).

And my total time was 1:22:34, for an average 10:19/mile pace! That rocks the house!

Several things contributed to my good pace: the weather, my new shoes, the extra day of rest (haven't run since Friday), and I think my nightly sit-ups and pushups are helping my overall tone. OK, mostly the sit-ups; having stronger stomach muscles gives me a better base to push off from, if that makes any sense.

It was an excellent run. I ran well.

Pints to Pasta / 3.5 / 5.0

• First, they've posted the official results for the Pints to Pasta 10K last weekend. I scored and finished #666 out of 988 overall! That's awesome. My official time is 1:02:31.6 which is a tad slower than my watch told me. 10:04 pace. Oh, well, there's always next year.
  
• I ran an easy 3.5 miles on Tuesday, in my neighborhood. Didn't even time myself. Weather was cool but clear, not too windy.
  
• Friday I bought a new pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 6 running shoes, replacing my previous pair, on which I've put almost 400 miles. Yay for new shoes!
  
• Also on Friday I ran 5.0 miles in my new shoes. I made it a fartlek (Norwegian for "speed play") run, and did four "pickups" of 1-3 minutes each. Two were at least two minutes. Felt good to push the pace a little.

...and that's my running update! I plan on a long run today or tomorrow.

Pints to Pasta 10K Update

I did it!

No, I didn't beat last year's time. At least, I don't think so. My official time last year was 1:02:16.6. My unofficial time this year is 1:02:30.9. So unless there's 15 seconds difference between my watch and the official race clock, I didn't beat last year's time.

My right heel started bothering me yesterday, and I was worried this morning that it would go ka-blooey on me during the race. Didn't happen. And during the last half of the race, I kept doing speed-ups to about 80% effort, then slowing down to a walk, resting for a bit (20-30 seconds), then picking up the speed again. Did that about 4 times altogether.

They had water and Gatorade stations at the 2 mile mark and the 5 mile mark, and I stopped for Gatorade and water each time. Ate two Cliff Blokz (the black cherry ones, with caffeine) at the latter one. Not sure it helped, though.

I didn't see the 1 mile sign, nor the 4 mile sign, so my splits are all off, but here's the ones I have (pace in parentheses):

1. Didn't see the sign
   
2. 00:19:18.2 (9:39.1)
   
3. 00:29:27.8 (9:49.3)
   
4. Didn't see the sign
   
5. 00:49:44.5 (9:56.9)
   
6. 01:00:44.4 (10:07.4)
   
7. 01:02:30.9 (10:03.6)

Damn. So close. Well, I did it, anyway. And this was a fun event. This year, they changed the starting line; last year started in the residential areas up on Willamette Blvd. This year started on the new Adidas campus off NE Greeley. They had warm-ups on the soccer field there, and coffee and water and sports drinks for the runners. And it's always inspiring to be part of a huge crowd of athletic, motivated men and women on a bright, cloud-free morning.

I'd like to thank Thom Yorke for helping me with the first 45 minutes - "The Eraser" was, I thought, a good choice for just maintaining a steady, hard, pace. And Bad Religion was supposed to get me across the finish line. I don't blame either of them. They showed up, and so did I.

I would also like to thank the shy woman with curly blonde hair, the one with the van Gogh tattoo on her arm, for chatting with me while we waited for the race to start. And I'd like to thank the tall blonde woman in the red tights for keeping that steady pace that I should have emulated - she and I stayed even pretty much start to finish, until I finally put it all on the line in the last 0.2 miles.

This is one of my favorite races of the year. Next year I think I'll start actually training for this one early enough to see if I can beat my best-ever time from two years ago... Unless next year I decide to run the Portland Marathon. I might be ready next year. Or I might not.

Plenty of time to decide...

3.5 miles - Easy

I forgot to blog about my last run, it was so easy. It was like I'd pushed the Easy Button beforehand.

I'm tapering my miles this week, in order to rest up for the Pints to Pasta 10K on Sunday. On Thursday evening, I headed out for a nice easy 3.5 mile run.

Wore the Brooks, of course. Didn't bring a hat, which meant I spent some time wiping sweat out of my eyes. Ugh.

I didn't even take my watch - shocking, I know. Stopped for water twice, but other than that just kept moving at a nice, easy pace, unless I had to stop for traffic.

I want my legs to be well-rested and healed up and ready to rock tomorrow!

6.0 miles - 3 + 3

So, this week I decided I'm going to taper the latter part of the week, in preparation for the Pints to Pasta 10K, this coming Sunday.

I haven't run a race since May, I think. I'd have to go back and check but I think it's been that long. The last race I tried to run was in July, I believe. Some dumb race in Beaverton. There was one race downtown that I missed because I assumed the check-in was near the starting line instead of more than a mile away.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to the P2P. My time last year was a respectable 01:02:16.6, but I'll bet I can beat it this year, if my legs are well-rested and I'm hydrated and the wind is at my back. I'm going to try, at any rate.

So today was to be an easy, long run. 6 miles. I couldn't get up early enough to run 6 miles, get breakfast, and get to work on time. More's the pity because it was supposed to be warm today. However, if it did get warm that would be a fine excuse not to run so hard, right? I packed a bag and planned to run after work.

Which I did. I wanted to do at least some of the miles in the air-conditioned gym, so I split the 6 planned miles in two: I'd do a lap around Waterfront Park and the Esplanade (2.9 miles, or so) and then do the remaining miles on the treadmill. Easy-peasy.

And... I did it. I did have to stop for the Steel Bridge walkway going up for a barge, but, again, it's supposed to be an easy run so I tried not to care.

I wanted to quit so many times, especially when I was dripping sweat in the gym, but I just kept plodding on, walking when I felt I needed to, but running as much as I could.

I did it. Next, a 3-4 mile easy run on Thursday, hopefully in the morning before work, and then two rest days before the race. I'm so looking forward to it!

Oh, and I'm also running with my nephew in the Race for the Cure 5K on the following Sunday. What can I say? I like breasts.

8.0 miles - 4.0 miles tempo

I did something a little different this morning.

Got up early because it's going to be hot (over 90° F) - when I left the house at around 8:45 AM it was only 63° F.

After a little over a mile warmup, and a bathroom break and lots of water, I ran (or attempted to run) 4.0 miles at race pace along Springwater Corridor, from the 3.5 mile marker to the 1.5 mile marker and back again.

Then I ran the long way home, approximately another 3 miles. It was a jog/walk, though I wasn't keeping track of pace at all.

The tempo portion of the run was hard considering I didn't have any breakfast this morning (probably a bad thing), but I still managed to finish it in 39:40.8, under a 10:00 pace. Here are my half-mile splits:

1. 04:36.7
   
2. 04:48.1 (09:24.8)
   
3. 04:41.7
   
4. 04:52.5 (18:58.9)
   
5. 05:11.8
   
6. 04:50.9 (29:01.5)
   
7. 05:20.2
   
8. 05:19.2 (39:40.8)

Musical accompaniment was Bad Religion "Stranger Than Fiction" and Thom Yorke "The Eraser". After the tempo miles, I had two Cliff Blokz and a lot of water.

During the ~3 miles, I aimed for "fartlek" - speeding up and slowing down on a regular basis. Didn't really work, though. I just... finished. I am proud, however, of my 4.0 mile "speed" section - I beat my time from the last time I did this tempo run - and this time I didn't have to stop and rest at the halfway point, either! I'm a rock star!

5.5 miles - Run To Work

Last night I dreamed of getting ready to run. It was one of those "I'm dreaming that I'm awake" dreams that are so disconcerting. In it, I couldn't breathe because my allergies were kicking up, and I had to pee for what seemed like hours. It just kept going and going... no end in sight.

When I woke up, sure enough, my allergies were acting up (but not as bad as in the dream) and I had to pee (but not as bad as in the dream). Luckily neither one kept me from running. I took an extra loratidine and rinsed my sinuses out with my neti pot and I was good to go

It was cool-ish, high 50s, when I left (around 5:45 AM) but I could very much tell that today is going to be hot. Good thing I got my run in so early.

The run was unremarkable - a steady flow of about a 10:00 pace for the entire distance. I didn't radically speed up, I didn't radically slow down (no walking), my breathing never got overly labored... I did have some residual drainage of the saline from my neti pot but that's to be expected.

Once I got downtown I did have to stop a couple of times for traffic. Not much I could do about that unless I want to dodge cars. But I could have totally kept going without a problem.

Musical accompaniment was Harvey Danger's "King James Version" and "Little By Little".