Thursday long run

It's been a long time since I've done one of these so I will try to remember how...
It was cold this morning, like 33 degrees, so I decided to sleep in and run at lunch. Lunch time came around and no sun, no warmup. It was about 40 degrees overcast, and no sun. the plan was 9 miles on flatter course with 4 mile tempo in the middle at better than 9:30 pace.
Started off nice and easy, didn't feel too bad but it was mostly down hill for the first 2 miles. Then I hit the greenway and picked up the pace to 9:10, the first part was false flat down so I knew I should keep the pace up since when I made the turn around to come back it would be false flat up. I did the first two miles at 9:10 pace then turned around and started back, amazingly at mile 3 I was still on 9:10 pace, but I was starting to suffer, I started counting down the mile markers and concentrating on the heavy metal playing in my ears. 3.5 miles still at 9:10, but I knew I could not hold it for another half mile, so I eased up for the next quarter and my ave pace dropped to 9:13, now I was at the final quarter mile and I knew I could make it so I picked the pace up and dropped my ave pace back down to 9:12. When the four miles was over I had to walk for a quarter to recover. Finally I started jogging and went back up the hill to work and did an extra bit around campus to get in a little more for a cool down since running up that hill didn't really count as a cool down. finished with 8.7 miles in 1 hour 27 minutes.

last run of the year

I ran on new years eve. it was 5.75 miles and two days after my 6 mile run. Sally was getting her hair done and Lilyan agreed to play at the park with her cousins so I had a couple hours free. I was hoping to do 8, but 2 miles into the run I knew it wasn't in my legs. It was an out and back run from the park to the river, then I was going to run along the river, it wasn't really a river but a draining canal, on the bike path. Since there was no traffic I could wear my mp3 player, and could finally relax without having to worry about traffic, time schedule, crazy kids needing to goto the bathroom, me having to goto the bathroom or really anything except when to turn around. As I said above I turned around a mile early to get 6 instead of 8, but other than that it was a wonderful run that I cut an additional .25 miles when my ankle gave me a shot of pain right at the end and I decided to just walk the final quarter mile as a cool down just to be safe.

long run in HK

This was my 4th run in hk, the first 3 were
2 miles, 3 miles, and 1.5 miles.
This one was 6 miles.
we went to a park near Sister's house so YY could play on the playground, Sally could Yup, Yup, Yup with her Mom and I could get a long run in. The park was not that big, so I did one loop on the inside trails, then one loop around the outside which ended up around 18 minutes. The next time out I found a bike trail that led to a river nearby so I followed for a mile, then turned around since I promised to check in after 20 minutes. The path was great and I found a shorter route, so on my third time out I took the shorter route there so I could run along the river for a while. This area is newer so it's cleaner and prettier. I finally was able to get into the groove and relax. Then I had to turn around and go back as the 7 days of standing, walking, carrying and holding have gotten to me and I didn't want to get stuck too far away.
Can't wait to load the gps data onto my computer to see my HK runs on the map :-)

hong kong blog

for those interested...

http://thereidsgotohkin07.blogspot.com/

2008 race schedule

Met with the coach last week to go over the race schedule for next year.
so here it is...

02/23 Coach Bubba 20k
03/15 Run for the oaks 5k - goal race < 25 minutes
04/13 Finish strong tri
05/3 white lake half ironman - maybe doing the swim relay leg
05/4 white lake sprint tri
05/17 Surf and turf tri
06/08 4.4 mile chesapeake bay swim
06/29 Kure beach sprint tri
07/13 Muddy Buddy
08/09 Bandits Challenge - maybe
08/23 Sportsplex sprint tri
09/20 Wilmington YMCA sprint tri
10/04 Pinehurst olympic tri
will have to decide what to do after that based on if I decide to do an ironman in 09

Negative splits rock

Met up with some people this morning at umstead park for a run. Didn't know how far, or how fast, but didn't really care. The plan was to just run how I felt. It was cold. 43 degrees and I had shorts and a long sleeve shirt and a fleece sweat shirt. Started off with the faster group. I told them I was going to run with them until I warmed up, then slow down to go with the slower group where I belonged. It was cold and windy, but they were doing 8:30 pace so I warmed up quick in about 5 minutes. I was feeling good, but 8:30 is not for me in the park. So the other group was doing about 11 min pace, a little too slow, but they turned around after 30 minutes and I kept going to the 3 mile mark.
first 3 miles 31:54 / 10:35 pace.
then I turned around and decided to negative split back in hopes to catch back up to the other group before they got back. They had a 1/2 mile head start but I figured I would catch them with a tempo run down the hill to the spillway.
tempo run
1.84 miles 16:38 - 9:03 pace.
Then I hit half mile hill, they had just started up, so I passed them early on. But I didn't want to slow down since the speed was feeling good.
1/2 mile hill
.54 miles 5:40 - 10:26 pace.
At the top I didn't stop and just kept going. It is still up hill to the parking lot where we started, but I wanted to get there by 1 hour to make a 10 min pace for the run so I kept pushing.
finish stretch
.62 miles 6:01 - 9:48 pace.
stats for the whole run
6 miles 1:00:14 - 10:01 pace

Reindeer romp 5k

first the numbers...
total time 26:48 8:37 pace
mile 1 - 8:18
mile 2 - 8:58
mile 3 - 8:50
.12 - :42

So I started off too fast as usual, but I started in the front and at the horn, all the little kids took off sprinting, they made it a quarter mile or so, then they either stopped and walked, or slowed to a crawl, so even though I started in front, I still found myself passing people left and right for the first mile.
The second mile was a lot less crowded as we encountered many hills there were a bunch of parents running with their kids trying to keep them going on this part. My faith in the human race was slightly restored...
Mile 3 started great as we ran by the start and the 1/2 mile downhill stretch, but then the second half was all uphill and very challenging to keep the pace up. Went by 3 volunteers and although they were no where near each other, they were all "almost there". :-)
I like the course, even though it is a little tough on the ankles, but if it grows in numbers it will be harder to navigate.
This is my last race for the year so look for a year wrap up coming soon. I felt really good about my speed for this one and think my "break 25 minutes" goal for the run for the oaks is possible.