One Step At a Time Many Times

Local 5K road race in New Haven, CT, fairly flat course.

Placed 259 out of 2111 overall.

Splits: 7:22, 7:25, 7:13

Warm up: 1 mile

Warm down: 2 miles

Felt pretty good, good time considering the time of the year and my current emphasis on long slow training runs instead of speed work.

Mid-afternoon run, low 40's, sunny & calm.

Steady pace: 67'  out, 1' walk/gel break, 66' return, 8:29 @ mile 13.

Mid-afternoon run, mid 60's, sunny & windy.  My first day where I felt comfortable in shorts.

Steady pace for the first 35'

Followed by: 3 x 1.5 miles  tempo (12'-13' minutes) with 5' walk/jog recovery.

Long steady run with PRE (see his blog on this site).

This was my first long run over 14 miles and the additional 2 miles were tough enough.

Averaged a 9:08 pace.

I was pretty tired and made sure to allow myself two full days to recover.

Today was a long slow run on a relatively flat course (converted rail line).

I ran the first leg at a steady page (49.5 min),
took a 2 minute walk break to eat my energy gel,
and then did the return leg in 46.5 min.

At mile 8.5, I ran a timed mile (markings on trail) in 8:33

Total time is 1 hr 38 min.

The course is slightly long by 0.4 miles, average page was 9:15/mile
(discounting 2 minutes for the walk break).

I ran in the middle of the afternoon, mid 60's and sunny.

Slow easy run on the streets (sidewalks) at 9:30/mile page.

Plan to run 18 miles tomorrow so today's run was to stretch the legs and work my cardiovascular.

Long slow run at steady pace with PRE (see details on his blog).

The pace was doable but required concentration in the last 6 miles to maintain the pace.

Speaking after the fact, my recovery was pretty good, tired but not exhausted, much better than last week's 16 mile run.

Long slow run on the canal trail, 14 miles, 2h11m.

Today was sunny and calm, high 60's.

First half going out, 7 miles, 65 min followed by a 1' walk/water/gel break at the turnaround point.

In the second, return leg, I picked up the pace for 4 miles at the following: 9:10, 8:55, 8:47 and 8:24.

I did a warm down sequence of 5 repetitions of 5' slow/steady + 1' walk/rest.

I am being very careful not to pull muscles and fatigue myself since I am still getting used to the 30+/week mileage.

Run on the streets/sidewalks into town, 7 miles in 62', steady pace.

Long slow run on canal trail (converted rail line, flat), low 70's, sunny and light wind, middle of the afternoon.

Today's run was deliberately easy because of a 10K race in two days time.

I paused at 30' for a 1' walk/water break; at 70', 2' walk/gel/water break at turn around point, and at 115', 1' walk/water break.  I timed mile 14 at 8:43.

The idea today was to get a good endurance workout and to save my legs for a good 10K effort, hence the short breaks, I was forcing to pace to be slow.

I ran a local 10K on a somewhat flat course with a few elevation changes.

I don't think the course was measured but it felt the right distance.  There were no mile markers so I have no splits, ran on feel, which is good to do now and again.

I was very surprised by my time, this was my best time for a 10K in the past 5 years, averaging to a 7:22 pace. 

My legs felt a bit heavy from the long workout on Friday, but after 10 minutes in to the race, I found a comfortable zone and stayed with it.  My breathing was okay, not straining too much, so I could have gone a bit faster, but, the day was cooler than I expected, the legs a bit tight, so I kept control of my race.  I decided that since there were no mile markers and the course was not ideal, there was no need to go out for 110%, and yet, I still did well.

According to my wife (the support team), I looked smooth coming in and I was not exhausted at the end.  I am starting to reap the benefits of the long, steady runs, my endurance is making it possible to run faster and farther with less of a chance of injury.

For the curious, here is me (blue top, #101) crossing the finish line!