Mile Repeats with the Fast People

Well, well, well. This was my first Wednesday speedwork with the fall marathoners, and it was an eye-opener. The last time I did this workout (mile repeats at Zilker Park) was way back on May 31st, when I did 5 repeats at an average of 7:26/mile, with a fast repeat of 7:17 at number 5. I figured that I could shoot for a first repeat around 7:40, and see what happened after that. An average pace that was close to the May 31st workout would be fine with me, especially since that was my fastest set of mile repeats to date. My major goal for the day was merely to do 5 repeats. I'd rather have the quantity of speedy miles more than worrying about the pace of those miles.

So, I joined the pretty big group of Gazelles at 5:45 am at RunTex, and we set out for Zilker. The warmup run was nice and comfortable, and I ran over with Jan, Patrick and Richard, plus some other folks. It's been a while since I've talked with Richard, so it was nice to get caught up with his new entrepeneurial lifestyle. After the drills, we were already pretty sweaty, but that's Austin in August. Gilbert grouped us up and told us that after the first easy (easier) repeat, that he wanted us to knock off consistent times on the rest of them. I ended up in the last group of runners, as usual these days. With the Gazelles, that's not such a terrible thing, but it's still a little bit of a drag to be the last group. We had some good runners in the group, though, including, Kim, Marci, Richard, Jan, Carrie, and me. Off we went.

I think Rogue Training was there at the same time, doing 900m or 600m repeats...or some combination thereof. It made for a crowded little loop, and the Rogue folks were running faster since they were going a shorter distance. It got better once the sun rose enough to light things up, but while it was dark, it was tricky to avoid oncoming runners from time to time.

So, I hung back at the back of the pack, since it's been so long since I've done this workout, and I wanted to get my sense of pace settled down. We finished pretty much in a pack, although maybe I was one or two seconds behind the lead runners. I clocked 7:37 for that first lap. After just over 2 minutes of rest, we were off the opposite direction for lap 2. I hung pretty close to the lead pacers on this one, thinking I was struggling a bit, finishing up that lap in a very surprising 7:08, my fastest mile repeat time ever. Needless to say, I was shocked to see that time. We regrouped for the third repeat, and this time, I settled into my own pace with Jan and Sarah, and I finished behind those lead people, but still with a very good 7:15. By now, I was okay with what I was doing, and ignored the faster folks. I ran with Jan for lap number 4, and we clicked it off in 7:12. Jan was done after that one, and so I ran the last lap with Sarah, thinking I'd just run it comfortably. That last lap felt easier than the third and fourth laps, but I still came in on the fifth repeat at 7:13. Nice!

So, for the day, I ran the last four repeats all faster than my fastest repeat from May 31st, and my average pace for the day was 7:17/mile, 9 seconds per mile faster than that previous workout. I am very excited about this result, and surprised as well. I stayed consistent for the last 3 repeats after the silly fast number two, and that was all good stuff. I know that these times don't necessarily say anything about racing times, but it's still very cool to see some new speed this early in the Freescale calendar. It was interesting to me that all the weight work I did yesterday for upper body actually caused some difficulty in pushing uphill on the Zilker loop. I just didn't have much arm drive. Legs were fine, obviously.

After a few cups of water or Gatorade, we gathered up and did the easy cooldown back to RunTex. Frank joined Patrick, Jan and me for the cooldown. We had some nice conversation as we rolled along, too. It's been quite a while since I've done any sort of run with Frank, so this was a treat today.

At RunTex, I did the full stretching routine, and generally had fun with my running friends. A very good day of running, and a surprising amount of mileage at 8.7 miles. Tomorrow is a recovery run in the 40-50 minute range.

Talkin' 'Bout My G-G-G-Gymnasium

Finally! It's only been weeks and weeks since last I darkened the door of my friendly neighborhood gym. It turns out that they don't keep track of such information, and so I wasn't grabbed at the door and held up as an example of a slacker. Good for me.

At any rate, after teaching my class at McCallum High School today, I dashed over to Gold's Gym for a return workout. After 15 minutes of warmup on the cycle, I moved to the core stuff. I only did one set of the core stuff today, trying to ease back into the full routine by next week. I did add the static leg raises that Gilbert prescribed for me yesterday, doing 2 x 30 seconds of that, then 2 x 30 seconds of the "plank" core exercise where you hold your body rigidly on your elbows and toes, and finished off that portion of the festivities with 2 x 20 seconds of the side/oblique raises, balanced on one elbow/forearm and the side of one foot.

Moved from that to the leg stuff, but I skipped the 4-way hip machine today. I did do a single set of extensions, hamstring curls, calf raises (2 positions), and then one set of weighted lunges. Just wanted to get the feel for where I am right now.

Then, I moved to the upper body stuff. There, I did 2 sets of everything like normal, but I backed off just a touch on weight on those, since it's been so long since I last did them. That was a nice way to finish off the workout.

So, it was great to get back to the gym, I enjoyed lots of tunes on the iPod while I labored away, and now I just need to rest up for the mile repeats tomorrow with the fall marathoners. Friday, when I return to the gym, I'll get back to the full numbers of sets of exercises, but I'll take it slowly building weight back up to where I left it when I was last diligent about the gym. It's all a part of a cohesive training regimen, you know, and I want to be better about dealing with Gilbert's surprise core workouts when they happen.

Pace Run / Recovery Run

I've switched this week to the fall marathoner's weekday schedule, with slight modifications, due to scheduling issues with the kids' school. I won't be doing the full 7 mile recovery runs right away on Tuesday/Thursday, but 30-45 minute runs on those days will do just fine for now, maybe going slightly longer on Thursdays. And on Saturdays, I'll still be adjusting the length of that run to suit my needs until Freescale training starts. So, my new schedule should be Monday pace run, Tuesday 30-45 minute recovery run and weights, Wednesday speedwork, Thursday 40-50 minute recovery run, Friday cycle and weights, Saturday long run. The main trick for this week is getting myself to the gym on the scheduled days. We'll see.

This morning, the marathoners had a nice and easy 7 miler scheduled, after their 22 miler on Saturday. My plan was to start out with them, "nice and easy," and then maybe pick up the pace a bit for the last 3 or 4 miles. I met up with everyone at 5:45am at RunTex. It was good to see some of my old running buddies after being sort of segregated from them when they moved to the different schedule. Gilbert again told everyone to go out nice and easy for the 7 mile loop, and then we were off. It stayed dark for most of the run, until we hit the last couple of miles, but that was fine with me. Alex got "promoted" to a faster group by Gilbert, so I guess that's the last that I'll get to run with him. It was nice while it lasted, I guess. I ran with a pack of 7 people, including Jason, Thon, Richard, Jan, Kim, and one guy that I didn't know. We cruised along, truly easy, testing our night vision as we negotiated the obstacles found on the trail. I nearly got taken down by a cardboard box on the I-35 bridge, and decided to leave a little more room ahead of me to see such things coming.

We stayed right together until we got to the water truck at Mopac. The whole gang stopped for a quick drink of water (yes, it was hot and humid), but all the coolers were empty. Jan and I got a sip of water at the fountain instead, and took off for the last couple of miles. I don't know who decided to do it, but we really picked it up over the last two miles. It felt just fine, though, and made for a fun end to the run. I felt strong, and happily I wasn't stiff or sore from Saturday's run.

The splits? 9:52, 9:32, 9:52, 9:10, .76 miles at 9:46 pace, then 1:30 water stop, and last miles at 8:03 and 8:04 pace. Overall, 9:09 pace for just under 7 miles.

We knocked out 10 x 100m striders on the grass there at Auditorium Shores, and those went well, too. When we got to RunTex, Gilbert wanted us to do situps, and I was going just fine after 3 sets of 20, but then he made a slight adjustment with my feet, pushing them closer to my body, and I couldn't do any more. Amazing how something that minor can totally change an exercise! Instead, he had me do 30 seconds of static leg raises, where you hold your feet slightly off the ground for 30 seconds. Really tough exercises. This was another sign that I needed to return to the gym. Hopefully, tomorrow?

Finished the morning off with the full stretching routine with Alex, and I felt great. Some more conversation with Paul and Jan, and it was time to get home. With the strides, it was a total mileage day of 7.6 miles. A good start to the week. Next Monday, the marathoners are scheduled for a 10 mile time trial (zoiks!). Perhaps I'll do 7 miles instead? We'll see...

Longer Run [Entered 8/27/05]

Saturday, after much discussion, those of us "Tweeners," who aren't marathoning this fall, but want something more substantial on the weekends than 7-10 miles, settled on doing 14-15 miles on the Freescale marathon course. I had to drop a cooler of Gatorade along the route for the marathoners, so I met up with the whole gang down at RunTex at 5:00am, and carpooled 8 people with me in the big truck up to the start at Gateway shopping center. Yep, 3 in the "way back" third seat, and 4 skinny runners stacked in the middle seat, with Frank riding shotgun up front with me. It's nice that we're so friendly, huh?

It was warm and humid, but I guess I'm getting used to it a bit, because it didn't seem to bother us much. We were soaked when we finished, but while we were running it was just fine. Anyway, we started out with Patrick and Jan, who are doing Chicago Marathon in October, Amy, Alex and myself. Jan planned to do the full scheduled 22 miles, and the rest of us would peel off the course at 14 miles or so. We quickly settled into a nice pace and rhythm, and tried to control it when the course sloped downhill. It stayed really dark for quite a while, but that was a good thing. After getting off of Burnet and the fast-moving traffic there, we were cruising along when Gilbert pulled up alongside us. He told Alex that he should go ahead and run faster, and of course Alex didn't need to be told that more than once. He was off like a shot, and except for the first two water stops, we didn't see him again until we were finished. When we got to Gilbert's truck and the first water stop at 4.75 miles, we caught the faster group ahead of us, but they moved on about when we got there. 2 minutes later, we were hydrated again, and I took a GU while we were there.

Splits for first miles: 9:43, 9:26, 9:34, 9:13, and .75 miles at 9:28 pace. Overall, a nice relaxed 9:29 pace for the first chunk of the course.

The next section was along the railroad tracks and then down Shoal Creek. It's a nice stretch, especially when the sun isn't up yet, and we enjoyed running through there. We got going a little fast at one point, but we managed to dial it back pretty efficiently. We could see the next group up ahead about 100-200 yards, and that caused us to push a little more than we might have otherwise. No harm, though. It was during this stretch that the subject of the James Bond movie marathon on AMC network came up. Okay, I brought it up. But, it turns out that Patrick is a fan of the series as well. It got strange when we were singing the theme song from "Goldfinger," along with some of the other theme songs, and I think it was about to drive Amy crazy. That craze passed soon enough, I suppose, but that's what can happen on these super early runs sometimes. When we reached the second water stop, and Gilbert's and Henry's trucks, we again caught the group ahead of us, but that's the last we saw of them for the day. Some more Gatorade, and another 2 minutes later, we were off again. So far, so good. I was feeling particularly good, just hanging out and running with my friends.

Splits for next bits: 9:10, 9:01, 9:22, 8:53, and a .2 mile piece at 9:20. Overall pace down to 9:19 through 8.9 miles.

Patrick and Jan pulled ahead of us along 45th Street, as we took a short rest stop at a friendly gas station, but Amy and I jumped right back onto pace as we negotiated the construction on 45th. The roads are torn up in a major way, but we got through it without turning an ankle. When we turned south onto Duval, and climbed that little hill there, we saw Jan ahead of us, walking and then stopping. We were concerned, and asked her what was up. She was wiped out a little by the conditions, I think. Jan tagged along with us for another half mile or so down Duval, but then she just couldn't go on from there. We told her we'd advise Gilbert and Henry up ahead that she was walking to them (it would be about another mile for her), and to wait on her. Everybody has one bad long run in a marathon training program, or at least most people do, and this was just her bad run. She's been crushing the long runs up till now, so I know she'll figure out what she might have done differently with her pre-run nutrition and hydration.

At any rate, Amy and I were in the homestretch of our little run. Patrick had gone on ahead after Jan slowed on Duval, so we didn't see him anymore. We cruised through the UT campus, and found Henry with the last water stop at the 13 mile mark, more or less. We told him about Jan, and pretty quickly we were off. Just a minute there. Up the nasty little hill on San Jacinto, a right turn on 11th south of the Capitol, and then we rocked on down Congress to 6th Street, and there we called it a day. As we crossed Congress to go to Starbucks, Henry and Jan saw us (she took advantage of the ride, given her condition today), and gave us some grief.

For the day, we clocked 14.25 miles, average pace 9:09/mile, which was great. With the various stops, the pace slowed to 9:40/mile, but that's still okay on a tough weather day.

The splits for the last miles were: 9:04, 8:47, 8:54, 9:05, 8:59 (.4 miles), and 8:28 for the last mile. It was nice to see that we picked up our pace throughout, and Amy and I had fun talking about everything. Amy and I stopped at Starbucks there at 6th and Congress, and got some cool drinks, and then we enjoyed a 1 mile cooldown walk to RunTex as we sipped our iced tea and water.

We waited for the marathoners to finish, and then gathered at Auditorium Shores for the stretching extravaganza. It was a nice day of running and comraderie. Amy drove me back up to the top of the course so I could retrieve my car, and the day was done. I never really got a chance to have a serious afternoon nap, so I crashed really early on Saturday after some wonderful Mexican food at Manuel's for dinner with the kids.

Another 30 mile plus week, as I keep building to the start of Freescale training in September.

Tempo Run (sans Group)

This morning, my schedule didn't allow the usual meeting with the Gazelles down at Town Lake, so after I got the kids on the bus to school, I manufactured my own "tempo run" here in the 'Hood. I took off about 7:45, and did an easy 2 miles, using the HR monitor to keep it truly in super easy mode. Once those miles went off, I picked up the pace for 4 miles as I crisscrossed around the 'Hood, building up the proper number of miles. The terrain was hillier than the Town Lake tempo course, but it wasn't too terrible. I tried to make the pace slowly pick up over the course of the run, keeping an eye on HR, but not on the GPS numbers. I didn't feel too stressed until the last mile or so of pace running, when the pace got fastest. Once the 6th mile beeped on the Garmin, I eased back, and did a last easy mile or so until I got back to the house. It wasn't as much fun as chasing all the fast Gazelles in the group, but it was a solid run. My times were an average of 9:35/mile for the 2 warmup miles, then splits of 8:30, 8:13, 8:02, and 7:48 for my "tempo" miles. The last 1.2 miles of cooldown were at 9:45/mile average. Not as fast as I'd have run with the group, but pretty right on for a true tempo effort. Now I just have to rest up and hydrate properly for Saturday's 14-15 miles.

Meriden 1000m Repeats

This morning was warmer, but still not awful for August. We met at the Lake Austin RunTex for the short warmup to Meriden and 11th and the 1000m hilly repeat session. It was a tiny group this morning, maybe 15 people in total. Like Wilke, people tend to find reasons to miss this workout since it's a tough one. Unlike Wilke, I actually like this workout, since it seems to me to directly help us with racing and learning how to recover from a hill or hills in the middle of a race. There was a high percentage of the really fast Gazelles today, too.

Easy warmup run and drills all took place in the dark, and then we were ready to roll. The truly fast folks went off in two packs, and then Alex and his people took off. That left Margaret, Gretchen, Amy and me for the "Lion Food" group. Gilbert told us to go out easy on the first repeat, and to go for 5 x Meriden in total.

I mostly followed on the first lap, and it turned out to be a bit slow, but that's not totally a bad thing. I wanted to get to 5 repeats today, and hopefully have my last lap be my best. After that first slower lap, I pulled ahead about halfway through the second lap, and pushed up the last hill to get my pace down closer to what I usually do. The next two repeats were very consistent and faster, and by then, I was making the pace. Amy and Margaret had had enough by then, but Gretchen agreed to join me for lap number 5, which was just like 3 and 4. So, a good job by the end of the workout.

The splits were 5:27, 5:14, 5:01, 5:01, 5:01. Average 5:09, or 8:02 mile pace. Pretty solid job.

We finished off the day by pushing through 5 x 150 meter uphill striders and 2x150 meter backwards running striders up the same hill. Those weren't too bad, actually. I was feeling some tired quads on the cooldown run back to RunTex, but it was a good workout. Alex and I were both happy that even after a spirited pace run yesterday, we still had some snap in the legs today.

Good set of stretching followed, and then it was time to call it a day. For the day, just 5.4 miles, but hilly miles they were!

7 Mile Pace Run

Today, I met up with Alex at RunTex at 6:00am for a pace run. Gilbert's instructions to us were to do 2 miles easy, and then to "go!" for the last 5 miles. The trick would be to see how Alex and I differed as to what "easy" pace would be. This was also the first run in my latest pair (lucky 13th?) of Mizuno Wave Creation shoes. These are the latest iteration of that shoe model, the Creation 6, in a nice white, blue and gray color scheme. My late winter/spring pair have now been retired, reaching the magic 350 mile mark, and my spring/summer pair are pretty close to being finished, at 310 miles. I'll use the spring/summer shoes for this weekend's long run, and after that, they'll be used for workouts like the circuit and for the easy 30-40 minute runs on Wednesdays. Alex was also sporting a new pair of shoes. Maybe that's why we ran so fast? The fall marathoners left earlier from RunTex to take the long warmup to Meriden for their 1000m repeats, so we didn't see them before we got started.

We went counter-clockwise on the standard I-35 loop on the trail, and the first two miles were indeed nice and easy. Paces for those were 9:26 and 8:57, and my HR was bubbling along at a nice subdued rate. When the GPS watches alerted us to 2 miles, Alex announced that it was time to pick it up, and he promptly left me in the dust. That shouldn't be a surprise, since he's faster than me, but I usually pick up the pace mile by mile on these pace runs instead of immediately dropping the pace like he does. I gamely hung within 20-30 yards of him until the end of mile 3 (first pace mile), and after that, he slowly pulled away for the rest of the run, eventually finishing some 3 minutes and change ahead of me.

I felt strong, but the trick today was to quiet the demons in my head and try to allow my body to do the work without the brain getting in the way. During mile 5 and 6, especially, I had to do some serious mental work to maintain my pace and effort. No water stops, no resting, just rolling along, I kept picking out people to catch and chase. That helped distract me enough to push hard all the way to the finish.

I ended up with just over 6.9 miles of running, average pace of 8:16/mile, 57:11 total time for the loop. I'm pretty sure this was a record for me on this loop, but I'll have to do some serious review to determine that. The 5 pace miles were clicked off at an average mile pace of 7:53/mile, which is fast for me. My splits for the pace miles were: 7:42 pace (.92 miles), 7:50, 7:52, 7:59, and 8:02 for the last mile. I prefer it when my pace improves all the way to the finish, but those numbers are consistent enough, even if they tail off a little towards the end. That first pace mile was when I was trying to stay with Alex, of course.

A good workout, and afterwards, we stretched and chatted with Pete (who did a 10 mile pace run), Kim, Carrie, Jason and Frank. Those last 4 folks all were finishing up the marathoners' workout at Meriden, which is our destination for Tuesday. It was a fun morning, especially once the pace run was over.

Let's Go Up Mt. Bonnell!

This morning, it was time to do a "recovery run" which included the hilly Scenic course and a journey up and down Mt. Bonnell. Amy and Alex joined me at the Rock at Mopac and Veterans Blvd., and we took off at 6:00 for our adventure. It was still dark then, which was nice to keep us as cool as possible. It felt a tiny bit cooler this morning, but by the end of the run, we were all drenched, so the humidity was certainly out in force.

At any rate, our first couple of miles were nice and relaxed down Lake Austin Blvd. and into the start of the Scenic loop. We skipped the water stop that Gilbert had set up on Lake Austin Blvd because we had just started our run. I was a little worried that I was not quite up to speed during the first couple of Scenic hills, but I settled down soon enough. We had guessed among ourselves when the fastest Gazelles would catch us, even with our 2 mile headstart, and were surprised when we didn't get passed by the time we had headed down Pecos on the way home.

Coming out of the Scenic loop, we headed over to Mt. Bonnell Road, and made that steep journey up the mountain. I guess I've grown accustomed to it a little bit, but except for some deep breathing, it didn't seem so bad today. This was only Amy's second trip up Bonnell on foot, and she had a good climb today as well. Alex loves Bonnell, so he for sure had fun. We stopped at the foot of the steps going up to the overlook and had a couple of cups of Gatorade, and we all had a GU, I think. Amy walked up the steps and Alex jogged up them, and I jogged over to the exit of that upper trail and went backwards up that trail until I met up with them on their way down. That may have added a tiny bit of distance, but it was mainly for entertainment purposes.

Splits up to the Bonnell Gatorade stop: 10:02, 9:25, 9:13, 9:14, and .89 miles including the Bonnell ascent at 9:24 mile pace. Average pace halfway through the journey was 9:28/mile for 4.86 miles.

We rolled down Balcones Woods, enjoying the morning, chatting away as the day woke up around us. We decided to head back via Pecos instead of Exposition, just because we could, and actually picked up the pace through that hilly stretch. When we got to Enfield, we took a right and added some distance by going the long way home and going back by Hula Hut and all those places. There was some sort of very large training group coming towards us on Lake Austin Blvd, but I don't know which it was. Gilbert had already picked up that first water jug, so we just kept running, and kept picking up the pace to the finish. Having Alex along with us is good, because he is going to pick it up more than we might otherwise.

We finished very strong, and the gaps between Alex, then me, then Amy weren't very much at all. A very good run.

Splits from Bonnell: 9:17, 9:04, 9:02, 8:28, 7:54. Very strong finish, and we all felt really good afterwards. This wasn't a death march by any means. Overall pace for 9.95 miles was 9:06/mile. The last 5.09 miles from the top of Bonnell were clocked off at 8:45/mile average pace, which was quite good. If you include the 2:00 Gatorade/GU stop, the pace for the entire run was 9:20/mile. All the numbers look good to me, but then I was running it, so I'm biased.

After relaxing a bit and having a cup or two of water at the RunTex trucks, we drove over to the central RunTex and made our way over to Auditorium Shores for our post-run striders (did 5x100m of those). We saw all the marathoners finish, and then we did form stuff with Gilbert (hopping and form drills). The hopping stuff nearly wiped out my calves, but it was a fun time, nonetheless. Big group met for stretching, and we groaned through that in pretty good humor. Gilbert had us do two rounds of the hamstring stretch cycle and the IT Band stretch, which wasn't really too bad.

It was good to see all the marathon people again, and we all had the usual happy feeling after sharing our morning's work on the roads. It was a good week for me, mileage wise, as I popped over 30 miles for the first time in a while. I've been taking it easy this summer, and now it's time to start building up for Freescale training.

800m Repeats (Long Time Coming)

This morning felt slightly more comfortable to me, so I'm guessing the humidity was down a bit, along with a slight temperature break. Anyway, we gathered at RunTex at 6:00am for the warmup run to Austin High School. I ran over with Alex, Gretchen and Amy, and we took it nice and easy, a true warmup run. When we got to the track, the faster folks had just started the drills, so without a pause, we jumped right in and did those. After we got done, Gilbert had us do additionally the 400m warmup where we do 50m easy, 50m stride, etc. all around the track.

We grouped up for the 800's, and Gilbert assigned my group to aim for 3:30/800m. 2:00 walk/jog rest between the 800's. Today, my group was Margaret (back from vacation), Amy, Gretchen, and Marci. I was the designated pacemaker, and after the first 400, I realized we had taken it a little too easy, so I pushed the second 400 to end up with a slightly slow first 800. After that, the next 4 repeats were very consistent and right on target. Marci was either short on time or recovering from an injury, and did only 2 repeats. Margaret and Gretchen were done after 4 repeats, and Amy was done after 5. I went ahead and did one extra one, to get to 6 repeats, and I was a little faster on that one. All in all, a really good set of repeats after a long break from them. The last time I did this workout was right after the Schlotzsky's 5k race in late April, so it's been a while. I wanted to make sure and do a little extra after cutting Wilke short on Tuesday, so mission accomplished.

The times: 3:34, 3:29, 3:30, 3:29, 3:27, 3:24. Average pace was 3:29, or 7:00/mile pace. That's pretty good for the "off season." Gilbert told me today that Freescale training actually starts in September, so I've got lots of time until that cranks up.

After the 800's, I went right ahead and did 3x200m striders with Alex, and Amy joined us for the last one, as she had been doing them slightly off our times. I felt nice and loose during those, which I suppose is the point of doing them.

Our cooldown run was nice and easy, too, with Alex and Amy joining me. We laughed a lot about a variety of topics, none of which will be repeated here. Pete, Alex and I did most of the stretching routine once we got to RunTex, and we had a nice long conversation about stuff, as well. Kelly was there, too, finishing up her 7 miler as she reacclimates to Austin's weather.

Good day after a relatively bad day at Wilke on Tuesday. Total mileage 7.3 miles. Saturday is Mt. Bonnell, and Gilbert said that we should do it, as a "recovery run," but to start at Mopac for the shorter version of that run, about 10 miles. Sure thing, coach!

W-W-W-Wilke!! (The Mountain Wins Again)

This morning, after I was guilty of staying up way too late reading a pretty fun mystery novel ("Tell No One" by Harlan Coben), I was realllllllyyyy tired as I drove down to RunTex to meet Alex for our warmup to Wilke. The heat and humidity are here with a vengeance, which didn't help matters much either. Oh, well. After a fairly serious internal debate over whether I'd just turn around and go back home, I climbed out of the truck and met up with Alex. We started at 5:45 am so that we could do the longer warmup/cooldown run to and from RunTex instead of the shorter version from the park near Wilke. It's about 2.7 miles from RunTex, and only 1.3 or 1.4 from the park. Since the Wilke repeats are so short (but very intense, as previously noted), it's a short mileage day if you start at the park.

Our warmup run was quite comfortable, and once we passed near the park, we gathered up a couple of the Gazelles parked there, including Gretchen and Joseph. As usual, the rolling hills leading to Wilke were just the appetizer for the workout. My legs were feeling just fine, but I could tell my body was seriously off today. We waited a while at the base of the hill for everyone to gather, and then did our drills in the dark pre-dawn conditions. I struggled through the drills, which was alarming, but I guess I'm entitled to a bad day once in a while.

After meeting up with Gilbert, the fairly small band of Gazelles (I'd guess 15) took a final drink of Powerade (a nice blend of orange flavors today, good and strong :) ), and then we were off. By the way, this is normal for Wilke. Lots of people find reasons to miss Wilke. He prescribed a maximum of 7 repeats, with a minimum of 3, owing to the conditions. I figured I'd try for 3 and see how I felt. I did them a little easier, I thought, than normal, but it turns out my pace was about what it usually is on this workout. I ran up with Gretchen on a couple, but then I was toast after just 3 repeats. I was suffering, and I decided that discretion was in order. I went down and got more Powerade, and poured some cold water over my head, and was partially refreshed. After that, I went up the hill halfway and did the 2 backwards running repeats, which weren't too bad today (I suppose that's because I did fewer Wilke repeats than normal). Last, I did the 3 short uphill striders at the top of the hill, and those were fun as usual, since they were so short (maybe 30 meters).

I felt bad about being off my game, but that feeling soon passed. I rested a bit, dripping with sweat, and felt a lot better once Alex and the gang were through. I headed back with Amy and Alex, and we commiserated about this particular workout in the Gazelles repertoire as we cruised back to the park, where Amy finished her day. Alex taught us a new and useful word on the run back, as well, which I'll just keep among the three of us. Let's just say that he demonstrated the proper usage of this word after a car passed us very closely, honking. Alex and I continued on, and I must admit that I felt pretty good once we got back to RunTex. Alex, of course, loved the Wilke day, and did the maximum number of repeats. It's good to see him so happy about running again.

We stretched for a bit and had our post-run Endurox, and saw Kelly there at RunTex. She's back after a summer in Chicago (summer internship), and it was good to see her back in Texas.

For the day, 7.2 miles, and a valuable lesson learned about the importance of a good night's rest during more serious training. I'll make sure and point towards the next Wilke workout and strive to redeem myself, for my own internal reasons. I guess it was a bad day at the running office, but I'll learn from it.

7 Mile "Easy" Run and Striders Galore

This morning, I was able to meet the fall marathoners for their 7 mile "easy" Monday run at 5:45 am. Their 20 miler on Saturday was a tough one, and Gilbert is giving them Monday "off" of their usual pace run to give them extra chances to recover. So, I figured their "easy" pace would be sort of a pace run for me, and was able to make time to join them this morning. There was a pretty large crew of people, including Frank and Jan, and Alex was there to help me represent the "non-marathoners." Gilbert cautioned everyone to take it easy this morning, meaning the folks who did 20 on Saturday.

We did the I-35 loop clockwise, starting in pretty dark conditions, and it was another warm and humid morning. I started off running with Alex and Jan, moving pretty easily and carefully on the trail as we tried to negotiate the sometimes uncertain footing on the trail when the light wasn't all that good. Just after we crossed the Mopac bridge and started back along the trail past the rowing center (they were really busy for 6:00am, by the way), Jan moved on ahead of Alex and me. I think we were talking too much for her, but that's okay. I admit that between Alex and me, we can fling a lot of verbiage. :) Our first 3 miles were 9:46, 9:28, and 9:11 as we drifted into pace.

At that point, it seemed to me that we started picking it up even more, and later review of the splits told me that was not my imagination. Jan was rolling along ahead of us, and suddenly as the light got better, Alex and I noticed that Frank and Anne were just ahead as well. I suppose that in spite of our stated goal of running easy, we must have gotten a little adrenaline going. We caught up to Frank, Anne and Jan as they stopped for a quick water break, but Alex and I just continued on our way. I was starting to feel much more like I was on a pace run, but since we had only run 10 on Saturday, that would be okay with me. Since my running partner was Alex, I started thinking that he would want to blast away pretty soon, too. We got to the I-35 bridge with a couple of fast guys trailing right behind us, and it was time for the Big Finish. As we crested the Riverside hill, I told Alex that I might ease up after the hill, but he was nice enough to say that he usually eases up there, too. Those next 3 miles in there were 8:39, 8:22 and 8:23, which for me were a lot more like a pace run.

Anyway, we finished up Riverside, and darted onto the trail for the last mile or so. Alex and I took turns keeping up the pace, and that really helped me. Alex's announcement that we were right at 9:00 pace with just a little ways to go gave me the last bit of encouragement that I needed, and we finished up at the RunTex water stop at Auditorium Shores, drenched with sweat. The last 1.1 miles were something like .8 miles at 8:16, and .3 miles at 7:52 pace. Pretty cool. Total run was 7.07 miles at an average of 8:51, a nice little run for me.

A quick drench under the outdoor shower there helped a bunch, and then we trudged over to do the striders suggested by Gilbert. The marathoners were doing 15x100m, and Alex and I ended up doing 12 x 100m. When I used the proper form and exaggerated the high knee and butt kick stuff, I did move faster and easier, but I could tell that I was working pretty hard.

That's about when Gilbert showed up, and we did some of his hopping stuff followed by some of the form drills. Last, we hit the ground for situps and pushups. He prescribed 100 situps, the real kind, and I managed 3x25 of them for 75, along with the full 2x10 pushups. Alex really helped me out again on the situps, first by just blowing out his 100 situps like they were nothing (although I know they were hard for him, too), and second by being very encouraging as I struggled on my second and third sets of 25. I was surprised that I could do as many as I did. The pushups weren't all that tough. By the time I got finished, I was totally dirty. The combination of really wet running clothes and the dust and dirt at Auditorium Shores made for a pretty bad combination. Most of us hosed off the biggest part of the grime, but it was a really funny looking group of runners, that's for sure.

After a nice walk to RunTex, it was great to put on a clean t-shirt. The post-run Endurox was a great refresher, and after a few minutes of talk with Alex and some other folks, I was on the road. It was a surprisingly good run this morning, and for the last time, I have Alex to thank for his fine job of pacing and positive mental energy. I'll stop gushing now, I promise. Tomorrow is Wilke, so I need to figure out if I want to meet Alex and the crazy people for the longer warmup and cooldown run. We'll see.

Long(er) Run [Entered 8/13/05]

Saturday, we started from a different spot for our longish run. 6:00 am just so we could get done before the sun got too high, and we had a nice little crew. Diana, Liliana and Alex all joined Amy and me for our 10 miler, and it was cool to have some faster people join us for a change. Diana and Liliana have taken most of the summer off, for various reasons, and this run would be their longest run in quite some time. The course was a new one for us, an out and back that was a truncated version of the fall marathoners' 20 miler today. We went from the rock underneath Mopac and made our way up Exposition, across on 35th Street, and then up Shoal Creek, finding a turnaround point that would give us about 10 miles for the day, and then retracing our steps back to the start. It was hotter than usual this morning, and very humid, so we suffered a little more than we have.

The first miles were in the early morning darkness, and we eased our way through the hilly Exposition and 35th Street portions, making it to the Powerade stop on Shoal Creek just north of 35th Street in good fashion. That was about 3.8 miles, at an average pace of 9:57/mile. That's a lot slower than we've been going on these runs, but the weather made us slow down a good bit, I think. Feeling pretty good, our merry band went up Shoal Creek, and conveniently found that Hancock was a pretty exact turnaround spot, somewhere around 5.1 miles. We touched the transformer box there and started the journey home. The conversation on Shoal Creek was largely about what the purpose, if any, was for the new "planters" that the city has built in the middle of the parking/bike lane on the sides of Shoal Creek. Seems that they're just there to annoy cyclists to me.

Anyway, back at the Powerade stop (today it was not quite the usual superstrength version ), and I took a GU, because I had one. After that, we were off again. We had picked up the pace a bit on the 2.6 miles there on Shoal Creek, bringing our overall average pace down to 9:46/mile through 6.45 miles.

The finishing bit was harder than going out, with some nasty little hills on 35th (the overpass), and on Exposition. Liliana and Alex started feeling pretty spry about a mile and a half to the finish, and picked it up a good bit. I hung back maybe 30 yards from them for a long time, and then they kicked it up another notch, leaving me in the middle of the gang as we strung along back to the finish. Amy and Diana formed the last group, just a little bit behind me. We obviously got a lot quieter once we got back to Exposition.

I pushed a little coming home, and finished pretty strong. My final tally was 10.21 miles at an average 9:25/mile pace, with my last miles at 9:02, 8:29, and .75 miles at 8:09 pace. Not bad. I'll be really ready for Freescale training to start this year, instead of having to play catchup the first couple of months like I did last year. If you include the water stop time, the overall pace dropped to 9:50/mile, which is still in the good training range for a long run, considering my theoretical marathon goal pace.

I was a little dizzy at the finish, largely because I think I was feeling the effects of only getting a couple hours of sleep last night (just restless, but it was really annoying). After I slugged down my Endurox, I felt a lot better. The stretching was near the tennis courts there by Austin High School, since the AHS football team was out for an early morning practice on their field. That was fun as usual. After that, I joined a bunch of the fall marathoners for a cold soak at Deep Eddy in the nice chilly waters from that natural spring. Except for the girly scream that you make when you first get in the water, it's a great thing, reducing any inflammation in your legs and helping you feel a lot better for the drive back home. There were probably 15 of us there at Deep Eddy, and it was a lot of fun just to hang out in the cool waters chatting with all the gang.

It was a treat to put on nice dry clothes after the swim/soak, and I felt really great going home. I believe this makes about a couple dozen nice days at the running office in a row, and I'd be happy if that streak continues.

2000m Repeats at Zilker

We started earlier today, at 5:45 am, and there were only a handful of hardy souls there for the festivities. A total of maybe 10 people left RunTex to cruise over to Zilker Park for the 2000m road repeats. I had a nice run in the dark with Amy, Shannon and Alex, as we laughed about waking up so early to do these workouts. We took the sort of long way around to get to the drills, but it was so dark that I think we felt more secure running on or near the street to get into the park. Drills and then it was time to get going. We started earlier than usual so that we could get in more repeats before having to get back to RunTex. My little pace group was Amy, Shannon and David for the first repeat. Gilbert told us to do the first one easier and to finish the workout strong with our fastest runs last. Suggested 3 repeats for a minimum and up to 5. I wanted to do 3 for sure and hoped to do 4. These are hard repeats, with only 2:00 rest between, and I've traditionally averaged something like 9:10 overall for the repeat sets, which would be about 7:25/mile pace.

Our first repeat was still in quite dark conditions, and I think we really took it too easy. I pushed a little coming up the only hill on the loop, and brought it home in 9:35. That's still 7:43 mile pace, but it felt too easy. On the second lap, David was told by Gilbert to back off, since he's supposed to be tapering for Pikes Peak in 10 days. However, Liliana joined our merry band, having just arrived, and we were off. I wanted to pick up the pace on the second lap, but I got a little carried away, and we finished fast in 8:54. The third lap was 8:59, and Amy and Shannon were pleasantly surprised to do so well on that one after struggling just a touch on the second lap. They were done after 3, but I still felt that I needed to push through a fourth repeat, so I accompanied Liliana on her third, my fourth 2000. I was tiring, but kept her just in reach the whole way 'round, and finished that last repeat in 8:57. Those last 3 x 2000m were easily my fastest group for this workout ever. My overall pace for the day was a personal best as well, at 9:06/lap, 7:20/mile pace for 8000m of repeats. It was hard work, especially on that last lap, but I fought off the urge to quit that last one, and finished quite strong.

The run back was thankfully relaxed, with Liliana, Alex and Amy. I hung around and did some needed stretching, and even saw Frank, Richard and Jan from the Fall Marathon gang. It was a good day at the running office, and it made me feel much better that I had this sort of speed lurking in my legs. I was feeling sort of slow and mopey after reading and hearing about some of the other folks' times in workouts, and this one helped me out a lot.

For the day, 8.37 miles, including warmup and everything else. Gilbert suggested 10-12 miles this Saturday for us, turning around early on the fall marathoners' out and back course. Next Tuesday is W-W-W-W-Wilke, which is always tough. Yee haw!

Circuitry Again...

This morning, drizzly and humid, a pretty small tribe gathered at RunTex for our journey to Circuit Workouts. I'm guessing that a lot of folks saw the weather and decided that they would pass on "just" a circuit workout. A few of the Chicago marathon group (Frank, Richard, and Sean) left at the same time on their 7 mile recovery jaunt, but we non-marathoners headed the other way for Austin High School. It was really dark this morning, which I suppose is a combination of the rain clouds and the early start times. Anyway, I ran over with Alex and Shannon, as we brought up the rear of the group, running easily for the warmup. Drills were drilled, and we got the word. Today was circuit workout with 800m runs between.

I paired up with Shannon, and we ended up doing the whole workout together. We did 3 complete circuits, and then foolishly we asked Gilbert if we should stop. "One More" was his response. Okay. The 800's felt fine, but we were a little leg-weary at the start of each running portion after those lunges. Turns out we moved nice and quickly through the circuits, and our 800's were very consistent at 4:00, 4:02, 4:02, and 4:02. Pretty cool, that.

Still huffing and puffing after the last lunges, Gilbert had us all try and do a full crossing of the "monkey bars" that the high school has there for the football players. With the wet rungs, I slipped off just past halfway, which was a little embarrassing. Then, we went to a parallel bar type deal and tried to shimmy up its slight incline and down to the finish of that length of bars, supporting ourselves on straightened arms. Again, I made it to the peak, but failed to be able to finish. Obviously, I need to get back to the gym in a big way. To top it off, we had to try to do some pullups. I managed 2...groan.

Anyway, after that, we were toast, and Shannon and I jogged back to RunTex. A little bit of stretching followed, and then I had to get home for the kids. For the day, 5.7 miles plus 4 circuits of fun and other stuff.

Return to Long Runs [Entered 8/7/2005]

This morning, on a surprisingly cool morning (maybe 73 degrees?) and overcast, we started out at 5:45 am for a medium long run. For the marathoners, this was intended to be more or less a recovery run, with the last 3 miles at some sort of accelerated pace, and the first 11 nice and relaxed. Per Gilbert's instruction, I joined in for the fun, with the option to bail out for a 12 mile day if I didn't feel up to the full 14. The route was different today, with an additional piece out Riverside and including a golf course and the park just east of the Longhorn Dam. It's a softball park plus some new trails.

At any rate, I started out with David and Susan, but soon eased up to run with Jan and Sean when I noticed that they weren't going out at a crazy early pace. Volel caught up with us at about the one mile mark, and we made a happy band of four for most of the rest of the morning. It was nice to chat with them all and get caught up on Gazelles gossip and other stuff as we clicked off the early miles. We more or less picked up the pace a little bit on every mile, but it felt okay to me. The cooler weather was truly a gift, and we enjoyed it.

First 4.5 miles to Gilbert's truck and the Powerade stop were nice, 9:42, 9:16, 9:19, 9:14, and a half mile at 9:05 pace for an average of 9:21 for the early miles. Just right in my book, but slower than Jan and Sean have grown accustomed to, I think. We checked in briefly with Gilbert, and after 2 minutes of water stopping, we were off again.

The new section is a big change, but it was relaxing to run on those wide trails virtually alone. Jan and Sean kicked it going up the Longhorn Dam, but Volel and I caught back up with them on the other side. The second water stop, behind Holly power plant, was brief since the water fountain there was broken (1:41), and we all took a GU there. Those 2.75 miles were at 8:50, 8:47, and .7 at 8:20. The pace was intensifying, but I still felt good enough. I could tell that it's been a while since I went long, though.

Since there wasn't water there, we stopped in just .4 miles at the softball fields so that Sean and Jan could get water (1:00 stop), and then we were good to go. That .4 miles was at 8:55 pace. I hung with them for the next couple of miles, and then I slowly started falling back just a bit, ending up maybe 50 yards behind them by the Pfluger bridge. Those miles were at 8:50 and 8:21, and then I caught up with Volel, Sean and Jan at that bridge, where they were getting a last drink of water. I just continued on and crossed over Town Lake at that point, since I was cutting the run short to 12 miles. My next mile was a sprightly 8:21, and then .3 miles to the zero mile marker at 8:24 pace. After that, I kept on going and added an Auditorium Shores loop to boost the mileage up and clocked that .9 miles at 8:19 pace for a solid finish.

Overall, it was 11.8 miles, 8:53 overall pace for the actual running bits. I'll take that as a good return to the longer stuff, and I was happy with the fact that I picked up the pace consistently throughout the run. With the water stop time factored in, it was 9:17 pace. A good run either way.

While I waited for the marathoners to finish up their 14 miles, I went ahead and did my 5x100m striders on the grass there, and chatted with the troops as they made their way home. Gilbert gathered us up for the hopping feet deal, which really wiped out my calves, and then we did the fun balance drills and form work. After that, we made a big circle and had our long-form stretching extravaganza there at Auditorium Shores.

I had a great time getting back with the long running troops, and it was cool to fall right back into the routine. When Freescale training kicks off in a few weeks, I'll be ahead of the game, which is where I wanted to be. Schedule permitting, I hope to join the gang for the pace run on Monday, where I'll do just 7 miles instead of 10, going for an easy 2 miles and a paced 5 mile finish instead of their 2/8 longer version.

Tempo Run

I'll slowly catch back up on the blog, but today we gathered on a typical weather morning for our monthly tempo run. The 1.2 mile warmup was nice and relaxed, and then we drilled on the trail, trying not to take over the trail and force oncoming runners to scatter to the sidelines. I think we did a good job of being nice neighbors. Anyway, as usual, the task was to go out at about 80% and return faster than that on the 4 mile course. I made my usual pact with Shannon and Amy that I didn't feel up to a really fast pace, and that little pack of three took off behind the greyhounds but ahead of some newer folks.

The first mile was indeed slow, at 8:16. Amy pulled away from Shannon and me towards the end of mile one, and got about 70 yards ahead eventually. I picked up the pace during mile two, and slowly started catching Amy, more or less as a mental exercise. Shannon eventually fell back a bit, and I continued my little race with Amy. By the turnaround, I was about 10 yards back, after a 7:40 second mile. I kept up the pace, and caught and passed Amy about halfway through mile 3, and crossed the footbridge for mile 3 for a 7:37 split. At that point, my goal was to keep it up and try to have an even faster mile 4. I was successful, I think, with a 7:42 last mile (the mile 2 and 3 splits are about 50 yards short of a true mile), but my overall time was 31:15, about a minute slower than my "PR" for this workout. Considering my casual approach to running in July, that was okay with me. I'm rested and ready to tackle Freescale marathon training now, and I am enjoying running. Overall pace for the tempo run was 7:49, which is really pretty slow for me.

We finished it off with 5 striders (100 yds), and then we were done. For the day, right at 6 miles, and it was a good workout for me. I did just a little stretching afterwards, but had to get home to take the kids to summer band camp. Gilbert told me to run the full 14 miles on Saturday, or at least to start out thinking that, and if I wanted to cut it short, I could cut back across the Pfluger bridge for about 12. There's a new piece that they've added at the end of the usual Longhorn Dam loop that Gilbert wants me to see, I suppose.

I must admit that I miss the Chicago marathoners on the weekday workouts. Most of my main peeps are in that group, and it's just different without them on Tuesday/Thursday. I'll catch up with them on Saturday after the long run.

Zilker 900's [entered 8/5/05]

After the nice long vacation in Asheville, NC, I returned to GazellesWorld this morning for the 900m repeats at Zilker Park. Fun little warmup run over to Zilker was with Amy and the usual gang, and after drills, we were ready to go. My group for the 900's was Kim, David, and Amy. Kim would typically go ahead of us during the repeat, but the group stayed the same for the whole workout. David raced a 25k trail race on Sunday, so he stopped after 4 repeats, but he did great considering the fatigue that must still be hanging around in his legs.

We alternated directions, as usual, and tried to keep Gilbert's "80%" admonition in mind. We ended up really consistent, with times of 4:04, 4:06, 4:04, 3:59 (oops), and 4:05. Overall pace was 7:16/mile, which was perfectly okay. The return run to RunTex was fun, and the speedy day was over. Total mileage 6.5 miles.

I was a little nervous about getting back into speedwork, but this felt like I had never stopped speedy stuff. That was a comfort. I'll be glad when the kids get back into school so that I can get into my full routine, but for now, I'll continue to ease back into the weekly schedule, aiming for a full mileage return by late August.

I did see Frank afterwards, which was nice. They're on a totally different schedule now, with long recovery runs on Tuesday/Thursday, so that they can concentrate on the pace run on Monday and a single speedwork session on Wednesdays. I know they're a little tired, but the new schedule might turn out to be something really cool.