sixty-ninth and seventieth (Long Run #2)

4 miles in 32:00

14 miles in 1:48:00


Same path for the long run, meaning packed dirt, flat. Out 5miles, back 5miles, then ate 1/4 of a PB and J sandwich and drank some water which my wife had waiting for me. Then out 2 miles and back 2 miles for the 14 total. Not bad at all. For some reason, on this path, even with the mile markers marking most of the way, the time goes by pretty quickly. Just cruising along and all of a sudden 10 miles go by. During the week, a 4 mile run just drags on, but I don't know. I always attribute it to the fact that when starting out a long run, I never even think of the finish, cause it's so far away, and that probably makes the time go by. Who knows.

The only hiccup was a group of 6 or so on horseback. Trying not to spook them, I slowed way down to pass, which took a while, considering they were 6, single file, and kinda spread out.
I did this at about the 7 miles total mark, and then on the way back out (About mile 11.5) they were in a group, blocking the whole path, so I jumped down a ways into the dry creek bed alongside the path, and then climbed back out.
Saw them again on the way back for the last time (Needless to say, they were moving really slow).

My family had horses growing up. I remember taking care of them, cleaning stalls, tossing hay over the fences to them, riding occasionally, breaking the 10inch thick ice in their water buckets in the winter...

Fine animals.
The only thing was that we lived out in more open space. 5 acres. That's the place for horses. Not on a path just outside of downtown Denver, getting in the way of my Friday morning long run.

I made it though. That's always positive.
4 miles tomorrow to make it 35 for the week.

sixty-third

8 miles. 1:04:00

Got the run in before the storm. There were tornadoes the past couple days, so it was good to get the run in right after work, during the warm afternoon, not the cool rainy/lightning afternoon.

back to back long-ish runs. I feel pretty good though. Kind of a good substitute for a long run on these non-long run weeks. I'll run another 7 or 8 tomorrow, so I'll really know what kind of shape I'm in after back to back to back days.

If you haven't checked out the 2009 Prefontaine Classic results and the 3rd fastest American women's 1500m run ever (a 22 year old CU student. No surprise.) you should here

forty-first (Longer run)

10 miles. 1:13:00

After talking about my goal workout pattern, I decided to get in a long run today, since I took sunday off.

During the mid run thinking, I wondered how and for what reason I could fit in "Boston" paced mid to longer runs. Meaning, perhaps it would be fun/good to fit in a run every other week or so where I run at Boston qualifying pace. For a 3:10:59 marathon, that's around 7:17/mile

It's a good gut-check kind of run, cause while I normally run my longer runs at a much slower pace, I thought I could hold this pace for a while. Long (run) story short, I was pretty tired after today's run. That could be because of the heat and sun. It's probably because I'm not in good shape to run that pace for 10 miles without a fair amount of discomfort.

I'll have to think more about adding these runs in. I'll probably keep them in the middle length range, if I do. 7-11 miles.

In the distant future, I know I will want to incorporate this pace as part of longer runs of 7-20 miles. Doing the first half of a long run (for example) at easy pace, and then picking it up for the second half in order to average Boston Qual pace. 

I don't know. I don't know.

It's always fun to have time to think while running. In the middle of the day, I might not be patient enough to do long division in my head. I'll just find a calculator.

But during a long run...there is no place to go, so I might as well take 10, 5, 20 min or more and plan all sorts of elaborate pacing/training ideas.

thirty-ninth

8 miles. 1:02:30

dirt trails, rolling hills, a couple good size hills. some concrete. some asphalt.

A little of everything.

Not exactly a long run, but since I am getting a couple of weeks in where I am running 6 days/week, it is long enough. 2 weeks from now, I will definitely get an 11+ miler in, and then start my training with 12 miles and longer for my "long" runs.

Building up slowly is a great feeling. I know it will pay off. It already felt like it today, because I felt strong through the entire run. Like I could go longer, no problem. That's where I want to be. And then just keep adding to that. Nothing super complicated