I took a couple of days off of running on Monday and Tuesday this week. I just felt like I was over doing the running. I was horribly tired on Sunday. I know I had just run a very strong race and Sunday is also my busiest day of the week, but that is when I always run races and the busyness never gets any easier. I was just run down.

I did not even get out of bed on Monday to call my running partner and tell him I was not going to be able to make it. I left instructions for my wife to call him as I planned to sleep in. I rested Monday and had no desire at all to run.

Tuesday I thought about doing a very easy run, but just did not feel motivated.

Today, Wednesday, I met my running partner and he started into his regular diatribe about how he feels like he is not improving. He took a few weeks off while I was away on my trip to the US and he thinks that now he is not doing as well as he was before. (We have this conversation just about every time we run). I try to convince him we are running 20 to 30 seconds per mile faster now than we were before. He refuses to believe that running slower will also mean he can run further and longer. Because Ryan Hall runs marathons at 4:45-5:00 per mile, my running friend feels like he is being lazy if he does not do 6:00 per mile himself. As much as I try to convince him that he is not going to be able to compete with Ryan Hall when he has only been running less than 6 months, he just does not hear it.

But, miracle of miracles, he decided to keep a slower pace and run with me today instead of ahead of me. We ran at a 9:18 pace instead of the 8:40 he wants to run. When we had been going at it for 29 minutes he asked me how far we had run. I told him the time and that I thought we had run about 3.2 miles. He was surprised that we had run that long and far. It is one of the longest runs we have done in the last several weeks. And we weren’t even worn out. Surprise! Running a bit slower really is helpful.

Did he learn anything? I don’t think so. He will take this experience today and probably feel guilty that we ran so slow. I say this because he then pushed the pace up to a normal speed for the next 7 minutes to finish the run.

Why don’t I just let him run at his pace and I run mine? Often I do. We start together and by the time we are done I am many blocks behind him.

We are going to run a race together in 2 weeks. It will be his first race. I am going to go for an 8:00 pace and try to kill him at the end.

Thursday is normally my long run day or speed work day. I run alone on that day. But tomorrow will be another day off for me. I still need a bit of a break.

Tags: partner,rest,Running,ryan hall
Categories: Running
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I had a rough run this morning. It could have something to do with one or all of the following reasons. I thought I would put this out here and see if anyone has any suggestions.

I ran 4 days in a row last week. To finish off the running frenzy I ran a race on Saturday. I also recorded my longest single week of running since I started running just over 2 years ago with 32.2 miles. Normally I run 18 to 22 miles in a week.

It could also have to do with the fact that I have been doing some great running lately. Anything less than a great run seems tough when you are coming off of a running high like I have had.

However, I think the biggest possible culprit might have to do with what I ate last night. Normally we have supper, if we eat much at all, by 5 or 6 in the evening. After church another family invited us to eat dinner with them at the mall food court. This meant that we had a choice of many different restaurants. I decided what I wanted and headed over to the taco joint to grab some tacos. The rest of the group decided on pizza.

I sat down and ate my 3 tacos and 1 gringa and was happily satisfied. Then the pizza arrived. A piece here and there and before I realized it, I had eaten 3 pieces. Enough for another meal. This all taking place around 9:00, 3 hours after we normally eat supper.

Our daughter needed something to eat, so we decided on a bag of fries. There was a hamburger place near where we sat. My wife ordered a small fry from them. It was enough to feed everyone at the table. I helped myself to more than my share.

I had at least 3 meals last night.

Is it any wonder why my run seemed almost impossible this morning?

Tags: over eating,Running
Categories: Running
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Last night I started thinking that I was feeling great and could do a good run this morning. There was no race scheduled, but I really felt like I could probably set a 5K PR. My previous PR was 26:09. I was disappointed as to how that race ended and I needed to redeem myself.

This morning I got up still feeling like today could be my day. I did not run yesterday because of an incident on Friday that scared me a bit silly. I will share that later.

I went out for a short warm up run this morning of about 5:00. That is not really long enough, but I felt ready. I stretched a bit and psyched myself up to go.

The goal was to run 5:06 for each Km, which is what my goal a few weeks ago at the race was. This time though I was determined to not fade in the end. This would give me a finishing time of 25:30. Quite a big leap from my previous PR.

5:03
The first Km went without too much incident. I did have to pause briefly for a car to pass. I was thinking that that is one thing you don’t have to deal with in a race since traffic is stopped for you. I was afraid that if I got too many cars at intersections they could put my PR run in jeopardy. Fortunately there is not too much traffic at 8:00 on a Sunday morning.

4:51
While it is good to see you ran a Km 15 seconds faster than your planned pace, it is not good to see it so early on. I was afraid that I would be in trouble at the end. I had one other intersection/car to deal with in this Km.

4:55
Though it was fast, it was nice to be feeling so well while being over half way to my goal. I had not thought about how many seconds I was ahead of schedule. I did not want to use the extra time to allow myself to slow down in the end. But, I also knew that even if I was not feeling well at the end, I had a little extra time in the bank.

4:51
I had decided before the 4th Km mark that if I was under 5 minutes for that Km, then I would take a very short walk break. I had not decided on how long until I saw my time. I allowed myself a 10 second walk break with plans to keep the final Km strong.

4:59
Even with the walk break I did not fall off my pace. In fact, with all the splits under my goal, I felt really good.

24:39
What a great time! I was 1:30 faster than my previous PR and 51 seconds faster than my goal.

As much as I hate to admit it, I know that this faster time is due to running with my friend Jeff. He has not learned how to slow down. He has no sense of pace. When we run together I constantly have to reign him back. But, even at that, we are running about 1:20 faster per mile than I would normally run on my own. He has forced me to run faster–something that I was not doing by myself. I have helped him slow down and he has helped me speed up.

This was a great run and it feels good to get that monkey off my back. I have had a few races where I totally missed my goal. That last race really bothered me to know I faded at the end. Mostly it bothered me because I did not feel like I was fading. I thought I was doing well. I lost my sense of pace that day. But not today!

Today I conquered!

Tags: 5K,PR,Running
Categories: Running
2 Comments »

1000 kilometers run in 2007!

I told a friend of mine this and he told me I have no need for a car anymore. I think I will keep the car though.

This was not my goal at the beginning of the year. I missed all of my goals that I set from the beginning. But, I did move forward in every aspect, just not as much as I had hoped. I think I was just a bit too ambitious. Now having another year behind me, I think I am ready to make a stab at a much bigger goal.

I signed up with a training/support group that has a 1000 mile goal for 2008.

I am not going to set any specific PR goals for races this year other than to say I have as a goal to PR in all distances that I run. I am really feeling great right now with some faster times on shorter distances.

Another goal I have for the year is a reading goal. I have a friend that said he has a goal of reading 800 pages a month for 2008. I don’t know how many pages a month I currently read, but I am going to take up his goal as my own and give it a real shot. I do know that some months I read that much, while other months I don’t. It may be a bit of a challenge to keep it up all year.

Does anyone track the number of pages you read? How do you do it? Paper log? Online log? I am leaning to something online just because I like the idea of sharing it with others, but I have not found anything I like. I guess I will just try to do an occasional post here with how I am doing towards my goal.

Tags: Books,goals,reading,Running
Categories: Books, Running
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I trotted another 6 miles closer to my yearly goal today. Just 12.5 miles to go. Barring any bizarre injury over the next few days, I should be able to make it.

Today’s run was 1.6 miles to my friend’s house (then 1.6 on the way back). My friend’s brother is visiting from the Marine Corps. The brother joined us on our run this morning. Together we ran 2.91 miles at an 8:25 pace. That is very fast for me. We had three helpings of testosterone going this morning. None of us wanted to slow down for the other. That is one second faster than my fastest 5K PR pace.

My times have been consistently dropping over the last month or so. An easy run used to be 10:30 to 11:00 per mile. Now normal runs are sub 9:30. I am pleased to see the pace drop.

My friend wants to hit a pace of 8:00 per mile. As much as I would like to do that too, I was thinking it would take us a while to get there. Maybe I was wrong.

The biggest concern I have is that my friend is a new runner. New runner + Fast pace = Injuries. I feel like he may be pushing a bit too hard just to reach a goal. I am trying to reign him back so that he does not hurt himself. On the other hand, his innocence is really causing me to think that I have been holding myself back too much.

Tags: marines,pace,Running
Categories: Running
2 Comments »