Monday, December 19, 2011

Stacking Hay

It is mileage-building time. Putting that hay in the barn for later use. Had another good week with nearly 38 miles.
Tuesday was my Oops run, where I couldn't help dropping the hammer, and ran the last 3 of my 7 miler at 7:30 pace, with one mile at 7:07. Not a scheduled speed day either.

Wednesday I hit the gym where I am seeing steady improvement on my circuit training routine.

Thursday I got to meet up with loopster JCRunner. His post with pics is here. We met up at 6AM in the dark to do 5.5 easy miles (close to 9 minute pace) in a beautiful section of Palos Verdes. It got light as we ran, and I showed him some cliffside trails and lots of nice homes and ocean views. I was happy to discover that JC is his actual initials, and I wouldn't have to hear about Jesus for an hour. Not that there's anything wrong with that. So it was great to meet another loopster, as always.

Friday I wanted to do 8, but life got in the way, so I rescheduled for Saturday. So I knocked out 8.3 Saturday and tried to restrain myself because I was shooting for 16.5 on Sunday. But I was feeling good and wearing the Kinvaras and ended up averaging 8:14 with the last 3 sub-8.

Sunday I decided to head back up to PV, except instead of driving the 6 miles to the top of the hill, I would run it, then do the same run I did with JC, and then head back. Longest run since March, plus lots of hills. On tired legs. I had just washed the mud off my shoes and they were still soaking wet, so add wet, heavy clunky trainers on top of that. And I would need to carry water so add a couple water bottles too. OK! Ready to stack some hay!

First three were flat to the bottom of the hill: 9:03, 8:47, 8:34

Next three were up the hill: 9:46, 9:10, 9:07

My legs were feeling tired. The hills were a little harder than usual. But I was plugging along.

Next 5 were rolling hills: 8:25, 8:46, 8:34, 8:36, 8:56

At some point I decided instead of 16.5 I might as well do 17. So I ran the Garmin to 8.5 and turned around. I'm all in now. Quickest way home is to run.

Next 3 were downhill: 8:47, 8:29, 8:03

Now there were 3 flat miles left. I was tired, but felt OK so I decided to see if I could run marathon pace (7:55) the rest of the way. I managed to do 1 mile at 7:59, but it felt like an interval. A little too much effort required. So I backed off and cruised it in: 8:48, 8:49

Total run averaged 8:45 for 17 miles. Exhausted, but not completely wiped out. So I'm encouraged, and ahead of schedule.

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