Runs across the land

In the last week, after a Passover break from running, I managed to run my best mile ever during intervals on Monday, April 1, struggle with the uphill half of a run in Palm Desert on Wednesday, and have a great meet my goal 6 miler today upon returning home. Here are the runs, and their goals...​

Monday - Intervals with 1/4 mile breathers in between: 1 mile at 7:06, did it in 6:39!; 3/4 mile at 5:13, came pretty close; 1/2 mile in 3:25, I petered out here on the hill; and 1/4 mile in 1:40, which I also managed pretty well. Run map and splits here.​

Wednesday - Tempo Run in Palm Desert - Warm up mile, 1 mile at 7:38, easy mile, 1 mile at 7:38, easy mile, 1 mile at 7:38, cool down mile. 7:23 and 7:30 on those first miles which were downhill and relatively flat, respectively. I died on the last mile, going back uphill, ending up at 8:53. Run map and splits here.

​Today, Sunday - "long" run - 6 miles averaging 8:08/mile. Felt mostly good, and carried a good average all the way through, including on the hills. Ended with an 8:05/mile average, and I am happy with that! Run map and splits here. This run includes the Galloway recommended 30 seconds walking per mile as well, with the exception of the last break after mile 6 which I just ran through.

Long run and intervals

Since I last posted I swam a little, did Torah yoga, ran 14 miles in the snow, and managed to do intervals this morning at a pretty fast clip.

Intervals today - 2 mile warm-up, then 3 mile intervals, with 400m slow between them, then a little more than a mile cool down. My mile splits were, around: 7:04, 7:40, 7:50. The first was good, the last two less so :-) Here are all the details.

14 mile run on Saturday, aiming for 8:20 average minute/mile pace, and come close for a while. Started out cold, and then got snowy, which was fun. Ended up with two runs on the Nike app since in the wet I encountered some of my own human error - all told a good run considering the conditions. Here are the links to the incomplete records:
First 9+ miles
Last 4+ miles

More to come this week - a little calf soreness after today's run - I hope it will improve by Wednesday's scheduled tempo run.

A tempo run at up tempo

Got out in the damp today and ran pretty fast. A tempo run:
- 1 mile easy
- 5 miles fast - I managed to get my average for these under 8 minutes per mile
- 1 mile easy
Still walking 30 seconds after every mile and that is factored into the pace.
Here are details and splits.
Now two days off - hopefully with a massage, a swim, and some yoga, and then 14 miles on Saturday.

An off week and a fast run

Too much to do, and too little time to run!

Back in the swing of things, sort of though.

Here's what I've managed to do in the last week:

Wednesday (1/23/13) - Some tempo running - 1 mile easy, 2 miles faster (aiming for around 8:10 per mile), 1 mile easy, 2 miles faster, 1 mile easy. Slowed down a lot on the uphill miles - details and splits.

Thursday (1/24/13) - Swim - 25 minutes without stopping = 36 lengths = 900 yards.

Friday (1/25/13) - Torah Yoga - I highly recommend it!

Yesterday (1/27/13) - ran 8 miles, and faster! I managed to average 8:14/mile, including 30 seconds of walking at the end of every mile, and only dropped below that average for the big uphill during the seventh mile. Making progress! Here are the details and splits.

Still running and swimming - a week's worth

So, since I last posted I managed to get out a lot - here's what I logged:

Long run on Saturday - 10+ miles - aimed for an average under 8:20 per mile, and I believe I did that easily, except that my mobile app has been on the fritz - here's the raw version, warts and all - run details.

Interval training on Monday - this was 6 half miles, with 90 seconds break in between them, plus 2 mile warm up and 1 mile cool down. Again, blips with the app mean that my last splits stunk AND I was struggling, although I think over all it was OK, if not my best run. Run details.

Tempo run on Wednesday - felt great on this run, doing 1 mile easy, and 5 miles aiming at 8:10 or better, and then 1 mile easy. Again, my mobile tracking quit, this time at mile 3, so while I think I did pretty well, there's no proof :-). Run details.

Also managed to swim yesterday!

Long tempo getting faster

Today's assignment - a 6 mile tempo run with a mile warm-up and cool down.
My goal - miles 2-7 of the 8 at 8:30 per mile or faster.
I averaged better than 8:25 on those miles, and only dropped to 8:34 and 8:38 on miles 6 and 7, which are uphill too.
Feels good to run well - here are the details.

Last two runs

So, did a temp run today and slowed down in my second and third splits - I suppose that's what happens when I start going downhill and finish going uphill :-) Keeping my speed pretty good and still walking 30 seconds every mile, except for the last - I felt too good!
Here's the detailed workout.

Also got in my interval training run on Monday - 6 x 800's, with 90 seconds walking between them. I was pretty happy with this run too.
Details.

Next run, on Saturday, an easy paced 10 miles.

Dog Bites Rabbi

So, while on my temp run yesterday, more to come about that, I passed a dog owner and his two little Scotties that I see relatively frequently. One of his Scotties, off leash of course, decided to chase me, and took a chomp out of my calf - biting through my running pants and breaking the skin. Doctor says I should be OK :-)

Meanwhile, here's the link to the run.

Goal was 1 warm up mile, 5 miles at an average of 8:30/mile, and 1 cool down mile. Even with the dog bite near the end of mile 2, I did pretty well on the goal. Made it through the uphill mile in 8:41 and was pretty kicked for the final tempo mile. Still walking 30 seconds at the end of each mile and still keeping this pace, so all in all, I feel I am making progress and feeling good.

Chappy Chanukah!

Run after Yom Kippur too

I managed to get out yesterday and do pretty well:

- Mile 1 - warm-up - 9:27
- Mile 2 - fast - 7:54
- Mile 3 - fast - 8:01
- Mile 4 - slower - 8:27 - I have to work on this hill, and this drop off in energy
- Mile 5 - fast - 7:57
- 5.0-5.3 - still fast - 2:33 (7:16 avg.)

Full details and map, here.

Still a long way to go. I am prepping myself for the formal training program for the Boston. More on that soon.