I headed out feeling fresh this morning. I didn’t want to work too hard today, but I did want to build my confidence for the race. I decided to push myself in the middle third of my tempo run. My goal was to average less than 7 minutes per mile over that middle 10 minutes. I focused on shortening my stride and relaxing. Things went pretty well. I just barely came in under 7:00 minutes per mile for that 10 minutes. I would have been a little better, but I took a really sharp turn and instantly got a pretty big stitch, so I stopped for about 10 seconds or so trying to get rid of it and then stumbled through the last 30 seconds of that segment.

Actual workout

8 minutes warmup

10 minutes at 9:20 pace

10 minutes at 6:59 pace

10 minutes at 9:32 pace

I woke up this morning with a pain in my left knee. It was kind of scary because it was more or less the same pain I felt during the marathon in January. I went back and forth in my head about whether it was better to run on it today, or simply shut things down and rest until the race on Saturday. Before the marathon, I rested and had not run for a week before the marathon. It did no good and perhaps made things worse. Based on that and the fact that the pain was really quite mild (more of a pressure then a pain), I decided to run.

Once I got warmed up and running, the pain was gone completely. I ran the my 6 200 m intervals with little effort. Later in the day, I felt the pressure again, but no pain. Tomorrow’s 30 minute tempo run is my last scheduled workout before the race, so I should be okay.

Actual workout

5 minutes walking

5 minutes at 10:00 pace

6 200 m intervals at 5:00 pace with walking recovery

5 minutes cool down

I hit the treadmill for 2 miles today in the first day of a week full of easy workouts. The goal was 2 easy miles, but I couldn’t help but crank up the speed in the last quarter mile. All in all, things went quite well.

Actual workout

5 minutes warmup

2 miles at 8:20 pace

5 minutes cool down

Today, I ran the track of the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The race wasn’t actually being run at the time I was there, but I could hear pre-race interviews on the loudspeaker as I approached the track. I ran right up to turn 9, but there were no cameras rolling, so I will not be appearing on Sportscenter tonight. I ended up watching the race on ESPN as I rested in bed this afternoon. I’m not a huge motor sports fan, but it was a pretty good race. It rained during the first few laps, so there was quite a bit of strategy that went into the selection of tires throughout the race. It was a little freaky to see these cars flying along my normal running route, covering a distance that takes me 16 minutes to run in a mere 1 minute, 16 seconds.

As for my run, it went pretty well. It was slow and steady at right around 10:00 minutes per mile. My legs are a little sore, but it’s comforting to know that I only need to run 2 miles tomorrow and I’ll be tapering down to my race on Saturday. I’m a little nervous about it right now. I think I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself to break 20 minutes. I need to relax a little.

Actual workout

1 mile warmup

90 minutes (9.06 miles) at 9:56 pace

1 mile cool down

The Indy racing league Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is happening this weekend downtown. I live three miles from the street course and I can still hear the constant whine of engines from my house. I decided to take my 6 mile run on my usual waterfront downtown course just to check things out. I turned around about a half mile from the course, but it sure was loud. Tomorrow, I’ll get closer on my long run. The run today went better than last week. I started out slower and went 4 miles without walk, then I took a 40 second walk break, followed by another 40 second walk break after 5 miles. Overall, my average pace was a little faster this week and I once again finished strong.

Actual workout

1 mile warmup

6 miles at 8:50 pace

1 mile cool down

I went to the official website of the race I’ve been training for over the last 8 weeks and found out that it’s not really when I thought it was. I thought I’d be running it next week, but it’s not happening until May 17th. On top of that, I can’t even run it on May 17th because I’m meeting my brother and his family at Disney World. Fortunately, I hit active.com and found another race in downtown St. Petersburg on April 12, so my training is still valid for the right date and the course of this race follows part of the route of my usual Sunday long runs. I don’t know why I didn’t just plan on racing this one in the first place. I registered right away.

Today’s run was a 45 minute tempo run. I held back in the beginning and managed to have a better feeling run this week compared to last week. I took only one walk break for about 45 seconds today. My pace doing the middle part was higher this week, but my overall pace was slightly slower. It felt good, though.

Actual workout

8 minutes warmup

15 minutes (1.61 miles) at 9:21 pace

15 minutes (1.90 miles) at 7:53 pace

15 minutes (1.62 miles) at 9:16 pace

8 minutes cool down

I hit the bike today for 20 minutes. I got 7.67 miles, which was pretty good. I was happy with that. After that, I hit the weights hard. It was a good strength training workout. It’ll be my last before my race next Saturday.

Actual workout

20 minutes (8.67 miles) cycling

Full body strength training

Last night, I wasn’t sure I could pull off one 400 m interval at 5:30 pace, but I got a good night’s sleep and “boarded” the treadmill will some amount of determination this morning. I finished all 8 intervals and they actually got a little easier as I went along. I think I started to relax a little toward the end.

Actual workout

5 minutes walking

5 minutes at 10:00 pace

8 400 m intervals at 5:27 pace with walking recovery

5 minutes cool down