I woke up at around 7:45 today and rolled over. My wife looked at me and asked “Are you running today?”.

“Yeah”, I replied, “I should probably go now”.

“Whatever” she said sleepily.

“Before it gets too hot,” I clarified.

I finally convinced myself to get out of bed at around 8:15 and I was out the door at about 8:45. It was indeed hot and humid, so I just slowly pushed my way through the run. It was long and slow, but I guess that was really the point of this workout so it’s all good. I took my two planned walk/water breaks, and made it the full 9 miles, but it wasn’t very pleasant.

Actual workout

1 mile warmup

9 miles at 9:49 pace

1 mile cool down

Last week;s 6 mile run was fantastic but this week was even better. I was basically trying to match last week’s effort, so I went out with the aim of completing the first mile in about 9 minutes. I did so in 9:06. After that, I just relaxed and pushed out whatever pace felt right. In the end, I took nearly a minute off of last week’s 6 miles. Very cool.

Actual workout

1 mile warmup

6 miles at 8:39 pace

1 mile cool down

I headed out today with the intent on doing a fairly fast fartlek. I tried to relax during the first mile and pulled it off at around 8:30. Then, I accelerated for my first fartlek (shorter than last week’s but just as fast). This set a good tone and I felt like I was exerting myself, but always recovered enough to give another short acceleration a go. I completed five miles in 41:15. I could have hit 41 flat, but for some heavy traffic at my final street crossing.

Actual workout

8 minutes warmup

5 miles at 8:15 pace

10 minutes cool down

I”m late posting this, so I’m keeping it short and sweet. I did 20 minutes on the stationary bike at 23.1 MPH, and then a very nice full body workout. I even knocked out 2 sets of the decline press at 200 lbs….fairly nice considering I only weigh 140 lbs.

Since I’ve started with speed intervals in my training, I’ve felt a little wussy about the walking recovery in between intervals. Sure, my speed intervals have been tiring, but something just wasn’t sitting right. So, I set out today to jog the recovery periods. I started out with the goal of running 6 400 m intervals at 6:00/mile pace with jogging recovery at 10:00/mile pace. I pulled this off for the first 3 intervals, then switched to 200 m intervals at 6:00/mile pace with the 200 m recovery jogs at 10:00/mile pace. I got 4 of these intervals in, then took a 400 m recovery jog and finished with a 200 m speed interval. So, 3 400’s and 5 200’s with jogging recoveries for a total of 3 miles at an average pace of 8:08/mile. Not too bad, though my wife told me I looked like I was going to fall over afterwards.

Actual workout

5 minutes warmup

3 400 m speed intervals at 6:00/ mile with 10:00/mile recovery

4 200 m speed intervals at 6:00/mile with 10:00/mile recovery

1 400 m jogging recovery at 10:00/mile

1 200 m speed interval at 6:00/mile

So, if you’ve ever worked hard in the garden all weekend, then tried to drink off the soreness with rum and bourbon, then perhaps you’ve experience a run like I had today. Something that is normally a very easy run for me turned into a struggle. I made it, though. I was seriously sweaty at the end and I felt like I was grasping at the air with my arms in an attempt to pull myself somehow to the finish. I completed the workout with some core exercises. Not great, but not horrible either.

Actual workout

5 minutes warmup

3 miles at 8:19 pace

5 minutes cool down

I got out of bed a little earlier than usual and headed out the door for a 6 miler. I planned out a new route for today’s run since my normal route is part of the St. Anthony’s Triathlon this weekend and is thus inaccessible without an official number.

Anyway, the route was mostly through various waterfront neighborhoods. Nothing incredibly interesting (the view of the water was most blocked by houses save the occasional bridge), so I just relaxed and enjoyed the sound of the birds and the fresh air. I ran along at a pretty steady pace and didn’t stop running except for traffic once or twice.

Actual workout

1 mile warmup

6 miles at 8:47 pace

1 mile cool down

I set out today with the intent of doing 5 miles and doing some of it fast. So, I set out, running the first mile in 8:30 or so, then I took off on the first (and as it turns out) only planned fartlek of the run. I ran about 400 m at between 6:00 and 6:15 minute mile pace. Then, I continued on, speeding up every once in a while for some shorter distances of about 50-100m. I fought off the stitches pretty well today and didn’t take a walk break. I did get a pretty serious stitch at about 4.5 miles, but with only half a mile to go, I just gutted it out. I’m pretty happy with the effort today.

Actual workout

8 minutes warmup

5 miles at 8:23 pace

10 minutes cool down

Today, I hit the bike for a solid 20 minutes and then went down to the weights and put in about an hour of strength training. It’s been a while since I’ve done that, so I”ll probably be pretty sore in the morning. I focused a little more on my core, adding in side planks and working with the medicine ball doing some incline sit ups.

Actual workout

20 minutes (7.57 miles) stationary bike

Full body strength training

I headed out for a 4 mile run with the idea to run it at about the pace I’ve been using for my 3 mile easy runs and also to work on my breathing. I went out just slightly faster than usual, finishing the first mile in 8:40. Then, I ramped it up and felt pretty good. Unfortunately, I stitched up at about 2.5 miles. I really worked hard to try to get rid of it, but ended up waling for about a minute. After that, I finished pretty strong. Despite the walk break, I still averaged 8:21 minutes per mile over the whole run. I think I worked the stitch thing out in the end, so we’ll see how it goes for future runs.

Actual workout

8 minutes warmup

4 miles at 8:21 pace

8 minutes cool down