After yesterday’s surprise long run, I really wanted to see how I felt this morning.
Not too bad, not too bad at all.
Legs felt tired, but nothing was overly sore or at least no worse than before I did the long run. Which in my opinion is a win, win.
The above video is Bennie pulling on me trying to get me to run some more, after we had finished up the run, but this is what he does when we first start out on most runs, I though you might get a chuckle out of it.
Run #1
The first run was with Bennie, he was ready and raring to go this morning. He was pulling me harder than usual and had that 4 paw drive just a churnin.
Going down the hill we ran into 2 women riding bikes up Stevens Hill. Now I don’t mind sharing the road with bicycles, but at the same time it is nice when they return the courtesy – you share the road with me. When they are riding on a double track dirt road, they do not need both tracks and can move to riding single file for the short time it takes me to go past.
I really didn’t feel like getting into the rocks/ditch at that faster pace we going, so I just kept running straight down my track. Finally, the one in my track got the idea I wasn’t going to just yield to her and moved over behind her friend in the other track.
As I went by, I politely said “Thank you” (yes, it was polite as I could do running downhill and trying to keep a dog from going to play with their bikes) — boy did I get the death glare as we bombed past – Oh well. I took the high road and just kept running.
Then we had to move over a few times for cars up on the Blake Road, so that slowed us down a little. Overall, a nice run.
Run #2
I wanted to do a different run and didn’t feel like beating myself up on the hills around the house, so I went into Augusta and ran on the Rail Trail = mostly flat. I planned to go comfortably hard, keeping around an 8:00 minute pace for 3-4 miles. Once I got going, I decided on just doing the 3 miles and calling it good. My legs were tired and the left hamstring was barking a little, but not nearly as bad as before.
I did what I set out to do – keep my pace under 8:00’s for the 3.0 miles. I didn’t really push that hard, but enough that I had to stay focused to keep up the pace. It felt good to be able to hold a faster pace (for me) on a training run and not feel like I was going to fall apart at any moment.
Also I really do not believe that my pace fluctuated nearly as much as my TomTom GPS watch made it look on the above graph. I mean come on almost a 2:30 minute pace difference in some spots. I think I would have noticed that much variation and know that I can hold a steadier pace than that, especially when there were not very many people on the rail trail today. I think that there are some issues with smoothing of the data points.
I went ahead and uploaded the .tcx file to Running Ahead and reset the data point reading rate from 10 to 100 and got a much more consistent pacing pattern, which is more useful to me.
This shows a lot more consistent pace and lets me know that I started to slow down a little too much right after the turn-around, which is always an issue, once I slow for the turn-around, I lose focus and slow down and have to work for a ways to get it back. Once I did regain my focus, I was able to pick the pace back up pretty good.
Also I ran in my Mebs today and tried them again without socks. No problems with blistering or hot spots today at all, even though I was sweating pretty good. They felt comfortable and didn’t get in the way while I was running. I really liked the way that they felt this afternoon and when I wear them from now on, I plan to go sockless and put a little Vaseline or Body Glide on my feet to make sure that there are not any problems.
Run #3
Yeah a third run, WTF are you doing, this was one of those last-minute decisions to create a couple of private segments in Strava. It was not very far and definitely not too fast.
The Rise ‘N Shine 5K is run on this course in September, so I ran up the hill to where the finish line is and then back. Going up that hill during the race after the Rail Trail always intimidates me. The hill is in the last quarter-mile of the race and while it isn’t really all that bad, I have bailed on pushing too hard during the race, because I want something in the tank to tackle the hill at the end.
This year I want to blast up that hill at the end, instead of fearing or worrying about it.
Don’t pay any attention to the blue line, I was just going slow up the hill. Like I said it is not that bad of a hill, it is just where it is in the race that is a pain in the butt. It is .31 according to my TomTom from the Trail Head to the Finish Line. Maybe I can just do my speed work and quarters there 😉 . Naw, I have to get back on the track too.
It means that every time I run the Augusta side of the Rail Trail from now until race day that I have to finish at the Rise ‘N Shine finish line and then jog back down to my truck. Just one way to get used to the hill and I imaging that I will be doing more than a couple of hill repeat workouts up that easy hill, so I will be used to running fast up it even when I am tired. 🙂
I just want to be ready for that 5K this year.
Overall, it was a gorgeous day and I had fun running a little faster than usual, but the pace was not at what I consider my 5K race pace – that will come, if I can stay healthy.
Yes, that is the plan – to stay healthy!
Harold Being Harold 
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