8 miles

out, around Lake A, and back. Lower left leg started out good, but hurt like hell the last mile or so. Good weather (71/62) equals good time (1:24:58) -- my fastest by 1 second.

wc 7-1

9 miles on a treadmill

9.1 miles on the hotel treadmill in 1:30. Average hr 137. My right calf thingy was very sore.

wc 7-2

annapolis 10-miler

Max was 199, averaged 183. I ran a great race and PR'd -- 1:18:33. Even better considering this was a much hillier race and it was 77/69 at the start (felt cooler though). I got out faster than cherry blossom thanks to my HRM and knowing what I should average (182 for CB). I also started to push it this time before mile 7 (~6.5?). At 6 miles I was at 48:27 (8:04 min/mi). Then ran 7:49, 7:35, and the last two miles in 14:40 (7:20 min/mi)! Here's a comparison of annapolis (blue) and cherry blossom (red).
today's shoes wc 7-1
week: 52 miles
wc 7-1 = 249 +29 = 278
wc 7-2 = 128 + 23 = 151

8 miles -- "pain free" is painful so far

"pain free" is painful so far

I don't know why I haven't written this down so far, but here goes. After hearing about it on a mailing list I bought "Pain Free" by Egoscue and I started doing the exercises for the feet. I can't remember whether I started Sunday or Monday. Anway, as I wrote earlier in the week, my lower left calf was really sore. I attributed it to the 20 miles on Sunday and 10 miles on Monday. Later in the week I figured out my muscles were sore from doing the foot circle E-cise (the soreness is like from lifting weights). I did them through Wednesday, but then it felt like I was going to hurt myself running on my sore muscles. I stopped doing them (temporarily). Today, however, I was more sore than ever and I felt like I pulled the muscle just a little bit.

The fact my muscles were so weak that 30 foot circles could make me that sore tells me my muscles were weak (my right leg is fine). Maybe this is the source of my problem. I had noticed before doing these that I was starting to walk a little pigeon toed and had (occasionally) a kind of tearing sensation on the outer part of my foot. Maybe my weak muscles were keeping my from a proper heel-ball-toe motion? Instead of distributing my weight over the structurally sound arch, I was putting it on the flat part of my feet and straining my fascia? Sound reasonable. Anyway, today I hardly noticed the fasciitis (it's still there though) while running, but it might be because of the pain in my calf!

8 miles

Std out, around Lake A, and back. I didn't

It was much warmer today (I started later too) and my good times went out the window. It was 71/59 when I started and 76/63 when I finished. I just snuck under 1:30 at 1:29:50. Average was 140 too. Ugh. Forecast is for considerably hotter at the 10 mile race tomorrow (dew pt 69 at the start). I'm a little worried about hurting myself with the injury.

What's the plan? Well I'm going to run by heart rate again. During the 5 mile race I kept it around 189 after warming up and ended up at the 186 average I expected. I figure I'll run 3 beats above again. My 10 mile average was 182, so that would be 185. I used bits of the program I've been working on to find my median heart rate from the 10 miler. It was 185, so this looks like a reasonable strategy. I ended up with a big negative split (40:50, 38:35) last time because I was too conservative. I've got to be the only person who always goes out too slow. It's hard to help sometimes though because there are so many people. I *think* I want to see 180 at mile one and creep up to 185 by mile 3. This strategy is based on not being hurt though, so we'll just play it by ear.

wc7-2

8 miles

out, around Lake A, and back.

WC 7-2

8 miles

I think I beat my record time for this route. (I believe this run was my previous record for this route. ) The weather was very nice today and I caught some breaks at the lights, but this looks like my best effort. I took 1:30 off (1:24:59 versus 1:26:30) and it was 68/58 today versus 57/51 then according to weather underground. I guess I should expect to improve in two months, but I'll take what I can get.

Also weighed myself afterwards. The 2-3 pounds from the beach has disappeared. I weighed 165 which is my usual post-run weight during the week (sunday long runs I'll often be 164).

My legs are still quite sore. I've been hobbling around. Not sure how Sunday 10-miler is going to go.

WC 7-1

6 miles

Did the neighborhood loop for the first time in long time. It seems like the 8 mile lake route is the shortest I've been running lately. My legs were a bit shattered after the 20 on Sunday and 10 yesterday though. The very bottom of my left calf is very tight. Despite that I seemed faster for my heart rate. I was able to shuffle up the big hill without walking or setting the HRM off. At the 4.90 mile point I nearly made the elusive 10 min/mi (49:21) and my average hr was low at 135 bpm. Weather was good today at 65/55 so that's probably most of it. Looking back this is close to mytimes from May before it got hot. May 15 was 49:36/136. It was 56/55 that day. Have I made no improvement? I wouldn't be surprised. I believe I might be weight-limited at this point. Speed work = eating a salad.

I did the neighborhood loop twice and then turned back and ran to the intersection in front of the school to save a little time (not such a long walk home).

I thought I had recalibrated the foot pod, but it was still at 1.055 and my mileage was high. 6.46 versus 6.23 actual (5.86 + .37 back). 1.017 = 1.055 * 6.23/6.46. New cal factor is 1.017. This thing is all over the place.

wc7-2

10 miles -- ran to work

My legs were quite weary from yesterday's 20-miles. My car was still at work though, so running in seemed attractive. It started to get a little hard at 40 minutes. It seems like there's some residual effect. Yesterday, like normally on my long runs lately, the "harder" point was at 2:05. Maybe with back to back runs like this you get to the harder point earlier. Maybe back-to-back longish runs are better than long/short. I kept under 145 until near the top of the big hill. I wanted to get there because I though someone was waiting on me, so I let my heart rate get in the 150's for the last 10 minutes or so. Time was 1:49:00. 137 bpm average.

shoes wc 7-1

20 miles

Back home from vacation, I did my usual long run around Lake B. I wore the foot pod to try and calibrate it and check against my runs at the beach. It's usually very consistent. If it's off, it's off by the same amount but today it varied from lap to lap: 4.63, 4.69, 4.72, 4.74. Actual lap distance is 4.60 miles. I tacked on some after (out and back to far side of the dam) to get over 20. The foot pod read 20.73. The four laps read 18.78 when it should have been 18.4, so 20.73*(18.4/18.78) = 20.31, which I'll use. I guess I'll adjust the calibration factor, but since it was all over the pace, it's not clear what to use. Go with the average I suppose. It was 1.055 today, so I'll change to 1.055*(18.4/18.78) = 1.034. It doesn' really matter though, since I'm at home now and probably won't even use it.

I'm not sure what to do with the beach runs. I've gmap-pedometer'd the airport loops and got 4.33 miles. All my two loop runs were close to the actual 8.66 (8.68-8.71), so it looks like the cal factor was fine then? I got 4.47 however for the loop at then end of my long run. Maybe because it was 9:25 pace?

Today wasn't a great run, but it was probably the easiest 20 I've ever done. I started off very slow and had to step it up a little bit to get to 4 laps under 3:20, which has somehow become my standard (50 mins/lap). The lap splits were 51:39, 1:42:23, 2:31:38, 3:19:12. We'll call it a progression run :-)

Shoes: WC7-2.

60.6 miles this week.
Shoes
wc7-1 249 miles
wc7-2 128 miles

8.7 miles

2 more aiport loops. again leaden. Kind of glad this is the last of these on concrete.

wc7-2

8.7 miles

airport loops. again leaden legs for first couple of miles. Felt back of knee a little too. Hadn't seen that in a while. I think all the running on concrete plus running at higher average heart rates (easier to stay near limit when flat) has put some strain on my legs.

wc7-2

8.7 miles

at beach. 2 airport loops. Legs felt kind of leaden for first couple of miles.

8.7 miles

2 airport loops (2x4.33 miles)

wc7-2

5.6 miles

out and back to get about an hour. gmap-pedometer called it 2.81 out. Foot pod called it 2.81 on the button.

wc7-2

18 or so miles

This was the easiest 18 I've ever done. It was unusually cool for the beach (73/70) and flat as a pancake. Out and back to the for entrance plus an airport loop. The foot pod claims 18.63 miles but the airport loop it claimed was 4.47 is actually 4.33. If I scale the whole thing 18.05. Still good time (10:24 min/mi). The airport loop was at 151 bpm average and 9:44 pace.

WC7-2

week's mileage: 59
shoe status
wc7-1 249 miles
wc7-2 68 miles

8 miles

at my parent. Out to 1 mile trail, around 4 times, and back. The watch cal was set to 1.000 after the battery replacement. It gave 7.75 total and 3.85 for the 4 laps (this track really is a mile). The new cal factor should have been 1.040 (4/3.85), but I screwed up when trying to calculcate it based on the watch and messed up compensating for the watches incorrect miles to km conversion. Anyway I changed the cal factor to 1.055.
We'll call this run 7.75*4/3.85 = 8.05.

WC7-2

6 miles

ran by the chattahoochee. Foot pod read 6.05 but didn't have the cal factor. Based on the next day's measured run, I'll call this 1.040 * 6.05 = 6.29.

wc7-2

8 miles

out, around Lake A, and back

shoes: WC7-1

10 miles -- ran to work

Great weather today! At 7am, 63 deg with a dewpoint of 55. It was good enough that I consider scrapping the notion of doing some tempo intervals and seeing if I could break my MAFF (<145) run to work record. I change my mind though and did some tempo pace anyway.

I kept the 145 alarm on for the first 56:42, but ran closer to 145 than normal. 22:42/130 to the lake (that's typical heart rate but ~45 seconds faster than in the heat), 25:37/139 to Ba Road. 8:24/144 to the 7-11 on Br Rd.

Then I started some faster pace. I wanted to a little at tempo pace, but wasn't sure how to fit in the route with street crossings, lights, etc. and I didn't have the distances. I thought ofBenji Durden plans that have something like 3 x (9t/3e) which is 3 x 9 min tempo + 3 minutes easy. I didn't want to do quite that much and knew the route didn't support it, but I started running. 9:38/168 got my from the 7-11 to the church/school street crosswalk on Br Rd. I checked gmap-pedometer and that was 1.26 miles. 1.26 in 9:38 is 7:39 min/mi. That's probably faster than I wanted and I wondered while I ran whether I could hold this for 10 miles. I ran a Feb 10K at 7:36 min/mi and an April 10-miler (similar weather) in 7:52 min/mi, but my heart rate just got to the 170s at the end (avg 10-miler heart rate for me is 181 bpm). Am I faster? Ah, who knows. Probably ran too fast.

Anyway, 3 minutes easy was 3:08/159 (gotta cool down), and then I did another 6:06/174 before stopping at a light. Not good to come to a dead stop. Damn roads. Not enough space for tempo intervals. Maybe I should just try and do some longer MP over this course for my mid-week "speed" work. Anyway 6:06 took me from the home depot (just past the corner of Br Rd. and LrT). A pretty good guess of my location at the start gives me 0.84 on gmap for a 7:16 pace. Didn't feel that fast, but this was mostly downhill. I might be misjudging where I started but not more than 0.05 miles which would be 7:40 pace.

The last 24:05/157 got me to work (includes stopping for lights). I went slow but didn't walk/run up the huge hill and my ~10-11 min/mi pace saw my heart rate hit just over 170 by the top.

I got to work in 1:39:40/147 which is 10 minutes faster than ever before. Of course I wasn't doing tempo runs then. In April when keeping my heart rate <150, I ran 1:49-1:50 with an average heart rate of 141-144. So what does all that mean? Well nothing. Nice day though.

shoes: WC7-2

8 miles

out, around lake A, and back. I woke up early and ran before daylight. My legs felt strong from my 4 miles at marathon pace on Sunday. I hadn't had that feeling since I finished with the Pfitz plan. I'm not sure it actually helps my marathon since I'm seriously endurance-limited, but it feels nice. Anyway, not being able to see my heart rate and feeling good had me running at a higher heart rate early (although still not above the alarm). I got to the lake at 24:00 instead of the usual 24:30-25:00. Total time was 1:29:34 and averaged 139 bpm. Compare to Saturday 1:31:20/134.

Shoes: WC7-2

rest

The pain in my foot and mother nature (with her thunder, lightning, and pouring rain) suggested an off day.

18 miles

4 laps around Lake B as usual. The weather today was great. Low 70's with a dew pt around 58.

I had half-way decided to run the last lap a marathon pace and went ahead with it. The plan was to wait until I was good and tired and see what pace I could run at a marathon heart rate. I ended up started my marathon pace about .4 miles into the 4th lap (had to stop for water and wanted to get over the hill first). My best estimate is 4.17 miles. It took 37:32 which is 9:00 min/mi. If I count the whole lap (the first .43 of which I wasn't going MP) it was 41:54 in 4.6 or 9:07 min/mi.

This looks to me like a pretty good way of predicting marathon time and not a bad way to train. 2 weeks all easy followed by a week with a lap of marathon pace at the end. The marathon is 12 weeks to go. With two 10-mile race and 2 taper weeks. I only have 6 long-run weekends left. Yikes. I'm also not sure what I can stand at the beach (it will be hot!), so maybe only 5 real weeks. I think I'll up to 21 and hope to get a 23 (5 lapper) 4 weeks out with an 18 (very easy) 2 weeks out.

This all sounds great, but then again my plantar fasciitis is killing me. Today was the worst it's been during and after the run. I did some stretches yesterday that I think made the pain a little sharper. I'm not sure if it's better or worse. (My guess is worse!)

shoes today: wc7-1

Week's mileage: 59
wc7-1: 241
wc7-2: 17

8 miles

out, around Lake A, and back. Very pleasant weather but I barely slept after wearing the sock for the 2nd (or 3rd?) night to help my PF. It was 70/59 when I started and 73/55(!) by the time I finished. I was so tired, I found myself closing my eyes. Running at 130bpm felt like running 135-140. My average hr was pretty low at 134 bpm and my time, 1:31:20, was slow but probably about right for the heart rate.

shoes: WC7-2

8 miles

out, around Lake A, and back for 8.3. Very steamy this morning. 78/68 at 5:45 am.

shoes: WC7-1

8 miles -- new shoes

Did the out, around Lake A, and back. Still hot. Still slow. New shoes today.

shoes: WC7-2

ran to work -- 10 miles

hotter than hell, slower than hell

shoes: WC7-1