Scott's Running Blog

I stayed inside on the treadmill and ran 5 miles at a 7:47 pace, 3 miles at an 8:57 pace, and a half mile at a 10 minute pace. It felt good to hold a faster pace today than I'd been doing over the Christmas break.

Easy treadmill miles - I set it to 6.9, which I think is an 8:47 average, and let it go.

I did four 1-mile intervals today on the treadmill, with each interval at a 7:19. The rest in between (.5 miles) may have been a little long. I was surprised at how easy the workout was today. I nearly decided to extend the run to 12 miles because tomorrow is going to be so busy, but had to get back to work.

I did a 4 mile tempo run today (tempo target of 7:50/mile), with 2 easy miles on both sides of the tempo. My total time was a 1:05:30, for an 8:19 average. Split times were 9:04, 8:08, 7:45, 7:45, 7:41, 7:37, 8:26, 9:01. I ran the first and last miles a little slower because of the snow and ice that covered the dirt trail.

I was very happy with how easy it felt to hold that tempo pace. Part of the reason, I'm sure, is that I only ran 3 times last week for a total of 20 miles. The other part, I'd like to think, is that I'm getting faster. Improvement is fun.

5 easy miles, all on the treadmill.

Once again I stayed inside on the treadmill today.  The weather was very nice, but I wanted to do some intervals and the battery on my GPS watch needed to be recharged.

To better equate the treadmill to outside running, I set the elevation to 1 percent.  I didn't feel like the pace was equivalent - the treadmill was much harder.  Much of that is mental, I'm sure, as it's more interesting to be outside.

In any case, I did 5 half-mile intervals paced at 7:14 with 0.35 mile breaks in between each interval.  For good measure I ran a quarter mile interval at 7:00 pace to end the 8 miles.  The rest of the 8 miles was at a 9:00 pace.

Missed the St. George half-marathon due to a family commitment.  This week has been a terrible running week for me.

I wanted 7 miles with a 4 mile tempo, but I just couldn't make myself do it.  Work has been a bear lately - Management is stressed, they cancelled our holiday today and are closely monitoring bug counts, etc.  The entire time I was running all I could think about was everything else that I should be doing instead.

 I put the elevation at 1 percent again today and ran 1.5 miles at 8:57, 2 miles at 7:47, 1 mile at 7:30 and a half mile at 9:14.  Average for the run was an 8:10. 
 

My back has been really sore too.  It's centered between my shoulder blades, but runs down my spine to my lower back.  I've taken some ibuprofen (sp?) to try and loosen it up some.  I'm not sure what that's all about. 

I wanted more, but had an appointment with the massage therapist and didn't leave enough time to run.  Again, I stayed inside and took it easy.

I'm sick of being stuck inside.  It was a little cold today (about 15 degrees) but sunny, so I braved nature and went outside.  My only goal for today was to have fun.  I ran north from Novell, over the railroad tracks and around all of the college apartments that I used to live in while I went to school.  The roads were a little narrow unless I wanted to run on the ice, but it wasn't too big an issue because I stayed on the backroads.

I ran 5.5 miles in 46:07, averaging an 8:23 pace.  Split times were 8:11, 8:37, 8:35, 8:26, 8:18 and 3:57.

I accomplished my goal - I had fun.
 

Felt fantastic during the run today.  I started at 6.8 mph, increasing the pace at every half mile.  I started the last mile at an 8, went to a 7:30 at 5.5 miles and something faster than that for the last quarter.  I never really felt like I was pushing too hard.  Total time for the 6 miles was 49:15.

Writing in this blog has been a lot like my running - really sporadic.  The product I was scheduled for a first beta this week, so the last 2 or 3 weeks have been really difficult.  Part of the development is done in India, so coordinating tasks and bug fixes has meant some late nights and early mornings.  The good news is we finished with beta1 today and should have a litle breather between now and March when the next beta is scheduled for release.

I ran 6 miles today.  The air quality has been ugly, so I've stayed inside.  I ran the 1st mile at an 8:57 pace and increased the pace every half mile.   Total time as 50:13, for an average of 8:22 per mile.

The air quality is still poor.  On the bright side - the fitness center has been showing movies that I've never seen before.

Similar to Wednesday I started with a 1 mile warmup at 8:57.  I increased my pace at quarter mile intervals between miles 1 and 3 until I was at a 7:30 pace.  I ran the next 4 miles at a 7:30 pace and cooled down the last mile.  Total time was a 64:10 for an 8:01 average. 

The mental aspect of running is so interesting to me.  I've learned a lot about how my mind works.  For instance, my plan for today's run was 4 miles at 7:30.  During the run I kept counting down the time or distance that I had left ("Only 15 minutes left", etc).  I really wasn't that tired at the end of the 4 miles, but was more than ready to be done.  I had conditioned myself that I would run 4 miles, and I was ready to shutdown when I accomplished it.  By extension, if I'd planned 5 miles then I'm sure the situation would have been the same, except that my countdown would have lasted longer.  I'm trying to be judicious when I run - run hard but not so hard that I get hurt.  It makes me wonder if I'm not setting my goals high enough.

The other thing I kept thinking about was the time that Paul Thomas ran 8 miles in 1 hour.  I could have done more than 4 at the 7:30 pace, but I don't know that I could do 8.  I can't wait until I'm there.

6 easy miles while watching "Catwoman".  If there is a movie out there as bad as this one I'd like to know what it is.  The time sure dragged on today.

I ran 8 half-mile intervals today, each paced at 8.3 mph (7:13 min/mile) with a 0.3 mile rest in between.  It was much easier than I expected it to be. 

I felt a little guilty about being on the treadmill so long - The competition for the treadmills was pretty fierce today.  I can't wait for the weather to clear up so that I can go back outside again.

I ran the first 3.5 miles at an 8:57 pace and the last half-mile at a 6:50 pace.

I also realized why Monday's intervals were so easy - I should have been running at a 7:00 pace instead of a 7:15 pace since I was on a treadmill.  Oops.