Scott's Running Blog

I had planned to run outside, but left my watch at home and so resorted to running on the treadmill. I bookended a 4 mile, 8 minute pace with a half mile warmup and cooldown on either side of the run.

I've read that the lack of wind and hills makes treadmill running about 15 seconds per mile faster than outdoor running. Since I am in the 50 minute 10k range right now, 8:15-8:20 is the target for an outdoor tempo run, while 8:00 is the target for a treadmill tempo run.

This was a nice and easy day for me. I felt really good, largely due to the pace of about 9:20 or so (I'm guessing - again, no watch). I ran most of the time with somebody from work, and it was easy to talk while running. I take that as a good sign that my pace was good for a recovery run.

My plan right now is to run tempo runs on Monday, intervals on Wednesday and longer runs on Saturday. Tuesday and Friday are easy runs.

I ran 5 half-mile intervals, with a .3 mile recovery in between. I clocked the intervals at 3:54, 3:46, 3:48, 3:48 and 3:48. It took a little while to find the right pace (I wanted a 3:50), but was able to hold it once I did.

The remaining two miles were warmup and cooldown miles. My total time for the run was about 53:00 minutes.

I wanted an easy run, aiming for a 9:20 pace. I let the nice weather push me into a faster run that I wanted, running a 9:08, 9:17, 8:54 and an 8:29.

The weather was great for a run today, about 40-45 degrees. I wasn't sure where I was going to run today, so I grabbed my watch, headed out the door and ran.

My route was slightly downhill for the first three miles, pretty flat for the middle, and uphill for the last three. I love the freedom that comes with a GPS watch - that I can go wherever I want and have a good idea of the pace and distance.

The run took me 1:10:50, which averages to an 8:38. The paces per mile were 8:51, 8:25, 8:15, 8:36, 8:46, 8:52, 8:47, 8:37, 8:09. My speed fluctuated a lot, but I think a lot of that had to do with the terrain and whether or not I was running with the wind at my back.

I think Saturday runs are my favorite. I try to vary my route, and I don't stress too much about my pace. Saturday is my day to be free.

Today was another tempo run day. After a 1 mile warmup, I ran a 4 mile tempo, aiming for 15-20 seconds slower than my estimated 10k pace of 8:00 minutes. The last mile back was a cooldown.

The times for my miles were 9:11, 8:13, 8:12, 8:07 and 8:06 and 9:16. The first two tempo miles were pretty close to my target. The speed up on the third mile surprised me a little bit - I wasn't watching my pace very well. I was tired on the 4th mile, but compensated by mentally segmenting it into 4 do-able segments. At the beginning of the mile, I decided to finish strong and make it the fastest of the miles I ran today. I achieved that goal, but not by much. :)

Most of my training ideas have come from the book "Alberto Salazar's Guide to Road Racing." When explaining different workouts he mentions that many runners find the tempo runs to be the most enjoyable. That hasn't held true for myself. It feels great to finish, but I'm not used to trying to regulate my pace so tightly. The pace is also a little bit out of my comfort zone. On the bright side, today's run felt much better than last week's run. At the end of my tempo today, I knew I could have kept it up if I'd wanted to, which is a feeling I didn't have last week.

I spent some time reading some of the other blogs on this site, and I think it's official - I'm the slowest runner on the planet earth. :) Okay - it may not be that bad, but I'm amazed at how quickly many of the people here run. If there's any consolation for me, at least I can see lots of room for improvement! It also makes me more appreciative of the encouragment I've received.

I wimped out and stayed inside on the treadmill today. I wanted an easy recovery run after my workout yesterday, so I put the speed at 6.3 miles per hour (about a 9:32 mile) and stayed the course. It was easy but boring.

I ran 5 half mile intervals again today, but decreased the rest period in between them from .3 miles to .25 miles. According to Alberto Salazar, my time for each interval should have been 3:47 to 3:50. I finished with times of 3:40, 3:39, 3:38, 3:34 and 3:38. I'm either running too hard or else my estimated 10k time is too conservative. I want to train hard, but don't want to make each workout a race either, for fear of hurting myself. I felt like I could do more at the end, so I take that as a good sign.

I used to work with a person who had a PhD in Geology and was interested in quantum mechanics. One of the things he introduced me to was the concept of Schrodinger's cat. The essence of the idea is that if you put a cat in a sealed box with a vial of poison that has a chance of exploding and killing the cat, then while as the box remains sealed the cat is both alive and dead. It's not until you open the box that the cat remains in one state (dead or alive). One of the consequences of this experiment is that observation of an event inevitable alters the outcome of the event. What does this have to do with running?

My wife asked me what I think about while I run, and I didn't have a good answer. I made an effort to remember what I was thinking today, but did monitoring my thoughts actually change the thoughts I had? And does it really matter?

For the record, here were some of the things that crossed my mind:

* How's my form? Am I over-striding or bouncing?

* Why does that little dog startle me every time I run by it's house? After all this time, shouldn't I remember to be on the lookout for it?

* I sprained my ankle and broke my foot a year and a half ago, but it still bothers me occasionally. I wonder if it will ever be as good as it was. I wonder if I should do the exercises the physical therapist gave to me.

* How accurate is my Garmin 205? How could I accurately test it?

* I wonder why I get nauseous when I run too hard. I'm sure glad I don't feel that way right now.

Nothing very exciting on that list. If she asks me that question again, I think I'll stick to my standard answer: “I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you.”

When I got down to the locker room today I ran into my neighbor as he was getting ready to run with some of his co-workers. The were driving to the Provo River Trail with plans of running 5 miles. The change of scenery sounded nice, so I went with them.

They have a tradition that I'd never seen before - they staggered the start times in an attempt to make everybody finish at the same time. It started because the slower runners found it too demoralizing to consistently finish last. It was a nice idea, except that waiting for my time to start was a little chilly.

I had intentions of running 4 miles at a 9:15 pace today, but instead did 5 at an 8:30. (The guy I ran with was supposed to run a 9:00 pace, but felt competitive and ran more quickly than normal). The 8:30 pace felt great, and I was able to talk all the way without feeling winded at the end.

I'll definately invite myself to go with them on again sometime - driving to a different running route was a lot of fun.

I keep reading about how important it is to run the long, slow runs at a slow tempo. The purpose, from what I've gathered is two-fold: 1) Give your body time to recover from any speed work you're doing, and 2) To give your body a chance to get used to running for the amount of time that you would be in longer races, without having to run the full distance of that race. To be honest, while the second reason makes some sense, my concern has been that if I run too slow, that I'll get used to pacing myself at the slower tempo.

I put that concern aside today, and purposely aimed for a 9:20 to 9:30 pace for my run. I'd forgotten my shoes, so had to wear an old pair that I've used for yard work for the past year. The run didn't seem too boring, because with any ache or pain I could simply imagine that I was hurting myself by wearing inadequate shoes. It made the time fly by. :)

I finished 8 miles in 73:44, for an average of 9:13. The number is a little misleading, however, because I ran the last mile at an 8:01 pace. If I take that last mile out of the equation, I would have averaged a 9:26, which is exactly what I wanted.

It was difficult to start - the weather is awesome and I wanted to do my tempo run outside. Having forgotten my watch, I could either run outside for fun or do a treadmill tempo. I chose to stay inside.

1 mile warmup, 5 mile tempo at an 8:00 pace, and a .3 mile cooldown. It felt much, much better than my 4 mile tempo run 2 weeks ago.

Talked my office-neighbor into running with me. He hasn't run in a long time, but bikes a lot. We ran 4 miles in 33:42 (8:26/mile avg), with splits of 8:39, 8:25, 8:02 and 8:34. I would have liked to keep a smaller variance in the splits, but it was fun to run with somebody.

I'm still a little disappointed about missing my Wednesday run. By the time I finished what I needed to do at work, I wanted to be home. I left work early instead of running.

Today's run was very nice - up the Provo River Trail and back to our start. I ran with Kevin White, and we finished in 1:27:09, for an average of 8:43. This was the first double-digit mile run I've done in quite some time. I didn't take any water and didn't feel like I really needed it. I'm starting to think, however, that I should take and drink water along the run just to get used to it before my half marathon in January.

42:58. I felt a little sluggish at the start, but it was comfortable to keep a sub-9:00 mile. The last half mile of the run was a 7:20 pace, which felt great.

I did 5 1-mile repeats on the treadmill (raining outside), each one paced at 7:41. The distance between each repeat was .4 miles, paced at 10:00. The remaining .75 miles were warmup and cooldown.

It seemed that there was a significant increase in the difficulty of the second repeat. I didn't notice repeats 2-5 being much different from any of the others. I certainly didn't want to start the 5th, but it wasn't too bad once I got into it.

Nice and easy treadmill running. The end of "Entrapment" was showing on the television again. You'd think that Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones would learn from their mistakes and not trip that alarm at the end of the movie everytime. I guess they're slow learners.

It was 14 degrees when I went out, 17 degress when I finished. I felt like I was playing frogger, dodging ice patches and oncoming traffic at the same time.

I finished in 78:28, which breaks down into an 8:36 average. My split times got progressively faster, with the last two being an 8:09 and an 8:10. Runs are a lot more enjoyable when the fastest miles come at the end.

At this point my legs and feet feel a little tired. I typically log 25-27 miles per week, but have about 21 miles the first 3 days of this week. I moved my longer Saturday run to today so that I can run the Nutcracker 5k on Saturday. I'll take tomorrow off and do something really light on Friday in preparation for the race.