16 Mile Run

During the night I manged to tweak my back, when I woke up it was really sore, but figured I should get in my long run anyway. Got going shortly after 8, and started running at about 8:30. Nice out, about 58F with a 51F dewpoint at the start, and about 67F with a 50F dewpoint at the finish. The first mile was tough, ran a bit, walked, then ran some more as my back loosened up. By the time I was done with the first mile, things were fairly good. 16 milesin 3:02:11, average pace of 11:23, AHR of 145. Other than the Hartford Marathon where I walked half of it, I've not had a 16+ mile run below a AHR of 150, so it was clearly a comfortable run. Splits of 15:02 (warming up), 11:11, 11:09, 11:06, 11:12, 11:08, 11:12, 11:13, 11:11, 11:09, 11:14, 11:18, 11:17, 11:02, 10:38 and 11:03. Ran from the restaurant to the south tail, then around to the spur, out on the spur, running out a mile on the River Bottom Road before heading out over the Missouri River bridge, then heading back. Comfortable run at my 5 hour Marathon Pace group pace.

11 Mile Run

Last run out in St Peters with the FFRC, we started at 6:30am this morning because we were running with the Fleet Feet Marathon Training group. I ran a warm up mile with Bob, and then ran with Bob, Tim, and his friend Bob for the first 3 miles before Tim and Bob headed back, following Amanda's training group. Ran the actual course, so more hills than I'm use to, but not too bad. Bob was running a bit faster than I wanted to, but overall not too bad, and it was very nice out, 65F with a 61F dewpoint when we started. 11 miles total in 1:48:38, average pace of 9:52, AHR of 157. Splits of 9:23, 10:03, 10:01, 10:25, 9:51, 10:07, 9:36, 9:54, 9:57, 9:56 and 9:20. Comfortable run.

Speed Work

Final Fleet Feet speed workout, 4 x 1200M with recovery. It was open house at the high school, so there was a backlog getting into to parkling lot, and so there was no time for a warm up. Intervals of 5:38, 5:37, 5:42 and 5:42. Heart rate hit 181 on the final interval before I coasted to the finish line. Overall 4 miles in 41:19, average pace of 10:19. Overall felt pretty good. Was about 84F out with a dewpoint of 64F, so not too bad considering it's August, but was still fairly warm.

8 Mile Marathon Pace Group Pace Run

8 miles up at the lake, running to the south tail, then through the woods up just past the sailboat cove, then returning the same but without the south tail. Running the marathon pace group pace for the first 7 miles, then running a hard final mile. 1:25:52 total time, 10:44 average pace, 147 AHR, with a 162 AHR for the final mile. Splits of 11:09, 10:59, 11:10, 11:06, 11:02, 10:59, 11:01 and 8:24. Nice morning, but could tell it was going to be getting warmer as the sun was out and hot. Started just about at 8am, 72F with a 73F dewpoint, finished it was around 77F with a 64F dewpoint, but still manageable, especially with running through the woods.

5 Mile Quick Run

5 miles up at the lake, a bit quicker than I have been running as I was a bit short on time. Started at restaurant heading south to the tail, then north to the soccer fields on the inside path, then across the parking lot, then north again to where I needed to turn around, then came back the same way. 48:41 total time, 9:44 average pace, 154AHR. Splits of 10:31, 9:49, 9:53, 9:55 and 8:30. Overall a good run, about 66F and a dewpoint of 59F at the start, so comfortable.

18 Mile Long Run

18 miles up at the lake, running 5 miles then meeting up with Bob from the runners club and running 12 'with' him, then finishing off with a final mile. Started at the restaurant, ran up and past the soccer fields, then did two laps counter clockwise with Bob with one south tail to get the mileage in, then ran back from the soccer fields to the restaurant to finish it off. I took a short break after mile 5 before starting with Bob, stopping the timer, then another one after the first lap, stopping the timer again. Overall a good run. Spent most of the time while running with Bob about 4 steps behind him, but even so it was good to run with someone for a change, passed the time a bit better. Splits of 11:08, 11:11, 11:12, 11:14, 11:16, 10:56, 10:35, 10:47, 10:28, 10:21, 10:06, 10:01, 10:30, 10:36, 10:02, 10:42, 9:59 and 11:11. AHR was 152, though it had creeped up at the end with final miles of 163 and 160. Temp was 59F with a 57F dewpoint at the 7am start, and was about 72F, 57F dewpoint when done at just after 10am. Overall time of 3:12:21, average pace of 10:41.

8 Mile Marathon Pace Group Pace Run

8 miles up at the St Peters course, ran solo. Weather was nice, about 60F with a 57F dewpoint at the start, and not really getting much warmer while running. 1:25:59 total time, 10:44 pace. Run 7 miles at the marathon pace group pace, and then ran hard the final mile. Splits of 10:54, 10:49, 11:00, 11:04, 11:03, 11:02, 11:04 and 9:01. AHR of 147, with a 156 average for the final mile. Felt good out there, a smidge fast for the pace group, but not by much.

Speed Work

Speed work, was 200M on - 200M off for 5K, interesting workout, but I had never done anything like it before, so I started off too fast, and ended up having to walk during many of my 'off' phases instead of just lightly jogging. AHR for the workout was 171, with a max of 181 on the final repeat, and hitting 180 a few of the other repeats. 'On' repeats of 45s, 49s, 49s, 49s, 52s, 53s, 52s, 49s, 50s, 53s, 52s, 52s and 54s. My 'off' repeats ranged from 1:06 to 1:36 as I had to walk during all but the first few. Temp was around 78F with a dewpoint of 61F, so very comfortable. I'll probably try to do this sort of workout again some time, as it was interesting.

8 Mile Marathon Pace Group Pace Run

8 miles up at the lake, running south to the end of the tail, then north towards the sailboat cove on the inside path, then across the parking lot, then up and past the sailboat cove, then returning the same path. Ran the marathon pace gorup pace for the first 7 miles, then ran a hard final mile. 8 miles in 1:26:10, average pace of 10:46, splits of 11:11, 11:10, 11:07, 11:12, 11:11, 11:09, 11:08 and 7:59 for the final mile. Overall AHR was 148, 167 for the final mile while I was pushing it. Ran in the morning, starting at about 6:40, about 73F out with a dewpoint of 71F, so humid, but fairly comfortable.

6 Mile Run

6 miles up at the lake, running south to the end of the tail, then north towards the sailboat cove on the inside loop, across the soccer field parking lot, then continued towards the sailboat cove, then returning. First run in the new Kayano 15s, felt pretty good. Sticking with the Lewis and Clark pace group pace, running 1:03:49 for 6 miles, a 10:38 pace, AHR of 151. Splits of 11:12, 11:08, 11:07, 11:03, 11:04 and then running a speedy 8:12 to finish it off. Overall felt good,

16 Mile Long Run

16 miles up at the lake. Wasn't as hot as last week, but it was sort of a building heat, and it was very humid. Got started at about 7:30, about 79F out with 70F dewpoint. When I finished shortly after 11, it was around 85F with a 71F dewpoint. It tried to rain a few times, but it never really got going, mostly cloudy. Was planning on doing my pace setter marathon pace the whole way, but my heart rate started creeping up a bit too much after about mile 10, so I had to slow it down and take more walk breaks. 3:05:26 total time, 11:35 average pace, 160 AHR, splits of 11:14, 11:12, 11:19, 11:06, 11:02, 11:08, 11:14, 11:09, 11:07, 11:10, 11:51, 11:55, 12:01, 12:10, 12:57 and 12:43. Was beat by the end, and a sloppy mess. Brain felt a bit mushy like I had ran farther. I have a few more weekends to work on the pace, hopefully one of the weekends is a bit cooler.

8 Mile St Peters Run

8 miles with the FFRC, running out in St Peters. Started out with Bob, Ray and Tim, but Tim headed back after 3 miles, and Bob was going to get in 10 so was running the full course, so ran with Ray from the 3 mile or so point on. Decent run, took it fairly easy. Was warm, but not really bad, 73F, dewpoint of 68F. 8 miles in 1:22:16, average pace of 10:17, AHR of 155. Splits of 10:10, 9:55, 10:08, 11:11, 10:20, 10:15, 10:07 and 10:07. Decent run, but heel was feeling it afterwards, guess I shouldn't run in the Brooks more than 1 day a week - if that.

8 Mile Marathon Pace Group Pace Run

8 miles up at the lake, running south to the end of the tail, then north towards the sailboat cove on the inside path, then across the parking lot, stopping for a very quick bathroom break without stopping the clock, and the continuing north to the sailboat cove and past that before retruning back. Wasn't a tempo run, but was running at my pace team marathon pace for all miles but the final mile. 8 miles in 1:26:32, average pace of 10:49, AHR of 149. Splits of 11:10, 10:54, 11:11, 11:11, 11:03, 11:07, 11:06 and 8:47. Was in the mid 60s with a dewpoint right around 60F, so felt good out for the run. Perhaps Summer is wrapping up (:

6 Mile Morning Run

6 miles up at the lake, running south to the end of the tail, then north towards the sailboat cove on the inside loop, across the soccer field parking lot, then continued towards the sailboat cove until the path intersection, then headed back making a figure 8 around the sailboat cove. I took it easy, running my pace marathon pace for all miles but the final mile. 6 miles in 1:04:59, average pace of 10:49, AHR of 156. Splits of 11:14, 11:09, 11:13, 11:12, 11:10 and 8:59. It was around 70F out, but the dewpoint was in the high 60s, so was still a bit sweaty out. Decent feeling run.

14 Mile Long Run

With the poison ivy I decided to take some time off, as my right foot was a bit swollen as well, and I didn't want to aggrivate things, so first day back at it. Really hot out, when we went out the door at 6am it was already 79F with oppressive humidity. Sun was out strong, and I was struggling keeping even my 'slow' 5:00 pace team pace. Ran into Judy about an hour into the run, and we decided to run for 3 hours instead of our original plan of 15 miles for her and 16 miles for me. Slowed down some more, managed to get in 14 miles. When we got home at about 9:30, it was 82F but rising fast. Poison ivy didn't bother me while running, but I have a few new blisters where my sock rubbed on the back of my heel. Oddly my foot seems less swollen now than before the run, go figure. 14 miles in 2:47:36. I did stop the clock when I went to the bathroom at about mile 4, and again when I stopped at the car at mile 10, but not for too long. The original plan was to run 11:15 miles, but as I was going, it was clear I wasn't going to be able to do those without having my heart rate be too high. I was sweating up a storm, guzzling my water. Average pace of 11:58, AHR of 162, splits of 11:15, 10:58, 11:16, 11:04, 11:37, 11:19, 11:33, 11:43, 12:06, 12:28, 13:27, 13:16, 13:18 and 12:08. Took 2 walk breaks from about mile 7 to mile 9, then after that took more and more walk breaks, mostly focusing on keeping my mile splits below 13:30. Brutal out there, but made it through 14 miles.

Chicago Half Marathon

Chicago Rock n Roll Half Marathon. I got a bad case of Poison Ivy during Tuesday's run, and so I had bandaged up my leg to keep it covered for the run. It didn't seem to bother me while running, my goal was to get under 2 hours, and the 'plan' was to run a 10 minute mile, 2 9:30 miles, and then 9:00 pace the rest of the way. Run started off well, but when it came time to run the 9:00 minute miles, I just didn't quite have it in me, running more around 9:15. At times I felt like I could go a bit faster, but the course was pretty crowded, so it made it nearly impossible to pass people without a lot of extra work. While downtown, the garmin acted up a bit with the buildings, and then we ran through a few tunnels too, so I had to hit lap a few times to get back on the course mile markers. Splits were 10:03, 9:33, 9:26, 8:59, 8:55, 9:38, 9:12, 9:00, 9:24, 9:31, 9:28, 9:31, 9:27 and 1:00 for the last .13 miles coming down to the finish. Overall the garmin had 13.41 miles, but .15 of the extra distance happened in the first 3 miles while running in the tall buildings, so it was fairly accurate after that. AHR was 164, so wasn't pushing it too hard, though it started creeping up at the end. Official time of 2:03:06, pace of 9:24, 5K split of 29:49, 6 miles split of 56:41 and 10 mile split of 1:33:52, so the final 5K was 29:46. Course was nice, temperature was fantastic for August, starting temp was mid 60s, finishing temp was in the 70s, not a cloud in the sky. Thumbs up for the race.