30 June 2010

We'll give it a shot...

Oh, we're half way there. Oh, livin' on a prayer.

Even though I am quite short of where I should be to hit my goal of 2000 miles for the year, I still feel good. I missed several weeks due to injury and illness and am just now getting into the meat of my training for the year. Here's the stats so far plus stats for my last few runs:





My 14 miler on Saturday went really well. I clocked the last 6 under gmp! Still haven't started my research for the summer but that will change soon...I hope. My wonderful fiance and I have started looking at venues for the wedding reception and that is surprisingly fun!

I may be mia for a week or so as I am not sure how much time I'll have for blogging when I'm in St. Lois (7.2-7.13). In order to avoid jumping into the heat too quickly, I'm moving this weeks LR to tomorrow. Otherwise I'd be doing a 15 miler my second day in heat (upper 80's low 90's) when I'm used to upper 60's low 70's. By the time next week's LR comes about, I should be use to the heat enough to run that there.

Quick review/check in of my running goals for the year.

Goal 1: Sub-1:36 Half Marathon Check
 Mercer Island Half Marathon, 3.21.10, 1:31:52


Goal 2: Sub 3:45 Marathon In Progress
Just started week 4 of Pfitz 18/55 today.

Goal 3: 2000 Miles Short
As I wrote above, I'm over 200 miles short of this but am not worried about catching up. Next month should be a PR of 195 miles and august a PR of over 200 miles.

Goal 4: Sub 20 5-K In Progress
The race I planned on doing this at is this weekend. However, I will be in St. Louis and the race is in my hometown in Washington. So, I will change my goal race for this. Either in November or December. I came close in a training run though. I clocked a 20:04 as part of a 10 mile run a few months ago (before the half). 

Hope everyone else is having a good running year so far!
  

22 June 2010

The Start of Summer

Summer is going well...sort of. I'm relaxing and getting in some good running but not doing enough (read any) research. Hopefully that will all change tomorrow or Thursday. More likely to be Thursday since I'm super busy tomorrow. I'll start at 5 am with a 4 mile recovery run. Then from 9-12 I've got a job moving cars. My aunt works at a dealership with two locations. One location is closing. So my brother, myself and some other people will move 90+ cars from one dealership to the other. Then at 2 my fiance and I have an appoinment to check out a place as a possible reception location! Then dinner with her folks and some church stuff after that. So I probably won't get around to research until Thursday afternoon (moving cars from 9-3ish).

Running has been great since I got home. I'm in week 3 of Pfitz 18/55 and haven't missed a workout yet. I've had to shuffle them a bit but I've got in all the runs so far. That may change soon though, more on that in a bit. I looked back at my old log from last year to see how many miles I had ran at this point in my last training cycle (which was my first marathon). In that cycle, I started with Higdon Novice (eventually switched to Higdon Int-I). So in the first two weeks of this cycle, I ran more than the first month of Higdon Novice! Here are todays stats:

Distance: 10 miles
Time: 1:16:35
Pace: 7:40

My slowest mile was 8:15 and the fastest was 7:21. I was definitely feeling the sun/heat during the second half of the run. I really need to work on hydrating more. Back to the missing runs thing. Next Friday (99% sure this is happening since I have yet to find a real job for the summer) I will be going to St. Louis for 10 days to meet some of my future family who I have yet to meet. Two reason for missing runs/super-rearranging the schedule: 1. Heat/humidity 2. Not sure what time I'll have to run. I will definitely get the long runs in but may have to scratch a few short runs. I'll play it by ear. Two reasons I'm stoked to go: 1. Meeting new family 2. It will be the farthest east I've been (sad, I know).

I'm going to be short of my mileage goal for the year. I think I will be. If you read my blog you know May was a sad month for running (read first month under 100 since November). As of now I'm at 741 miles for the year. By the end of the month I'll be at 784, which is 216 miles short. That being said, I only ran 875 miles so the year will still be a huge improvement.

Mini-side-note: I'm one of those weird guys that like shopping...once in a while. I went to Ross with my older sister today and bought 2 pairs of shorts and a new shirt for under $50 and one of the pairs of shorts is usually $50! Yay for saving money when you're a financially challenged grad student.

13 June 2010

Weekend Update

Saturday:
Distance: 9 miles
Time: 1:08:38
Pace: 7:37

Sunday:
Distance: 12 miles
Time: 1:43:07

Sunday's run was actually two six mile runs so I didn't put a pace on it since it wasn't really a 12 mile run. Friday was super busy. Finished packing, then moved all my things into storage before driving back to WA for the summer. Hopefully I'll be able to post more now that I'm on break. Its not really a break since I'm doing research and need to study for the MS Exam in Algebra. Tomorrow starts week 2 of Pfitz 18/55 with an SRD :)

05 June 2010

Getting it done!

Distance: 7.75 miles
Time: 1:02:43
Pace: 8:05

I started my day by going to the farmer's market. There is a fairly big one on campus every Saturday. So I bought some fresh stawberries and rasberries, some fresh homemade pasta and a bottle of local wine :)

Then I started to pack my clothes. Instead of starting to study for finals, I decided to go for my run first. The weather was (and still is) beautiful. Sunny, blue skies and 60* (suppose to be 73 later). I went to my usual river trail route. However, I forgot that today is the Rose Festival. So, I had to weave through a few hundred people along the river and then alter the route because .25 miles were blocked off. There were 3 US Navy ships docked and the river path was blocked off there. It was some part of the festival. In all it was a good run.

For now, its back to studying and laundry.

04 June 2010

Fly-By Part Dos

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 30:50
Pace: 7:43

After I finished (at least, I think its finished) my algebra paper I went to the gym for a run. I'm odd among my running friends because I actually like the treadmill. I guess it was during my freshman year at Montana that I fell in love with the treadmill. When you're training for a half marathon in December in Montana, its the treadmill or outside in single digit temps.

Goal for the day: finish my paper (need to re-read it and make sure everything checks out) and finish my number theory homework.

02 June 2010

Fly By

Distance: 5.6 miles
Time: 44:38
Pace: 7:56

New route :) Out and back course with a very large uphill section. Basically the first half is uphill. I managed to control my pace back down running a +:45 second splits. Last month was horrible. Sick twice + injured once = 48.12 miles :(
That was my first month under 100miles since November. Oh well, June is a new month and I start Portland training on Monday!