Seattle's Best

While in Seattle I had the opportunity to ride up and down all those hilly streets of downtown. Even the flat streets went up hill!

Hadn't been on a bicycle in years. Reminded me it's good exercise and uses different muscles than running.

After climbing a mountain, I wasn't sure my legs wanted to bike, but we rode bikes to dinner and breakfast.

Mt Adams

I climbed a mountain!

Hiked 5 miles to 9.2k ft and pitched a tent. It was cold. Next morning climbed to the summit then returned to the tent. Lots of hours with a backpack...heavy one. Lots of miles putting one foot in front of the other.

Got to use hiking boots, alpine boots, crampons, ice axe, tent, backpack, blue bag, etc.

It was great!

...good endurance training.

Stormy

4 miles in 32:42 after work. I ran by myself. Just completed the run ahead of stormy weather. It was about 90 F when I started the run and extremely muggy. By mile two the temp dropped to 70 F with lots of wind.

Lap (#)	Time (m:s)	Distance (mi )	M Spd (mph)	HR (bpm)		Energy (Cal)
				Avg	Max
1	8:08	1.00	8.1	139	155	116
2	7:57	1.00	8.7	161	163	120
3	8:13	1.00	8.1	164	167	119
4	8:22	0.99	8.3	164	166	117

5 Miles Easy

This evening was a 5 mile easy run with Bill and Mike. Kinda turned into a faster 8:15/mi pace run. Mile 4 was 8:00/mi and mile 5 was a 7:34/mi pace so I guess it was a tempo instead of an easy run.

Temp was around 66 F with 100% humidity.

Legs felt pretty good considering the long run on Saturday.

5 more weeks of training!

94 Miles

I'm already at 94 miles for the month of August! An average of 5.2 miles every day since today is the 18th. I think today's 25 MILES helped raise the average!

Early morning start at 5 AM. Temperature was 61 F with humidity at 64%. It seemed cool in comparison to the past months of running. It was still dark when we started.

Paul, Bill and I set out down the bike trail completing the first two miles at 8:24/mi pace.

Mile 3 slowed to a 9:05/mi. Mile 4 and 5 were 9:25/mi. Bill decided to run faster and catch up with Paul.

I continued a 9:20/mi pace for mile 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Paul turned around and headed back past me at mile 7.5. Mike caught up with me at mile 8.5.

Bill & Mike past me going back at mile 12.1. Our turn around was at miles 12.5.

At mile 13 I made a quick pit stop bio-break. Pace was 9:42/mi.

Mile 14 -- 9:07/mi as I listened to Billy Squier.
Mile 15 -- 9:48/mi
Mile 16 -- 9:50/mi
Mile 17 -- 9:29/mi
Mile 18 -- 9:43/mi
Mile 19 -- 9:07/mi
Mile 20 -- 9:22/mi
Mile 21 -- 9:12/mi
Mile 22 -- 9:56/mi crossed 4-lanes of traffic
Mile 23 -- 9:23/mi
Mile 24 -- 9:35/mi
Mile 25 -- 9:30/mi

The last .2 mile I did around 8:00/mi. I felt good at the end. Finishing 25.2 miles in 3 hours 55 minutes isn't too bad on a long run. I'd done hills on Thursday!

Next weekend no long run. Climb a mountain instead.

Good Week

It's been a good week of running...

• 6 mile run on Monday at an 8:28/mi pace with 75 F temps.
• 5.3 mile run on Wed at an 8:04/mi pace with 71 F temps
• Hill run workout on Thurs. 5.9 miles in total in 1 hour, but ran "the hill" in a PR of 46 secs!

Ready for a long run?

It's a Long Run!

Early morning start from Bill's house (with Bill) to do a long run as a marathon build-up.

Start Time:	Aug 11, 2007 5:35:05 AM
Finish Time:	Aug 11, 2007 9:18:23 AM

Temperature was about 65F with 94% humidity.


The first 2 miles were a 9:08/mi pace. Bill wanted to pick it up so we dropped to 8:30/mi for the next 2 miles.

Knowing that this was a long run and it was very humid, I decided to let Bill run ahead. He disappeared off into the horizon over the next few miles. I slowed to an 8:50/mi pace for miles 5 thru 11. The temp had warmed up to 70 F.

I re-filled my two water bottles at mile 10 and said good morning to Chaz. He spotted us a 30 min start, but had already caught me. With full water bottles I continued on at a slower 9:30/mi pace for mile 12-15.

I took my shirt off at mile 16. Rung it out as it was soaked with sweat. Mile 16, 17, 18 were 10:00/mi pace. It was now 75F with 70% humidity.

The big milestone ahead was a 45-foot observation tower atop a high hill at mile 21. I was eating up the miles slowly, but feeling good. I reminded myself it's a long training run. It's not supposed to be too fast.

Mile 19 and 20 are 10:00/mi again. Good steady pace in this humid weather. I'm staying hydrated.

An insane hill that seems to never ends to reach the base of the tower. Mile 21 takes 12:30...but the hill is insane after all this running. 300 ft climb in elevation in one mile AND then up the 45-foot tower!

I looked out at the view for 3-4 mins.

Still have 2 miles down the tower to the parking lot where the van is parked.

Mile 22 breezed along down hill at 8:39/mi.

Mile 23 was yet another vertical climbed of 80 Ft then a little downhill sprint to the parking lot. Done with 23 miles in 3 hours 43 minutes. Temp is upper 70s.

It was a good long run. A really long run!

By the way, I've got a new Garmin 305 watch. Here's some additional stats from this morning's run from it:

Summary Data
Total Time (h:m:s)	3:43:18	9:40 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s)	3:38:34	9:27 pace
Distance (mi )	23.09
Moving Speed (mph)	6.3 avg.	12.5 max.
Elevation Gain (ft)	+3,310 / -3,103

Time Data	Total	% of Total
Total Time	3:43:18	100.0
Moving Time	3:38:34	97.9
Ascent	1:24:26	37.8
Descent	1:26:12	38.6
Flat	0:47:56	21.5
Stopped Time	0:04:44	2.1
# of Stops	3	--

4 miles

It was 80F with high humidity. Ran 4 miles with Jeff and Mike. We had a mile at 6:45/mi, but then I slowed down to finish in 31:30.

Tomorrow I rest. Long run on Sat!

Fartlek Five

I did a five mile fartlek this afternoon in 42:30. I'm still working to get the hang of this. I read tonight that I'm supposed to workout for a min of 45 mins when doing a speed play session.

• Minimum of 45 minutes
• Warm up – easy running for 5 to 10 minutes.
  
• Steady, hard speed for 1.5-2 km ; like a long repetition.
• Rapid walking for about 5 minutes – recovery.
• Easy running interspersed with sprints of about 50 – 60 m, repeated until a little tired. – Start of speed work.
• Easy running with three or four "quick steps" now and then (simulating suddenly speeding up to avoid being overtaken by another runner).
• Full speed up hill for 175 – 200 m.
• Immediately, fast pace for 1 minute.
• The whole routine is then repeated until the total time prescribed on the training schedule has elapsed.

I did have one mile that was 7:12/mi pace while having another mile that was 9:15/mi pace. In 5 miles I did 7 speed ups and slow downs. I did get in one hill.

I'm going to keep working on it.

Fishing for 10

Yesterday morning I went fishing, this morning was a 10-miler race!

I've run this same race the past two years finishing in the 1:28:30 range. I felt confident that I would run faster this year.

It was around 70 F with high humidity and drizzle at race time.

I signed up for the race about 20 mins before the start while sipping on my McDonald's coffee. Took my event shirt back to my car. Pinned my number on my shirt. Jogged a few blocks back the to race area. Decided it was a good idea to stop in the restroom before the race even though the Star Spangle Banner was being song. I stepped into the racing crowd 40 secs before the start. I was in the mid-back area.

The start was slow. I should have started further up. It took about 4 mins to weave through the slower runners and get to a reasonable pace.

I came past mile 1 just a bit over an 8:00/mi pace. Mile 4 was 32:40 overall. I calculated an 8:10/mi in my head. My watched said I'd passed the 4 mile mark at 31:22. I liked my watch results better, but the race markers where the official ones.

I just tried to the hold the same pace. The drizzle was a bit annoying, but not bad. I felt I could run faster, but didn't want to run out of steam.

I came past the 5 mile loop starting point at 41 mins and change. I knew at that point I was going to break my old PR (1:28:30) for this course by some minutes. I ran the next 5-miles at pretty much the same pace plus or minus some seconds finishing in 1:22:45.

Hot Hills

It was about 90 F again this afternoon with high humidity. I ran with Mike for awhile until I turned off to run "the hill" 6 times without him.

Hill 1 = 1:11
Hill 2 = 1:02
Hill 3 = 1:09 (truck & boat blocking road)
Hill 4 = 0:52
Hill 5 = 0:54
Hill 6 = 0:55

Good workout!

August Kick Off

It was around 90F this afternoon when Bill, Mike and I went for a 4.5 mile tempo run.

Mile 1 = 8:30/mi
Mile 2 = 8:54/mi
Mile 3 = 7:47/mi
Mile 4 = 8:08/mi

Last .5 mile was 8:13/mi

It was kind of a tempo run in the sense of the 2nd half was faster than the first!

Did I mention it was HOT? Overall 8:18/mi pace in the heat is not to bad.