In the zone

Secret of running - don't do it!!!, juggling the marathon, Lance's marathon times may be erased (sigh), Mo may double in 2016 - 10K and marathon, world marathon record holder Patrick Makau running in Frankfurt this weekend, Lolo named to U.S. bobsledding team, Alan Webb, and Meb.

Wednesday, October 17th - 7 miles.  I don't remember this at all, quite honestly.

Thursday, October 18th - 7 miles (2 up, 3 mile tempo, 2 down).  Long day, as I had a road trip to Champaign, IL and Goose's wedding rehearsal.  So I literally had a 1 hour turnaround before having to head out again, which meant I needed to blaze through my tempo.  So got out for a quick warmup on an overcast afternoon with some wind.  Ran to Village Circle, then did a little on the trail before dynamic stretches.  Goal was fast but controlled, but had a lot of problems locking in as I flew through the first mile way too fast.  Successfully slowed down a bit on the 2nd, then was hanging out for dear life on the last mile.  Felt like race pace, and shouldn't have been that hard.  Some factors that didn't help were fatigue, lack of sleep, and being in a car for 6 hours and on my feet all morning.

Friday, October 19th - 8 miles.  Early with Crystal.  Both of us were tired, and went out slow on Old Faithful out and back.  She had a stomach bug on top of it, but I wasn't complaining about the slower pace.  I don't remember the exact time, but was high 8's/low 9's pace.  Started to rain at the end - lovely fall weather.  Goose's wedding at night - awesome times with some great friends!

Saturday, October 20th - 6 miles?  I am completely drawing a blank here.  I'm going to assume I did 6 miles at least (8 scheduled), but I really have no clue.  I hate getting old.

Sunday, October 21st - 12 miles late at night.  Went down to spectate Rock n Roll STL Marathon with Pat and Crystal.  Pretty chilly in the morning, but got pretty warm at the end.  Nice day to run, but I was glad not to be running given my bad experience last year.  Excited to see a lot of friends out there, and a big shoutout to Luke on his half PR (1:18), and Joe on his full marathon PR and 4th place overall finish! (2:44).  Rams/Packers game afterwards, then a huge nap.  Eventually started my long run at 9:45 p.m., and ran my 6 mile town loop twice.  I was a mess, and totally exhausted.  Probably 9 minute pace or so, but I was literally in a daze while running.  55 miles this week, 138 miles in October, 1455 in 2012.  Still slightly off pace for 2000, but another 50 mile week so making ground.

Monday, October 22nd - 7 miles.  Big River Group Run in South City.  Ran with Robbie and a couple other new guys, who I had the pleasure of showing the 7 mile route.  Legs were beat from last week, and wanted to go slower but ended up picking up the pace at some point.  Good company and conversation tends to do that.  53 minutes or so, 7:42 average pace.

Tuesday, October 23rd - 7 miles (2 up, 4 x 1 mile, 1 down).  SLU trackwork with Crystal and Coach Tim. Warmed up slow, dynamic stretching, then workout of mile repeats with 1 minute break in between reps.  Goal was 6:15-6:20, since I had issues with the 3 mile tempo last week.  Crystal had 7 repeats at 6:05 pace, so ran behind her early on.  Well, it's a lot more difficult to fall back a second here and there, and ended up going through the first two reps almost exactly with her.  Took about 30 extra seconds on the 3rd rep to get some more space, and intentionally slowed it down a bit.  Last rep, accidentally stepped on the railing on the inner lane, and slightly twisted my ankle (no injury).  Hit 1:38 on the quarter, and pretty much had to work hard on the last 3 laps to hit the split.  Cool down and stretching post workout.  Overall very pleased - effort was moderately hard, but could still maintain form ok.  The feeling of the pace feels fine - just need to build strength now.  Splits were: 6:07, 6:09, 6:17, 6:09.

Wednesday, October 24th - 8 miles.  Ran late solo around Glen Carbon.  Stomach was a mess, and actually found a port-a-potty on the side of the road I could use, with avoided an inevitable evil accident.  Legs were pretty fatigued, and maintained a good 8:30ish pace throughout.  Last few days have been in the low to mid 80's - not very happy about this recently humidity and ran shirtless while sweating like a pig the entire way - isn't late October supposed to be cold??

Thursday, October 25th - 4 miles.  Ran with Pat and Crystal after work on the trails and a neighborhood loop.  Storm was rapidly approaching, and got talked into getting outside since the weather looked just ominous and most likely unrunnable with all the incoming rain.  Did out and back on the trail, then started to rain the last half mile or so.  Talked Pat into doing another 1 mile loop around the neighborhood, then literally got pelted by heavy and heavier rain every step of the way.  Was soaking wet by the time we were done, which isn't ideal.  Not to mention it literally dropped 30 degrees in temperature within an hour in the late afternoon/early evening.  8:30-8:45 pace overall.

Friday, October 26th - 7 miles.  2 up, 4 x 30 seconds, 8 x 1 minute hard, 1 down.  Early morning run with Crystal.  41 degrees at start (felt like low 30's according to weather.com), and we warmed up on the roads before heading back to hit the fartlek in her neighborhood since it was still dark outside.  Windy, but tolerable, and we aimed for 5:45ish pace.  Hammered the workout - felt pretty easy starting out, but definitely was working the last few reps.  Slow cooldown to finish it out.  Pace was 5:30-5:50 with a few low 6's (into the wind, we think), and a quick 5:15er to end the workout.

Weather looks tremendous for the next week - highs of 50's, and cool.  Long run in Forest Park tomorrow, then whatever mileage at home to round out another 50ish mile week!

Hitting these last few months of 2012 hard...

Ryan Hall, great story from a recent triathlon, attempt at marathon record wearing flip flops (update - he ran 2:46!!!), Amy Hastings running NYC, Abdi's career coming towards the end, Jason Hartmann paced Ritz in Chicago, Mo Farah could break the marathon record someday, Chris Solinsky on his comeback, Meb, Mary Wittenberg and her legacy, Shalane, Michael Phelps' sister running NYC, and 81 year old Ed Whitlock runs 3:30 marathon.

Wednesday, October 10th - 6 miles.  Ran with Mike at night, and did a loop around town.  Legs were tired, and my back was a mess, so we went slow.  Negative split every mile, and felt ok other than the shuffling and back pain.  51 minutes and some change.

Thursday, October 11th - 5 miles.  Scheduled mile repeats, but crapped out.  Went up to the SLU track after work, and warmed up 2 miles easy.  Workout was 3 x 1 mile at tempo pace with one minute rest in between, but my back was killing me and was really affecting my stride.  So made it through the first mile at 6:14, but was much harder physical effort than it should have been because of the physical compensations I had to do (shorter stride, hunched over).  So called it quits and cooled down 2 miles slow.

Friday, October 12th - 4 miles.  Crapped out in my attempt to run early with Crystal.  So got in a later morning run, which was better than nothing.  Out and back towards Troy.  Sunny in the morning, and my back was a mess.  33-34 minutes, I believe.

Saturday, October 13th - 15 miles.  3 early with Crystal on Old Faithful, then did reverse Home Depot/Old Faithful loop on the trails.  Back was bothering me early, and almost pulled out but got in a good rhythm and continued on.  Was 80, sunny, and HUMID so was not the best conditions.  Looked down at my chest at around mile 6, and was COVERED in bugs which was absolutely disgusting.  Last few miles, it all caught up to me, and I was getting pretty tired.  Thought I was doing less mileage than I actually was (reverse Home Depot/Old Faithful loop is 12 miles or so), but happy with the work.  8:03 average pace - faster than I should have gone, but felt very easy.

Sunday, October 14th - 7.5 miles.  GO! Halloween 10K Day!  Went downtown to watch all the runners go at it.  When I stepped outside in the morning, was very humid and very windy and actually kind of warm.  So drove downtown, ran about a mile to the start and wished the runners good luck, then ran down to establish position.  Good results all around, as the Big River runners represented well and placed high.  Crystal PRed on a tough day and ran 36:51 for 3rd place overall for women!  Cooled down with her and Pat, then ran another mile back to my car.  Tacked on a few more miles at night to finish a good week.  52 miles this week, 85 miles in October, 1402 miles for 2012.

Monday, October 15th - 7 miles.  Big River group run with Pat, Tim, Justin, and a couple others.  Nice night to run, and felt pretty controlled as we went through the loop.  8:30ish pace overall - perfect fall night to run, but daylight in the evening is pretty minimal at this point.  Back felt MUCH better.

Tuesday, October 16th - 8 miles.  Late night workout, since my motivation to get out was rough.  Did 6 miles around town, then did 10 x hills at the hill closeby my place.  The hill was about 250 meters or so, and relatively steep so went up and down pretty hard at sub 6 minute pace.  Got in a nice zone where I felt good pushing.  Weather being cool helped a lot too :)  The initial 6 miler was 7:30ish pace (oops!).  Back is holding up fine - thank goodness.

Working my way towards a solid week and feeling good too.

Carter winning the 5K

3rd place!  And I was graciously given the pie, which was DELICIOUS!!!

Start of the 10K - O'Connor and Stack leading the way

Williams Syndrome Association 5K Recap

Kebede wins Chicago!, Ritz runs 2:07, Ritz blog post marathon, Bolt's plans for Rio 2016, Sammy Wanjiru, Martin Lel to run NYC, new marathon record.

Saturday, October 6th - 7 miles (1 up, Williams Syndrome Association 5K (20:07 1st place), 3 down).  Crazy Friday night which involved us getting kicked out of a hotel room for noise violation (allegedly might I add), and a late night with a pair of dice, good friends, and a crap ton of adult beverages equals a mess.  So Shane and I woke up early, and tried to get Marc and Tim up for the race which was pretty much a lost cause.  Realized the race was an hour later, so opted to go back to bed for an hour since we were both exhausted.  Didn't really fall asleep, but got up and attempted to get Shane, but he was completely passed out.  So drove down to Jackson, MO which was the next town over, roughly 10 minutes away.  Out in the country, with some long, steep hills.  Got to the race start which was in a church parking lot, picked up shirts and packets, then warmed up on the race course.  The course was laid out as a big rectangle, and started up this ridiculous hill which was probably a good 5% grade and about a quarter mile long.  The initial plan was to run with all the groomsmen but seeing I was the only one there, I adjusted my plan to doing a tempo.  So the gun went off, and I immediately jumped out hard and hit the hill going pretty fast.  Decided not to look back until the first mile, and when I did there was nobody there!  So tried to settle into tempo pace, but hit some nasty hills on the second mile which wreaked havoc on my pace.  Finally, got settled into a somewhat easier pace and cruised in for the win.  Cooled down afterwards and cheered in the rest of the runners since I finished a good 6 minutes in front of 2nd place.  Splits were: 5:55 (oops), 6:50 (hills), 6:24.  Course was long, and guessing I was more in the 19:30-19:40 range.  Nice run for me, considering the nasty hills.  Marc and Trisha's wedding afterwards - fun times!

Sunday, October 7th - 6 miles.  Got home from Cape and was just exhausted and worn out.  Today was supposed to be long run, but pretty much crapped out on it.  6 miles in the p.m., and very slow.  Somewhere in the 55-60 minute range.  Lost track of mileage, but I think the last 2 weeks were 28, and 33 which had me at 1350 for 2012.

Monday, October 8th - 7.5 miles.  Ran GO! Halloween 10K preview with Pat, Crystal, and Fenley.  Started downtown, then weaved through Soulard and the brewery before heading back into the city to finish.  I ran the 10K last year, and had a lot of fun with it - tough course starting out the first half with some tough climbs, but the 2nd half is pretty easy and you can go fast.  I don't know the total time, but we went pretty easy.

Tuesday, October 9th - 7 miles (2 up, 12x400 meters, 2 down).  My back was a complete mess all day, and this workout was in complete jeopardy.  Drove up to the track, and warmed up there.  Was hobbling pretty good, and attempted to loosen up.  Really thought I was going to call it quits, and did some strides to help out.  Well, I loosened up enough where I thought I would try a couple and see if I could do it, and ended up doing the complete workout.  The plan was 3 sets of 4-400's with minute rest in between reps, 2 minutes rest between sets, then cutting down 2-3 seconds per set.  Weather was perfect, and felt decent for the most part.  Stride length was about 70% though, and was running more flat footed than I would have liked.  Had issues with the first few sets by going out too hard, so need to work on pacing some more.  But the last set, I was pretty much on.  Cooled down, then stretched for a long time in hopes to loosen up.  Same back ailment that flares up from time to time (most notably before Houston).  Splits were: 1:27, 1:27, 1:27, 1:26, 1:24, 1:24, 1:23, 1:25, 1:20, 1:21, 1:20, 1:18).

Back is slightly better today, but still hobbling a bit.  Easy mileage tonight, then some speed work tomorrow pending on my condition.

Mutai wins Berlin!

Berlin Marathon conspiracy?, Mutai runs 2:04:15, Mo-bot to run London 2014?, bad clock management, Ritz, Wesley Korir, more Korir, and the State of the Union for running.

Monday, October 2nd - 8 miles.  Ran with Pat and Crystal after work on Old Faithful.  Starting to get dark early, and the temps have dropped - wore a long sleeved shirt for the first time in a long time.  Trail is definitely more eerie during the fall, especially when it's almost pitch black.  Realistically, 5-6 miles is the most we'll be able to get in moving forward.  1:10:13 total.

Tuesday, October 3rd - 6 miles.  Crapped out on mile repeats.  Hosting for the next couple days, so cleaning took precedence when I got home.  Not ideal, but it had to be done.  Lucky to get 6 miles in - started a little before 10 p.m., and did my old loop around town.  No watch, just went out and run.

On a related note, I had left my watch in Vegas, and FINALLY got it delivered back home yesterday.  There aren't enough words to tell you how much I love that Timex watch - a cheap little thing, but I know it inside and out.  I also received my new Nike watch in the mail and will be using it for the next week or so to break it in.  More to come...