JohnK

11 miles with several strides during the last few miles. Felt good. Hope to get in a second shorter run this evening.

P.M.: 4 miles easy.

10 miles easy (75 minutes). Felt good. Wanting to hit a higher mileage week this week and then a bit less next week with one solid track workout. I'm running River to River Relay in southern Illinois -- killer hills! -- on April 19th so I'll be sure to back off a few days prior to that. We've got a good team (Atlanta TC masters) entered in the handicap division which is open to all ages 40+. I'm actually our youngest team member at 48 and we range up to 75. I think we can finish top three if everyone run decently. That would be quite an accomplishment.

12 miles, first 2 easy to warm up then 5 x 800/300 on UGA track aiming for ~2:55 on the 800s and ~:60 on the 300s and taking 300m jog recoveries after each 800 and 600m recoveries after each 300. Went 2:56/:61, 2:56/:60, 2:55/:60, 2:56/:60, 2:58/:61. It was misting and rather windy so not ideal conditions but I'm glad I pushed through the workout. 3.75 miles cool-down with a few strides.

10 miles mostly easy. Felt good after a few miles.

9 miles easy in the rain. Had planned a long run for this morning but am delaying until tomorrow because of forecast thunderstorms w/ lightening -- didn't want to be 8 miles out of town when that suddenly popped up.

14 miles, first 2 easy to warm up then 15K on UGA track in 1:00.55 followed by 2.75 cool-down. Ran first 5K in 20:29 (1Ks in 4:06, 4:07, 4:07, 4:04, 4:05) then sped up just a bit with a 20:18 (4:03, 4:03, 4:04, 4:04, 4:04) and ran the final 5K in 20:08 (4:04, 4:04, 4:03, 4:03, 3:55). Overall pace for the 15K is 6:32 so this is ~:15-:20 faster than MP.

My original thought was to run 20K in ~1:22 but after 5K I could tell I wasn't having a great day so I agreed with myself to just do 15K but pick up the pace a bit. It didn't feel as easy as I would have liked but I've had some short nights lately and think I came into this kind of tired.

8 miles easy. Felt okay, some fatigue from yesterday.

Had some unexpected soreness in the right groin area this a.m. so I just ran an easy hour instead of planned fartlek. I'm not sure where this came from. It lessened a bit after the first few miles but was noticeable the entire run.

12 miles, first 1.5 as warm up then 5.5 miles fartlek -- not too tough, mainly some short accelerations and also several longer build-ups. I got to the track at the end of the fartlek section where I did 1600/1200/800/400/400/400 all with 400 jog recoveries. Times were 5:47, 4:21, 2:50, :81, :82, :82. Easy mile cool-down. Groin still somewhat sore but better than yesterday and it didn't bother me much. I was pleased with the part of this workout I did on the track, considering I'd already gone 7 with some fartlek. It wasn't that fast but the effort was reasonably good.

9 miles, mostly easy but with several accelerations and strides. Felt better than expected following yesterday's workout.

8 miles easy. Felt pretty good. Might race a low-key 5K this Sunday as a tune-up for River To River Relays next Saturday.

7 miles easy. 5K race tomorrow:  not much idea what to expect but I'm hoping to keep it under 18:30 and perhaps ~18:15 if I have a good day.

Ran this local 5K in 18:16 which was good enough to give me the overall win. Obviously it was a small race -- only about 100 finishers which you'd expect on a Sunday morning -- but I ran pretty well and was pleased with my effor and with the fact that I maintained pace well. I felt tired during warm-up, not surprising as I was up late with the family watching "Amistad" and then got up at 4:30 to watch London Marathon (which was well worth giving up a few hours of sleep to see!). But once the race started I felt okay. No problem with the groin that had been sore early in the week.

Mile #1 (5:49): A mostly flat mile and another master (young 41-year-old guy) got out fast so I just kept him close until a small uphill at 3/4 where I pushed just a bit went by him. Then we made a turn and started a gradual downhill. I knew mile #2 had two significant uphill sections so I was planning to push those.

Mile #2 (5:56): Started out continuing gradual downhill then a little flat before a quarter mile uphill. I pushed the hill pretty well then after a brief flat section there was another (shorter) uphill and I continued to work fairly hard. I knew I had already built a decent lead but wanted to feel I had it won by 2 miles.

Mile #3 (5:56) + 0.1 (:35): This was flat for about 3/4 then there was a short, steep uphill followed by a bit of flat and then down to the finish, but that last bit was on a trail with two sharp turns. I just maintained my effort as evenly as possible and then pushed a bit at the end. Felt strong throughout but was pretty well spent by the finish.

Overall I'm pleased. I haven't been doing much 5K-oriented training in a long while so I certainly wasn't expecting a sub-18. But maybe there's hope I can improve on this a bit over the coming months.

(It's a bit depressing that I used to race 20K at this pace, but that was more than 20 years ago. I'm just glad to still be out there!)

8 miles, primarily easy but I threw in several accelerations and felt quite good.

9 miles easy. Felt like doing more but resisted the urge as I want to be rested and ready to go for Saturday's relay.

9 miles easy with a few pick-ups. Felt good.

5 mile easy, felt really good. Am heading out before dawn tomorrow for southern Illinois with 7 other Atlanta Track Club masters to participate in Saturday's "River to River Relay" -- 80 miles across the southern tip of the state from the Mississippi River to the Ohio. A very hilly route and the area is water-logged with mudslides here and there and downed trees but it should be a blast. We have a good outfit entered in the handicap division (all ages eligible on a team, with handicaps given based on age) and I'm our youngest member at 48. If everyone runs up to potential we have a shot at a top three finish which would be excellent.

2 mile light jog in the rain in Marion, Illinois the evening prior to River to River Relay. Long drive from Atlanta but we'll be ready to roll tomorrow.

River to River Relay, Southern Illinois (start on Mississippi River, finish on Ohio River)

Our team (Atlanta Track Club masters) finished 22nd of 240 teams overall (clock time of 8:48.53 for 76.4 miles -- shortened by 3.6 from 80 due to recent heavy rains basically washing out the first section). We were 2nd of 53 teams in the handicap division with a handicap time of 7:00.08. (Our average age worked out to 59.7 so I was the young guy at age 48.) Handicaps are assigned based on age and sex and we had 1:48.45. The team that beat us to win the handicap division was Los Tortugas from Albuquerque, NM and they had a clock time of 9:53.19 but a handicap time of 6:58.34 (beating us by a narrow 1:34!) due to their large 2:54.45 handicap. They had 3 or 4 women and the handicaps for older women are pretty substantial -- too substantial we thought!

My three legs were 3.35, 3.40 and 3.45 miles and I ran them in 21:13, 20:17 and 21:09 for a total of 10.2 miles in 1:02.39. The course was very hilly although my sections weren't as tough as some. Overall it was a great experience and the organization of R2R is excellent.

3.5 miles very easy in Paducah, KY before driving home to Georgia.

A.M.:  7 miles with a few pick-ups and 2 x ~800 in 3:05 (just stretching the legs a bit). Felt pretty good.

P.M.:  3 miles easy. Beautiful evening and no one was home so I decided to get out for a short run.

12 miles, first 5 mostly easy with 4 x ~150m accelerations and a few other pick-ups then 3 miles in 18:30 (6:30, 6:05, 5:55) followed by 4 miles cool-down. Felt pretty good.

9 miles easy. Felt kind of beat up today -- think it's a delayed response to the demanding weekend (R2R Relay, not much sleep, driving, etc.) plus I ran pretty hard yesterday. So I took it very slow this morning.

11 miles, first 1.75 to warm up with a few strides then 1600 on track in 5:48, easy 400m recovery, 400 in :82, easy 400, 3,000m in 11:51 (hit 1500 in 6:00 and picked it up a bit with 5:51 the second 1500) then 5.5 miles cool-down. The idea was to run the 1600 at 5K race pace, the 400 at 3K race pace and the 3,000 at threshold pace and it seemed about right. I'd like to try this again next week and bring the 3K down to near 10K goal race pace (i.e. ~11:15-11:20).

10 miles easy (75 minutes). Felt okay, not bad considering yesterday's workout and how I felt earlier in the week. It was a nice, easy recovery run so I should be feeling good tomorrow.

9 miles, first 2 to warm-up (included a few strides) then 1600 in 5:43, 400 jog (2:10), 400 in :80, 400 jog/walk (3:00), 3000 in 11:27 (1500s in 5:47 + 5:40) then 3.25 cool-down.

This is the same workout I did Thursday a.m., just 48 hours ago, and I'm not really sure why I decided to do it again. But I felt like running on the track, so, what the hey. I'm racing a 3,000m in early June and obviously need to focus my training on preparing for that. I'm pretty slow right now and will need to get in sub-5:00 1500m shape if I want to run ~10:20 for 3K, which won't be an easy task!

15 miles in 1:47. This wasn't exactly an easy run as much of it was sub-7:00 pace (w/ miles 14 & 15 considerably slower) and there were some hilly sections. I was dragging by the end, due to yesterday's workout and also several hours last night on my feet watching a pro criterium in downtown Athens. Got to sleep at 1:30 a.m. and was up a little after 6:00. But I'm glad I got the run in.

7 miles easy. Felt so-so and definitely needed a very easy recovery day!

10 miles, first 1.5 easy then track workout consisting of 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 600, 500, 400, 300, 200 w/ recoveries of equal distance. I wasn't wanting to push incredibly hard on this -- didn't want to pull anything! -- so I didn't warm up fully. And I was just wanting to run close to steadily which is about what I did. :43, :64, :85, 1:46, 2:09, 2:09, 1:47, :83, :62, :41. It was quite windy so that slowed my times a little. 3.5 miles cool-down. Overall not a terrific workout but something I can improve on easily!

10 miles, easy except several ~150m accelerations. Felt pretty good.