JohnK

4 miles relaxed, felt good. Looks as though weather for tomorrow's 10K won't be ideal but won't be terrible either -- mid 60s, overcast, fairly humid. I guess considering it's June in Georgia that's not so bad. Anyway, the course is demanding but I feel I can improve on the 37:55 I ran last year and I'd like to be ~37:30.

Had hoped to run well under 38:00 but just didn't have it today. Went 5:40, 11:57, 18:11, 24:38, 30:47, 37:09 (=5:40, 6:17, 6:14, 6:27, 6:09, 6:22). The first mile includes a long, fairly steep downhill and in previous years I've gone out ~5:40 (although I probably should have held back somewhat). I was really surprised to slow so much in mile #2 although it has a tough uphill section. Mile #4 is also tough, then mile #6 goes up the hill we came down in the opening mile. So there's very little flat on this course. It was ~70 degrees and quite humid but thankfully it was overcast. The positivies today included winning masters and beating a 15 year old who had won a 10k last month with me in 2nd place :10 back. We ran side-by-side for 5.25 miles today and then I got away from him on the final long uphill. He really died, finishing in 38:50. It does my 47 year old ego a bit of good to beat a kid like this! (Of course it won't be long before he's destroying me by several minutes.)

10 miles, easy except a little faster running on the track: 2 x 100, 1 x 200 (36), 1 x 100, 1 x 400 (73.9), 1 x 100. Felt pretty good for the day following a race.

8 miles, easy except 6 x 100 and 1 x 200 on UGA track. Felt okay.

8 miles, first 2 easy then 1600 with strides on the straights followed by 2 x 800 in 2:34.7 and 2:38.5 (400 walk/jog recovery between, ~3:30) then a 400m jog and 2 x 400 in 78.8 and 77.5 (400 jog/walk recovery between, ~2:30). Another 1600 with strides on the straights and 2 miles cool-down. Had wanted to go 3 x 800 in ~2:35 as a tune-up for this Saturday's race but I couldn't manage #3. Legs very heavy today, probably from several hours of standing around at a fund-raising event last night. The first 800 wasn't bad but after that I was struggling.

Not sure how this bodes for 3,000m on Saturday. Will still aim to go out in :82 and try for ~10:15.

Easy hour run. Felt okay.

Easy hour run. Felt considerably better than yesterday.

6 miles easy except a few strides. Looks like I won't be able to get away for the track meet tomorrow but I'll head over to UGA track real early and run a 3,000m time trial. My goal for the meet was 10:15 which I think would have been possible with a real solid effort. On my own I don't see myself running that fast but it'll be interesting.

12 miles, first 3 as warm-up with a few strides, etc., then 3,000m solo time trial in 10:27.5 (400s in 82.2, 82.1, 82.9, 83.5 -- 5:30.7 at 1600 -- 85.0, 85.1, 85.9 + 40.8). Jogged ~400 then ran 6400 starting at just under MP and speeding up slightly (1600s in 6:34, 6:33, 6:30, 6:28) and finally 3 miles cool-down.

Not real pleased with the 3000m but it was quite humid and I wasn't as up for it as I would have been if I'd have been able to get to the meet today. The 6400 went pretty well.

8 miles easy a.m. and 4 miles easy p.m. Felt okay.

11 miles easy in 1:21. Felt pretty good.

7 miles, easy except a few pick-ups and strides. Might race an unusual Wednesday morning 5K tomorrow, start time 6:30 a.m. Have not been getting enough sleep lately and have been doing a lot of driving so I'm not well rested. But it's a chance for a hard workout 10 days out from a 10K (6/23) so I'm may run.

Really felt fatigued when I was warming up for this race and had only 4.5 hours of sleep last night. But I went ahead and ran it, partly because I spotted another master (young guy, just 40) who always gives me a battle and I thought I'd see what sort of effort I could muster. Went 5:41, 11:31, 17:38 on a course that has a fair amount of downhill in mile #1 then mostly flat in mile #2 and a tough 3rd mile. I let the guy lead and he was :05 up on me at the mile and maybe :03 at 2 miles before I made a move to pass and pull away at the base of the major hill at about 4K. This worked! I ended up with a :19 gap as he really faded to a 18:36 while I finished in 18:17. Felt better than I deserved today, although I had no kick left for the final 0.1 and thankfully it wasn't needed!

8 miles with strides.

10 miles primarily easy, a few strides and high knees, etc. Felt good.

17 miles, first 10 in 75 min. then 5 starting at ~MP and dropping pace each mile, total 32:02 (actually this was 8,000m on the track w/ 1600s in 6:36, 6:30, 6:26, 6:20, 6:20) and a 2 mile cool-down.

Felt good and consider this my first long, marathon-oriented run in a while. I think I'll up it to 12 easy miles followed by 5 at MP or better next time (w/ 2 easy after to total 19) and eventually get up to 16 easy which would be ~ 2 hours followed by 5 at MP or better + 2 cool-down (total ~23). I'd probably only do two of those longest efforts prior to Chicago Marathon on Oct. 7th. I like doing the MP part of this sort of run on the track because I can be sure of my pacing. And Chicago is such a flat course I don't need to worry about preparing for hills this time. (Plus I run fairly hilly routes pretty often.) 

Easy hour run. Felt overall fatigue from yesterday's 17 milers but not too bad.

7 miles with strides. Still feeling a little tired from Saturday but not bad.

12 miles, first 4 easy then 1 mile (road) in 5:45, 1.5 miles easy to track, 1600 on track in 5:38, 800m recovery, 6 x 100m strides (working pretty hard on these) w/ 100m jog recoveries, 200m in :35, 3+ mile cool-down. Felt pretty good, not great.

Easy hour run. Felt good. Racing 10K this Saturday and it'll probably be warm/humid but that's always the case with this race (and it'll be a preview of conditions for Peachtree on July 4th). So I'll take two easy days and see if I can turn in a better 10K than the past two.

5 miles easy. Felt good and it was a nice, relatively cool (for June in GA, low 60s) morning. Not much humidity either but it's supposed to warm up the next couple days so Saturday's race will be uncomfortable but I'm trying to get motivated for it.

5 miles easy. Felt good, should be well-rested for tomorrow's 10K and fortunately the weather will be a little better than expected:  mid-60s and sunny but not terribly humid. I know I've been worrying too much about the weather -- fearing really bad conditions -- and letting myself get psyched out by that. So I just need to focus on running well and realize that everyone has to deal with the same weather conditions!

Not such a great showing but I developed a stomach cramp in mile #3 and I feel that added :15 to :30 to my finish time. It was sunny and warm (probably mid 70s at the start) although not terribly humid. Splits were:  5:55, 11:57, 18:02, 24:16, 30:48 (ouch), 37:06 = 5:55, 6:02, 6:05, 6:14, 6:32, 6:18 + 1:15.  The first half of the course is easier than the second and there's also more shade early in the race. I thought I had won masters but shortly after finishing learned that the winning master was :10 in front of me! Some guy from Atlanta I've never heard of, but that's the way it goes. Anyway . . . at least I got a good, long cool-down run afterwards.

13 miles mostly easy, picked it up a little now and then. Felt quite good considering the 10K race yesterday and total of 15 for the day. This might be partly due to the fact that I was unusually good about rehydrating after the race, plus I ate well throughout the day.

A.M.: 11 miles in 1:21. Mostly easy except several strides on grass. Felt good.

P.M.: Easy 30 minutes mostly on grass/trails. Felt a little better than I expected.

Am trying to get in some miles in the heat of the day this week, as I'm racing Peachtree 10K on July 4th and it's typically hot and humid.

A.M.: 11 miles, easy except 3 x 200 and 4 x 100 strides on track.

P.M.: 3 miles easy mostly on grass.

11 miles fairly easy (1:21). Actually felt quite good after ~30 minutes.

12 miles, first 3 easy with a few strides, etc., then 8,000m threshold run on the track in 31:05 (1600s in 6:14, 6:13, 6:14, 6:13, 6:11) followed by 400 easy then 8 x 100m fast strides with jog/walk recoveries and an easy 3 mile cool-down. Pleased with the effort considering I wasn't exactly fresh (68 miles in previous 5 days) and it was low 70s and fairly humid. Will admit I was kind of struggling to maintain pace the last 2K or so.

12 miles easy in 1:29. Felt surprisingly good after about 30 minutes.

10 miles easy (75 minutes). This makes 102 miles in 8 days which is quite a lot for me but I've held up fine and actually felt really good yesterday. Today I felt okay but decided 10 was enough with Peachtree 10K coming up on 7/4. I'll take three easy days now to be ready for a really hard effort next Wed. and then after the race it's back to focusing on volume with more MP and threshold miles.