Weekly Summaries 7/21 - 7/27

Weekly Summary July 21 - 27

Training Log

Monday - 4.34 miles 8:45 pace

Monday morning i got a 4 mile run in first thing in the morning. My legs were still very sore from Saturday’s 20 miler but the training planned just called for 4 so I knew i could get it done. I was excited because this was my first run in my new Nike’s. I think i am going to like them; they feel very light. I think they would be great for the treadmill and the road. After i got back i officially signed up for the Nebraska State Fair Marathon on August 23rd. I am now “officially” registered.

Tuesday - 10.0 miles - 8:03 pace

Tuesday was our 2nd week in a row of our 5 miles @ 5:00 group. Today i needed to do 10 so the group was ok with that. (the other 2 in our group are on bikes). I wanted negative splits the entire run but a few too fast too early miles made that more and more difficult as i approached the end. It was still ag great workout on a hot nebraska day.

1	1.00MI	8:40	8'39"/MI
2	1.00MI	8:16	8'15"/MI
3	1.00MI	8:11	8'09"/MI
4	0.99MI	7:48	7'50"/MI
5	1.00MI	7:40	7'37"/MI
6	1.00MI	7:39	7'37"/MI
7	0.99MI	7:27	7'30"/MI
8	1.00MI	7:34	7'33"/MI
9	1.00MI	8:52	8'51"/MI
10	0.99MI	8:17	8'17"/MI

Wednesday 7.0 miles - 8:44 pace

The morning for me has proven to be the hardest time for me to run. My legs are not loosened up yet & it take a while for that to happen. I needed to get my run in early though because I flew out to Indianapolis that day. On the flight out I began reading the book 26.2 miles to boston. It is very inspiring & a great read; i am about halfway thru it.

Thursday 5.2 miles - 8:09 pace

Well we were suppose to land in Indy Wed night but because of weather in Denver we had to sleep in the airport in Chicago. We caught the first flight Thursday morning and got to Indy around 8:00. I almost immediately starting looking for trails on my phone so i could check out the city :)  I could tell right away that I was going to love this city for running. The river that runs thru downtown has bike/running trails on each side. There were people on them all the time providing a nice safe feeling. Sometimes being alone on a trail is the greatest feeling but in a new big city it’s not one of my favorite feelings.

Friday - 10.0 miles - 7:59 pace

When i was out on my run on Thursday I saw this trail called White River Trail. it was a side trail off the big, popular one. It ran down closer to the river & was in an area filled with trees. This 10 mile run was probably my favorite in Indy. I was past the newness of the city so i wasn’t stopping to take my phone out and snap photos anymore. I was able to run it; enjoy it & get a great set of miles in. Thank you Indy!

Saturday

Saturday afternoon we flew back to Nebraska. I knew i needed to get up & get my run in early. I didnt have a lot of time to be out exploring so i made it a quick run. My legs remained tight thru most of this run. I wish i knew something to do to loosen them up more for morning runs.

Sunday

Sunday was suppose to be my rest day but Saturday called for 13.1 and I only got 4.5 in on that day. I set out for 10 miler at the park near our house, Hall County Park. I wanted to maintain 8 min/mile pace throughout the run and was able to do that. This was a nice run on a hot day in the afternoon that made me feel more confident for the marathon in August. Peek week begins on Monday!

LAPS	DISTANCE	DURATION	AVG PACE
1	1.00MI	8:08	8'06"/MI
2	1.00MI	8:14	8'13"/MI
3	1.00MI	8:17	8'16"/MI
4	0.99MI	7:41	7'41"/MI
5	1.00MI	7:40	7'39"/MI
6	0.99MI	8:01	8'01"/MI
7	0.99MI	7:56	7'56"/MI
8	0.99MI	7:53	7'53"/MI
9	1.00MI	7:57	7'56"/MI
10	0.99MI	8:10	8'10"/MI

Total Weekly Miles - 56.2

Training Plan Miles -44

Weekly Pace - 8:12

Next Week: - PEEK WEEK!

Monday  - 5

Tuesday  - 12

Wednesday - 8

Thursday -  5

Friday  - 5

Saturday - 22

Sunday - 0

Total miles 57

3 Weeks till the Marathon!!

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Weekly Summary July 14 - 20

Weekly Summary July 14 - 20 

I started the week committed to hitting my training plan miles this week. Even if i cannot fit them in the same days as my plan. My training puts me at 41 miles this week.

Monday - Rest Day

I had to take a rest day on Monday because i was out of town on business and never got a chance to run at all.

Tuesday Trifecta of Running.

I woke up Tuesday to 50 degree weather; which in Nebraska in July is nuts! I had to take advantage of it and get a run i in the morning. My training plan called for 5 on Monday (which i missed) & 3.25 on Tuesday.

1. Morning Run - 5.0 miles - 8:23 Pace

2. Lunch Run - 4.42 miles - 7:26 Pace (check out these splits)

3. Afternoon run - 5 miles at 5. a Co-worker & I started doing 5 miles at 5:00 on Tuesday after work. He bikes & I run. I don’t get to run with others much so I am really enjoying this. We did a bit extra this week. 6.7 miles - 8:24 Pace

Wednesday - Rest Day

Wednesday i went to the Y to change to run & the group of guys i play basketball with sometimes talked me into playing. I figured I would fit a run that evening since I had 7 to do. That did not happen but Thursday was a rest day so i could get it then.

Thursday - 7.22 miels - 8:24 pace

Thursday I woke up before work & got the 7 miles in I missed Wednesday. I focused on negative splits again and made all 7 of them faster/ or right at the last one.

Friday - 6.0 miles - 8:11 Pace

Friday was a good run before getting everything packed up for our camping trip.  I had a ton to get done but i felt like i needed to get a run in before I could start on all of it.  

I also went to famous to look for some new shoes because each of my pairs is over the 500 miles mark. They were doing a BOGO half off so I am going to try out some Nike's along with my Asics.

Saturday - 20.0 miles - 8:57 pace

Saturday I was determined to get my 20 mile long run done. I woke up in he camper around 5;30 and grabbed my watch & my shoes and headed out on my run. I realized around mile 2, I didn't eat or drink anything before i headed out. It was going to be 18 more miles of no water, no gel, no goo. just running. Sometimes with running everything just works out and runs that you would think aren't going to go good end up being just fine. My pace wasn't where i wanted it but this long run felt great. 20 miles with no breaks & I spent the rest of the day hiking around the campsite.  

Total Weekly Miles - 49.3

Training Plan Miles - 41.25

Weekly Pace - 8:31

Next Week:

Monday  - 4

Tuesday  - 10

Wednesday -  8

Thursday -  5

Friday  - 5

Saturday - 13.1

Sunday - Rest Day

Total 45 miles

5 Weeks till the Marathon

2014 Lincoln Mile Race Recap

The 2014 Lincoln Mile was one of my most anticipated races of the year. I went into this race last year hoping to be under 7 minutes. I impressed myself last year with a 6:01 finish. After the race ended last year I went on to train for a Half-Marathon and eventually a Marathon and didn't give much thought to the Lincoln Mile again until June of this year. I never trained for this race exclusively this year, but all the training I had done had got me in better shape to hopefully have a wonderful time. Kiera was also super excited for this race again this year because she ran it and had fun last year too. She ran last year at her best time for a mile ever with 10:03.

In my heat of 30-39 year olds we got to conversing before the start of the race about our goal times. We had a few trying for sub 5:00. I set my (what i thought was a) realistic goal at 5:20. I thought given my training and how much faster I am now that 5:20 was obtainable.

I started out with a sprint early in the race with the pack of leaders. I tried at about .2 to get around a pack that was slowing off the lead. I passed them at attempt 3 but had lost quite a few seconds and even more momentum. I tried to push hard at the end but did not have much left at all. My finishing time was 5:43 - :23 seconds over my goal.

Kiera’s race was about 30 minutes after mine, so i got a chance to rest up. She had asked me to run beside her and help pace her to beat her time last year. In our sitting & waiting i tried to not show disappointment in myself after not beating my goal. That is something she has always struggled with, she is always too hard on herself after races. She opened up the race with a dead sprint for the first 1/8th of the race and her heart was definitely beating pretty fast at that point. I came off the sidelines and met her around there. I had her slow down but it was too late; the damage was already done. it took her 2 walk breaks to get her heart back down and back to where she could just jog. She got to that point around .33 miles in. She ran the rest of the race at that 9:00 pace we had practiced but with the 2 early walk breaks her finish time was 10:43. She did really good at not being too hard on herself after the race though. I always feel so blessed to be able to do races with her and teach her things.  

Weekly Summary - 7/7 - 7/13

Weekly Summary July 6th - 13th

This is the week I was hoping to get back to following along my training plan. I have been away from it because I wanted to have legs for the Grand Canyon trip. I also needed a few days rest after the half marathon on Friday July 4th.

I started out Monday with no run because my legs were still tight from the race.

On Tuesday I got in a good 5.53 miles after work on the trails in Grand Island. My friend rode bike along side me which made for nice company to have on the run. I had one of those days where i felt like i could have ran forever. I ended up running 5.53 Miles @ 8:00 minute pace. Cross-trained some today too. I got my strength training done in the evening & played basketball on lunch break.

Wednesday however was the opposite. I wanted to get 10 in on my lunch break so i went up to the North Y, changed and headed out from there. I wanted to work on negative splits so i started out at my slower pace for mile 1. It just got worse from there. Each mile it was hard to run, legs were really tight, stomach started hurting. I’m not sure why this was such a bad run. I’m just chalking it up to just one of those days not meant for running. I looped back to the Y & finished with 5.0 Miles @ 8:49 Pace. Wednesday evening I  got my strength training in & did some foam rolling before bed.

I could not run on my lunch break on Thursday because I had other errands that really needed to get taken care of. After work Brady had opening night of the play he is in, (which he did awesome) so it was a late night for all of us. By the time we got home it was after 10. I did get my run in late but it was a quick 2.5 miles of getting bit by mosquitoes because I forgot to put spray on bugspray.

Friday I fit a run in on my lunch break because i did not want to run the evening before my upcoming 10K. I did 4 miles for fartleks with 1 mile warm up. after the mile warm up I did 2 minutes at approx 7:30 pace & then 2 minutes at a 8:30ish pace. I kept this up until 3.5 then i did the last 2 cool down segments at around 8:15. It was a very humid July Nebraska day. It definitely felt like a good workout.

Saturday was the Cozad 10K & Sunday the Lincoln Mile.

Cozad 10K Recap

Lincoln Mile Recap

Weekly Totals

Total Miles 26.5

Average Pace 8:14

Not anywhere close to where i needed to be for the week but I’m going to kick it next week!

Cozad Rock, Roll & Run 10K Recap

Cozad Rock, Roll & Run 10K Recap - July 2014

Don't let the name of this race fool you, it was not an adventure race of any kind. It was just a straight road race. After work on Friday I traveled down to Gallagher State Recreation Area about 20 minutes outside of Cozad. I got there around 7 and pitched a tent and had some dinner.

I woke up and got the tent down early and headed out to the race. There was some road construction so I didn't have much time to kill once i got there.

I set my goal the night before at under 45:00 minutes. I was going to try and pace around 7:15 and calculate how much i had in the bank throughout the run.  

Mile 1

Never guess what i did; it may sound familiar. Started out to fast again. I hit the 1 mile point at 6:08.

Mile 2

I ran mile 2 a bit faster than plan. I had my watch on the wrong settings so I wasn't getting my mile splits. I had it set on fartleks from my last training run so every 2 minutes it told me to run fast or rest - not the best during a race. Mile 2 time was 7:04.

Mile 3-6.2

I ran the remaining 4 miles all between 7:17 - 7:25. They were not to tough of miles for me. I had settled in that pace & had a guy beside me that was helping hold me there.

I finished with a new PR and first for my age group. My time was 43:27. This was the 7th year of this race and they had a good turn out. I am excited to run it each year that we are around. Maybe the most exciting thing of the day, I met a running group pretty that live close to me and do 7AM long runs on Saturday mornings!

Brownville Freedom Run Race Recap

Brownville Half Marathon Freedom Run Race Recap

Jumping back to Thursday morning. I was sitting in my office the day after a 24 hour drive back from the Grand Canyon. I was only 3 days removed from the 30 miles of hiking up and down that canyon but my legs seemed to feel ok. I hadn't ran much in the last 2 weeks but I did plenty of hiking. I decided that morning I should do the half in Brownville on Friday July 4th. Apparently the 24 hour drive wasn't enough time in the car because Brownville was going to mean 3-4 more hours of driving. 

I arrived in the little community around 8:30 Thursday night with intentions of pitching a tent at the Recreation Area in town but it was flooded. I  drove about 15 miles to Indian Cave State park & set up camp in the dark. It was a great spot and an amazing night of stars to look out at from the tent. I got a good nights rest on the hammock & woke up around 5 ready to run. 

I got to the race with about an hour until gun time so I had plenty of time to get registered and drink some water. I had a Cliff bar and a few other little snacks before the run. The hour flew by and it was time to start. 

Miles 1 - 3

I'm not sure what the heck I was thinking on the first 3 miles. I came out way to fast, which I'm normally careful not to do. My opening mile was 6:34 and i was at the 3 mile mark by 20:51. My pace goal was 7:30 for the whole run.

Miles 4-6

By mile 4 the leaders were set and I was in a comfortable spot in 7th overall. From mile 3 to the finish I never passed anyone or had anyone pass me. There was a lot of lonely miles coming up. I 2 people in front of me until around mile 5 then they became out of sight. From the turn around point to the finish was just me and the people running the other direction. My splits came in at 7:20, 7:39, 7:42 hitting mile 6 at 43:42. 

Miles 7-9

This was an out & back half so i kept thinking after the turn around point I would get my second burst of energy that would last me thru mile 9. That did not seem to happen. I was getting ever more fatigued and running positive splits. 7:43, 7:50, 8:17

Miles 10 - 13.1

By now the sun was out fairly strong and the fatigue from the first 3 miles had set in good. I tried a new fuel that was upsetting my stomach. I ran the final 4 miles at under 8:20's. with my final 2 being 7:57 & 8:06. I finished at 1:40:37 - a 7:40/mile pace. I was first for my age group & 7th overall (5th male). Most importantly a new PR shaving 8 seconds off my last half marathon in October of 2013.

What I learned.

Don't start out so fast (what was i thinking?)

Prep fuel for the race (what i have used in training - nothing new)

Going to a new town & tent camping before a race is amazing.

Enjoy every run - good or bad. That is why we do this right. 

Running a half marathon in Brownville, NE is a great way to spend July 4th.

Coming up this weekend

July 12th 

10K in Cozad, NE 

Goal is a new PR (49:12)

July 13th

Lincoln Mile

Goal is under 5:20 

(last year time was 5:57)

I