6 x 800 intervals (7 miles total)

I got myself up early today. It has been a while since I have been dedicated enough to do that. I drove over to Joe Walker and did my intervals on a track! When we are moved into the new house I will be able to run over to this track as a warm up.

I did a 1.5 mile warm up then hit the track in the dark for 6x800m interval workout. Two weeks ago I did 5xhalf miles on the road. My splits today were 3:05, 2:47, 2:48, 2:45, 2:42, 2:34. My rest was one lap jog (2.5-3 minutes). It felt great to get off the roads and onto a track.

I was pleased with how I felt after five, like I could have done a few more at the 2:45 pace. The hardest part of 10x800s I think will just be staying with it mentally. That is total hour workout on the track not counting warm up and cool down.

I keep forgetting to post this news:

I am officially registered for the Orange County Half Marathon

The race is May 3rd. Clay is running as well. If he feels ready I will pace him to a sub 1:30.

I got a question from my friend Dan Ham recently about my GPS training watch and what I recommend. I have been running with a Garmin Forerunner for the last 4 years and don't now how I ever ran without one. I started with a Garmin Forerunner 201 but last August bought a Garmin Forerunner 305 with some birthday money. Now I don't know how I ever put up with that 201. The Garmin Forerunner 305 has a more accurate GPS, easily uploads to you computer, is smaller on your wrist, has an altimeter, and has some other cool features including a heart rate monintor option. If you don't need or want the heart rate monitor you can get everything else in the Garmin Forerunner 205 (but they are about thet same price). The 305 is on sale at amazon.com for $164.84 which is a steal. It is hard to find it in the store for less than $200. The most recent model is the Garmin Forerunner 405, it has all the same features (with a few upgrades) but is the size of a regular watch and nearly twice the price. I like the larger interface of the 305.

Saturday: 9 mi FF; Sunday: treadmill hills

Yikes! It has been one week since my last post. Here is the recap from last week.

No running during the week. Lots of alibis. Cold weather. Snow on Friday. I did do 20 minutes of strength training MWF during lunch.

I missed a planned easy run with drills and a cruise interval workout.

Saturday I decided to do a fast finish long run, but only had time for a little over an hour. I did 6 miles easy (avg 7:30 pace), then 2.5 fast finish, followed by a half mile cool down for a 9 mile total. The splits on the 2.5 mile finish were 6:07, 6:04, 3:02. Total time for 9 miles was 1:04:26 (avg pace 7:09). It was a great morning for a run except for the patches of black ice on the road due to the freezing temps Friday night (slippery).

Sunday I only had some time while the boys were napping to hop on the treadmill. Today was a scheduled hill repeats workout so I tried to mimic that. The design worked out well. I did a 3 mile warm up at 8mph (7:30 pace) on an incline of 3. Then increased the incline all the way up to 10 (the maximum). I proceeded to alternate 1 minute at 9mph with 2 minutes at 3mph for the next 30 minutes (10 total repetitions). The incline stayed at 10 even on the rest periods. The first 6x1 minute hill repeats were at 9mph, the next 4 were at 9.3mph. The last one went on for 1.5 minutes as I wanted to see what 10mph felt like on an incline of 10 (that is pretty fast, no joke). I cooled down at 7 mph with a total distance of 6.5 miles.

On Jack Daniels PhD. treadmill chart, for 9mph at 10% grade the equivalent effort on level ground is about a 4:10 mile, no wonder I was spent after 1 minute at that pace!


Dean Karnazes posted some of the information he collected at the Running USA conference last week here. The stat that I find most interesting is that of runners that run more than 100 times a year, 94% of them are college educated. I guess college is teaching us something.

Finally, Mark Denny PhD. wrote an article on the ultimate limits to running speeds for humans. I don't know how he formulated the results but they are interesting to think about none the less. Also, amazing how close Paula Radcliffe's marathon record is to the upper limits for females. He predicts that there is only room for .36% improvement on her women's marathon world record. Check out his predictions here.

Have a great week.

Hill repeats on 55th West

I planned on going up to 70th for hill repeats this morning. I drove to our new house, which we still don't live in yet (it is being painted this week), and it was cold and windy so I decided just to run around the neighborhoods. I ran from my house to Lane Park (1.5miles) and back for a 3 mile warm up. Then I did 10x30 second hill repeats on 55th W. just south of Ave. N. This hill is still nothing compared to 70th. The grade on 55th ranges from 7-10% at best. I finished with a 2 mile cool down for a total of 6 miles. It took me that 3 mile warm up to get my legs going, I was stiff from yesterday. I felt better after the workout then I did before.

By the way the elevation at the new house is 2600 ft (almost exactly).

Total weekend mileage: 18


Track news: Shalane Flanagan broke the American Record for the Women's indoor 5k at the Boston Indoor Games this weekend. She shattered the record (held previously by Marla Runyan) by 20 seconds and ran 14:47. See her post race interview here.

The US Cross Country Championships were also this weekend. The men run 12k and the women run 8k. Meb Keflezighi won the men's race and Emily Brown of Minneapolis won the women's race. Delilah DiCrescenso (the inspiration for "Hey There Delilah") was 4th in the women's race. Results here.

Finally, Jordan Hasay, high school phenom out of San Luis Obispo, signed a letter of intent to run for Oregon. See her press conference here (yes that's right, she had a press conference).

12 mile long run (1:33:36)

The weather pattern here lately has been calm and cloudy in the morning with wind and rain in the afternoon. It rained hard last night. At 7:00am this morning it was perfect for a long run with good cloud cover and no wind. I ran 12 miles in 1:33:36 (avg pace 7:48). I haven't run that long since our new years day half marathon. The pace was easy, the distance was a little hard. Clay and I are restarting our 20 min strength training lunch workout on Monday 3x/wk. That should help me get through these long runs easier. The weather pattern should hold up tomorrow for another nice morning run.

Next workout: Warm up, hill repeats, cool down.

5 x half mile intervals (6 miles total)

After a two mile warm up, the workout today was 5xhalf mile intervals on the road. My times were 3:00, 2:47, 2:44, 2:46, 2:46. The recovery was 2:30min jog/walk between each. I felt a little sluggish this morning even in my addidas adizero tempos. I had little left after this workout. The goal is to be able to do 10x800s at this same pace (see Yasso 800s) by the end of April. I will repeat this workout every other week adding one half mile rep each time.

The LA Marathon will be run this year on Memorial Day, May 25th. They have gone back to the old course which starts and finishes in downtown LA. There is a blog for the LA Marathon with some good info and videos.

Next run: Long run 10-12 miles.

I read a good tip in Runner's World this month: Your long run should never be more than 50% of your total weekly mileage. They said triathletes break this rule too often.

6 mile easy run (47:08) +form drills

Left the house at 5:30 this morning. It was about 35 degrees this morning. I ran 6 miles easy averaging 7:51 pace, then did some form drills and shorts sprints. I might run intervals tomorrow, it is supposed to rain Thursday through Saturday.

Here is a fun article from Runnersworld.com
Running: Super Sport, But No Super Bowl

And the controversey of changing the name of Gatorade to "G."

Saturday Threshold + Sunday Hills

We have had some awesome weather this past weekend with highs around 70 degrees and very little wind (only a little Santa Ana breeze this afternoon). Total mileage for the weekend was 17.5.

Saturday I did 10 miles total including 4 miles easy, 4 miles at threshold pace, and 2 miles cool down (carrying a bunch of bananas). The first 4 miles was a little quicker than I had planned (7:22, 7:18, 7:18, 7:22) but didn't seen to affect me too much. I started the threshold portion on M just past 55th and ran up to 65th, down to L-8 and then finished in front of VONS. The mile splits were (6:24, 6:16, 6:18, 6:14). L-8 is a great road to do a threshold pace run on. It is relatively flat but then are some slight ups and downs that keep it interesting. Much like CIM I assume. I finished and took a break at VONS were I picked up 2 dollars worth of bananas that we needed for the boys and then cooled down the 2 miles home carrying my fruit. Total time for 10 miles was 1:09:54 (avg pace 6:59).

Finished January with 81 measly miles running. Ran only 11 days this month. Lots of alibis. I feel like it was enough to maintain fitness. The quality was there, just not the quantity. Ready for a February push.


Sunday I wanted to do some hills but didn't have time to drive up to 70th so I zig zagged over to my hill at the end of 45th (a 4 mile warm up in 29:10) and then did 5x200m hill repeats in 40, 40, 41, 40, 37. The hill is not nearly as steep as 70th (grade tops out at 5%), but it is still a decent workout. The Garmin says the hill is .13 miles which when you multiply by 1600m=208m. My times were decent then compared to 200s on the track. Recovery was a walk/jog to the bottom. Cool down 2.5 miles home for a total of 7.5 miles in 53:43 (avg pace 7:09) I included the time up the hills not down.

Two decent workouts this weekend.

Congratulations to Clay and Dale at the Surf City Marathon/Half Marathon today.
Clay ran 1:33:16 shattering his masters half marathon PR of 1:54:53 set in 2006. Read his commentary and see pictures here.

Dale ran 3:21:50 in the full marathon, also shattering his PR of 3:49:15, which was on the same course, and also in 2006. Read his commentary and see pictures here.

Both were UNDER my predicted times. You guys have come a long way in 2 years. I can't wait for CIM!