8/19 – 8/25

Monday: 8.01 Miles – 56:30 – Average Pace 7:04/mile

Decided to try for a new 8 mile PR and was successful.  As usual, I started with a mile at a stiff, but easy pace and focused on getting to the halfway point at around 30 minutes in and got there in 30:33.  Pretty close, especially when it felt like the effort wasn’t too hard.  I planned to hit all of the remaining miles at sub 7 minute pace, and hopefully leave enough in the tank for a sub 6 minute final mile.  The remaining splits were: 6:41, 6:43, 6:32 and 5:57.  I broke my PR by 30 odd seconds and I am happy with the result.  I only wish that I were able to run that 6:43 faster.  I like running each mile faster than the last, especially in the last half of my run.

Tuesday:  Off

Eh, felt kind of like garbage and didn’t feel like running.

Wednesday: Off

Same thing as yesterday.  Last few days have been rough at work, and I am just worn out.

Thursday: 8.31 Miles – 1:12:06 – Average Pace 8:40/mile

Just a really easy run.  Getting harder and harder for me to force a pace this slow unless I am on trail.

Friday: 4.00 Miles – 56:04 – Average Pace 14:02/mile

Went out to Big Cedar to get some miles in, and I learned really damn fast today that I had no business out on the trails.  It felt incredibly hot and I couldn’t get my shit together.  I was running a little and then walking a lot, over and over.  Live to fight another day, I guess.

Saturday:  12.55 Miles – 1:44:09 - Average Pace 8:18/mile

I haven’t been sleeping for shit lately, so it came as no surprise that I was wide awake at 3am.  I tried for the next hour to sleep, and got tired of tossing and turning so I got up and headed out with no real distance in mind.  I ended up putting in 12.55 at what felt like a very pace.  I actually spaced out a bit for the last 2 ish miles and even now I don’t really remember from that point until I got home. 

Sunday: 8.04 Miles –1:01:09– Average Pace 7:36/Mile

Got out for a few birthday miles after spending the day at Six Flags.  If I wanted to be fitting, I could have done 8.25 miles, or better yet, 32 miles, but that wasn’t happening tonight.  Not much to say.

Total Miles: 40.91

Total Time: 5:49:58

Initially I had planned on getting a 50 mile run in on Friday, but I thought better of it.  I don’t know if it would benefit me or be more of a risk.  I know I can cover the distance.  My only concern at this point is that I am not getting enough time on my feet weekly.  Because my training pace has dropped quite a bit overall, I just finish each week with a shorter amount of training time.  Regardless, it seems that the training is really paying off.  The monthly volume alone is much more than I have put in for any of my races, ever.  Training is about complete.  Time to have a couple of easy weeks and just maintain what I have built over the last 4 months and not get stupid and injured.

8/12 - 8/18

Monday: Off

Had to work late.  No time to run tonight.

Tuesday:  Off

Once again, had to work late, no time to run.  Bummer.

Wednesday: 5 Miles – 54:46 – Average Pace 10:55/mile

Hit the treadmill after work.  Still didn’t have enough time to get a full run in, but I gave it a whirl.  1 mile warm up, 2 miles at 5% incline, 2 miles at 15% incline.  Sweat my ass off, but felt pretty strong otherwise.

Thursday: Off

Travel back to Fort Worth.   

Friday: 4.17 Miles – 33:42 – Average Pace 8:05/mile

Set out with the plan to run 8 miles tonight and was feeling really good until 2 miles in.  I went to make the turn onto Grandbury road and tripped.  As I stumbled to catch myself and stay up, I felt a very sharp pain in my left foot right below my pinky toe.  I hobbled across the road and sat down to get my wits about me.  I took my shoe off to assess the damage and didn’t really find anything too alarming.  I decided to play it safe and headed back to the house early.  Almost to the house, I felt like my foot was fine, but I still played it safe.

Saturday:  7.29 Miles – 1:15:12 - Average Pace 10:19/mile

Spent some time out at Big Cedar to catch up on some trail time.  I was pretty concerned about my foot from the previous night, so I chose to wear the NB 1210’s to protect my foot.  I actually felt really good for the whole run.  I deliberately took it at a slow pace.  I tried to run each of the climbs, but still maintain my run/walk ratio.  Ended up being just over a thousand feet of gain through the run.  I had to cut short once again in order to help with some work stuff, but I really felt good about this run.  I got to run Texas Sunset/Ranger/SxSW/Ranger/S.O.S. which I think is a pretty good trail linkup. 

Sunday: 11 Miles –1:26:14– Average Pace 7:50/Mile

Aside from a little stiffness and burning in my Achilles/calves for the first two miles.  I stopped to stretch for a few minutes, and afterwards really felt solid for the rest of the run, running every step.  I don’t feel like I pushed the effort too hard at all and I think it was a nice end to an otherwise shitty week of training.

Total Miles: 27.46

Total Time: 4:09:54

Work really interfered with training this week, but I suppose it doesn’t necessarily hurt to have a light week right now.  I am a little disappointed that I will not meet my initial mileage goal for the month.  Hopefully I can still close out the month with some solid training.  

August 5 - 11

Monday: 8.04 Miles – 1:00:39 – Average Pace 7:32/mile

Days off from running are quite bittersweet.  I enjoy the rest, but I hate the feeling of getting my legs moving again.  Set out tonight with a temp of 100 degrees with fairly low humidity.  The first mile felt like garbage.  Little by little my legs started loosening up as miles two and three went by.  I tried to push the pace subtly as I finished mile 4.  I stopped for a minute to think, and pay some respects to Grandpa on his birthday.  Easing back into the run, I had to push the effort a little to get up the climb to mile 5.  Nothing special for mile 6, but I started to stretch out and finished mile 7 with a 7:26.  Feeling solid, and after a brief stop at the stop light I decided to give a solid effort for the last mile, and ended up with a 6:03.  The last third of the mile was certainly a higher intensity, but if I had started the “kick” earlier, I would have had no problem dropping into the 5’s.  Good start to the week.  Hopefully I can manage to get some good miles while in Ann Arbor.

Tuesday:  Off

Had to work late in order to get things in order to be gone from work for the next 2 weeks.  Wanted to spend time with Christy more than I wanted to run.

Wednesday: 7 Miles – 1:00:11 – Average Pace 8:34/Miles

After dinner, I tried to do some recon on trails around the hotel, but I couldn’t find anything.  Instead, I opted for some hill work on the treadmill.  I set the speed to ~8:30/mile pace and ran the first mile flat to warm up.  After that, I increased the incline by 1% each mile for the next 6 miles.  By my calculation, that would equal out to approximately 1109 feet of gain.  Kind of cheap, but I felt ok doing it.  The fitness center was really hot.  It would have been better to run outside and enjoy this nice weather.  Oh well, there is always tomorrow.

Thursday: Off

Work seemed to take a lot out of me today.  I just crashed out to get prepped for the hard effort I have planned for the weekend.

Friday: 8.01 Miles – 57:53 – Average Pace 7:14/mile

The plan was to get out and push the effort so that I can fight through some leg fatigue on the first of my long runs this weekend.  I left the hotel and really enjoyed the nice cool weather.  I headed out past REI and just started making turns where ever the traffic lights would allow and found myself on Main Street headed for downtown Ann Arbor.   Once I got there, I immediately changed course because the street was absolutely packed.  I felt very good throughout this entire run, and know that I could have pushed the pace a hell of a lot more.  This time is only about a minute slower than my PR, and I wasn’t having any difficulty.  Time to test that again I suppose.  I don’t know what my splits were, because my watch decided to be a douche and delete the tracks.  I think the last mile was around a 6:25.

Saturday PM 1: 22.01 Miles – 2:58:06 - Average Pace 8:06/mile

Did a little route research before I left the hotel to find a long out and back so that I couldn’t bitch out halfway through.  Bobby suggested getting on Ann Arbor/Saline road and do some weird ass loop thing but I only took half of his advice.  On the way to that turn, I stopped at REI to get some gels, including the new Salty Caramel flavor, which I think is now my favorite.  Dodging traffic for the first three miles was a bitch, but after that, I was treated to a run on a long country road with smells reminiscent of camping in Idaho.  There seems to be a ton of pine trees around, and I think that most people are hanging out by fires in their backyards.  This run was awesome.  I felt really strong the entire time and this really builds my confidence for Bear.

Saturday PM 2: 1 Mile – 20:00– Average Pace 20:00/mile

Got showered and cleaned up after the run and I decided that a recovery walk to get some food would do me some good.  It did.

Sunday AM: 2 Miles – 45:00 – Average Pace 22:13/Mile

Wanted to stretch my legs out a bit to see how I was feeling, and loosen up for my second long run of the week this evening.  Felt really good.

Sunday PM: 20.01 Miles – 2:44:47 – Average Pace 8:14/Mile

Did some more route recon to find out how to get to the Border 2 Border trail that connects several cities around Ann Arbor.  Figured out it was about 4 miles to the trailhead and it wasn’t too tricky to get there, so I went for it.  I told myself I was going to take it really easy today, but I was only half successful.  I didn’t really feel stellar for the first 5 miles, but from 5-15, I felt great.  Ann Arbor is really a beautiful town, and it makes me feel a little homesick for Boise.  The trail runs along lots of water and it was very active with people.  All of which were friendly, except for one lady who said “Leave me Alone” as I said good evening in passing.  Bitch.  I started tanking a bit at about 17 miles in, so I stopped and sat on a bench for a minute to regroup.  It was exactly what I needed, as my last three miles were among the fastest of my run.  I am really stoked that I am dialing in my pacing so that I can finish strong.

Total Miles: 68.07

Total Time: 9:46:37

Absolutely jacked about this week.  I managed to get just about all of my planned miles in this week, including nailing the back to back long runs.  Especially happy to get it done while working out of town while putting in 12 hour days.  Furthermore, my body feels great.  I am going to reward it by going down to the pool and hot tub for a bit.  Confidence continues to build.

July 29 – Aug 4

Monday AM: 6.02 Miles – 48:36 – Average Pace 8:04/mile

Another early morning.  Nothing really special about this run. 

Monday PM: 5 Miles – 45:06 – Average Pace 9:01/mile

Went out to Gateway Park to get some trail miles in.  According to the Garmin data, the 93 degree temps felt like 101 degrees.  I know my body was really feeling it.  Just 2 miles in and I was feeling gassed.  I really enjoyed cruising on the trails despite all of the prick mountain bikers that nearly ran me over.  I was running in the NB 1210’s and liked them for about 15 minutes.  After that, not so much.  I made it through the first loop and just cruised around the fields to get up to 5 miles and called it. 

Tuesday: 6.09 Miles – 46:00 – Average Pace 7:33/mile

Tonight was really muggy.  Legs felt really tight for the first mile, but after that I got loosened up and cruised.  Everything was going really well until 3 miles in and my stomach started to disagree with the fact that I was out running.  I barely made it home “safely” at 4 miles in.  After a brief pit stop, I went out for two more quick miles with the last mile in 6:47.  I am really liking the fact that I am able to get these sub 7 minute miles at the ends of my runs and not feel like I had to really work for it.  Progress.

Wednesday: Off

I felt really tired today after work.  I decided that I just wanted to relax.  Yep, felt like a slack ass.

Thursday: Off

Normal off day.  Enjoyed time with Christy.

Friday: 4.95 Miles – 1:36:48 – Average Pace 19:33/mile

Traveled to Colorado Bend State Park to camp for the weekend, run and get my volunteer hours in for Bear.  Dre and Don joined Christy and I for the weekend.  After we got camp set up, I got ready to go for a run and Don said that he wanted to join me.  Since Don is a former Marine and appears to be in good shape, I figured he and I would be able to knock out some easy miles.  We started off down the trail at around 11 minute pace and Don appeared to be holding ok.  Once we started climbing, it became apparent that Don was struggling and wasn’t expecting what he signed up for.  I eased in to a decent powerwalk and took it easy while Don caught his breath.  As the climb mellowed out, we started running again, but was short lived.  I decided in the end that it was best to only hike the remainder of the trail.  My mileage was cut short for the day, but it was cool getting to know Don better.

Saturday AM: 5.01 Miles – 43:42 - Average Pace 8:44/mile

Set out this morning on my own to run the course from yesterday to see how I could do on my own.  I’ve been wanting to see how my legs would feel on some techy uphill, and I feel pretty good about them.  This section of the race course is pretty rugged.  Not really the most taxing in elevation gain, but the footing is pretty sketchy.  Once through the 3 (ish) miles of uphill, It’s a 2 mile bomb on dirt road to the bottom.  Closed with a 6:22 final mile.

Saturday PM: 3.42 Miles – 1:30:47 – Average Pace 26:33/mile

Simply a hike with the crew down to see the amazing Gorman Falls.  Explored a little bit and headed back up. 

Total Miles: 30.49

Total Time: 6:10:59

I’m not exactly excited about my training this week, but not disappointed either.  I spent and additional 10 hours on my feet setting up and running an aid station on Saturday night which could be some sort of training I suppose.  Regardless, it felt awesome to give back to the scene.  I had thoughts of running the 7 miles from my station back to the start, but with my headlamp broken, I had to take the easy road back.  I’ll be working in Michigan for the next 2 weeks, and I hope that I will be able to stay consistent on my training.  I really need to push hard for the next 3 weeks before I can begin my taper for Bear.