Checking the Tank

73/90% Tired this morning, couldn't tell if I was just tired or if the humidity was just making it harder, but it was better than yesterday. Miles 1-4 we fairly easy pace, did some 15s striders to loosen up. Miles 4-7 were all fartlek at a good intensity, trying to push hard. Miles 8-12 aerobic miles to cooldown... or was that heat up.

Great morning to run. At the risk of bloggers coming to Ohio and beating me, I will go ahead and say it.... AM 6 miles... 58 degrees. 

Too bad it was just a recovery run, would have loved to dome some speed work there. PM- 5 miles and a nice mild 75/60% . The fun part is I had a pacer on the bike. Neither of us had any way to tell how fast we were going, but miles 3-4 we 'raced' and I flat out ran hard. I keep thinking it was sub.... well no matter, I have no way to verify it! Fun though since I caught the bike before the mile marker :) 

Another fabulous morning to run. AM 6 miles 6x20s striders. PM 4 miles, hills. Overall good running day. longer day at work but had its great moments too. 

Ok run, maybe the legs were a little slow. Originally wanted to run a little more, but volunteered to help mulch at the church this morning. Had to leave pretty early and chose to sleep a little extra and start running at 5am.  All and all good day, just that was a whole lotta mulch and more work to do....  

6 early, decent weather, but not much energy... what do you expect for a Monday morning :) 

PM- 5, although hot (88) I felt pretty good, 7:45/m Kids treated me well, got me dinner out and enjoyed Doctor Who with them. We are almost caught up with the season, only a few behind and have become quite attached to that show.  

AM 70/95% 6 wet miles. Warmed up with Cardio X and then a decent run, 6x20s striders. A little late start to work so I had to work pretty hard but it was worth it. 

PM 89, warm, 5 miles. 8/mile. Went the the farmers market and bought a few odds and ends. I am a fan of organic food, but it is pricey compared to regular. Pork and pasta stir fry, yum-o. 

71/99%... not ideal for running but attempted to make the most of it :) I had a project day at work so I needed to get in early. Power washing and cleaning...

Run- after 6 base miles ran 4 miles of hill sprints (8 repeats in all) - tough incline, very challenging and I was toast after that- wet toast.  

AM 75/70% Much better temps to run in. 6 miles, recovery run. Lot's of bunnies and ducks again. I always find in funny how the ducks and geese stand their ground. 

PM 84/50% Decent, but longer day at work. Had to change my schedule up as I am now headed out of town Monday for work. Nice easy evening run, but I think I ate too soon before running.  

AM 68/100% - Ran between storms, humid humid humid... 6x20s Striders to get going- More later PM Lot's a prep for work to be ready to head out of town Monday. 86-hot 5 more wet miles, but its all good :)

Wanted to get out before the heat rolled in, but when the alarm went off there was a lightning storm. So I slept an extra hour, got up, legs felt tired so I warmed up with some Cardio X. Another start at 100% humidity, but despite that it did not feel so bad at the start... eventually it kinda sapped me toward the end, but overall felt okay. Miles 1-6 were quickish and felt good, 6- 12 were rolling hills (+/- 250ft, most around 4-5%, but some areas at 8%), and 12-20+ were progressive... progressively slower that is. Really after 17/18 I did not have much in the tank so I just ran it out best I could.

A lot of races going on today, hope a lot of PR's are set! 

Don't run very many Sunday's but I know I am leaving early Monday so I wanted to get some miles in. 

On the road, in eastern Ohio, nice cool evening to run. Used map my run to plot the roads around the hotel. Feel good. 

AM- Cool morning, felt nice, up very early ran 5 miles in youngstown on the roads. 

PM- After work and travelling west a few hours, found a pretty nice bike path just 2 miles away from the hotel. 6 miles, some hills 7:17 pace. Nice evening run, saw a deer and some turtles! No geese yet, but I will keep you posted :) 

PM- nice weather again, ran the metropark near the hotel. So the first 6 miles had plenty of people, bikes, dogs etc on it, but none of the cool wild life like yesterday. I kept the base fairly easy but steady for the first 6 and then picked up the pace a bit for the last 6.

So mile 6 is where the trail ends so I headed back to where I parked... and things got very cool. Miles 6-7 rounded the bend and a deer is on the trail.  Cool. I got about 2 feet from her, she jumps and then for maybe 1/8 a mile she runs with me- I thought she wanted to pace me or race at first then she darted off into the woods. Miles 7-8, 2 more deer, right off the path- bucks this time, pretty close. Miles 8-9 A skunk... yes skunk crossed the path in front of me. I was like WOAH. luckily it ran off the other way. Miles 9-10, tons of birds for some reason and then a bright blue hummingbird is hovering by a flower right next to the path, slow motion - matrix like. Kinda cool. That was the closest I got to anything in the geese family (ahem). Miles 10-11 yet another deer, but this time there were other people around on the bike path and loud kids yelling DEER and bang bang bang.... Miles 11-12... nadda but I could smell skunk! Good run. Total avg 7:55/mile. No idea of splits. I should have a new Garmin waiting for me when I get home. That will be nice. 

AM- Alarm set for 5 to get my morning run in around the hotel before work. Woke up and felt like I must be late. It was only 4am so I was like 'cool' another hour. Put my head down and my alarm goes off. I swear that was the fastest hour in history. I hit snooze 3 times and went out. My legs were tired and feet were sore. 3.6 easy. 

After work, drove home, took about 4 hours. PM- 7 easy miles. Back to the old routes! Change is nice, but so is running where you know all the turns and mile marks.  My Garmin arrived while I was gone, so I will break it out tomorrow. 

back home as is the high (98%) humidity - 6 Miles early- Decent day today, picked up the youngest at horse camp. She really likes the activity and the horses. 

PM- 86- 5 Relaxed miles. Too warm for me, but since my mind was elsewhere it went fairly quick.  

AM- So we had an am wedding to go to. It is the first time I went to wedding in the morning. So another early Saturday run.  It was the 2nd day I used my new Garmin. Amazon had one of those one day specials and I had a gift card so I went from my dead 305 to a new 405cx. It is to early to say, but so far I certainly like the 405 better. It picks up the satellite much faster, the band is more comfortable and I love being able to program the runs from the computer and import them to the Garmin. The bezel is harder to use, but I like locking it during the run. Honestly I am just happy to be able to see my splits again instead of just knowing the overall run. 15 Miles, 2MWU and then every other mile @ MGP (7:15), 3 mile cooldown. Temps 70/100% - I am telling you that just saps me. By the end I was soaked (no it was not raining!) and out of energy. Quick to the wedding.... 

PM- after the wedding, which was long, but my girls just love having a reason to dress up! They grow so fast. 3.67 miles nice and easy. The humidity dropped to... 97%. Made dinner- Spicy Chicken Stir Fry, Scratch Mashed Taters (add a cup or two of warm  heavy cream with the butter when you mash them!)  and baked plantains, yum, love those. 

AM- We had a dense fog advisory... so I ran through that- I will let you calculate the humidity in that yourself. 6 miles, slow recovery. Off to work... 

PM- Had some company on bikes and it was a bit cooler so that was nice. I figured I would take it slow, but it turned into progressive splits with me pacing the bikers until the last mile. I ran fairly hard (but not all out by any means) distancing myself from them a little. In fairness they stopped at stop signs and I ran through them. 5 Miles.  

AM- 70/100% tired this am- hit the snooze a few times even. Pretty easy run, threw in 8x20s Strides to try and loosen up the legs. 

PM- 85/90% After work, legs still tired, although I ran too soon after I ate because of incoming storms and I wanted to get the run in. Seeing the clouds roll in from the distance- always reminds me of the awesome creation we are a part of.  

AM- oppressive humidity today (100%)- normally run more on wed am, but wanted to do what Sasha suggested -

Sasha- here are the results, they are a bit embarrassing since I  could not hold it over a mile today. I warmed up for 2 miles - here are the 1/4 mile spilts

.25 6:01 Avg HR 147 Max 163

.5  6:00 Avg HR 167 Max 170

.75 6:03 Avg HR 171 Max 173

1 6:02 Avg HR 173 Max 174

I kept going but could not hold the pace @ 6 any more- humidity was brutal this morning but I am offering no excuses. Look forward to your advice. 

PM- 81/82% 6.5 easy. JG thanks for commenting because after looking over so many blogs I always felt like I was the only one who would lose it like that, not to mention so many fast people here! The 5th split, I was around 6:20 at 1/8th mile in and knew I could not get it back down so I slowed up into easy mode. 

AM- another 100% humid morning but the temp was cooler and a slight breeze made it nice. Easy 6. Up early, preparing for a manager that I need to train. Bottom of my left foot has been bother me (aka it hurts). It usually feels better in the first 1/4 mile but today took a few miles to go away. Hope it is nothing that will side track me. I am wondering if I need new shoes.  

PM- rush rush- relaxed 5 miles. Felt better.  

My friends from Kenya are moving back soon and need help moving tomorrow morning so I figured I would get up early and do my long run today, that way I can run tomorrow without thinking about if I am going to some long miles in. Decided to run every 5th mile at MGP today, and while I may have been more aggressive, I was sooo tired when I woke up I wanted to just fall back in bed so I went with that game plan. AM- some CardioX to get the heart rate up and then Miles 1-4, 5-9, 10-14 and 15-19 were my normal aerobic base pace (varying from 8:15-9) and my MGP (7:15) splits were Miles: 4-5 7:11 9-10: 7: 02 14-15 7:05 19-20 7:13 

AM- early before helping my friends move. 6 very easy miles.

PM- Quick run before dinner, friends are here for the night as they will be seeing some family next week. Fast pace, felt good.  

AM- Humid, but cooler, early 6 miles at an early pace. We started VBS this week, I am the 'bad guy' in the skits- I do have fun with drama :) Kids are a riot during these things anyway so it is all for good! After today getting a second run in will be challenging or very late. 

PM- a little too warm for my taste but overall a decent time to run. 7 Miles- 3 easy and the next 3 progressively faster (7:55, 7:49, 6:36). Last mile moderate cool down.  Looking at the Nike's, they are about wore out. I probably should not wear them anymore, that may be leading to my foot pain. 

AM- easy 6, muggy.... I know, boring. Had a love affair with my snooze button though- VBS can wear one out. 

PM- Ran the sugar creek trails by the church- was lucky to get this one in :) These are no easy trails and include rock hops across the river and up some hefty inclines-  avg pace 8:24- and although that may not sound special, for these trails it was. Usually I avg over 9 on these specific trails so I was quite pleased with that. VBS was a BLAST tonight. I had my 'bad guy, evil genius' monologue which was great. My oldest is helping with it, and doing the video editing. Maybe I can post a small clip this week- love when the kids are really into it. 

Early- Cooler temps :) Was going to run 8x800 HMP intervals, but when you keep running through it or are in la la land and don't here the beep you run 4x1600 ones instead. Legs were a little tired from the trails yesterday, but I did not want to give up my intervals so I just made the recoveries the same distance. 2M WU- Interval splits- 6:58, 6:57, 6:58, 6:56 nothing epic, but is pretty close to where I wanted them for now. 

PM-VBS was fun again!  

AM-6 easy- afternoon quick 5 then off to VBS-  Here is a short clip- the front part is missing- simply I was pouring water out of a flask and then the 1st and 3rd cup turned pink while 2nd and 4th stayed clear water (gotta know your acids and bases)- watch the flask close at the end- kids were impressed. Oh and I am the mad scientist if you did not gather that (and that is a wig lol), but the bow tie is real... bow ties are cool...