26.2 Quest: 4 miles

Showing posts with label 4 miles. Show all posts

Building Mileage

It has been and continues to be a long trip back from injury, but I have started to make some progress that actually feels like that - progress. I spent nearly a month running no more than 1 mile at a time, and not very many times a week. I then graduated up to 2 miles, and then finally 3.1 miles where I have been for some time once again.

There has just been something about going beyond the 3.1 mile distance that has been intimidating, even to the point that it seemed that I would never make it beyond the 5k distance. That is, until this past week.

June 2nd was a really nice Saturday, but I had a lot on my plate. I finished up a couple things and then headed out for a late morning run. 69 degrees and sunny and yet I still almost talked myself into cutting it to the 3.1 mile distance again. The discipline won out and I ran my first 4 miler in over 6 months!

The run was slow, but consistent with splits of 10:09, 10:08, 10:06, and 9:32 which I was very pleased with given the hills I once again started to incorporate into my run. I dropped back to the 3.1 and even 2 mile distances since then and just today ventured out for my second 4 miler. Today's splits were not quite as consistent, but in the end a bit faster at 10:22, 9:59, 10:04, and 9:18.

It is hard to believe that I had not run 4 miles straight since November 22nd, but I guess these times will come. I have a long way to go still, but I will get there. The next time I post I will be officially registered for my first 13.1 back after the injury..... how is that for motivation?

Keep the encouragement coming, and tell your friends about 26.2 Quest!

Father’s Day 4-Miler With All My Kids

With today being Father’s Day what better way to celebrate the weekend than to run the Atlanta Track Club Father’s Day 4-Miler with my kids – all three of them! The race was run Saturday morning at 7:30 starting just outside Turner Field in downtown Atlanta, and finishing between first base and the Atlanta Braves Home Plate along the dirt track.

Last year my daughter’s Ashlee and Payton ran it with me, but this year took it to the next step when my 9 year old son Brady joined us as well. This was the first time Brady had run 4 miles so I anticipated there would be a few walk breaks to get the distance, especially considering the hills in the course.

Whoooooooo Hooooooo!!!!!!

Wow is all that I can say! I was really not feeling it this morning, and had no motivation to run going to bed last night or getting up this morning. My girls needed to be at the school for XC practice at 5:40 this morning and I needed to do a workout.

The problem was that I wasn't going to be able to get my 6x800's in early enough to get back home to get them to school by 5:40 considering the drive to the track, the warm up, the 800's and then the drive home just to turn around again and drive them back to the school by 5:40. If I was going to pull this off I was going to have to get up by 4:00 am which I was not willing to do today.

I mixed it up this morning and drove to work and ran from there. My daughters needed to be at XC practice by 5:45 so I dropped them off and drove to work and ran. I have never done this before and so it was a completely new route.

My marathon training plan showed a 35 minute tempo run this morning. I normally would run a tempo run at about 30 sec off pace of whatever I was training for after a 1 mile warm up, but this morning I chose to go with a tempo run as defined by Hal Higdon in his marathon training plan which says "A tempo run is a continuous run with a buildup in the middle to near 10-K race pace"

What kind of split is that?

Either I went out too slow or I finished to fast..... or I just had a great 4 mile run!

Whatever the case I loved it and I think it went really well. This comes after taking three days off because of an aching knee. Still not sure what was going on with my knee. I don't think it was running related, but I didn't want to irritate it by running my long run on Saturday.

I started this mornings run with a first mile at a 9:38 pace, and finished with a 4th mile at a 7:46 pace.... almost 2 minutes difference in between! I try to start my first mile at an easy pace as my warm-up, and try to speed it up a little at a time throughout the race to get negative splits. I guess this morning I was feeling a bit more energetic.

My race log with the other splits.

Shorter than normal

I have had a shorter mileage week than normal. The extra work hours over the last couple weeks once again caught up with me and I just couldn't drag myself out of bed in the middle of the night to go running.

I only put a couple 4 milers in during the week, but with excellent negative splits. Run 1 Run 2.

I did however put in a 10 miler today which I was really pleased with overall. My pace was 9:09 which is just a small bit slower than my half marathon pace.

I am looking forward to getting back at it this coming week.

4 miles in the rain - negative splits

I woke up in the middle of the night to a major downpour. I thought - wow - this morning is a 4 mile run, I hope it slows down a bit before time to get up and get going.

When I rolled out of bed at 4:45 it seemed to have stopped raining so I proceeded to get ready and do all my Monday morning measurements. I was looking forward to my run on this rainy, 61 degree, 99% humidity morning. I finished up and headed out the door at about 5:15. When I walked out the door I noticed the rain had not stopped, but was very light.

The rain came and went the entire run, but since it had rained so hard overnight I had the wonderful enjoyment of puddle hopping, and trying to find all the puddles in the dark (or not find them as it be this morning) I did pretty good at missing most of them, but a couple times the light was not good enough to keep from the splash. I can only wonder how many worms lives were ended under the soles of my running shoes.

My run went really good, and I felt really good. I ended up with an 8:50 average mile on my 4 miler. I had negative splits of 9:26 - 9:15 - 8:45 - 8:16 which I was very happy with.

4 Down - 4 To Go

4 miles down, only 4 more training miles to go before race day. I put my 4 easy miles in this morning and it was a really good run. I tried something a little different this morning.

I usually don't eat anything before running in the morning, but have noticed lately that I do much better when I run in the afternoon a couple hours after eating. Most of my races have been in the morning so I have not eaten anything, but I have had a couple afternoon/evening races over the past couple months and I have always done better and felt like I had more energy. I always thought that I didn't do as well in the morning because it was dark, but I am now beginning to wonder if it doesn't have more to do with fuel.

This morning I got up at 4:05 (something magic about those extra 5 minutes) and made myself some oatmeal. Quaker Oatmeal, not instant oatmeal. I ate about 1/4 cup and then waited an hour before going out for my run. I was apprehensive because I too many times have run with too much on my stomach. The run went really good, my stomach felt good, and I do feel like I had more energy. I am going to play around with this a bit to see what I can do.

As for this Saturday, I will eat something, but I will be up at least 2 hours before race time so that won't be an issue. I will probably just have some oatmeal and maybe a banana. They are now again saying that we are supposed to have rain Saturday. We will see, I will take whatever the good Lord gives me and make the best of it :)

The Morning After

Well, after yesterdays Disappointing Mile, I was a bit anxious and timid with this mornings run. My ankle was a little tight this morning, but was fine all afternoon and evening so I figured it was just tight from running on it yesterday when something wasn't right. I stretched and stretched, and then stretched one more time to see how everything was feeling. If it didn't feel great I was not going to run.

Everything was feeling great so I headed out the door and walked to the starting block (OK, the corner) Once the light turned from red to green (OK, I got my little flashing red light turned on) and official clock had been started (OK, just my cheap watch) I was off.

I paid really close attention as I ran and everything seemed good. I ran the first 3 miles pain free, and then for about 3 steps my right ankle was a little weak. I was very pleased to see it pass as quickly as it came. The rest of the run went really good. I got home and stretched, and stretched, and then stretched some more.

I am sure my ankle is a little weak because of running the mile on it yesterday when it was hurting, but this mornings run was very encouraging.