If you can run in Huntsville, Texas.... you can run anywhere!

I've determined that traveling is a double edged sword. While I enjoy traveling to new places and having new experiences, I hate things that interrupt my normal routine. It always seems to take me 7-10 days to re-adjust once I get home. I'm definately feeling the heat and humidity. I was in Colorado just long enough to get spoiled, now it's back to reality. I finished my 7.5 mile run this morning covered in sweat. I literally looked like I climbed straight out of a swimming pool.... AND THIS WAS AT 7AM! Not once was I covered in sweat at the conclusion of run in Colorado. I also noticed that my average pace was a few seconds per mile slower than the pace I was running in Colorado Springs (+6500 ft). This is the effect that this heat and humidity can have on you, but you never really realize it until you've exprienced something different. I've always said that it takes more discipline and dedication to be a distance runner in SE Texas (particularly in the summer) than anywhere else in the country, and I stand by that statement.

Completed Training Cycle

So today marked the end of my 20 week training cycle. It was a very good 20 weeks and I am extremely impressed with the progress I've made. For example, on January 22 I did a 3 mile tempo run in Huntsville and ran 24:26 (8:08/mile) and on July 26 I did a 4 mile tempo run in Boulder, CO and ran 27:53 (6:58/mile). It's remarkable what can be accomplished in just 6 months. I'm now excited to start training for my next training cycle. This one will be a 6.5 month plan with my primary focuses being on the Aramco Half-Marathon on January 17 in Houston and then the Houston Rodeo Run 10k at the end of February. I don't plan on increasing the volume of my highest mileage weeks much (I'll probably continue to top out at 60-65 miles in my high weeks), but I'm going to increase the frequency of these weeks so that I'm able to string together 3 consecutive weeks of 60-65 miles on two different occasions. I'm also going to keep my focus on improving my lactate threshold and maximal oxygen consumption. I tend to respond well when I'm able to get 2 or 3 good LT or VO2 workouts each week. I'm excited about it!

I'm a "stats guy." I like to look at numbers and try to find patterns or tendencies. If these stats are interpreted properly I think they can give a good indication of what individuals need to do to continue to improve from one season to the next. Here are my running stats from the past 5 months.

Total Miles: 926.5 miles
Avg Miles/Week: 46.325 miles
Total Number of Runs: 154 (in 140 days)
Avg Distance/Run: 6.016 miles
Highest Mileage Week: 60.8 miles (May 25 - May 31)
Lowest Mileage Week: 26.6 miles (Apr 6 - Apr 12)
Number of Weeks Over 60 miles: 3
Number of Weeks Over 50 miles: 9
Number of Weeks Under 40 miles: 6
Number of Weeks Under 30 miles: 2
Total Time Spent Running: 121-hours, 27-minutes and 57-seconds
Avg Running Time/Week: 6-hours, 4-minutes and 24-seconds
Avg Running Pace: 7-minutes and 52-seconds
Avg Run Duration: 47-mintues and 19-seconds

Tempo Time

I've been wanting to run a 4 Mile Tempo for a while now. I define a "tempo" as a run that is at about 90-95% of your maximum effort over that distance. I've always felt like these runs are a great, and accurate, judge of fitness. However, being in Boulder (instead of at sea level), I wasn't really sure what to expect. After about a 1.5 warm up I began with the main goal of not overrunning the first mile and half to make sure I had a decent finish. I hit the first mile in 7:10, followed by a 7:01, a 6:44 for the 3rd mile (20:56), and closed with a 6:57 for a final time of 27:53.8. I was just hoping to run under 30-minutes, which would have been the fastest I've ever run a 4 Mile Tempo. So I was extremely excited with my final time! On top of that, I felt so good after I finished that I decided to get a little more quality work in, so after a mile recovery jog I ran a hard mile in 6:38. I cooled down for about a mile to give myself 8.5 miles on the morning. It was a great workout and it has me feeling really good about my current fitness level.

(P.S. I'm not looking forward to returning to the heat and humidity of SE Texas in a few days)

What Altitude?

Boulder sits at a little over 5400 ft above sea level and at this point it should be relatively easy to feel the effects of the increased altitude (especially coming from sea level). However, I haven't noticed it much. My paces are just a few seconds per mile slower than what I normally run, but that could also be attributed to the fact that I've been putting in quite a bit more miles the past few weeks than I have originally planned. I'm going to do a 4 Mile Tempo Run along Boulder Creek on Saturday morning and that should really tell me how big of a negative effect that altitude has.

Other than that, I've just been putting in the mileage.... 29.5 miles in the past 3 days and 86 miles in the past 10 days. Quite a bit more than the 40 mile weeks I had planned at this point in the year, but I've been bored and at times boredom can be a runners best friend.

Feel Surprisingly Good!

It wasn't but a few short weeks ago when I was struggling to finish a 5 mile run at any pace and couldn't hold a 6:30 mile to save my life. But it's amazing what a little determination and persistence can do. The past week or so has been amazing. I've been breezing through long runs at a good solid pace. On a few occassions I've felt so good I've been able to really hammer the last mile or two. I was going to do a 3200m Time Trial Monday evening, but it was windy and about to storm in Lockhart, so I decided to forgo the time trial in favor of a quality endurance run. I ended up running 6.1 miles at about 7:28 per mile. I was quite pleased with this, especially considering I ran a 10k Race in February in similar conditions and ran about 7:15 per mile the entire way.

Today I traveled to Boulder, Colorado. My flight left out of Austin at 6:35am, and I wasn't sure if I would have time or energy to run once I got to Boulder, so I woke up at 3:30am to get in almost 4 miles. It felt almost effortless and I breezed through it pretty quickly. After traveling most of the morning I arrived in Boulder. I walked around campus for a while just checking out the sights. I strolled down Pearl St, which is the main drag here in Boulder. It's quite a nice place and the weather is awesome. At 3pm it was about 75-degrees with a slight breeze and 65% humidity. I had already been settled in and I couldn't pass up this opportunity to run. So at 3pm I went out and ran an easy 5.5 miles along Boulder Creek Path that runs right through part of campus and next to the dorm I'm staying in. I never would dream of running outside at 3pm in Texas in July. As it was in Eugene, this place feels like another world.

It's Been a While

It's been a while since I've been able to make a post. I've been at my mom's house in Lockhart for a few days and she doesn't have the internet (or a TV), so I've been bored the past couple of days. This has led me to run 10-15 miles more this week past week than I originally planned (which is not necessarily a bad thing).

The first thing I did Friday morning was register for the Houston Aramco Half-Marathon on January 17. It's good thing I didn't procrastinate on that as the race was full by 8:45 that same evening. I have a few friends who waited and missed out on registering. I've never run a half-marathon (my longest run has been about 10 miles). I'm going to bump my mileage up a bit and really focus on long steady running and really improve my lactate threshold. After doing a lot of repetition work the past 6 weeks I'm looking forward to getting back to mileage runs and threshold work. If I take care of my body and stay healthy until then I feel like I should be able to run quit well.

For fun I did a 400m time trial the other evening. I haven't really prepared for it. The fastest I've run in the past several months was a set of 200s at about 35-36 seconds, but I wanted to see what I could run. Unlike a real quarter miler, I negative split with a 35.5 first 200m and 34.6 second 200m for a final time of 70.1-seconds. That is about what I thought I'd run, but it's nothing to write home about. I now of something to shoot for if I ever decide to train for a 400m dash.

Tomorrow morning I leave for Colorado for a week. I'll be in Boulder for the first few days at the USATF Level II Education Program. I got my level 2 certification last year in the endurance events and I'm going to focus on getting my certification in the jumping events now. I'm going to stay a few extra days and see the sights in Colorado Springs and Denver. I've never been to Colorado, so I'm looking forward to this trip. I'm also looking forward to the cooler weather (hopefully the altitude won't disrupt my running much). It should be a nice working vacation.

Long, Interesting Day

For some odd reason, I woke up at 5am this morning. I had set my alarm for 5:30am, hoping I'd be responsible enough to get up without hitting the snooze button (or reseting the alarm altogether). But at 5am I woke up and I was wide awake. I could have probably gone back to bed, but I knew if I did I wasn't going to wake up 30-minutes later. So I go up and goofed around at the house for a while before I decided to go ahead and go to the track.

I had been planning a 1500m Time Trial for a while now, but I just haven't been able to bring myself to doing it. I had been enjoying myself on my mileage runs and they were feeling easy again, but I decided to go ahead and do it this morning. I went through the warm up feeling pretty good and I was excited about what I might be able to run. I figure I was probably in shape to run between 5:15 and 5:20 if I felt good, the weather was decent, and if I was able to find a way to push myself running solo. I hit the first 400m in 86.9, followed by a 84.6. I slowed a bit to 86.8, hitting the 1200m mark in 4:18.3. This is the exact same time I hit during a 1200m Time Trial at the end of June. I ran my last 300m in 63.1 for a total time of 5:21.5. While I was little slower than what I thought I could run, I figured this was satisfactory given the fact I haven't done any repetition running in the last few weeks. It was also a solo effort. I'll take it. For good measure, I went and spent some time on the elliptical immediately after finishing my cool down. I've been spending about 5-6 hours a week on the elliptical. I find it gives me a good workout without leaving me exhausted for my run the follow day.

I went out to the park this afternoon for an easy 5 miles. I haven't run out at the state park much in the past month, and didn't run there much before that. It didn't take me long before I realized why I hadn't been out there much. I HATE RUNNING IN THE STATE PARK! While the trees do provide shade from the scorching sun, they also block whatever breeze may be blowing. I also can't stand running in the sand. I feel like I expend a lot of energy and never make much progress. The next time I run at the state park it'll be too soon. I'm going to stick to the roads for a while.