So Cool I had to steal it.

Long, long run

This past Sunday the Hobbit and I were set to do the dreaded 20 mile run. I really hate this run. Mainly because up to this point I have never had a 20 mile run that did not leave me feeling like I had been hit by a bus. This run was a little different. Again we ran the race course but this time we moved a little closer to where the race will actually start in Post Falls. We did make a slight miscalculation though, which became evident when we reached Liberty Lake. That was where we started from a few weeks back when we ran a little over 16 miles. The problem we had this time was when we got to Liberty Lake we had already run a little over 6 miles....oops, that would be my fault. The Hobbit then started whining about how this was going to be 22 miles....cry,cry,cry, whine, whine. And when I stopped to pee, for the second time, the little girl took off without me. And not only did he go on without me, he hiked up his skirt and picked up the pace too. So the rest of my run I was alone with my thoughts. It was just about the perfect day for running about 50 degrees and overcast. For the most part I had the whole trail to myself. There were 2 races here in Spokane that day so most runners were running one those races. I needed a long run more than I needed a race,which is why I wasn't racing. I felt pretty good during the entire run. I was even encouraged by my ability to accelerate to cross Argonne, a busy road, for those of you that don't know Spokane. That was about mile 16 or so and I remember thinking at the time that mile 16 of the Portland marathon I was in no shape to accelerate. I did finally catch Tony at mile 21. The big pussy was walking!!! and had been since mile 20. He then started running with me again. But now that he was all rested and recovered he wanted to talk. I had to tell him to shut the f**k up. At that point it took every bit of brain power I had left just to keep all my shit going in the same direction. The cool part though was we ran the last 1-1.5 miles at about 8:30 pace, which meant I sped up. Another good thing to come out of that run was that I ran a negative split, which I've been able to do on all of my long runs this year. So when it was all said and done it ended up being 22.77 miles in 3:12 and change. And all and all I felt pretty good. I went home ate and then helped Jayne's dad run the sawmill for a few hours.
Monday was a total rest day except for painting my house, I was a little worried about climbing ladders and tired legs but it went ok.
Tuesday Pat and I road our bikes. When I hit the first hill, my legs quickly reminded me about my long run. So we just cruised and chatted it's always great to ride with Pat.
Today the Hobbit and I ran most of the Bloomsday course nice and slow and still felt pretty spanked on the hills. Tomorrow I plan on a tempo run with 7 miles at 7:43 pace. That will hurt, I'll let you know.

5 WEEKS OUT

With just under 5 weeks until the race every workout counts now. So even though this is a work week Sunday morning was a long run, 16 miles to be exact. Long runs after working all night are tough and hopefully they will make me tougher. It was touch and go for the 1 st couple of miles until I got warmed up. Then I settled in to a pretty comfortable pace ~8:25-40 or so. I ran an out and back from the hospital which puts me on the actual race course for most of the run. Of course on the out part I'm running the course backwards. So at the turn around I was trying to motivate myself by reminding me that this IS the course. On race day when you are right here you will be at about mile 19, "lets practice that strong finish"!!!! I think it helped because for the 2nd week in a row I was able to negative split my long run. This weeks negative split was not as profound as last weeks but I'll still take it as moral victory.
After my run Jayne and I watched the movie Seven Pounds before I went to bed. What a great movie I highly recommend it. Guaranteed to provoke a whole host of emotions/feelings. This coming from the guy described as the man with 1 feeling.
This next week will be my biggest week for training with the dreaded 20 mile run on Sunday. I hope that won't be to big of a jump but I need to get it under my belt.

Up and Moving

My Achilles and I have kissed and made up. Last week was an ok week on volume, I was able to run 30 mile for the week but 15 of those were on Sun. The other 15 came from a 7 mile easy run and an 8 miler that was made up of 3x1 mile intervals. I ran this with the Hobbit on the Centennial trail. Our goal was to hold 7 min/mi. pace. It went more like 6:45, 6:48, 6:55. The other 5 miles was run ~ 8:30.
Our long run, as I mentioned, was a 15 miler. Well actually I ran 15. The Hobbit was suffering from the sandy gina on Sunday. Whining and crying about how tired he was, he turned around at 7 miles. And later when we/I stood in the lake to "ice" my legs he cried little Hobbit tears and got out after about 30 seconds. Even after 2 real girls, I mean 18-19 yo girls, came and stood in the water. He was not able to nut up and stand in the cold water. No worries, he knows he totally pussed out, and he would admit it. We ran, for the 1st time, but not the last, on the Columbia Plateau Trail . We started/stopped at Fish Lake and ran to Turnbull. This is a trail we will run a lot more this year. This is a converted railroad grade. The 1st 3.75 miles was paved then it turned gravel, but good gravel. Along the paved part it was very cool. Due to all of the runoff this year there were small rivers running along each side of the trail. But the most spectacular sight was a ~10-15 foot waterfall that came cascading down the basalt, very cool. The geology along this section is really cool too. Basalt columns 20-30 ft high in places lined both sides of the trail. I can't imagine all the work that went into building this back when they were laying the track. We also ran passed several small lakes. When we entered Turnbull we both were hoping to see some Elk. There is a huge herd there. Looking forward to running there again.