5 Years Running

Today was a long run day.

Even with Guns N' Roses blasting through my earbuds,
"Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty"

...my thoughts wander and I reflected upon the fact that I have been running for 5 years now.

I went back over my blog post of 2014 and had a good laugh at my 5 year plan.  Based on those posts, my running has exceeded my expectations.  I started with a 30+ minute 5k, now I'm sub 23 minutes.  My first Half-Marathon was 2 hour and 7 minutes, now it under 1 hour and 44 minutes.  

Really, I'm content, even if I never beat those records.  I used to think that if I could just average an 8:30 minute mile for a half, then that would be enough.  I've managed a 7:55.

Does this mean that I'm not striving for faster? Of course not. I'm human.

Right now I'm nowhere near in any shape to run those times, and that is fine.  Since Afrika, I've been bulking up on miles.  

I got my hands on this book:

I mentioned this book in one of my earliest blog posts. Now I'm going to give the 5k training plan a try for Monterey this Fall.  I think I will use it for my half-marathon that I plan to run in the Spring.  I've been running twice a day on some days, something I haven't done in quite awhile.  For example:

Tuesday AM	Tuesday PM	Wednesday AM	Wednesday PM	Thursday AM	Thursday PM
5.3	0	5.3	3	8.6	3
Friday AM	Friday PM	Saturday AM	Saturday PM	Sunday	Monday	Total
6.2	3	5.3	2.6	6.2	16.9	65.4	7/9-7/16

Today I ran 16.9 miles at a 10:11 pace.  I haven't had a "gel" in years.  For these long runs I drive out to the end of the canal.  My car contains a cooler with a supply of water and assorted veggies/fruit.  I grab 2-4 pieces at the end of each 3.7 mile loop.  There is a port-a-potty where I park and so other needs are met also.

Next week I reduce my miles to something in the 40s.  I'm going to sprinkle in some "speed work" for this low mileage week.  I've been doing hill sprints on the treadmill twice a week, so I should be ready.

For the first time I've managed to achieve a 10mph pace on the tread mill (at 1% grade) and hold it for about a 100 yards.  All previous attempts resulted in me panicking and hitting the stop button, or pulling out the safety key. I believe "teaching" my legs to run at this faster pace is critical to any future improvement.