Day 239

• 2.04 miles
• 8:41/mile pace
• 0610
• From/To home
• Considering aforementioned issues, I consider this a good enough effort -- it is not that I am dealing with much pain, as I am not, but I am significantly concerned about doing anything close to straining...hope is that tomorrow I can do what I was supposed to do today, which is run longer and faster, but we will see.   This streak extender means that the streak goes on.

Day 238

• 4.44 miles
• 8:26/mile pace
• 0610
• From/To home
• 30-40 minutes "easy" was on the schedule, I decided I would do short of 40 at a slow pace on account of the fact that I was/am worried about the fact that I've developed hemorroids.  Yeah, seriously, woke up fine yesterday, somewhere around mid-afternoon I started feeling something and by night and through to today I have I guess inflamation?   Anyway, this is a bad subject, I will stop typing about it now.

Day 237

• 7.1 miles
• 7:29/mile pace
• 0627
• From/To home
• 38 minutes at "easy" pace, which turned out to be 7:31/mile pace, followed by 11 x 20 seconds fast with 1 minute recovery between each.   Pretty hard overall, but thankfully not devastating.   Mid-week mileage definitely climbing now that I'm following a specific marathon prep plan.  
• Not worth your time, unless you're at work:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9bt6V6v-JY

Day 236

• 3.03 miles
• 8:16/mile pace
• 1057
• From/to home
• "Recovery" run.   Woke up feeling like junk, believe it was due to dehydration -- felt decent by mid-morning so went for a late run, thankfully it was a very nice day.  Anyway, this was easy and felt fine.

Day 235

• 11.82 miles
• 8:35/mile pace
• 0550
• South Mountain
• Met up with Dean for a run on his turf and really enjoyed it -- good route, great conversation...and not as painful as I feared it would be considering that I completely fried myself on the Salt River yesterday with Laura, Craig, Becca, Tess, Dra and hundreds of tatooed folks.   I look like I've been stained with half a dozen tomatos shot at me from a pitching machine.
• After the run I got an absolutely incredible tour of Dean's office building and recommend it to anyone who can get the opportunity, seriously awesome.  
• Random point that is probably only interesting to me -- Dean's Garmin measured our run to be .14 miles longer than mine did...

Day 234

• 5.39 miles
• 7:25/mile pace
• 0540
• From/to home
• An "easy" run...I really do hope that after I train for a few more weeks/months that I can consider such a pace to be "easy."   

Day 233

• 2 miles
• Slow
• 0600
• From/To home
• I need to regain respect for the shortish "streak extender" runs prior to starting them...as soon as I take the first step I respect them again, but in a somewhat begrudged way because leading up to them I seem to regularly convince myself that they're nothing to be concerned about, no problem, easy stuff, not even gunna hurt, etc. -- all running is an effort, all.   The streak goes on.

Day 232

• 6.72 miles
• 7:34/mile pace
• 0605
• From/To home
• Plan called for the following:   20 minutes easy, 10 minutes at 6:35/mile pace, 20 minutes easy.   It played out as follows:   20 minutes and 20 seconds at 8:16/mile pace (a bit slower than the prescribed "easy" pace), 10 minutes at 6:27/mile pace (a bit faster than prescribed pace, but only because I'm not very good at pacing...yet), 20 minutes and 30 seconds at 7:35/mile pace.   I guess that will suffice, overall it was tiring, but not too horribly so.
• I think I prefer the random workouts I make up, but I have no belief that they will be as beneficial in relation to my goals, so...on I go.

Day 231

• 5.2 miles
• 7:43/mile pace
• 0630
• From/To home
• Training plan said 30-40 minutes "easy," but unfortunately I decided to look up the authors definition of "easy," which turned out to be not what I would consider easy.   His definition is 30-60 seconds slower than race pace, which means I needed to run 7:50ish per mile pace, which isn't real easy....once again thinking that my goal may be too ambitious, but whatever, I've set it, so now I must keep pressing on.   Haven't looked at tomorrow's prescription, think I'm just afraid to. 
• 231 is what I remember Bo Jackson weighing in college.   I really loved Vincent "Bo" Jackson.   I still do.

Day 230

• 5.31 miles
• 7:57/mile pace
• 0650
• From/To home
• The plan I am still following (two days and counting) called for a 30 to 40 minute easy run followed by 8-10 x 20 second sprints with 1 minute recovery after each...I didn't spring out of bed this morning as I haven't been feeling great, so I had to do the minimum of 30 minutes on the first portion and then did 9 of the 20 seconds followed by 1 minute recoveries.   This was not too taxing overall, but if the write up about the 20 second intervals of hard running is accurate then perhaps it will help improve leg turnover and speed...guess we'll see eventually.

Day 229

• 3.07 miles
• 8:43/mile pace
• 0645
• From/To home
• A "recovery run," per the plan that I may or may not continue following...I followed it for today and we'll see, I still haven't really looked at it, other than what it said to do today, so I won't make up my mind fully until I feel I have reviewed it in full.  

Day 228

• 17 miles (10 miles + 7 miles)
• 8:43/mile pace
• 0600
• Reach 11, near IronChad's house
• Great way to log big mileage, meet up with IronChad and do his work out for the day...er, well, the running part of it at least.   Chad and I met just before 6am, ran 10 miles, then he went off to bike for 30 minutes while I stretched and then sat in my car with my cell phone until he returned, after which we ran another 7 miles.   The second leg was considerably hotter than the first, but all and all the time went by quickly, it was as fun as running 17 miles can be and I'm glad I joined him for the run portion of his day -- that stated, 17 miles may have been more than I was trained up for though...I had too much time on my feet type fatigue/aches throughout the rest of the day.  
• Pace worked out to be 8:49/mile for first 10 miles then 8:35 for second leg.  
• Mint chocolate Gu's are the greatest Gu's ever created.

Day 227

• 2 miles
• Easy
• 0550
• From/To home
• I think I used to like that show 227, but I can't remember why...I guess it was a comedy, but I don't recall thinking it to be hilarious or anything, but I watched it when it was on.   Hmmm...
• I used the roller to stretch my IT band today because my left knee has been a little tight the past few days...it has been quite a while since I've done that.

Day 226

• 2 miles
• Slow
• 0630
• From/To home
• Sluggish streak extender.

Day 225

• 7.08 miles
• 7:33/mile pace
• 0627
• From/To Home
• Terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible two's.   Yesterday I received a training plan that a friend purchased, which I plan to also follow, because, well, it turns out that maybe I'm a mooch.  Since I haven't had a moment to read/study/understand the plan I decided that this week would be my last week of making up whatever I feel like before starting that highly structured plan in earnest...which meant that I had to think up some torturous work out for today since it's supposed to be a day that I include some sort of speed effort, per me.   So, naturally I didn't come up with anything, instead I just asked Becca...she suggested another round of the terrible 2's, I asked how many, she said some absurdly high number (I hope she was kidding), to which I responded that I did 7 a few weeks ago, so she said, "do 8."   I complained a bit, but knew then that 8 terrible 2's would be the work out of the day for me.   Here is how they played out, in mileage, after a 1 mile warm up and then followed by a 1.69 mile cool down return home:
• .33
• .22
• .33
• .21
• .33
• .21
• .34
• .21
• .33
• .21
• .33
• .21
• .33
• .21
• .33
• .23
• Basically almost exactly as they looked last time, with maybe a little slower running between terrible's...perhaps I'm getting weaker.   Anyway, that is done, a few easy days then 17, broken up in 2 peices, with IronChad on Sunday, followed by starting the aforementioned plan...if I can understand it.

Day 224

• 6.2 miles
• 8:22/mile pace
• 0630
• From/To home
• Mileage.

Day 223

• 5.78 miles
• 7:49/mile pace
• 0625
• From/To home
• I decided that I'd do some sort of "work out" type run two times a week, plus one long run a week, leading up to June 1 when I begin to start an actual training plan geared towards an early December marathon (the sight for the marathon seems to be changing, but since it's still a long time until then I'm not worried about it yet).   Well, I decided maybe Tuesday and Thursday would be good days to do these sort of "work out" runs and then I'd be able to choose which weekend day I could do a longish run based on whatever else is going on.   This all sounded logical and maybe even easy when I was thinking about it on Sunday afternoon and Monday...then Tuesday (today) arrived and it wasn't easy to even think about anymore.   I seriously considered just doing another cruise run and going hard tomorrow, but then decided I wanted to get it over with...but what to do?   How 'bout Yasso 800's?  OK, those sound cool and maybe they'll give me confidence in my potential for speed which I have been lacking.   So, what are Yasso 800's?   Good question, I'm not 100% sure, but I thought they were 800's (or half a mile) at a pace in minutes and seconds that looks like the pace in hour and minutes that one would want to run a marathon in.   In example:   Run sets of 800 meters in 3:10 (three minutes and 10 seconds) each to help prepare to eventually run a 3:10 marathon (three hours and 10 minutes).   Some super accomplished well respected runner by the name of Bart Yasso, who writes for and maybe founded Runners World magazine, or something like that, came up with this idea and many in the running community seem to buy into it.   I decided I'd give it a try and ideally be able to run a few of them at the pace I wanted (3 minutes each or faster), which would possibly make me believe that running a sub-3 hour marathon may actually be something that I could accomplish by early December 2012.   Anyway, this is what I think Yasso 800's are, if they're something different then I guess I'll learn that some other time.   Only question remaining was how much rest I should take between the 800's...I was thinking around 15-20 minutes, but since everyone in our house was awake by 5:30 this morning I was able to ask Becca, which mistakenly I did.   She said "I think we used to do 1 lap recovery," which means I'd only get to recover for .25...which is somewhat hard to stretch to 15 minutes, without stopping.   So I started...after warming up for 10 minutes...and after a false start of around .15 or .2 where I ran hard only to realize I had not hit the lap start button, so I had to start over...which I did after another minute or so of recovery/warm-up....anyway, here are the results of my first effort at such a training effort -- oh, I decided I'd do four of them, just because I thought that was about as many as I'd be able to do before fatigue made it too difficult to meet the time goal for each:
• First 800/half mile:       3:00.76
• Recovery period:           2:27
• Second 800/half mile:   2:56.6
• Recovery period:           2:27
• Third 800/half mile:      3:04.13
• Recovery period:           2:29
• Fourth 800/half mile:      3:09.21
• Recovery period:           2:25
• Confidence completely shattered, what a stupid idea...only question now is whether doing this work out now was dumber than setting a goal of breaking 3 hours in a marathon later, or about the same.   I was sure on that last one that I had veered off course and finished in knee deep Pacific Ocean waves, but then I regained focus and realized I was still in the paved desert.   I think I'll be OK doing a slow run tomorrow, but it will be interesting to see if I'm up for speeding up a bit again on Thursday....I've committed to a lot of mileage with IronChad on Sunday, so I guess I won't quit completely, not yet anyway.  

Day 222

• 3.13 miles
• 8:03/mile pace
• 0650
• From/To home
• Relaxed run, getting pretty hot out and seemed a bit more humid than usual, but not a hard enough run to be any real issue.   Tight from yestereday, probably caused by walking all around the zoo pushing Case and Finn, that's actually a pretty good workout.

Day 221

• 11.14 miles
• 8:25/mile pace
• 0550
• From/To home inc. Thunderbird Park
• Easy run to Thunderbird park, hills for a while then returned -- beat me up pretty well, but I didn't push very hard at all.   Was glad to have the Gu my friend IronChad gave me and was also glad that it wasn't yet hot. 
• One loop around bottom section, one summit up northern mountain within Thunderbird park (west peak not east peak of northern mountain).
• Fewer people on the trails than usual, I assume this means Mothers Day is not a big exercise day, will have to plan runs on Mothers Day forevermore.

Day 220

• 1.7 miles
• Slow
• 1340
• From/To home
• Streak extender squeezed in before Case's last soccer game of the season.

Day 219

• 5 miles
• 8:03/mile pace
• 0630
• From/To home
• Slow increase in pace from beginning to end -- final mile pretty hard as a result of meeting up at a corner with a lady that Becca and I have seen running around the neighborhood often recently...she runs pretty fast, unfortunately, or fortunately -- whenever either Bec or I see her we seem to be running the same direction and therefore have to speed up so that she doesn't pass us.   Today unnamed lady crossed the street slightly in front of me and continued in the direction I was heading.   I felt the need to pass her, then make sure she didn't pass me back...then finish strong just because....above pace is reasonable, but I think the final mile may have been sub 7 as a result of all this silliness.

Day 218

• 6.01 miles
• 7:21/mile pace
• 0630
• From/To home
• Decided to alternate easy miles with hard miles...my runner wife said it was a questionable tactic as it allowed much more recovery time than a normal workout would, but did at least get my heart rate up, sometimes at least.  For me it was just a way to get the mileage I felt like doing in without setting a less than fully comfortable pace and holding on to it for nearly 45 minutes.   Here are the splits:
• 8:31
• 6:45
• 7:59
• 6:33
• 7:54
• 6:26
• and then the .01 took between 3 and 4 seconds.  

Day 217

• 3.54 miles
• 8:34/mile pace
• 0339
• Miami, FL
• Early and slow, but made the return trip home easier knowing it was done.   Mileage was calculated using gmaps-pedometer.com, which was possible because there weren't very many cars on the streets of Doral area at 3:30 in the morning thus enabling me to run on the streets without concern.

Day 216

• 5.25 miles (estimate)
• 8 mins/mile (estimate)
• 0700
• Miami-FL (J.C. Bermudez park)
• Ten minute slow warm up followed by 7 x terrible 2's concluded with a 4 minute cool down.   Distance and pace are conservatively estimated as when I last did "2's" I averaged a faster pace and didn't do as many, but since I had no way of measuring the distance covered I just guessed conservatively based on overall time elapsed.  

Day 215

• 3.5 miles (estimated)
• Medium (8 min/mi-ish)
• 1755
• Miami, FL (JC Bermudez park)
• Just couldn't make myself set the alarm for pre-2:30am so had to wedge this in-between my flight and returning to airport to pick up one of my bosses...worked out pretty well actually and despite the humidity and sore top of glutes wasn't really even miserable at all. 

Day 214

• 8.85 miles (6.85 hard, estimate 2 easy on return)
• 9:02/mile pace (during first 6.85, slower on second run)
• 0614
• Dreamy Draw Park to top of North Mountain via trail 100 -- aka LMI North Mountain Challenge
• Failure.   Not only did I fail to break 1 hour, looking back I am convinced that I also prevented my fellow suffering friend to do the same as he literally stopped and waited for me at one point so that we could try to make up time during the flatish section.  Pathetic on my part, seriously.  It could possibly be consolation that with a finishing time of 1:01:54 I shaved almost 3 minutes from my previous effort, but it isn't.   For whatever reason I just didn't have it in me to push any harder than I did, which is disappointing.   I don't know or even think that had I really pushed as hard as I could have I'd have shaved off 2 minutes, but it is still poor that I couldn't muster the stomach to try it.   What this means, of course, is that I have to try it again, but I'm not setting a date on "3rd time's a charm" until I've put myself through a lot more training.   For record keeping purposes, Craig's official time, and the NEW 2012 LMI North Mountain Challenge course RECORD, was 1:00:27.   (And I reiterate, he STOPPED for me...he is quite strong)
• The return was basically a shortcut through neighborhoods hooking back up with Trail 100 for the very end to get us back to our vehicles of choice.  For some reason, I think because I wanted to practice running downhills faster (something I've always been pretty skilled and fearless doing, but learned Sunday that it is possible to go MUCH faster downhill by seeing Craig go), I finished the last 3 or 4 tenths of a mile quickly...hopefully that will start me on some serious training for my next attempt!  (The return from bottom of North Mountain was 3.38 miles and took us 35 minutes, but I estimate that we only actually ran 2 miles since we had to pick our way through a mountainous section etc. -- probably a conservative estimate as perhaps we ran more than two, but whatever)
• A special thanks to Just Enough Craig for going through this with me again and providing significant inspiration...semi-related, I'm still shocked no one else showed up to join us, I thought for sure my millions of readers would've been interested....
• IronChad, I now look forward to running 10+7 with you and drinking lemonade while you're off biking between the 10 and 7.

Day 213

• 1.7 miles
• Brisk
• 0555
• From/To home
• Tapering for Sunday's sub-1 hour attempt with Craig...or maybe I was just too lazy to do more...probably both.

Day 212

• 2.14 miles
• Slow
• 0630
• From/to home
• Short easy run because it may be a taper run?   Have to talk to LMI champion, CMB, to see when we're doing our little second effort at The North Mountain Challenge, but just in case it's tomorrow I felt I needed to be ready...which I'm not, I'm not ready, I'm worried.   Anyway, happy quatro de Mayo.
• Left knee feels fine now, hopefully it was just something I needed to get used to. 

Day 211

• 5 miles
• 7:34/mile pace
• 0615
• From/To home
• Picked up the pace with each mile, finished hard, but overall a pretty relaxed run.   Feeling a little less tired, but not yet feeling great...have to start feeling great soon as the 2012 LMI course awaits.
• A little worried about new shoes as my left knee feels a little weird and I can't really blame it on anything else...should be fine, but it seems to be the thing I'm concerning myself with these days, in relation to running anyway.

Day 210

• 5 miles
• 8:05/mile pace
• 0630
• From/To home
• Still feeling very tired, to the point that I'm concerned about possibly having a cold.   Really need to do a real run at some point, something with hills or speed, or both...or at least some distance, hmmm...I feel like I was doing quite well until my travels started up again last week proving once again that work is indeed bad for you.

Day 209

• 1.89 miles
• Slow
• 1950
• From/To home
• Really wasn't up for this one.  That could be a result of many things, but perhaps most likely is the reduced sleep schedule I have been unfortunately on -- probably not helped by my little two for one running adventure a few nights ago...is that confirmation that it was kind of cheating?   Was it?   Does the world work that way?   Am I trying to provoke a comment from JEC?