Day 311

• 2.4 miles
• 8:03/mile pace
• 1652
• From/To Home
• OK, I think I seriously might be back...yeah, I'm pumped about it...and yes, I am saying this after a run that lasted less than 20 minutes and was over 100 minutes short of the prescribed time on my feet for the day.  What's really a shame is that I realized how close I was to the Dean end of South Mountain on Saturday night and was excited to get up and put in some serious time there, plus feel good about a long run again etc., then the morning came and I decided a lay off isn't really a real lay off unless it eliminates a long run right?   Well, that plus the fact that we were on "stay-cation" made it easy for me to decide to get in a streak extender only sometime later in the day...assuming at that point that I would do so on the treadmill.   Well, as the temperature reached it's apex, I decided, well, I don't feel bad...and I'm only going a short distance at a slow pace, plus I probably should log one run at a stupidly high temperature to legitimize this streak thing I've got going, so I'll just run a 5pm when it was 112 degrees F.   Turns out that it wasn't so bad, which made me feel good, which makes me feel like I seriously might be back....I felt like at any point I could've sped up without really taxing myself too much....I haven't felt like that in weeks, so, yeah, I'll consider myself back until otherwise notified by my body or mind.
• Speaking of being back -- a great friend and training partner (Dean) convinced me last week that there really is no point in changing my goals, so, back to training for sub-3 hour marathon time will now begin...here's hoping I get some confidence along the way, but even if I don't I'm going after it, so stay tuned!

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 199

• 5 miles
• 6:54 mins/mile pace
• 0710
• From/To home
• Ran hard this morning.   Started off thinking I needed to average sub 7:15/mi pace since I won't be doing a long run this weekend (traveling for work), I at least needed to make myself hurt a little bit.  Well, first mile was 7:10, so I figured I needed to hold onto that...then I relaxed a bit and sped up.  Legs felt fine, but the lungs weren't very strong, I was breathing pretty hard and was unable to push the pace on the last mile beyond what I settled into during miles 2-4...I take this to mean that I was pretty much done as I wasn't averse to making myself hurt the final mile, I just couldn't sustain an increased effort.   Anyway, I was very pleased with the overall pace considering I didn't believe I could hold sub-7 minute miles for more than about 2 miles, but then I started realizing things like:   I need to average 4 seconds per mile faster than that, for 5 times as long and then for 1.2 miles after that if I'm going to break 3 hours in a marathon.  Being unable to push the pace at the end means that I was done, so, while I stopped the run because I didn't have time to run anymore and still make Case's soccer game, it's just as well since I wouldn't have made it much farther anyway.  Not sure how I'm going to get the speed aspect of my sub-3 hour goal down, but at least I have some time [Still targeting Tucson marathon in early December, though I haven't signed up yet]...and at least I finally decided to pick up the pace a bit.    That is also good in relation to the effort Craig and I will make in a few weeks, which is really what I should continue thinking about instead of some race months away, I guess. 
• Current shoes now have 417+ miles on them, need to get a new pair...

Day 127

• 5 miles
• 8:24/mi pace
• 0625
• From/To home
• My cruise pace is just slow -- really have to make something happen if I want to be on pace for a sub-3 hour marathon, seems completely impossible at this point.  

Day 120

• 5 miles
• 8:14/mile pace
• 0735
• From/To home
• Becca took Case to school today so I could get this run in, which was very cool.   Started off briskly, but never moved beyond that....feel like perceived effort should result in faster time, but I guess it is probably faster than same perceived effort a few months ago -- wondering when I'll feel like really pushing it, if I don't within the next few months then breaking 3 hours will be in jeapardy, well, may be anyway, but hopefully not.  Nearing 4 months on The Streak.