For Whom the Dogs Bark

61F, 95%, calm and full moon.  Out early for a quick workout.  2 wu, 8:33, 8:03, then 5 x 1K, jogging out each mile at an 8:00 pace:  7:22 (161), 7:06 (166), 6:56 (171), 6:52 (76) and 6:38 (180), maxHR 184, then 1 cd.  Overall 8.0 in 1:01:35, 7:42/mile.  Followed by stretching and lunges, which immediately made my back feel better.  Still trying to formulate my approach for the next few months, but kind of like the idea of bouncing back and forth between LLHR and workouts on alternate weeks.  Can't work out every day on the "on" weeks, but I think I can go 3 or 4 times without too much risk, especially if I keep the distances low.  But need to refine it, and get more focused on complementary stuff, like stretching, weights, jump rope and swimming (I can't do either one at this point), and weight loss.

My new Garmin has some fairly useless metrics in it, like vertical oscillation, ground contact time and altitude (?!!), which starts at 150', goes up to 153' and ends at 150'.  This is why I am Flatlander.  But since it measures cadence it also spits out stride length.  My longest stride length, at 6:38 pace, is 1.17 meters (first split was 1.09 meters, at a slightly lower cadence).  The big boys are closer to 2.0, I think I have read somewhere.  This is why I look like an old man when I run, right there in black and white on my computer screen.  This might actually be a good metric to keep an eye on to see if I am progressing.

67F, don't have any other met-metrics, got the temperature from Wade.  It is warming up quickly, should be 70s for the rest of the week, probably forever.  Ran 12 LLHR miles, 10:49/mile, 2:09:56.  Feeling the effects of the lunges I did yesterday.

74F, 79%, SE 7-17 mph.  Blustery and hot, my favorite weather.  There is a big oil and gas conference in town and I have not been getting much sleep.  5:00 came very early this morning.  Plan was to run 6 at 7:30 pace.  Then my first warmup mile was 8:46, where I met up with Wade and I about deccided to bag it since Wade didn't really want to run hard anyway.  Then the second one came in at 7:50 and I thought there might be a shot.  So the 6 were:  7:50 (149), 7:44 (156), 7:22 (163), 7:25 (170), 7:25 (170), 7:05 (178), average for the tempo miles coming in at about 7:28.  Longest stride length was 1.12, quite a bit shorter than Monday when I was running some intervals in the mid-6s.  Speed is all about stride length.  Overall 8.0 miles in 1:01:35, 7:42/mile.

74F, 89%, SE 10 mph, rain clouds but no rain.  Woke up very early and out the door for 12 LLHR miles, 10:53/mile.  Tuesday was 7 degrees cooler, so this run is somewhat equivalent to the 10:49 on Tuesday.  Finished with weights and stretching, feeling good but sleepy.

77F, 85%  (DP 72F), S 4 mph, according to the internet, in actuality a lot more wind than that, more like 15 mph.  Was going to do speedwork today, but decided it was too early after racing to amp it up to three sessions in one week, so back to LLHR, 12.0 miles in 2:09:00, 10:45/mile.  Pretty happy with that, given the muggy weather, which has quickly morphed into late-summer-dog-days muck.  Finished with stretching, lunges and squats.  Right now, just learning how to do the lunges and squats, getting a little better at it, but not good enough to get into a training regimin. 

77F, 82% (DP 71F), SE 7 mph.  This was a tough one.  Ran 4 then met Wade for 12 more, then finished with another 2.  18.0 miles in 2:34:39, 8:35/mile, average heart rate 153 bpm, max 178, big gap, heart rate climbed continuously for the whole run.  Last 3 miles were 8:29 (167), 8:09 (170) and 8:08 (174), so even though I was in bad shape I was stubborn enough to keep it going.  Not sure if that was smart or not.  I knew by about mile 10 that I wasn't going to hit 20 today, was all I could do to get to 18, just not acclimated to the heat yet.  We decided at about mile 14 that this was probably the toughest long run of the summer, unless we try to do one of these fast, for which we see no reason.