Pine Belt Pacers Forum

Monday - 8 miles total - ran 4, ran the last mile in the lightning. Had to wait 1.5 hours and then headed back out in the rain to get the other 4 miles.

Tues. - Thames track - 6 miles total - 1 mile w/u, 5 X 800 with 400 jog for recovery - 3:49. 3:55, 3:52, 3:52, 3:55, 1.5 mile cool down. Great to be back on the track after 5 weeks. Need the speed!

Wed. - yoga @ The Yoga Room and then rode the bike 30 minutes on some trails behind a friend's house. First off road bike ride - Fun! (a little scary)

Thurs. - 6 miles starting at 9:20 am, HOT run today. 9:32 pace - not counting walking.

Fri. - 14 miles - cooler run today, so I felt much better than Thurs.'s run. 9:30 pace while running (9:51 pace adding in walking breaks).

Sat. - lazy day today, but I did go for a 30 min. walk in Golden Meadow, LA

Sun- 6 miles @ 9:21 pace. At mile 5, I ran 10 X 10-14 seconds fast with 45 seconds to 1 min. recovery @ 9:30 pace. Started this run around 9:20 am, about the time that I started Thurs.'s run. Today, I felt much better in the heat, but today the humidity is lower than Thur.'s run. Also, I think I am finally getting better in the heat.

Ended the week with 40 miles running, approximately 2 miles walking, 30 min. bike ride on trails, and 1 yoga class. Overall good week, but I missed the weights.

This week I will do a little bit of a taper week for Renaissance. Probably 30 miles this week.

MOnday - later morning run, 7 miles, 9:43 pace, the humidity is returning, but I felt pretty good today.

Tues. - tonight we met to run the Billboard run. Susan, Audrey, Charles, Terry, and Joe showed up to run. This run is always a challenge, but tonight the road was much more sandy than it normally is, so it made it an extra challenge. Some of it was like running on the beach, except, on the beach up hill. Fun Stuff! Ended with 5.5 miles, 1.5 mile w/u, 3 miles hills, and 1 mile cool down.

Ms. Ginny,

Thanks for letting me accompany ya’ll on the Billboard outing – it was a challenge and I enjoyed it. I appreciated the encouragement from everyone there especially during that 2nd lap where I was wondering “why” I didn’t stay home and watch “Law & Order” … lol! I plan on working that run into my schedule as it is pretty close to home.

Thanks again and ya’ll are awesome!!!

Joe (aka Tinker)

WEd. - 4 mile easy recovery run on the trail in honor of National Running Day. Enjoyed visiting with Audrey, Susan and Missy.

Thurs. - walk 30 min. inside
Fri. - walk 30 min. inside
Sat. - online yoga class, www.yogatoday.com
ride the bike easy 4 miles
Sun- 8.5 miles today. The mission for the run today was to w/u 1 mile @ 9:30 pace, then run 3.5 @ 8:45 pace (I would love for 8:45 pace to be my race pace for the half marathon next weekend, but I am thinking it may be closer to 9:00 - we will see) and then finish the run at 9:30 pace.
9:21, 8:45, 8:45, 8:44, 8:52, 9:30, 9:37, 9:37, 4:45

When I finished the run I was stretching, (I was actually doing "down dog" - a yoga stretching pose) This man passed in his truck and just about broke his neck trying to figure out what I was doing. It was very funny, but it is also very sad to me when people do not even recognize exercise. South LA is like MS, or worse, as far as exercise and health. I told Chad many years ago that I am going to keep walking and keep running, and I am going to set an example for the people in Golden Meadow, LA and try to get some others out the doors to join me. I am happy to say now, you will occasionally see a few people walking and some even jogging.

This week started off great, and then didn't go exactly as planned Thurs., Fri., Sat (life), but overall it was an ok week of training. I ended the week with 25 miles running, 1 yoga class, a little ab work, around 4 miles walking, and 4 miles biking.

I am sure the man in the truck was just impressed by your yoga form!! Anyway, missed you at the relays!! It was fun, but I am paying for it today. You know, you think you are in shape, then you do crazy stuff, and muscles are sore, that just should not be sore!!

As for our run this coming weekend, if your goal is 8:45, that will be a good pace for me for this run for the first 4 or 5 miles, then I have to pick it up at 8:10 for 5 miles, then glide in at 8:45. I don't know if I can do this, but this is on my training plan. Maybe we can hang together. You are so much better at pacing. Anyway, I will get with you this week so we can make travel plans.

Audrey - You are funny!

Man confused about stretching - oh no - I am sure by the look on his face that he didn't have a clue and was really curious. To most people, it would be obvious that I was stretching my legs (I realize that many people do not know about yoga), but you could tell that he was really trying to figure this out.

Relays - Chad and I looked at the picks last night and several times we talked about how sore everyone would be, and a couple times we said that looks painful and we were not referring to Raul's accident. We both decided that we were glad we missed all of the soreness. Ha Ha

The Race - weellllllll I am still thinking about my pace. I would love to do 8:45, and that is what I did last year in the heat, but I really do not think I am in shape to be able to hold 8:45. So I have to decide if I want to go out at 8:45 and see what happens, or if I want to go out slower and then see if I can pick it up later in the race. I know I can do 8:45 for 5 miles, so if I decide to go out at that pace, I would love for us to run together. That would be fun.

We will talk soon.

Monday - walked with my sister, Linde, for 30 min.
Tues. - not many people at Thames tonight. Can't say that I blame them 89 degrees at 6:00pm. Audrey, Mike and I did show up tonight along with 1-2 other non pacers on the track. Audrey and I ran a total of 5 miles. We ran 1.5 miles w/u, 1.5 miles c/d, we ran 6 X400 with a 200 recovery. We followed Audrey's plan to run the 400 @ 1:56. This is slower than we normally run them because we are normally always focusing on 5ks with our speed work. The pace felt fairly easy compared to what we are accustomed to, but the shorter 200 recovery kicked it back up a notch. We normally run a 400 between the 400's. We ended up averaging 1:55 for the 6 400s. We, of course, started out too fast 1:47 for the 1st one, but then we were closer on the second one, 1:53, the last 4 we managed to run near the planned pace for the night. 1:57, 1:55, 1:57, 1:57. I feel good about the workout. Is it hard to run the track workouts slower, yes, but for long distance races I know it's the thing to do. Happy to say that the heat really wasn't an issue.

Over the past few months, I have conceded to the fact that I will not longer be effective at dual training 5ks - marathons all at the same time. So this workout was a good step in the right direction. Slowing my pace on the track workouts to focus on the goal race, not multi training for various distances. Til now, I feel that I have multi-tasked with my training fairly effectively (could I have performed better in the past if I would have focused on one event at a time, yes, but for me it was more fun to dual train, I like the variety, & I improved my times across the board) , but now I need to focus on one goal at a time. My goal race is not Renaissance this weekend, but St. George in Oct. So my total training this summer will be devoted to the marathon. I will run some 5ks, but I will go into them knowing that I have not trained for 5k speed and I realize my times will be slow(bummer) . That's ok, I will focus on 5ks at a later date.

Wed. - walk 30 min
Thurs. - bike 30 min
Fri. walk 30 min. - jog half a mile just to get the legs moving.

Sat. - 14 miles total. .6 mile w/u, and then 13.4 mile race. Still on the downward spiral. Today, 2:03 - at first I was like, what? even slower than Country Music? which I thought was VERY slow, but I quickly realized the course was long. So for 13.1, my split was 2:00 flat, so a little faster than Country Music (2:02). Remember, I have to look on the bright side. (but reality bites because one year ago, I ran 1:54 at this race, that's a big "slow down" in one year)

Already, I am reconsidering my lsd runs for this summer. Basically, I have been running lsd since the first of March. I realize that spring and summer are not "my" ideal times to try this, but I just don't think it's gonna do it for me, and if I can't believe in the plan, how can I expect it to work on race day.

So for me - it's back to the drawing books for my plan for St. George. I will work on that plan during the next week. This next week will be a lighter mileage week with some quality runs. Then it's "all SGM training, all the time, for the rest of the summer. Looking forward to it, as soon as I can decide on a training plan that I can be motivated about, and feel good about. Not normally this indecisive about a plan. Gotta get my act together.

"If you are not planning to succeed, you are planning for failure." (Not sure who said or wrote this, but it's a good one.)

Even though I am one who advocates more of an LSD approach, I think that for you this might not be a good idea. As you said, you really have not "bought" into the program. Also, based on the comparison on your times from last year to this year, I say go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan that *you* have designed. As Coach Royal said, "You need to dance with who brung you." (or something close to that)

You've had enough experience running and designing your own programs. You need to to have confidence in your plan.

I should not give any one advice about training, however just a few observations. 1) This wasn't your goal race, just a training run. This run will make you stronger at St. George. 2) You took some time off after your last race (Country Music), so you are still working up to your potential in your training. 3) From all people that I have spoken to re: race conditions for yesterday, it was hotter, muggier, and unfortunately, longer. 4) You haven't really settled into a structured training program, and from everything you have told me, you do better when you have that in place. 5) You paced me for the first 4 miles, going faster than you knew that you should. (sorry)!!

Still all in all, you did what you knew that your body was ready and able to do with this race in this point in your training. You are very strong, determined, and motivated and there is not a doubt in my mind that you have many more PR's in these longer runs.

Charles just chimed in that you could be like him, (he will never be able to run again, ever, ever with this knee injury) He wil have to get used to the Wal Mart cart.

Ginny, Congratulations on even finishing that race. It was hotter than H E double toothpicks in Poplarville, so I'm sure it was worse where you were. You are such an inspiration to me and I don't care what your time was. I'm still proud of you!

Thanks guys! I always appreciate the feedback. Audrey, you did not make me go out too fast, I promise you, whether you were there or not, I feel sure I would have gone out at 9:00 whether I should have been at 9:00 or 9:10. I do have a little of you in me, not the go out at 7:00 min pace Audrey, but the "go out a little faster than I should", hoping for the best, I do it all the time. I need to do better too.

Becky - you are correct, once again.

Susan - thanks, in the end, it was a great day to be running, and sometimes the goal just needs to be to finish the race. Unfortunately, I am to the point where prs will be fewer and farther between, so I will need to get accustomed to that, and find other joys in running.

Sunday - rode the bike easy, breezy for 30 minutes while Chad ran.
Ended with 19.5 miles for the week, around 6 miles of walking, around 10 miles biking, 1 light weight session, and 1 yoga class @ The Yoga Room.

Monday - 5 miles @ CB @ 8:40 pace, a tempo run.