Trying to improve my running

Went to run hills I am bummed that my watch was out of batteries and I misplaced the charger so I had to run without it. I did an up and back hilly route 4.21 miles 37:43. average pace 8:57 min/mile. The route had an elevation gain of 240 ft.

Normal flat run tried to do the last 2 miles faster. Splits 8:12, 8:07, 8:30 and 7:32.  Average HR 155

Only able to do 2 miles today d/t time. Tried to do them fast though. 8:04, 8:32.

Darn satelites didn't pick up at the start of the run so I only have sata on the last 2.73 miles and it threw off my pace b/c of that. Flat run at normal pace.

Same run as yesterday. i just realized that I need to run farther daily if I am going to reach my goal of 80 miles in january.

Nice run this AM. Started out fast then decided to do the steep hill by sombrero peak again. It was pretty brutal after going fast for the first mile. The whole hill (5% average grade) is 0.68 miles and the steep part (9.3% grade) at the end is 0.29 miles. 10:54 average pace and 13:06 pace for the steepest part. It was hard but felt pretty good. better than back in October.

Pushed my son in the jogging stroller so that added a new level of difficulty I am not used to. Average pace was still 8:35/mile.

Not able to go as far today but I have ran everyday this week. 8:29/mile average. 2nd mile was just 6 seconds slower than the rest.

Went out way to fast on the 1st mile. I think b/c the kids werre chasing me on their bikes and I wasn't able to keep up my normal pace. Here are my splits: 7:55, 8:51, 8:38, 8:49 and 7:39 average pace 8:31/mile. Had to rest a few seconds at the 2 mile point.

Tried working on hills today I will post the grades later. Beautiful morning for running in the Tucson mountains though just rained overnight and felt excellent. I was able to go a little later since I didn't have work, thank heavens for the federal government not wanting to work.

Today I did 4 miles it had a little hill. It was a little slower than I thought it would be. Maybe that is b/c of the barefoot shoes or maybe just that last week was more than I had done for awhile. Anyway splits were: 9:00, 9:06, 8:55, 8:45 and 9:24. The steepest hill was just after the 2 mile mark was 0.22 miles and had a 3.4% grade did it at 8:54 pace. The longer hill, which included the steep part, was 0.62 miles 2% grade and I did it at a 9:08 pace.

Wanted to go further but didn't have the time. It is probably best that I didn't I don't feel hurt but I have been putting in more miles lately than usual.

Tried to work on some small hills by home today. Had 76 feet of elevation gain. The main hill was 0.64 miles had a 2% grade. The steep hill was 0.25 and was 3.2% grade. averaged just under 9/mile.

Ran the hills up to sweetwater trailhead on Camino del Cerro. I had 647 ft of elevation gain. My average pace was 9:14/mile. 1 mile was on trails the rest was on roads the first 3.5 were uphill. My splits were 8:57, 9:31, 10:01, 10:40, 8:34, 8:40, and 8:13. 

Here are the Hills:

1/21/2012 Distance Gain Grade Pace

1st hill 0.78 97 2.4% 9:15

2nd hill 0.84 157 3.5% 9:40

3rd hill 0.8 179 4.2% 10:12

Steep hill 0.24 83 6.5% 10:50

4th hill 0.41 135 6.2%  10:45

The 4th hill was on trails. 

Did the run up wade road again. This is the run with some small hills. I ran a little further this time (another hill). had a total of 103 ft of elevation gain. Averaged 8:45/mile for the whole run the steepest hill (0.25 miles 4.6% grade) I did in 9:01/mile. The whole wade road (just over 1 mile and 2% grade) I did in 9:08. the downhill portion was a little faster.

Today I want to work on speed a bit more. I didn't have a lot of time so I tried a variation on Jared's workout. I did 0.5 warm-up and then 0.5 mile fast runs with ~90 sec active rest in between for 4 sets and then 0.5 mile cool down. I was shooting for a pace of 7:50/mile on the 0.5 mile "sprints". My splits were:

1 4:01 for 0.51 miles average pace 7:51/mile

2 3:54.4 for 0.49 miles average pace 7:59/mile

3 3:55.7 for 0.5 miles average pace 7:53/mile

4 4:01.7 for 0.5 miles average pace 8:04/mile

Today I ran the small hills again on Wade road. I tried to focus on going faster on the uphill portion of the road. I did the 1st mile at a slower pace (8:49) before getting to Wade road. I wasn't able to go as far d/t time as I did the other day but I did get the first hill. The road is an average 2% grade and I ran 0.63 miles up it today average pace was 8:30 (felt that I was going faster guess not). The steepest part was 0.22 miles 3.4% grade I did it in 1:52 (pace 8:29/mile).

I did the speed workout again today. I had a 0.5 mile warm up then 0.5 mile "sprints", trying for 7:50/mile average then 90 sec active rest. this time I did 5 sprints. Here are my splits for the "sprints"

1 4:07.5 for 0.51 miles, average pace 8:02/mile

2 3:52.4 for 0.5 miles, average pace 7:46/mile

3 3:58.4 for 0.5 miles, average pace 8:00/mile

4 3:57.8 for 0.51 miles, average pace 7:49/mile

5 4:14.8 for 0.54 miles, average pace 7:53/mile

Did the usual run up Wade road today. Nothing spectacular as I had to go to work today. I did to wade road (0.65 miles in 5:16, pace 8:06/mile) best time on that section yet. The hill that is 3/6% grade i did at 8:36/mile only 0.22 miles. felt pretty good. I was going to try and do another run after work but didn't get off until too late.

Here are my splits for the run:

1 8:48.6 1.00 8:49

2 8:20.2 1.00 8:20

3 8:16.6 1.00 8:17

4 3:54.0 0.46 8:25

1st run (5.63 miles)

Ran up wade road again today for the morning run. I went further today than usual trying to get 5 miles in, as I had more time before going to work. I guess the whole road had an average grade of 1.8%, it was 1.54 miles long  and gained 150 ft of elevation. My time for the road was 13:32, average pace 8:47/mile.

There were several steeper parts. The first hill that I run regularly is 3.6% only 0.21 miles, I did it in 1:49 (pace 8:39). One section of the road that felt pretty hard to me turned out to be 2.3% grade and 0.97 miles. I did it in 8:35 (8:51/mile). That section include the steeper hill. The second somewhat steeper portion was 0.63 miles also 2.3% grade. I did it in 5:35 (8:52/mile).

Overall the first mile was warm up the next 1.64 miles were uphill then back down for 1.64 and mostly flat for the last mile.  Here are my splits: 8:44, 8:46, 8:42, 8:04, 8:21, and 8:28.

2nd run (3.9 miles)

I did 2 runs today to try and prepare my body to run for the relay next month. My 2nd run was also a run I have done several times. the first half is on roads and the second half is on trails it is a great run. I also did about a mile around the neighborhood "warm-up" chasing my kids on their bikes (I didn't time this). The first mile I went out faster than I meant too it is really flat and I guess I didn't notice how fst I was going it turned out to be an 8:11 pace. the 1st mile ends right at the pavement and I turned up hill, kind of gradual at first but steepening quickly at about 1/3 mile. The steep part of the hill is about 0.31 miles long and gains 151 ft (9.2% grade), it is also a trail and has quite a few rocks and looks like they don't want people to go up that way anymore b/c they have now planted a bunch of cacti and debris in the trail. I ignored it. Today this steep part took me 3:40 to get up (average pace 11:49/mile) I had to rest a couple of seconds in the middle. This is a great improvement from last time 1/11 I did it in 13:03/mile.

So on this run the 2nd mile has the big hill and the 3rd mile is on the trail and a ton of rocks going down from the big hill. The last mile is on the roads again. I was kind of surprised at how much slower my pace is on the trail than on roads. If I am going to do the trail 1/2 marathon I guess I better train more trails. Here are my splits: 8:11, 10:20, 9:37 and 8:25

Today's run I did with the kids. They rode their bikes while I ran. It made the run interesting the first mile I was kind of chasing them but then they started to tire out and I had to keep going back to get them. It was a fun family activity though. I was glad to be able to do it with them. It was really good for them to get more experience riding. The last 0.7 miles I did after dropping the kids off at home I averaged 8:11/mile for that part.

Here were my splits: 8:34, 8:40, 8:34, and 8:09.