Trying to improve my running

Ran on the trail by the house felt good and loose. Nice and cool morning.

Ran with the grinders this morning. The workout was pretty hard and the paces were about right for me today. we did 30 min tempo w/ 5 min fast/5 min less fast (6:55/7:40 planned paces) my paces were acutually: 6:54, 7:30, 7:02, 7:35, 7:00, 7:39. After 2 min rest we then did 5x1 min sprints w/ 30 sec active rest between. My paces: 5:55, 6:06, 6:27, 6:10, 6:12. 

This morning I biked to the park met agroup of guys from church and ran 5 miles then biked into work. The bike ride to work after the run was really hard even though I took the run nice and slow (8:53). I don't think I am quite ready to do so much all at once at least not quickly.

After work I ran with the kids (0.6 miles). They are getting much better. We did the normal loop around the block. Usually they walk at least 2x. Today they only walked once and didn't seem too tired at the end. I think they are going to do the 1 mile run on 11/16 or possibly the 5k.

Did the workout with the grinders today. I really didn't want to go when I woke up and almost had myself talked back into bed. I am glad I went though. I felt really good after. We did 16x1min Tempo with active rest as follows 60 sec, 45 sec, 30 sec, 15 sec and repeat. It was a fun workout. I was able to keep my pace between 6:30 and 7:00 for the 1 min tempos. 

On the way home I ran into my neighbor so I went for a couple more miles with him.

I ran only a couple of easy miles before my bike ride to work this morning. AP: 8:15

The ride to work felt easier than on Monday.It turns out I was a bit faster 14.9 mph compared w/ 14 mph on Monday. The wind felt about the same. I also rode home from work which was easier than the other day. I'm not exactly sure why. There certainly was still a pretty stiff headwind. my speed was 17.3 (prior 15.3).

Did a lot of running today because I didn't have to go to work. First I went early in the morning to run with the grinders. we did the 3 miles 1 fast/1 less fast workout. I did slightly better than last week. My AP for the whole 3 was 6:49 (6:53), for the fast minutes was 6:33 (6:35) for the less fast minutes was 7:06 (7:12).

After walking the kids to school Juli and I went on a jog together about 4 miles. It was pretty windy by that time but good company.

After school I took the kids out for a jog around the block.

Ran the Passey loop trail. Only time for a quick loop.

Did a hill workout with the grinders. Again felt pretty tired and almost didn't go. I am glad I went, I felt really good afterwards. We did 3 sets of 5 min uphill hard followed by 4x1 min hard downhill. After that we did about 1.5 mile uphill sprint. I was able to get 0.73 miles uphill for the 1st 2 trips AP 6:53 and 6:48 respectively. The 3rd trip was abit slower because I was too tired I got 0.71 AP 7:00. The dowhills were faster AP 6:11. The 1.5 miles was at 7:30. I feel like this is faster than I have been able to do this in the past of course I haven't really tried to go superfast. 

Ran the trail this morning. Saw some decent size bucks.

Ran with the grinders we did 3x800m my pace goal was 6:30 I managed to hit that mostly: 6:28, 6:33 and 6:28. Then did 20 min sustained run goal was 6:45 pace. I almost made 3 miles in the 20 minutes and averaged 6:58 pace.

Ran passey loop with Shawn. It was pretty dark only tripped once and didn't go down.

Ran passey loop again. went a little later so it was kind of bright.

Only time for a couple of miles. I went up Wade road.

Did a 5k with the whole family. It was alot of fun and we all did really well. I wanted to break 20 minutes. Unfortunately I have been having some tightness of my hamstrings this week since the tuesday speedwork. It felt really tight at the start but I warmed up and to the end of that I felt better so I decided to go out as fast as I could. I started out with the leading group. I felt pretty good at 6:30 pace over the first mile. I was just behind the leaders. My hamstrings were starting to tighten up after that and despite my lungs feeling great I couldn't push any faster and fell off the 6;30 pace a bit. I stayed pretty steady behind the leaders though. I ended up in 7th place. After I finished I went back around to meat up with the rest of the family. I found the kids first they were able to run pretty much the first 2 miles and were ahead of Juli but then they tired out. I caught back up to themjust after 2 miles and they were walking. we were able to run about 2/3 of the last mile. I took the stroller from Juli and she finished the race really strong. She did great considering she pushed the stroller for the first 2.75 miles. Juli came in 41st((33:41), 5th in her division. Lucy came in 49th (37:24), 4th in her division. Chase finished 50th (37:29), 3rd in his division.

Super sore after Saturday. I really overdid it. I was even worried about a labral injury or something really bad going on with my hip. I did a little research and decided it wasn't in the joint. So I was alittle less worried. I did just a couple of miles super slow with several guys from church. The first mile was slow. After that I felt kind of loosened up and it was easier. I think this may be piriformis syndrome or just a hamstring strain. If it doesn't get better with rest i may have to see a Dr. I would hate that.

Ran passey loop. Hip feels a little better.

Ran up wade road. Not too sore. had a bit of a cold now though.

Ran on Passey loop. Leg is really not sore now. the hamstrings are still a little tight. i will have to see how it does with speed.

Went up Wade road no issues. It was a little drizzly, which is weird for Arizona. I shouldn't complain though the rest of the world is probably freezing.

Great run in the rain. Went with the grinders we just went nice and slow. I like running in the rain a little cold by the end.

Easy run along the santa cruz river with Randy.

haven't posted for a couple of weeks because I was busy. I will try to remember what I did as well as I can. Ran with the grinders this day plan was for 1.5 miles in 10:13  followed by 1 mile in 6:37 and 0.5 mile in 3:15 pace. My actual times were: 10:07, 6:35.6 and 3:13.3. I was happy with this run because it is the first time I have ran only 1.5 miles fast since getting out of the Air Force. I would get a 90 with that run time on the AF PT test. Pretty good considering I failed the PT Test with ~70 the last couple times I took it 2.5 years ago.

Easy run up Wade Road.

First did almost 2 miles with the family. My oldest daughter was able to run almost the whole way. She went 1.6 miles without stopping and then rested a few minutes then finished the rest of the run. 

After the family run I went and ran up the saddle of the mountain by my house. It was great to do a nice trail run in the daylight. It was even warm enough that I was wanting water before the end of the run.

Wade Road.

Did hill sprints with Shawn. Instead of going up Wade we did it on a hill over by his house. I cut it a little short because he didn't want to do the last 1.5 mile hard run. So we did 3 sets of 5 min hard up hill followed by 4x1min hard downhill. I was thinking a good pace would be about 5k pace (6:45) for the uphill and maybe 30 seconds faster downhill. Here are the paces and distances for the run:

1st set uphill 0.74 and 6:45; downhill 0.17 5:52, 0.16 6.25, 0.17 5:49, and 0.17 5:56

2nd set uphill 0.73 and 6:54; downhill 0.16 6:23, 0.16 6:19, 0.16 6:10, and 0.14 7:11

3rd set uphill 0.73 and 6:53; downhill 0.15 6:33, 0.16 6:09, 0.16 6:15, and 0.16 6:08.   

I guess I went out a little bit too fast on the first set.I calculated and the hills are only about 2% grade. It would be great if I could do this on a 6% grade.