Mucho Funno!

Well, I had a blast running the race. It was hard for many of the reasons Chrissy stated in her post, but everytime I think back on it I smile. It felt so good to run a race again and accomplish a goal like that. I still don't know how I ran exactly 7 min/mile despite that lack of a watch and trail knowledge. But I loved running with and against people. It felt almost equally as good to pass someone as it did to have someone pass me in the final mile as I faltered. Just having those feelings again felt great. Mucho Funno!

Mike

Picture! Picture!

Results

Here are the race results:

http://www.runningintheusa.com/07/tx0428.html

If/when they get the photos posted, click on the icon at the top of the page (of the above link), scroll down to the link under the results section, and you should see 'Run the Woodlands 5K Series-Photos' under the date 4/28/2007

Room For Improvement

Although Mike and I are both quite pleased with our times and DID meet our goals(!) we were quick to recognize several areas of both immediate and long term improvement:

1: the morning of: upon a 6am awakening, we headed out the door at about 6:20 for what yahoo.maps figured was a 45 minute drive, getting us to the Woodlands well before 8:00 race time. wrong turn after wrong turn, stopping to ask for directions, and then an overall re-trace of steps kept us in the car for a grand total of 90 minutes getting us at the registration desk at 7:53. We turned in our dollars, picked up a clipboard and walked toward the starting line with the paperwork in our hands so we could hear the instructions for the race. the registration lady followed us over, took the papers as soon as we signed, we did some high knees, stretched our calves, asked our neighbors when and where we needed to make the turns on the trail, and literally off we went. Implications of all of this: no warm up AND we were stressed out by the time we got there.

2: both of us were sick within the last 7 days.

3: both of us started at ground zero only 3 months ago (mike) and about 2.5 months ago (me), and we are both going to continue training... with really no end in sight!! :)

4: we didn't know the trail we were running, which happens to be a great trail, but tricky in it's lay out. As soon as you head out of the parking lot in which it starts, the next 2 miles or so seem to be completely straight (away from the start). Mike and I both remember thinking 'are we EVER going to turn back home?!?!'... and so both of us made conscious decisions to be careful in our pacing because we thought we were still less than half way done. what's more, neither of us knew where the mile markers were... I was looking and didn't see them and Mike didn't even know they existed :) so a little trail-knowledge should go a long way for the next one...

We're excited to head back to The Woodlands the second weekend in June!

~chrissy
(good job today, Mike! it was SO fun running 'with' you :) can't wait for the next one!)

Weekly Report-9

I had planned on running about 25 miles this week, but between getting sick and taking it easy before the race, I only ran 6!

Thursday: 6 miles (9:00 pace)

Saturday: RACE DAY! 5k-23:28 (7:33 pace)

~chrissy

4/24 - 3.5 Miles

I ran a medium-hard 3.5 miles today but it felt like a hard day. I was pretty exhausted afterward and hurt most of the way through. As I type this the next morning my legs are very sore. I'm not sure what that means but it can't be great. I did have a little cold over the weekend and I followed that up with 4 miles and then a hard interval work-out. But with a day off since then I should be feeling fine. We'll just have to wait and see...

3.5 miles 28:11 (8:02/mile)

Mike

Another Cool Site

I found a cool track site (actually I've been to the site quite a bit but just never have seen this particular part of the site.) It gives track results from meets going back to the 60's. You can just click on the year and scroll through the various meets. I found some old results of mine from the Stanford Invitational and Hampton Phillips both in '96. Kind of fun.

http://www.dyestatcal.com/ATHLETICS/TRACK/track.htm

Signs of Summer

What 88% Humidity Looks like...






Gonna have to start waking up early to run!

~chrissy

Back to Business

Ella threw up this morning but I've been fortunate to not be so sick. I ran an easy 4 miles around my neighborhood late last night and did interval work at the track this morning before it got too hot to run. The intervals went well and I ran quite hard. My goal was to simply run faster than last time and I also added a mile warm-up run, so I think it was productive.

I'll probably run pretty hard Monday and Tuesday and then scale it back a bit for Wed and Thu before taking Friday off - at least that's the plan. I never quite know what the week will bring but I'm excited and nervous for the race on Saturday.

Saturday night:

4 miles - 39:10 (7:47/mile)

Track work:

200 - 32s
400 - 73s
800 - 2:52s
400 - 75s
200 - 31s

Mike

Weekly Report-8

My hip problem seems to have subsided, which I'm relieved about! I had a pretty good week... I definitely feel stronger in my legs from the hills.

Monday: 8 miles/hills - 1:08:00 (8:34)
Tuesday: 6 miles/easy - 50:06 (8:21)
Wednesday: don't know/hills - 56:ish
Thursday: 6 miles/easy - 51:15 (8:32)
Saturday: don't know - 28 min.

Next week I am going to take Friday off as well, so I'll run only 25 miles. I'll have a harder day on monday, and then taper off til race day!!!

~chrissy

Under the Weather

This is kind of bad timing, but I think I just got a cold. The good news is that it seems to be minor - maybe because of regular excercise :)? But I woke up in the middle of last night with a semi-sore throat. When I got home I saw that Ella had a pretty runny nose so putting two and two together...I'm probably sick. I didn't run yesterday and won't today because of the A's/Rangers game. I'll get back to it on Saturday just one week from race day.

Mike

4/18 4 Miles

Just a regular run - nothing special. I started off a little fast (7:30/mile) and got a little ahead of myself during the run. On the way back, as I trudged through the wind, I realized it was because I had a strong wind at my back to start. My final mile was around 8:30 and I was exhausted. I can't believe the race is a week from Saturday!

4 Miles - 31:09 (7:47/mile)

Mike

Hip-pains

Welp... I woke up Tuesday morning with some weird hip pain on my left side. I sleep on that side and so when I adjusted in the middle of the night I woke myself up because it didn't feel so good. And while running the next day, I felt it again on the down-hills. I am REALLY hoping it is nothing serious. I'm going to give it till next Tuesday and see how I feel. I will stretch out longer and not do as many hills for the remainder of the time, and then go from there. Keep your fingers crossed!

~chrissy

ah, hills...

Poor Ella, didn't get to see her animals! :( I commend you running with a stroller mike! That is not easy stuff... I would do it when Chloe was tiny and I was running x-country. Running without your arms is not easy. This is why I am going to invent that stroller I was telling you about... and then make millions :)

This week's schedule had me starting off with 8 miles of hills. We just wind around the new neighborhood, either going up or going down, there is really nothing flat over there. We started the 8 miles with a 3 mile large loop that was relatively flat, and then headed into the hills for the final 5. I felt pretty good during the run, telling myself to keep the 9:30 pace Zach had me targeted for. He would just ask me how I'm doing, and let me pace myself as we went. Well turns out I was doing much better than I thought...

8 miles/hills: 1:08 (8:34 pace)

I am pleased enough that I'll give today it's own entry and deviate from my 'weekly report'!!! :)

~chrissy

Stroller Run

My first time running while pushing a stroller. Ella and Addie were being "busy" this afternoon so I thought I'd be helpful and take Ella along in the jogging stroller. I was planning on doing five miles alone so I compromised and did 3 miles with the stroller. I'm not sure exactly how that adds up but it was hard (mostly because I couldn't use my arms.) Ella was hoping to see some animals but she was out cold within minutes and slept the entire time. My time wasn't bad either all things considered.

3 miles - 24:20 (8:06/mile)

Mike

Final 7

Sunday morning we ran seven easy miles to round off our week. It brought me to 27 miles this week, by far the most I have done in recent years.

7 miles - 59:03 - (8:30/mile)

mike

Weekly Report-7

Monday: 6 miles of hills around the new house neighborhood (8:30 pace)
Tuesday: 3 miles warm up (8:30 pace) and track drills: 4x400's with 200m walk -82s, 85s, 84s, 85s.
Wednesday: 7 miles (8:46 pace)
Thursday: 4 miles (8:09 pace)
Friday: 3.4 miles (8:36 pace)
Saturday: easy 7

I'm feeling pretty good! I have noticed a HUGE difference in my speed since I have picked up the miles. This week I will get 31.5. I have never trained this much, so it is exciting to break past bounderies and see the difference! TWO WEEKS LEFT!

~chrissy

Five Mile Sampler

I make it a rule to run BEFORE dinner or at least two hours after - that will all change once it gets too hot, but for now it works. We had to run to Sam's Club after work to get some food for the visitors this weekend and I unavoidably consumed a number of tasty samples. Since this is the type of food you just "shop and pop" I didn't even think to consider this as food in my belly before a run. We got home and, before eating dinner, I set out on my five mile run. I was sluggish. At first I thought it was because I ran really hard yesterday and just haven't fully recovered (partly true). I then thought it must just be the dang humidity (75 degrees, 99% humidity). Then, as the cramp in my side begged to differ, I realized a good portion of my problem was that I ate a small meal maybe 30 minutes prior. I REALLY wanted to stop or at least cut it to 3 or 4 miles but I proudly hung on and ran all five. Another easy five tomorrow with Chrissy and that should put me right at 25 miles for the week. By far the most volume to date for me.

5 miles - 41:56 (8:21/mile)

Mike

Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Seven's Door

I'm actually not quite knockin' on seven's door but thought the title was good. I ran my short (2.68 mile) route today. It had been a couple weeks and I knew my time would improve, just didn't have any idea how much. It went well, it was the fastest I had run to date and felt good.

I still have my goal of running 7 minute miles for the 5k. It is a lofty goal but at this point I still think it is attainable. We'll see...

2.68 miles - 19:13 (7:10/mile)

Mike

4/11 5.02 miles

Today was hard. I started out too fast (7:35 first mile) and really ran out of gas. I was thinking that five miles would be easy after running seven. But I didn't take into account the toll yesterday's workout took on my body. I had to stop about 3.5 miles in and walk for a couple minutes and today I'm about as sore as I was when I started this 2 months ago.

5.02 miles 43 min (8:33/mile)

Mike

7 miler

Today marked exactly two months since I began running.

Before the weather got warm again I wanted to go for a long run. Apparently there was an equestrian parking lot about a mile beyond the bridge I had been running to on my trail. I had never been there so I decided to make that my long run. It's amazing what an extra couple miles will do. I wasn't really huffing and puffing too badly but my legs felt really tight during the last half. I'm also more sore than usual this morning. I think it's the first time I've run that far since the fall of '95 during cross country. That feels good.

6.94 miles - 59:10 (8:31/mile)

Mike

Busy Weekend

I only got out to run once this weekend and it was a decent run. I ran with the girls which was fun (except they walked.) I just had them walk 20 min and turn around because my five mile route is about 40 min. roundtrip. I caught back up with them and walked the rest of the way in. Ella was disappointed that she didn't see any 'animals' during this walk.

4.72 miles - 36:42 (7:46/mile)

I need to put in more miles this week and next. Only three weeks remain.

Mike

Weekly Report-6

It was another really good week. I feel stronger, both in my legs and lungs. I also stepped up my mileage this week; instead of running between 15 and 20 miles a week, I am shooting for at least 30. It feels really good so far...

Monday: Geschler Fartlek's -5 miles: untimed
Tuesday: 4 miles: 33:04 (8:16 pace)
Wednesday: 6 miles: 50:03 (ish. we had to stop forEVER because of traffic)
Thursday: 5 miles: untimed
Friday: 7 miles: 57:31 (8:13 pace)
Saturday: super easy, beautiful run around nearby park... 3.25 miles

~chrissy

What a Difference Cool Weather Makes

A cold front blew in yesterday morning and made for a fantastic April run after work. I haven't had a lot of sleep lately (asleep by midnight and up by 6am) so I was fighting a nap hard when I got up from the couch to run. I'm glad I did because it felt great and I ran another not-so-glory-day best 5.02 miles.

5.02 miles - 39:33 (7:52/mile)

Mike

Successful Intervals (for once)

I finally hit the mark running the intervals I first attempted nearly a month ago. I think it'll be good to continue integrating intervals into my workouts; I could feel that my legs were locking up while my lungs felt relatively fine. This tells me my conditioning is progressing but my legs could use some strengthening. Here's the goals/results.

200 - 35s
400 - 90s
800 - 3:00
400 - 90s
200 - 35s

Results:

200 - 36s
400 - 84s
800 - 3:00
400 - 73s
200 - 33s


I intentionally went out slow on the first two-hundred because I wanted to make a conscious effort to just hit the mark and do nothing more at the beginning - if I had any extra energy I could spend it on the back end of the interval work. It worked and now that I think about, this is how I ran intervals back in the day as well. I had to really hold back on the first 400 and still was way under goal-time, the 800 was perfectly hard, the final 400 was just all out as was the final 200.

Mike

Drum-roll please...

I ran 5 miles doing Geschler Fartlek's (??) which are basically: 10 min quick pace to get you tired, and then right into a 30 second all out sprint, 90 second jog, 30 seconds sprint, 75 second jog, 30 second sprint 60 second jog, 30 second sprint 45 second jog, and 30 seconds sprint 30 seconds jog. This took me to just about two miles and we ran the rest of the 3 miles home as fast as I could. It absolutely killed. BUT, here's the drum-roll....

at the 3.1 mile mark: 24.45. (7:57 pace)

Mike, looks like you are absolutely right about that pr!! Thanks for the encouragement :)

~chrissy

Easy Runs

This was a busy weekend and I almost found myself breaking my streak of running days with no more than one day of rest between days. Somehow I managed to get out about 8:30pm Saturday night and run 1.5 miles to keep the streak alive. I felt somewhat guilty about that so on Sunday I ran the same route twice (as tempting as it was to just run it once) for 3 miles. Making for a decent weekend.

1.5 miles - easy and untimed
3 miles - easy and untimed

Chrissy, I know all to well what it's like to discover that your running route isn't quite what it seemed to be. Remember how excited I was when I came home from a "5.02" mile run in 39 min? Too good to be true. But I think your times are also improving nicely and even more so if your new long-routes have hills as well - I'm fairly certain that the race at the woodlands is flat. I think an all-time pr is not outside the realm of possibility for you at the end of this month and that would be incredible. Even getting close to that time would be an acheivent. Keep it up!

Mike