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This morning I slept in a bit later than I had the first few days on vacation, and ended up paying for it on my morning run. The schedule called for 45 minutes at easy pace with 6 x 100m stride outs at the end. By the time I started the temps were already well over 80 and there was no breeze to speak of and absolutely no shade.
This made for a very warm run, but my legs still felt pretty good throughout. Also this is the best my right shin has felt in the past two weeks. I didn’t even feel a twinge until I started my stride outs at the end.
In total I finished just over 5.7-miles with strides at an 8:18 average pace per mile.
Beast Mode…ON!
This morning Olivia and I did something that we rarely get to do…..we did our training run together. Well, I guess it would be more accurate to say that we did them at the same time, in the same general location. Both of our schedules called for 60-minute runs, so we each decided to do an out and back route on Front Beach Road along the ocean. This meant that we got to start together and finish together. Since my parents are with us on vacation they were able to watch the kids while we were running.
Now that we are completely clear of the tropical storm, the climate has returned to normal for this time of the year. The temps were around 80 when we started with very high humidity and a steady breeze throughout. The breeze felt pretty good since there is absolutely no shade, but it does make it harder to find a rhythm and maintain good running form.
As has been the case every day this week, my “easy paced” effort turned into somewhat of a progression run with every mile, except for one, faster than the previous. Here’s a rundown of my splits:
I also progressively felt better throughout the run which is always encouraging. I knew that my pace was progressively increasing, so I decided to make the outward half 31 minutes before turning around, thinking that it was more likely to take me 29 minutes to get back than the full 30. With about 5 minutes to go I passed Olivia heading back toward the condo, and I knew that I was still going to have time left when I finished the route. It actually only took me 28 minutes to get back after taking 31 minutes on the way out.
To make up this extra time, I turned around and ran back to Olivia and then we walked together back to the condo. She commented about how hot it had been, but was encouraged that her shins had not bothered her after having some pain earlier this week. All-in-all we both had successful runs this morning.
In total I finished 7.29 miles with an average pace of 8:15 per mile.
Beast Mode….ON!
I need to find out what stride outs are!
Stride Outs are generally 100m repeats used as a final warmup before a full track or interval workout. The idea is to accelerate for the first 80m up to 85 or 90% effort, and then taper your speed to the finish. We usually do 6 sets of these before every track workout. I know that many times I may not feel great during my regular warmup, but then once we get through strides everything feels ready to go.
Also, my coach has me doing these at the END of at least two of my easy-paced runs each week, so that I get some extra speed work in on tired legs. Since my goal in running a marathon will be to maintain my pace even when my legs are toast, adding these to the end of normal training runs helps to simulate that type of effort.
Now that we are mostly clear from Tropical Storm Debby, this morning’s run was WAY different than yesterday. While it was still windy (though not as bad), about all I got today was full sun, full heat, and lots of humidity. In other words, about what you’d expect from a morning run on the gulf in late June.
My schedule today called for 45-minutes at easy pace with 6 x 100m stride outs at the end. Other than sweating like a dog, I again felt pretty good throughout the run, and my splits got a bit faster with every mile (9:16, 8:27, 8:20, 8:12, 7:55).
I did my stride outs across from the condo in what used to be the parking lot of the old Miracle Strip Amusement Park. I went there a bunch as a kid, but there is absolutely nothing there now. The pace for my strides was right at 6:00min pace. In total I finished 5.74-miles with an 8:14 average pace per mile.
Beast Mode…ON
This morning I checked another item off of my running bucket list (not really)…..Running in a Tropical Storm. With tropical storm Debby bearing down on the gulf coast, I took off along Front Beach Road for my scheduled 70 minute run at easy pace. Nathan….would this also be considered crazy?
I’ll have to say this was one of the strangest runs I’ve ever experienced as far as it relates to conditions. For most of the 70 minutes I faced constant strong winds with gusts of 40+ MPH. Sometimes it felt like I was being shoved forward, sometimes it felt like I was running in place, and other times my feet were landing way left or right of where I took off. When the run was finished I was covered by a nice layer of sand from all of the wind. The weather would also go from cloudy with no rain, to periods of pelting rain, to periods of full sun.
As for the run itself, I felt pretty good throughout, though I did get fatigued from constantly fighting the wind. I tried to maintain a consistent effort even though the conditions made my mile splits bounce all over the place. In total I finished just over 8.5-miles in the 70 minutes at a pace just under 8:15 per mile.
Now that it is later in the day, Debby has taken an unexpected turn to the east, which left us with clear skies and a beautiful sunset on the beach. Olivia and I along with Kate and Sara took the opportunity to enjoy a very nice walk together. While this is good news for us, it will be a tough couple of days for those in Central Florida.
Beast Mode…ON!
