Arie's Running Blog

8:45AM, 70F, 70% humidity. My body only starts to aclimate itself to the new conditions of heat and humidity. I ran this course the slowest I have ran it for quite a long time. I have a 4th of July 5M race. Hopefully my body and mind will adjust for the heat and humidity by then. Otherwise, the 7:00 pace goal will have to be adjusted.

0:37:17

Plan for this week. After 3 weeks of gradual increase in milage I plan to stay a bit lower this week on the weekday runs - nothing beyond 5 miles or so. Then try to have a longer run on Saturday or Sunday. Next week I want to start and increase the milage again and perhaps attempt 6 days a week running. I'm afraid that some of my daily run will be in the gym on the treadmill as over 90F temperatures are predicted this week.

8:40AM, 68F, 75% humidity, cloudy. It wasn't too bad weather wise. I did a better pace (7:44) than yesterday and hopefuly it means my body is starting to adjust. I'm reducing the milage this week by just a bit after 3 weeks of gradual increament and will get back to increased milage next week. I want to keep it at the 30something level untill my 5 mile race on July 4th. With this horrible humidity and heat I probably should downgrade my expectations for that race. Doing the 5 mile race in 36 minutes would be awesome.

0:36:45

I did sleep more last night but part of it I had my 2.5 years old daughter's feet stuck in my ribs. She's so adorable.

Gym, 5M tempo run. When I left home at 9:30 this morning it was already 75F and humid. So I went to the gym and did a 5M tempo run. I avareged 7:13 per mile but the last part of the run was faster than the first and I was actually going at 7:00 per mile for the last mile. I threw in some hills (at slope 1.5) during the run but it was mostly on zero incline. The outdoor courses I usually use are quite hilly, even more than the courses I race on. So a treadmill is not great in that respect either. The highs will be in the upper 90s in the next days and I'm afraid I will use the gym's treadmill more than I would like to.

0:36:27

9:40AM start, 82F, 65% humidity. I think this was my first real summer run for the season. I was very conservative - perhaps a little bit too conservative (8:01 pace). At least it wasn't very humid and there were a few light breezes here and there. The course is about 50% of the time in shade. But, nevertheless, it was hot! I think it was close to 85F when I finished. But I think my body is aclimating very fast. Yesterday I ran in the gym. It wasn't fun. I really hate the treadmill. It always hurt more and in strange places after I run on the treadmill.  Next week I plan to get up really early in the morning and be done with my run before 7AM.

0:38:06

Note to self:  put sunscreen and a hat!!!

Happy event:  My black toe nail finally fell off and a new toe nail emerged beneath it. hoooray!

6:00AM start, 75F, 80% humidity. It's going to be 100F today and still in the 90s in the evening so a very early morning run is the only option. I came out on sun rise and it was already hot and humid. The first mile was hard but I warmed up and the rest was quite nice and smooth (7:49 average pace). The route is a combination of trail and asphalt with lots of hills.

1:05:39

Plan: Next week I'm going to increase the milage and I also want to try a longer run on the weekend. I've been running this 8.4 miles route for 4 weeks and I feel ready for a 10 mile. I also want to do speed work on Wednesday but I'm not sure it's a good idea. In the past those speed works have been very hard. The 5M race is 4 weeks from yesterday. It's going to be my first 5M race so I'm guaranteed a PR :-) but I want to do a good time (36 minutes maybe???).

They installed new machines in our gym and I had to check them. So since it is my rest day I just did 8 minutes slow run and played with the treadmill options. It was fun. It's 100F outside and I have the feeling that running on a treadmill, as much as I hate it, will be a viable option.

I also did some core training but very light.
 

6:20AM start, 72F, 80% humidity. Got up early and hit the trail. Did two loops one clockwise and the second counter clockwise, less boring that way and the slopes are different. It's not an easy trail. I avareged 8:00 pace but the first loop was definately faster (it was the easier direction too).

0:46:22

6:40AM, 75F, 80% humidity. Started a little later than I was hoping. I took it easy today on purpose. I plan to do some speed work tomorrow. The pace was a bit slow (8:14) but the splits were quite even. It's a tough course with nothing but hills and hills. One can't expect to do as well in 75F and 80% humidity as in 55F and 60% humidity. I just hope I'm not getting slower by the day.

0:47:45 

Running on a trail as its risks. One of them are the bugs. I swallowed one today. The big risk is that one gets in your eye. That can be really painful. Anyway, it reminds me the following song:

There was an old runner who swallowed a fly

I don't know why he/she swallowed a fly

Perhaps he/she will die... 

Did 40 minutes on the treadmill this evening and included 4 800meter intervals at 5K pace (6:40). Ran total of 5.25 miles. I had a lot of energy after the nap and this speed work was not too har on me. Next week I'll try 5 800meter intervals in a 6M run.

0:40:00

7:30PM start 80F 80% humidity. But the weather was not the worse part. Apparantly there were some wild fires about 200 miles east of us and the wind brough lots of smoke with it. They declared code Orange for air quality. I hope I didn't do something stupid by running outside. It didn't feel bad on the trail inside the forest. Anyway, it was hot and I took it easy (8:13 average pace).

0:47:45

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wildfires/2008-06-12-north-carolina-smoke-fire_N.htm

Gym run. The new treadmills have a 5K race program on them. I had to try it. For some reasone the new treadmills are giving me aches in places I haven't felt before. Yet another reason to run outside even in the heat.

0:24:35

6:20AM start, 70F, 85% humidity. There was a little bit of rain during the night which cooled things a bit but kept the humidy very high. I extended my run from 8.4 in the previous weeks to 10.2 today. It was harder but it felt good. I held nice pace and good form and didn't fade at the end (although I was a bit slower). I averaged 8:03 for the whole distance. It's not an easy route. Lots of hills some of which are nasty. It's part sidewalks part trail. I think I will do this course next week again and then increase.

1:22:11

8:00 AM 70F and 75% humidity. It was actually quite nice outside. I was still tired from sunday's long run so I took it very easy (8:25 pace). I did the usual 2 loops around the golf course.

0:48:47

8:00AM start 68F, 75-80% humidity. Morning are much more manageable now in terms of weather. I pushed a little bit harder today than yesterday but still not really hard. My average pace was 8:13. Humidity is still high and slowing me down.

0:47:42

Thought of the day: I went to buy running shorts yesterday. I went to a designated store for runners and bikers. And here is my question. Why do running shorts cost 30-40 dollars a piece? Yes they are light and made out of breathing material but I am willing to bet my shorts that the marginal cost of production is less than a dollar per piece. Even if you add shipment costs and tariffs at the port it won't grow much per piece. So why are they marked up 1000%? How much do you guys/gals pay for running shorts?

I ended up buying Nike ones that were the cheapest ($26) and since I got a $10 gift certificate as a prize for coming 3rd in  my age group in the last 5K I did, it cost me "only" $16 (before taxes). My hard running payed (literally).

Did speed work on the treadmill. I ran total of 6 miles with 5 intervals of .5M at almost 5K pace (6:50 to be exact) each and a short recovery of 0.3M at 8:20 pace in between, plus cool off and warm up .

0:45:15 

I'll be in Pittsburgh this weekend for a conference. Gonna run there 2-3 times. Anyone out there? 

6PM, 65F, 60% humidity. I am in Pittsburgh for a conference. I ran through Chenley park just a short 3+ mile. Boy that was an hilly one. It was nice to run outside after a day of travel.

0:24:55

If anyone in Pittsburgh is up for a weekend long run, I'm open for suggestions.

5PM, 72F, 50% humidity. Nice run in Chenley park in Pittsburgh. This course have some mean hills. One of them is called squirell hill (poor squirell). Over all a nice scenery. Did a good pace even in those tough up hills.

0:31:33

Today is my 11th Anniversary. I love you Galit (thst's my wife's name of course).

6:45AM 60F, 85% humidity. I ran with a colleague that came with me to Pittsburgh for the same conference. I actually didn't know he's a runner till now. I was surprised to learn he has more than 10 marathons under his belt and that he runs ~50 miles per week. Wow. So we ran together in Pittsburgh. It was anice run, lots of hills but nice streets and parks. We did a slow pace 8:20 so I finished with some energy still left for the rest of the day.

1:16:53

Today is the longest day of the year. I should use it well.

6:50 AM, 68F 90% humidity. I rested yesterday and had a good night sleep so I pushed harder today. I averaged a 8:02 pace which is about 15 seconds per mile faster than what I usually do on this course. Tomorrow I'm going to take it a bit more easy because on Wednesday I plan to do a tempo run. The 4th of July race is approaching.

0:46:33

7:30AM, 68F, 70% humidity. I was doing a nice pace again (8:00) and it didn't feel too hard. I think it's my endurance building due to increased weekly milage but it also was due to a very good and long night sleep. I rn two loops again. I usually run the first in a good pace but then fade a bit on the second loop, but not this time. I did pretty much the same pace both of them.

0:46:23

I think that the single most important thing I can do to have a better race next week is to sleep more. Yes I will keep doing my miles and I will do a tempo run and some speed work. But all of those will have little effect if I don't force myself to go to bed early.

The problem: after a long day of work I feel it's a waste to just go to bed and do nothing fun so I fight it and end up going to sleep too late.

Solution: Yesterday I took one of the research papers I'm working on to read in bed, after 5-10 minutes I was sleeping like a baby :-)

8AM, 72F, 75% humidity. I was doing tempo run this morning. Started with a mile warm up at 8:00 pace and then did 5 miles tempo. I didn't keep a steady pace really. I started with 7:15 pace and faded gradually to 7:45. I ended up with another 0.6M at 8:00 pace. Over all average was 7:43.

0:50:53

Ran at the Gym. Did negative splits to acustome myself to holding up the pace.

0:40:00

7AM, 72F, 80% humidity. My usual run of two loops around the golf course. This time I ran with my iPod which I almost never do. I only use it if I run at the gym. The ran was OK, I felt a bit tired but did an OK pace of 8:06.

0:46:56

My 5 mile race is a week from today (4th of July). I am going to do a long run on Sunday and run on Monday and Tuesday too but short an easy. I know you guys will say that there is no need to taper for a 5 mile race. I just recently moved to 6 days run a week and I think I can use a bit of extra rest before the race. I might do a really short run on Wednesday if I feel like it.

8:00AM start 78F. I run with a group of runners of a local club. A nice and interesting combination of trails which I didn't know. Their pace was a little bit more than I could handle but I tried to keep up with them. Over all it was a nice and interesting experience.

1:17:59

7:20AM 72F 90% humidity. It rained all night so it was cooler this morning but the humidy.. oy the humidity. I took it easy because a) I did a long run yesterday and tomorrow I want to do speed work; b) I have a blister and c) someone called my cell phone at 4:30 in the morning and just killed my night sleep. So I ran the usual two loops and then added a little piece to top it of to 6M. Averaged a 8:26 pace. I think I'm getting slower.

0:50:45