Arie's Running Blog

9:20AM start, 77F 55% humidity. The humidity was about 20-30 percentage point lower than what we had in the last few weeks. It felt so much better and I was able to be so much faster. There was light wind which was helpful as well. I averaged 7:51 on my usual route between the campuses and the loop on the east campus. This week is taper week before the 5K race on Saturday. I'm also watching TS Hanna and wonder if it will reach our region by then.

0:37:15

9:00 AM start, 70F, 80% humidity. I felt a bit less strong than yesterday plus it was more humid today. But over all it was a good fast run. I averaged 7:55 for that route which is not bad at all. Tomorrow some last speed work before the race on Saturday.

0:37:30

8:40AM 70F 70%humidity. Went to my sons' school track. They completely renovated them and they are brand new and amazing. I did 5 miles total with 4 x 800m intervals in them. I did the 800m in 3:17, 3:17, 3:18, 3:22. So the last one was a tad slowr but not too bad.

0:39:06

I have the 5K on Saturday (if we're not going to hit by Hanna) and I will probably do a very short and easy run tomorrow and nothing on Friday.

8:40AM, 70F, 75% humidity. Last workout before the race. Did a short run but at a high pace. It felt good and I was still fresh after it. Some big storms are coming our way. It seems like it will rain on Saturday. Hopefully not har and hopefully it won't be too windy. I also hope the race will not be cancelled.

0:28:59

Complete rest today before the race tomorrow. I'm watching TS Hanna with some worry. It is going to rain tomorrow for sure but I'm more worried about the winds. It suppose to make landfall in South Carolina sometimes tomorrow morning and then move over us pretty quickly. I hope the race will not be cancelled.

I never raced in a heavy rain. I did some training runs while it was raining but it was always light rain and light wind. Any tips for running in heavy rain and possibly windy conditions?

No race today due to TS Hanna. the race was postponed for tomorrow same time in the morning. Actually the storm was not bad and by this time (10AM) it is mostly over but conditions were pretty bad at 8AM. So I'm a little bit disappointed as I felt very ready but one day delay is not bad. It will be dry and sunny tomorrow and VERY humid.

It was a bit disappointing race for me. I felt like I peeked yeasterday and I felt very ready but the execusion was horrible. I ran the first mile way too fast 6:12. I don;t know what I was thinking. It actually didn't feel that fast. I didn't think I was doing 6:12 as I was running it. People were passing me all the time. Then the next two miles I totally bonked I did mile 2 in 7:06 and the third one 7:04 and the last 0.11 in 43 seconds which is more like 6:31 pace (the last 0.25 miles were down hill). After 1.5 I was feeling really tired and at the 2.5 mile I was in trouble. I finished strong but that was kinda too late. I'm not sure what went wrong but it wasn't my day. The result is not bad. I ran 21:03 in April but I am quite disappointed. I will be 39 next month and I feel like the wondow of opportunity to run close to 20 minutes is closing on me.

Over all it was a relatively big race and it was VERY well organized. It was sponsored by the IT companies in the research park and they spent lots of money on it. So they had tons of food and beaverages for afterwards and even ice cream and they even gave a way a lenovo laptop in a raffle and pretty big money prizes for such a  local race ($125, 75, 50 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd in both male and female categories). The first guy broke the course record in 14:40 - Wow!

0:21:04

Some lame excuses:
1. The start line was VERY narrow. I sucked because I had to navigate between slow people for the first 1/4 mile. But my 1 mile split was actually very fast.
2. The y didn't have a mat on the start line and it was by the gun. So I recorded my own time with my watch. But I don;t like that.
3. The weather was horrible. 75F and 90% humidity. I was already sweating at the start line. My times deteriorate with heat and especially with humidity.
4. The race was scheduled for yesterday but was postponed to today because of Hanna. I think psychologically it affected me.
5. Due to the race being postponed my taper was too long and too deep. I think I peeked yesterday and today I just didn't have it in me.

8:50AM 76F 70% humidity. Ironically I felt strong this morning (after I disappointed myself in yesterday's 5K race). I went for my usual 4.75 short route and did 7:36 pace. If only the humidity yesterday would have been 705 and not 90%..

0:36:09

The best thing is to look forward. There is a 10K race I want to do in mid November. I never raced a 10K. I'll declare today as my first day of training toward this goal.

8:45Am start, 75F 80% humidity. I decided to go for a shorter run but to add 4 hill repeats to it. So I did about 0.75 to the beginning of the hill, stopped my watch and did 4 times up and dow that hill sprinting and lifting my knees on the way up and slow jog on the way dow. After doing these 4 hills I contiued my run and completed the other 4 miles.

0:37:47 (without the hills)

I was still thinking about my 5K. I looked at my training program for the PR 5K I did about a year ago. It was a November race and the weather was perfect an this is definately an important factor. So being 20 second slower when it's 75F and 90% humidity rather than 60F and 45% humidity is not bad at all. So first of all I decided to be less hard on myself. But I could not help comparing my training then and now. I noticed several differences:
1. I did about 15-20 miles a week a year ago training 4 days a week and about 35-40 now training 6 days a week.
2. I did a lot of hills back then and no hills this time.
3. I did good tempo runs (tho short: 2-3 miles) and not so good tempo runs this time.

So as a conclusion I decided to care more about quality and less about quantity. Today I did 4.75 again but I added 4 hills. I think this is better than doing a 6.5 miles and no hills. I will do more tempo runs and will use them to learn how to maintain constant speed and good form for a prolonged time and not start too fast right away. I will be a bit less worried about logging a lot of miles (tho I will probably still do over 30 miles per week).

My main goal is a 10K on November 16 but I might add a 5K on the way at the end of October.

8:50AM cool but humid and an overcast. I did my regular 4.75. Felt good and strong and did a nice 7:50 pace.

0:37:12

8AM 65F 85%. Humid but cold. Went to the tracks to do my tempo. The goal was to keep a close to constant pace over 4 miles. I have achieved that goal but it's relatively easy to do when you can check yourself every quarter of a mile. Here are my splits:
1st:   7:55 (suppose to be a warm up)
2nd:  7:14
3rd:  7:17
4th:  7:16
5th:  7:07
6th:  8:43 (cool down)
So appart from kicking it up a bit at the last mile of the tempo it was fairly constant pace and a tad faster than the 7:20 I planed to do. Judging by my performance this morning I could have done a 10K in less than 47 minutes. Another conclusion: weather has a HUGE effect on my performance.

0:45:31

8:40 72F 90%humidity. The regular run between campuses. Still in quite fast pace (7:52 average). I'm looking forward for the weather to get less hot and less humid. Rest day tomorrow and probably 10 miles on Sunday.

0:37:23

6:50AM 74F 80-90% humidity. Since conditions were not so great I didn't push it, especially not in the first third. I ran strong and averaged 8:00. I also fought the urge to put more milage than the 10 I planed. I felt good at the end although I was totally wet.

1:21:41

I will be traveling in the next 3 days and I'm going to make a big effort to run. Lets see if I can do it.

5:30AM 76F 80% humidity. Yes 5:30 it's not a mistake. I'm flying to DC today and will have meeting all day and will give a talk at UMD and then go to dinner so that was my only chance to run. I ran in our neighborhood just 2.2 miles but did them fast. It's a very hilly route so it's as if I also did hills training. It's the shortest I ran in a very long time but getting up so early for this purpose was the main thing. I did 7:34 pace on these hills.

0:16:38

7:40AM 68F 60% humidity. I'm in Washington DC. Had a very nice run this morning. Went up Wisconsin Ave. to Macomb to Conecticut Ave. pass the Zoo and down to Dupont Circle then on P street through Georgetown and up Wisconsin Ave. back to my hotel. I really love DC. Weather conditions were nice as well. Lots of people running in the streets. Did a nice pace as well on those crazy up and down streets (7:48). I'm looking forward to my run tomorrow morning.

0:43:20

6:50AM about 60F and low humidity. I'm still in DC. I ran from my hotel through parts of Georgetown all the way down to Lincoln Memorial. Then along the reflection pool to the  Washington Monument. Up 15th street to Pensilvania Ave. Ran infront of the White House and all the way back to Georgetown and back to my hotel. Very nice and scenic run with lots of ups and downs. Nice pace over all (7:49 on average).

0:55:53

9:15 AM 70F low humidity. Went to Duke tracks to do speed work. Eventough I slept a lot last night I felt tired after two days of traveling. I did 5 intervals of 0.5M at 3:19, 3:17, 3:17, 3:20 and 3:22. As you can see I was loosing it a bit at the last two intervals. Over all I did 5.5 miles.

0:42:51

3:20pm 76F 45% humidity. Did my run late today because of schedule issues but the weather is great. It was actually fun to clear up my mind after sitting in my office all day and teaching. Did a nice pace (7:43 on average). Rest tomorrow.

0:36:41

8:00AM 58F 90% humidity. Wow! what a run that was. I averaged 7:38 on this distance. The cool temperature was great. I felt really great throughout the run even in the last couple of miles. I wish this was a race or something like that. The course is quite challanging with a lot of hard hills but also some relatively flat areas. But in total the course is tougher than your average race course. I'm thinking that a 7:30 for a 10K should be a very reasonable pace. We'll see how I do in November. I also might do another 5K on the flow sometime at the end of October. Next week and the week after I have lots of traveling to do. Hopefully my running will not be affected too much.

1:31:35

8:15AM 65F, 80-90% humidity. Nice temperatures. Did the loop around Duke golf course twice. Was planning to run easy this morning after yesterdays long run but didn't manage to. I did  8:07 in the first loop and 7:55 in the second (8:01 on average). Legs were a bit sore after yesterday but nothing serious.

0:46:31

Product review: Whole foods have their version for the Propel fitness water. I tried it this morning and for some reason picked the Mango flavor. Yuck! I love mango but these water were just awful. I drank it all anyway :-)

3:15PM, 75F, 50% humidity. My schedule did not allow a morning run. I started by running 0.75M to the bottom of the major hill on this route. It's actually just a 100m hill with medium slope. I stopped my watch and run up and down the hill 5 times. Then resumed my run and did the rest of the run. I hate running after lunch. I felt nausea almost all the way and I still do now. Surprisingly the pace was not bad (8:09 average).

0:38:42

8:45AM, 60F, 60% humidity. Nice weather a little bit of wind. Did my usual run which felt great (average pace 7:45). I'm going to travel tomorrow but will try to squeeze a tempo run in the morning. Starting from tomorrow I have crazy 10 days.

0:36:51

Gym tempo run on the treadmill. I'm traveling to Madison Wisconsin this afternoon and this was the only way i could squeeze a 6 mile into my schedule this morning. According to the treadmill I did 8:20,7:19,7:13,7:13,7:08,8:20

0:45:33

7:00 AM, 58F, 80% humidity. I'm in Madison Wisconsin. Ran 6.5 miles on the trail near Lake Mendota on the campus of the university of Wisconsin Madison. Beautiful. I woke up at 6:45, opened the curtains and the lake is literaly 20 feet from my window. The sun just started to rise the rowing team was already in the middle of the lake. I did a quick morning routine and at 7 I was already out running. Did fast 6.5 miles on this mnice trail. Lots of people outside. It's a wide trail that in most areas divided to walker/runners side and bike side. Very thoughtful. My pace was good (7:46) eventhough I had little sleep. I'm coming back to NC tonight and tomorrow morning we are going to NYC! I hope to do my Sunday run in central park.

0:50:29 (splits: 25:09, 25:20)

6:45AM 65F 80% humidity. Went to a run on the Hudson river in NYC. Went all the way down from 84th west to 14th, turned around went back up to 95th and down to 83, around the vblock and back to 84. Over all it was a very nice run. Lots of interesting things on the way. It was a little bit shorter in length than what I hoped to do but a 9.1 miles run when on vacation is not bad at all. I hope to get another short one tomorrow. Probably to central park.

1:13:18

 http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/ny/new-york/942287437560

6:50 AM about 65F, I ran in central park. I had a plan for some route but I ended up going a different one. It was a nice run. I later on approximated the length of it so it's pretty rough. But I did a 8 min/mile pace. Tomorrow I will be in Palo alto California.

0:36:40

3:45PM (west coast time), 76F 50% humidity. I'm in Palo alto CA (visiting Stanford). I slep little last night and woke up early to catch a flight but I was able to sleep some on the plane which helped. I did a run around Stanford campus. The weather was great and it was dry and I did the 5 mile in an excellent pace.Goint to run tomorrow morning as well.

0:37:19