Reviewing the Neighborhood

Distance: 6.92 mi.
Time: 51:48.59.
Pace: 7:30.

It's hard to believe I've lived in Eastover for almost four years. Today I ran one of the few routes that I'm actually going to miss. It's a loop that goes up through some hills off Randolph and Wendover before cutting over towards part of the Booty Loop, on Selwyn. The legs were very tight yesterday but felt fresh again today.

Bite Me

Distance: 8.47 mi.
Time: 1:05:01.
Pace: 7:41.

After some hard running followed by some hard slacking, it came as no surprise that I was very tight on today's easy run. I ran around the neighborhood for awhile. I stopped at Kati Robertson's place to congratulate her on a good 5k earlier in the day, but she was not home. With lonely spirits I trudged towards home, by way of Selwyn Avenue, whereupon I would find my left hand in the mouth of a very large dog. I was approaching a woman who was having a hard time getting Fido to sit and stay at the crosswalk. I zigged when I should have zagged, and as I put my hand out to keep the animal at bay, it jumped up and took hold of said hand. He didn't clamp down hard, though; if anything I think he was trying to play. The woman apologized profusely but I just shrugged and ran home.

Long Medium Run

Distance: 14.5 mi.
Time: 1:55:41.68 - 7:58 ppm.

Clearly, I did not intend to run over 14.5 miles today, but that's what happened. I do want to start getting in a better medium-long run, but it will need to be more like 10-13 miles, not pushing 15. However, Adrienne wanted to do 10 today and she's leaving for India tomorrow, so I wanted to run with her. I started from and finished at the Dowd so that's where the extra miles come in to play. 

Same Workout, Different Day

Warmup: 3.1 mi in 23:58 - 7:38 ppm.
Workout: 5.0 mi in 32:28.3 - ~6:30 ppm.
Coolown: 1.45 mi in 11:46 - 8:08 ppm.

By no design of my own, I missed Monday and Tuesday. So if you're scoring at home, I am well on my way to following a 30-mile week with another down week - five weeks into a twelve-week marathon cycle, no less.

I am always going to call myself a slacker, but despite these misgivings I am not worried. I am gaining confidence as a runner. As for this week, tonight was a great start and I still have four more days to put in work, with new shoes and a recovered foot.

I showed up to the Met for the customary Tuesday tempo, a day late but no dollars short. I felt pretty good and just tried to push a but without straining. The average was 6:29; the fastest split was a 6:14.

Figure-8

Distance: 10.28 mi.
Time: 1:20:17.2 - 7:49 ppm.

The title of this post refers to what today's route looks like on the map. I once again decided to meet Adrienne today for part of her 14-mile long run. I told her to find a spot about five miles in and I would meet her there. That spot turned out to be the corner of Chilton and Sharon, which is part of the Thunder Road course. At this juncture I'm going to stop pointing out when I run sections of the marathon course, because the damn thing goes all over the place. So that's all I have to say about that.

I felt like crap today. All I really remember about this run was watching how much more fit Adrienne seems to be getting while pretending not to struggle a couple strides behind her. She finished strong and went home while I ran another mile or two by myself, although I had intended to do more.

First Meetup Run

Distance: 10.2 mi.
Time: 1:14:07 - 7:16 ppm.

This one was slightly eventful, as I have recently joined the Charlotte Runners group on Meetup. I guess I was just curious about this group since I had heard from several people involved that their runs tend to be a little more fun than anything else. My friend Jade is a member so I had asked her about it, then eventually signed up. Today I made it to their Tuesday night "5 on the Booty" run that starts at the Metropolitan. I wanted to go medium-long today so I got there early and ran the loop by myself, just cruising along.

I got back to the Metropolitan and drank some water. There was a large group around, including a few familiar faces. Several people came up and introduced themselves, recognizing that I was new. The group organizer gathered everyone over to the starting line before sending us off. I thought that was a little weird but figured it's better than simply taking off to run without making sure everyone is ready. This really does seem like a cool group; it's a good mix of serious runners, people new to running and trying to get better, and people who just want to have fun.

I found Franklin Keathley, an acquaintance of mine, and re-introduced myself. We started at the back of the pack and started picking people off. By the time we got up to Selwyn we were moving pretty quickly and had already passed most people. I asked Franklin how many people he thought were ahead of us. "Just a few, I think," he said. I then asked him if he thought we could catch them all. I was feeling frisky.

We raced down Queens West, crossed the street near CMC, and continued to mow down more runners. I was having fun, and to my pleasant surprise Franklin was hanging on not far behind me. I caught an older gentleman right near the gazebo on the greenway and announced that I didn't have any gears left. I tucked in behind him. I had run my last three miles in 7:05, 6:35, and 6:08, and had caught all but two of the runners. One of them was John Cristiano, who I probably could not have caught regardless of where we started. I spent some time talking to him about the Thunder Road marathon and a few other things. There was an after party at Vivace but I had other plans for the evening, and bolted after congratulating Franklin on his longest run of all time.

I enjoyed this run and the group in general. I don't really see myself being part of the social scene but it's definitely a fun group to run with. I like how everyone stays in a big pack and sticks around to congratulate everybody when the run is over.

Recovery Day

Distance: 4.36 mi.
Time: 00:34:29 - 7:54 ppm.
Running Buddy

Today I ran my Freedom Park route, starting on Princeton Avenue this time, and cut it short by over a mile. There isn't much to say here, other than Kati Robertson still has not put a water cooler on her porch. What gives, woman?

Long Run - Fast Finish?

Distance: 10.88 mi.
Time: 01:23:30 - 7:39 ppm.
Running Buddy

Today I was supposed to do 10-11 miles "with a fast finish." I started around 7:30 from near Park Road shopping center, ran down Park, through some neighborhoods, up a few hills, and found myself on South Boulevard. I looped around back there in the South End area before coming through the south side of downtown and heading towards the Little Sugar Creek greenway. I got in a groove of 7:28 pace (or so) and soon came to regret it.

I ran through the park and back up towards Selwyn Avenue. From here, I would take Park back to Seneca and I would be done. The fast finish idea was slowly going out the window. I felt I was hanging on as this was yet another disgustingly muggy day. When I turned on Seneca, I found life, and sprinted up the hill, ensuring that my last hill was at least my fastest, if not actually marathon goal pace as directed. Oh well. Whoever wrote my plan left out the part about adjusting pace expectations for the heat and humidity.

Booty 200s

Warmup: 1.42 mi in 00:11:54 - 8:22 ppm
Workout: 3.20 mi in 00:23:39 - 7:23 ppm [16 x 0.13 mi with 45-second rest between reps]
Cooldown: 2.57 mi in 00:22:29 - 8:44 ppm

After I purchased my Brooks Ghost at RFYL, one of the newbies gave me the spiel about how Brooks guarantees the shoes for a short amount of time and if I'm unhappy with the purchase blah blah blah, and maybe I should go easy in them or run on the treadmill just to be sure at first blah blah blah..

I was about two hours late for a workout and running on an empty stomach, so I threw the new shoes in my car and headed to Freedom Park to do some 200s. I slapped them on, tightened them up, made note that they certainly appear heavier than the Defyance, and set off on my Booty Loop/Greenway route. I stopped less than two miles and reset Running Buddy, which wasn't working properly at the moment. Then I programmed it for 16 x 0.13 miles (a little longer than 200 meters). I had wanted to do 24 but figured that was asking too much in the heat of the day.

I had to run up some hills and there were some instances when I had to slow down to cross the street or dodge a car, but for the most part I was glad to be doing my workouts on a surface other than McAlpine. I felt like this was better race simulation, right down to the part where I had to dodge a Toyota Celica at the Upgrade 5k. I feel like I ran pretty hard for the most part. There were some stretches where I ran as fast as 5:05 pace for several repetitions; I ran way over 6:00  pace for a few of them, too, but those were near the end and/or on the sections where I had to slow down due to unforeseen circumstances.

Avoiding some shoe drama would have put me out there earlier this morning, but I got the work done and I'm relatively happy with how it went.

New route? Nah, not yet

Distance: 6.47 mi
Time: 00:48:25/7:36 pace

I decided to run the same Freedom Park/Booty Loop route once again. I haven't gotten tired of it yet! I set off around 1:30 in the afternoon and it was hot and pretty humid once again, but I seem to be adjusting to that so far. I did decide to make a change to the route, though: instead of continuing on the Booty Loop where one of the Queens roads crosses Selwyn, I turned right on another Queens road, then left on yet another Queens road - this last Queens Road being the one that turns into Morehead Street and leads to a pretty tough hill. Ah, hills! How I have missed thee. Maybe I'm due for a date with Old Bell soon? Easy, easy...

This route led me to Kenilworth, where I turned right and headed towards the Metropolitan, this time entering the greenway from the opposite side, where I don't have to dodge shopping traffic. I got baked by the sun once again, and therefore slowed down once again, but this time I ran all the way around the lake before finishing.

Stats and Map

Calling an Audible

Distance: 5.61 mi
Time: 00:40:26/7:12 pace

I was supposed to wake up early this morning and do a workout, but I called an audible and decided to rest - sort of. Basically, I've been trying to make a point to listen to the body more this time and not do anything I don't really need to do. I want to avoid the mistakes of last fall. My ankles had been bothering a good bit last night, and were stiff when I awoke. I did my calf raises and everything felt fine after that, but I decided a hard workout could wait another week.

Two o'clock rolled around, I had finished all my work for the day, and it was beautiful outside, so I decided to head to Freedom Park. In lieu of a real workout I decided I'd just do my five-plus loop at a slightly faster pace than normal. Normal was about 7:30 or so, so I was hoping to average around 7 minutes per mile.

I set off around the lake and up one of the Queens roads and hit 7:21 for the first mile. Perfect, not too fast. On a slight incline, then a slight decline and another slight incline, I hit 7:16 for mile number two. After this, I opened it up a bit and started feeling pretty good. I would glance down at the "average current pace" displayed on the Garmin and I swear I kept seeing numbers like "6:42" and "6:38" so I tried to keep it there. I was a little disappointed when I pulled up the stats and saw 6:46 for the third mile and 6:58 for the fourth.

At this point I was on the greenway - and right out in the sun - and I slowed down a good bit for the last two miles. This run confirmed that I wasn't really ready for a workout, but all in all I did pretty well, considering how long it's been since I tried to do anything even remotely heroic.

Stats and Map

Loving the Freedom Park runs

Well, I think I've found a new favorite route: I start at Freedom Park, run past the lake and out Princeton Avenue to get on the Booty Loop, take that all the way to the Metropolitan, then come back to Freedom on the Little Sugar Creek Greenway. It's scenic, there's limited interaction with motor vehicles, and it was only 5.5 miles the way I went today. Perfect! I did, however, feel sluggish for the second day in a row and I'm going to take tomorrow off. It was also right at 80 degrees and it may take some getting used to those hot temperatures.

I'm meeting Brinkley at McAlpine to do part of his long run Saturday, and then Eggers at McMullen for the same deal on Sunday. My long run will likely end up being Saturday if I feel up to it - hoping to hit 8 or 9 miles. Things are progressing nicely.

Stats and Map

Booty Loop and Greenway Attempt, Take II

No rain this time, so I succeeded in running part of the Booty Loop and hopping on the Little Sugar Creek Greenway right at the Metropolitan Centre, or whatever that place is called (where Dressler's is). I just wanted to do an easy five or six miles, so I have no idea how I ran my first mile in 6:49. The good news is it did feel easy, but I slowed down and ended up averaging 7:17 pace for the rest of the run. I still love the shoes, and this Garmin is unbelievable. Once again, if you bother to look at the link below, the "bird's-eye view" format is essential for this one. I love this neighborhood!

Stats and Map