Great long run!

There are workouts that just make you feel freaken good. Today was one of them. I had actually a ride to do but since the weather was rainy and windy, and I had missed my lomg run on Thursday evening due to work, I chose to get that done today since it better to run than ride in this weather.

Started off feeling stiff and unmotivated. The first half I ran with Simba, to get her her exercise. It was Hilly with wet and cold wind. But no sooner than I got my feet on the pavement, I was moving and moving with Purpose. The first half just went by easy as I stuck to the Long slow distance pace, keeping my HR in Zone 2. Dropped SImba off after the first hour, took in some water and resumed my run. I just felt like I had wings on my feet. There were plenty of hills but they seemed to just blend in, not even noticeable.

As the last half hour approached, I had on the plan to kick it up and finish strong. Not a problem I brought my average pace on the last half hour from my average of 9:30 to around 8 min/mile with ease and finished with plenty of energy for a sprint at the end.

The totals: 14.14 miles, 2 hrs 15 minutes, 3185 feet of climbing.

Disaster waiting to happen?

OK so I was planning a 3 hr indoor trainer session this morning, as I was setting up I discovered that I had no bike shorts to be seen anywhere in the tricave where I keep most of my workout clothes nowadays! So I went looking further and lo-and-behold this is what I saw:

Thaaats right a pile of laundry with about he majority of all of my workout clothes, including my cycling shorts AND my tri shorts. ( Admit it!! You are very familiar with this scene!)

Realizing that if I do not get a workout in early in the morning as planned I could easily end up getting caught up in the daily grind and my workout could end up floating off in to the netherworld ( coincidentally I am in FACT going to the Netherlands tomorrow :), So I decided to piece together an appropriate ensemble and did a 2 hour run instead. I still plan on doing my trainer session today after doing laundry. But this way I can be sure to get a workout in.

The process of gobbling together clothes for a workout gave me a flashback to the incident on March 15, 2008, Specifically the following section of that story was pertinent:

- I show up at race wearing a mishmosh of athletic gear because in a wonder of stupidity, I left 80% of my athletic gear in the old dryer on the day it was being carted off as the new dryer was being installed! So today I just threw on my only shorts with the last 2 surviving underlayment and top. (Thank God my summer stuff was still in the drawer because I have not been using them). I am sure I made an intimidating appearance!

Needless to say I immediately started to do laundry as soon as I got back from the run.

BTW Coach Adam makes a guest starring appearance during that episode, so check it out. http://www.operationironman.com/2008/03/scarsdale-15k.html

Cheers

18 Miles

So here is the planned route for my 18 miler today. I figured this out on mapmyrun.com according to the map it is not exactly 18 miles but is actually 17.7 miles. But I figured its easy to throw in a few hundred yards if my watch says I am short on the run.

I am planning on doing this at about 10AM. It is supposed to be a beautiful day in the high 40's, so any ice from last night should have melted off. Lets see how it goes.

Workout Today

Todays scheduled workout was 16 Miles base run

Actual 16.2 miles
time 2:38:30
Max HR 155
Ave HR 141
Max Pace 7:37
Ave pace 9:47
Calories Burned 1543
My Polar Running Index is 60 ("very good" per Polar)

I ran with Simba who continues to amaze me with her endurance. I was worried that going 16 might be too much. I have taken her on long runs before but not 16. Man was I wrong, she led me the whole way from beginning to end. A true running dog. The run was on teh North County trailway which is pretty flat, saw Phil and Kate out there also (WAY TO GO KATE!). I have to ask them about the success of the heated sox that we all invested in to keep our feet warm on the rides. Teh beauty of running local liek this is I was home 3 hours after I left.