Edmond Runner

Drills; solo K repeats at OC pond

5 @ 1K repeats: around 3:36 steady effort; 3:24 last one hard effort

4 @ .2 mi: 4:55 to 4:50 pace (with Jake and Jason first part of there K repeat)

Great weather; 60 and little wind

Pacing Court on her 6 @ 1/2 mi at OC pond

Overcast; 80; very strong S wind; humid = tough speedwork conditions

Drills

Leg weights

Hips

ART

Tank Run = solo easy effort at OC; 74 with 10-15 WNW; full sun and felt hot

Running on low calories; legs also very tired and still little sore from earlier efforts.

Finished with couple of miles on track sprinting straights (x 10) and jogging curves.

Lifted all but legs and shoulders/shrugs

Notes: Have gone over 2 weeks without taking any allegra; now that is a surprise!  Also met my March goal of losing 10 lbs.  I am thankful for that and now hope to get near my 5K PR weight (which means now have less than 10 lbs to go).  I believe some of the key elements are: more sleep; not eating cereal snacks after normal supper; almost no soda; switching out chips for carrots at lunch; less almonds; and being in a get light and race frame of mind.

Hefner with Blake; last 5 at 6:18 average; last mile at 5:50 pace

Lifted lower

Hip work

ART

Lifted upper

Biked 5 warmup

Solo run in rain around OC; 49 degrees and slight wind

Solo run in rain at OC (just missed the hail) Included 10 of hill loop with hard 15-20 seconds down-side and 12 seconds up-side Legs dead..... ART

Ran with Court at OC; 68 with 15-26 mph N; dry air and sunny; hard to breathe day and tired legs We each did our 6 x 1/2 mi workout; i was all over the place which started with 3:02 and ended with 2:50; others around 2:52-2:57; felt good about workout considering negative variables effecting me (including at work it was my eval day). Sadly put on lbs over weekend when I decided to relax and ate out too much. Sabotaged myself. Ugh. My genetics love to put on weight (used to weigh 100 lbs more) so always a battle. Back on track today. Good and surprising news is haven't taken Allegra since middle of my Spring Break; not allergy free but minimal compared to other years. Have much to look forward to over next few months including OKC Half. Gotta remind myself to enjoy the journey and keep positive. 5 mi spin Hip work ART

Solo run at OC; 82 and 15-27 mph S; air dry and sunny

True recovery pace as legs and mind were fatigued + hot & windy

Lifted upper

Hips

ART

Lifted back and arms; no legs due to very minimal taper for HM (main goal is race weight)

Solo OC run; 80 and light wind (it died down!); overcast

Easy pace except 8 x straights on track

Run Drills

Hip work

ART

VERY low participation Half Marathon in Bixby Oklahoma; with Jason who easily won the race.

Feel like I got punked by:

Weather: ~62-68 with South Wind 12-16 gusting 25; Humidity 88-83% (don't believe the "light breeze" the timing company put at top of results = they didn't check the weather I guess were basing it on sitting around a bunch of buildings!)

Course: Using mapmyrun and looking at elevation and using google streetview it appeared the course wouldn't have any significant hills; it did.   All of the multiple uphill sections weren't given back until one very sharp downhill section of about 1/2 mi around mile 10 (my garmin had me 5:56 pace heading down) = so a lot of up and a down that was too fast on fatigued legs to help long-term.  Mile 4-5 had majority of uphill and I hit 7:04 pace using same effort as 6:26 mile later.

Race Mgt: I was actually on sub 6:30 pace through mile 8 and could see through a tree-line there was a water stop around a corner at mile 8; I turned the corner and the guy was just standing there with NO cups filled.  I took my gel before turning corner....ugh...mouthful of strawberry gu and nothing to drink.  He stumbled around and I just said "never mind" and kept going; I tried to spit out the remainder..."good luck with that"; then he comes zooming up on his atv with a cup...filled with gatorade!  I know the rules and how downing gatorade on top of a gel can turn stomach so I just used it to swish mouth and spit out.  Then there wasn't another water stop until 2 miles later.  I went into dehydration and needing energy failure mode.

My Body: With less than 2 miles to go and wind to my back...I walked.  My head was very light and spinning; I thought I might collapse.  The last water station was 2 miles back and none in sight.  I counted to 30-one thousand and started again; with a mile to go the last water station arrived and I took the cup and walked again counting to 20 this time; took off still feeling faint.  After finish I held on to a road sign to avoid falling over (coudn't even hold on to my water bottle).  I hate the idea of walking (such as up a hill or late in race when mind grows weak....but this was different; my body had just given out on me to point of failing.

Price: I paid $70 for this race and drove 1 1/2 hours to get there.  After the last point I could see Jason ahead of me with leading golf cart (they turned a corner and never saw again) I thought....here I am just running a solo effort down a country road and nothing to look at other than pasture and cows...I paid for this??  ha

Tough day but actually some silver lining in my early performance; mile 8 for me was still 6:21 so my effort was strong early on until body failed; I also know I am in shape to PR the Half if on right weather day and right course; unfortunately my next HM is on another tough course and weather is always iffy = OKC.

Glad for the experience and chance go with Jason to run somewhere different.  We neither achieved our overall goal this day, but still a trip that will be remembered.

Note: DS Racers worked out great in "their" HM debut for me; zero ankle pain and body feels good.

Hail, gust-nado, then treadmill

ART

With Frankie at OC; 51 and 20-30 mph N wind; sunny and dry air with high allergens

Included 4 miles on hill loop

Finished run solo; legs fatigued

Lifted lower

Hip work

ART

Lifted upper = heaviest amount in few yrs!

3.5 treadmill warmup and rest at OC pacing Courtney for tempo intervals

Easy pace other than striders after drills

Low 60's and light S wind

Ran with Court; recovery pace for me; OC; 68 with 20-25 mph from S; dry air

Included 3 miles of hills; solo finish of 3.5 on treadmill

All treadmill as took a nap and ran until 9:30 pm; easy run with a few miles of steady state.

Easy solo run at OC; included 10 striders

73 with 12 SSW; full sun

Calves still very tight and getting that "about to cramp" feeling.  Due to hill work and wearing flats on a hilly and windy Half??  Have to sleep in compression socks to avoid cramps.

Tomorrow is a low key 5K that I had thought PR...but now the weather is looking poor for a 9:30 gun time.  Main goal is a solid speed session and have fun!

65 and 15 mph S; full sun; high allergy day

18:32 on my 5K; fastest in 2 years!

Taper for OKC HM begins: cross trained 70 min

Lifted lower (heavy) and arms

Hip work

ART

Taper Cruise Intervals per McMillan Plan w/Court at OC

80 degrees and full sun = not ready for this!

Running Drills and 2 mi WU 

5 x 1K; range 3:45-3:51; worked on making it moderate effort using Garmin pace to avoid 5K pace; ran in DS Trainers to protect sore heel (along edges)

Lifted upper and back 

Hip Work

ART

Solo OC easy run; 80 with 15-25 mph South; went hazy overcast with approaching front but stayed hot.

limited ART as felt lazy from heat training

70 with 20-25 mph; full sun

Ran with Court at OC; following McMillon taper week: 9 x 1 min 10K pace with 1 min easy run between.

Hip work

ART

30 min of crosstraining per McmIllon = vacuuming!  ha

ART

a.m. Shakeout run with Court at OC; right at 159.0

66 with 15-22 mph S; muggy; allergy count that bothers me is up = feel a little "hay fever"

Run Form drills

Recovery run pace for me on chat

OKC HM tomorrow!  In PR shape but not going to get PR weather on an already tough course.  Plans are to get a top 3 in AG which have never accomplished at OKC.  I am still not counting out my bigger goal; gotta go for it.

Good luck to all running tomorrow and Run to Remember!

ART

Solo OC after long day at work (interviewing candidates); easy run; 58 w/NNW 15-23 mph; cold and dry air; cloudy

Still feeling some lower leg soreness from OKC HM