“Good things come slow – especially in distance running.”

[nancipants]

Nice job listening to your body!

When can we come over for a party?

 

[LSUlakes]

Nice job listening to your body!

When can we come over for a party?

In the fall because its to hot to stand in front of that thing all afternoon until its at least in the 60's again lol. Then it needs to not rain the day of use or the day after so water doesnt get into the hot bricks lol.

 

[LSUlakes]

A little late with the holiday with last weeks running recap but here we go.
May 19-25 Running:
5/19 - 5.1 Miles
5/20 - 4 Miles
5/21 - 6 Mile Tempo Run
5/22 - 3 Mile Recovery Run
5/23 - 10.1 Miles Long Run
5/25 - 4 Miles

Ended the week with 32.27 miles according to Garmin. Had to move some things around due to my daughters dance recital on Saturday but made it all work. Running on a Sunday, and it not being a race is not part of the normal schedule lol. It continues to warm up so I am taking the miles a little slower... or maybe because its warm the pace is slowing. Overall a good week of running and building a good base! Starting in June I will have a few 2 mile races in the afternoon and I am very interested in seeing how those go. I will use those race times to help build pace goals for speed work days and long run days. I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend and at a minimum will be back next week to go over this weeks runs.

 

[LSUlakes]

Looks like I went almost all June without a post here. Running wise not much has happened, I ended the month with 72 miles. The good news is some of those miles took place during our week long trip to Disney that we just got back from. 1 run from ASM to the parking lot of Blizzard Beach, and the other runs took place at the Boardwalk! The early mornings felt decent and saw a decent amount of folks also getting some miles in!
I have a 10 mile night trail race coming up in 7 weeks. So, with the vacation over it is time to start focusing on that race!

 

[LSUlakes]

July 7-13 Training Week:
7/7 - Tempo Run, 1 Mi WU, 3 Mi 7:34 ave pace, 1 Mi CD
7/8 - 3.1 Mi Recovery Run
7/9 - 6 Mi, 1 Mi WU, then 3 mile repeats w/ 0.5 mi recovery and then .5 mile cool down. Ave pace on the repeats 7:08
7/10 - Rest
7/11 - Long run, 13.1 miles
7/12 - 3 Mi easy

30.2 Miles for the week. For July, thats a good week of running. I have struggled with what pace to run the tempo and mile repeats. In garmin I have tempo runs set up for 7:30 - 8:00 pace, with a goal of 7:45, and mile repeats I have 7:00 - 7:30 with the idea of hitting 7:15. This past week I was low on both. I set the paces with the idea of running WDW marathon at 8:00 pace. I have 10 mile night trail run coming up in about 5 weeks. With it being at night, on trails, and hot... I think 8 min pace would be a success. I will have a better idea of where things are in October when temps come down and I have a half I am running. I would love to hit 7:30 pace for that one. It's just hard to tell at the moment if these paces will come down once the temps do.
I may be able to run a 2 mile race Wednesday afternoon. Its on top of the levee and unless its raining, its HOT up there!!! I havent fully decided if I am going to do it or not. Work is busy and I may need to work late and I dont run that morning and work late, then its a missed run
The weather man is also telling me we have a chance of some tropical system coming visit us later this week. Guess I need to check on the generator and gas supply... plus whatever else we may need. Hope its just a little rain and not much else.

 

[FFigawi]

Looks like I went almost all June without a post here. Running wise not much has happened, I ended the month with 72 miles. The good news is some of those miles took place during our week long trip to Disney that we just got back from. 1 run from ASM to the parking lot of Blizzard Beach, and the other runs took place at the Boardwalk! The early mornings felt decent and saw a decent amount of folks also getting some miles in!
I have a 10 mile night trail race coming up in 7 weeks. So, with the vacation over it is time to start focusing on that race!

Of all the parts of the marathon course, this is not the one I'd be practicing during training

 

[LSUlakes]

Of all the parts of the marathon course, this is not the one I'd be practicing during training

I havent run the marathon when it has gone through it before and wasnt really sure how big the parking lot really was. Since I was curious and able to / needed to get 2 miles away from resort before returning, it seemed like a good idea. Typhoon Lagoon has a much bigger parking lot lol. Id rather pass through the water park parkin lots than WWOS complex. However, its worth asking me that again after the actual marathon!

 

[FFigawi]

After parking lot loops in Blizzard Beach and Magic Kingdom, I’ll gladly run through ESPN any day.

 

[LSUlakes]

It hasnt been the most productive week since my last post.
7/14- 7 mile temp run (5 mile tempo pace of 7:42)
7/15 - 3 Miles easy
7/16 - 4.2 Miles total. Had my first 2 mile Hump Day series race in a very long time. Race starts at 7:00 PM and this one was on top of the levee along the Mississippi River near the LSU Vet school. It's not my favorite route since its just a mile there and back, but it is chip timed these days. Warmed up 1.4 miles, 2 mile race, then .8 mile cool down. Official result was 14:44 or 7:22 pace. which was good enough for a 2nd place age group 40-44. Its mostly jr high cross country teams getting summer workouts in. I was hoping for a better outing but since I havent run in the afternoon temps of 90 I think I am ok with it. Before this week, my morning runs have been around 73-75.
Since the race I missed my Friday run and then over slept Saturday because I decided to watch End Game and the movie did not end till midnight. Opps... didn't realize it was that long of a movie lol. Monday and Tuesday of this week I had a stomach bug, which means no running! I did get a 10 miler in this morning at a very east pace. I needed to build endurance more than speed right now with the August 10 mile race just around the corner. It was 80 at 5:20 this morning... kinda brutal. When I was done it looked like I just got out the pool. Tomorrow we leave for a short trip to the beach for the weekend in Destin, FL. I hope to get a few miles in the morning and maybe a 8-10 miler Friday from the condo and 3-5 miles Saturday morning. But that will depend on various factors like weather and how many pina coladas I have out on the balcony lol. I never drink those, but when on the balcony after a full day on the beach, they just call my name. Gotta have a cherry on top as well. So, next week when we return we get back to business as much as we can. My sons 8th birthday falls on August 2nd (Saturday). Gonna have to keep that mornings run shortish to make sure everything is ready for the party! Fun fact, my son shares a birthday with Lou Mongello. He was one of the first Disney people I started following years ago and meet him once during marathon weekend. Very nice guy! Anywho... I am talking to much now. Hope everyone is doing well and ill be back to post next week hopefully.

 

[LSUlakes]

I managed to end last week fairly well.
7/23 - 10 Mi Easy
7/24 - 3.1 Mi GA
7/25 - 10 Mi Easy
7/26 - 3.8 Mi Recovery run.

I felt like I need some longer runs to build endurance up, so I took on the two ten milers to help with that. I did the second one the first morning in Destin. That run had plenty of cloud cover and even had rain for miles 7-9 which felt nice. The second run of the trip did not go as well. I started a little later and did not have the cloud cover. After the first two miles I was done, but had 1.8 miles to make it back. I walked a good bit of mile 3. My legs did not like a 4th day of running in a row.
The good news, is each of those two runs ended with a dip in the Gulf to cool down. Made me really wish I had a pool at home to jump in after my morning runs!

 

[LSUlakes]

Looks like its been another two weeks without posting. It has not been a exciting two weeks. I took a week off of running last week. It wasnt planned but I was feeling burned out, unmotivated, and had other things I needed to take care of... so it happened. I did run another two mile race the other day and placed 3rd in my age group. Slower time than the previous run by a lot. Not sure if it was the wet cross country course or just hotter, but those 8 minute miles were among the hardest 8 minute paced miles I have ever done.
Back to our "normal" schedule this week. This Saturday is my big end of summer 10 mile night trail race! I had high hopes for this one, but realistic expectations are 8:30 pace. MY watch on the other hand has much higher expectations and is predicting a 7:35 pace lol. If we have some cloud cover and it gets below 80 before the start of the race, maybe less than 8:30, but no where near what garmin thinks.
Finished up July with 110 miles and dropped another 2 lbs or so. Total weight loss now is 58.5#. It's coming off slowly but still moving down, so that works for me. I would think when marathon training really gets going the last few lbs will come off. However, I need to be careful and make sure I am getting the proper amount of fuel in me to go out there and get my runs in.
I will probably post sometime late after my race Saturday with a small recap of how it went.

 

[LSUlakes]

Race Report: Q50 Races Bluea Moon 10 Miler, Mandeville, LA.

Saturday night was my end of summer training 10 mile trail race. The race site is about 1:15 minute drive from my house to Fontainebleau State Park. To avoid a late night drive home, I decided to tent camp over night. I packed up my gear and left home around 2:30PM to give myself plenty of time to get there and set up camp. By the time I was done setting up it was around 4:45 PM. It was HOT! However my spot had plenty of shade to make it feel a little better. With my free time I just sipped on some water and waited till around 6:30 to change into my running gear. Headed to check in for 7:00 and just took in the pre race environment until the race started at 7:45PM. It was a awesome sunset over Lake Pontchartrain as the race was getting ready to start! My goal for this race was 1:30:00 or a 9 minute pace. Based on past runs, this should have been worse case scenario, and my secondary goal was a 8:30 pace or 1:25:00.
Race went off and clocked in mile one in 8:41. On pace, but that first mile was hard! I knew I needed to slow down because my legs were already tired, mile 2 came in at 9:04. It was at this point I started to panic. I knew I needed a reset as there was no way I was going to be able to continue at that pace. At around mile 2.5 I decided to try walking to get my breathing under control and my HR down some. The thought was to recover a little and then just try a 9:00 - 9:30 pace for the remainder of the race. If I felt better for the last 3-4 miles, maybe speed up. So thats what I did.... It did not work. The remaining mile paces went like this:
Mile 3 - 11:44
Mile 4 - 12:11
Mile 5 - 12:10
Mile 6 - 14:18
Mile 7 - 11:00
Mile 8 - 13:55
Mile 9 - 13:31
Mile 10 - 12:07

Garmin finish time of 1:56:55 and 9.85 Miles. Course is usually .1 to .2 mile short lol.

So what went wrong and why? I have a few ideas. I was supposed to mow my lawn Friday after work, but it was storming so I had to wait Saturday morning to do so. I lost a lot of water but I thought I was taking in enough fluids to replenish. I also took about a 30 minute nap after lunch to help rest. Sitting outside in 90+ temps for a few hours before the race most likely did not help as I was soaked after setting up the tent and the rest of camp. I also normally run early in the morning, anywhere from 5:30 to 6:30 AM starting times. While it isnt cool at those times, its 10-15 degrees cooler than the start of this race. The week before the run, I did not get much training in but the weeks before had gone decent. I cant look at any one thing and say, yeah that was the issue. Any one of these things wouldn't have been a issue on their own, but when combined it had a huge negative effect. For this first time in a long time at the start I felt nervous.
What I learned is I need to put less on my plate before I do this one again. Also, I should have probably done a one or two runs a week in the evening for the month leading up to the race to better prepare myself for the heat. All valuable lessons learned! I return to this park in 8 weeks for my next race which is a half marathon. The half is a road race, just starts in the park, but all on asphalt / concrete. I have plenty of motivation to continue on with training and lessons learned to hopefully achieve my goals in 8 weeks. Hydration is big! I have some cramps in my legs during the race and when I weighed myself Sunday morning, even after drinking plenty of fluids, I was still 5lbs less than I was Saturday. I wont say this was fail, because I did finish the race. I am very disappointed with the result though.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Sorry your race didn't go to plan! Increased heat will definitely do a number on your speed.

 

[LSUlakes]

August 18 - 24, Running Report.

I took last Monday off due to soreness that set on Monday morning. It was kinda strange, so I just gave it another day. Tuesday it was back to work!
8/18 - Rest
8/19 - 8 Mi easy at 9:26 ave pace.
8/20 - 6.5 Mi a little faster 9:18 ave pace
8/21 - Rest
8/22 - 4.5 Mi at 9:05 pace
8/23 - 12 Mi at 10:39 pace
8/24 - Rest

It was another difficult long run. The first 6 miles went ok, but then the wheels fell off. I did manage two of the last 6 under 10 min/mi. I finished the week with 31 Mi.
So the question I have to ask myself is why are these long runs so difficult... and well the answer is easy. I'm going into those runs on half a tank, with hydration being the biggest issue. Going to work on doing less outdoor stuff on Fridays to make sure I am prepared for the Saturday morning runs. Going to try to get some speed work in this week and a decent long run. I have 7 weeks till my half marathon that I have big goals for, so its past time to really start focusing on that and marathon training.
On the positive side of things, weight wise things are going well this month. I'm down about 5lbs this month and a total of 60 lbs since I started running again in May 2024 ish.

 

[LSUlakes]

I apparently have a bad habit of posting once a month or to much here lol. To catch everyone up, I am in week 4 of 18 for the WDW marathon. Missed a run in week ok due to a illness, no big deal. Did missed my 14 mile long run this Saturday because I was feeling sorry for myself. My running buddy (My Brittany Spaniel named Bella) injured herself jumping off the couch Thursday afternoon. She was ready for double digit miles again and the temps are just coming down enough to where it would below 70 for the whole run in the morning. Friday I bring her to the vet who referred me a specialist that we wont be able to see until October 8. So until then shes on pain meds and is still limping. I couldn't make myself get dressed and pass her and then hear her whine and bark when I would go run without her that morning. So I just went in the back yard and hung out with her. So, in addition to not having my running friend with me for the foreseeable future, I am about to have to pay some major medical bills.
Other than that, running and life are going good. We had a cool front which was nice! Went tent camping over the weekend with my son and had a good time. My LSU Tigers did not have a good time this weekend, but maybe we will turn it around!
Have a half marathon coming up Oct 12, aiming for a 1:41:30. I do not think it will be cold enough to attempt a PR, and I need to get 16 miles in that day as part of my long run.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Aww, poor pup! Hope she recovers quickly.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Poor Bella! Brittanys can be dramatic and clingy enough without adding on an injury!

 

[LSUlakes]

Aww, poor pup! Hope she recovers quickly.

Thank you!

Poor Bella! Brittanys can be dramatic and clingy enough without adding on an injury!

She sure isnt happy these days. Between no runs in the morning and not being able to chase birds/squirrels in the back yard, she isnt her normal happy self. I understand her pain, poor thing. I really hope we are able to fix this.

 

[The Expert]

My nephew has Brittanys and they are just the sweetest dogs. Hoping for a speedy recovery!