GT350H

Exercise: Ran 2 races this AM on Monte Sano mountain. These were the final races of the year for the Huntsville Track Club Grand Prix series, which means they are usually well attended with lots of really fast people. Going in I was in 2nd place in the Master's (40+) Grand Prix standings, with two faster guys behind me with a chance for them to overtake me. Luckily my nearest foe, Marty Clarke, did not show up. And just behind him, George Dewitt, only ran the 10K (winning the master's division and its 100 points). So, I think I was able to maintain my final 2nd overall standings. In the 10K, I ran a 41:53, finishing 21/313 overall and 3/31 in my age group (after George DeWitt was taken out as overall Master's winner). At this point, I really didn't feel like doing the 5K, but decided to do it to get some extra mileage. I started out really slow, but the competitive juices picked up the last couple of miles. Finished it in 21:15, 3/23 age group, 47/491 overall. Counting my warmup, got 10 good miles in today.

10K - 41:53 - 6:45 per mile average
Splits:
1 - 6:18
2 - 6:32
3 - 6:39
4 - 7:06
5 - 6:45
6 - 7:09
0.2 - 1:20

5K - 21:15 - 6:51 per mile average
1 - 7:01
2 - 6:43
3 - 6:49
0.1 - 0:39

Total mileage for the week: 10.00

Total mileage for the month : 97.88

Exercise: Did a pretty tough 4 miler starting from UAH and including one of the big hills in Carl Smith and my old "5 mile - 5 hills" course. 7:06 per mile average.

Splits:
1 - 7:39
2 - 6:57
3 - 7:11 (with hill)
4 - 6:19

Played 4 games full court basketball at Berachah Gym.

Total mileage for the week: 24.11

Total mileage for the month : 87.88

Exercise: Lifted weights at UAH. 160 stomach crunches, 15 wide arm pullups.

Exercise: Met Carl S. at UAH. After a 1 mile warmup we did 3x1 mile with 2:30 rest in between, then a 1 mile cooldown for 5 miles total. My intervals were not very fast - seems like I've lost a lot in the 9 days I was unable to run because of my sore knee.

1: 6:08
2: 6:18
3: 6:27

Total mileage for the week: 20.11

Total mileage for the month : 83.88

Exercise: Ran 5K at Lockheed field in 21:58 (7:05 pace). No knee pain. Just beat the rain coming in from tropical storm Fay.

Total mileage for the week: 15.11

Total mileage for the month : 78.88

Exercise: Saturday - ran 6 miles at Lockheed field - felt very sluggish - 45:04 (7:30 per mile).
Sunday - ran 6.01 miles in the rain on a very hilly course near my house - 46:19 (7:39 per mile).

Good thing is the knee felt very good with only one incidence of a painful twinge.

Total mileage for the week: 12.01

Total mileage for the month : 75.78

Exercise: Lifted weights at UAH. Despite the cross training, today ends my week with the least amount of miles for the whole year. I was going to race tomorrow, but will probably run 5-6 miles instead, preparing for the 3 races over the Labor Day Holiday next weekend.

Exercise: Ran 3.5 at Lockheed field. About 1.5 with Carl S. as I didn't get in touch with him to make plans for this AM. Knee is still a little sore, but bearable. 27:19 total (7:48 per mile).

Total mileage for the week: 6.11

Total mileage for the month : 63.77

Exercise: Did 2.61 miles at Lockheed field this AM in 19:41 (7:35 pace). A little discomfort in the knee, but hopefully nothing lingering. Hope to gradually increase distance and get back to where I was 2 weeks ago. Was on pace for a 150+ mile month, but this has put the skids on that.

Total mileage for the week: 2.61

Total mileage for the month : 60.27

Exercise: Bike sprints today. 7x500m in 12th gear at about 90% exertion. Lactic acid threshold, but recovery seemed quicker than running.

Exercise: 29 laps at UAH in a little over 30 minutes - much faster than Saturday. Not as strenuous as running, but does get the heart and breathing rate up. Hope to get back to running later this week.

Exercise: Friday - lifted weights at UAH, 240 stomach crunches, 15 wide arm pullups. Still resting the knee, will continue to do so for a few more days.

Saturday - Did 35 minutes of deep water pool running at UAH - 30 full laps in 35:49.

Exercise: Did 30 minutes on the Precor at UAH. Certainly not the same as running - 300 calories in 30 minutes.

Exercise: 70 pushups. After experiencing a very sore knee after speedwork yesterday, I'm going to take few days off from running. Decided to do bike sprints today. 6x500m in 12th gear at about 90% exertion. Very different experience from running sprints. Lactic acid buildup was so high that it actually caused nausea.

Exercise: Did speedwork with Carl S. at Lockheed field. 4x800, 3x400, 2x200 (3 miles total). As I kept hitting the wrong button on my watch, my splits were mostly messed up. Total mileage including warmup and cooldown was 6.2 miles.

Total mileage for the week: 26.84

Total mileage for the month : 57.66

Exercise: Met a group of 8 at the Monte Sano hiker's parking lot at 6AM. Included were Eric Charette, Joey Butler, Christie Scott, Tom King, and Eric Fritz. Ran the South Plateau loop to O' Shaughnessy Point, then the Goat Trail, Flat Rock trail. 6.5 miles to Flat Rock. At this point, Eric C. and I decided to run up the Flat Rock connector, which put us several minutes ahead of the others. We then took the Mtn Mist trail over to the Sinks trail and again ran the steep incline up to the overlook. Back to the Hiker's Parking lot was 8.6 miles. Decided to go for more on the Family Bike trail, back to South Plateau and then back to the start. 12.64 miles. Very tired and left knee is a little tight after putting in 20+ for the weekend.

Total mileage for the week: 20.64

Total mileage for the month : 51.46

Exercise: Friday - lifted weights at UAH
Saturday - Met Carl S. & Ronnie N. at the Wade Mtn Greenway. First 0.9 miles is paved, followed by 0.3 mile steep rocky climb. At the top it flattens out and follows the southern rim of Wade Mountain. This was the first time we've run this course since back in the winter - very overgrown - weeds up to the waist in lots of areas made for slow progress. Then a very steep downhill at the 3.5 mile mark and back out on the road for a short distance before turning around and heading back. A couple of loops in the parking lot to make an even 8 miles.

Total mileage for the week: 8.00

Total mileage for the month : 38.82

Exercise: Did 4.07 miles in 30:42 this AM from Lockheed field, down through Teledyne Brown's picnic area, over to UAH, and then back to the start. Saw 4 bunnies, not to be confused with the 4 UAH girl's Cross Country team members at Lockheed ;)

Splits:
1: 7:45
2: 7:34
3: 7:33
4: 7:20

Played 4 games full court basketball at Berachah Gym.

Total mileage for the week: 30.82

Total mileage for the month : 30.82

Exercise: Did a 3.51 mile run at Lockheed field - saw 2 hawks and 3 bunnies.

Total mileage for the week: 26.75

Total mileage for the month : 26.75

Exercise: Monday - lifted weights at UAH.

Tuesday - Did my bi-weekly hill workout with Carl S. Started at UAH, ran over to Hillmont. Did 4 of the full hills and 4 of the shorter, steeper sections. Was able to stay with Carl on 6 of the 8 repeats. Ran back to UAH. 5.1 miles total.

long repeats:
1:35
1:36
1:35
1:41

steep repeats:
0:28
0:26
0:33
0:27

Total mileage for the week: 23.24

Total mileage for the month : 23.24

Exercise: Met Ronnie N. at 5:45 in Madison to go to the Waynesboro, TN "Relay for Life" 5K. According to Google it was supposed to be 82 miles from my house, but actually our route made it a little over 90 miles. We got there at about 7:30 for the 8AM start. I did a 0.98 mile warmup and was already drenched - humidity was stifling. At the start I got hemmed in by a number of runners who should not have been near the front, including a mother/daughter combo who were completely oblivious to their surroundings. Having to slow down and weave left and right a few times in the first ~200 yards I finally found a gap and broke through. My arch nemesis in the Shoals area, Stacy LeMay, was once again at the front, having started out extremely fast as is usually the case. He was closely followed by a younger Shoals TRAC team runner, Alex Hazy (20 yrs old) who is training for a marathon. At around the 1/2 mile mark, I noticed that they were not paying any attention to the apexes of the course and were running in the middle of the road. On the curvy first section, cutting the apexes would greatly decrease distances, so that's what I did. Just past the 1/2 mile mark I caught them and took a little lead (in the only shady part of the whole course).

As we exited the residential area and headed out on the the main highway (TN 64) we had to make a sharp uphill (the only real one on the course) and then a right hand turn onto the cone lined road. At this point I could catch a glimpse of those behind and saw I had maybe a 20 yard lead on Stacy, with Alex fading fast. The 1 mile mark was hit at 6:01, which is really where I needed to be, so maybe the slow start was a blessing in disguise! At the halfway point we entered a business parking lot for the turn around which, thankfully, was not just one sharp cone, but a gradual left hander back onto HWY 64. I could not see Stacy at this point so I knew he was kind of close and in the parking lot as I entered back onto the main road. I met Ronnie as I was heading back, barely able to grunt a "CB" as I went by. Mile two was 6:18, which on this hot day, kind of let me know that a sub 19:00 was not in the books today. It was nice meeting all the other runners on the way back yelling "way to go" as I went by.

My next opportunity to check out the competition was when I went back down the steep hill back into the residential area. I saw Stacy, a little farther back than earlier, but still within striking distance. Of course, at this point, about 2.5 miles into the race there was no way I was gonna let him pass me... I hit the 3 mile mark in 6:23 and could see the finish line clock in the distance. I tried to pick it up at this point, just to make sure no one came close. I did the last 0.1 in 0:36, finishing in 19:21. First Overall (out of 173 total finishers). Stacy was 28 seconds back in 2nd, Ronnie finished 4th in 21:06. 6 of the top 10 finishers were in my age group (45-49).
Results are here.

Sunday: My longest training run of the year, 13 miles. Met Joey B. and Linda S. at the Cotton Row Run starting line. Did the first 3.5 miles of the CRR course, but instead of going immediately down Bankhead Parkway, we ran up it, through the barricades to the Ranger Station. There we filled our water jugs, then headed back down Bankhead, hit the CRR course again back to the Von Braun Center, and did a little extra in the VBC parking lot to get to an even 13. Much more bearable conditions starting at 5:45 AM as opposed to the 8:30 AM start last week. Made a conscious effort to try to push the last mile while I was really tired to prepare for stronger end of race finishes.

Splits:
1: 8:34
2: 7:53
3: 7:53
4: 11:13
5: 8:41
6: 10:04
7: 9:00
8: 7:56
9: 7:58
10: 7:48
11: 7:52
12: 7:36
13: 7:06

Total mileage for the week: 18.14

Total mileage for the month : 18.14

Exercise: Lifted weights at UAH.