GT350H

Exercise: (Thursday) - Play 1 game full court basketball at Berachah Gym (sore quad).
(Friday) - Lifted weights at UAH. Did 3.27 miles at Lockheed field at 7:07 pace (7:01, 7:21, 6:58 splits).

Total mileage for the week: 37.86
Total mileage for the month : 157.84

Exercise: (Wednesday) - Met Eric C., Eric F., Rebecca and Joey at the Southeast Y for "Joey's Half Marathon" - another Charette designed course that, of course, HAD to include some hills just for the heck of it. While the entire course was 13 miles in length, I wimped out and cut it short at Four Mile Post and only did 10.83. Still a good mid-week workout. Not as cold as I had anticipated and I seemed to have dressed correctly with a long sleeve tech shirt and gloves.

Total mileage for the week: 34.59
Total mileage for the month : 154.57

Exercise: Lifted weights at UAH. 3x50 pushups, 105 stomach crunches.

Ran 3x1 mile intervals at Lockheed field with Carl S. in 6:00, 6:15, and 6:11. Pretty chilly with a strong northwest wind. Set a new PR for monthly mileage today.

Total mileage for the week: 23.76
Total mileage for the month : 142.74

Exercise: Met Joey, Eric, Rebecca, Christy, Mark, and Jason on Monte Sano for another early AM dark start trail run. We did most of the McKay hollow half marathon course - 12.54 miles for me. I was very fatigued and was bringing up the rear for the whole 2+ hours. Not sure what the problem was.

Total mileage for the week: 18.66
Total mileage for the month : 137.64

Exercise: Drove to Oneonta, AL (about 75 miles from my house in Harvest) for the Covered Bridge Festival 5K, BUT, there were no covered bridges on the 5K course! It was merely an out and back with a sharp turnaround in the middle of the road at the halfway point. Being so far from home, I saw no one that I recognized which relegated me to sizing up the competition by looking at their clothing/shoes/and warmup regimen. While doing my warmup I saw one guy with an "Oxford Realty" singlet on - this is a race team from Birmingham that has always had fast runners. I also saw some of Oneonta High's track team, a very fit guy wearing a new pair of racing flats, and one very tall, young guy with a college jacket on. The only one doing any sort of warmup was the older guy in the Oxford Realty shirt (David Aarons - 49 years old).

At the start, the tall guy, the guy in racing flats, and several of the track team kids took off. At the half mile mark, my Garmin had me doing a 5:28 pace and I was in about 5th place. On a short downhill stretch before we crossed hwy 75, I passed Mr. Racing Flats and all the track team kids, leaving only the very tall guy (who was wearning a "wife-beater" t-shirt and longer than normal white socks which eventually didn't bode well for his longivity at the front). At about 0.8 miles, David Aarons and I both caught the tall guy and ran side by side for the next 1/2 mile, hitting the 1 mile marker at 5:52 according to my watch (too fast). We both took turns opening up 2-3 yard leads until he pulled ahead of me just before the turnaround. Being able to see the followers on the way back, the only other near competitor was a younger guy with head phones who was some 10-15 seconds back. Trying to keep David in range proved difficult - I hit the 2nd mile in 6:12 and still had to go back up the hill we'd come down in the first mile. He pulled away a little more in the closing minutes, finishing in 18:51. I faded to 2nd overall in 19:16. The early leader, the tall guy, finished in 22+ minutes. And I'm not sure where the racing flats guy finished, but it wasn't in the top 5.

Overall estimate of finishers was about 80. David Aarons said his 18:51 was his slowest 5K in the last 10 years so I didn't feel too bad, but it wasn't a sub 19...

With a long run tomorrow, could hit my highest mileage month of the year with 5 days to spare.

Total mileage for the week: 6.12
Total mileage for the month : 125.10

Exercise: (Thursday) - 4 games full court basketball at Berachah Gym. Got a good elbow in the ribs and have a bruise to show for it...
(Friday) - Lifted weights at UAH. Did 3 miles on Monte Sano (Panorama loop) at 7:16 Pace to loosen up for 5K in Oneonta, AL tomorrow.

Total mileage for the week: 37.21
Total mileage for the month : 118.98

Exercise: Did a midday run at Lockheed field. 4.1 miles in 30:46 (7:28 pace). Quads felt a little sore from the 4 straight hard days prior, but loosened up a little by the 3rd mile.

Total mileage for the week: 34.21
Total mileage for the month : 115.98

Exercise: (Monday) - Did the Charette smackdown on Green Mountain at 5:30 PM with Eric, Joey and an un-named runner. First 0.85 miles were straight uphill. Then with a 1.25 technical (rocky) section we got to Cecil Ashburn , crossed over to the southeast and did Smokerise trail. At this point it started to get dark, so we had to use our headlights. Very neat experience, but had to really concentrate on running the rocky up and downhill trails at night. 8.05 miles total.

(Tuesday) - Met Carl Smith at UAH at 6AM. After a warmup, did 12 x 275m uphill on the northwest corner of the 5K course. Then a cooldown for 5.75 miles total. Felt much better than anticipated after doing 8+ last night and 12 on Sunday. All intervals were in the 50-56 second range (#7 was 50 seconds, #12 was 52 seconds, most were 53-54 seconds with one outlier at 56 seconds.)

Total mileage for the week: 30.11
Total mileage for the month : 111.88

Exercise: Met again this AM on Monte Sano in the dark at 6AM. Was in the high 30's - cool at the start but by 12 miles was pretty warm. Ran with Tom, Jason, James, Mark, Christy and Rebecca. James set the pace about a minute a mile faster than we've been doing our long runs so it was challenging. Ran all the way out to Logan Point, then Goat trail back up to O'Shaughnessy and back to parking lot after doing a White loop in the dark.

Total mileage for the week: 16.31
Total mileage for the month : 98.08

Exercise: Maybe my miles ARE finally starting to pay off (either that or I'm willing to hurt just a little longer). Finally broke the 19 minute barrier in a 5K today for the first time this year - 18:56 (1/57 in age group after Marty Clarke got taken out for 2nd overall master). One of the toughest 5K fields I've ever participated in - 8 runners under 17:00, 16 runners under 18:00, and 26 (me being the last) under 19:00. I was 6th master overall, 26/507 overall (male race only - would not have gotten "chicked" even on a combined m/f race (some 1664 in the women's race)).

Mile one was mostly flat, hit it in 5:55 (right beside Dink Taylor). Mile two had the gradual hill on White Street in front of East Clinton Elementary. I decided that with all the hill work I'd been doing that I SHOULD be able to maintain pace on them for a short race. I hit mile two at 12:10 (6:15). The biggest up hill was in the third mile from Green Street up to the sharp right onto Adams. This is where I usually fade badly. Really mentally pushed up this hill, and after getting to Adams you could see the finish line some 0.5 miles ahead. I really pushed all the way to the end knowing that I'd kick myself if I barely missed breaking 19 by not giving it all I had. I hit mile 3 in 18:18 (6:08), knowing that I had 42 seconds to do the last 0.1 which I did in 0:38 for a 6:06 per mile pace.

Men's results are here:

Total mileage for the week: 4.21
Total mileage for the month : 85.98

Exercise: (Thursday) - played 4 games full court basketball at Berachah gym.
(Friday) - 82 pushups. After last week's performance in the Monte Sano 15K where I took Friday completely off after doing a Charette death march on Wednesday and then basketball on Thursday, I decide to try something different this week (it couldn't hurt). I decided to do a "loosen up" run to see if it made me less stiff on race day. Did 3.01 miles total. First mile was a little tough (7:36), second started to feel much better - even with a large hill hit it in 7:00. And on the third, despite having to do some serious weaving to avoid traffic, hit it in 6:26 - probably could have easily put the hammer down and broke 6:00 if I had really tried. We'll see how tomorrow goes...

Total mileage for the week: 37.19
Total mileage for the month : 81.77

Exercise: Lifted weights at UAH. 81 pushups, 100 stomach crunches. Did another of Charette's killer hill workouts this evening - backwards this time along with Joey and Rebecca - 9.09 miles total including "Everest", the only hill that I really could not push the whole way up.

Total mileage for the week: 34.18
Total mileage for the month : 78.76

Exercise: (Monday) -yoga at UAH. (Tuesday) - did 3x1 mile intervals at the UAH Twilight 5K course by myself. First mile (downhill) in 6:05. Then 1:30 rest before starting the 2nd mile (with turnaround) in 5:56. Rest was 2:00 this time before the 3rd mile (uphill) in 6:28.

Total mileage for the week: 25.09
Total mileage for the month : 69.67

Exercise: Met Joey and Tom at the Hiker's lot at dark 6AM. Did one loop on the white South Plateau loop in the dark. Then did North Plateau, Sinks, Goat, and white trail again. Only fell once!
10.12 miles total. Very fatigued after yesterday's 15K race.

otal mileage for the week: 20.78
Total mileage for the month : 65.36

Exercise: 8AM this morning was the Monte Sano 15K road race. I still was feeling a little fatigued from the killer 10 mile hill workout on Wednesday and it showed in my performance. After a 1.3 mile warmup, the race began at the picnic area on Monte Sano Mtn. I tried to start out conservatively, hoping to hold around 6:35-6:40 pace for the race. Started out in the middle of the pack, started passing people around the half mile mark. Hit the first mile in 6:41, feeling OK. The second mile, which went out to the overlook, was hit in 6:33, my fastest of the day. From this point on, every mile was gradually slower. Mile 3 was after we left the state park and hit the neighborhoods - 6:40. Mile 4 (6:54)- I passed Richard Rodenhausen and a couple of other people, but just past the 4.5 mile mark (Gatorade stop), I started to feel the fatigue in my quads. Miles 5,6,7 were on Panorama Drive where the biggest hills on the course were - I hit them in 6:55, 7:02, 7:05. By mile seven I was really feeling spent. But, seeing Dink Taylor only a few yards in front of me gave me a little incentive as he usually crushes me. Mile 8 was back on Nolen Blvd and mostly flat in 7:08. Mile 9 had the last sizable hill and this is where I got passed by another runner (the only one to do so in the whole race) - 7:11. That last 0.3 seemed like it took forever - 2:16 (6:53 pace) - I was barely able to speed up at the end. Finished in 1:04:31 (6:56 pace overall). Much slower than I had hoped for. But, almost everyone else I talked to also struggled as race day temps and humidity were much higher than hoped for. Age group 3/27 and overall 28/290.

Total mileage for the week: 10.66
Total mileage for the month : 55.24

Exercise: At the urging of my wife, I went to a "gentle" yoga class at UAH Fitness center today. Then probably wasted all the good stretching by playing 5 games of full court basketball at Berachah gym.

Exercise: (Wednesday) - Met at the Southeast YMCA with Eric Charette, Joey Butler, Scott Michael, THE Brian Robinson, and Rebecca Reynolds to try Eric's famous killer 10 mile hill workout. After about a mile of uneventful neighborhood warmup, we starting hitting some pretty steep hills. But, I was duly informed that they were not hills, merely optical and physical illusions. The REAL hills were yet to come. While by Eric's count there were only 4 real ones, my count was 12+. I was able to power through most of them, though Eric and Brian tended to lead and push the pace. I actually felt better going up the hills (including Pike's Peak and Everest) than the pounding needed to go down them. At 10 miles, this was the toughest mid-week workout I've ever done. Adding another 3 miles over the next two days will get me to 40+ for the week for my biggest training week ever. Hopefully all these miles will begin to show some results in races. The Monte Sano 15K is coming up on Saturday.

Total mileage for the week: 37.12
Total mileage for the month : 43.58

Exercise: (Monday) - lifted weights at UAH.
(Tuesday) - Met Carl S. at UAH Bevill Center at 6AM. Did a warmup, then 12 intervals up the hill on the northwest side of campus (the big one at the end of the UAH Twilight 5K course). Based on time we estimated distance at about 300m (actually looks to be 270m). Then did a cooldown for 5.86 miles total.
Pretty consistent on the intervals, hitting all within a 3 second span.

Hill Intervals:
1: 0:52
2: 0:52
3: 0:54
4: 0:53
5: 0:55
6: 0:53
7: 0:52
8: 0:55
9: 0:55
10: 0:55
11: 0:55
12: 0:52

Total mileage for the week: 27.12
Total mileage for the month : 33.58

Exercise: Another pre-dawn trail run on Monte Sano. At 6AM, ran the White (South Plateau) Loop with Christy Scott and Scott Michael, using Christy's headlight for about the first twenty minutes until it got daylight. Then met back at the Hiker's Lot with Eric Charette, Joey Butler, Linda Scavarda, Rebecca Reynolds. Did the North Plateau, Cold Springs, Tollgate Trail, Land Trust High Trail, Natural Well, and the Death Trail (impossible to run as it is so steep and rocky for most of the way). Rebecca took a bad spill and split her knee (of course she'd ran a 50K race yesterday!). Total distance 11.68 miles, making for the most miles ever in a single weekend for me: 21.26 miles.

Total mileage for the week: 21.26
Total mileage for the month : 27.72

Exercise: Rode with Ronnie N. over to Elkmont, AL to do the Rails to Trails 10k this AM. This is a unique race in that the first half is mostly downhill on roads and the second half is uphill on trails (old, converted railroad track). Temps were ideal. After a 1.33 mile warmup, the race started. I tried to start out conservatively, letting several people stay ahead of me for the first half mile. By the first mile (6:17) I had moved up to 5th place. At this point I was feeling pretty good as the roads started to undulate up and down. Hit the second mile in 6:22, then the third in 6:26 in 4th place where I would stay until the 6 mile mark. At this point I was still on pace to run under 40 minutes (I had told Ronnie before the race that I hoped to break 41 minutes). Just past the 3 mile marker we headed off the roads and made a U-turn and headed back toward the start on the gravel trails. I really made a conscious effort to try to maintain my pace. The uphill terrain made it more difficult and I hit the next 3 miles in 6:49, 6:37, and 6:50. Just past the 6 mile mark Brandon Black passed me (for the 3rd time in the last 3 races). I wound up 5th overall out of 105 finishers (1st in age group) in 40:45 (6:34 per mile average). My fastest 10K of the year, but I 'd still like to get under 40 minutes.

There was a big pack of my running friends that all finished within 2 minutes of each other in the 43-45 minutes range with several setting personal records including Joey Butler, Scott Michael, Eric Fritz, Eric Patterson, Ronnie Nelson, Bud Bowen and Steve Carter. Glen King and Barry Pugh were just behind them.

Tyrone Harris and George Dewitt were the first two finishers (in 34+ and 35+ minutes) with no one to really push them.

Thanks to Whitney Hollingsworth for directing another great race!

Total mileage for the week: 9.55
Total mileage for the month : 16.01

Exercise: Ran 3.31m from Trideum, around Madison Square Mall, over to Wynn Drive, and back in 24:50 (7:30 per mile pace).

Total mileage for the week: 37.33
Total mileage for the month : 6.46

Exercise: Ran 3.15 in the DARK around my neighborhood this morning, leaving the house at 5:30AM. Being out in the county, there are several areas where there are no streetlights. Had to stick to roads (no trails) because of this. Very cool temps. Played 5 games full court basketball at Berachah Gym.

Total mileage for the week: 34.02
Total mileage for the month : 3.15