Fitness Run

Distance: 4.05 miles
Time: 43:15
Pace: 10:41 min/mi

Comments: This was a gen-u-wine, 100 percent recovery run. Slow as the bejesus and nothing fancy at all.

My legs really didn't feel worse for wear yesterday after the long run, which was a little surprising. When I woke up this morning I was a bit stiff and, heading out on this run, I was a lot stiff. Still, nothing that edged into actual soreness.

Basically, I just tried to keep my feet moving steady and not do anything crazy. I can at least say I accomplished that.

Long Run

Distance: 8.05 miles
Time: 1:28:10
Pace: 10:57 min/mi

Comments: Got the eight miles I planned which, it turns out, is the longest single distance I have run since March of last year. Yeesh.

Nothing fancy here. Just focused on an easy, regular cadence without pushing it too hard. At the end, it turned out I put in almost 85% of the run in the Zone Three heart rate effort. That's pretty much perfect for long running in my conditioning level.

I'll put in a recovery run tomorrow and then start working on the 10 miles I'd like to get next weekend.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4.07 miles
Time: 40:45
Pace: 10:01 min/mi

Comments: The plan was to get in a lunch run before the rains arrived but that didn't happen. So I got home and got ready to go with the expectation of precipitation. Luckily, I caught a window in the rain and only had to endure a pretty constant drizzle.

Again, I was trying to avoid overexertion and focused on cadence and control. None of the run was in the zone five range so that worked out like I wanted. Next up, a rest day and the long run.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4.04 miles
Time: 39:31
Pace: 9:47 min/mi

Comments: Took two days off after Monday's effort completely kicked my ass. I was dragging pretty hard on Tuesday but felt better yesterday. No major issues this morning so everything looked fine. Except for the weather.

It was raining awful this morning and a dour drizzle most of the day. I took advantage of a long lunch to try and squeeze this effort in so, of course, it starts coming down just as I head out. But, as I told another runner today; rain runs are important because they get you ready for a wet race.

It was chilly and soggy and unpleasant but could have been worse. The rain varied between light and a drizzle, but never really stopped. I ended up with a decent time and my legs actually felt pretty good.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4.02 miles
Time: 44:56
Pace: 11:11 min/mi

Comments: Even though I ran the last three days, I was a bit worried about getting all of them in this week due to work. So when an opportunity to squeeze a lunch workout in today presented itself, I decided to take it.

No bueno.

My legs were completely burnt from yesterday's hard effort. Even though I tried to keep it slow, this was a full on slog from start to finish. And the hills were a total nightmare. I was really struggling the whole way. Which was weird since my heart rate stayed in the regular range the whole way.

Long Run

Distance: 6.22 miles
Time: 1:05:10
Pace: 10:28 min/mi

Comments: Watched a live stream of the WDW marathon this morning and it kind of shamed me into getting a solid run in today. Yeah, I ran the thing last year but... this is this year.

So while this says "long run" it's by comparison to my recent efforts. It's my first 10K distance of the year but, if all goes as planned, not my last by a good bit. The challenge factor I put in play was doing each mile faster than the one prior. So the first was overslow (almost 13 min/mi) but the last was a bit on the quick side (9 min/mi).

Overall, it felt good to push things a bit but I've clearly got a lot of work ahead of me this year.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4.03 miles
Time: 38:51
Pace: 9:38 min/mi

Comments: Woke up this morning to snow. And, obviously, pretty chilly conditions. I took a pass on the run and was committed to skipping today altogether if I'm being honest. But it warmed up pretty well and I decided to get it done anyway late in the afternoon.

I actually thought ran this a little faster than I planned due to the impromptu nature of the effort and the chilly conditions. Mostly I focused on cadence, particularly on the uphills. In the end though, it was pretty much on par with most of my quicker runs to date.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4.05 miles
Time: 40:05
Pace: 9:55 min/mi

Comments: Well. I have no intention of going three days without running this year unless I have a damn good reason. A tornado watch is a pretty good reason but I got home early and was able to squeeze in the miles before the rain began in earnest.

Weird little run, actually. On the one hand, I felt I was pushing it a little to get the pace down a bit. Particularly on the hills. On the other, the fitness tracker informed me I did nothing in the intense heart rate work zone.

I'm hoping to go three-in-a-row this weekend so that's a solid start.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4:03 miles
Time: 41:30
Pace: 10:20 min/mi

Comments: Got the opportunity for another afternoon run so I decided to take advantage of it. Probably ran yesterday's a bit on the fast side so I decided to ease it up a bit. About half-a-minute per mile slower, actually.

Still, it didn't feel incredibly strenuous overall. The hills weren't fun but they weren't the slog they were just a few weeks ago. In fact, my overall effort stayed completely out of the high-end heart rate zone. Not exactly what I intended, but a fortuitous occurrence, nonetheless.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4.03 miles
Time: 38:49
Pace: 9:38 min/mi

Comments: As much as I prefer to do runs in the morning, the advent of the first full work week following the Christmas holiday break made that impossible. So an afternoon run it was.

I haven't done an afternoon effort in some time and it felt a little weird, to be honest. Not bad. Just different. I certainly went a good bit quicker than I expected. But nothing crazy, of course.

Turns out a good third of the effort was in heart rate zone five and another third in zone four. That's a pretty solid cardio effort.