Santa Rosa Tempo Run

Time: 75:35
Distance: 11.88 miles

W/u: 24:11 for 3.08 miles
W/o: 5 mile tempo at 5:10-5:20 pace, 5 min. rest, 5 x 1 min hard w/ 1 min rest
C/d: 11:07 for 1.47 miles

It was a great morning for a tempo run in Santa Rosa. I jogged from the friend's house that I stayed at last night over to the start line on Channel Drive. I was using a popular section of road that is close to Annadel and Spring Lake. It's frequented because of little traffic, relatively flat surface and quarter markers. My high school team used to run workouts along this section all the time.

The goal for the morning was to run a relatively controlled 5 miles and then attack the "minuters." I had a pretty big range in pace that gave me some flexibility to push if I felt good (5:10) or back off it I didn't (5:20). I figured a 5:15 average (26:15 total) would be a good measure going into the minute efforts.

Tempo Splits:
5:18, 5:10, 5:14, 5:08, 5:15 for 26:05 total

(5:00 rest for .64 miles or 7:47 pace)

Hard Minuters:
4:30 pace (7:11 pace)
4:22 (8:01)
4:14 (7:51)
4:26 (8:04)
4:36 (uphill finish)

The total time for my tempo and minuters was 40:17 and I covered 7.33 miles (5:29 pace)

I wouldn't have been happy with this workout had it not been for the hard minute efforts. I didn't all that great during the tempo run which is why the pace varied a little bit form mile to mile. I was sluggish off the line and struggled to get rolling with that 5:10 split. I remained relatively relaxed, but never really fell into a rhythm. The minuters were a different story. I wanted to lash the body with some hard, steady, efficient running. I think I did just that as I was able to have some pretty solid minute averages. My turnover was nice and quick and I could tell that my arm carry was good.

Channel Dr. Tempo

Time: ~65:37
Distance: 11 miles

Planned on doing a 4 mile tempo run with Steve and J.K. today. We warmed up from the parking lot down to the turn around point and back which took somewhere aroun 21 minutes. We stopped at the cars to stretch and do drills. We all slipped into flats before jogging the half mile to the starting point. Total time for the w/u was around 25:27 running time.

Target: 4 mile tempo @ 5:00-5:05.
Actual: not that

We started off and I was feeling pretty good. Lungs and legs were fine. First mile split was 5:03. We continued to run well on the second mile which is slightly uphill. With about 400m left before the turn around my left shin was starting to get tight. Not as bad as it was on Weds. but I could feel it. Second mile split was 5:09. About 20 seconds after the turn around I decided to stop and stretch it. Took about 30 seconds to stretch before continuing on. Next mile split was 5:23, granted it was broken up. The shin felt better but still not great so at the three mile mark (ranger station) I decided to stop again, this time for a minute. I was able to run the last mile pain free in 5:11.

Steve and I then jogged for one mile in about 7 minutes before starting a series of 30 sec on, 1 min. off. He wanted the on to be hard but not all out. I opted to go with him and felt fine. The first interval was waaay too fast as he admitted afterward. It was probably a 30 sec. 200 split. He actually glanced at his watch with 10 secs. to go which told me he was over pressed. I ran well on the shorter stuff that took 11:07 (~2 miles). He and I cooled down for a little over a mile in 7:43.

It was a good day of running effort wise. I definitely bitched out on the tempo effort. I didn't feel great and used my shin as an excuse to slow down. I haven't done any sort of real workout since some time in late November. I needed to get my ass kicked today so the training can be more serious come Jan. 1.