Roadrunners - up to 8 miles; still slow

The Roadrunners is trying a new training plan, building up the miles at a slower-than-usual pace for a while and then going back to fewer miles at race pace and building up the miles again. So we ran 8 miles at a very leisurely 11 minutes per mile, as opposed to our race pace of 10 minutes per mile.

I will miss next week, perhaps the week after, and then the first two weeks in November due to work commitments. ARGH! But if we really are going down in miles soon, it will be easy to do them on my own.

In other news, I ran the Santa Monica 5000 (but I did the 10K) on the 11th - did a respectable 52:54, which was nevertheless slower than last May's 52:34, darn it! I'd REALLY like to break 50 minutes on my next 10K.

LA Roadrunners back in action

I may not have been an energetic blogger, but I've been running all summer long -mostly 5 or 6 miles a run, about 4 times a week. Because I've kept my base fitness strong, I feel absolutely ready to move up to Group 6 from Group 7 of the LA Roadrunners (10 minute miles). We've beening running for 3 Saturdays and are up to 6 miles - no problems so far, obviously.

Goal - to finish the 2010 LA Marathon in under 4 hours 15 minutes.

Stadium to the Sea in 2010!

The LA City Council voted yesterday to put on the Marathon on a Sunday in March (booya, religious leaders) and to change the course to a point-to-point one, going from Dodger Stadium to the sea (hopefully Venice...). Woot!

I've been running about 5 miles every other day, including when I was in Davis and Oakland last week. Feeling pretty good while running, despite heat and lack of sleep.

lots of running in Minneapolis

I went on three runs around various lakes while in Minneapolis - from 5 to 7 miles long. Twice I ran to and then around Lake Calhoun, but once I also ran around Lake of the Isles.

Very very pleasant, but I love my ocean breezes...

Back in Venice, I've had one 5 mile run since getting back. It may be time to hike up the mileage a tad...

Falling behind on blogging, but not running...

I've done three 5 or 6 mile runs, plus a 16-mile bike ride, since I wrote last - so the running is going well. The blogging - not so much.

Back to my regular schedule, minus grueling Saturdays

I've been running about every two to three days, always 5 or 6 miles. My legs feel just fine and I've even begun to speed up again - after beginning to worry that I'd never break that sturdy, slow 10:30 Marathon pace.

My goal is to train steadily for speed, not distance, all summer. When I join up with the Roadrunners again in August, I'll run with Group 6, which has a 10 minute per mile pace, rather than 10:30 Group 7. Who knows, maybe I'll even move up to Group 5 after the holidays (although that seems rather unlikely).

Had a nice hike today - about 9 long miles. My feet and hips hurt, but the weather was absolutely perfect.

Sat. May 30 - 5 miles

This was my first run post-marathon. I've felt fine, leg-wise, for a few days so I was quite eager to lace on my new running shoes and hit the pavement. However, there is clearly still a bit of healing to do - by mile 4, my thighs ached and my right hip was sore, something unheard of in such a short and slow run. Still, it felt really, really great. I wore my new Marathon t-shirt!