216!

216!  Well not only is it the area code for Cleveland, OH, it is also the final total number of miles that I ran in August.  So after running just shy of 200 in July which was my highest total in many years, I surpassed it easily in August, and I must say that I am actually surprised because I felt like I was running less mileage this month than last.  This past week was my first week after leaving CHQ, so many of those miles were done in "flat" Cleveland and in very cool weather (for August) as we had a cold front pass through.  That was kind of odd as the end of the week was spent in Boston and it was much, much warmer there.

The week started with my pacing of the Rock Hall Half Marathon in downtown Cleveland on Sunday, the 23rd.  This was a brand new race for the area directed by the group out of the Mentor area that directs the 10 and 20 Mile Drop Races in April, the Hill Yeah Half in June, and the Northeast Ohio Half and Full Marathons in early October.  The half marathon had over 100 finishers which I think was excellent for a first time race especially in August and the week before many schools started for the new year.  I do think some may have boycotted the race believing it to be the resurrection of the Rock 'N Roll (Competitor Group) race from 2013, but it was not and I hope that the word spreads.  

I was the 2 hour pacer and I finished at 1:59:35 (clock time).  Misjudged a bit forgetting the 15 sec off the chip but still maintained a very steady pace that I was pleased with.  I had a group of 20-25 runners for much of the way and many of them who had never broken 2 hrs successfully did just that. It helped that we were blessed with relatively cool weather with lower for an August morning and it didn't get into the mid-70s until my group was at 11 miles.  The course was pretty flat with a nice, shaded downhill on MLK Blvd.  All in all, to me it was well run and well attended for a first year attempt.

The cool weather stayed for the week along with some overcast skies which were very welcome for both my 2nd speed session of this training period (and first on a real track) and my long run on Wednesday morning.  Managed to run my second 20 miler around Bay and River by myself which will definitely help my mental strength going into October's race. I worked at keeping the pace slow in the beginning and ran the last two miles comfortably at 9 min pace for an overall 9:24 pace.  That combined with a successful track session has me believing that I am fit to run a marathon, but the last aborted MP run still has me a bit concerned.  I won't be running my usual half marathon this month to give me some confidence, so I will have to rely on another MP run and an LT/MP run when I head back to western NY and the hills next weekend.  I plan to spend another week there running those hills and then capping off the weekend with my third 20-something run as part of the Erie Marathon.  The current plan is to run 22 of the 26 miles very comfortably - so I hope the weather is good.

A recap of the last week of August is as follows:

Monday - 6 recovery miles after pacer duties

Tues - 7.14 miles of Speedwork (2K, 1mile,1K, 800m); Core work and weights with Jake

Wed - 20.25 mile long run

Thurs - Drive with Shannon to Boston for Senior Year!

Fri - 6.0 miles in Natick

Sat - 5.45 miles on Esplanade before returning to CLE

Sun - 10 easy miles in the Metropark

WTD:  54.84

I expected to be very tired this morning especially as I attended my first core class of the Fall, but I easily ran 5 recovery miles and hope to be able to run a decent track session tomorrow night even if summer has returned just a bit. Had to continually slow down this morning to keep the pace and HR in recovery territory.  Never sure if that is good or bad. Headed back to the hills of CHQ this weekend.  We will see.  

That 5 miles capped off the 216!  216 - let's hope it is a magic number.

Back to Reality

It is hard to believe that there is really only one more week of summer (not calendar officially or vernal equinox officially, but in terms of real life officially).  Up until last week, it was also one of my more successful summers of running both in terms of miles and injuries in that I ran a lot of them and none occurred.  Oh I have a couple of little niggles due to tightness and just training in general and even though I wasn't happy with the last week of runs, I really have had a good summer of training.  As for those bad runs, they do happen and sometimes it is hard to face up to that age thing in terms of pushing myself.  After all, I'm complaining about an aborted LT run (ran 3.5 out of 5 LT miles just 3 days after a tough 5K race (2.7 hilly miles) and 5 days after a 20 on very tired legs and then my last long run in which I did only 8 instead of 12 MP miles (in high humidity and after being chased by a dog) - so really I have nothing to complain about.  Yup, it is just hard to accept that they will not all be perfect days - type A personality - welcome to the club.

Highlights of the summer were big though:

     1) I ran the most amount of miles in a month than I had in many years - 198 in July
     2) I nailed 3 out of 4 of my LT runs  ( and the last one was the one described above)
     3) I successfully slowed down my long runs and have felt real good on all of them with the 20   
         being kind of easy and not a trial or slog fest
     4) I ran the fastest time on that 2.7 mile hilly race since 2004 (I ran 19:35 in 2011 and thought I 
         was in great shape and ran 19:30 this year)
     5) The hills are feeling easy (even if I don't run them as fast as I used to) and 6 miles feels like the 
          new 3

It will be interesting to see what I feel like when I get back to Cleveland on flatter terrain but in slightly warmer temperatures and I'll get my first dose on Sunday when I pace the Rock Hall Half Marathon.  www.rockhallhalfmarathon.com  I'm the 2:00 hr pacer which should be a relatively easy pace and I sure hope that it is.  I always worry just a bit, but for the most part I should be fine especially after this down week of mileage.

And a quick recap of last week's mileage:

Monday - No running, but worked out in the gym with Annie
Tuesday - Comfortable 8 miles (8:57 overall pace) with 10 20 sec pickups
Wednesday - Easy 12 miles (9:33 pace) with Chris on Fran's Loop (hilly) followed by an hour of
                 yoga
Thursday - Recovery 6.6 miles (9:33 pace)
Friday - Yoga class
Saturday - 16 miles with 8 @ LT (supposed to be 12); 9:06 overall pace per mile
Sunday - 5.5 miles (8:44 overall pace)

WTD:  48.1  YTD: 1242     

Last year at this time I had run 1122 miles - so I've got 120 more miles with some downtime in early February.  

Wow, Most Monthly Miles Ever (or at least in 30 yrs) and The 2015 Old First Night Run

I don't believe that I have run (almost) 200 miles in one month since I was in my late 20s, and this lat month, well, I ran 198.  198 - and I can't really believe it.  Not only that, I finished the month with a day off.  Of course, it followed a solo 18 miler over hills, hills, hills, so I'm thankful that the temps were only in the low 60s when I started and low 70s at the finish, even if the humidity was in the 84% range.  I still did it, and I was very happy to finish in 2 hrs and 53 min since that was so on pace. Like I said, my goal was to slow down those long runs, and I definitely have accomplished that this summer.  I was not super happy with my running of the Presque Isle Half on the 18th, but I did maintain 12 miles at marathon pace which was really what that was to be all about.  I finished 4th in my AG after a series of placings, but it was ridiculously hot that morning (73F at the start) and 90% humidity, so I kept echoing in my head that it is a "B" race and not my goal, my goal race is in October!  

The final week in July started with a bang too (and ended with that 18 miler) in that I successfully completed a 10 miler with 5 @ LT pace (7:45-8 min per mile).  Now I have not had a bad time with these LT runs, but my last two had my pace fall off in the last mile - not going over 7:55, but still falling off, so since it was a relatively cool morning, I made it my goal to stay as fresh as I could and keep it in control for the first couple of LT miles hopefully reaching my fastest mile in the last one - and I did it!  What a great confidence booster to see 7:37 for that last mile of the 5!  Of course, I then barely made it up the hill for the last couple of miles of my cool down - lol. I never thought I would make it through those miles and I didn't even have the luxury of Chris or MP to help me through.

Running a good LT run and a good 18 miler though, I felt I was hardly ready for Saturday's Old First Night Run. They changed the course just a it this year - no, they did not remove the nasty uphill first mile, but they did add a brick path in the end to make the course 2.73 miles instead of 2.7!  On Friday after my 18 miler on Thursday, my legs felt pretty trashed.  I made it to yoga which felt much needed, but I decided to skip my weight session with Annie as my legs already felt like lead weights. Smartly, the race start time was moved up to 8 am this year partly to avoid he heat and to avoid the congestion at the gates as Saturday is a big turnover day here in CHQ especially between weeks 5 & 6.  In fact, my daughter asked why we have t-shirts from races that I never ran in the late 90s and early 00s, and it was because we usually drove here from Atlanta (then) and left on that Saturday.  Because of the 9 am start, I could never run as we had to get on the road.  Of course, the last few years I have run when I was injured ans she has done the "closet to the pin" walk with her friends all those years too.  

Last year, I ran 20:04 on the course and felt like I was in really good shape coming off a 1:44 at Presque Isle.  It was a hot and humid day like it always is, and I was happy that it was a successful run.  I also figured that my sub-20 days on the course were over.  The OFN run is a deceptively hard 2.7(3) miles with the first tough hill occurring at 0.5 miles and then the uphill basically continues until 1.7 miles where you get a bit of a reprieve, but of course, nothing like the steep uphill you just crested.  The finish is basically flat but tricky since you make a hairpin left turn and run over bricks for 0.3 miles of the last 0.5 miles.  This year has been cooler and I was happy to wake up to temps in the mid 60s with lower humidity, sunshine, and an hour earlier race start.  

Since I'm really not a terrific short distance road runner, I warmed up with an easy 2.2 miles followed by some striders hoping to get it going.  I was very happy when we lined up that the RD made those with walker numbers move behind the runners so that we wouldn't mow them down in the first half mile.  There are a number of young stud college and high school XC runners who get primed for this run as it is right up their alley and perfect timing to see if they are ready for those fall seasons, and it isn't fair to them (or to us oldsters) to have to trip over walking 10 and 80 yr olds (the oldest runners in the race were both 90! and they did it in 30 min). 

After a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem (after all there are voice students here), we were off and I round myself running next to this woman whom I figured was in my AG and we were going strong.  We hit the first mile in 7:19 and I was like, "alright that wasn't so bad", and then she surged ahead and I just tried to stay with her.  Our second mile was 7:10 and then we hit the final downhill and the finishing stretch.  I stayed right behind her until we got off the bricks and then I pulled next to her only to be out kicked at the finish.  Our chips were identical, but officially, she won by 1 sec. And of course, she is 51 (so in my AG, but I'm, 53.5!)  Our time - drum roll please - was 19:30.  19:30! I had not run the course that fast since 2004, and all the women in front of us (we were 6th and 7th respectively) were pretty much teens (one 24 yr old).  Woe, that was some serious kick butt performances by two old ladies!  I'm guessing the Tim Warren adage of "run slow to race fast" might be paying off thanks to the wisdom of Coach Bob.

Synopsis of my week then looks like this:

Mon -Day off, weights and core

Tues - 10 miles with 5 @ LT pace - last LT mile was the fastest

Wed - Easy 5 recovery miles; Yoga

Thurs - 18 hilly, humid miles @ 9:37 pace

Fri - Day off, Yoga

Sat - Old First Night Run (2.73 miles) 19:30 - fastest time since 2004, 2nd AG (lost by 1 sec), 7th woman overall - warm up and cool down miles to total 11.26 miles

Sun - 4.35 recovery miles

WTD: 48.6   YTD:1143

Now on to August and my first 20 miler of the cycle.  I need to get excited as I can do this - after all, the 18 wasn't so bad.  I am waiting for that bad run, but so far, I've held it together, and maybe I can say that Presque Isle was my bad run for the cycle.  That would make me nothing but happy.