Blog

15 miles 90:12

Daytona Sidewalks

Went out and weaved my way through some of the nicest neighborhoods near my apartment and before the river.  My legs are a little beat up from the race and workout but it isn't slowing me down.  I take a couple of breaks to stretch out my calves especially on the left leg because my plantar is aching.  Other than that the soreness is mild and easily run through.  It's a nice day for a run though.  Fairly warm, about 70 and sunny.  Enough to get some sun, develop a few more sunspots to get lectured on, and have a mild sweat going but not enough to soak your shorts.  I give the day 5 stars for running long.  Also there's NFL conference championship games waiting for me at the conclusion of my run to add to my pleasure.  That addition is just enough to cancel out the pain in the legs and left plantar.

5 miles 30:56

Daytona Sidewalks

It's sunny and nice out almost all day but with 15 min left in my last class the sky opens up.  But it was fairly warm out and today was a recovery run day so it made for quite the nice rain run.  At first it seemed like it'd just be a drizzle the whole time but i got the full on down pour after about a mile and a half and it stayed with my until the last mile.  Rain runs are quite nice though.  My plantar and shin were hurting pretty good early but loosened up after a mile.  I may have failed to have mention that but i've had minor shin splits for a few weeks.  The plantar has been off and on achey for about a week...since the 400m workout 9 days ago. 

10 miles 58:22

Daytona Sidewalks

I felt quite good today.  I didn't notice the plantar at all during the run and the shin pain made a late appearance and was sporadic.  The weather was perfect for running...65 degrees.  I got an adjustment in the morning which really loosened me up.  I even saw a bald eagle on my run.  There's one that lives in a tree on the 11th hole of the golf course so it was probably that one since I was within a mile of the course.  Still cool to see though.  I also was ambitious today and did some pullups and situps.  Way to go me.

Silversands Middle School Track

I did one of my two prerace workouts on the paved track at Silversands Middle school.  I did a 3200 in 9:49 (4:59, 4:50) then did 1 mile of straights and curves (sprint the straightaways jog the curves).  It's supposed to be a threshold 2 mile. I was a little quick but it felt very comfortable so i just ran with it.  I'm guessing threshold pace for me right now is somewhere slightly under 5 min.  There wasn't any other sorts of aching in the shin or plantar today so I'm thinking I'm in the clear on those issues.  The strides didn't exactly make me feel fast but they were alright.  I should be good to go for this Saturdays Mantanza's 5k.  Hopefully it'll be a good race and my first test of the year.

8 miles 48:46

Daytona Sidewalks

Ran pretty much a condensed version of my usual 10 mile run.  I'm backing off a little for this weekends race.  It's been very cool these last two days with highs around 60.  It's been great for running though.  There's an otter that moved into the lake across from my apartment apparently.  I saw it 3 times today as I did 3 loops around the lake. 

4 miles 25:42

Daytona Sidewalks

PreRace day.  I took an easy 4 mile run after school on the coldest day of the year in Daytona.  On the news last night they were interviewing people asking how they were dealing with the cold.  The low was 45.  The funny thing was one of the people they interviewed was having dinner outside.  She said she wasn't that cold and then toasted the camera with her wine and laughed.  It was a special interview.  Anyway, I've got Mantazas 5k tomorrow which should be the first race with some competition since the first weekend in November and back then I was still trying to build up my mileage to the 70's.  It'll be good to see where I'm at in my training.  I expect that I'll be a little rusty but hopefully I can still get the cash.  I won the race last year in 14:43 beating a recent FSU grad Ian Hornabrook by a few seconds.  Last year I pulled away from him with 1000m to go but he closed the gap back down with 200-300m to go before I opened up a kick and won by a few seconds.  Hopefully there will be some good competition this year and we can run a fast time.  We'll see how it goes though...

On a side note, I made a sweet Veal Parmisan tonight.  I really impressed myself with this one.

Mantanzas 5k

2nd 14:39

Took second place today at the Mantanzas 5k.  The time was good though and I ran faster than last year but lost to Irish runner Gareth Turnbull ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/5078012.stm ) as he put 13 seconds on my in the last 800-1000m.  I felt pretty good but was understandably rusty and in the late stages of the race I just didn't have the "go" needed to finish fast.  Splits were consistent at 4:40 and 9:21.  From 800m on it was just me, Gareth, and a Russian runner who spoke no english other than the word "marathon" in our post race conversation.  I interpreted his lone english word to mean that he's training for a marathon and that's why he fell of the pace half way into the race.  The excuses are the same from language to language.  Mine?  Well I was just plain outrun today.  Gareth controlled the race and I never made him hurt.  At least this year they decided to pay 2nd place as last year 2nd went home with nothing but sore legs and an empty tank of gas.  Hopefully after I get a few more races under my belt I'll get that finish down.  I haven't had a serious race since the first weekend in November and I had just started to do regular runs at that point.  For a starting race, even though I lost, I think it points to good things in the future.  To good things!

PM 5 miles 31:17

Daytona Sidewalks

Did an afternoon shakeout run.  I was pretty tight.  The plantar was extremely tight and the shins ached too.  It took a coulpe of miles for me to loosen up and feel kinda decent.  Got a good stretch in afterwards which should help in the recovery process.