Saturday, May 24, 2008 [9M]

Hallmark Park. Usual route to Hallmark and back. I was planning of adding another couple of miles at Hallmark but the legs weren't feeling that great so I decided to cut it short.

Friday, May 23, 2008 [12M]

8M tempo at Sawyer Camp. 5:44, 5:43, 6:19, 6:50, 5:34, 5:32, 5:43, 5:39. I drove out to Sawyer camp after work and got things started by 6PM. My plan was to run a controlled, long tempo, shooting for 5:40s the whole way. The first couple of miles were just off pace but fairly controlled. I knew it would be hard to maintain the pace for the next couple of miles since most of that part would be uphill but I wanted at least to maintain the same effort. It's been a while since the last time I made it to the end of trail and I forgot how steep it gets, especially in the last mile. As shown by my splits I slowed down quite a bit and wasn't putting in the effort needed to do a decent climb. In retrospect, opting to go all the way to the end of the trail was a bad choice for this kind of workout. I wanted a controlled effort and the long uphill part threw me off. I didn't make an effort to pick up the pace after making the turn but I was expecting to be a bit faster since I'd be going downhill. It was steep enough, though, to force me to break my stride so I couldn't really get rolling. The decline in the 6th mile was a bit more gradual so I could get the legs moving better. I got back close to 5:40 pace for the last couple of miles, after hitting the flat parts. I could have pushed the pace more but that wasn't the point of this workout so I just kept things under control all the way to the finish.

Thursday, May 22, 2008 [8M]

Redwood Shores. I was planning to catch a 9:25PM show of Indiana Jones in the city and I couldn't get out of work until 7 so I kept it short. I tried to force the pace a bit but my legs were feeling crappy so I backed off after the first couple of miles. I kind of rushed through strides and stretching afterwards and headed out. Not the greatest of days but at least I got the miles in.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 [10M]

2 sets of 8x400. 70, 69, 68, 67, 68, 66, 67, 67, 68, 67, 67, 67, 66, 65, 66, 63. Rest was 200m between intervals and 5:00 between sets. Since I was only running quarters I opted to run the workout at Carlmont high school. It was very windy today, which I figured would make the workout harder so I decided to wear my Hyperspeeds to even things out a bit. I must say I really liked the shoes, they feel light but they have enough support, unlike my Streak XCs, so you can even race up to the marathon in them. I even did my warm-up and cool-down in them, since I ran to the track from my place and didn't want to be carrying an extra pair of shoes. My goal for the workout was to run 68s and work on getting some good turnover at 3K pace. It took me a couple of intervals to get down to the right pace but after that I started rolling. The rest was more than enough and I felt recovered at the start of every interval. My rest periods were fairly quick, I was only taking about 1:30 for the 200m whereas I've had workouts in the past when I was taking about the same time to jog 100m. The wind on the backstretch was pretty bad so I had to work a bit but in general it didn't feel like I was working too hard. I was feeling good enough at the end to let the legs loose and finish off the workout with a 63. Definitely not a killer workout but a nice controlled effort. I had a good turnover and was feeling strong on all intervals. As a former miler, quarters were my bread and butter so I always feel like I can knock them out without any problems.

Tuesday PM, May 20, 2008 [8M]

San Carlos. Usual Tuesday evening run from Road Runner sports and like last week it was only Doug and myself again. The pace was pretty casual on the way out, somewhere around 7:10. We picked it up a bit on the way back and I took off on my own in the last couple of miles, probably getting down in the low 6s. Ordinarily I would have stayed with Doug the whole way but I was feeling good and wanted to get the legs moving a bit, even for just a couple of miles.

Tuesday AM, May 20, 2008 [5M]

Foster City. Short and easy run at noon. My legs were still a bit sore and I was feeling a bit sluggish so I was running pretty slow, probably around 7:10.

Monday, May 19, 2008 [10M]

Redwood Shores. I got a pretty late start this afternoon as I was in a meeting until 7PM and took some more time before leaving the office and getting to Club O. I was feeling the effects of yesterday's race and wasn't very excited about running. My quads especially were pretty sore and needed an easy day. I didn't use my watch for this one and kept things easy the whole way. My legs loosened up after a few miles so in the end this turned out to be a decent run.

Sunday, May 18, 2008 [18M]

Bay to Breakers 12K, 40:07. I drove up to the city this morning and was there by 6:30AM, with some time to spare before the 8AM start. The course was point-to-point, starting at the Embarcadero and finishing by Ocean beach, and I didn't have any option to drop off warm-up clothes so I had to get to the start area with my racing shoes, running shorts, singlet and a T-shirt which I threw away at the start. It was a bit foggy and chilly in the morning, which made for nice racing weather but not exactly comfortable for standing around in shorts and a t-shirt. The whole atmosphere at the start was unlike anything else I've ever encountered. I was up front with all the seeded runners and elites, which wasn't anything unusual since everyone was going through the normal pre-race routine. The back, however, was one big party. Music blasting and lots of people in costumes (or no costume at all) doing crazy things like tossing tortillas. I did my regular meet warm-up out and back on Howard St, stretched for a while and put in a good number of streets before lining up for the start. I couldn't get right up front with so many elites, seeded runners and centipedes and I had to dodge a few people at the start before I got rolling. My plan was to be a bit conservative for the first 2-3 miles and pick it up after going up the hill at Hayes St. I got out slower than I would have liked, though, 5:18 and 5:25 for the first two miles and did a rather poor job on the climb, splitting a 6:09 for the 3rd mile. Even though I ran slow going uphill my legs took a mile or two to recover. Eventually I started rolling towards the end, averaging sub 5:00 for my last 2.5 miles, and throwing a huge surge in the last quarter to kick past one of the elite Africans. I was hoping to run a bit faster today but I guess it wasn't too bad of a race. I should have been more aggressive at the start, seeing how much I had left at the end. The legendary hill at Hayes St was pretty tough, it was 0.69 miles long and rising over 200ft, but I should have done a better job at it. After the race I ran back to my car and ended up doing a pretty long cool-down. For the most part I ran the course backwards and got to witness all the craziness. There's some things that you only get to see in San Francisco.