Why not? lap intervals (900m) in the Blasco park

Today I left work at almost 8 p.m., I had been thinking about doing a workout today, but since I left work so late I eliminated that possibility. I had zero motivation, but since I did not run yesterday, I forced myself to get out the door at 8:40 p.m. to at least run easy. However, when I ran 1 easy in the Blasco park in 6:02, I felt better and better, in the second lap I decided that I would try a workout, no need to run easy again. I incorporated 5 x 50m strides in the second lap and completed 14 mins of warm up, then stopped for a 1 min or so before starting my 4-5 x 1 lap in the Blasco park, around 900m. This was a good workout since I have done this workout every once in a while, so its easy to track improvement. So today I improved in all fronts, ran the repeats faster and ran a 5th repeat. In the previous 2 occassions that I have done this workout I did only 4 repeats.

I got out at a hard effort, but an effort I could sustain for 4-5 repeats. First repeat came in 3:48, not bad and I knew that as soon as I warm up, I would run faster and faster and fortunately, that was the case.

2nd repeat was 3:46, was feeling pretty good at that point, 3rd repeat came in 3:42. At that point I was surprised with the splits, because the effort was high, but very controllable. 4th repeat came in 3:
44, I eased up on this one so that I could run a 5th repeat faster than the rest. 5th repeat came in 3:30 after pushing, but without losing form. That was a 17 seconds PR for lap repeats in this park. Last time I did that workout, I was really pushing to run 3:47, but today I could run 17 seconds faster at the same effort, that is motivating and all of that after a full day of work.  Recovered between repeats 3:30 at an easy pace. After the 5 repeats, I did 2 laps for cool down and completed 14 mins. I did around 10.5k or so, so it was a long day at the office and it was not planned, since I had eliminated the possibility of running a workout today.

When you put your mind into something, you really can do it, and today I showed that even when you dont feel like it, you can run an excellent workout by just showing up and trying. Of course, if I would have started the workout and felt like crap in the first repeat I would have aborted the workout, but to be honest I felt awesome and fresh the whole workout, never felt heavy legs or lactic acid, so I am pretty satisfied. The weather at that time was cool, so the heat did not bother  me much.

Tomorrow Will be an easy run just to absorb today`s hard work.

Zapping the zero

 Yesterday I ran after work at 7:30 p.m. or so.  I did 9 laps in the Blasco park for a total of 8.1k. Included 6 x 100m strides from laps 6-8, and the last lap was something like a cool down.

First lap was 5:57, never looked at the watch till the 8 th lap, but pressed the split button at halfway in 23:07, 8 laps in 44:16 and last lap in 5:32. Felt tired today, the strides loosened me a Little, but overall felt tired. Happy to have run though.

Today I took the day off, as I have said before 5 runs per week is more than enough, when you spend most of your day working. I ll try to do a hard workout tomorrow , I Will see at that time I leave work.

"Long run" in the Blasco park with my brother: 68 mins

Today I ran with my brother in the Blasco park at 6 p.m. The plan for me was to do 10k in around 63 mins or so, just easy enough to recover from my tempo yesterday. I felt pretty good today though, no soreness from the workout, so I kept the effort easy, but let myself go after the first half. I looked at the watch at every lap just for fun, but never reacted to it, just guided the run by effort and always kept the effort easy, even though I was running way faster in the second half. 1st lap was 5:52, first 4 laps were in 22:53, 8 laps were in 44:59, so 47 seconds faster than the fist half, 9 laps in 50:20 (5:21), 10 laps in 55:41 (5:20), 11 laps in 60:57 (5:16),12 laps in 66:15, just kept running till 67:45, that was the time that my brother`s watch read 11k, I would say We ran 11.1k or so. Last 4 laps were in 21:16 or something like that, so the last 5 laps or so were way faster than the first few laps, the effort felt easier running faster. Felt good overall despite the heat. I am in good shape and these weeks without quality training have not made me to lose fitness, I am feeling good and running strong, so I can`t ask for more.

Good week of running, 5 runs this week and 2 stress workouts, the ideal is 6 days of running, but with all this work, 5 runs is fairly decent.

Tempo run: 25 mins in the Blasco Park

Yesterday I took the day off, because when I left work I had to cook dinner with my housemate, so no time to run in the evening and as I pretty much run in the evening on the work week, I missed the run.

Today I had planned to do a 5k tempo or something like that, I am feeling good this week, so it was a good idea to include my usual workouts, the intervals that I did on Wednesday and today a tempo run. I slept in today so I did not run in the morning. I ran in the evening when the heat was not so high, but it was still high, there was a nice breeze though, so the heat did not bother me so much. I headed out at 7 p.m. to the Blasco park, and the plan was to do 2 + laps (6:00 and 5:28) easy including 5 x 50m strides or so to warm up,completed 14 mins, then stopped, did some walking and drills and I had planned to do a 25 mins tempo run, I was expecting to run the 5k around 24:00-24:15 today since I have not been doing any workouts lately and the mileage is pretty slow, I thought that that pace would be enough. I would 25 mins worth of tempo running no matter the pace, I started out at a pace that was challenging, but that I could sustain for the 25 mins and beyond that, since I evaluated myself and put an effort that I would maintain for the 10k. The workout turned out great, I felt great throughout and it was a great tempo, much better than the last 28:37 that I did in the 6k, felt much better and was 1 mins, if I would have finished the 6k. First lap of tempo in the Blasco park was (900m) in 4:10 and feeling under control, then tried to keep the same effort pace without losing form, 2nd lap was 8:21 (4:11), at that point I knew that I could sustain that pace and I was not slowing down, 3rd lap came in 4:09 (12:30), at that point I said, in the 25 mins I have to do 6 laps, 4th lap came in 16:37 (4:07), I was getting tired there, but felt very strong and I knew for sure that I would maintain that pace till the end of the 25 mins, I was feeling relaxed and the pace was way faster than expected. 5th lap came in 20:47 (4:10 for that lap), then in the second half of last lap I put the hammer a bit without struggling and finished the last lap in 4:04 to complete 6 laps in 24:51, I kept running though to complete the 25 mins, so I did 5.4k in 24:51, which is 4:36 per km pace and the 5k in 23:00. I could have not asked for better workout. Last tempo I felt flat from the get go, today I felt fresh and fresh, that is due to the low mileage as well and myself adapting better to the stresses workout, that tempo was slow, but put my mind into it and salvaged what could have turned into a disaster. After the 25 mins today I walked for a couple of mins before starting the cool down. Then did 2 laps easy to cool down in 5:38 and 5:30, man those felt very easy and was surprised because those were fast given how slowly I was moving, then decided to complete the 14 mins of running such as the warm up and called it a day. Total was around 9.6k or 6 miles. Felt very satisfied and happy with this workout, today`s workout indicates that I have not lost any fitness. Today I felt like in the 10k race where I surpassed my own expectations.

Running is the best medicine

Today I left work at 7 p.m. and honestly I did not have motivation to run, but I forced myself to do it, because I dont know if I ll be able to run tomorrow, but I will try. Anyway, I have learned that no matter how bad you feel before a run after you warm up you feel much better, These days take me a lap to feel much better than before starting. The plan today was to do 8 laps in the Blasco park at an easy pace to recover from yesterday`s fartlek. First lap was 5:45 feeling very sluggish, but then felt great and the pace got quicker without trying after that I started running 5:30 per lap like clock work, first half was 22:21, second half was 21:59 feeling pretty good and easy. Did not feel too tired from yesterday`s workout which is a good sign. The weather was much better today, thats because it was getting darker and darker. These days of summer, you see more runners at 8-9 p.m. out running than at 6-7 p.m. Felt great after the run, " running is the best medicine". All in all a good run to recover!

Kenyan fartlek workout: 12 x 1 mins fast and 1 min slow

Yesterday I rested because I left work late and was hungry and tired by the time I got home. Today I left work early at 6:15 p.m. or so, but was very lazy and hungry and was not motivated, but you have to do what you have to do and got out at 7:30 p.m or so to the Blasco park. I wore my workout shoes because I wanted to do a workout today, but the heat was very high and motivation was very low that I would decided after the first lap if I was going to do the workout, I ran the first lap very easy in 6:05 and decided to give it a go. After 2 laps in 11:41 including 4-5 x 50m strides to loosen up and running in place to run till 12 mins. I was ready to start my workout that the plan was 10 x 1 min fast and 1 mins slow, so around 4k worth of running including the recoveries. The effort was around 3k race pace and I felt pretty good, Increased effort after the 5th repeat and just before the 8th repeat decided to do 12 repeats instead of 10. So I did 12 mins worth of fast running . Including the recoveries did 23:00. Around 4.6k or so. For cool down I did 2 laps very easy in 6:02 and 5:33 or so, that 5:33 felt really easy, did a total of 46:36, dont know exactly how many laps, I was so focused on the workout and the watch that lost count of laps. Anyway, the laps within the workout were 4:17-4:28, so less than 5 mins per km pace including the recoveries. Not bad, given the lack of workouts lately and the high heat.

I felt strong despite the heat and could have kept going, but decided to not over do it and stopped after 12 repeats. Felt really good and strong, maybe I have not lost a lot of shape in these past 2-3 weeks of no intervals and low mileage. Doing what I can!

Monday evening run

Today I left work early at 6:15 p.m., and was out running at 7:00 p.m. in the Blasco park. The plan was to run 8 laps at an easy pace, but I felt good so I threw 6 x 100m strides at a good pace without losing form. First lap was 5:44, then did not look again till the 8th lap in 43:27, pressed the split button at halfway point in 22:32, so second 4 laps were 20:59 or so thanks to the strides. Then did 1 lap easy to cool down in 5:20 to finish up 8.1k (9 laps ) in 48:47, Felt good today and felt very smooth in the strides. That is a good sign. Weather was hot, but I am used to it already. A good easy run!

Decent week

Today I ran at 6 p.m. with not much going on today, so I let the run for the evening. The plan was to do 8 laps once again at an easy pace. The first lap I felt somewhat flat but after I felt great for the rest of the run. First lap was 5:46, then looked at the watch at halfway in 22:33, then looked again at the finish of the 8 laps in 44:32 (21:59 for second half), then completed the 45 mins, so did around 7.3k. The heat was high today, but felt pretty good and effortless as the run went by. I needed this run as I had been all day at home.

5 runs for the week, not bad considering all I have been working, but I need to get back to workouts eventually, otherwise I would lose all my fitness.

Saturday`s run

On Friday I took the day off as I left work late and was pretty tired, so I bagged the day. But I am satisfied with 5 runs per week these days as I am working a lot. I ll have to do some kind of a workout, because all I am doing is running easy and throwing some strides here and there, but those workouts don't move the needle.
I ran with my brother yesterday at 11:00 am. and We ran in the blasco park very easy, We did 8 laps there, However, after the 6 laps , in the last mile or so I sped up the pace since I was feeling very flat even though I was running that slow. The increase in pace really got me activated and felt much better at the end. The effort was somewhat high, but the pace not that much, I wonder, How I could maintain that pace for 10k (it was around 10k effort), but with a lot of heat. Did the last lap in 4:05 (4:30-4:33 per km), the effort was good, but I have to move the body in the mechanic. Anyway, I have to find a way to get in some sort of a workout, so I don't lose my fitness as I adapt to the stresses of work.

Wednesday and Thursday runs

Ran after work yesterday at 7:30 p.m. or so, did 8 laps in the Blasco park in 45:27, first half was 23:15 and the second half in 22:12. I only looked at the watch in the first half in 5:58, and pressed the split button at half way point. Felt flat and tired, but at least I got my run in. Weather was hot. After that went to eat tacos with my house mates.

Today I ran after work at 8:00 p.m. with the sun still hitting hard, but not that much. Did 8 laps again in the Blasco park (7.2k), felt flat in the first lap in 5:50, but then felt pretty good for the rest of the run, never looked at the watch again till the end, but pressed the Split at halfway. Halfway was 22:50 and finished in 44:51, so did around 22:00 for the second half. Felt pretty good today. Just taking advantage of when I can run,if I leave work early tomorrow I ll run, otherwise I wont.

Catching up

On Sunday I ran at 11 a.m. with the hot hitting hard again. I felt good though and included strides from laps 6-8. I did 8 laps in the Blasco park at an easy pace, first lap was 5:50, halfway in 23:01, second half in 21:20 or so including the strides, finished the 8 laps in 44:21, then completed the 45 mins.  4 runs for the week. Not proud of that, but it is what it is.

Yesterday I rested because I left work late and was very hungry so I bagged the day once more. Today are holidays in the Maritime area. So I did not have to go to work. Ran in the evening though, but it was still pretty hot. I ran 8 laps including 6 strides between laps 6-8. First lap was 5:48, then did not look at the watch till the end. Pressed the split button at halfway in 22:49 and then finished 8 laps including the strides in 44:29. Then completed the 45 mins. I felt flat on the run, don't know why because I ate well today and did not go to work, once I started the strides, though, felt much better. Weather was hot.

This is my bread and butter run these days, since I am using running as a stressor relief, then when things settle a bit at work, I ll start training normally again with workouts.

Catching up

Did not run on Thursday and Friday. Thursday I was going to run at night, but I went out to eat dinner with my house mates, so did not have time. On Friday I left work at 9:30 p.m. and got home at 10 p.m. so no time for running at night. I think the only option will be to run early in the morning, I dont want to lose my fitness, so I think that will be the best decision.

Today I ate breakfast at 11 a.m. , I woke up at 10:XX something, I have been very tired this past week so the extra sleep was good. I decided to run at 1 p.m. today to test the mind and to tan a bit, the weather was pretty hot and the humidity high, but the run felt pretty good nonetheless. Ended very sweated anyway, but felt pretty good.

Did 8 laps at an easy pace in the Blasco park. Checked the watch every lap just for fun, but did not change the effort though. Splits were 5:45, 11:26 (5:41),17:01 (5:35), 22:33 (5:32), then changed the direction clockwise, 28:12 (5:39), 33:42 (5:30), 39:10 (5:28), 44:32 (5:22), then completed the 45 mins. As I said, I just felt pretty good and good energy. I have not lost fitness at all, but if I continue doing this (Running easy 4-5 times per week), I probably will. Tomorrow I will run earlier though.

Easy run

I left work at 7:00 p.m. and ran at 8 p.m. or so. The plan was to run just easy like yesterday. I ran in the Blasco park and did 8 laps, first lap in 5:50 like yesterday, then 4 laps in 22:36, I felt fresh, but tired at the same time, after the 4th lap I tried to speed up, but only could muster a 4:37 feeling like crap, so I went back to my easy effort and completed 8 laps in 43:35 and then completed the 45 mins and called it a day. Work has been very stressing, so no point in stressing it more with stress workouts, so no stress workout this week, maybe on Saturday I will throw a light tempo, but no sure, just using running as a stress relief this week. Just happy to have run! Weather was hotter than yesterday as it was hotter!

Zapping the zero

Yesterday I rested. Was not planned, but left work late and then ate fried chicken with my brother,

Today I left work very late and did not run in the morning, but I wanted to run and actually felt good during the run. I started my run at 8:50 p.m. or something like that, I did not run entirely in the dark, so it was good in that aspect.

I did 8 laps easy, 4 laps counter clockwise as always and 4 laps clockwise. First lap was 5:50, 4 laps in 22:50 and finished in 45:18. Felt really good and light during the run. The excess work did not tired me or anything. The weather was hot, but not as hot as has been lately, so no biggies. Nice run to relieve stress, felt much better after running!

Catching up : Tempo 6k (Satuday) + 10k run (Sunday)

On Friday as I said I had to rest because left work late, life happens and you can do nothing about it, and next week I suspect the running will have to take a back sit.

This morning I started running my warm up from home at 8:40 a.m. and did the 15 mins warming up to the Turia Park, warmed up 15 mins including 5 x 50m strides. The plan for today was to do a 6k tempo run, instead of the 5k that I had been doing previous weeks.

I thought that I was going to feel very rested and awesome, but it was quite the opposite, from the beginning I felt like I was working and did not feel very rested at all, when I saw the first km split in 4:52, I knew that it was not going to be a great day, I tried to make up some time in the 2nd km, but did not feel much better, crossed in 9:33 (4:41 for that km), in the 3rd one I tried to maintain the same effort and pace, crossed the 3 kms in 14:15 (4:42 for that km), then turned around and I was tired, the heat did not help either. 500m later, giving up in the 4th km crossed my mind, but when I crossed the 4 km in 18:59 (4th km in 4:44), I decided to just focus and to finish at whatever time I could muster today, next 400m were around 4:59/km pace, and then tried to increase again, 5 kms came in 23:52 (5th km in 4:54, very very sloww!! but I could not much about it), then tried to focus on the last one, good form, even pace, could "regroup" in the last one and did the last one in 4:45 to finish up the 6k in 28:37, so did a possitive split of 7 seconds. Honestly, I thought that I could run around 28:00-28:10 at a very controlled effort, but today it was not meant to be. I just felt flat from the beginning. Work was crazy the day before and the heat and humidity were very high (34 celsius and 57% humidity) this morning, I sweated a lot, who knows! maybe a bad day. Compared to last week`s tempo run and this week`s interval workout I consider this a failure. However, I battled through, and when the mind wanted to give up, I just stayed strong. My brother was in the finish "line" waiting, then I did 12 (1.7k or so) mins cool down and drank a lot of water in the fountain, the heat was really strong. Around 10.2k total for the day.

On Sunday I ran at 10:45 a.m. or so after I woke up. I went to bed pretty late yesterday, so I just ran after I woke up. The plan was to do our long run, but I did not feel like it, so I decided to do 8 laps, which is my normal run. However, when I was running I started feeling better and better, and after 8 laps I decided to do 1 hour, but then decided to complete 10k, which was 11 laps in the Blasco park and 100m extra meters. Then I felt bad, because I should hace completed my prescribed 80 mins.

First 4 laps were in , 23:30, did 8 laps in 46:28 or something like that, then started to run laps sub 5:40, more like 5:35, and feeling better and better, finished the 10k in about 63:50. The heat and humidity were high, around 35 celsius or higher and the humidity over 55%, but I felt pretty good and that did not affect me at all.

Felt pretty sore though from the tempo yesterday, dont know the exact reason, but it seems that I ran harder than my body should yesterday.
5 runs for the week, and around 45-46k, not bad, but not great, anyway, my running might take a back seat as I adapt to my job!


I set my alarm clock to run early this morning, but it was not the case. When the alarm went off, I felt sleepy and skip the run. At night, after work I went with my brother and stuffed my stomach with fried chicken. I do better dont follow that path, lol!

Yesterday`s intervals: 400m,800m, 1200m, 1200m, 800m, 400m, 200m

Yesterday I did my intervals after work, I left work a little later than planned, and my brother was not running, however He was going to the park to encourage me, so I needed to adapt the workout so that the repeats were back and forth to where He was, that helped with the support. Its hard to do these workouts after a long day at work, but I have come to realize that they really help, and you feel newer and better after the workout vs before the workout, sounds counter-intuitive, but its true.

The plan for today was a pyramid workout, so 400,800,1200,1200,800,400,200. All with half distance of recovery, so after 400s, 200s, after 1200, 600 and so on.

I warmed up from home this time around, I started at 7:25 p.m.,so no point in walking 20+ mins to the park if I was not going to meet with my brother. Felt good in the warm up, but a bit tired. Warmed up 15 mins incorporating 5 x 50m strides to loosen up.

The first repeat was very slow and felt real fast, but as usual as the workout progressed, I felt better and better and was running faster with less effort. It was a good workout overall, and those 800 and 1200s repeats were good.

Splits were: 1:39,3:20,5:03,4:53,3:15,1:28,40.22. I did a huge negative split and finished very strong at the end, was sweating a lot because of the heat, but the heat does not seem to affect my times. Cooled down 12 mins, so around 1.7k, so around 11.2k (7 miles) for the day.

Very satisfied with this one!

Today I took the day off as usual!

Yesterday`s easy run + 6 x 100m strides

Yesterday I ran after work at 7:30 p.m. with the sun shining hard. I did 9 laps in the Blasco park incorporating 6 strides from laps 6 to 8, then did 1 extra lap of easy running to cool down as usual. Felt flat as always in the first lap in 5:51, but then loosened up. Felt decent in the strides. Did 4 laps in 23:06, crossed the 8 laps in 44:11( because of the strides I did those 4 laps in 21:05), then did 5:33 for the last lap feeling pretty good at the end in 49:44. Effort easy and weather hot!

Monday evening easy run

Today after work at 7:10 p.m. or so with the sun shining hard, I ran 8 laps in the Blasco park at an easy pace. First lap was 5:49 feeling sluggish, then warmed up and felt better, pressed the split button in the halfway  but never looked at it till the end. Crossed the halfway in 22:56 and finished in 45:39. Honestly, I thought that I was going faster, but it seems that I was tired, I felt good until the last lap that I felt flat and tired. The effort was very easy though, logging in the miles! Weather was hot!
Today I ran alone due to my brother taking his break!