Sunday morning long run with my brother

 Today I was up at 06:10 a..m, but was out running at 07:05 a.m. still dark. Today I ran my long run again with my brother and we did the port route. He has become  my running partner for the last month or so. We do every run together and that has helped a lot. The plan today was to do 1 hour and 47 mins again like the past week. To be honest I wanted to do it faster, but at the same effort, without forcing the pace. It was basically the same pace like last week. Last week there was a lot of wind, so today was easier and today I felt awesome at the end. I could have gone much longer, but my knees I think would not support that just yet. I am liking this runs, the views in the port are awesome. 

I finished in 1 hour and 47 mins, for the first hour I experienced some stomach problems, but after the hour started feeling better and better. Aroud 17.6 kms total. 57.5 kgs for the week on 5 runs, which is pretty good for me. I am loving how I am feeling with my training and with the consistency. I am loving these morning runs, and they have helped to step up in my volume of training. 

Great week of training. Next week we will do 2 hours. I have not run 2 hours since 2005, so its time to do it again.

Morning R pace workout

 Yesterday I took the day off as I am doing in the last few months, resting Monday and Friday.

Today I was up at :6:00 a.m. and was out  at 06:45 a.m. I warmed up 25 mins at an easy pace, but faster than my usual warm up pace as I wanted to be ready for the 800m. After the 25 mins, I did 6 x 15 secs strdies with 45 seconds walking. I warmed up alone, and then joined my brother for the workout. The workout would be exactly the same as 2 weeks ago, 1 x 800m, 800m jog rest, then  6 x  400m y with 400m jog rest in between. All the hard part at R pace, or roughly mile pace. However, the 800s we wanted to do it sub 3 mins. I have to admit that we are not on that shape just yet, or at lest in the first repetition, because we always run our fastest in the last one.  Long story short, workouts was slower than 2 weeks ago, but I felt better and stronger. However, the legs were very tired after those 800m. Splits were 3:06 ( first 400s 1:31,  second 400s 1:35), 1:37, 1:38, 1:37, 1:34 ,1:33, 1:24. In the last one I wanted to run sub 90 secs. I did not know that I had 1:24 in me today, because I was going through the motions on every repeat, because my legs felt tired. My brother really surprised me today, I just beated him in the 800m by 1 sec, but he beated me in all the 400m, yea, including the last one where he ran 1:22. Very happy for him. I feel that I never truly warmed up, weather was around 8 celsius today and I wore short sleeves, in fact I have always worn short sleeves and shorts for running in the last 6 weeks or so. No excuses, keep working hard to run that 800m sub 3 mins at the same effort. 15:30 cool down to home.

Around 12.8k total

Morning easy run

 Today I was up at 5:35 a.m. and was out at 06:15 a.m. with my brother to do the " Maximo Gomez" route. We started out very slow, but then I started to heat up and increasing the pace, but of course, keeping the pace fairly easy. I dropped my brother from mins 13-14 until 26-27 mins where he sped up to catch me. Finished the run feeling pretty good. 51:13 for 8.3k. No strides today.

Zapping the zero

 Monday  -  planned rest day

Tuesday -  Yesterday I woke up at 5:35 a.m. was out with my brother  at 06:05 a.m. and I did the " Maximo Gomez route", He did a bit more than me. The pace was easy and I included 6 x 100m strides after the 40 mins. I finished the run in 51:02. Felt strong at the end. Short sleeves, in fact I do have 1 month wearing shorts and short sleeves. I feel that there is more cold in the evening than early in the morning. Around 8.3k total.

Wednesday -  Today was up at 5:30 a.m. and out at 06:00 a.m. to the turia park. My brother and I would do an interval workout. He would do 4 x 1200m with 500m jog recovery. I did 3 x 1200m with 500m recovery and 1 x 400m fast. I felt pretty good, but had some stomach problems before starting. Did not bothered much during the workout luckily. Splits were: 5:16, 5:18, 5:08. In the last repeat of 400m did 1:31 as usual.

Warmed up 16 mins including 5 x 50m strides and the cool down was around 18 mins. Around 2.6-2.7k for the cool down. Total for the day was around 10.5k .

Long run

 Yesterday I woke up at 06:10 a.m. and was out at 07:01 a.m. dark to do my long run, I met my brother at the 3-4 mins mark and then we ran together until I had 1 hour and 42 mins. I did 1:47:00 total. We went to the port, but when we arrived the port there was a strong head wind and we were running at 6:40 per pace due to the wind. It was hard and you have to put a lot of effort to " beat " the wind. All in all, I felt very strong and good. Felt very strong when I finished. The weather was good. Average pace for the run was 6:05 per km and the distance covered was around 17.5-17.6k. I want to ramp up to the half marathon soon. I never have done long runs like that, so I have to give it a try before I run out of " improvement".

5 runs for the week. Felt pretty and feeling better and better with each passing week.

Today 'Monday I rest. Resting Mondays and Fridays.

Catching up

 On Wednesday 17/02 - I was out at 5:35 a.m. and was out at 06:00 a..m. to do my interval workout with my brother.We headed out to the turia park. The plan was to run 1 x 1600m, 800m jog recovery, 3 x 800m with 400m jog recovery. I warmed up 15 mins including 5 x 50m strides. Then the workout started, the plan for the mile was to run well sub the 7:31, that I did 3 weeks ago. The real goal was to run at sub 7:15. I did 7:11, and my brother did 7:15. I crossed the first  km in 4:33 still cold, but it seems that I warmed up nicely over the last 600m. The breathing was more labored than I would have liked, but felt overall nonethe less. Then did 3 x 800m in 3:26, in the second one I mistakenly stopped at the 600m mark, but once my brother shouted at me, I realized that I was wrong and started running again until completing the 800m. Time of that repeat including the stop was 3:23- 3:25. It was dark and I set my point that the stopping point was that for that repeat, generally that is the point where we stop when doing 1000m repeats, yes I am getting old and mindless lol. In the last repeat I pushed it a bit, but maintained good form. breathing was a bit fast, but I felt fresh overall for the workout, so I consider that a success. My brother was very happy with his splits also, He did sub 3:28 all the 800m repeats, which is faster than we should, but we alwas have trained faster than we race. Did 15 mins cool down to home. Did 10-11k total for the day.

Thursday 18/02 - I was up again at 5:35 a.m. started running at 6:05 a.m. with my brother and we did again the "Maximo Gomez" route. Felt pretty good and easy. Did 52:20 for 8.2 - 8.3k. Felt pretty good. Kept the effort easy to absorb the prior`s day workout.

Friday - OFF

Today I was up at 6:10 a..m. Did some business in the bathroom so I ended up going out at 7:10 a.m. The plan for today was to do a 6k tempo run in the port with my brother. We are liking that route for our long runs, so we gave it a try for our tempo runs, trusting his GPS watch. We did pretty good and the terrain is pancake flat, perfect for tempo runs. I warmed up 19 mins total, icluded 6 x 50m strides to warm up fine. We started near a big watch ( like the ben watch in London) and then did 3k out and 3k back in the maritime path. Great views and enviroment eventhough there is not a lot of people that early. The first km was very slow in 5:05 or so for me, my brother was a couple of seconds back. We started the first 400-500m very conservative, but after checking that it was that slow, I accelerated inmeediately and found my rythm. I no longer looked at the watch though, just told my brother to let me know when we had to turn around, He passed me after the 2.5k so he was making the pace, I was just a step  back and when he said to turn around I did, then tried to speed up a bit for the second half or at least keep the same effort. He was ahead for 5-6 seconds in the 5k mark, but I catched him with 400m to go and stayed at his side and we basically finished together in 29:39 for the 6k. Although his watch marked 29:41. First half according to my watch was 14:52, I pressed the split button without looking at halfway point. I felt pretty good. The breathing was a bit labored, but I felt good overally and pancake flat terrain helped a lot. Sometimes in the Turia there are ups and down and the terrain is not that even and flat. Also the views here are much wider, you can see a lot fared, so when you have 600,m to go you can see the finish line. In the turia park you can basically see 100-200m ahead at the most. I really liked the experience. Its the first time we do a tempo run outside of the Turia park and the blasco park. Very satisfied with this workout. Did 17:42 for cool down and felt great in the cool down. The last 5 mins were at a good pace ( at my normal easy pace or even faster and felt very strong). Around 12k total or so.

Tomorrow again we will do 1 hour and 45 mins in the port views. Thats the beauty of the morning runs, you basically have the city for you!

Catching up

 Sunday 14/02 - I went out at 07:00 a.m. still dark to do my long run, At the 5 min mark I joined my brother and the goal today was to run 1 hour and 45 mins, which is my longest long run timewise in training since 2005, so 15+ years. I took the route of the port, beatiful sunrise, and beatiful landscape. The long run passed by quicky, the pace was very conversational, but the last 15 mins were a struggle because my legs were a bit uncoordinated. I was very happy to have accomplised the goal and in 3 weeks I want to be in the 2 hour mark, something that I have not done since 2005 and I think that was a missing piece in developming my potential. When I ran my prs my longest run was only 10 miles. The pace was very easy, around 6:10 per km, but we got the job done, We covered around 17k. We were tired from Saturday`s workout, the last 5k were sub 6 mins per km pace though. I am feeling good in my training and really loving my morning runs, something that I did not do before.

5 runs this week. As I said I am running 5 times per week, probably will increase to 6 times once the races start. At this point we dont know when we are going to race again. In the meantime we are doing time trials once in a while. On 27/02 we will do another Mile time trial, but I think my brother wont run on that one. 

Monday -  Planned off day.

Today I was up at 05:35 a.m. and was out at 6:10 a.m. with my brother. We did the "Maximo Gomez" route. This time we started faster from the get go, I was feeling very fresh. In the 3k mark ( or so) we did it 1 min faster than we usually run, at that point I knew that it was going to be a good day, I did not force the pace though, since it was an easy day, but I let myself go a little. At the 38 mins or something like that I threw my usual Monday strides. I did 6 of them. Keeping good and form, but trying to keep the cadence fast. The glute is behaving very well, and for that reason I have been able to get the those fast workouts. Time for today was 49:41. 3-4 mins faster than usual and feeling very easy and strong. Tomorrow morning an interval workout.