6 mile seminary loop

Grapevine Road to Rubbly, straight across Essex St. onto Woodbury to Bridge St. to Miles River to Essex to Rubbly to Grapevine back to school. With Nate. 6.02 mi. in 41:18.

again

met up with Nate at 11:45 for a scenic and warm jaunt from Wenham down Grapevine Rd. to Beverly Farms along the coast on 127 thru Endicott College and back Boyles St. to Centerville and up Hull St. 7.73 in 53:01.

back on the road with Nate

Glad to have my training buddy back from his weekend in the Adirondacks!

Headed out for 8.86 in 1:01:17. 6:55 pace. Beautiful weather caught me by surprise, because it was so grey and cool when I came in this morning. Nice time catching up on the weekend's events.

Registered for the Backshore 5-mile this Friday in Gloucester. Ran my fastest 5-mile of 25:17 on this no longer certified course in 2011.

fastest 10-mile training run ever

It doesn't take a lot to get me fired up about training, but sometimes the timing is just right. Like two summers ago it was a combination of Jim Johnson's blog and Bob Wiles' explanation of how many extra miles a year he could get by adding morning runs.

Now, reading about Eric MacKnight's 11 mile run at 5:50-something pace has been stuck in my mind. Today, we got home from church a little late (11:30) and Ben had a piano recital at 1:00, so the window was small for a ten-mile run.

Normally, I know that if I give myself 70 minutes to cover my 10 mile loop (which is closer to 10 and a quarter miles), I usually can finish faster than that, but today, by the time I got out the door, it was 11:46, and I knew that I would have to be closer to 60 minutes to have time to shower and run across the street to Ben's recital.

I went through mile one in 6:01, and felt good. The first mile is mostly uphill and tends to be one of my slower ones, so that is a quick start. The two-mile split was 11:51, and then the next few miles are pretty flat. Mile 3 was 17:34 (5:43). Mile 4 was 23:26 (5:52). Mile 5 (a little under halfway) was 29:10 (5:44). Mile 6 was 34:58 (5:48). The last four plus miles home are a series of little hills, with more ups than downs, and I have to work a little harder to maintain pace. I have run this loop many times, though, and usually knowing that I am closing in on the homestead makes it easier to keep dropping the pace.

Came through 7 miles in 40:43 (5:45), 8 miles in 46:23 (5:40), 9 miles in 52:04 (5:41).

10-mile split was 57:35 (5:31). Finished up in 58:37 for 10.22. Pretty sure this is the fastest 10-mile training run I've ever done (5:44 pace for 10.22). Sometimes it's nice not having enough time to "enjoy" your run.

This was in the fastwitches.

Oh yeah, and with about a half mile left 'til home, a woman went by me on her bike and said "fifteen miles per hour"; I appreciated the inaccurate encouragement and gasped a "not quite, but, thanks!"

Then I tried to imagine that I was running the last quarter mile of a fall marathon in 60 seconds. I'll settle for the last .2 in 60 seconds.

10 miles in 1:06:26

Sunny and cool. Beautiful day to run in the Fastwitches, even though I was a little reserved until the last couple miles. 6:38 pace overall after finishing up with a couple 6:20's.

15 miles in 1:35

out on the roads in the adios from Gordon down Grapevine, joined by Andrew S., my top xc runner this fall, for about 3/4 mile, (first mile around 7:00) to Rubbly to Essex (2 miles in 13:25) to Miles River Rd. to Bridge St. (3 mi. in 19:54) to 1A to Cutler Rd. (4 mi. in 26:18; 5 mi. in 32:40) to Asbury to Goodhue to Waldingfield (6 mi. in 38:59) to 1A to Lakeman's to Fellows to (10 mi. in 1:04:05) Sagamore (11 mi. 6:16) to Bridge (12 mi. 6:14) to Essex (13 mi. 6:04) to Rubbly (14 mi. 6:02) to Grapevine(Last mile probably sub-6:00). Lost satellite near the end, but I know it was a little over 15 total. Felt good for the second longer run this week, fresher than I've felt in a few days...

new shoes

7.5 with Nate in just over 53 minutes. Ran in new Saucony Fastwitch. Like them.