Ran 16 miles yesterday - you can help by doing much less!

Here are my mental health maintenance activities on the weekend of Shabbat Tshuvah, the Sabbath of Repentance:
- 16 mile run.
- Two walks around the local lake with Sadie.
- Going with Jude and Sadie to Monkey Joe's.
- Officiating at a wedding and attending the beautiful Memorial Service at the Hebrew Cemetery of Charlott.

What have you done for your mental health this weekend?

Join me in advocating for mental health for everyone - you don't even need to run any miles, although you are welcome to join me in that too (you can run/walk a 5K, or run a half marathon instead of the full as well). Make sure to join the Run for Wellness team!

And of course, you can support the cause financially here:
Contribute to Run for Wellness


Run for Wellness - Less than 9 weeks to go!

Today I did my Tempo Run of the week - including an attempt to do 3 tempo miles at an 8 minute per mile pace or better (I did that on one).

Couldn't get out and exercise or join the Run for Wellness team? How about a donation for the sake of American mental health - check out the campaign here:

Run for Wellness

Join me in de-stigmatizing mental health and making it an American priority.

 

Today's training run for peace - tempo!

Help support peace and co-existence among Israelis and Palestinians by giving to the Peres Center for Peace - click here to donate and support my Rabbi Run for Peace.

Today's tempo run goal was 3 miles at a 7:25 pace, two easy miles to warm up and one easy mile to cool down.

On the three fast miles I managed: 7:22, 7:42, and 7:47 splits.

Not as fast as I'd like, although not too shabby. Still walking 30 seconds after every mile, and the walking is included in the times, hence the slower second and third splits.

Thanks to Run Less Run Faster and Jeff Galloway for all the tips on training. Marathon in 9 days!

Two weeks of runs - getting faster

I reached a great milestone this week, ran 7 miles averaging less than 8 minutes per mile. Still walking 30 seconds per mile on distance and tempo runs, and those walks are in the times. Here are all the runs and their logs...​

April 20 - 7 miles at an 8:08/mile average - had a good run and beat the goal, averaging 8:03/mile according to Nike+'s record here.​

April 22 - intervals - four 3/4 miles at 5:13 each, with 1/4 miles resting between them. On intervals, I run 2 miles to warm up, and around 1 mile as a cool down. I managed to keep the pace close to the goal on the first two intervals and dropped 20 and 30 seconds on the uphill segments. Full details here.​

April 25 - Tempo run - 3 miles at 7:38/mile average - plus 1 mile warm up and 1 mile cool down. Almost did this - the splits on the three miles were: 7:18, 7:40, 8:03. So I did come pretty close! See the whole run here.​

April 28 - 7 miles at an 8:08/mile average - and here was where I went under 8 minutes per mile on average, actually averaging 7:57/mile! See it all here.​

May 1 - Intervals - 5 kilometer intervals aiming for 4:18/kilometer with quarter mile rests between them.​ I struggled with these, came close on 3, and dropped 20+ seconds on two. Not much to look at here, since the walks slow down the overall pace a lot!

Long run and intervals

Since I last posted I swam a little, did Torah yoga, ran 14 miles in the snow, and managed to do intervals this morning at a pretty fast clip.

Intervals today - 2 mile warm-up, then 3 mile intervals, with 400m slow between them, then a little more than a mile cool down. My mile splits were, around: 7:04, 7:40, 7:50. The first was good, the last two less so :-) Here are all the details.

14 mile run on Saturday, aiming for 8:20 average minute/mile pace, and come close for a while. Started out cold, and then got snowy, which was fun. Ended up with two runs on the Nike app since in the wet I encountered some of my own human error - all told a good run considering the conditions. Here are the links to the incomplete records:
First 9+ miles
Last 4+ miles

More to come this week - a little calf soreness after today's run - I hope it will improve by Wednesday's scheduled tempo run.

A tempo run at up tempo

Got out in the damp today and ran pretty fast. A tempo run:
- 1 mile easy
- 5 miles fast - I managed to get my average for these under 8 minutes per mile
- 1 mile easy
Still walking 30 seconds after every mile and that is factored into the pace.
Here are details and splits.
Now two days off - hopefully with a massage, a swim, and some yoga, and then 14 miles on Saturday.

Last two runs - a good tempo and 10 miles faster

Today's run - pretty much my best speed yet. 10 miles averaging 8:05 minutes per mile, here are the details.
Great weather for it, felt good, and managed a pretty fast final mile (7:32).

Thursday's run, decent tempo run too - and more details on that.

On all runs:
- Training for the Tobacco Road Half Marathon on March 17 using the Run Less Run Faster plan.
- Still using New Balance Minimus & Brooks Pure Cadence on alternate runs.
- Unless running other intervals, still using a Galloway method of walking :30 after finishing every mile - all paces include those walks.
- Moved from MapMyFitness to Nike Plus since the former doesn't seem to work well in our region here in Charlotte.

A good week over all - 4 runs, a total of nearly 40 miles.

An off week and a fast run

Too much to do, and too little time to run!

Back in the swing of things, sort of though.

Here's what I've managed to do in the last week:

Wednesday (1/23/13) - Some tempo running - 1 mile easy, 2 miles faster (aiming for around 8:10 per mile), 1 mile easy, 2 miles faster, 1 mile easy. Slowed down a lot on the uphill miles - details and splits.

Thursday (1/24/13) - Swim - 25 minutes without stopping = 36 lengths = 900 yards.

Friday (1/25/13) - Torah Yoga - I highly recommend it!

Yesterday (1/27/13) - ran 8 miles, and faster! I managed to average 8:14/mile, including 30 seconds of walking at the end of every mile, and only dropped below that average for the big uphill during the seventh mile. Making progress! Here are the details and splits.

Still running and swimming - a week's worth

So, since I last posted I managed to get out a lot - here's what I logged:

Long run on Saturday - 10+ miles - aimed for an average under 8:20 per mile, and I believe I did that easily, except that my mobile app has been on the fritz - here's the raw version, warts and all - run details.

Interval training on Monday - this was 6 half miles, with 90 seconds break in between them, plus 2 mile warm up and 1 mile cool down. Again, blips with the app mean that my last splits stunk AND I was struggling, although I think over all it was OK, if not my best run. Run details.

Tempo run on Wednesday - felt great on this run, doing 1 mile easy, and 5 miles aiming at 8:10 or better, and then 1 mile easy. Again, my mobile tracking quit, this time at mile 3, so while I think I did pretty well, there's no proof :-). Run details.

Also managed to swim yesterday!

Yesterday - a run and a swim

Managed to do pretty well on a new tempo run format:
1 mile easy
2 miles at mid-tempo - aiming for 8:10/mile or faster
1 mile easy
2 miles at mid-tempo - aiming for 8:10/mile or faster
1 mile easy
I did better than my goal, even on the second set of miles, which are uphill. And still walking 30 seconds every mile.
Still having tech issues with mapmyfitness - after years of it working perfectly, the software is not keeping up with the run after about 6 miles. Ginny said it spoke to how fast I was running :-) - I pointed out that this was also cycling software, so I wasn't running that fast.
Here are the details on the run.
Then, later in the day, got a good swim in while Jude had his lesson.

Intervals - a good run

Ran a new interval run today:
- About a mile and a half warm up
- 2 x 1200 meters - aimed for around 5:25 per interval - 2 minutes resting after each
- 4 x 800 meters - aimed for around 3:35 per interval - 2 minutes resting after each
- around 8 minutes cool down
Still having some tech issues, so the recording isn't entirely accurate.
Feeling good - sore today, felt good running.
Here are the details, less accurate in the second half of the run, for some reason.

Long run - 11 miles plus - tech glitch

I had a great long run yesterday, over 11 miles, and I caused a tech glitch in the tracking of it by fiddling with music too much - oh well!
I think the run probably had another half mile onto the end of it, changing my three splits. In other words, I believe I didn't slow down as much as it showed - I will have to prove it again on my next long run.
Overall goal - 8:40 per mile averages or better, and I feel like I came pretty close!
Incomplete details here.
As always, times include my 30 seconds walking every mile.

Tempo run - shorter, slower, a little painful

Aiming for a 5 mile tempo run (mid-distance tempo - should be a 10k pace) plus a mile warm-up and cool down. Didn't have time for the full run, and my calf muscle seized up when I slowed down, so ended up walking more - calf has recovered some throughout the day.​

Sticking to an 8 minute to 8:30 pace, including walking 30 seconds.​

Splits were pretty good until mile 5 and 6. I will have to ease off a little this week so as to recover.​

Here are the details.​

​

Interval training - feels good!

At least, it felt good when I got back to my cool down run :-)

Meant to do 12 x 400's (quarter miles), and only managed 10, as I lost count, and number 9 was weak.

In order to get to the training program for a half marathon at 1:33:30, which seems to be what I need to do in order to start the training program for the 3:15 marathon - the Boston qualifying time, I need to be doing a 5k pace at about 20 minutes, which is 6:26 per mile, or 1:37 per quarter, and I came close to that today, sometimes!

Here's the ragged training record.

Oh, and here's the book I am using to put all of this together

 

Run after Yom Kippur too

I managed to get out yesterday and do pretty well:

- Mile 1 - warm-up - 9:27
- Mile 2 - fast - 7:54
- Mile 3 - fast - 8:01
- Mile 4 - slower - 8:27 - I have to work on this hill, and this drop off in energy
- Mile 5 - fast - 7:57
- 5.0-5.3 - still fast - 2:33 (7:16 avg.)

Full details and map, here.

Still a long way to go. I am prepping myself for the formal training program for the Boston. More on that soon.

 

A run before Kol Nidrei

After walking Jude to school, I got out and did a relatively disciplined quick run. One mile warm up at a slower than 9 minute pace, and three miles after that aiming to keep an 8 minute pace. And I managed to keep pretty close to that plan, even while maintaining the 4 minutes running then 30 seconds walking plan!

Here are the details.

G'mar Chatimah Tovah - may everyone be finished for a good inscription in the new year! See you at Temple Beth El for Kol Nidrei tonight!