Steve - 6.75

Usually I do a tempo run on Wednesday with the Flyers. Since I raced pretty hard this weekend, I decided to take it easy. 1.5 warmup, 4 miles in 31:00, and then 1.25 cool down barefoot. I have to run early tomorrow morning because I got home too late on Thursday after getting my car fixed again (for something minor this time thank god). Half marathon is only 9 days away!

Chris - 5.04

38:21 - 7:36 pace

Felt alright on this run. I'm gunning for 30 miles this week. The only problem is that it's really taking its toll on my energy level. I was reminded earlier today (Thursday) at work how much I really need to get a different fucking job, and I think it might have to come at the expense of a few extra miles. I also need to get myself in bed earlier so I have time in the morning to peruse job postings and send out resumes. This week I've just been so tired every day that I can't seem to get my ass in gear. I'd like to stay between 20-30 miles/week until the race on the 25th, and then see what happens from there. Even if I drop to 15 miles/week sometimes, I'd just run them harder to try and get in a good workout.

James - 3.1

22:29

Practice 5K. Not too bad considering my present ailments, but what do you all think? The race is in 4 days and I am thinking of not running until then as if the rest will be more valuable than a few more miles. Again, sound like a good idea?

Today I ran past (in the opposite direction) a MAN riding a UNICYCLE! It's great getting out and doing stuff and seeing things you'd never normally see.

Zack - 6.25

46:38 (7:28)

Amazon trail 5 laps (7:42, 7:37, 7:36, 7:34, 7:15). Nice easy run, last mile did some strides..fartlek style for 100m segments. (100m stride, 100 very easy) x3.

Luke - 6

6mi, 46:03 (7:40)

Mile loops of 7:42, 7:37, 7:36, and 7:34 with Zack, then had to take a pitstop and finished up with a few laps on the HS track.

Chris - 4.17

32:29 - 7:47 pace

First run of the fall I guess. I always forget how much I like the smells of the fall season. Wore my long sleeve tech shirt over my tshirt to ward off the 50* chill. At first I was wishing I wore gloves too because my hands freeze quickly, but after a couple miles I was fine. Just maintained a steady pace throughout. I think my legs and body are still recovering from the activities this weekend, so I didn't feel like pushing it much. I was planning on running 5 but I wasn't feeling that great and I had told my parents I'd come over for dinner.

Luke - 10.75

10.75mi, 82:50 (7:42)

The 1.6-mile loop of Pre's Trail was under construction, so there was a detour of very very soft bark that made it about 1.7 miles. Then 1.4-mile loop in 10:29, then 21:36 of barefoot running on the grass. I was expecting the ground to be super cold because it was 50º and raining when I left, but the sun came out when I started the barefoot portion, and by about halfway through it the ground was actually kinda warm.

Zack - 5.5

38:25 (6:59)

Through campus, then across the Autzen foot bridge, over to Pre's Trail 1.4 mile loop, and back. Felt good, chilly weather. A little stiff starting out, then settled in to a steady pace that I kept quite easily. I like James will be getting very busy with work in the coming days, so I will be relishing the times when I get to run.

James - 4.1

33:06

Slower and slower. I think I am going to just have to have a rest for a while after this weekends race, as much as it pains me. I am pretty busy at the moment with lots of things anyway. But don't think I'm turning my back on you all! I'm not going to completely let go and become a slob.

Today I used a packet of frozen peas. Some of which I later put in a curry.

Luke - 12.5

12.5mi, 92:11 (7:22)

Went to the hills and worked a bit. For the most part, the first half was uphill and second half was downhill, so my splits were 50:10/42:01. Once I came out of the downhill I pushed a little and kept up the pace I had managed for the downhills while on the flat and soft Rexius and Amazon trails.

Zack - 5.25

Amazon with Luke.

Luke - 5.25

5.25mi, 41:18 (7:52)

With Zack. Mile loops of 8:23, 7:54, 7:42, and 7:41. Nice easy run.

Steve - 7

Today I was participating in a 5K and 1 mile Grand Prix. There was a 5K at 9 am and then a road mile at 10 am. A friend of mine, Danny, was trying to break 20 for the first time, so my plan was to take it out in a tempo effort and help pull him along for a PR. I crossed the first mile in 6:09 and he was a step or so behind me. I apologized for running it too fast, but it has been awhile since I have ran a race around this pace. I still felt really good at this point. Around the one mile point, I usually make a note to myself that I should be passing other runners in the next few minutes, because most people run over their heads in the first mile and then slow down. So I tried to stay relaxed and keep the pace, passing a few people here and there. I could feel my friend slipping a little bit, but I just kept running evenly as possible. When we took the final turn, he was about 3-4 seconds ahead of me. Another friend of mine who was shooting for sub-19 was about 25 seconds ahead of me the turn with a mile to go. With a mile to go I was still feeling good. I focused again on staying relaxed and keeping a nice, long, smooth stride. As we approached the finish, I passed several other runners (some girl said "Good Job!") who were dying. I started to kick slightly and thought about gunning for a sub-19, but thought better of it. I crossed the line in 19:20, only a few ticks off my PR.

So I was really happy with the time, considering I hadn't put in an all-out effort. The course was configured such that we ran a mile, turned around, ran back exactly the way we came, and then another turn, running the same portion as the first mile again. So Mile 1 and Mile 3 were the same, but each had a net downhill of 200 feet, and thus Mile 2 had net uphill of 200 feet. I'm sure running on the downhill more helped me run such a fast time.

Ok so now for the mile we had to jog a mile back back to the start line. I grabbed a banana and orange and then headed back. I was still feeling pretty good. My goal going in was a 5:30. I wanted to take it out easy and then gradually build it up. After about a 1 minute or so, I began to pick it up. I started surging and pasted some other runners. I tried to not look at my watch and just run. With about 1/3 of a mile left, I noticed I was closing in on a few runners about 5-10 seconds ahead of me. I put in another gear and caught them and crossed the line in 5:32! Pretty close to my goal, and not bad for having just finished a 5k 40 minutes earlier!

The winner ran 14:18 for the 5k and (a different guy) 4:14 for the mile. So yeh, downhill probably helped.

Luke - 10

10mi, 80:55 (8:05)

Ran with Chris, nice and slow to start out, but felt pretty good by the end. A good start to the week I'd say. Classes start on Wednesday so we'll see how I feel keeping up the running and adding in the schoolwork.

Chris - 10

80:52 - 8:05 pace

Yesterday was such a great, great day. Had a huge $10 breakfast of denver omelette and 3 buttermilk pancakes, watched Oregon absolutely destroy 6th ranked Cal 42-3, had a record setting run, went to the Bier Stein and had/got some extremely delicious beers, had DoughCo for dinner and played the card game golf while drinking the night away. So of course this morning I got myself up with Luke to go run off our slight hangovers. Started out real slow, and gradually picked up the pace. We were about 8:45 pace to start off, but by the end we were doing 7:40 pace. Basically ran from Luke's place, across campus and over to the Pre trails by Autzen stadium. It was fun to go over there (and through campus) since I haven't in a long time. Saw the new baseball stadium under construction too. Felt like I might lose my dinner for a little bit there, but we made a pit stop at some port-o-potties and it seemed to calm down after that. On the way back we did 6 loops (~14 mins) of barefoot running on a big, dewy field, easily the farthest and longest I've done any barefoot running, and I could definitely tell after we were done and started the jog back home. I made a crack to Luke that I felt like a hobbit with all of the grass and dirt covering my feet (I'm a nerd I know). Overall I would say this weekend has been a rousing success! I'll have to come back to Eugene again soon...

Weekly Mileage Totals, 9/20-9/26

Luke - 78.75 (9)

Zack - 30.25 (5)

Steve - 28.29 (4)

Chris - 25.88 (5)

James - 15.1 (4)

Zack - 4.5

Battled Chris in the mile, 5:31. We are already talking about the next duel down the road.

Chris - 4.5

Decided on the drive down to Eugene that I felt like doing another mile time trial before the summer season ended. So Zack, Luke and I did a little warmup run out on the Amazon bark trail loop for about 14 mins, then back to the South Eugene HS track to do strides and bust out the 1600. Luke loaned me his track spikes to wear instead of my comparatively heavy trainers. I was tentatively shooting for 5:30, and thinking I'd have to keep up with Zack since he guessed his PR to be about 5:25. Strong wind on the track. Luke was obviously ahead of us two the whole time, but the first lap we were about the same pace as him. Zack was in the wrong mode on his watch at the start, so I was calling out our splits to him. First lap - 1:19, a little fast. The wind was in our face the whole back stretch, so that was tough to power through, especially on the third lap. I experimented with running that back 100m on my toes instead of the normal heel-to-toe, hoping it would make me push through the headwind a little better. Going into the final lap I had a good couple steps on Zack, but as we entered the back stretch going into the wind I could see his shadow creeping up on me. I held him off decently enough, and then with about 200 - 100m left it was ON. At the 200 we were definitely pushing it, but the final stretch we were neck and neck, both sprinting as hard as our bodies would let us. So much fun trying to hold him off with everything I had while Luke was yelling at us from the finish line. Crossed the line at 5:31! And Zack barely edged me at the line. We were both really happy with our times as we ran our ~14 min cooldown, and went home to go get food and commence the drinking festivities!

Steve - 7.5

61:41 (8:13)

So I went to a chiro/therapist guy yesterday who has helped a ton of runners from my club. It went pretty well. He's pretty straightforward and seems to actually care about his clients. Plus he's experienced working with runners. He worked my hip pretty good with this electric massage thing and that seemed to help. It looks like whatever is ailing me can be probably be fixed or improved through a few sessions with this guy, or so I hope. Anyway, I have a race on Sunday, but I still wanted to get some in decent mileage today. Headed out to do a nice progressive 7.5 on the Manhattan Beach wood chips trail. I ended up running a bit faster than I usually do, although I wasn't trying to . I think it was because the therapy from yesterday loosened up my hip. I ran around 8 minute miles for most of the way without putting in too much effort. At the end, I wanted to run the last mile near my half marathon goal pace of 6:52. I didn't run it all out, but I definitely put in a hard effort. I was surprised when I looked down at the watch and saw 6:40. I haven't run a mile that fast for a month or so. Tomorrow I plan to run my 5k in just under 20 minutes with a tempo effort and then a 5:30 mile (which is 30 min after the 5k) or better, depending on how I feel.

Anyway, if you haven't noticed this post is much longer than my last several posts cuz I'm in a better mood about running after the session on Friday. So hopefully this continues...

Splits were: 9:30, 8:30, 16:39(2), 8:12, 8:06, 4:04(half), 6:40

Luke - 4.5

~1.75mi warmup, 1600m@5:14, ~1.75mi cooldown.

The wind was pretty brutal, but I think I'm just really slow. Definitely not in mile-racing shape. Chris and Zack both did well though. And I wore some shockingly small shorts, so the day was a complete success.

James - 5

37:11

I am brought to you in my dressing gown with my right foot in a kitchen bowl of icy water, whilst my hands are shovelling vegetable piled burritos into my furry face.

I feel like an idiot.

Luke - 8.5

8.5mi, 65:02 (7:39)

1.6-mile loop of Pre's Trail in 12:20, then took a different route than usual because I didn't want to come back over the bridge while people were headed to the duck game (which Oregon won handily, which was awesome).

Luke - 8.5

8.5mi, 63:46 (7:30)

3.5-mile loop in 25:52, mile loops of 7:23 and 7:19. I don't feel very tired at all now, I guess 8.5 on flat ground is officially a short easy run for me now. Wahoo.

Zack - 4.25

28:52 (6:48)

Short and sweet, pushed a little..but having yesterday off made the legs feel really sharp. Mile splits of 7:02, 7:03, and 6:32 on the Amazon Trail.

Chris - 4.17

31:24 - 7:31 pace

Legs felt kinda dead tonight. Nothing much else to report. And before I forget, yesterday early on in my run, this lady passed me in her SUV with her left arm pointing straight out the driver side window with the index finger extended. I looked at her kinda funny, and laughed out loud as she passed me. I'm assuming she meant that I should have been on the sidewalk on the other side of the road? It was pretty funny. No honk, no yelling, just a solemn arm pointing straight out her window. Yes thank you lady, I would much rather run in the dark with the traffic behind me so I can't see if I'm going to get run over. This leads me to wonder - how many people honestly think you're supposed to walk/run with the traffic instead of against it?

Luke - 6.25

6.25mi, 46:49 (7:29)

Mile loops of 8:00, 7:45, 7:30, 7:15, and 7:03.

After the first two I tried to go 7:30, 7:15, 7:00...I did all right I think. Could have gone faster on the last one but I was trying to hit 7:00 exactly. Sure messed that one up.

Steve - 5.59

52:28 (9:23)

All on dirt/sand. Pretty slow run. Easy after long tempo yesterday.

Luke - 11

11mi, 81:03 (7:22)

1.6-mile loop in 12:11, 1.4-mile loop in 10:01, 3.2 miles of barefoot grass running. Felt pretty good the whole way.

I'm thinking about running 110 miles next week. Thoughts?

Steve - 7.7

I wanted to do a 6 mile tempo today on the track, but after 3 miles I kind of started falling apart and stopped after 5. Time was 35:16 (7:00, 7:00, 6:58, 7:08, 7:09). The times certainly slipped for the final 2 miles. One mile barefoot cool down. I'm going to a chiro/therapist guy tomorrow who apparently has helped a lot of runners with hip issues. Hopefully he can fix whatever is ailing me. I have a race on Sunday that is a 5K and a road mile an hour apart from each other. Should be fun. I'm going to run the 5K as a tempo and then see what happens in the mile.

Chris - 3.47

23:20 - 6:43 pace

I was feeling the need for speed after I got off work. Went balls to the wall on this one and it felt awesome. All mouth and no nose breathing for me, I needed all the oxygen I could get. I like this out and back route because it still has hills for a good challenge. My splits this time were 11:55 - 11:25.

Luke - 8.75

8.75mi, 69:44 (7:58)

Ran with Zack, mostly, and neither of us were feeling great. My legs were pretty stiff for the first mile or two, and my stomach was hurtin' for the last mile or two. We did the route that has the uphill mile in the middle.

James - 4.1

30:42

Felt like a major improvement in speed and comfort, although looking at the figures it was hardly record breaking.

Having gotten all your excellent advice, I rubbed some ice on my foot in the most basic way described, as I havent gotten any cups yet. I did it a little bit afterwards too but that didn't help as much as I then had to run to try and catch a tram, which I was seconds too late for. Bastard. Anyway, rubbing it beforehand definitely helped significantly, so thank you, I will continue to try the things you all suggested.

Zack - 8.75

70:42 (8:05)

Same as Luke's run, just slower. Felt amazingly bad!

Chris - 5.04

37:08 - 7:22 pace

This was a good run. I felt strong and energetic the whole time, and maintained a steady, quick pace. Also the second run that I've concentrated on trying to nose breath almost the whole time. I can't do it when going up or down hills, but other than that it went well. I do find that I tend to stick the end of my tongue out through my pursed lips when I do it though. During my long run Sunday my face was kind of sore from nose breathing, kinda weird. When I got home tonight I had a text from a girl I know - apparently she had seen me running along the busy road. Small world. Then I went to my buddy's older sister's place to save her from 3 'killer' bees and a big beetle that had made their way into her apartment. I'm very manly, I know.

Luke - 5.5

5.5mi, 38:17 (6:57)

Ran with Zack. We did a loop of Pre's Trail (1.4 miles in 10:11) at 7pm, when the sky was all sorts of crazy colors. We pushed a little bit, but kept it under control for the most part.

Luke - 10

10mi, 74:00 (7:24)

Started the longer loop of Pre's Trail but it was closed for construction, so I did the 1.4-mile loop twice, in 10:13 and 10:21, followed by two miles (14:30) of barefoot running on the grass, which felt nice.

I read an interview last night that I liked; here is a long quote from it:

Here’s the big thing: I think a lot of people are focused on speed and plyometrics. But the quickest way for U.S. athletes to get good is that they have to run a lot. They have to run aerobically at high intensity and have quite a lot of accumulated mileage. That is the only way we are going to catch up to the Africans, because they are so far ahead of us. So it’s got to be large volume, but not just that; it has to be long, hard stuff that raises threshold. Look, it’s no secret that in the fall Teg runs 140-mile weeks. So you can say that I am a huge proponent of developing that aerobic system. We are behind everyone in the world. Most American runners, a lot of the naturally fast guys don’t realize how aerobically fit they have to be. Look at Kenenisa Bekele, he runs 11.6 seconds for his last 100m in the final, but you have to understand he runs 150 miles a week as well. You have to have everything. For 18 months, Dathan did no speed work--zero--other than some drills and strides. He couldn’t do it because of a calf problem. I thought he was in 27:25 shape before the marathon--maybe even better. And that’s with zero speed. I think speed is so overrated. Yeah you need it at the end, yeah you got to sharpen up. I watch all these people periodize and they are so far behind on their aerobics that it never works., because they don’t have a base to bring it in. You don’t periodize as much, because we are behind aerobically. A younger athlete is so much better off working on higher threshold in order to get that good base underneath them.

If you want to read the whole thing, it's here.

Zack - 5.5

5.5mi, 38:17 (6:57)

Zack - 7.25

53:10 (7:20)

6 laps of Amazon Trail, mile splits (7:34, 7:21, 7:27, 7:24, 7:20, 6:59).

Good progression, felt pretty strong and relaxed despite being tired all day from weekend adventures and graduate student orientation today.

Took yesterday off along with Luke. Instead biked ~20 miles, super relaxed pace with some hills. Beautiful time of the year to be exploring Eugene.

Ice does work, 10 min on, 10 min off type thing. It looks like all you guys have offered nice tips already. Hope the pains go away asap man.

James - 3.3

28:32

This turned out to be my version of a "long run" after yesterdays short one. A smart person may not have even gone out. After working TO DEATH at work over the weekend I most definitely got somewhat ill, and my leg/sole of foot has been aching more and more. So I ran slow. I asked my dad for advice on how to treat it but it was useless really. When you guys say to ice, what do you mean exactly? Wrap some ice cubes in a cloth and massage the sore areas? I am getting a litle worried of doing damage or doing badly in my 5K because of this. And is this likely to be enough to fix the problem, or is it just a painkilling method? You'll have to forgive me, we don't require ice in every beverage we ever drink over here, so I don't understand the frozen water as intimately as you.

Luke - 15.75

15.75mi, 2:08:09 (8:08)

Yep, didn't run yesterday. So, longish today. This was a similar route to my 18-miler from last Sunday...some fairly tough rolling hills in the middle 9 miles. I have a cut on the bottom of my right foot because of a weird problem I've always had with the callous on that foot, so my natural inclination is to favor landing on the outside of my foot, which is of course bad...I have to constantly remind myself to land regularly even though it hurts a bit. Anyway, because I sometimes forget, my ankle has been kinda sore, but I think it will be fine by tomorrow.

James - 2.7

7:01
2:47
9:20
---
19:28

I stopped a few times to knock on friends doors. This search for companionship was futile however! I didn't do much in anticipation of running more the next day.

Steve - 7.5

64:06 (8:33)

All on dirt in Manhattan Beach. Started out real easy. Closed the final 2 miles in 14:48. Both hips are hurting a bit now. Sucks.

Chris - 8.7

70:16 - 8:04 pace

My longest run ever by 6 tenths of a mile. I wanted to maintain a steady and slower pace throughout so I wasn't ready to keel over by the end and I accomplished that. I even had enough left to get up on my toes to power up the little hill to my place. Good stuff.

Weekly Mileage Totals, 9/13 - 9/19

Luke - 90.5 (10)

Zack - 40.75 (6)

Steve - 30.5 (4)
Chris - 21.35 (4)

James - 9.1 (2)

Zack - 8.25

63:57 (7:45)

Ran with Luke, relentless STEEP hills. Currently, relentless Coors banquet beer and new belgium. This run/hike is tougher than Fox Hollow. Insane. Higher mileage is happening. 40.75 for the week I believe. Cheers.

Luke - 8.25

8.25mi, 63:57 (7:45)

Same route as Tuesday, this time with Zack. Felt pretty rough by the end, but probably not as bad as Zack felt.

Steve - 6.8

57:17 (8:25)

Ran on some grass near my house after I did some rehab stuff for my hip. I guess I need to start doing all crap for both now since both seem messed up. Ran a 2 mile portion in 15:00 near the end of the run.

Luke - 8

8mi, 59:21 (7:25)

Ran on the bike path, out and back route, 30:32 for the first half, 28:49 for the second half.

Zack - 4.25

32:24 (7:37)

Recovery run on the Adidas Trail.

Chris - 3.47

24:20 - 7:00 pace

I made plans to hang out with my buddy Ryan tonight, so this needed to be a shorter run. I'm going to be bummed when it gets colder and I can't go running shirtless anymore. Pretty pleased with my pace, and my negative split (12:30/11:50).

Luke - 8.25

8.25mi, 62:42 (7:36)

Mile loops of 7:50, 7:46, 7:42, 7:34, 7:33, 7:31, and 7:22.

Steve - 8.3

5 mile tempo on the track. Was aiming for 7:00 pace and ended up real close (35:07). Mile splits were 7:12, 7:03, 7:04, 6:56, 6:52. It felt pretty good, didn't need to push. It was tough, but I wasn't dying by any stretch afterward. 1.5 cd barefoot.

Chris - 5.23

39:53 - 7:37 pace

This was an up and down run. Decent amount of energy at the start - was thinking about Luke's post about flying downhill so on a gradual downhill section I decided to let it loose. I felt pretty good as I got to the bottom and I got on my toes and sprinted for maybe 50 yds. Was pretty fun! I felt like I slowed down a bunch a mile or so after that. Then a couple miles from the finish my stomach started to grumble at me again - not nearly as bad as Tuesday though. As I got closer I felt like I had a second wind and sped up a bit (also to beat some cars that were coming down the road as I got to my turn).

Zack - 6.5

47:05 (7:14)

1.5 mile warmup, 3.5 mile tempo on Rexius (6:38, 6:51, 6:41, 3:21), 1.5 mile cooldown.

Luke had a nice description of the route, splits are very deceiving with the obstacles and softness of the trail.

Luke - 7.5

7.5mi, 53:04 (7:04)

1.5mi warmup, 3.5 tempo, 2.5 cooldown.

Zack wanted to do a tempo so we headed to the Rexius trail, which is a pretty soft surface for a tempo run, but is a nice length, and has quarter-mile posts. Our first mile was 6:38, which was right about where Zack wanted to be (maybe slightly fast since the soft barkdust runs slow). I picked it up slightly to the halfway point and passed 1.75 miles in 11:45, which is a slightly slower pace (6:42) but a better effort since the last 3/4-mile of the first half is a bit uphill. At the halfway point I took off, and hit 91 seconds for the first quarter mile of it. I decided to try and keep up 6 flat pace the rest of the way, which would be a little more effort since that quarter-mile is a bit downhill. I didn't take splits every quarter, but I think my second half went something like 91, 89, 90, 90, 96, 87, 92. At .75mi to go the trail had been freshly re-barked and was crazy soft for about 100 meters, so it was impossible to keep up the pace. When I saw that it was 96 I knew I'd have to hit 87s for the next to to make my goal, but after the first 87 there was an earth-mover of some sort on the trail, so I had to cut through the grass onto the road, then back onto the trail a bit later....so I'm blaming my 5-second surplus on that.

Total splits for the tempo were 11:45 and 10:35 for a total of 22:20, or 6:22 pace. On the way back I did an extra (7:21) mile of cooldown. Oh and then as I was cutting across the soccer field a block from home, some kid laughed hysterically at (I can only assume) the length of my shorts, which made me smile.

James - 4

28:26

So, you're all a bunch of funny bastards lately on my posts eh? Keep those smart alec reponses coming!

The only interesting thing that happened here was that I ran with some kids on bikes who challeneged me to race them. I ran with them for a minute or two and they accused me of following them when they were just going my planned route.

Here's an interesting story: Adidas and Puma end 60-year feud

Luke - 6.5

6.5mi, 54:53 (8:26)

Stomach was being a dick again.

Zack - 5.5

38:41 (7:02)

Swam ~1200m at the UO rec center earlier today, but felt pretty fresh after not running yesterday. Decided to catch a few slight rollers and head through campus and across the Willamette to do the 1.6 mile section of Pre's Trail.

Luke is also showing me the finer points of living in Eugene. Eating calzones from DoughCo paired with PBRs. Top notch and nap inducing. Keep running strong everyone!

Luke - 10

10mi, 74:59 (7:29)

1.6-mile loop in 12:08, 1.4-mile loop in 10:22, 2 miles barefoot in the grass. Felt great, could have gone longer, but figured I should wait until the pm run to add on extra miles.

Steve - 9.3

84:23 (9:04)

This is my staple run with a little bit added in. 3/5 on dirt/sand, the rest on the streets of Los Angeles. I didn't mean to go quite this long, but oh well. Felt pretty good. My hip is still hurting, which is worrying me. I'm thinking I might just run 4 times a week and try to do right around 30 miles per week for the next month. I'm getting paranoid about getting a stress fracture in my hip since I have pain around the bone area. Anyway, enough of that.

Chris - 6.45

53:43 - 8:19 pace

This run was painful and uncomfortable. I went on a 4 mile bike ride yesterday instead of doing a short shakeout run, and my left thigh and both achilles were still tight when I left to go run tonight (since I have trouble not pushing myself the entire time when I ride my bike - go figure). About halfway through I got some nice GI distress, and had to stop a couple times before I got home. In fact I actually had to walk the last half block up the hill to my house because I was afraid if I tried to run I wouldn't make it inside the house to the bathroom. On the plus side I got some nice reading done of my next book, "Bored of The Rings", which is quite entertaining!

Luke - 8.25

8.25mi, 64:24 (7:48)

Hills again. They're feeling easier and easier since I'm running more, and running more hills. There is a downhill on the way back which I've mentioned before, I have been calling it the Usain Bolt hill to myself, since when I feel good and run down it I'm sure I'm as fast as him. Today I was feeling pretty good so I decided to hit it hard again, and I think I was even faster than I've been in the past. I made it down the actual downhill portion and was flying, and then I realized I was breathing through my nose (I had been the whole run) so I started mouth-breathing and I felt even faster as I tore up the flat section afterward. I had to lean at like a 60º angle going around a corner, and I didn't slow down until I saw someone in their yard (I didn't want this amazing speed to go to waste; talent like this is to be beheld). I was probably "going fast" for about 300m, I swear it was under 32 seconds. Ha ha, so fun.

Steve - 6.1

(55:15)

This was a really random run. I started running on a usual route I do but instead of turning at the same point I kept going. I just was running around the neighborhood on a whim. It was kind of fun, actually. Some of it was on grass, but most was done on the sidewalk. I feel like this might be better for my hip. I want to get back into the 40s this week, but I need to make sure I don't overdo it.

Oh, yesterday, I had some free time at work (queue laugh track) and I was playing around with t-shirt designs for our "club." I thought of it when I saw Zach's post when he said "Hi Some Runners." Anyway, Luke and I designed some shirts on this site customink.com, which can easily absorb hours of your time. Luke did one as well.

Steve:
http://www.customink.com/designs/src10/14243109-3046881/hotlink?cm_ven=hotlink&cm_cat=2&cm_pla=Body_txt&cm_ite=link1

Luke:
http://www.customink.com/designs/sobad/14228969-3047193/share/?cm_mmc=share-_-emailb-_-viewdesign-_-end

I personally like Luke's design. What do you guys think?

Luke actually made an honest attempt on a another site:

http://running.spreadshirt.com/us/US/Shop/Article/Index/article/5071113

Luke - 6.25

6.25mi, 50:32 (8:05)

Mile loops of 8:33, 7:59, 7:51, 8:00, and 8:03. Stomach was hurting on the last two. The first one I did with the guy Zack ran with...this guy was crazy. He biked from Cincinatti to Eugene over the course of the last two months, and apparently decided he is going to run a marathon next weekend...his longest run so far is 15 miles, he was struggling a bit at the end of his ninth mile tonight, and the marathon is at 3000' elevation...he's gonna be hurting next Saturday. He said his goal is just to finish, though, so hopefully he makes it.

Zack - 7.5

70:00 (9:20)

Legs were destroyed from the climbing during yesterday's run, and didn't really plan on running this far today. Ran with a buddy, we went really slow and he wanted to keep going..so that's how I ended up going so long. Nice recovery run. And Luke, you are crazy..so many miles the past 36 hrs!

James - 5.1

37:42

Fast! Didn't feel supersonic, particularly still in my right leg, but never felt too bad either, and ended strong and feeling fine. I ate falafel to recover, yum so it was.

Luke - 9.5

9.5mi, 77:10 (8:07)

1.6-mile loop in 13:10, 1.4-mile loop in 11:06, 13½ minutes of barefoot grass running. Legs are still kinda tired from yesterday.

Chris - 6.2

This is the second big 10k race that I've done. I didn't get enough sleep on Friday night and only about 7 on Saturday night, so I might've been a tad sleep deprived the day of the race. Race started at 8am so I had to get up about 6am. We had to park down from The Old Spaghetti Factory and then ride a bus across the river to the start at the Adidas Headquarters. Here's a map of the course that I made on mapmyrun. It's a pretty fast route that we took. My bus got there around 7:40 so I went for a warmup run and stretched out a bunch. I decided to go stand in the huge line for the bathrooms even though I didn't have to go very bad (ritual), but then I saw a girl I went to college with so I went to talk with her instead.

Considering how many people were there I thought I was fairly close to the starting line, but when we took off down the hill after the gun, I got held up behind a bunch of people and had to move to the outside to speed past them. Going downhill the first mile was pretty fun, I was moving pretty good! We evened out after that and I ran with pretty much the same group almost the whole race. After the downhill there was this little uphill part and this guy up ahead of me goes "woo-hoo a hill!". He sped up in his excitement, but must've been out of his league because shortly after that he slowed down a bunch and I passed him. I settled into a pretty good pace, I felt like I was pushing myself hard, but not to the point where I would expend all of my energy too quickly. I always forget this, but around mile 3 I was thinking, "man I'm kicking my ass and there's still more than half the race left". My hope before the race was to hit the 5 mile marker and start kicking it in from there, but when I passed it all I could think of was somehow surviving enough to keep my pace and still have enough to leg it out after the 6 miler marker. After the 5 mile marker 2 or 3 people came up slowly and passed me (must've been more seasoned racers that were better at pacing themselves and leaving enough for a strong finish). I knew the last 10k I did I ran the last .2 in about 1:10, so I glanced at my watch after I passed the 6 mile marker and knew I had to have an unbelievable kick to beat 41. I gave it all I had. I was pushing and lengthing my stride as best as I could, to the point where I could hardly sprint at the very end. Crossed the line at 41:16! Good for 90th place out of 2025, and 10th in my age group. I have all of my mile splits down below. I was disappointed that I didn't get my goal of breaking 41, but satisfied that I beat my old PR by 19 seconds.

After crossing the line and trying not to collapse while sucking some serious air, I heard the PA guy say that we should pronounce it "ah-dee-dahs" and not "uh-dee-duhs" since that's apparently how they pronounce it in Germany. I went by myself to the race so I just hung around and drank some electrolyte water and had a free Jamba Juice thing and got my free Widmer beer while people watching and stretching. After I got my beer I finally saw someone I knew so I went and sat with them while the guy ate his free food, and then we left.

mile 1 - 5:48
mile 2 - 6:43
mile 3 - 6:46
mile 4 - 6:56
mile 5 - 6:49
mile 6 - 6:58
last .2 - 1:14

Luke - 18

18mi, 2:16:56 (7:36)

This was an old route I haven't done in a while. A little over four miles on bark and uphill trail (see Zack's post) and then almost five more of rolling hills, some of them pretty steep and long, and then back. I wanted to be faster on every leg of the return trip, and even though I definitely wasn't going very slow on the way out, I managed it. The total halves were 71:38 and 65:18. The middle two legs were 36:25 and 33:40, and I felt dead when I got back to the trail. The mile on the trail was definitely a better effort on the way out, but because it was uphill on the way out and downhill on the way back I managed to still be faster (7:48 vs. 9:05). At the bottom of the hill I thought it'd be a death march the rest of the way, but about a quarter mile later I got a second wind and started hitting around ~1:45 for each quarter-mile split. I started thinking if I tried hard enough I might be able to beat Zack's second-half split...and I did. My last leg was 23:49 (the same leg was 26:06 on the way out), and my last 1.5 miles were 10:17 (6:51 pace).

I was definitely happy with my performance on this run, but boy does it hurt. I took a shower and had some lunch and watched some football, then took a nap for a couple hours. My legs are still feeling pretty dead...hopefully they'll be fine by tomorrow.

Zack - 8.75

68:19 (7:48)

Hi some runners. My name is Zack and I am Luke's new roommate in Eugene, having just moved here 6 days ago from Ohio. Luke invited me to the blog, I thought it sounded like fun to contribute some miles, and here I am. The routes here in Eugene are incredible, I am having a blast and working on upping my mileage while dealing with life as a new grad student.

Today's run was the Adidas to Rexius trail and then 1000ft of climbing in a single mile (don't see that in Ohio!) up to the Fox Hollow trailhead with Luke..I turned around and he kept going forever longer. As I am sure he'll post about.

Thanks for letting me join the blog, it seems like a great motivational tool to keep us all running! Cheers.

Weekly Mileage Totals, 9/6-9/12

Luke - 72 (8)

Steve - 30.09 (5)

James - 10.2 (2)

Chris - 9.69 (2)

Steve - 9.18

73:10 (7:58)

Today's recipe was an out and back where the out would be easy and the back would be a tempo. My goal was to run about 8:45-9:00 for the out and 7:00 to 7:15 for the back. What ended up happening was I ended up running the whole thing a lot faster than I thought. When I turned around I thought I had gone about 4 miles in 39:21. Apparently I had gone more like 4.59 miles (8:34), according to Google Maps. When I turned around I picked it up I felt pretty good. But after about 20 minutes, I started getting tired. I knew this workout was going to be tough. It's supposed to prepare me for how a half marathon will feel. But I really struggled in the last two miles. I pretty much limped in the final mile. The time for the back portion was 33:49 (7:22). I was a bit surprised when I finally calculated the numbers a few hours later. I tried to be really conservative measuring the distance, so I'm pretty sure it's fairly accurate. I am pretty pleased with the numbers, but this workout showed me how much the half marathon will suck. I think since I ran this whole thing in my Nike Frees that might have accounted for me running the first half quicker.

Oh, also Go Blue! I ran during the Michigan-Notre Dame game, recorded the game, and then watched every second after I got back. If you didn't hear, Michigan scored a touchdown with 11 seconds lift to beat the Irish. It was an awesome game. We also ordered Indian food and I'm drinking Blue Moons to celebrate the win!

James - 4

28:34

First run in 6 days. Not bad considering how I felt (sore leg). I am a bit behind on reading your entries, sorry! I will get to it when I can.

In 3 weeks I am doing a 5K called the Tree-Athlon where you get to plant a TREE! How perfect is that? This is my first 5K so some advice from the masters (you) would be appreciated for someone used to doing 10Ks, thank you!

Luke - 9.5

9.5mi, 69:51 (7:21)

1.6-mile loop in 12:02, 1.4-mile loop in 9:22, barefoot grass running for 12½ minutes.

There were a bunch of High School cross country teams on the trail today, I guess walking the course before an invitational. I can't wait til I'm a coach so I can teach my athletes to GET OUT OF THE FUCKING WAY WHEN I'M RUNNING TOWARD YOU.

Luke - 6

6mi, 45:08 (7:31)

An easy day. My ankles and lower legs had been a bit sore, so it was probably a good idea to not go too far today. It was 85º and sunny, the hottest it's been in a while.

Steve - 7.18

60:05 (8:22)

Same exact run I did last Friday I believe, although a few ticks on the watch faster. Felt much better this morning after last night's disaster. First half in 31:xx, second half in 29:xx.

Steve - 1.7

This sucked. I ran for 17 minutes and then ran into some awful stomach pain. No bathrooms within miles, so I had to walk all the way back and call it a night. Running was not an option by any stretch. I ended up doing some good rehab stuff for my hip though so the night wasn't total a waste.

Luke - 6.25

6.25mi, 46:15 (7:24)

Mile loops of 7:38, 7:21, 7:24, 7:28, and 6:54. Ran the first three with Zack.

Chris - 6.45

47:35 - 7:22 pace

I felt so great on this run, right from the start. I didn't want to kill myself on this run, so I just ran a comfortably hard pace. I stopped once to stretch, and another time to watch part of a girls high school soccer game. Made me miss playing soccer.

I forget to mention in my last post, but early on in my run an older couple (I think) honked at me as they were driving by. It was definitely a 'get out of the road' honk. It startled me but I just turned around and look at their car for awhile, hoping they would see me looking at them. I thought about flipping them off but thought better of it. WELL - tonight towards the back half of my run, it was pretty much dark as I was running along a straight stretch of road in the bike lane, against the traffic. I should mention I was wearing my bright orange gym shorts and was shirtless. Some big pickup honked loud as he passed me, and it startled the shit out of me, so I turned around and took a nice quick deep breath and bellowed a big 'f**k you!' to him as he passed me. Pissed me off pretty good. As I continued running in anger I found myself hoping he heard me yell and would turn around so I could verbally abuse him some more, or have him jump out and try to run me down, and then I could pull a Cassidy and make him run after me for miles and miles and miles until he's about to fall over, and THEN give him a nice big punch in the face for being an asshole.

I just registered for the race as myself, but I was going to ask you guys if I should run as Seppo Kaitainen. I finished the book last week or so. Such a great novel! I was so excited while reading the last chapter about the race that it took me awhile to go to sleep later that night. I'm definitely going to read it again soon, after I read a few other books I've been meaning to get to. Thanks again Luke!

Luke - 10

10mi, 76:29 (7:38)

1.6-mile loop in 12:27, 1.4-mile loop in 10:28, 2 miles barefoot on the grass.

Steve - 6.28

56:29 (9:00) Yes in honor of 09/09/09! Although it was coincidental...or was it...

I started out nice and easy and was feeling pretty good so I ran a bit quicker than I usually do over the dirt/sand. Cruised the final 1.65 miles in 14:05 (8:32). My body hasn't feel great lately, so this was encouraging. I took a day off yesterday and Sunday, so my mileage will be down this week. But I'm going to bring it back up the next 3 weeks for one final surge before easing up a few weeks before the half marathon in October.

Luke - 9

9mi, 65:56 (7:19)

1.4-mile loop in 10:05, 1.6-mile loop in 12:04. Ran the first half of the run with new roommate (Zack). I added on enough to make it nine miles, since today is 09/09/09. These are the kinds of things that determine my mileage these days.

Luke - 6.25

6.25mi, 45:42 (7:18)

Mile loops of 7:35, 7:13, 7:17, 7:21, and 6:41. Ran with my new roommate...had to show off for him on the last one, so I ran the last quarter mile of it pretty quick. He's just getting back into running and is looking to increase his mileage, so I get to take him on all the good Eugene runs.

Chris - 3.24

23:32 - 7:15 pace

I have some energy back! I figured I'd do a shorter run since it was my first good pace in over a week. Also I had a feeling if I felt well that I'd want to run pretty fast, and that's exactly what happened. I could've extended the loop but decided against it since I want to do a longer run Thursday and don't want to kill myself the week of the race - especially since I'm getting over being sick.

Luke - 10

10mi, 78:38 (7:51)

1.6-mile loop in 12:56, 1.4-mile loop in 10:23, 2 miles barefoot on the grass. The grass was really cold this morning, because I left when it was about 50º out, and the sprinklers were on when I passed the field at the beginning of my run, and some of them were still on when I did the barefoot running. I guess I should strike a balance between running early enough that the bees aren't out and running late enough that my feet don't freeze.

Luke - 15

15mi, 1:55:04 (7:40)

After 80 miles in ten runs last week, I did zero yesterday, and instead played Nintendo a bunch. A friend was down from Portland and ended up staying longer than expected so I never got around to it. So today I figured I should do a long run. I did all of the Ridgeline Trail, which Steve and Chris have run on. The trail is about 4 miles uphill to get to, about 6-7 miles from start to finish, and another 3-4 downhill to get home. The downhill was actually the hardest part, just because it sorta forced me to go fast but my legs were shot from running up and down the hills of the trail.

When I got home I had Gatorade for the first time in forever, because my new roommate moved in today and he and his dad had bought some for the drive over here from Ohio and not drunk it. New roommate is a runner and is looking forward to getting in some miles in Eugene...maybe I'll tell him about this blog and he can compete with you guys.

Steve - 5.75

I conquered the bridge this morning. More accurately, I survived the bridge. My 5 mile race took place on the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, California. I thought I was well prepared to best my PR from the one year of cross country that I ran in school. But those hopes faded away roughly a mile into the race when I realized the Bridge was very hilly! In fact, we started on an uphill stretch on the bridge. So of course that meant there would be a downhill portion on the bridge, but when you're not used to running hills it sucks. You lose more time on the uphill than you gain on the downhill. I pretty much never run hills because there aren't a whole lot near where I live and because of that bad experience I had running the sand dunes a few months back where I messed up my Achilles pretty bad. It's still not 100 percent, but its just one of those things that never goes away when you run a lot I guess. In any case, that first uphill stretch took a lot out of me. By the time I got to the downhill and steeper part of the bridge, I was feeling much better. The downhill portion was shorter but steeper, so I tried to take advantage as best as I could. I got to the turnaround point at 18:09. There is a relatively flat portion that we ran on before entering the bridge again and heading up the steep portion. I really started losing gas at this point. My stride got short and people were passing me. One dumbass with a camera taking photos even passed me. Granted, it was a small digital camera, but still. Nearing the end of the uphill portion, I started feeling better. I started reeling in people again and passed several runners. As we got to the flat section before the downhall, I passed that idiot with the camera. Looked like he was dying. Heard some walkers going out saying something about someone behind me being the second girl. More on that later. I started to hit my stride (pun intended) in the downhill and committed myself to a hard effort the rest of the way. Passed a few more runners as we approached the end of the bridge. To finish the course, we had to go another .6 miles or so on city streets. As we got off the bridge, I really wanted the race to be over. I started losing it again and a few runners pulled ahead of me. With several blocks remaining, I wasn't feeling good. But I reached down and found some untapped reserves and picked it up again. With about 400 meters left, that sneaky girl crept up on me and passed me. Well being the competitive asshole that I am, I wouldn't allow that. I let her go for a few seconds and then reeled her and finished strong, putting a good 4-5 seconds on her. Quite content with myself I was, but it was her who would have the last laugh. When I looked at the results, her chip time was actually faster because she started behind me...Final time was 36:33. The winning time was only 30 something, so it either was a tough course or no one fast was in it. Suffice to say, I was nowhere close to my PR of 32:03...

James - 6.2

46:10 - A personal best! Just barely.
r603/~8000!

I did not sleep or eat well before this race. I'm not sure why but I kept waking up all night in the hotel bed. Then, after letting me keep my planned breakfast in the fridge over night, the hotel told me they couldn't heat it up in the microwave because of health and safety (contrary to what I was told the night before). So, I ate some sandwiches and things that were meant for after the race.

I could instantly tell the lack of sleep was going to hurt me. Quickly realising I wasn't going to get under 42 minutes, I aimed for my goal from May of under 45 minutes. Towards the end that floated away, so I aimed for a PB and just about got it. Most of the course was flat, but the first K was downhill, winding and very narrow. The end was uphill and that was a fucking bastard. Ow!

It was a simple course with a turnaround. I saw my dad on the other side, who was running behind me. He got a time of 1hr 38 seconds, much better than our last 10K, which is good considering he woke up with such a bad back he could barely stand up. My leg was sore before and has been since but it was fine during the run.

We then went for a pint before coming home and I crashed out for 4 hours.

Overall I am not as disappointed as I would have thought. In more favourable conditions I could have done much better. Here are the geek stats:

Race number: 1592 (I wrote Death to sweatshops! next to the nike swoosh)
Age Group Position: 368
Gender Position: 561
Age Group and Gender Position: 340
3k: 13:19
5k: 22:40
7k: 31:50

The timing chip was a weird one that you tied into your shoelaces.

Weekly Mileage Totals, 8/30-9/5

Luke - 80.25 (10)

Steve - 38.53 (5)

James - 13.1 (3)

Chris - 10.61 (3)

James - 3.3

27:04

Just to loosen up for the race the following day.

Luke - 8.25

8.25mi, 63:55 (7:44)

Hills, The Wall, etc. It had rained earlier so the ground was nice and soft. At one point I came to a T, left was uphill, right was downhill...I decided to go downhill, but when I got to the bottom of the hill I realized I should have gone uphill, so I turned around. The hill was dirt that had turned to slippery mud in the rain, and for most of it I was slipping every step...it was kinda fun. There were little sprouts of grass that I could have stepped on to get up quickly, but I purposely avoided them so it was like running up a hill of ice. I thought it might never end, and I was laughing the whole time because I must have looked so ridiculous.

Steve - 7

59:35 (8:31)

I intended to go longer than this originally, but I wasn't feeling up to it. Body was aching today. Decided to cut it short and will definitely take a day off tomorrow with my race on Monday. I need to make sure I do my rehab stuff for my hip and knee since they wont get better if I just ignore them. I didn't take mile splits for each mile, but the last two were 8:16 and 7:32.

Luke - 6.25

6.25mi, 49:42 (7:57)

Mile loops of 8:26, 8:08, 7:57, 7:46, and 7:45.

Chris - 5.41

51:13 - 9:28 pace

This run went about as I expected I guess. Still pretty darn tired from fighting off this cold, but I'm feeling a little better today so I took Steve's advice and did 5 instead of 10. My pace could best be described as an 'easy lope'. I felt like one of those slow joggers in 'Once A Runner' that Cassidy has to run around and thinks about how they are in an almost totally different class/world than him. Speaking of which, I read a part the other night about how when you run in the rain you're getting a step up on your competitors while they're inside relaxing and being wusses...sounded vaguely like something Luke told me while we were running in the rain in Eugene! I thought that was funny. Well played Luke.

Steve - 7.18

60:20 (8:24)

I was too lazy to run last night after my friend canceled. We usually run on Tuesday and Thursday on the dirt/sand section nearby. Anyway, I had to get up early today and run. This always causes problems for the wife cuz then I am getting in her way while she's getting ready for work, so I try to avoid it. Of course, I had horrible timing again this morning and messed up her schedule. Anyway, I wanted to do this ~7 mile course in 60 minutes or less and I accomplished that. I sometimes get lazy on the really deep sand part but I kept my turnover up and ran a solid pace the whole way. It was still a nice, smooth effort despite being about a minute/mile faster than I usual run when I do this course.

Luke - 11

11mi, 85:23 (7:45)

1.6-mile loop in 12:28, 1.4-mile loop in 9:51, 26 minutes of barefoot grass running. Felt good.

Luke - 8

8mi, 56:00 (7:00)

1.6-mile loop in 11:45, 1.4-mile loop in 9:14. I was feeling pretty good so I picked it up. About a half mile from home I decided I wanted to finish under seven minute pace, and I realized that would mean 6:15 pace for the last 1.5 miles and I probably hadn't been going quite fast enough for that. So I picked it up a bit more and was probably under 6:00 pace for the last half mile. I usually finish at the corner across the street from my house but I decided to cut between the cars, and I ended up finishing at 56:00...so I probably would have been "under seven minute pace" if I hadn't crossed the street before stopping.

Afterwards I did situps and pushups for the first time in forever...I do believe it will be a more daily-type thing from now on. When I was done with them for some reason "Combination Pizza Hut And Taco Bell" was stuck in my head but wasn't on my computer so I found it and downloaded it and listened to it.

"I'm at the Pizza Hut/I'm at the Taco Bell/I'm at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell."

James - 5.8

45:58

I wanted to have an idea of how I was doing before the 10K on Sunday. Having measured it and it not being quite 10K I'm a little disappointed, but there are plus and minus arguments that I might do better on the day, if not meet my goal of 42 minutes.

+ Luke says race day is always faster
+ I wasn't fully prepared, hadn't eaten a great breakfast, etc
+ I was dodging puddles, and it rained and was windy somewhat

- The course is meant to be hilly, so not a great one to try and get a personal best
- It could be rainy and windy then too
- I thought I pushed hard today so not sure how much more I can pull out

Work ruined chances of a run yesterday. And today I ran past two guys fishing and one, smiling (with beer in hand) encouraged me to "join the army, lad!" I smiled back at him in a friendly fashion. He was being nice I guess but running for my life isn't the motivation I need.

Steve - 6.15

Well there is a huge fire near where Pasadena so the track club workout was canceled. The air quality in Pasadena is pretty bad, but somehow UCLA is going to be playing in the Rose Bowl on Saturday. Instead, I decided to run on a dirt track near my house instead. Plan was another 4 mile tempo run around 6:52/mile pace. When I got there the high school football team was finishing up practice, so I figured the lights would be on for awhile. Once I started the tempo run, I could tell I didn't have my "A-game." First lap went through in 1:47. For the pace I was aiming for I wanted more like 1:41, 1:42. Well second lap was about the same. So I decided I wouldn't push any harder because I wanted to keep this effort aerobic. Once I hit about the 2 mile point, the football team had packed up and left and no one else was left. As I made the way around my track for my 9th lap, the lights went out and I was running in darkness. I moved to the middle of the track and kept plugging away. Once my eyes adjusted, it wasn't too bad. Actually, it made it kind of fun. So I wasn't able to look at my watch the last 2 miles but it turns out I ran them a bit faster than my slow second mile. Final time for 4 miles was 28:57 (7:11, 7:19, 7:13, 7:14). I think the times were slower cuz it was dirt, I didn't have someone to help with pace, and I was a bit tired.

Luke - 6.25

6.25mi, 49:26 (7:54)

Mile loops of 8:25, 7:52, 7:43, 7:32, and 7:29.

Chris - 2.7

24:06 - 8:55 pace

I'm officially sick. I wanted to run yesterday to try and keep up my mileage for the week but my dad talked me out of it. Felt a little better energy-wise today (although my nose is running like a faucet) so I went on another short, easy run. Did 7:30 worth of barefoot running in the outfield grass again. For some reason I seemed to find every rock in the field this time. Also there were 4 or 5 high school kids goofing around in the field and the first time I ran by them one of the guys came up next to me and was going "hey ok we're on a run! good times!". I decided to humor him instead of getting pissed, so I made small talk until he got tired/disinterested and went to rejoin his friends. It was kinda funny. I'm hoping to be better at the latest by Saturday so I can do a nice long 10 miler or something to make up for my lack of mileage during the week.

Luke - 10

10mi, 77:29 (7:44)

1.6-mile loop in 12:24, 1.4-mile loop in 10:40, 15:18 of barefoot grass running. No bees or geese today, but there was a guy mowing the field I was running on. He didn't hassle me or anything, but man were my feet covered in grass clippings when I finished.

Steve - 8.7

81:03 (9:19)

So I didn't mean to run quite this long. I wanted to do about 8 miles, but my friend wanted to do an extra loop. I felt pretty good. A lot better than last week doing the same run. I have a 5 mile race on Monday that I am hoping to beat my PR and break 32 minutes. I haven't decided if I am going to do my usual long run on the Sunday before or if I should flip it to Saturday. Anyway, glad to see the frequency of posts around here has already picked up the last week or so. Good to see everyone running a lot...

Luke - 8.25

8.25mi, 65:54 (7:59)

Hills again. Felt better this time than last time. Was still struggling up the last couple hills, but once I was off the constant uphills I felt much better. Probably about 7:00 pace for the last two miles.

At the top of The Wall there are blackberry bushes, and the berries are huge right now, so I always have a couple when I do this run.