Morning Miles and Heartland Training

This morning I did something that would disgust John. While he is travelling for work, I woke up at 5am and met a friend for a 5 mile tempo run. It was probably closer to mile repeats, but it's been so long since I've done any type of speed work that I'm counting it as a tempo run. We warmed up a mile, did the second mile in about 8:05, took an easy mile, did the 4th in 8:30 and then cooled down. (I'm guessing at the times, KT was wearing the Garmin, not me. I just tried to hold it together while she said "Only .4 to go! You're doing great!" I must have been huffing hard enough that she knew I needed a cheerleader.)

I'm hoping this becomes a weekly thing. KT is trying to qualify for Boston, so I'm hoping by running with her, I can absorb some of her speed through osmosis. I will gladly donate some of my endurance to the cause. We both need a little motivation when it comes to speed work, so I think this is a good thing.


Heartland is 12 weeks away. I set a goal of 500 running miles before the race, which averages out to 42 miles/week for the next 12 weeks. Being the dorky engineer that I am, I created a spreadsheet to act as my training log, which counts workouts and mileage per month, and also totals the running miles and tells me how many I've done and how many I have left. Right now, I have 21 miles down, 479 to go. You probably can't see much, but if you click on it, you should be able to see the numbers.





I'm planning on doing the Jackson County Triathlon again, partly to keep me motivated to bike. I love riding but for some reason I tend to blow it off. I'll train through that race, but I plan on using it as a recovery week with reduced mileage. Same for the week of the Modern Homes Tour since I know we will have a million things to do to get the house ready for the tour. I am determined to go to Heartland with no excuses.

That last comment is an ironic segue into the fact that I'm 2 miles short from this weekend already. I ran 12 instead of 10 on Saturday, which aroused the tendonitis in my knee, so I took the Sunday off. Gee, maybe I should have stuck to my original numbers. I'm less worried about the miles than the tendonitis. I would prefer to do all of my running without Vitamin I.

I am considering running in the Rock Creek 20 mile night race this Friday at Lake Perry. I'm not sure if running 20 is a great idea so soon after the 50k, but it would let me take Saturday off and do 4-6 easy miles on Sunday. It's tempting. I know a few folks heading over there, so it could be a good time. If I had someone to run it with me, I'd do it for sure. I won't be racing it, it will be a training run in the dark. Any takers out there?