FreezeFest 2020

Sophia and I ran together FreezeFest this morning. Race started after Mariah Hurley sang the national anthem. We were going very well the first mile, but then Sophia was starting to get tired so I told her we should slow down a little bit. Each mile was slower, but she never stopped. She tried to get some water, but she could not drink it while running. The last 0.1 mile was super fast. She sprinted very fast. I was surprised of her speed. She placed First in her age group (and I placed 5th). 

We stayed after the race and enjoyed eating some chili soup and a sandwich. 

GARMIN CONNECT

RESULTS

Saturday Six Miles Easy Pace

Ran the desired six miles along Camp Cardinal Blvd. Andres and I ran the six miles. There was a short part on the sidewalk that was covered with ice, so we had to be pretty careful. We tried to keep our HR low, but there was a point where it went up to 150 bpm.
Trying to follow the Hansons Advanced Half Marathon training plan. The target race is Kewash.

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Kent Park

The Hansons plan called for 6 Miles Easy for today. I decided to check Kent Park. Found the trail was covered with ice and it was hard to run on it. Each loop is about 1.41 miles. I was able to do three loops (4.24 miles).
Hansons plan calls for three hard days, and four easy runs. I have been learning about doing more easy runs, and do not try to run hard all the time. It makes sense to me. This plan has to work. I hope I can improve my times in the next FreezerFest run (February 15).

Hansons Coaching Services

I found a couple of training plans from Hansons Coaching Services. I'd like to follow the Advanced Half Marathon plan. It looks like it calls for six days of running per week. Sunday is the long run, and Tuesdays and Thursdays call for a hard workout. The other days are supposed to be easy runs. 

This morning I went for an easy run (even though is Thursday). It was easy to go slow the first mile, but then, I immediately speeded up.  I need to control my speed and learn to keep going slow on easy days. I will work on this.
Tuesday is normally speed workouts in the track and
Thursday calls for some miles at HM pace (it should be 7:45-8:24 mpm for me). 

Beginners Half Marathon

Advanced Half Marathon

Sophia's Running Chronos in XC 2019

Here are some of the official XC chronos for Sophia in 2019 (7th grade). She is twelve years old. She will do track in the Spring and hopefully keep running next year. It might be nice for her to know her chronos when she raced at twelve. 

DATE	TEAM	SITE	Time	Pace
Sept 26, 2019	Regina	Kickers	15:16	7:38
Sept 16, 2019	Iowa City JH	Kickers	15:58	8:02
Sept 24, 2019	Muscatine	Muscatine
Oct 1, 2019	West	U of I course
Oct 2, 2019	City	U of I course	14:21	7:10
Oct 10, 2019	Eastern Iowa Middle School	Noelridge Park
Oct 19, 2019	State Championship	Ankeny	14:34	7:17

Hill Repeats 5 X 400

I like to run on Hawkeye Park Rd. The course is 0.5 miles long, but I like to run the quarter that goes up hill about 40 ft elevation. I was able to do five repetitions today, and it looks like each time my repetitions were faster! I also decided to run in my Newton shoes with open toes!

I find it very interesting to see how high my hear rate goes when I run uphill! I suppose that is really good exercise for my heart and also for my legs!

GARMIN CONNECT

Amana Freezer 5K

Another year of Amana Freezer 5K. Race started at 10:00 AM. Arrived early to pick up my bib number and chip, and most importantly run a one mile warm-up (very slow).
This time, the strategy was to try to run the first mile at 7:30 mpm (second mile at 7:15 and third mile at 7:00). It worked for the first mile, but actually, it was too fast. I couldn't even hold that pace for the second mile. The avg mile pace was 7:47 mpm. At least, I kept the pace below 8:00 mpm and bettered my time from last year's race (7:57 mpm).
This time, not surprisingly, Craig got first place running at 7:30 mpm. Andres got second place two seconds ahead of me. Actually, it is very hard to keep a pace in the second mile because of a tough hill around 1.5 mile. I was very impressed with Mariah Hurley (42). This runner was ahead of us all the time and we just couldn't catch her! She was running about four seconds per mile faster than us.
I noticed a toe in my left foot started hurting when I was walking to my car after the race. Not sure if it's a stress fracture. Decided not to run for a few days until the toe feels better.

YouTube Video
Race Results
Garmin-Connect