Doug's Running Thingy

The track meets on Fri and Sat inspired me to a fine workout this afternoon on the trails.  Did my usual weekly 2 minutes on and 1 minute off workout around lake overstreet, but I actually worked it down to 6:15 mile pace for the last two intervals - not bad for me.

Now back to the fun stuff.  Travis got his annual opportunity to race an open 800 on Saturday afternoon.  'Twas breezy and warm, but he had a plan and stuck to it and came through with a 4-second PR of 2:01.51.  He cruised through the 400 at 59 and then put his head down and hammered the next 100, floated the back stretch, and then hung on for dear life to close in 62.  Coach was very pleased, Trav was satisfied (he had visions of 2 flat), and I was duly impressed.  Even more impressive was his 4X400 leg later in the evening.  He hasn't raced a 4X4 since 8th grade.  He ran third leg and was able to maintain 4th place for the team with a 52.4 split. Our anchor dropped a 50.6 to bring us to 2nd with a 3:29 - not too shabby.

Travis races the 1600 tomorrow night in his best opportunity of the year to go sub 4:30.  After tomorrow, we have easy district and region meets prior to the challenge of the state meet on Apr 27 - looking more and more like he will need to triple in the 4X800, 1600 and 3200. 

Ran my good old north loop (about 1300 meters) time trial for the first time this year - right at a minute slower than best time - thatll work for now.  Mile before and mile and a half after, followed by some striders on the grass and some stretching.  Might hit the track for the first time in weeks and weeks on Saturday or Sunday.

Easy few miles in Tom Brown park after looking at puppies at the shelter - oh my.  Lisa really thinks its time we got another dog... or two!

Good cross training (shooting pics and grilling burgers) all day yesterday at the District track meet, so no running.  

Finally got in a little track workout - 4x200 with 100 jog in between.  Mile and a half warm up and mile cool down.  Nice to get out there a little bit.

Ravine trail plus muhammad.  

Longest run in weeks!  Felt decent tooling around the full figure 8 trail.

Four miles around the neighborhood at lunch with 4 two-minute efforts right at 6 min pace thrown in the mix.  I blame the 82 degree temps and pavement for feeling pretty rough on the pick-ups - good to get a workout in though.  Off to Jax tomorrow for the Regional Track meet.  Travis should qualify for State easily in both the 1600 and 3200, and likely can take the region title in the 16 - we'll see.

'bout 4 miles on a really nice morning on the trails before rain expected most of the day.

Travis is the Region Champ in the 1600 and runner-up in the 3200, and the 4x800 team is champs as well.  He went 2:03 in the 4x8 with the guys getting their best time of the year with an 8:20 (need 8:10 to place about 4th at State next week).  He ran a smart controlled 4:35 in the 1600 with windy hot conditions, and came back in just over an hour to run an easy 10:36 along with his two teammates to go 1,2,3 in the 3200.  Boys took the team title and the girls were runners-up.  The rolling schedule was pretty much a steam-roller to beat the expected thunderstorms.  Next week finals start at 6 pm so will hopefully be cooling off by the 1600 at 7ish.

Nice run on a gorgeous evening.  Actually dropped the pace to sub 7 on the finishing half mile - been a while.

Neighborhood four-miler this evening - another beauty of a day here.  Looks like it all ends tomorrow - back to mid-80s on the way to 90 for Friday as we head to Jacksonville for State.  Oh well, thats the least of the worries as Travis is completely wiped out by sinus/upper respiratory crud - unreal timing.  Any and all home remedy solutions accepted.  I have 36 hours to knock this out.

Finally got back out for a run today after three days of nuttin - whew.  Decent run on the trails before it boiled over to 90 degrees - ugh.

End of last week deteriorated into trying to get Travis healthy and making last minute plans for getting parents and athletes to the state meet in Jax on Friday.  Trav missed school Tues and half day Thurs with coughing fits and major head and chest congestion.  Friday morning saw him somewhat better as he jumped on the bus at 0700.  His first race was at 1pm and it actually went quite well as he split 2:02 in the 4x800.  Coach had arranged for the 4x8 kids to go back to the hotel to avoid the heat of the day during field events and sprint/hurdle prelims.  Trav took a couple good naps and got a bit of food before heading back for the 1600 at 6:45.  Once again he ran a decent 800... of course there were two more laps.  He went 66, 67, 70, 68 to tie his PR at 4:32 and grab the 8th place podium spot - disappointing when he was sooo primed to crush 4:30, but tremendous considering he couldn't breathe!

Well this evening's run had everything a midsummer run should have - 90 degrees, 90% humidity, deer flies, and nice little bunnies - bunnies good, all else truly ridiculous for mid Spring!