Home field advantage

Today was the pflugerville pfamily pfun run, clever am I right.  Any ways I've been looking forward to this race as this is one of my favorite spots to run at.  So did this lead to success?  Yes and no.  I did get a pr beating my last 5k time by about 30 seconds, but missing my goal time by about 30 seconds.

The race was small but well put together, the only complaint on my part was that the water stations were too close together.  Other then that it was a nice day.  Now its time to train for the 10 miler on Halloween.

Heels and Hills and Him

Today was our first 10k, The Heels and Hills and Him 10k. My goal coming in was 55 minutes. I ended up with a time 58:21. Even though I didn't reach my goal I'm not disappointed with my run.

I know what I did wrong with this run, I didn't pace myself properly. My overall pace was 9:25, but I know that if i paced my self at a 9 minutes pace I would've finished with that pace. I have a plan to help me hold this pace longterm. I can do it with a 10 minute pace but it brakes down around 8 miles.

Overall the run was fun, and me and Jamie had a fun time. There were a ton of people, almost a thousand. It was a mixed even a half-marathon, 10k, 5k. I would definitely do this event next year, well maybe half-marathon.

New running program

So let me start out with updates on the running. It's been hot out, really hot out, so my runs have definitely been suffering. Haven't gotten past nine miles. I can't wait till it cools down as now we can only run early in the morning or at the very end of the day.

Anyways let me get to my point here. I have a Android phone, and I just updated my phones software which deleted all my apps. For the longest time I've been using an app called sporty pal to track my runs using gps. Its a pretty good app but can sometimes be off of the mileage. It would also force close every so often and wouldn't always pick up the gps. The new app I've been using is called Runkeeper, the actual app itself is very simply. It displays your minutes in terms of pace on a bar graph. The website is the best part, the graphs are very cool and its integration with other sites is a lot better.

I haven't decided whether or not to keep it. It did mess up when my wife texted me, it loss track of the gps for a while. You can check out my profile by copying this link.

http://runkeeper.com/user/vestrada78840/activity/14466743

A Bad Run, A Lesson Learned

My computers on the fritz, so its been awhile since I last posted a blog. In the past two weeks I've had some really good runs, a 9 mile run in 1:30:50 and a top ten pace run. This past Sunday though was no where near as good as these runs. The plan was to go 10 miles in 1:40:00, at a 10 minute pace, but in 1:28:29 I ran 7.74 miles at snails pace of 11.43 min/mi.

First off let me start with the excuses. Excuse one: it was hot as hell. The past couple of weeks have been off and on overcast, but now thats all past and we're back to clear Texas sky's. Which means burning hot sun and so much sweat you'd think I jumped in the river. Excuse two: lack of sleep. Before a long run you need to get plenty of sleep. I was running on less then 6 hours of sleep. Excuse three: Brushy Creek. I like Brushy Creek trail because of its size. It's 6.75 miles long. So you could go out and back once and do 13.5 miles, this is very good for distance running, but the trail is no Pflugerville Lake. Pflugerville Lake is flat and fast and good for the ego. Brushy Creek is hilly and truly test your endurance.

Ok now that I the excuses out of the way lets get down to business here. I failed this run because no matter what excuse I use I was over confident and burned myself out too soon. I started off at a 9 mile pace and didn't think to slow down because I felt good. I thought this will be easy, keep this pace up and I'll be golden. I should have remembered that every time I thought that I burned myself out. And burn out I did, around mile 4 I started to feel the strain. Between mile 4 and 5 was a set of steep hills that put me out for the count, reaching mile 5 was the longest part of my run. I had planned on doing a double out and back course, head out one direction comeback and go another direction and comeback. But when I was getting back to the starting point all I could think was I'm done this run is over.

Had I stopped I would've stopped with about 40 minutes left. Upon reaching the starting point I looked for my wife, since she had left before me I thought with that and the heat maybe she'd be there or almost there, but she was no where to be seen. Then it hit me, she didn't give up she's still out there running and if I'm supposed to be the more advanced runner what kind of example am I setting by quitting. So I kept going, slow as it was, til I met up with my wife. We finished the run together and hurried to the trail showers. If you don't know what these are they're pillars with shower heads on them that are by the trail. You can go up to them press down on the button and get sprayed with cold water, nothings better after a long run and why other trails don't have them I'll never understand.

Even though this run was a failure I did learn alot from it which is always good and I'm ready to try again for 10 miles. I would also like to thank my wife for inspiring me to keep on running.

#67 beats the 4-miler

I'll make this quick. Today was our 4 mile run in San Antonio, my goal for the race was 36 minutes. I'm happy to say I finished with a time of 34:54. The race was fun and the course was unique. It was a pretty hilly run, and that last hill was a killer. Anyways I'll post a more in-depth blog when they post the results online.

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Two days til the race

This Wednesday was our long run, the plan was to run for an hour and twenty minutes. On the plus side it was overcast the whole time so the heat wasn't a factor, but the wind was killer and this was by far the longest run we did. Luckily I was able to keep my pace stable at ten minute miles practically the whole time and ended up doing eight miles. Not only was this my longest run but it was also the longest I've gone without having to walk since I ran the whole time.

Today we did a short run at old settlers park where I ran 3.42 miles in 31:44 for a pace of 9:17. In two days we have our 4 miler and I really think I can hit my goal. I'll post up a blog right after the race with the early results.

This is a map of my 8 mile run. I did about 2 and a half loops.

curse of the one hour 6 miler

Todays run was good, and the farthest I went in a long time. Me and my wife ran at Pflugerville Lake, one of my favorite places to run, and the plan was to run for an hour and ten minutes. I thought that would be an easy 7 miles, but that wasn't the case. I ended up with 6.78 miles in 1:09:45.

As we've been increasing our times I've been trying to keep a ten minute mile pace. That pace feels easy to me and I can go long distances with it, but then my competitive edge comes in. Then I think hey this is easy I can go faster, then I hit the wall. Ugh its so frustrating to see that pace slip out of hands. I have one chance next week to beat that pace and I will try my best to beat it. My plan is to keep a steady pace, no slower no faster. Hopefully this will work out for me.

First Post

So just to catch everyone up me and my wife are going to do a 4 miler on the fourth of July. My goal for the race is 36 minutes, I definitely think I can reach this goal as in my last 5k I did a little over 8 minute miles. We have some more runs planed so I'll keep you guys up to date, the races and the training. I'm also going to post about my experiences as a beginner runner.

http://www.runtex.com/web/2-3208.asp

Heres a link to the race if any one else is interested in running it.