The rest week.

After my longest run I ran Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

I did two short (5 and 4 miles on Sunday and Thursday) and two long (Tuesday and Saturday). Here are the profiles for the long runs:

I am really beginning to pour on the miles. I have run over 26.2 miles a week for the last two weeks and for three of the last 6 weeks. I now feel that a ten mile run is routine. Next week-end will be tough but I want to do another long run next Sunday. Another 13-14 mile run. I expect it to be a little easier. I really feel like I'm on my way!

This shows just my long runs (over 8 miles) since May.

long run: 14.2 miles

I ran a 14er yesterday. That is the longest run I ever did. This longest run triggered a recording of Lance Armstrong on my Nike+ system congratulating me. Very topical since I am watching the Tour De France on Vs.

This was the first time I went over 10 miles with out the hulabaloo of a race. It went fine. I was worried that with out the adrenalin of a race I would be bored. The run was great though the last two miles were a bear. I was really strong through ten though so my concearns of last week are partly relieved I feel that ten miles if not quite routine is pretty close to routine. Making progress. I'll go for another 13-14er in two weeks.

RunKeeper did a nice job until near the end. Note the straight line to the finish which is a couple of miles to the west of my home.



I finished Freakonomics on the run. The last chapter on baby names was the worst chapter I have listened to in any of my books on tape. For the record, the best chapter I have listened to was the chapter on Jewish lawyers in Outliers.

6.4 miles

9 mile run

RunKeeper dropped about a mile as I somehow forgot to resume after receiving a phone call. This is the primary advantage of the Nike+ system. It's so simple it's fool proof.

New version of RunKeeper Pro

RunKeeper Pro is the paid version of RunKeeper. I downloaded RunKeeper as soon as it went from a paid to a free application. I had been a long time user of Nike+ but really wanted something a little more in depth and was frustrated by having my running data held hostage behind a wall of corporate Flash. Unfortunately, I didn't find the original RunKeeper very reliable. I remember it recording one run that "started" 14 miles from where I actually began my run. It quickly became one of the unused icons in the backwaters of my iPhone.

With my recent adoption of Run-Walk I needed new functionality from the iPhone. Nike+ does not offer interval prompts. I have been using IntervalTimer and it works great. They recently went to 2.0 and the program is much better looking for the change (update: IntervalTimer 2.0 crashed when I tried to use it last night, not sure if I just need to restart my iPhone or if there is a larger program with the 2.0 implementation).

The most recent version of RunKeeper Pro (i.e. the $9.99 version) has an interval/training feature and its really great. When you launch the application you see a new icon called training. That opens up to a panel of different training protocols:Tapping on a workout selects it. You can edit the existing protocols or create your own:
Intervals can be defined by distance or time and you can set up your protocol to repeat or just end after running through itonce. You have three different choices regarding intensity:
While you run, a pleasant female voice prompts you to go from interval to interval. She tells you the duration of the upcoming interval and the intensity. She also comes on at intervals to tell you how far you've gone, how long, and at what pace.

It all worked great. Additionally RunKeeper seems more accurate and has a feature that allows you to map your workout while you run. This has come in handy as my runs get longer and I find myself in more unfamiliar neighborhoods. The primary problem left is in Apple's court to fix. RunKeeper needs to run in the background so I can fiddle with my iPod and answer the phone without forcing the program to pause data collection. Some uses of background processes is not corrected by the recently introduced Push notification system.

July 3rd run.

8.26 mile run.

That ten miler was hard

I have done 4 long runs since the half marathon and I did a ten miler before the half. So 6 long runs in the last 5 weeks or so. How long before doing ten miles begins to feel like a 10k? I was really burnt at the end of the 10.

It's looking like training for a marathon is going to be hard.