The first run of the day started at just after 6am. The sun was coming up, the breeze cool and jogging around the neighborhood felt great. I covered just over 4 miles in 32 minutes and thoroughly enjoyed my breakfast when I got back to the house.

Lunch time I headed out for a slightly longer run and this time wore my iPod and followed the Kara Goucher Nike+ Endurance Mix. Haven’t done that for a while and it was nice to mix it up a bit. This run was 6.85 miles in 49 minutes.

Finally after work I ran another 4.4 miles, pretty much the same course as this morning, but slightly quicker. It was also 20 degrees hotter than the morning run and shocked the system just as intended.

Just for the record, the MISSION Skincare sunscreen worked flawlessly again – I love that stuff!

So, not a bad effort today – almost 15 miles of running and I feel great. Hopefully my craziness will pay off on Sunday if it does indeed turn out to be a warm day….

The workout is really easy to follow. After a five minute warm up, you run hard for four minutes which is followed by an easier four minute recovery period. This is repeated four times before the final cool down. Kara chimes in every now and then with certain words of wisdom; she certainly does her best to keep you motivated.

I was surprised to cover just over nine miles in the hour (actually 9.3 in 1:06:00), especially in the heat. Looking back at my log that’s probably the longest run I’ve had since the Frederick Marathon in early May. How embarrassing is that?!

Splits and run details as follows: 7:34 6:52 6:41 6:33 6:31 8:04 6:44 7:04 7:34

Back at the house after a quick drink of water, it was time to do Week 1/Day 2 of the hundred push ups plan. Read all about it here!

It was a bit chilly tonight (88°F), so I decided to run another Kara Goucher NIKE+ Workout. Last time I did the workout I covered 5.5 miles in just under 40 minutes. Tonight, I went a little further (5.65 miles) and averaged 6 minutes 50 seconds per mile.

Quite an uneventful workout to be honest, although I must admit I’m feeling quite good about my running at the moment. Long may it continue!

Splits: 7:17 6:46 6:36 6:31 6:30

If you’re not familiar with the Kara Goucher Endurance Boost Workout, read more about it at Blaine Moore’s excellent Run to Win web site.

Naturally I picked the hottest day of the year so far to attempt the workout and I must admit it was challenging towards the end to keep the pace going. I guess my body will take a little while longer to adapt to the 90+° weather we’re experiencing at the moment.

A couple of months ago I wrote a brief review of the NIKE+ workout which you can read at Blaine Moore’s excellent Run to Win web site. Today was the third or fourth time I’ve followed Kara Goucher’s workout and it seems to get a little more enjoyable each time I run it. The music is varied and Kara keeps chiming in at relevant points to keep me focused and motivated.

Basically the workout consists of a 5 minute warm up, followed by 4 x 4 minute hard efforts, each with a 4 minute recovery period. To finish off you run another 5 minutes to cool down. I covered 5.5 miles in just under 40 minutes. which equates to an average 7:00 per mile pace.

Splits: 7:22 6:58 6:35 7:11 6:49

Full details below:

With a 5k race to run in the morning (or is it a 5k run to race?), I decided not to run the 4 minute intervals at top speed, and just picked up my pace and concentrated on my running form instead.

I actually enjoyed the workout more this time around than the first time I tried it, and was surprised that I’m not bored with the music yet. Maybe I’ll try the Lance Armstrong Run Longer workout next?

After the 40 minutes was up, I ran an extended cool down back to the house and ended up with almost 7 and a half miles on my Garmin GPS.
Temperature was a very pleasant 73°F and the wind a blustery 18mph:

Solid run and more of a workout than I first planned. I’m expecting a sluggish 5k in the morning – don’t expect any Personal Records!

Workout-wise, I tried something different tonight. A couple of days ago I answered an email from Blaine Moore (of the excellent Run to Win blog), who was looking for a couple of runners to try one of the new NIKE+ Workout mixes – all he asked in exchange was a review of the audio workout. I fired up a quick reply and later that day was informed I was one of the lucky winners! Must be my lucky week…

I downloaded the 40 minute workout via the supplied link (if you’re interested, you can stream the track over at Nike’s web site), and loaded it onto my iPod Shuffle. I was keen to check out the workout, so played it at work today to see what it was all about.

The 40 minute speed/endurance workout is made up of a 5 minute warm up, followed by 4 x 4 minute intervals with an equal recovery time. To complete the workout you get to cool down for 5 minutes. Some of the music I was familiar with, whilst other tracks were completely new to me. Overall the workout seemed like it would be quite varied and interesting.

I usually only run with headphones a couple of times a month – never on a quality workout (tempo, track, fartlek etc.), never on a long run and definitely never during a race – but I’m not averse to training with music from time to time.

I won’t spoil my review (you’ll have to visit Blaine’s site in a couple of days to read that), but will say that I thoroughly enjoyed the workout and surprised myself at how much ground I covered in the 40 minutes (almost 6 miles). The music was varied and Kara Goucher kept chiming in at relevant points to keep me focused and motivated.

The first mile was mainly a slow warm up, but the following four miles were all completed around 6 minutes 30 seconds per mile, which is quicker than my marathon pace on the weekend. Naturally part of the these miles were at tempo pace and other parts at recovery pace, but I’m definitely happy with the average.

Full details below: