Blue Sharks Run

This morning, bright and early (5:30am), I ran my first Gasparilla Marathon training run with the YMCA Blue Sharks. David, an experienced runner, ran with our group of mostly new marathoners. The regulars where running a longer loop than the special group for first timers. We ran a six mile loop from the YMCA through west Davis Island.

The pace of our run was consistently about 8 minute miles. I felt good at this pace, although it is a bit faster than I normally push myself. I enjoyed the company and conversation along the way. David answered questions from the group and about half of the small group stuck together for the entire 6 miles.

The next group run is on Wednesday in Carrollwood with Tampa Bay Runners. I'm going to make a commitment to try to make both runs each week. I feel I will be able to push myself better with the group than alone.

Pace

I've been playing around with Dot Racing at motion based. The feature allows you to compare multiple runs on a single map. The runs are synchronized to start at the same time. I find that my pace is far from consistent and I need to focus more on a smooth consistent pace. This will be important for my training effort for the Gaparilla Marathon.

I attended the Tampa Bay Runner/YMCA Blue Sharks training kickoff meeting last night. The group runs in downtown Tampa on Saturday's and in Carrolwood on Wednesday evenings. I spend most of my time running alone, so I'm not sure how I'll feel about running with a group. I hope to find other runners that run about the same pace as me. Hopefully some of these runners will be better than me at maintaining a consistent pace. In the meantime, I'll keep dot racing as well.

18 weeks until the Marathon...

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11 Mile training Run

Here is a viewport of an 11 mile run through downtown Tampa and Bayshore on Sunday. I didn't feel especially good during the run. I don't think I got enough sleep Saturday night. The weather was only in the low 80's, but the humidity was thick. I felt much better on a short jog with my son in his stroller today. Hopefully I've endured all of the heat the summer/fall has to offer.

Gasparilla Marathon

I've been very busy at work over the last few months, traveling from coast to coast several times during the span. I logged miles in Seattle, San Francisco, Mason, OH, Atlanta, and Boston, in addition to my normal runs in Tampa. Travel for work will settle down as the year end approaches.

I decided that the 2006 Gasparilla Marathon will be my first marathon. I will use a training plan from Hal Higdon, as I've done for other training this year. I'm very excited about this challenge.

I continue to run with my Garmin Forerunner 201 religiously. My favorite feature is the ability to log my historic mileage with very little effort. I use Motion Based free service, although I have considered upgrading to the paid service level for additional reporting features.