One day, two runs....

It's really funny, but just before our TNT run with couches, they told us exactly, not to make up for times when we miss our buddy runs, or other training. That very day I did second run. Yes I know some will say it's foolish, but I have few arguments in my defense.

1. the TNT program is designed to get an average couch potato across the finish line of a marathon or a half-marathon. I'm not an average couch potato anymore, and I'm not training just to finish the marathon. I need some speed too (if possible, please... pretty please...)
2. almost everyone I talk to, about running in the marathon, says that if I'm serious, I need run about 30-40 miles a week - then my body will be conditioned enough, to run the 26.2 miles in a decent time.
3. I've been running 10K training runs for past month, so I felt almost obliged to start increasing the distance, if not in one run, then at least with a second run later in the day.

So yes I know that we shouldn't, but I felt a compelling reason to actually do so. I definitely started to see improvements in my cardio - the heart rate now is lower, and stays lower through-out the runs (at least the 5-6 miles). I think I'm getting a bit more coefficient when running too, but I still need to work on my cadence, to get closer to 90 or maybe even over 90 foot-steps per minute.Both the morning run and the afternoon run, were slower than my racing pace (I know I can run 10K at about 8:20 pace), and I tried also practicing the run-walk technique that our coaches mentioned before the morning run. All in all I think this was pretty good Saturday, and I accrued about 11 miles in total.

The first run was the morning run with TNT, along Guadalupe River Trail in San Jose:

Come race day, the above results are not even close to the time I need to qualify for Boston, but as a means to accrue the mileage, there's absolutely nothing wrong there.
The second run was along the same route that I did with Russ last week. Since I had to work on Saturday, I decided to go to the trail and run 5-6 miles. I slightly modified the route that we took with Russ, so that it had a nice hill at about 4.5 miles (and really nice down hill on the last 1/2 mile too).

I decided that since it's my second run, then I'll just concentrate on getting the mileage and not speed. I also tried to practice the run-walk technique. I run for 1 mile and then I walked for 2 minutes. This resulted in slower pace, but I think I can get better results with practice. One unexpected obstacle on the course (that also resulted in slower pace) was Canadian Geese. I passed them on the way out, and they were not happy about it, but were ok with me passing them on the trail, as they were in the bushes. However, on the way back, the geese were occupying the whole both the trail and bushes in one spot. Since they had youngsters with them, I didn't risked running into a flock of geese, but instead stopped, and tried to come up with something that would get them of the trail (my only way back to the campus, and my car too). The tactic that worked was one we were told one time, to use if we see a bear, while camping. It's really simple stuff - make your self appear big (wave arms, jump, etc.) and make lots of noice (yell, scream, etc.). The geese were apparently more intimidated by this, than in a mood for fight, so after making sure the young ones went of the path, they moved off the trail too, and let me pass, but still watched carefully, and hissed angrily. The TNT folks mentioned that they will prepare us to run in every condition and weather, wander if they ever though about people running through a flock of geese...