This is the last big week before the taper begins. I'm a little nervous as my last big run was not so good, and then I got sick so my next 20 miler was actually 0. Coming off of coach bubba I started feeling a bit better so my confidence is growing.
Monday: 5 miles
5 mile easy recovery run. It was cold, very cold, like 28 degrees in the morning when I went out. usually when I wear my thick running gloves, they come off after 1 mile, but today it was mile 3. I took it easy and stayed in zone 3 except for the big hill at mile 4, and then I did my 5 x 100 meter strides at the end.
Tuesday: 8 miles
today's track workout was 1 mile warmup, 3 x 2 miles at just under marathon pace, 1 mile cool down. I decided to do 2 x 3 miles instead to make it go by faster. Felt pretty good on these, my hr was hovering right around zone 4, and I would prefer it to be 3.8, but as my hip and legs felt good the whole time and just zoned out on the heavy metal it was alright.
Wednesday: swim 1.2
Did a little bit harder swim today than usual, but still felt good and worked on my breathing technique and keeping my legs up.
Thursday: 6 miles
I had an easy 6 miles today, so I ran down harrison to black creek, at the point where I would turn back for the 4 mile loop I just kept going for another mile and back and made 6. kept hr low except on the hill back up to harrison. Felt good on the hills and hips and legs still feeling good. Friday is off and my confidence is growing, but still Saturday looms and now it's going to be rainy and cold. oh joy.
Friday:
day off
Saturday: 20 miles
on the plan was 22 miles at comfortable pace. This one could get a little wordy since it was a really long run. Friday comes along and the forecast for the weekend is 50 degrees and steady rain all day long saturday. I'm thinking maybe sunday this week, but then I look at sunday and it's 30's and rain all day, so back to Saturday. So I wake up Saturday morning, eat breakfast and start to get ready. The phone rings and it's downstairs, but I know it's Erin, calling to say she is not going. I get the phone mail, and it's Erin, saying she is not going. So I call her back and tell her I am going anyway and it's ok that she isn't going. She tries to convince me to go tuesday, but I am so ready to get this over and start tapering and it's really only 4 hours out of my life and I need to be done so I can have the next 21 days to rest and get ready. Anyway she changes her mind and is going to go. We start off and head towards umstead from north cary park, the first few miles not so good but then we get to the airport overlook and things level off and I start feeling a bit better. We loop around and head up the spill way, my favorite hill, only had to walk once, then at the top we head to the rest rooms for a quick pit stop before heading down harrison. Next we turn down ready creek to cary cafe, pick up an extra mile in the cary slums behind the cafe and then head down harrison to pick the greenway back up. Things are still going good when we hit dynasty and take a nice walk break up the mean hill, then decide to loop back to maynard via sudbury to get two more miles in so we don't have to go back up to the airport overlook. We run until we get back to the mean hill on dynasty, then run back to north cary park. Now we are on mile 16 and once again my legs/feet start the normal after 16 revolt so I give Erin the key and send her on her way. After the turn around at the gate, i am resigned to walk 30 seconds, run to the next 1/4 mile post, then walk 30 seconds, until I reach the 20 mile mark and then I am done. This run didn't really help my confidence as it was at 11 min pace so I am hoping the taper and rest will help, but have already started lowering my expectations and questioning if I am really cut out to do marathons. I guess part of the draw for me is the fact that it is such a challenge, but I was really hoping this time I might be able to get to the point where 18 - 20 didn't just kill me and make me suffer as much.
Sunday:
standard sunday swim except legs are really sore and lower back not feeling good. Did my swim and some stretching in the pool then got out to start my birthday...
weekly miles: 39
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Coach Bubba Race Report
Gotta do this while it's still fresh in my head...
Started off about 2.5 miles away from the race. Since I only ran 4 miles total the week before my original race plan was out the door and I was supposed to run 17 miles total for the day. I ran the 2.5 mile warmup, then got my chip and hit the bathroom and waited for the start. Started off with Cindy, who was not thinking today :-), but lost her at about the 1/2 mile mark. I was hoping to stay around 10 min pace through the beginning hilly part in the neighborhoods, then when I hit the tobacco trail, see what I could do.
Mile 1 was 9:50 and I had to constantly slow myself or I would have gone too fast.
Mile 2 was 9:42, but now I really had that feeling that I needed to go so I was looking for somewhere, but nothing
Mile 3 was 10:58, found a port a let and had to wait for one person, but better than going in someones front yard.
Mile 4 was 9:41, this pace was good and I was feeling good even on the hills
Mile 5 10:07, this was the hilliest mile of the race
Mile 6 9:32, Feeling good, but probably going too fast
Mile 7 9:46, with a walk break at the rest stop, I was planning to take a gel at this stop, and I did, but I was doing 9:15 when I came on the rest stop and after I hit the gel and got some water, it almost came right back up. Had to coast a while to recover.
Mile 8, 9:38 feeling good again and picking up the pace to try to break 2 hours.
Mile 9, 10:17 oops, had a gatorade at the turn around and once again had to hold it back or it was coming back up, and now my stomach was feeling sour. Time to abandon my hopes of breaking 2 hours. the plan now was just hold marathon race pace.
Mile 10, 9:44 doing ok, but stomach not happy
Mile 11, 9:48 starting to feel better, but this is mile 13.5 for me and my legs are saying, um you haven't held sub 10's for this long before what are you thinking?
Mile 12, 10:29 walk break at the last water stop. Just got water and it went down fine.
Mile 12.5, 4:27 for a 9:29 pace, it was all I could do to not take a walk break at the mile 12 sign, but there was a nice lady there cheering us on and I just couldn't do it to HER.
When I got done I was supposed to do a 2 mile cool down for 17 total, but did not. Instead I caught a ride to breakfast and my car. The way I was feeling it was for the best...
I really do like this race and all the miles I've put in made the hilly section easier. I think I could have broken 2 hours this year, but the 2.5 mile warmup and the bathroom break and then the gels did not help. I was taking nutrition for 17 miles, but doing a pace for 12.5 miles, not really the best way to do it. Live and learn.
Started off about 2.5 miles away from the race. Since I only ran 4 miles total the week before my original race plan was out the door and I was supposed to run 17 miles total for the day. I ran the 2.5 mile warmup, then got my chip and hit the bathroom and waited for the start. Started off with Cindy, who was not thinking today :-), but lost her at about the 1/2 mile mark. I was hoping to stay around 10 min pace through the beginning hilly part in the neighborhoods, then when I hit the tobacco trail, see what I could do.
Mile 1 was 9:50 and I had to constantly slow myself or I would have gone too fast.
Mile 2 was 9:42, but now I really had that feeling that I needed to go so I was looking for somewhere, but nothing
Mile 3 was 10:58, found a port a let and had to wait for one person, but better than going in someones front yard.
Mile 4 was 9:41, this pace was good and I was feeling good even on the hills
Mile 5 10:07, this was the hilliest mile of the race
Mile 6 9:32, Feeling good, but probably going too fast
Mile 7 9:46, with a walk break at the rest stop, I was planning to take a gel at this stop, and I did, but I was doing 9:15 when I came on the rest stop and after I hit the gel and got some water, it almost came right back up. Had to coast a while to recover.
Mile 8, 9:38 feeling good again and picking up the pace to try to break 2 hours.
Mile 9, 10:17 oops, had a gatorade at the turn around and once again had to hold it back or it was coming back up, and now my stomach was feeling sour. Time to abandon my hopes of breaking 2 hours. the plan now was just hold marathon race pace.
Mile 10, 9:44 doing ok, but stomach not happy
Mile 11, 9:48 starting to feel better, but this is mile 13.5 for me and my legs are saying, um you haven't held sub 10's for this long before what are you thinking?
Mile 12, 10:29 walk break at the last water stop. Just got water and it went down fine.
Mile 12.5, 4:27 for a 9:29 pace, it was all I could do to not take a walk break at the mile 12 sign, but there was a nice lady there cheering us on and I just couldn't do it to HER.
When I got done I was supposed to do a 2 mile cool down for 17 total, but did not. Instead I caught a ride to breakfast and my car. The way I was feeling it was for the best...
I really do like this race and all the miles I've put in made the hilly section easier. I think I could have broken 2 hours this year, but the 2.5 mile warmup and the bathroom break and then the gels did not help. I was taking nutrition for 17 miles, but doing a pace for 12.5 miles, not really the best way to do it. Live and learn.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
National Marathon Training week 17
Monday: Finally feeling better from my sinus infection and decided to do the Nog run on Monday night. Met Micheal at Tir na Nog in downtown raleigh to do a 3 mile run followed by free food and not free beer. He's a bit faster than I and wanted to start with the 8 - 9 min pace group. I said what the hell and took off with him. After the first two miles in 17 something I started to lag back and cruised in the last mile around 10 min pace. No warmup and running 5k pace was tough, but after a week off my legs were up to it, but I did get a nasty side stitch.
Tuesday: Track workout. 7 miles total
I had a 5,4,3,2,1 lap workout at 2:05 - 2:10 per lap with a 400 jog between. did my 2 mile warmup and was anxious to see how my legs would respond. Felt really good and hit all my numbers, but I was noticing that during my recovery my HR was not going down as low as normal, so after the 3 lap set I decided to cut it short by skipping the 2 lap set. Did my 1 lap in 2:03, then jogged back to the rec center. My legs were hurting big time after lunch. Might swim tomorrow instead of the back to the core class to rest the legs a bit.
Wednesday: Swim
woke up and actually felt good, like I wanted to exercise, it's been a while...
so I went for a swim. My legs were sore from yesterday's speed work and I felt the pool would be better than BTC today. Did a nice easy workout in my 92 degree pool ( note to self, turn down the heater ). 1.1 mile in 25 mins, mixed pull and swim
Thursday: Run 7.5
today was an 8 miler at an easy pace. I told the coach I would do the 10k loop and then if I felt good at the end I would tack on some more. I met Matt in the locker room, he's a bit faster than I as well, and he had 8 also. I was a little tentative about running with him as I wasn't sure how fast I could handle, but he said he was ok with going slow and we headed out. Ends up I felt fairly well and we did the loop and were at 10:10 pace so we decided to add some and I finished with 7.5 miles at 10:10 pace and felt good. It was a nice change. Off tomorrow, then 17, including a 20k race in the middle on Saturday...
Friday: off day
Saturday: coach bubba race report is here http://slowburntt.blogspot.com/2009/02/coach-bubba-race-report.html, total miles 15
Sunday: swimming
Woke up and did my swim early. Felt fairly good, but legs sore so it was nice to have my workout say over half should be pull.
did an easy warmup of half swim / half pull
then did a hard set of 12 mins pull and paddles at a good clip followed by 5 x :45 swim at 2.6 with :15 rest. Then an easy cool down of breast stroke and back stroke and for good measure did some yoga in the pool to stretch out the hips.
next week is the last really hard week before tapering, 41 total miles with a 22 mile run on Saturday
weekly miles: 33
Tuesday: Track workout. 7 miles total
I had a 5,4,3,2,1 lap workout at 2:05 - 2:10 per lap with a 400 jog between. did my 2 mile warmup and was anxious to see how my legs would respond. Felt really good and hit all my numbers, but I was noticing that during my recovery my HR was not going down as low as normal, so after the 3 lap set I decided to cut it short by skipping the 2 lap set. Did my 1 lap in 2:03, then jogged back to the rec center. My legs were hurting big time after lunch. Might swim tomorrow instead of the back to the core class to rest the legs a bit.
Wednesday: Swim
woke up and actually felt good, like I wanted to exercise, it's been a while...
so I went for a swim. My legs were sore from yesterday's speed work and I felt the pool would be better than BTC today. Did a nice easy workout in my 92 degree pool ( note to self, turn down the heater ). 1.1 mile in 25 mins, mixed pull and swim
Thursday: Run 7.5
today was an 8 miler at an easy pace. I told the coach I would do the 10k loop and then if I felt good at the end I would tack on some more. I met Matt in the locker room, he's a bit faster than I as well, and he had 8 also. I was a little tentative about running with him as I wasn't sure how fast I could handle, but he said he was ok with going slow and we headed out. Ends up I felt fairly well and we did the loop and were at 10:10 pace so we decided to add some and I finished with 7.5 miles at 10:10 pace and felt good. It was a nice change. Off tomorrow, then 17, including a 20k race in the middle on Saturday...
Friday: off day
Saturday: coach bubba race report is here http://slowburntt.blogspot.com/2009/02/coach-bubba-race-report.html, total miles 15
Sunday: swimming
Woke up and did my swim early. Felt fairly good, but legs sore so it was nice to have my workout say over half should be pull.
did an easy warmup of half swim / half pull
then did a hard set of 12 mins pull and paddles at a good clip followed by 5 x :45 swim at 2.6 with :15 rest. Then an easy cool down of breast stroke and back stroke and for good measure did some yoga in the pool to stretch out the hips.
next week is the last really hard week before tapering, 41 total miles with a 22 mile run on Saturday
weekly miles: 33
Sunday, February 15, 2009
National marathon training week 15&16
Let's see, I am going to break from the norm as the last two weeks haven't gone very well...
week 15 started off ok, but have been feeling a bit tired and had low energy the whole week. My workouts had been on target, so not too worried, but still I felt like I needed a break so I told the coach I was going to ease off the intensity a bit and recover a bit more. Thursday came and I woke up not feeling great, when I looked to far up,down,left or right, there was a weird shooting pain in my head. So I just didn't do that. My run went fine, and decided to do my 13 mile run on Sunday instead of saturday. Friday was a day off, and the weird pain was still there, but it was a day off and so I didn't think about it. Saturday was my swim that I was to do on Sunday, and it went fine and the weird pain was gone. The energy level was still low, but my recovery weeks to date haven't been all that great and usually the next week is better.
Sunday's long run was 13, I met cindy at Shelley lake for some flat easy miles. It felt a little harder than normal, but she was up for the walk breaks and we made it without too much difficulty. Afterward we met the families for brunch at golden Corral. I did not feel well at all at GC, but made it home without losing anything. When I got home I hit the scale and I had lost 5 lbs since the morning weigh in. That was before breakfast and all that I drank before during and after the run. So I attributed my crappy feeling to getting dehydrated. Little did I know what was in store.
Weekly miles: 23
Week 16: Got a sinus infection and felt like crap all week. Ran once for 4 miles. That's all I want to say about week 16...
Weekly miles: 4
week 15 started off ok, but have been feeling a bit tired and had low energy the whole week. My workouts had been on target, so not too worried, but still I felt like I needed a break so I told the coach I was going to ease off the intensity a bit and recover a bit more. Thursday came and I woke up not feeling great, when I looked to far up,down,left or right, there was a weird shooting pain in my head. So I just didn't do that. My run went fine, and decided to do my 13 mile run on Sunday instead of saturday. Friday was a day off, and the weird pain was still there, but it was a day off and so I didn't think about it. Saturday was my swim that I was to do on Sunday, and it went fine and the weird pain was gone. The energy level was still low, but my recovery weeks to date haven't been all that great and usually the next week is better.
Sunday's long run was 13, I met cindy at Shelley lake for some flat easy miles. It felt a little harder than normal, but she was up for the walk breaks and we made it without too much difficulty. Afterward we met the families for brunch at golden Corral. I did not feel well at all at GC, but made it home without losing anything. When I got home I hit the scale and I had lost 5 lbs since the morning weigh in. That was before breakfast and all that I drank before during and after the run. So I attributed my crappy feeling to getting dehydrated. Little did I know what was in store.
Weekly miles: 23
Week 16: Got a sinus infection and felt like crap all week. Ran once for 4 miles. That's all I want to say about week 16...
Weekly miles: 4
Sunday, February 1, 2009
National Marathon training week 14
Let's see, I can summarize this week in 5 words...
Holy Crap that was hard!
So here we go
Monday: 5 miles flat and easy. This was the easiest workout of the week. Only did 4.5 but at 10:04 pace and it was flat and enjoyable. Ran with cindy on black creek trail.
tuesday: my track workout was 6 x 1 mile ( 400 jog recovery ) getting faster each odd lap. Coach called and suggested I go in the morning since it might rain in the late morning when I normally go. It was really hard that morning to get going. The 1.75 mile warmup was tough, my legs were tired, my knees hurt and I had no energy. Luckily this wasn't a fast pace so i still felt I could handle it. I told Coach B that I was going to change it to 2 x 2 miles and 2 x 1 mile so I could get done quicker. My first two laps were at marathon race pace, or 9:50 / mile after those two I decided to skip the recovery and start the next set of 9:30 both of those went well two, I was in a groove, my hr was doing well and I was listening to endurance planet podcasts to take my mind of the boringness of running 30 laps by myself. so it ended up being 1 x 4 miles, then I did a recovery which I almost skipped, but was so happy I didn't. the next set was 2 x 1 mile at 9 min pace which on the track is usually very easy for me, but not today. The first I did ok, but the second was really hard. This is 10k pace so at mile 8 I guess it's supposed to be hard. I survived this one.
Wednesday: since this was the second hard week in a row I only had back to the core and no cycling this week. It was of course a hard class and my tired legs didn't help. My abs were doing fine, but whenever the set called for using the hamstrings for hip flexors I just couldn't do it.
Thursday: morning, a little sore in the abs, but since I really couldn't do the class as I should it wasn't bad. Had a 6-7 mile run today and I wanted to hit my 40 for the week so I had to do 6.5 since I only did 4.5 on monday. Started off really hard again, but after about 3 miles i started feeling better and finished off fairly strong so I had some hope for my 20 on the weekend. That night Erin texts me that we are meeting Lauren at breakfast at 11 so I have to come up with a route that starts and stops at cary cafe so I don't have to worry about rushing after the run is done.
Friday: day off, find route, but it is on turkey creek trail, I ran turkey creek once during my last marathon training so I knew it was hard, but figured it was doable and now would be the best time to do it and reep the benefits. aka get stronger for it, without sacrafising recovery.
Saturday: Still not doing great on energy, but still had to go. Picked up Erin and headed out. The first 9 miles of the run went really well, we were on 10:40 pace when we hit turkey creek and were doing good on the hills. Turkey creek really took it out of me and had to walk many of the hills, when we got to the spillway my legs just died. After a short break at the bathrooms I started off for the remaining 4 miles just hoping to survive. I left early thinking Cindy and Erin would catch me soon enough. Got about 1 mile and Cindy came beside me and said Erin was taking the short cut and was walking. I said I was going to whole way, but then turned around and saw Erin right behind so I waited for her. Earlier in the run I was telling her how I wasn't hung up on killing myself for one workout, but here I was ready to do it for this one. She asked what I was going to do so I told her, my brain says go long, but my body is screaming shortcut. She said she would do what I did and as long as we stayed together we could make it. Some blood must have made it back to my brain and I remembered what I said earlier and when we got to the shortcut spot I said shortcut. It saved us about 3/4 a mile and I really needed it. I think this run will really help in the end, but do not want to do that again. I think the loop from cary cafe is good, but I'll need to see how many miles if we the skip the turkey creek part before adding it my list or "normal" routes. I took two alleves and ate a big awesome breakfast, then went home, had more coffee and off to the ballet. came home and went to bed early.
sunday: knees are better this week than last, but muscles are much more sore. Did an easy swim with a lot of pulling and breaststroke and nothing that got my heart rate up too high. The pool was 90 so it felt great. Then did some yoga in the water that really helped. I knew trying to do this on land would not work as I would be spending too much energy staying upright and not enough getting the position right to get the benefit from it. I must say the yoga in the pool was awesome and really helped my hips loosen up. Then the girl joined me in the pool for some fun.
weekly mileage:39 - not the 40 I wanted, but still a record for me.
next week is a recovery week for me and I need it.
Holy Crap that was hard!
So here we go
Monday: 5 miles flat and easy. This was the easiest workout of the week. Only did 4.5 but at 10:04 pace and it was flat and enjoyable. Ran with cindy on black creek trail.
tuesday: my track workout was 6 x 1 mile ( 400 jog recovery ) getting faster each odd lap. Coach called and suggested I go in the morning since it might rain in the late morning when I normally go. It was really hard that morning to get going. The 1.75 mile warmup was tough, my legs were tired, my knees hurt and I had no energy. Luckily this wasn't a fast pace so i still felt I could handle it. I told Coach B that I was going to change it to 2 x 2 miles and 2 x 1 mile so I could get done quicker. My first two laps were at marathon race pace, or 9:50 / mile after those two I decided to skip the recovery and start the next set of 9:30 both of those went well two, I was in a groove, my hr was doing well and I was listening to endurance planet podcasts to take my mind of the boringness of running 30 laps by myself. so it ended up being 1 x 4 miles, then I did a recovery which I almost skipped, but was so happy I didn't. the next set was 2 x 1 mile at 9 min pace which on the track is usually very easy for me, but not today. The first I did ok, but the second was really hard. This is 10k pace so at mile 8 I guess it's supposed to be hard. I survived this one.
Wednesday: since this was the second hard week in a row I only had back to the core and no cycling this week. It was of course a hard class and my tired legs didn't help. My abs were doing fine, but whenever the set called for using the hamstrings for hip flexors I just couldn't do it.
Thursday: morning, a little sore in the abs, but since I really couldn't do the class as I should it wasn't bad. Had a 6-7 mile run today and I wanted to hit my 40 for the week so I had to do 6.5 since I only did 4.5 on monday. Started off really hard again, but after about 3 miles i started feeling better and finished off fairly strong so I had some hope for my 20 on the weekend. That night Erin texts me that we are meeting Lauren at breakfast at 11 so I have to come up with a route that starts and stops at cary cafe so I don't have to worry about rushing after the run is done.
Friday: day off, find route, but it is on turkey creek trail, I ran turkey creek once during my last marathon training so I knew it was hard, but figured it was doable and now would be the best time to do it and reep the benefits. aka get stronger for it, without sacrafising recovery.
Saturday: Still not doing great on energy, but still had to go. Picked up Erin and headed out. The first 9 miles of the run went really well, we were on 10:40 pace when we hit turkey creek and were doing good on the hills. Turkey creek really took it out of me and had to walk many of the hills, when we got to the spillway my legs just died. After a short break at the bathrooms I started off for the remaining 4 miles just hoping to survive. I left early thinking Cindy and Erin would catch me soon enough. Got about 1 mile and Cindy came beside me and said Erin was taking the short cut and was walking. I said I was going to whole way, but then turned around and saw Erin right behind so I waited for her. Earlier in the run I was telling her how I wasn't hung up on killing myself for one workout, but here I was ready to do it for this one. She asked what I was going to do so I told her, my brain says go long, but my body is screaming shortcut. She said she would do what I did and as long as we stayed together we could make it. Some blood must have made it back to my brain and I remembered what I said earlier and when we got to the shortcut spot I said shortcut. It saved us about 3/4 a mile and I really needed it. I think this run will really help in the end, but do not want to do that again. I think the loop from cary cafe is good, but I'll need to see how many miles if we the skip the turkey creek part before adding it my list or "normal" routes. I took two alleves and ate a big awesome breakfast, then went home, had more coffee and off to the ballet. came home and went to bed early.
sunday: knees are better this week than last, but muscles are much more sore. Did an easy swim with a lot of pulling and breaststroke and nothing that got my heart rate up too high. The pool was 90 so it felt great. Then did some yoga in the water that really helped. I knew trying to do this on land would not work as I would be spending too much energy staying upright and not enough getting the position right to get the benefit from it. I must say the yoga in the pool was awesome and really helped my hips loosen up. Then the girl joined me in the pool for some fun.
weekly mileage:39 - not the 40 I wanted, but still a record for me.
next week is a recovery week for me and I need it.
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