Sunday, January 25, 2009

National Marathon Training week 13

Monday: Had five easy miles today, but had to run at home since the girl was off for mlk day and I was staying home with her. Running from home is never easy as the neighborhood features some big hills. I wanted to stay in hr zone 3 today but I knew the last mile that was not going to happen due to one of those aforementioned hills. So I started off nice and easy and really concentrated on easing up going downhills so my hr would lower enough to not peak too high on the uphills. Only went into zone 4 for a few minutes on that last hill, and felt pretty good today.
5 miles with a 10:30 ave pace.

Tuesday: Today was supposed to be a track day, but the snow made that impossible so when I got up and saw it coming down hard and already 2 inches on the ground, I broke out the cross country shoes with the spikes, got bundled up and headed out to do my 2 mile warmup. It was awesome, except for the fact that the snow stung my eyes, it was perfect. Then headed into the house for some speedwork on the treadmill. Did 4 x (4 mins fast / 2 easy / 2 faster / 4 recovery), then only did a half mile of my 2 mile cool down as the kid really NEEDED to go out in the snow and wanted to take the cat for a walk in it.

Wednesday: another snow day, so no biking outside was possible, so I stayed inside and did a 45 min spinnervals dvd and a core/Resistance workout.

Thursday: Still snow on the ground, but I thought umstead would be ok, so cindy and I headed out for our normal 10k loop, she was going to cut off at the 5 mile spilt and I was supposed to negative split the last 2 miles. We got to umstead after 2.5 miles and it was covered in snow and I saw a sign that the trail was closed. I just thought they meant the hiking trails so proceeded into the park. got about 50 yards and the snow was hiding ice underneath so we decided to just turnaround and run back. Then I got the joy of trying to negative split miles on a mostly uphill very hilly campus. Needless to say that didn't occur, but the workout was supposed to build strength, so really pushing on those hills, I'm sure, did the trick.

Friday: day off, it was great, but getting a little nervous about the 18 on Saturday.

Saturday: Started off with temps in the low 40's so after last week's 18 degrees, it was a joy. Still cold on the black creek trail but after about 3 miles I was warmed up, then at mile 5 the fleece top came off and I just ran in a short sleeve running shirt. The first part of the run was going great, I noticed my hr was up from the previous 16 I did on the same route, but we were going faster, and still I felt pretty good. At the 16 mile mark we were at a 10:40 pace compared to 10:44 the last time I did 16, but I still had 2 miles to go. I was really hurting but decided to just do the 2 miles in survival mode, I sent Erin on ahead as she was feeling good and I didn't want to slow her down, or have the pressure of trying to keep up. Mile 17 was harder as it is a slight uphill and I walked twice, but after the turn around, I started feeling better with the slight downhill and only had to walk once. Once the run was done, it was real struggle to get up the hill back to the car. Then finally we got to breakfast and I was starving, wanted to just keep eating, but had to leave to get home.

Sunday: it was tough going this morning, right knee was buggin me, both legs sore, and I was a little tired and dragging, but I still got in the pool. it helped that I cranked the heat last week and it was probably 90 degrees. Swam 1.2 miles in about 30 mins, with a little kicking that really helped the knee.


weelky miles = 35, next week is my first 40 mile week ever and the first 20 mile run of this training period.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

National Marathon Training Week 12

This was a recovery week for me, but sure didn't feel like it on Saturday.

Monday: Day off, still riding the high from last week so it was really hard to take the day off, but I scheduled a massage which meant no lunch workout so that helped.

Tuesday: 5 easy. Still feeling really good and my 5 miles easy was just that, easy. did 5.4 at around 10:15 pace

Wednesday: Heater broke so had to work from home, did 30 mins of mtn biking at a place near my home after heater was working again.

Thursday: 7 miles easy. Ran the umstead 6.2 mile loop and then added a bit to the end to make it 6.6 miles at just under 10 min / mile pace. Not really easy, but still feeling good.

Friday: Another day off

Saturday: Today really sucked. Woke up to no water in the house and 11 degree temps.
too many things conspired against me today and my run just didn't go well.
Due to the cold temps I had planned to start running around 9:45 to get some sun and I was going to eat breakfast at 6, then have a banana around 9. Morning started off with no water in the house. Ate my breakfast at 6:30, then tried to figure out why we had no water, by 8:30 and still no water I had to goto Erin's house to get some water so we could flush the toilets and then by the time I was ready to go the banana was long forgotten. Started around 9:45 and it was still only 18 degrees, my legs never really got warmed up and it was really hard to keep turning over, then one of the people running with us hurt his knee so we were taking walk breaks to make sure he was ok and we would run up, then run back while he walked and that kept us off getting into a good rythm on the way back. Then about mile 10 I bonked and just had to stop. Erin kept going for another loop around the lake and I went the other way slowly to get to 11.
total
11 miles in 1:58:51 - 10:48 ave pace
ave hr 147, for the effort the hr was too high.
splits
1: 10:22 - left shin pain
2: 9:37 - warming up a bit
3: 9:31 - feeling ok, but it felt too hard
4: 9:40 - still feels hard and legs won't warmup
5: 10:26 - knee blow out ( not mine )
6: 9:44 - back in groove
7: 10:29 - stop for gel
8: 12:12 - knee guys starts walking
9: 11:05 - back and forth
10: 11:38 - bonking
11: 14:01 - half walk half run

Sunday: easy swim, been a while since I just did a straight 1 mile swim so did 8 mins of easy warmup, then 20 mins a faster pace and 4 mins easy cool down. just swimming for 1.1 miles

This was a tough ending to a good week, hopefully the weather and my legs will cooperate better next week...

weekly milage 23

Sunday, January 11, 2009

National Marathon Week 11

This was a tough week, but amazingly I felt good for every workout. Next week is a recovery week to rest up for the last two weeks of the month which should prove to be extremely difficult. At least that's what I'm hoping for.

Monday: I was really sore from the weekend but luckily I only had 4 miles easy followed by 5 x 100 strides at the end. Did the 4 miles in 10:30 pace, but it wasn't easy and then the strides which actually felt good.

Tuesday: Still a little sore, but 100 times better than monday. Gotta love those recovery runs. The workout was 1.5 mile warmup, then 3 x 2 miles at 8:50 pace and 1 mile cool down. It was cold and drizzly. I had company for the warmup, and there were people at the track for the first two reps, but by the time I started the 3rd two mile repeat, I was by myself and the cold and rain were getting to me. I managed to do all 3 at 8:45 pace, but my cool down jog was only 1/2 mile instead of the full mile.

Wednesday: Met with the coach at lunch to go over the year plan so had to get both workouts in the morning. Did 35 mins of spinning on the bike while playing mario cart wii, then did a 20 min core workout.

Thursday: This was a 6 mile recovery/steady run. I didn't look at the details since all my recovery runs are at "comfortable" pace. Luckily today comfortable was a little faster than usual. Plus Erin and Vivian ran with Frank and I so the pace was a more lively 9:50 which included a 5:19 up half mile hill. Frank dropped out and did the 5.5 mile option and then we picked up the pace for the last mile to sub 9's to make up for the wait at the intersection. Felt really good on the hills on this one.

Friday: day off, yoga in the morning

Saturday: This was the 16 mile run at comfortable pace. Can 16 miles ever really be comfortable? I guess I'll find out when I do my 18 mile comfortable run in 2 weeks. This run went better than last week. I changed my walk breaks to be every 2 miles instead of every mile, this allowed me to get more into a rythm and relax into the run, without so many breaks. my ave pace for the whole run was 10:44 where last week it was 10:47. And I ran the last 3 miles without a walk break just like last week, but this week my last 3 miles were 1:10 faster. I ran mile 14 with Frank who was doing 8 and trying to average sub 10, after about a half mile I had to let him go as 9:25 was not what I wanted to do on mile 14, but I managed to do 9:48, then 10:07 and 10:08. Mile 16 felt better this week than 15 last week and my recovery after the run was faster as well.

Sunday: Easy swim, but legs are much better than last week. I actually felt good enough to do 5 mins of kicking.

I have a bit more confidence after this week, but the last two weeks of this month are still looming...

weekly mileage: 35