The Fall – Week 7, Speedwork

Workout: Warm [1.25 mi.], 3×800 @ 2:44 w/ 400 jog Weather: 75 degrees, partly cloudy.

Recap: Stopped halfway through.

It was a nice run, that is, a nice stretch of successful runs, but suppose everything comes to an end. Pretty much the same workout as last week, except I added 0.5-mile extra of warm-up.  Plan was 6×800 at the same pace. The idea with repeating workouts is to own the pace. Should start to feel a little more comfortable.

A little muggy out there (90% humidity). Still, the warm-up went well to be honest. The first rep was a little more work than I thought it should be. Second rep was even harder. After the third rep, I decided to back out. HR hadn’t maxed out by any means (185 bpm at the end of the third rep), and I probably could have finished the workout with a great effort. The idea for me though is that these workouts are supposed to feel easier over time. If something’s more difficult this week than last, then I’m better off resting. I think.

Rep 1: 2:43

Rep 2: 2:45

Rep 3: 2:45

Quitting isn’t great mental training – no doubt. But I’m more interested in staying healthy. Not changing any plans. 8 miles easy tomorrow and the 12 mile long run on Saturday. See if I can limit the damage to today.

Payback Tour – Week 13, Thursday

Workout: 1.17 miles @ 5:50 pace. Weather: 57 degrees, sunny.

Recap: Not a bad short run, but I’m going to have to rest. Great weather outside, but I still had to cut it short at 1 mile. I get the point. Legs are sore top to bottom, and it’s probably going to take time to heal. Core work and reading until it’s time to come back. Hopefully, I can get back out there in good shape before the middle of August.

Down time isn’t such a bad thing, I think. Going to try to learn something from this summer as well and prepare another plan for the fall.

Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Payback Tour – Week 12, Monday

Workout: 2 miles @ 6:10 pace; core work. Weather: 77 degrees, sunny.

Recap: Getting warmer now. Was able to power through it pretty well, but I get the feeling that 77 degrees on Saturday isn’t going to be good for my goal. Have to make it point to get out there by 8 a.m. instead of 9:20, like I did today. That also, means getting to bed earlier before race day. Should probably start working on that now. Seem to have the physical strength to pull this off, but I don’t want my heart working in the high-180s until the 3rd mile, if I can help it. Going to make this really simple for myself because thinking is too expensive:

3,000 calories + bedtime by 10 = likely win on Saturday.

 

Now to create some sort of chart to enforce this. Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Payback Tour – Week 9, Tuesday

Workout: 1.67 miles @ 6:10 pace; core work. Weather: 68 degrees, partly cloudy.

Recap: Well…couldn’t make it to the end this time. Legs are pretty tired. Cutting intake probably isn’t helping either. Pretty tired all the way around here. Liking the drop in weight though. In the past, I got to moments like these, and I abandoned my plans altogether in favor of something slower and easier. This time, I’m going to keep going. 6:10 and nothing slower, even if it means stopping. Going to keep eating healthy and trying to get some rest. Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Dirty, Dirty – Week 8 of 16

Summary

Good recovery week. I think.

I am a little disappointed that I haven’t improve a bunch since four weeks ago, BUT I have discovered something else: the importance of carbs. It’s pretty simple. When I eat a bunch of carbs (i.e. pizza, popcorn) before a run, I run better than when I don’t eat enough at all. The trick now is to try to find ways to load up on healthier carbs. The best run this week came on Friday, after eating 80% of a medium pizza with breadsticks. Sub-7:00 mile at about 75% effort. That’s a first. Stay at around that marker on both Saturday runs as well.

Still enjoying the running, but really trying to coordinate it with everything else. Still in the 20s outside, and I refuse to run in that. Especially with heart rate based training. Throws everything off. I think my knees and ankles are saying “Thank you” as well.

At the halfway point, now. Probably a little bit behind in training. Gotta get going.

 

Goals for the Week (to be revisited next week):

1) Tempo Run: Complete one of the three runs at 5:35 pace.

2) Sleep: 56 hours at least. Means taking care of business throughout the day.

3) Weight: Lose one pound.

 

Favorite quote from last week:

“Training is demolition. Nutrition and rest are recovery.”
– Randall (my brother)

 

Last Week’s Workouts

Sun  – 6 miles “long” (treadmill)

Mon – 3 miles easy (treadmill)

Tue – skipped

Wed – 3 miles easy (treadmill)

Thu – 3 miles easy

Fri – 3 miles easy (treadmill)*

Sat – 3 miles easy (treadmill) + 3 miles easy (treadmill)

Dirty, Dirty – Week 4 of 16

Summary

Great week 4 of the training plan. Every fourth week I take some time away from the tempo runs and recover. The “long” run gets shorter and every day is run at about a 75-80% (easy) effort. The terms “long” and “easy” are just there to indicate intensity for me. I understand there are marathoners out there dropping 18-mile runs in the snow. Respect.

The big addition to this week’s training plan was pull-ups. Long story short: on Sunday I was able to do three over-hand grip pull-ups consecutively. On Saturday, 6 days later, I was able to do 15 straight. Fun stuff. Basically, on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the workout was 3 sets of 15 pull-ups. I mixed in some overhand, some underhand and even some side grip pull-ups. While I was never able to get through the whole workout without stopping for minutes at time, the improvement came pretty fast, particularly on the first set.

Lesson of the week for me, mix in some strength training if you want to get faster. Pull-ups, pushups, crunches, squats…all of that stuff. The best running workout was Friday: 3 miles at 75% effort  at 7:01 pace. On Tuesday, I did the same run at 7:47 pace. Nice improvement.

 

Looking forward to this week:

1) Tempo Runs: It’s been 10 days now. Can’t wait to see what happens at 88% effort after a week of rest.

2) Track & Field: The season has just started and folks are running some amazing times. The running blogs are fun to read.

3) Carbs: My best run last week came at night after watching a hockey game and downing a medium pizza. By myself.

 

Favorite quote from last week:

“Writing down your goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible. Commitment to Consistency!” – Coach Jeff (Twitter)

 

Just wondering:

Is stretching a good thing or a bad thing? Hearing conflicting stories. I assume the very best runners stretch, but maybe I’m wrong.

 

Last Week’s Workouts

Sun  – 6 miles “long”

Mon – 3 miles easy (treadmill)

Tue – 3 miles easy

Wed – 3 miles easy (treadmill)

Thu – 3 miles easy (treadmill)

Fri – 3 miles easy (treadmill)*

Sat – 3 miles easy (treadmill)

Day 26 – The Chase

Rest

Nice day to do nothing. No complaints out of me. Just sat back and watched football today. HR is noticeably higher in the mornings now, up to 52 bpm from a low of 44 bpm last month. Some of that is school being in the final part of the semester, I’m sure. Still, stress can carry over into performance, so I’ll need to manage time and get stuff done – the only proven way I’ve seen that gets rid of stress.

Look forward to every run this week. Last week, I completed the speedwork and the long run with confidence – meaning that I won’t go into either run afraid this week. I can already see that I’m going to reach my goal of a 17:37-5K if I stay healthy and take care of my other responsibilities as well. I’ll start planning for next January through April soon. Going to need to set some bigger goals.

Projected 5K: 18:39 (6:00/mile)

Day 19 – The Chase

Rest

First planned day of doing absolutely nothing in some time. Read some pretty good articles on running today. Let’s see what did I learn: (1) the body adapts during rest periods (super compensation) but you have to workout hard enough to produce the right effect, (2) to reach a racing performance goal, you have to train at performance pace, (3)…Can’t think of anything else.

Decided that Mondays will be two-a-days to make up for the Sundays off. Won’t be too hard. Just 10:00 mile pace. I’ll reserve the right to move the two-a-day to Tuesday through Friday, depending on my schedule. Looking forward to the slight adjustment in schedule from here on out.

Projected 5K: 18:51 (6:04/mile)

Day 7 – The Chase

Easy Run: 4 miles @ 10:00 pace

Weather: 42 degrees, cloudy, dark

The night time run. Ain’t it great? Looking out for cars and jumping at every light you see. Gave and recieved the “stay positive” fist pump to/from my two friends running in the dark again. I think I’ll call them the “Two Amigos” until something more clever comes to mind. Good to see people doing consistent work out there. It will pay off. Happiness in the short term and health down the line. Another run in the bank for me. Need to focus this week on getting adequate (8+ hours) of rest and eating well enough to recover before next week. Going for at least a half gallon a day of water as well. Now to watch the the crazy political stuff on TV.  Hope everyone can enjoy election night in some fashion…and uh, yeah. Peace.

Projected 5K: 19:03 (6:08/mile)