Monday: 5.4 miles (7:06); 7.9 miles (6:55)
Tuesday: 10.7 miles (6:58). Crashed the last couple of miles on this one.
Wednesday: 9 miles with 6400m tempo in 20:28 (5:09, 5:09, 5:06, 5:04). Spencer alternated 800m on/400m off with me since this is right at his goal 5k pace. Felt a little sloppy at first but loosened up throughout the workout and wasn't too tired at the end. I debated adding in a couple of 400s, but since yesterday was bad, I called it a day.; 6.8 miles (7:06)
Thursday: 9.4 miles (6:55); 4 miles (7:36)
Friday: 8 miles (6:59); 3.8 miles with 6x200m faster strides. A middle schooler I work with was doing some 400s, so I paced him on the first 200m of each one.
Saturday: 10 miles with Shade Tree Trot 5k in 15:09. Felt decent on this and I think I could have run in the 14:40s if I really pushed it. I was a little bit worried about Wild Bill but he hung back, so it was just myself and Erick Kigen for the first 1km or so. After that, I gapped Erick on a gradual hill and slowly pulled away from the field over the course of the race to win by a little over 45 seconds. Splits were: 4:54, 4:56, 4:51. The course has some little hills and quick turns, so I think it runs about 15-20s slower than a fast road course. Anyway, a good effort for me.; 4.4 miles (7:09
Sunday: 20 miles (6:20). I haven't gone long in three weeks, so I wanted one more long run before the marathon in six days. While I won't gain any "real" fitness from it, I feel like I can gain a little muscle memory/neuromusclar fitness from it. Felt really smooth and tried to keep it easy since I just wanted the distance and didn't care about pace. I naturally dropped down to lower 6s the last 5-6 miles and it felt like I was jogging.
Week Total: 99.4 miles. Almost a 100 mile week but who cares? I felt a ton better the second half of the week, so I hope I carry that into the marathon this weekend. I'll still get a little bit of volume the first half of the week before backing off the last two days. While I'm hoping to use the marathon as a steady long run, I need to be ready for battle, if required. It's going to be hot and humid, so if I don't have any chumps trying to take me out, my goal will either be to run just under 2:24 or 2:26, depending on how I'm feeling.
Maybe later in the week, I'll give some hot tips (pun intended) for the Nashville Half-Marathon.
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
April 11th-17th Training
Monday: No running. Fever gone, but have no mojo.
Tuesday: No running. Rinse and repeat.
Wednesday: 4.6 miles (7:40); 4.5 miles (7:18)
Thursday: 5.4 miles (7:17); 3.6 miles (8:31). Since I had Super Squad practice right across the street, I went by and watched the high school county meet. The boys 1600m was a great race to watch and it was the classic gas tank vs. kicker showdown. Gas tank had about a 10m lead after the first lap, which he kept until 300m to go. The kicker caught him down the backstretch and passed with 200m to go, with about a 5m lead at the start of the homestretch. I thought it was game over but gas tank kicked like a man possessed and passed for the win in the final few meters to win in 4:24. Splits were something like: 65, 68, 69, 62.
I was also impressed with the girl who won the 100, 200 and 400, and who SHOULD be in the 800m, or will be in college, at least. She squeaked out wins in the former two events but smoked everyone in the 400m to win in 60.0. She has very little power and definitely runs like a middle distance runner. But in high school, everyone seems to run the shortest event they are good at.
Friday: 6 miles (7:14)
Saturday: 5.9 miles with SJV Wildcat 5k in 17:47. Obviously, the goal was to win so I could get my $100 and not get beat in almost my own backyard. I ran with the leader in the 5:50ish range and left him with about a half mile to go to win by about 10 seconds. Felt really flat. This could have got ugly because Tommy Kauffman (64:34 half-marathon PR) ran this race and was debating a kamikaze sneak attack on me but he just ran with a friend; 5.9 miles (8:15)
Sunday: 14 miles (6:58). The plan was a very easy 20. Spencer and I started at the normal long run pace for the first 6 or so and then I could feel a little tiredness creeping in. Once we hit 10, I knew it was going to get ugly, so I changed the route and I called it at 14. I hated to cramp Spencer's style because I was running well over 7:00 pace towards the end. My legs were shot and my hip flexors went on strike. Frustrating run.; 2.1 miles (9:16).
Week Total: 52 miles.Garbage week. Looking at my old logs, I've been able to recover much faster than this go around after the flu. This was week two of garbage training, which is frustrating because if I never got sick, I was going to hammer for two weeks, relax a bit this week and try to run 14:30ish in a road 5k this weekend. There's only eight weeks until the Distance Carnival and it's going to be hard to get in sub 14 shape. Maybe I can just go for a 14:12 PR and do a time trial this fall or something.
Tuesday: No running. Rinse and repeat.
Wednesday: 4.6 miles (7:40); 4.5 miles (7:18)
Thursday: 5.4 miles (7:17); 3.6 miles (8:31). Since I had Super Squad practice right across the street, I went by and watched the high school county meet. The boys 1600m was a great race to watch and it was the classic gas tank vs. kicker showdown. Gas tank had about a 10m lead after the first lap, which he kept until 300m to go. The kicker caught him down the backstretch and passed with 200m to go, with about a 5m lead at the start of the homestretch. I thought it was game over but gas tank kicked like a man possessed and passed for the win in the final few meters to win in 4:24. Splits were something like: 65, 68, 69, 62.
I was also impressed with the girl who won the 100, 200 and 400, and who SHOULD be in the 800m, or will be in college, at least. She squeaked out wins in the former two events but smoked everyone in the 400m to win in 60.0. She has very little power and definitely runs like a middle distance runner. But in high school, everyone seems to run the shortest event they are good at.
Friday: 6 miles (7:14)
Saturday: 5.9 miles with SJV Wildcat 5k in 17:47. Obviously, the goal was to win so I could get my $100 and not get beat in almost my own backyard. I ran with the leader in the 5:50ish range and left him with about a half mile to go to win by about 10 seconds. Felt really flat. This could have got ugly because Tommy Kauffman (64:34 half-marathon PR) ran this race and was debating a kamikaze sneak attack on me but he just ran with a friend; 5.9 miles (8:15)
Sunday: 14 miles (6:58). The plan was a very easy 20. Spencer and I started at the normal long run pace for the first 6 or so and then I could feel a little tiredness creeping in. Once we hit 10, I knew it was going to get ugly, so I changed the route and I called it at 14. I hated to cramp Spencer's style because I was running well over 7:00 pace towards the end. My legs were shot and my hip flexors went on strike. Frustrating run.; 2.1 miles (9:16).
Week Total: 52 miles.Garbage week. Looking at my old logs, I've been able to recover much faster than this go around after the flu. This was week two of garbage training, which is frustrating because if I never got sick, I was going to hammer for two weeks, relax a bit this week and try to run 14:30ish in a road 5k this weekend. There's only eight weeks until the Distance Carnival and it's going to be hard to get in sub 14 shape. Maybe I can just go for a 14:12 PR and do a time trial this fall or something.
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
April 4th-10th Training
Monday: 6.1 miles (7:14); 8.2 miles (6:53)
Tuesday: 6.1 miles (7:01); 8.9 miles (7:06)
Wednesday: 9.3 miles with attempted workout. Goal was 20x60s on/off and since my legs felt shot on the warm-up, I decided to use my GPS a bit and run the first five at sub 4:45 pace and drop five seconds after each five. Was able to run the first six intervals successfully and recover well in between even though my hip flexors were completely shot. On the seventh, my legs wouldn't go and I was over 4:50 pace, so I called it a day. I hate ending stuff so soon, especially when I've been a workout diva lately, but my legs were dead.; 4.4 miles (7:16). Legs were completely shot/crapped out. Worst run in months.
Thursday: 8 miles (7:09). Legs still hated me. I just wanted to walk. Skipped second run. Started feeling badly in the morning and it got worse as the day went on. Went to bed at 4:30pm and didn't get out of bed until over 12 hours later. Fever got up to 103.
Friday: No running. Fever at 102-103 all-day and spent the entire day in bed.
Saturday: No running. Fever still at 102-103. In bed nearly all day.
Sunday: No running. Fever dropped to 100-101. Felt good enough to get out of bed and watch a little bit of TV but still felt like crap.
Week Total: 51 miles. Never went to the doctor but being I've had it a few times in the past, this had to be the flu....Body aches, a little cough and congestion, eyes really hurt, insanely weak, tons of body chills, etc. Terrible timing and I hope it doesn't affect my marathon in three weeks and now that I think about it, I haven't had any marathon workouts. Whoops.
Hopefully I can resume some normalcy at the end of next week.
Tuesday: 6.1 miles (7:01); 8.9 miles (7:06)
Wednesday: 9.3 miles with attempted workout. Goal was 20x60s on/off and since my legs felt shot on the warm-up, I decided to use my GPS a bit and run the first five at sub 4:45 pace and drop five seconds after each five. Was able to run the first six intervals successfully and recover well in between even though my hip flexors were completely shot. On the seventh, my legs wouldn't go and I was over 4:50 pace, so I called it a day. I hate ending stuff so soon, especially when I've been a workout diva lately, but my legs were dead.; 4.4 miles (7:16). Legs were completely shot/crapped out. Worst run in months.
Thursday: 8 miles (7:09). Legs still hated me. I just wanted to walk. Skipped second run. Started feeling badly in the morning and it got worse as the day went on. Went to bed at 4:30pm and didn't get out of bed until over 12 hours later. Fever got up to 103.
Friday: No running. Fever at 102-103 all-day and spent the entire day in bed.
Saturday: No running. Fever still at 102-103. In bed nearly all day.
Sunday: No running. Fever dropped to 100-101. Felt good enough to get out of bed and watch a little bit of TV but still felt like crap.
Week Total: 51 miles. Never went to the doctor but being I've had it a few times in the past, this had to be the flu....Body aches, a little cough and congestion, eyes really hurt, insanely weak, tons of body chills, etc. Terrible timing and I hope it doesn't affect my marathon in three weeks and now that I think about it, I haven't had any marathon workouts. Whoops.
Hopefully I can resume some normalcy at the end of next week.
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
March 28-April 3 Training
Monday: 7.6 miles. I was going to do a 12 mile progression, but man, I was sleepy. Normally, I'm a 6-7 hour a night guy and last night I got nine and after this run, I took a two hour nap (it's Spring Break). I guess my body know it's "allowed" to catch up on sleep this week; 8 miles (6:58)
Tuesday: 11 miles. Plan was to do 4800m-3200m-1600m with 3:00 jog at 5:05, 4:55, 4:45 pace. It was insanely windy (20mph+ winds). I ran the 4800m in 15:07 and while it felt mostly smooth, but hamstrings were getting really achy and I had the same super sleepiness as yesterday. Shortly into the 3200m, my legs were shutting down in the wind, so I called it a workout. That's three days in a row that I axed my harder run. I need to cowboy up; 6.5 miles with 8x30s fast/2:30 moderate. After taking a nap, I was planning on easy run with hard strides but after a mile warm-up, I decided to run the workout I posted. The plan was just to run hard on the fast portion and keep it on the 5:50s on the jog. I ended up running 5:30 average for the 24 minutes with an "on" average of 4:10. I felt smooth on the fast portion and was able to recover pretty quickly in between. In February, I ran 8x30s on/2:30 slow jog and only averaged 4:23 pace on the fast portion (with a granny jog), so my speed is coming around.
Wednesday: 5.4 miles (7:03); 11.2 miles (7:03)
Thursday: 10 miles (6:58); 5.7 miles (7:22)
Friday: 5.4 miles (7:14); 10.5 miles with 5000m in 14:57. I was supposed to pace two miles of the open 5k at 16:00 pace and 45 minutes later, pace 3k of the high school 3200m at 9:20 pace. After an hour drive and 45 minutes before the 5k, I found out that they weren't allowing pacers and they forgot to notify me. I was pretty annoyed since my plan was out the window, so I jogged around for a while and if I had at least 10 minutes before the race, I'd run just under 15 minutes. If I had less than that, I'd run a few more miles and try a workout in the morning. I had about 10-15 minutes, so I went forward with my plan. I ran the first lap pretty lazily in 75-76, then ran nearly straight 71s until the last lap, where I put on the brakes a good bit the last 200m.
The effort was really smooth and the fact that I was clicking off 71s without paying attention to my splits shows that it was a controlled effort. I feel like I could have run about 14:30 if I raced it all out, which isn't bad during a heavy mileage week and in a solo effort. Hopefully I can chase 14:00 this season.
Saturday: 8.6 miles (8:28). Ran a little over five miles before practice and then a few miles at 10+ average; 5.4 miles (7:09)
Sunday: 21.2 miles (6:24). I ran two loops of the Boomer Route, with the Country Hills extension on both laps, which is about 4,000 feet of elevation change. Spencer ran the first lap with me and we took over a ten minute break after the first loop since I was locked out of my house. I rung the doorbell a million times and threw rocks at the bathroom window for a while but my wife was in the shower and my kids didn't come to the door because they thought a monster was trying to get into the house, so they were hiding.
I was hoping to open up on the hills the second half, especially towards the end, but my legs weren't really having much of it. It's been a tough week.
Week Total: 116.5 miles. Biggest week in a long time and I believe it's my third 100+ mile week in a row, after not doing any weeks that high for over five months. My fitness is still continuing to climb and I want to get in at least two more solid weeks of training. I'm happy with where my fitness is right now, because I was struggling a little over a month ago and my training has been random without much specificity. If I can buckle down in May, I think I'll race well in June.
Tuesday: 11 miles. Plan was to do 4800m-3200m-1600m with 3:00 jog at 5:05, 4:55, 4:45 pace. It was insanely windy (20mph+ winds). I ran the 4800m in 15:07 and while it felt mostly smooth, but hamstrings were getting really achy and I had the same super sleepiness as yesterday. Shortly into the 3200m, my legs were shutting down in the wind, so I called it a workout. That's three days in a row that I axed my harder run. I need to cowboy up; 6.5 miles with 8x30s fast/2:30 moderate. After taking a nap, I was planning on easy run with hard strides but after a mile warm-up, I decided to run the workout I posted. The plan was just to run hard on the fast portion and keep it on the 5:50s on the jog. I ended up running 5:30 average for the 24 minutes with an "on" average of 4:10. I felt smooth on the fast portion and was able to recover pretty quickly in between. In February, I ran 8x30s on/2:30 slow jog and only averaged 4:23 pace on the fast portion (with a granny jog), so my speed is coming around.
Wednesday: 5.4 miles (7:03); 11.2 miles (7:03)
Thursday: 10 miles (6:58); 5.7 miles (7:22)
Friday: 5.4 miles (7:14); 10.5 miles with 5000m in 14:57. I was supposed to pace two miles of the open 5k at 16:00 pace and 45 minutes later, pace 3k of the high school 3200m at 9:20 pace. After an hour drive and 45 minutes before the 5k, I found out that they weren't allowing pacers and they forgot to notify me. I was pretty annoyed since my plan was out the window, so I jogged around for a while and if I had at least 10 minutes before the race, I'd run just under 15 minutes. If I had less than that, I'd run a few more miles and try a workout in the morning. I had about 10-15 minutes, so I went forward with my plan. I ran the first lap pretty lazily in 75-76, then ran nearly straight 71s until the last lap, where I put on the brakes a good bit the last 200m.
The effort was really smooth and the fact that I was clicking off 71s without paying attention to my splits shows that it was a controlled effort. I feel like I could have run about 14:30 if I raced it all out, which isn't bad during a heavy mileage week and in a solo effort. Hopefully I can chase 14:00 this season.
Saturday: 8.6 miles (8:28). Ran a little over five miles before practice and then a few miles at 10+ average; 5.4 miles (7:09)
Sunday: 21.2 miles (6:24). I ran two loops of the Boomer Route, with the Country Hills extension on both laps, which is about 4,000 feet of elevation change. Spencer ran the first lap with me and we took over a ten minute break after the first loop since I was locked out of my house. I rung the doorbell a million times and threw rocks at the bathroom window for a while but my wife was in the shower and my kids didn't come to the door because they thought a monster was trying to get into the house, so they were hiding.
I was hoping to open up on the hills the second half, especially towards the end, but my legs weren't really having much of it. It's been a tough week.
Week Total: 116.5 miles. Biggest week in a long time and I believe it's my third 100+ mile week in a row, after not doing any weeks that high for over five months. My fitness is still continuing to climb and I want to get in at least two more solid weeks of training. I'm happy with where my fitness is right now, because I was struggling a little over a month ago and my training has been random without much specificity. If I can buckle down in May, I think I'll race well in June.
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