That's the feeling I'm currently having, after nearly breaking my elbow this morning. Bounding up the stairs from the basement, I slammed my right elbow up into the basement ceiling, and had massive pain and a very swollen knot right above the elbow. Ibuprofen and ice have helped, so I don't believe it's any worse than a cuntusion. The moral of the story is, one stupid accident can screw up all I've worked for in the past 15 weeks.
BTW, in the past 15 weeks, I've averaged 54 miles per week. The last 7 weeks I've managed to bump that up to 58/week. Still trying to get 60/week average, which considering I've yet to run more than 13 miles in a day yet this year is pretty amazing. So my consistency has been the key. Only 7 days off in the last 14 weeks. Nine doubles in the last 6 weeks. But running club is due to end in 2 weeks time, and I've got to chart out a weekend schedule that will get me to the line on October 7 fit and ready. Last week I had a nice series of runs Thurday thru Sun, w/ 8.5, 9.6, 10.5 and 9 miles. I like the concept of 30 miles in 3 runs on a 3 day weekend, so that's what I'm going to strive for here on out. If I get 16 in on a Saturday, I need to surround it w/ 14 miles on the other 2 days. If I do 10,10 and 10, that'd be good too. The plan would be to do something like this:
July 27-29 : 8, 15, 7
Aug. 3 - 5 : 9, 10, 11
Aug 10-12 : 9, 10, 12 (5K race Sat)
Aug 17-19 : 8, 15, 8
Aug 24-26 : 8, 17, 8
8/31 - 9/2 : 9, 10, 12 (5K race Sat)
Sept. 7 - 9 : 8, 17, 8
Sep 14-16 : 7, 16, 7 (1/2 marathon Sat)
Sep 21-23 : 9, 11, 10
Sep 28-30: 7, 9, 6 (5K race Sat)
Oct. 5 - 7 : 5, 3, 27
I'm racing more than I have in the past, but I've not done as much speedwork this training cycle, so I want to stay sharp. Plus, the 5Ks are all low key (2 are cross country races), and the 1/2 Marathon won't be done all out. Just have to relax and not do anything too stupid.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Where have I been?
OK, so I haven't posted for a while. Part of that is I've been busy working. Another reason is that I've been busy running (326 miles in the last 40 days). But most likely, the fact that I got a new laptop @ work where I post my blogs and for some reason the url was lost off of my favorites and I had to retrieve it through my google account. Anyway, enough about that.
So apparantly I recovered fine from my neck/upper back strain, and my running has gone very well since then. The past 5 weeks have seen 56, 59, 59, 56 and 49 mile weeks, and I'm @ 29 miles in 3 days this week. I've managed to incorporate the summer running club schedule of M, W and R afternoon runs into my normal morning runs with no real hiccups. For 3 weeks I ran once on Sun, Tues, Wed (pm), Fri and Sat, and twice on Mon and Thurs. On July 4th I managed a 37:53 for 10k that effort and execution wise, I'd rate a 7.5 out of 10, with the only real disappointment being a slowdown in miles 5 and 6. Still, I finished 11th overall and 1st in the always tough 40-44 AG, making it 3 consecutive AG wins for this race (+ 2 AG wins for the mile as well).
My running in relation to the training for Twin Cities seems to be going just fine as well. I sometimes wonder if I'm getting enough long runs in, but I still have 11+ weeks to go, so I feel pretty good about where I'm at. I should hit 60+ miles this week, and I'd like to average 60 for the 16 weeks proir to taper (currently @ 56/week for 6 weeks). Two years ago when I trained and ran 2:59, I averaged 54 mpw. But I am 2 years older, and the plan is to get this 43 year old to the start line healthy and in shape to run (I hope) a PR, in that order.
So I will try and post more regularly, and we'll see how it goes.
So apparantly I recovered fine from my neck/upper back strain, and my running has gone very well since then. The past 5 weeks have seen 56, 59, 59, 56 and 49 mile weeks, and I'm @ 29 miles in 3 days this week. I've managed to incorporate the summer running club schedule of M, W and R afternoon runs into my normal morning runs with no real hiccups. For 3 weeks I ran once on Sun, Tues, Wed (pm), Fri and Sat, and twice on Mon and Thurs. On July 4th I managed a 37:53 for 10k that effort and execution wise, I'd rate a 7.5 out of 10, with the only real disappointment being a slowdown in miles 5 and 6. Still, I finished 11th overall and 1st in the always tough 40-44 AG, making it 3 consecutive AG wins for this race (+ 2 AG wins for the mile as well).
My running in relation to the training for Twin Cities seems to be going just fine as well. I sometimes wonder if I'm getting enough long runs in, but I still have 11+ weeks to go, so I feel pretty good about where I'm at. I should hit 60+ miles this week, and I'd like to average 60 for the 16 weeks proir to taper (currently @ 56/week for 6 weeks). Two years ago when I trained and ran 2:59, I averaged 54 mpw. But I am 2 years older, and the plan is to get this 43 year old to the start line healthy and in shape to run (I hope) a PR, in that order.
So I will try and post more regularly, and we'll see how it goes.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Part time blogger...
Since I haven't posted anything for the past 19 days, it's catching up time. My mileage has been pretty steady, and I finished off May w/ 235 miles on 28 runs. June has started off well with 41 miles in 5 runs so far. The only negative is that I strained something in my upper back/right neck the past sunday that's just really painful. Running doesn't really make it any worse, but I'm not enjoying it or running with reckless abandon. I ran very easy on Sunday and Tuesday, and this morning let loose so to speak w/ a hard effort of 5.8 miles @ marathon pace (6:32). Ok, maybe that's fast for MP, but it's too slow for LT or tempo pace, so I'm sticking to it.
Weather has been really weird, with lots of rain, but generally cooler weather but high humidity. Tomorrow we're supposed to get hurricane force winds (70-90 mph) w/ a storm that will change temps from 90 to 60 after it comes through in the afternoon. This is Wisconsin where I'm living, right? Sounds like a good day to run in the morning, I believe.
The neck strain comes at a poor time, as this week is the 1st week of my 18 week training plan for the Twin Cities Marathon. The good news is that for the past seven weeks I've averaged 52 mpw, so if I drop back a bit until this thing subsides, I'll be just fine. I've tweaked my plan a bit, owing to the fact that for 8 weeks I'm leading the afternoon/evening session of the community running club. So for those 8 weeks, my schedule will look something like this (2 week grouping)
S - 10 am
M- 5-6 am, 5-6 pm
T- 8-10 (speed workout)
W- 6 pm
R- 6 am, 6 pm
F- 7-8 am
S- 12-15 am............65-70 for the week
S- 7-8 am
M- 6 pm
T- 10-11 am (strength)
W- 6 pm
R- 7 am, 6 pm
F- 8 am
S- 10-12 am...........60-65 for the week
I need to figure out how to work my normally scheduled Thursday marathon pace runs in. I think I'll most likely forego them in favor of the higher mileage I'll get from the doubles, and run a significant portion of my Saturday or Sunday runs @ MP. Quality is not something that I'm too worried about. Plus, I'll have 6 weeks after running club has finished to work in the MP runs. Time to start making hay...
Weather has been really weird, with lots of rain, but generally cooler weather but high humidity. Tomorrow we're supposed to get hurricane force winds (70-90 mph) w/ a storm that will change temps from 90 to 60 after it comes through in the afternoon. This is Wisconsin where I'm living, right? Sounds like a good day to run in the morning, I believe.
The neck strain comes at a poor time, as this week is the 1st week of my 18 week training plan for the Twin Cities Marathon. The good news is that for the past seven weeks I've averaged 52 mpw, so if I drop back a bit until this thing subsides, I'll be just fine. I've tweaked my plan a bit, owing to the fact that for 8 weeks I'm leading the afternoon/evening session of the community running club. So for those 8 weeks, my schedule will look something like this (2 week grouping)
S - 10 am
M- 5-6 am, 5-6 pm
T- 8-10 (speed workout)
W- 6 pm
R- 6 am, 6 pm
F- 7-8 am
S- 12-15 am............65-70 for the week
S- 7-8 am
M- 6 pm
T- 10-11 am (strength)
W- 6 pm
R- 7 am, 6 pm
F- 8 am
S- 10-12 am...........60-65 for the week
I need to figure out how to work my normally scheduled Thursday marathon pace runs in. I think I'll most likely forego them in favor of the higher mileage I'll get from the doubles, and run a significant portion of my Saturday or Sunday runs @ MP. Quality is not something that I'm too worried about. Plus, I'll have 6 weeks after running club has finished to work in the MP runs. Time to start making hay...
Friday, May 18, 2007
Consistency is the key
OK, I continue to be happy with my running progress, with the past 7 days workouts are as follows:
5/12 - 9
5/13 - 5
5/14 - 8.7
5/15 - off
5/16 - 8.3
5/17 - 7.85
5/18 - 8.2
All the miles were run between 7:00 and 8:00 pace. I've now run 215 miles in the last 30 days, 28 of them days I ran. It's time to really start prepping for June 3, when the 18 week program rolls out. I'm a little disappointed not to be running Syttende Mai tomorrow, but I wasn't ready for 20 miles yet. So I'll try and run 12 tomorrow, and see how I feel.
It was great fun watching my daugher run two meets this week. She ran the 1600 and 800 meters at both meets, and her performances were outstanding. On Monday, with the temperatures in the mid-80s and 20-30 mph winds, she ran 6:13 for the 1600 and 2:49 for the 800. Then on Tursday she followed that up w/ a 5:59 and 2:45, both PR's, at the conference meet. She got 3rd and 4th, and ran really good races. She did let one girl pass her on the inside at the end of the 1600, but she's only 13, so she still is on a steep learning curve. Yep, I'm proud!
5/12 - 9
5/13 - 5
5/14 - 8.7
5/15 - off
5/16 - 8.3
5/17 - 7.85
5/18 - 8.2
All the miles were run between 7:00 and 8:00 pace. I've now run 215 miles in the last 30 days, 28 of them days I ran. It's time to really start prepping for June 3, when the 18 week program rolls out. I'm a little disappointed not to be running Syttende Mai tomorrow, but I wasn't ready for 20 miles yet. So I'll try and run 12 tomorrow, and see how I feel.
It was great fun watching my daugher run two meets this week. She ran the 1600 and 800 meters at both meets, and her performances were outstanding. On Monday, with the temperatures in the mid-80s and 20-30 mph winds, she ran 6:13 for the 1600 and 2:49 for the 800. Then on Tursday she followed that up w/ a 5:59 and 2:45, both PR's, at the conference meet. She got 3rd and 4th, and ran really good races. She did let one girl pass her on the inside at the end of the 1600, but she's only 13, so she still is on a steep learning curve. Yep, I'm proud!
Friday, May 11, 2007
Starting to come together...
OK, I'm very happy with the past 7 days, where the workouts are as follows:
5/5 - 10.7
5/6 - 3.5
5/7 - 7.1
5/8 - 9.4
5/9 - 7.8
5/10 - 6
5/11 - 10.4
55 miles, and with the exception of Sunday, met or exceeded all of my goals going in. On Sunday, I decided to wear a new pair of trainers (Adidas Supernova Classics), and they made my feet feel pain I've rarely experienced. Absolute torture! Well maybe not that bad, but it certainly wasn't good. So I will try and work them into warm-ups, cooldowns or just walking in them to try and break them in a bit. Not giving up on them just yet. Wednesday's run was the only fast one of the past week, with a nice 19:30 ish 5k near the end. Still no real speed workouts yet, just some MP type efforts, but I really like my fitness level, and feel very confident that I'll be able to handle the greater volume as well as a bit more intensity that this summer's plan will entail.
Yes, this summer. I had my meeting w/ the H.S. Cross Country Coach and her assistant yesterday, and will be working with the kids through their volunteer summer running program. I'll help with the evening runs (M,T & R @ 6:00 pm), and also lead a Saturday trail run. They don't want the kids running any more than 8 miles per day. That's fine, and since the trail runs would start 2.5 miles from my house, there's no way I shouldn't be able to run the extra 5 there-back. So I guess I'll be doing some doubles this summer, no biggie. I'm looking forward to running with the kids and helping the team out. They also have 5k races for parents @ two of the meets this fall, on Sept 1 and the 29th. Again, that should fit into my schedule no problem.
Other good news - the Janesville 1/2 marathon has been moved back this year to it's traditional date of mid-September, 22 days before TCM, so running it should provide no problems for me. As for the TCM, I signed up for it last Sunday, and just need to get my time from Lakefront 2005 faxed to the TCM folks so I can get a preferred starting spot.
5/5 - 10.7
5/6 - 3.5
5/7 - 7.1
5/8 - 9.4
5/9 - 7.8
5/10 - 6
5/11 - 10.4
55 miles, and with the exception of Sunday, met or exceeded all of my goals going in. On Sunday, I decided to wear a new pair of trainers (Adidas Supernova Classics), and they made my feet feel pain I've rarely experienced. Absolute torture! Well maybe not that bad, but it certainly wasn't good. So I will try and work them into warm-ups, cooldowns or just walking in them to try and break them in a bit. Not giving up on them just yet. Wednesday's run was the only fast one of the past week, with a nice 19:30 ish 5k near the end. Still no real speed workouts yet, just some MP type efforts, but I really like my fitness level, and feel very confident that I'll be able to handle the greater volume as well as a bit more intensity that this summer's plan will entail.
Yes, this summer. I had my meeting w/ the H.S. Cross Country Coach and her assistant yesterday, and will be working with the kids through their volunteer summer running program. I'll help with the evening runs (M,T & R @ 6:00 pm), and also lead a Saturday trail run. They don't want the kids running any more than 8 miles per day. That's fine, and since the trail runs would start 2.5 miles from my house, there's no way I shouldn't be able to run the extra 5 there-back. So I guess I'll be doing some doubles this summer, no biggie. I'm looking forward to running with the kids and helping the team out. They also have 5k races for parents @ two of the meets this fall, on Sept 1 and the 29th. Again, that should fit into my schedule no problem.
Other good news - the Janesville 1/2 marathon has been moved back this year to it's traditional date of mid-September, 22 days before TCM, so running it should provide no problems for me. As for the TCM, I signed up for it last Sunday, and just need to get my time from Lakefront 2005 faxed to the TCM folks so I can get a preferred starting spot.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Been a while (again)
Ok, I've gone two weeks without writing anything, which isn't good. The good news is, in the last 14 days, I've run 106.5 miles, easily my best two week total of the past 18 months. Of course, I haven't taken an off day in that time either, but the consistency and my not feeling the need to take a day off are all good things, I'm sure.
Here's the summary...
4/20 - 5.75 fast
4/21 - 10 steady
4/22 - 5.2 easy
4/23 - 8.2
4/24 - 8.9 w/ last 5 in 32:21
4/25 - 6.4 quick afternoon run
4/26 - 6.8 steady
4/27 - 6.6 steady
4/28 - 8.2 w/ a 40:00 10k in the middle
4/29 - 6.7 easy
4/30 - 7.8 easy
5/1 - 10.8 steady
5/2 - 6.8 easy
5/3 - 8.4 miles w/ a 41:00 10k within
So I am running some faster workouts, but still nothing planned or organized. I had a chance to run Crazylegs, but Mike's soccer game in Platteville caused my to bypass it. I may not run a race until July 4 now, but I do feel like I'm right where I need to be. Twin Cities registration opens up next week, so I need to pull the trigger pretty quickly, since it fills up in 2 weeks or so. I believe that an 18 week program starting June 3 will be in the cards, with more focus on mileage and less on running fast. The marathon pace workouts are good indicators, but I want to be able to throw in a mid-week 11-13 mile run to make sure I have the mileage base where I want it to be. So I'll likely put in place a plan like this:
S1: recovery 6-8 miles S2: 10-12 miles steady
M1: 8-10 miles steady M2: 6-8 recovery
T1: 11-13 miles T2: speed/strength workout
W1: 4-5 recovery or rest W2: rest or 4-5 recovery
R1: MP workout, 8-12 total R2: MP workout, 8-12 total
F1: 6-8 recovery F2: 6-8 recovery
S1: 10-12 miles steady S2: 12-18 miles
Week 1 total: 55-60m Week 2 total: 60-65m
There will be 3-4 weeks in there where I'll be helping out with a summer running club for Jr and Sr high kids from our school district. This will be M, W and R early evenings. For Mon I'll double if it's a W1, and run as a recovery if it's W2. For Wed I'll run it as my recovery run, and for Thurs I'll probably flip-flop the speed/strength and MP workouts, so I'll stick to fast workouts in the A.M, and easy ones in the P.M. -- Note: I run 99% of my runs before 7:00 am, so that's why I'm not looking for anything fast during those running club runs. It's just to help the kids with their conditioning base for fall sports like soccer and cross country.
Ok, enough for this week.
Here's the summary...
4/20 - 5.75 fast
4/21 - 10 steady
4/22 - 5.2 easy
4/23 - 8.2
4/24 - 8.9 w/ last 5 in 32:21
4/25 - 6.4 quick afternoon run
4/26 - 6.8 steady
4/27 - 6.6 steady
4/28 - 8.2 w/ a 40:00 10k in the middle
4/29 - 6.7 easy
4/30 - 7.8 easy
5/1 - 10.8 steady
5/2 - 6.8 easy
5/3 - 8.4 miles w/ a 41:00 10k within
So I am running some faster workouts, but still nothing planned or organized. I had a chance to run Crazylegs, but Mike's soccer game in Platteville caused my to bypass it. I may not run a race until July 4 now, but I do feel like I'm right where I need to be. Twin Cities registration opens up next week, so I need to pull the trigger pretty quickly, since it fills up in 2 weeks or so. I believe that an 18 week program starting June 3 will be in the cards, with more focus on mileage and less on running fast. The marathon pace workouts are good indicators, but I want to be able to throw in a mid-week 11-13 mile run to make sure I have the mileage base where I want it to be. So I'll likely put in place a plan like this:
S1: recovery 6-8 miles S2: 10-12 miles steady
M1: 8-10 miles steady M2: 6-8 recovery
T1: 11-13 miles T2: speed/strength workout
W1: 4-5 recovery or rest W2: rest or 4-5 recovery
R1: MP workout, 8-12 total R2: MP workout, 8-12 total
F1: 6-8 recovery F2: 6-8 recovery
S1: 10-12 miles steady S2: 12-18 miles
Week 1 total: 55-60m Week 2 total: 60-65m
There will be 3-4 weeks in there where I'll be helping out with a summer running club for Jr and Sr high kids from our school district. This will be M, W and R early evenings. For Mon I'll double if it's a W1, and run as a recovery if it's W2. For Wed I'll run it as my recovery run, and for Thurs I'll probably flip-flop the speed/strength and MP workouts, so I'll stick to fast workouts in the A.M, and easy ones in the P.M. -- Note: I run 99% of my runs before 7:00 am, so that's why I'm not looking for anything fast during those running club runs. It's just to help the kids with their conditioning base for fall sports like soccer and cross country.
Ok, enough for this week.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Better just in time
Well I finally got my orthodics adjusted this week, and it's about time. I had been suffering with a variety of minor ailments to me feet, knees, legs and hip, mostly on the left side, that I attribute to A) shoes getting old and B) inserts needed to be adjusted. Luckily my podiatrist has a son that plays soccer w/ Mike, so I gave them to him at the soccer game on Sunday, and had them back on Tuesday. Yesterday when I went out, it seemed like the change was really a lot. I didn't feel comfortable, so I stopped after 1/2 mile and walked home. Then I spent the day walking with the inserts in my work shoes to get used to it before running. This morning I ran 7 miles and everything felt fine.
2nd, I got my new watch yesterday, and was excited about running with it for the 1st time in 2 weeks this morning. Unfortunately, the battery appeared to die, so I had no mile splits. I think its just the indiglo light doesn't work well, and if you try to do the stopwatch while the light's engaged, it sucks it down, b/c the watch came back after a while, and is working fine right now. If worse comes to worse, I'll just by a watch battery.
So my running for the past week was like this:
4/12 - 7 mile fartlek run
4/13 - 5 easy miles
4/14 - off
4/15 - 6.6 easy miles
4/16 - 7.7 easy
4/17 - 9 miles with a lot of tempo surges
4/18 - off
4/19 - 7.1 miles
Oh, Mike had his 1st track meet on Tuesday. He ran the 400 in the distance medley relay, and did very well, running a 58.9 leg, which is his best time so far. They got 3rd as a relay team, and the team won the meet! He runs another 400 on a relay tommorow, but I'll be missing it, b/c megan has a meet at the same time. She's running the 800 and the 400 in relays at a Boy-Girl team event. They should do pretty well. It'll be fun to watch, and I promised to behave!
2nd, I got my new watch yesterday, and was excited about running with it for the 1st time in 2 weeks this morning. Unfortunately, the battery appeared to die, so I had no mile splits. I think its just the indiglo light doesn't work well, and if you try to do the stopwatch while the light's engaged, it sucks it down, b/c the watch came back after a while, and is working fine right now. If worse comes to worse, I'll just by a watch battery.
So my running for the past week was like this:
4/12 - 7 mile fartlek run
4/13 - 5 easy miles
4/14 - off
4/15 - 6.6 easy miles
4/16 - 7.7 easy
4/17 - 9 miles with a lot of tempo surges
4/18 - off
4/19 - 7.1 miles
Oh, Mike had his 1st track meet on Tuesday. He ran the 400 in the distance medley relay, and did very well, running a 58.9 leg, which is his best time so far. They got 3rd as a relay team, and the team won the meet! He runs another 400 on a relay tommorow, but I'll be missing it, b/c megan has a meet at the same time. She's running the 800 and the 400 in relays at a Boy-Girl team event. They should do pretty well. It'll be fun to watch, and I promised to behave!
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