Good Week

Finished up last week with a nice easy recovery run on Saturday and then a 20 miler on Sunday. The 20 miler was probably one of the best 20 milers I've had in a long time. Things warmed up a bit by Sunday morning so the temps were at least in the 20's, maybe even 30's for this run. However, the biggest factor in this run was that there was no wind. Cold can be dealt with, but when the wind starts whipping, it can get painful.

I ran this one with my friend Dave and we were both feeling pretty good from the get go. We got to the turn-around point with the overall pace at 6:51 and slowly brought it down on the second half of the run. I think most of our splits for the last ten miles were in the 6:35-6:38 range, and when we finished, the overall pace was down to 6:44. So this is how last week went down:

Mon: 8 Miles with 12 X 400 @ 76 each with 200 Rest Interval
Tues: 8 Miles with 4 @ 5:39 pace
WedAM: 9 Miles @ 6:35 pace
WedPM: 6 Miles @ 7 Pace
Thurs: 14 miles @ 6:40 Pace
Fri: 8 Miles with 6 X 800 @ 2:30 each with 500 rest Interval
Sat: 7 Miles @ 7:10 Pace
Sun: 20 Miles @ 6:44 Pace
Weekly Mileage: 79 Miles
YTD Mileage: 557 Miles

So overall I'm very pleased with how I'm feeling right now and the amount of intensity that I've been able to handle so far. I'd still like to figure out how to add in some more mileage to the schedule, but so far it hasn't been possible. I'm hoping that as things beging to thaw out around here, those second runs won't become as difficult to fit in and some of those 8 mile runs will become 10 mile runs.

Rather oddly, this weeks calls for a lot of easy running. The only real workout that I have is a 15 miler with 2 X 3 mile @ 5:39 pace. That should be tough, but hopefully with some fresh legs it shouldn't be too much of a problem. And yes, the legs were feeling pretty dead coming out of last week. However, after a couple of easy 9 mile runs yesterday and today things are starting to feel back to normal.

Hanging in There

The training continues. This is definitely the most intense training I've ever done and it has left me feeling very unmotivated to write about it. Apparently exhaustion and creativity do not go together. Not that this the writing here was ever all that creative, but you get the idea.

2/18 - 8 Miles w/ 12 X 400 @ 76 seconds with a 200 rest interval in between
2/19 - 8 miles with 4 @ 5:39 Pace
2/20 - 9 miles @ 6:35 pace AM, 5 Miles @ 7 Min Pace PM.
2/21 - 14 miles @ 6:40 pace.
2/22 - 8 Miles with 6 X 800 @ 2:30 with 500 rest interval in between

The hardest part of the week is over, with just a long run left to do this week. Next week there is very little speed work on the agenda, so I hope to put in a nice week of big mileage, just like the old days.

The Great Outdoors

Last night I convinced myself that I had to get outside today to knock out the 17 miler on the schedule. I haven't done a long run entirely outside in a few weeks, and I really didn't want to continue to put it off. The forecast was for temps to be in the in the teens in the midmorning, but not a ton of wind which would at least prevent the wind chills from dipping below 0. The other added bonus was that whatever wind that would be out would be blowing from the south which means it would be at my back for most of the run. Cold weather isn't so bad, as long as you don't have a nasty wind whipping through you the whole time. That can get painful.

Overall the run went pretty good. Since I run the first half of this run on city streets, the footing was a little tough at times, as there were long stretches of non-shoveled sidewalks, but once I hit the lake front path it was pretty smooth sailing the rest of the way. My overall pace was 6:41 and I finished feeling tired but not wiped out. My splits were pretty much all over the place for the first half since a lot of it depended on the footing, but for the second half I was pretty consistently in the mid 6:30s.

Normally if I put in a nice long marathon paced run, a interval session, and a 17 miler I'd be thinking that I finished off a pretty good week. However, with this crazy schedule, I still have some mile repeats and another long run on tap. Peaking ahead at the weeks coming up in the schedule I must say I'm a bit confused. I really don’t see any other weeks that have the kind of stacked up workouts as this first week. There are some tough workouts coming up, but nothing consistently tough as this week has been. That at least gives me some hope that if I can survive week 1, the rest of the schedule will be doable.

A New Direction

The frustration level continued to grow over the weekend, as this weather just isn't conducive to good training. It's seems that every day is either freezing temps, snowing, or both. What makes it so frustrating, is that right now, I don't really have a plan. I know I want to run a marathon in late April, but I wasn't really focusing my training. I basically had the philosophy that I would try and run as many miles as possible until then. However, when the weather is like that, running tons of miles just isn't all that fun. So finally on Sunday night, I decided to sit and see what I could do about it.

I realized that I was exactly 10 weeks out from my goal spring marathon. I then went and looked at an old book that I recently found called "The Self-Coached Runner." In it they have some pretty aggressive training programs for distances from the 5K up to the marathon. It is heavy on speedwork and probably a little lighter than I'm used to on the mileage end. I wanted to give it a try at some point, so I figured now would probably be as good a time as any to give it a shot. If I tank in my spring marathon, at least I'll know that this kind of training isn't for me.

So with that, I set off on the prescribed workout for Monday which was 10 X 400 @ 76 seconds each. I haven't done quarters in years, so I had no idea if my legs would be able to handle it, but for the most part, it went pretty good. Since we got another dusting of snow, it made doing these outside nearly impossible, so I did them on the treadmill, set at 11.8MPH and the incline at 1%. Just to keep things simple, I did a .15 mile recovery interval between each rep with the speed varying from 7-8MPH, depending on how I was feeling. With warmup and cooldown the run was 8 miles and I left feeling pretty good.

The next day I wasn't sure how I was going to be feeling since I haven't run that fast in a workout in a long time. Surprisingly, I felt pretty good, which was a good thing considering what the schedule held for today. "12 Miles of easy running, incorporating 10 miles in 60:00." Hmmm. Talk about a contradiction. Easy running and 10 miles in 60 minutes certainly don't go together. Due to a time crunch, I didn't have time to fit in all 12 miles, so I opted for 10 miles of "easy running" incorporating 9 miles in 54:00. Again this was done on the treadmill with the incline at 1% and again, I felt surprisingly good for this run. I say it was suprising because I usually have a hard time maintaining 6 min/mile pace on the treadmill, mostly due to the sheer boredom of it all (at least that's what I tell myself).

Afterwards I could feel that there was going to be some soreness in my quads from the back to back tough workouts, but nothing too bad. Today was an easy day and I needed it. I did 9 miles right around a 7 minute pace. It felt good to do something nice and slow today after the first two tough days this week. The next two days call for a 17 mile run and then mile repeats the following day. Not much of a break for the weary there. I have no idea if I'll hold up under the demands of this schedule, but it's time to see if I can. As they say, No Risk, No Reward.

Treamill Overdose

The motivation is low right now, which I think is directly attributable to the crappy weather that we've been having. I'll just admit that I'm not a tough a runner when it comes to cold weather. I hate it. I'm sure that says something about my intestinal fortitude, but I don't care.

So I've been on the treadmill a lot lately, and that is just bad for motivation. This morning was 14 miles on the treadmill until I finally just had enough. I went and changed into my cotton sweatshirt and jogging pants that I had at the gym and ran the final 4 miles outside. I felt like Rocky Balboa with my hood up and my hands tucked safely in my shirt sleeves.

Anyway, I'm surviving, and this weather can't last forever. I know there are probably better ways to cope with it (like growing a pair and going outside), but hey. I am what I am.