Week in Review

Mon: 12 Miles
TuesAM: 10 Miles w/ 10 Strides
TuesPM: 6 Miles Easy
Wed: 11 Miles w 8 @ 5:41
Thurs: 14 Miles
FriAM: 10 w/ 10 Strides
FriPM: 6 Miles Easy
Sat: 13 Miles with 5K @ 16:25
Sun: 20 Miles @ 6:31

Total: 102 Miles

Did a 5K on Saturday that was probably a tad long due to a misplaced turn-around cone at mile 2. Splits were 5:05, 5:40 (long?), 5:10 for a finishing time of 16:25. With the high mileage lately and lack of real speedwork, I wasn't expecting much out of this race, so I was actually pleasantly surprised with what I had. I was probably a bit obsessive about getting in some supplemental mileage before and after the race, but hey, sometimes obsessive is good. Sunday's 20 miler was probably the easiest time I've had with a 20 miler in years. It just felt great from the first step. Too bad they can't all be like that.

I'm pretty happy with how this week turned out. With only 9 runs for the week I was able to log 90 miles in singles and then an addition 12 miles with 2 doubles of 6 miles each. I still feel like this is the way to go (loading up on the one primary run and the supplementing that with a couple of easy 2nd runs), but from a time perspective it isn't always possible. This week the cards fell right.

Grinding it Out

For some reason, the miles seem to be getting to me this week. I guess you could call it the dog days of summer, even though summer hasn't officially started yet. Grinding out 100 mile weeks without any real validation that what you're doing is actually working is kind of tough and the monotony of it can sometimes get to you. That's where I'm right now. However, I've dealt with this in the past and usually the way to get through it is to just continue to pile on the miles.

It seems that every week is a battle in itself. On Monday, the realization comes to me that last weeks mileage doesn't mean anything anymore and it's time to start over. By Wednesday, I'm usually sitting on a decent two days of running, but the hard work is still ahead with a tempo run and long run combo on the horizon. By the weekend, if all goes according to plan, the hardest of the work for the week is behind me and I can kind of coast to 100 miles. And then it's Monday again. Like I said…it's a grind.

I'm not sure that I've mentioned it on here before, but the plan right now is to maintain these 100 weeks through July with a few tempo runs mixed in. Then, come August, I'm going to switch over to the program that I used for my spring marathon, which is extremely heavy on speedwork. While I'd like to keep my mileage in the 100/week range, the goal really is to nail the workouts, so if I have to drop the mileage a little during those 2 months prior to Chicago, I will. My friend Dave is going to do the program with me and he has made a few modifications to it, most notably to incorporate some more tempo runs and marathon paced work into the 10 week program. Looking at the program, I'm fairly confident that if I can come into August with a nice base, the speed will take care of itself.

So Monday was a 12 mile run somewhere in the 6:30 - 6:40 range. I'm sure the mileage is correct, but I didn't have my watch with me, so I'm not sure of the exact pace. It really took me a long time to get loose during the run, and I didn't really feel comfortable until about half-way through it. Finally once I turned around, things started to click and I felt good. On Tuesday it was more of the same. I was just extremely dead during my morning run. Finally after about 8 miles, I stopped at a nice grassy field and did 10 strides. I'm trying to focus on doing strides more, as I can really tell that I am losing a lot of the speed that I was able to gain over the winter. I wish I could say the strides felt great, but they didn't. It felt like it was the first time I've run fast in, well, ever. The good news is that after I finished the strides the rest of the run felt much better. Maybe I loosened something up with the strides. Later in the day I did 6 miles at a nice and easy pace.

Today I decided to revisit the tempo run that I kind of blew up on last week. I got my new Garmin in the mail yesterday so I was ready. I decided to wear the heart rate monitor just to get some idea of what my heart was up to on these runs. I've never worn a heart rate monitor before so I had no idea what to expect. I think the numbers look OK, but without having a real accurate idea of what my Max HR is I guess I can't draw too many conclusions from the data. Anyway, the run went much better than last week with an average pace of 5:41 and a average HR of 168 for the 8 mile tempo portion of the run. The mile paces went like this:

Pace - HR
5:45 - 158
5:51 - 162
5:34 - 166
5:38 - 168
5:38 - 169
5:47 - 172
5:36 - 173
5:41 - 174

Any HR experts out there that can tell me if that kind of drifting upwards is normal? It doesn't seem to drastic to this untrained eye.

Continue to Build

Mon: 14 miles @ 6:30
TuesAM: 9 Miles @ 6:36
TuesPM: 6 Miles Easy
Wed: 11 w 8 @ 5:55 pace...fell apart at the end
ThursAM: 17 Miles 6:28 Pace
ThursPM: 6 Miles Easy
Fri: 10 Miles Easy w/ 10 Strides
Sat: 10 Miles 6:40 pace
SunAM: 10 Miles Easy W/ 10 Strides
SunPM: 7 Miles Fartlek

Weekly Total: 100 Miles

The weekend was a busy one, but I was able to get in the minimum amount of running to get to the week's goal. Luckily I had the Father's Day card to play on Sunday, which allowed me to get out a little later than usual for the morning run and then get out again in the early evening for a nice fartlek run. Waking up early on Sunday to try and fit in a run before the kids woke was not going to be option as the graduation party that we hosted on Saturday stretched into the wee hours of the night.

I've never been a big fan of fartleks as it's pretty hard to quantify the run, but without the Garmin and no really great marked path around my house, that's about all I could do. The 305 has been ordered and should arrive tomorrow (Thanks Mom-in-Law!!!!!), so very soon I'll have to find something new to whine about. Based on past history, that shouldn't be a problem.

A Tale of Two Runs

If the Garmin is going to die, it's probably best that it happened now, only a few days before Fathers Day and my Birthday. I mean really…is $160 too much to spend on your father/husband? Kelly? Are you listening?

OK…enough grovelling. Yesterday was an 11 mile run with 8 miles at tempo pace, which has been working out lately to be in the mid to low 5:40 range. I really like this run, because it's below marathon pace but still easy enough where I can get into a groove and cruise through it. I think it's a good strength workout, which is what I'm after in this point in my training. I wish I could say I flew the run and felt great afterwards, but unfortunately, the run didn't go well at all. I went out at a comfortable pace and felt good through 4 miles. At that point, my pace was 5:46 for the run. I knew I had a wind at my back for that first portion, but wind doesn't seem as important in summer running as it is in the winter in Chicago. While it's nice to have it at your back, it's also nice to have it in your face when it's hot out to cool you down a little. So I was hopeful that the second half would be OK.

It wasn't. Since I don’t have the Garmin right now, I can't say exactly where things fell apart, but I think I was on pace through 6 miles, but then things fell apart quickly after that. I wound up coming in at a 5:55 pace for the entire run, which makes those last two miles…well, ugly. I don't even want to think about what the pace was. What was the problem? Not sure. Probably a variety of factors like heat, humidity, wind, fatigue. I'm really just looking at it as coming up 2 miles short, not as 10 seconds per mile slow. There were thoughts of cutting the run short at 6 miles, but sometimes it's best just to battle through this stuff. Quitting can be a tough habit to break.

Today was my long run for the week. With runs of 20 and 24 miles the last two weeks, I decided I was gonna make this week a little bit of a step back for my long run and went with 17 miles. I wasn't sure what to expect from the legs coming off of yesterday's crash, but they felt surprisingly good. I can't get into specifics about pace since, again, no Garmin, but I think I was around 6:35 pace through the first 8 miles and finished with a 6:28 pace. Since I've done this run many times with the Garmin, I know the distanc is accurate, and my $10 fill-in K-Mart watch seems to be doing an adequate job of keeping time, so I think that's pretty accurate. It was nice to have a nice bounce back run today after yesterday's not so great run.

I ran with the Brooks Burn today and they felt great. I might have bought these shoes a half size too big, but I don't think I'll go through the hassle of returning them. I'd rather have them be too big than too small and the only time I really noticed the extra room was when I was going down a steep hill and I noticed my foot sliding forward in the shoe. No big deal.

It's nice to get both of my longer runs for the week out of the way by Thursday (14 and 17 miler). I have kind of a crazy weekend coming up with a graduation party that we're hosting on Saturday and then some more festivities on Sunday. I didn't want to risk dragging all day long by trying to do my long run on either of those days. Hopefully I'll get some quality speedwork done on Saturday and then have a nice easy day on Sunday to get over 100 miles again for the week. I know this 100 miles per week is a bit of an abritrary goal, but it keeps me motivated and sometimes that's just what you gotta do.

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Sad sad news to report today. It looks like my Garmin has died. On Saturday I was out for a run and tornado sirens started blaring in all directions. It then started raining hard, but I was still about 20 minutes from home. So by the time I got home I was soaking wet and sweaty. I quickly jumped in the pool to try and cool off, and in the process forgot to take off my Garmin. The stupid thing wasn't in the pool for more than 5 seconds. I quickly turned it off and didn't wear again until monday.

Then on Monday as I was heading out for a 14 miler, I tried turning it on, but all it would do was flash on and off. I tried doing the hard reset but that didn't do anything but erase my history. So it spent the night in a bowl of rice (I've heard that will help with drying out process) and I tried it again this morning, but unfortunately, no luck this far. I guess I'll give it a few more days to dry out and if no improvement is shown, I'll give it a proper burial. How sad.

Yesterday was a nice 14 miler, which I have no official time for because of the aforementioned Garmin troubles. If I had to guess based on the time on the big clock by my gym, I'd say the pace was somewhere in the 6:30-6:40 range. It felt pretty good. Today was a 9 miler in the morning around a 6:40 pace (I had my regular watch for that run) and a 6 miler in the afternoon at a nice slow recovery pace.

I got some new shoes last night which are very welcome. I got the New Balance 903s and a the Brooks Burn. I've been trying to get a pair of the Brooks Burn for a while now, but since they've been discontinued I could never find them in my size. Finally I found some at EasyBay in teh clearance bin and will be trying them out tomorrow. If they feel anywhere near as good as the New Balance that I wore today, I'll be a happy camper.

Week in Review

Not feeling too descriptive today so just the facts. 101 miles last week, with no real speed work to speak of. That's OK though. I just want to log some miles right now.

Mon: 14 miles @ 6:22 pace
TuesAM: 9 Miles @ 7:08 Pace
TuesPM: 6 Miles Easy
WedAM: 10 miles @ 6:27 Pace
WedPM: 4 Miles Easy
Thurs: 10 Miles...tried to do tempo run, but too humid. Quit after 1.5 miles and just ran easy.
Fri: 24 miles @ 6:48 pace (Western Run) - 85 and humid when I finished. Summer is here.
SatAM: 10 Miles with Jack in Jogging Stroller - Slow
SatPM: 7 Miles with Tornado sirens going off all around me
Sun: 7 slow miles

Total: 101 Miles

I guess It's Summer

24 miles this morning in some pretty disgusting weather. Actually I had a few flashbacks to Chicago '07. I started the run at about 5:30AM and I could tell right away this was going to be a challenge. The humidity was high even at that point. By the time I was finished, the temps were in the mid 80's and the humidity wasn't far behind. One of the challenges for me when I do this run into work is to be able to get fluids throughout the run. This was definitely important on a day like today. Last time I did this route, it was cold and rainy and dark for much of the run so the need to drink wasn't as important as it was today.

So my question is, what happened to all the water fountains? I must have run past at least 5 or 6 ball parks and playgrounds today and not one of them had a drinking fountain. You'd think at least some of them would. Has the bottled water craze trickled down to the 5-12 year old demographic as well? Finally after about 17 miles of running I ducked into a gas station and got some water. I probably should have stopped a lot sooner to get something, but I really hate breaking up my long run rhythm with a lot of stops…and when stop at a gas station to buy something, it does turn into a 2 or 3 minute process. Plus, I was disgustingly sweaty, so the thought of standing in line wasn't all that appealing to me.

Anyway, the run went pretty good with a 6:48 average pace and all miles except for the first one coming in under 7 min/miles. I haven't been too concerned with times and workouts this week as I just want to top 100 miles for the first time in a few months. You gotta start somewhere, and hopefully, this week will be the start of a bunch of 100 miles strung together. That is what I did in 2006 and I still think that was the strongest I have ever been for a marathon. Now if I'm able to combine that with some speedwork and tempo runs, I feel like I should be able to have a really nice race come October.

Fresh Start

Last week was a decent week for me as I topped the week of at 85 miles. I was going to do a half marathon on Saturday as my final good bye to my spring peak, but I've slowly come to realize that the peak was gone and continuing to race was really doing nothing for me, except delaying the beginning of my summer base-building. With that in mind, I bailed on the race. I did a 20 miler on Saturday instead and it went pretty good. Dave and I coasted through the 20 at an average pace of 6:41. I was fighting some back problems over the last few miles, but hopefully that was just a fluke thing and not a sign of bad things to come.

Yesterday consisted of a nice quick 14 miler. I tried to run at a fast but comfortable pace without looking at the garmin except at the halfway point and at the finish. I was surprised to see the pace at 6:30 at the 7 mile turnaround and by the time I finished it had crept down to 6:24. While I was tired at the end, the effort level was still very manageable.

However today I guess I paid the price for that. I had two very easy recovery runs on tap, which was a good thing, because I needed. The legs just had absolutely no snap in them today. My morning run of 9 miles was a drag the entire time and I kept it slow with the pace coming in at 7:15. The afternoon I felt a little better, but still kept things slow, but I didn't have a watch, so I can't say exactly how slow.

Overall, I'm pretty excited with how I feel right now. From a fitness standpoint, I feel like I should really be able to put in some good training this summer as I'm already coming into a little ahead of where I was at over previous summers. The only thing that is sort of worrying me is the continuing pain I feel in my hip/butt/back area. When I look at the symptoms, it seems to be sciatica related, which would be nice. If it's just pain, I can deal with that. I just don't want it to be anything else. For now, I'll just continue to monitor and hope it goes away. It would make it a lot easier on all of us if it did.