5x1600

I really like this workout, 5x1600m @ 10k pace w/ 400m rest, so I was psyched for tonight. There must be something in the air because, from what I can tell, a lot of people did this workout tonight. We had great weather but I felt awful for some reason. I kept getting a stitch at the top of my stomach and never felt like I got into any kind of flow or rhythm. I got in a 3 mile warm-up with a couple strides and hit:

5:20
5:15
5:17
5:23 (I paced Joe Rogers at 83 for the first lap and I got a bad stitch when I jumped to 80s pace)
5:15

The rests were all 2:20-2:40, which is not bad but I would like to work on cutting that down to the 60-90 second range. I wrapped it up with a long 2 mile cool down and 4 strides on the track. Total miles covered ~ 11mi.

5/9/2010

Again, I am posting late, but I always seem to run out of time on Sundays with the kids, the long run, yada, yada, yada ... I hit what will probably be my peak weekly mileage until I am 100% confident in my recovery and I start the ramp for Bay State in the fall. I hit 73 miles off singles and I did not ride at all. For sanity's sake, I am going to stick with singles for now because work is a bit crazy right now and I don't mentally feel up to doubles at this point. I am just enjoying being able to run 10 miles/day without pain.

I do not like to talk of work on my running blog because I try to keep those two worlds separate, but I will make a small exception here because of how much my job has impacted the last two years of my family's lives. I am really happy that I was able to get in all of my runs this week because the chip that we have been designing at work for the last two years came back on Tuesday and I had to spend 3-4 very long days in the lab testing all the blocks that I designed. I have a lot invested in this chip (lots of long days and countless nights working until 2-3AM after the kids went to bed) and my family sacrificed a lot (we have not had a vacation in over 2 years) in order for me to get my work done. In the end it was all worth it because all of my stuff works! I am hoping that the next year will be much less hectic and I may be able to get some decent running in.

I did not get too many times for runs this week because my watch battery died and then the wrist strap broke right after I replaced the battery. Maybe it is time for a new watch ...

Monday: 8.2mi (?) Easy run
Tuesday: 10mi (?) Standard 10 miler at work.
Wednesday: 13mi - 4 mile warm-up, cut-down based on time (7m/6m/5m/4m/3m/2m) at 10k pace with 3 mile cool-down.

Thursday: 8.2mi (61:30) Really easy run at work to shake out the legs.
Friday: 10mi (?) Again, no idea on time but I took the first half really easy and then picked it up a bit for the second half.
Saturday: 8.5mi () Easy run in the cold rain.
Sunday: 15mi (1:39:48) I did a similar thing to last week and ran fairly easy for the first 10-12 miles and then I threw in 3 miles at MP. That felt pretty good but the wind beat me up a bit. I also tried something new on the run based on some videos that I watched by Ryan Hall on YouTube. At about 8 miles I did some really short, full speed accelerations on the flat and on hills (3-4 total for 30-50m each) to recruit different muscle fibers later in the run. I am not sure if it made too much difference but I did feel a little better. I am hoping that there will be a long term benefit to doing this.

3/25/2010

I went to the Wednesday workout tonight and thought I would give an update. We were supposed to do a 2000/1600/1200/800/400/200 cut-down with about 1/3 the distance rest at 10k pace but the Nashua South track was overrun with high school kids tonight. Instead, we headed into Mine Falls Park and did a similar workout on the trails based on time. The workout consisted of efforts of 7min/6min/5min/4min/3min/2min with rests of 3min/2min/2min/1min/1min at roughly 10k pace. It was actually a nice change of pace to be in the trails and not running in circles on the track. Our group actually started out about 6-7 strong, the largest that I have seen it in a long time which made for a more interesting run. I am not sure what pace we were running but I covered a little over 6 miles total (I turned back after each bout so we could all start together) in 36:17 and I was probably running 5:20-5:30 for the efforts. Not too bad. I should get a GPS sensor for my watch so I know exactly how far I have run on workouts like this. I started the workout with 3 miles of warm-up alone and a mile of warm-up with the group and then ended with a 3 mile cool-down for a total of 13 miles on the night.

5/2/2010

I am a bit late posting my blog this week because I am was so tired yesterday. After getting in my first real long run (15 miles) I worked in the yard all day edging flower beds in 93 degree heat. Not smart. I am just about to hit the hay tonight too because today's run was a bit torturous - I am not used to running in 85 degree weather with a 65 degree dew point yet. I got in 63 miles in 6 days of running. I wanted to run on Saturday but decided to give myself a day of rest. I should hit 70 miles next week. Oh yeah, I did not even sit on the bike this week ...

Monday: 8.2mi (59:10)
Tuesday: 10mi (69:24) Standard 10 miler at work.
Wednesday: (9.5mi tot) 3mi warmup (22:47) 3 x (400, 400, 800) with half the distance rest + 2.2 mile cool down. I thought that we took way to much rest last week so I was glad to see the rest was cut in half. I still decided to do the rest at a much quicker pace: last week we did the 400m rest in 2:30ish and this time the 200m rests were in about 50s and the 400m rest was in 1:45ish. Joe Rogers stuck with me for this workout which was great. I usually do not have any one to work with so it was nice to have company. My watch battery died part way through but the first 400 was in 76, the remaining work was all done at 78 pace and the last 800m was in 2:41 because I let Joe lead the first half. Joe had a great workout, especially considering how short the rests were.

Thursday: 10mi+ (74:14) Really easy from home to shake out the legs.
Friday: 10mi+ (69:10) Same run as yesterday but I felt so much better.
Saturday: Off
Sunday: 15mi (1:41:48) I ran the first half of the run pretty easy and then progressively cranked down the pace the second half. I was going to do two miles at marathon pace on the track at the end but I opted for this in the end. I am not sure of pace but I would bet I hit 5:40-5:50 pace for 3 miles or so based on how it felt. Pretty good for where I am now.

4/25/2009

I think that watching the Boston Marathon on Monday started me thinking about my current route and got me thinking about what I really want out of my training. I have been spending a lot of time on the bike lately and not that much time running and I am not really loving it. When ever I get up to ride I really dread it and feel like I am doing work rather than something that I truly love. Anyway, that is probably why I completely fell off the wagon this week and did not even come close to my original goal of 300 miles. I am having very strong reservations about the cycling/triathlon training and think that I am going to turn the emphasis back to pure running. In fact, I just listed the Kueen K bike on Craigslist and will hopefully unload that this week.

Since I did not ride that much this week I was able to bump my running mileage and even did my first track workout of the season. I ran 58.5 miles and biked a measly 70 miles (I said that I fell of the wagon ...).

Monday: 8mi (58:02), bike (30)
Tuesday: 6mi (45:32)
Wednesday: 9mi total. 2.2 mile warm-up, 10x400 w/ 400 rest (way too long), 2.2 mile cool-down. Splits were 80 (2:19), 79 (2:19), 76 (2:20), 74 (2:20), 73 (2:17), 71 (2:17), 72 (2:23), 74 (2:30), 74 (2:34), 71. We started out really slowly and ramped down gradually. I felt decent but had to back off a bit at the end for my achilles.
Thursday: 6mi (44:57), bike (20)
Friday: 10mi (71:55) Easy run, bike (20)
Saturday: 7mi (52:36) Really easy run at Mine Falls. I felt like absolute crap.
Sunday: 12.5mi (1:26:56) I was planning on running 2 miles at MP near the end of the run but my achilles was a little tender so I bailed and just finished up.

4/18/2010

I am going to keep this short so that I can get to bed. I am beat. This week I rode 280 miles and ran 48 miles and I was also able to increase my long run to 12 miles. Not bad overall. Unfortunately, all of my rides were inside on the trainer but, on a positive note, I am starting to feel much better on my runs. I was really concerned that all the riding would make my legs feel thick and heavy but when I balance the riding and running they feel pretty good. They are not as fresh as they used to be, like even last spring, but I am finally able to do all of my running in the 6:30-7:30 min/mi pace range so I am back to where I should be.

Monday: bike - 30, run - 8mi+ (56:08)
Tuesday: bike - 40 (AM), 30 (PM), run - 8+mi (54:06)
Wednesday: bike - 30
Thursday: bike - 40 (AM), 30 (PM)
Friday: run - 11.5mi+ (79:44)
Saturday: bike - 40, run - 8.5mi (58:35)
Sunday: bike - 40, run - 12mi (80:21)

Next week I am planning on bumping up to 300 miles on the bike and 50+ miles of running. We will see though because Wednesday is the first of the GCS track workouts and I have not decided if I am ready for that yet. I think that I am ahead of last year at this point and I had a great spring season, but this is an Achilles injury and I do not want to press my luck.