11/4-11/17

This is a double post because I did not get around to posting a week ago. Last week is at the top and the previous week is at the bottom. I really struggled for a week or so and my runs did not feel normal. In fact, most of them felt downright awful. I must have been fighting something off and I was not getting enough sleep. Thankfully, that passed in time to get in some decent runs this past weekend. I got my mileage back up to 70+ after a planned easy week, which I probably took a bit too easy.

Monday: 10mi (1:07:56) Easy recovery run.
Tuesday: AM - 3mi (21:21)
PM - 6.2mi (41:44)
Wednesday: AM - 5mi (35:08)
PM - 7.5mi (50:43)
Thursday: AM - 4mi (29:14)
PM - 8.1 (56:16)
Friday: 8mi (55:39)
Saturday: 8mi (53:07) Easy run - finally starting to feel better and run normal.
Sunday: 13.5mi () 5 mile warm-up (34:07) + 3x2mile on track w/ 1-2 minutes of rest and 2 mile cooldown. The repeats and rests were 10:52 (5:27/5:25), 1:30, 10:44 (5:20/5:24), 2:10, 10:47 (5:22/5:25). Felt good to go fast and open things up a bit. Need a lot of work though.

Total for week: 73 miles

Monday: 0
Tuesday: 6.2mi (43:14)
Wednesday: 0
Thursday: 8mi (54:20)
Friday: 6mi (44:23)
Saturday: 5.2mi (35:49)
Sunday: 13mi (1:34:42) Slow awful run. The only good thing about this run is that I was exploring the Westborough, MA WMA. Pretty nice trails that lead to the Westborough Charm Bracelet trails.

Total for week: 38 miles

10/28-11/3

This was a pretty good week with 71 total miles and two workouts (one being the long run). I backed off doing two workouts during the week because I got too tired and felt like I would end up injured. This is the most miles I have done in a while and there was a fair amount of quality so I will take an easy week next week and back off to one workout and only 40-50 miles.

Monday: 6.2mi (43:40) Easy recovery run.
Tuesday: AM - 3.3mi (24:26)
PM - 8.1mi (53:33)
Wednesday: AM - 3.3mi (24:07)
PM - 8mi (50:43) Medium hill fartlek followed by hard mile (5:13). Decent effort.
Thursday: 10mi (1:06:51) Moderate shake out run.
Friday: AM - 3.3mi (24:06)
PM - 6.2mi (43:43) Easy recovery run.
Saturday: 5.2mi (34:46)
Sunday: 17mi (1:47:43) It was supposed to be a progression run but I started unusually fast at 6:45 pace and did not run slower than 6:30 after that. Overall, a great run but I started to rig a bit in the last mile because the last half was into the wind and I did not take any water or nutrition on the run.

Total for week: 71 miles

10/21-10/27

I have been running between 40 and 60 miles per week all along but have been too busy and tired to post about it. We are finally moved in and settled after what seemed like the longest and most drawn out move in history so I am hoping to get back into the swing of things.

Monday: 6mi () Real slow recovery run. No watch. I ran 14 miles yesterday at 6:30 pace.
Tuesday: 10.7mi (1:06:50) Progression run to get the wheels moving a little bit. Started out at 7 min/mi pace and ended in 5:45 pace. Ran the last 5 miles in 29:50.
Wednesday: 8.1mi (57:37) Easy recovery run.
Thursday: 8.1mi (49:40) Threshold/progression run. It was a little quicker than I planned because the weather was so nice but I felt completely in control the whole time. Started at 6:30 pace and ended at 5:50 pace.
Friday: 7mi (51:05) Really easy recovery.
Saturday: 4mi (29:01) Shake out early in the morning.
Sunday: 16mi (1:49:40) I decided to take it easy today and just try to get in more miles rather than do a progression run. I did about 3 miles on single-track trails where I only averaged 7:45 pace but ran a pretty steady 6:30-6:40 pace for the rest of the run. Need more runs like this.

Total for week: 60 miles

5/27-6/2

Monday: 8.25mi (60:22) Real slow recovery run.

Tuesday: AM - 8mi (no watch) Felt better than expected, PM - 3mi (no watch) Stopped in trails on way home from work.

Wednesday: AM - 5.3mi (38:58) Real slow for some reason, PM - 9.5mi (link)My first fast track workout in quite a long time. The workout was 10-12 x 400m at Daniels' "R" pace with a full recovery (3-4 minutes). My plan was to hit 70-72 seconds but I am having a hard time determining pace and was getting out too fast for most of the repeats. I did 10 repeats because I do not want to hurt myself and my times were: 66.5, 69.9, 69.5, 70.6, 66.9 67.8, 69.2, 69.2, 68.5, 68.3 and my average rest was about 3:15. I felt good by 2:30-3:00 of rest so I did not want to sit around for the full 4 minutes. I really need to work on pacing.

Thursday: 

Friday: 

Saturday: 

Sunday:

Total for week: 34 miles

5/20-5/26

Monday: 8.1mi (56:20) Surprised it was this quick.

Tuesday: 8.8mi (62:43) Easy run.

Wednesday: AM - 5.3mi (37:30), PM - 11mi () 2.2 mile warm-up followed by 6xmile at tempo pace (~10k pace) with 1 minute rest + 2.2 mile cool-down and 4 strides. I based the target pace on Daniels tables from my race this past weekend and was supposed to hit 5:40-5:50 but I never touched that window. My times were 5:33, 5:37, 5:34, 5:35, 5:35, 5:32 and I was ready to go within 30 seconds each repeat. My pacing was pretty bad as I bounced between 80 second quarters and 85 second quarters trying to dial in the pace. I also felt surprisingly good during the cool-down. Take it easy the next two days.

Thursday: 6mi (44:53) Cut it short because I felt like %*#(.

Friday: AM - 5.3mi (37:34) Easy, PM - 10.2mi (71:11) Felt much better but I felt a twinge in my left soleus so I had to slow things down quite a bit. I will probably take tomorrow off.

Saturday: Off

Sunday: 18.1mi (2:01:14) (link) This was my longest run in a long time but I did not think it was going to go that way in the beginning. I started out with a 7:46 first mile and felt like garbage. It took all the way to halfway to get the average pace down to 7minutes/mile. At that point I stopped at my car, stretched, changed shoes, got some water and took a GU pack for the first time ever. What a horrible after-taste! I felt a lot better and average 6:24 min/mile for the next 9 miles and dropped as low as 6:03 for mile 12 or 13. Good run.

Total for week: 72.8 miles

5/13-5/19

Taking an easy week to rest up. I am feeling really tired after building up from 60 miles/week to over 80 miles/week for the first time in a long time. I am pretty much cutting out morning runs and only running 6 days this week.

Monday: 9.1mi (62:21) Easy run. Started out slow but loosened up by end.

Tuesday: 8.1mi (no watch)

Wednesday: 10mi (63:18) + 0.6mi cool-down (link) - Same 10 mile progression run as last Wednesday but since it is an easy week I dropped my pace slower to make the run easier. I was surprised to run the second half 20 seconds faster than last week (29:40ish) and it felt better.

Thursday: 8.1mi (57:47) Really easy to recover. Felt good.

Friday: 6mi (42:48) Another easy day. Did an acceleration at end + 4 strides.

Saturday: 12mi total - started with 3 mile warm-up ending with acceleration (21:43) + 12k/7.4mi race (42:36) and 1.5 mile cool-down (13:46). The race was the Bedford Rotary 12k (link) and it was pretty much awful. I knew that I was not in shape to race but Friday night I decided that I just needed to jump in with two feet and should race myself into shape. I did the 9.5mi leg of the Mill Cities Relay in December at 5:25 pace and this was only 7.4 miles and I avaraged 5:44 pace - pretty pathetic.

Sunday: 9.25mi (63:48) Based on how I felt last night I though that this would be an awful run but after the first mile I dropped to 6:50 pace and ran that pace the rest of the way.

Total for week: 62.5 miles

4/22-5/12

It has been quite a while since I have updated my blog. It is not because I have been injured, as in the past, it's just that I have had so much else going on. I have actually been running injury free since the middle of July, 2012 averaging almost 50 miles per week. I do a four week rotation of three weeks between 50 and 65 miles and then an easy week between 30 and 50 miles and I do not run more than 6 days per week. Taking a bit more rest seems to have really helped. The last change is that the only quality that I do is on the roads or trails - I am pretty sure that all the repeats on the track led to more than one injury.

Anyways, I just started building up my mileage so that I can handle either the Daniels 'Plan A' or 'Elite Plan' to attempt my first marathon this fall. I like the structure of the 'Elite Plan' but do not think that I will get much over 85 miles/week so I may have to do a hybrid plan. I have started this training before and not followed through and can not promise that it won't happen again. I am pretty terrified of the 26.2 mile distance and am not really sure how my body will handle it.

Here is my training for the last two weeks plus this week:

4/22-4/28

Monday: 8.3mi (55:42)

Tuesday: 10.5mi (71:41)

Wednesday: AM - 3.1mi (22:21), PM 10mi (64:22) Moderate progression run. First one and felt alright.

Thursday: 8mi (58:07)

Friday: 9mi (61:04)

Saturday: 3.1mi (21:45)

Sunday: 16mi (1:45:30)

Total for week: 68 miles

4/29-5/5
Monday: 7.3mi (53:26) Totally wiped
Tuesday: 10.5mi (71:29)
Wednesday: AM - 5.2mi (37:09), PM 10mi (63:14) I was feeling fine until the last two miles. I had hydration issues and dropped from 6 minute pace to 6:30 pace on the last two miles. Bonk!
Thursday: 8mi (58:35)
Friday: AM - 5.2mi (38:34), PM 8.2mi (57:44)
Saturday: 4.3mi (30:27)
Sunday: 16mi (1:50:15) Easy and under control
Total for week: 74.7 miles

5/6-5/12
Monday: AM - 5.2mi (38:35), PM - 9mi (62:23)
Tuesday: 9.1mi (62:17)
Wednesday: AM - 5.3mi (38:02), PM 10mi (62:16) + 0.5mi cool-down (link) - Another progression. Got down to 6min pace by half way and held it for the second 5 miles. Did a short cool down.
Thursday: 8.1mi (no watch) Really slooowwww.
Friday: AM - 5.3mi (38:38), PM - 10mi (69:16) Decent run.
Saturday: 3.5mi (25:35) Really slow for some reason.
Sunday: 15mi (1:44:38) I was really tired and this was much slower than I expected.
Total for week: 81 miles

This was the first time over 80 miles in a week in a long time and it was much harder than I remember. Taking a rest week next week.