12/5-12/11

Good week but my mileage was a bit lower than I hoped because I did not recover from last Sunday's race until Wednesday or Thursday. I have never been so sore for so long after a race. I guess that comes from racing a hard 9.5 miles when not in shape. I am hoping to gradually ramp up my mileage to around 60 miles/week by the new year and keep the swim and bike about where it is. I am finalizing my plan for the next 3 months and will post it sometime next week. I should be able to start adding some quality (LT run) this week and keep ramping up my strength work.

Monday: My quads are extremely sore from the race yesterday so I am taking it easy. 20 minutes on the bike and some easy lifting.

Tuesday: 4mi (29:54) + 25min on bike + 1200m in the pool (3x400m in 7:10, 7:15, 7:18). The swim was hard because I doubled the distance per leg, but I was able to keep the same pace, or a little bit faster. Still really sore.

Wednesday: 6mi (42:30) + 1 hour on the bike. Soreness a bit better.

Thursday: 7mi (51:00) + 1200m fs + 100m bs in the pool (3x400m in 7:15, 7:15, 7:12) + lift. I really need to work on my swimming endurance because I hit halfway for each of these in 3:25ish feeling fine and proceeded to slow down to ~3:50 for the second half. This run was so slow. I guess that I am really tired from the race still. Did 6 x short hill repeats (~8 seconds each w/ full recovery).

Friday: 6.1mi (43:39) A bit better today but still slow.

Saturday: 6.6mi (46:49) + 1200m in the pool (3x400 in 7:10, 7:15, 6:55) + lift. I had this all done before 8AM and was starving when I got done. Swimming was alright - I really focused on kicking and fully extending on the last repeat and actually felt better at the end than the previous two. I spent an hour in the gym doing a lot of static and dynamic leg strengthening - a lot of bounding, jumping, squats and lunges. I was surprised that I felt alright on the run, which I did last.

Sunday:11mi (77:30) + 20 miles on the bike. I had this all done by 8:30 and it went pretty well. It was pretty cold this morning during the run (21F at start, 23F at the end) but once I got warmed up I was able to roll at a decent pace. Added 6 short hill repeats (~8 seconds each).

totals:

running - 40.7 miles

biking - 59 miles

swimming - 3700m

11/28-12/4

I am mixing things up a bit more this winter and trying to keep in shape but not beat myself up. A fairly low key week trying not to go too wild before the Mill Cities Relay on Sunday. I had a decent race and ran quite a bit faster than I expected. I figured I would only run 5:40-5:45 pace but ran 53:05 for 9.52 miles, which is 5:35 pace. Next week I will ramp things up.

Monday: 3mi (20:29) + 20mi on bike + lift

Tuesday: 3mi (20:36) + 20mi on bike + 1000m in the pool

Wednesday: 4mi (27:00) + 20mi on bike + 1000m in the pool

Timed this swim for information's sake because I am just getting used to

being in the water for the first couple weeks. Did 5x200m with ~20 seconds rest between each set to evaluate what I was doing. Times were 3:50, 3:48, 3:46, 3:42 3:32. I did not push any harder on each set, rather I focused on my stroke and kicking. It is amazing how much kicking helps!

Thursday: 20mi on bike + lift

Friday: 6.2mi (41:53)

Saturday: ~5mi (35:27) With Justin and Chris in Mine Falls

Sunday: 2.5mi warm-up, 9.5mi race (Mill Cities) in 53:05 (5:35/mi average pace) + 1.25mi cool-down. Total = 13.25mi. I ran faster than I expected considering that I have not really been running much lately and I have been working on my strength quite a bit lately. My splits were fairly consistent, except for the first one, but I was definitely slowing down at the end:

1. 5:24

2. 10:58 5:34

3. 16:31 5:33

4. 22:10 5:39

5. 27:44 5:34

6. 33:20 5:36

7. 38:59 5:39

8. 44:37 5:37

9. 50:15 5:38

9.52 53:05 2:50

totals:

running - 34.5 miles

biking - 80 miles

swimming - 2000m

Thanks to Steve Wolfe for the photo. There are more here.

11/21-11/27

Like I said last week, I spent more time on the bike this week but I did more than I thought. I also did a lot less running than I thought I would.

Monday: 3mi (21:52) + 20mi on bike

Tuesday: 20mi on bike

Wednesday: 20mi on bike

Thursday: 20mi on bike

Friday: 20mi on bike

Saturday: 20mi on bike

Sunday: 4mi (29:53) Slow as shit.

total: 120 miles on the bike and 7 miles running.

11/14-11/20

Not a bad week but I am feeling a little banged up. I am going to back off the mileage this next week and put some time in on the bike (yippee).

Monday: 8.1mi (55:46)

Tuesday: 10mi (62:30) 32:15 @ 5mi and 30:15 last 5mi

Wednesday: 10.8mi (74:50) Recovery run.

Thursday: 8.2mi (57:04) Easy run.

Friday: 10mi (67:43)

Saturday: 0 - feeling beat up a bit.

Sunday: 16mi (110:58) Felt like garbage for first 10 miles (71+ minutes) but then rolled 6:30 pace for the last 6 miles.

total: 63.1 miles

Catching Up

I have been running but I have not been writing anything on my blog lately for some reason. I guess that I have been caught up with trying to run and balance everything else in life and something, being this blog, had to slip through the cracks.

I was planning on running some cross country races and maybe jump into half this fall but, as usual, injury kept me on the sidelines. This was the first time in a year that I missed time to injury and it was actually due to an "equipment failure". About a month ago I felt like my shoes were getting to the end of their life and I needed to replace them to be safe. I sucked up the cost and forked over 100 clams for a new pair of the Adidas Adizero Aegis, my favorite training shoe. I have not run in them for a while because I can not justify the cost so this was the first time I ran in the new version. Apparently Adidas changed the design of the heel and, long story short, this caused my calf to blow up and I missed a week of running.

It is amazing how much fitness I lost in that week off so I have been working on getting fit and building my base for the last month or so. I hope to do a little racing (Mill Cities Relay) this fall with a focus on the indoor and spring track seasons. I would really like to go sub-15 in the 5k and sub-4 in the 1500m. I also want to pop a fast time at the New Bedford Half next year, assuming that it is still part of the Grand Prix Series.

Here is a brief recap of the last couple of weeks:

11/7-11/13

Monday: 8.2mi (57:31)

Tuesday: 10mi (69:01)

Wednesday: 10.8mi (74:38)

Thursday: 10mi (67:57)

Friday: 8.1mi (55:07)

Saturday: 0

Sunday: 16mi (107:50) Ran first 8mi in 55:25 and second 8mi in 52:25

total: 63.1 miles

10/31-11/6

Monday: 0

Tuesday: 6mi (43:36)

Wednesday: 8.4mi (56:46)

Thursday: 8.1mi (55:14)

Friday: 8.1mi (54:23)

Saturday: 0

Sunday: 13.2mi (89:39)

total: 43.8 miles

10/24-10/30

Monday: 3mi (19:13)

Tuesday: 6mi (39:49)

Wednesday: 0

Thursday: 6mi (NT)

Friday: 10mi (65:14)

Saturday: 10.7mi (75:05)

Sunday: 0

total: 35.7 miles

10/10-10/16

I was supposed to run a race or two this weekend but I hurt my calf and had to take the weekend off. It seems like when I read about other people's injuries I get that same injury a couple days later. I have never had PF before but read about JJ's struggles with it and ended up with PF at the end of this week and two days after finding out about DD's calf tear I hurt my calf. I am going to stop reading other peoples' blogs ...

Monday: 8.1mi (58:36)
Tuesday: 10mi (70:45)
Wednesday: 10mi - Track workout, 4x1 mile
Thursday: 0 - I am feeling a little PF flare up so I took the day off to let it settle down.
Friday: 10.8mi (77:00) - This was a real easy run and I wore a new pair of shoes. About 6 miles into the run the lateral side of my left calf started hurting and by 8-9 miles it was quite painful. I am pretty sure that it is because of the new shoes and am hoping that it is not a tear or strain, but I am going to take a few days off from running to give it a chance to heal.
Saturday: 0 - off, calf hurts.
Sunday: An hour on the bike (20ish miles) Calf is better but still hurts.

Total: 38.9 miles + 20ish miles on the bike