Sorry for the lack of content lately. As has been the case for some time, I'm full of excuses. Everything in life has still been busy, but up until late last week, there was at least a little breathing room. That was ruined by a bit of rash that I picked up. I guess it turned out to be eczema. I don't want to get into the details, but there was a lot and it was all VERY itchy. The medicine I'm taking for the itching has made me very sleepy. So even though I've managed to get a bit more sleep, I've been just as tired.
As we approach our deadline at work things are getting hectic. As of now, we are still on schedule. So the last 4 crazy, hectic months of my life are looking like they may finally be done with. There will be other things, but at least they will be fun things in my life rather than work being my life.
Here's a recap of the last 1 1/2 weeks of running.
Last Monday -
5x1k 3:31 (5:36 pace) today w/ 400 recoveries; recoveries were 200m walk and 200m jog;
1 - 0.62, 3:31 (5:40), 170 bpm
R - 0.25, 2:56 (11:34), 134 bpm
2 - 0.63, 3:27 (5:29), 172 bpm
R - 0.25, 3:01, (12:05), 137 bpm
3 - 0.63, 3:31, (5:38), 172 bpm
R - 0.25, 2:59, (11:55), 141 bpm
4 - 0.62, 3:32, (5:43), 172 bpm
R - 0.25, 3:16, (12:54), 139 bpm
5 - 0.63, 3:34, (5:42), 173 bpm
It was a hard workout today. I really had to push myself to approach the goal times.
Last Thursday
The schedule called for 2 mile warmup, 3 mile tempo at 6:26 and 1 mile cool down. I found ~1.5 mile loop at work that was a bit hilly and it was also quite warm out. Given everything it was very difficult to keep up the goal pace. The first mile was OK as I didn't hit the big hill, but other 2 were slower because of big uphill in the middle of each.
1 - 6:19.70, 176 bpm
2 - 6:45.06, 182 bpm
3 - 6:43.77, 182 bpm
Saturday was the last long run before the race. The schedule called for 8 - 10 miles at race pace. I started out with the group so the first mile was very slow. The 2nd one was faster as a few of us broke from the pack. Then the next 4 were consistent as it was just John and I. John had enough after 6 so I did the last 4 and picked it up a bit. This is pretty much the way I anticipate the race going on Saturday. So even though I was pushing it pretty hard for 1 week before the race, I felt like it was good physical and mental training.
1 - 8:21.57, 137 bpm
2 - 7:12.10, 153 bpm
3 - 6:57.88, 176 bpm (must have picked up someone else heart beat)
4 - 6:55.66, 162 bpm
5 - 6:56.43, 164 bpm
6 - 6:58.43, 163 bpm
7 - 6:32.76, 168 bpm
8 - 6:14.16, 174 bpm
9 - 6:11.78, 177 bpm
10 - 6:04.24, 179 bpm
Today - This is the last week of training before the race. Beings this is a bit more advanced training program, I'm still pushing myself this last week. Just not as often or as long. Of course, I didn't push myself as often the entire training session, but I've complained enough about that. The schedule called for 6x400 at 81 seconds (5:26) with 400 recoveries. I walked first 160m of recovery and jogged the last 240m. I felt better today.
1 - 80s (5:27), 170 bpm
R - .24, (11:03), 141 bpm
2 - 79s, (5:19), 169 bpm
R - .25, (11:16), 144 bpm
3 - 79s (5:14), 168 bpm
R - .25, (11:26), 143 bpm
4 - 77s (5:16), 170 bpm
R - .25, (10:59), 147 bpm
5 - 76s (5:15), 172 bpm
R - .25, (11:08), 149 bpm
6 - 79s (5:19), 172 bpm
I have one more short 3 mile speed session on Wednesday and then I'll be shutting it down for race day. I now have an unlimited data plan on my phone. I will try out sending pictures and info here from the race to post my results. It will be brief, but will try to get something out. I'll also try to put somethings on Facebook. See the homepage of this blog to find my account info.
Well, I guess I've procrastinated long enough. It's late and I have to work again tonight. Blech! I'm still planning on getting to the August summary info. Maybe I can do that instead of working. How's that for procrastination. Anywho, until next time. (I will be back sooner next time.)
Monday, September 29, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
A Big Sports Day!
Not very much to report as far as running went today. The running partners bailed for one reason or another. So I was on my own. The schedule called for 13 at 6:52. As I was running a hilly course, I wasn't expecting anywhere close. It was a somewhat hard effort, but I came in averaging 7:18 per mile. It was more effort than I was wanting, but as it was so hilly, I'm ok with the time and energy. The race is now officially less than 2 weeks away. Sub 3 here I come.
There were 2 huge sports accomplishments today. First, the Cubs clinched the National League Central. This the 2nd straight year they have done this. Any idea when they last did it? Oh, it was some odd year of 1907 and 1908. We all know what happened then. I think it is meant to be. Even though they are not playing their best ball right now, they are still winning more than losing. Go Cubs!
The second big item of the day was in the FCS football league. Number 5 JMU was taking on #1 Appalachian St. Between the 2 teams, we have won the last FCS championships with App State taking down the last 3. JMU started down 21-0 by half time, but by the time all was said and done, we took them down, 35-32. Woohoo! Go Dukes!!!
There were 2 huge sports accomplishments today. First, the Cubs clinched the National League Central. This the 2nd straight year they have done this. Any idea when they last did it? Oh, it was some odd year of 1907 and 1908. We all know what happened then. I think it is meant to be. Even though they are not playing their best ball right now, they are still winning more than losing. Go Cubs!
The second big item of the day was in the FCS football league. Number 5 JMU was taking on #1 Appalachian St. Between the 2 teams, we have won the last FCS championships with App State taking down the last 3. JMU started down 21-0 by half time, but by the time all was said and done, we took them down, 35-32. Woohoo! Go Dukes!!!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Time to Catch Up
I seem to be getting worse and worse at keeping with any kind of consistency to this thing. For many months now I have been commenting (maybe complaining) about how busy I have been at work. Our project is still going on, but the ridiculous hours and definitely been reduced. I'm now down to something much more manageable. The problem is that the rest of life is getting in the way. There seems to be a lot more going on in life right now. And as I'm typing this, I'm noticing that my tendencies are to stress about one thing or another. Now that I'm not stressing about work, I'm stressing about everything else going on in life right now. Here's a bit of what is helping the rest of my hair to turn gray. Let's see, closing escrow on a new house in a month, sell or rent the existing house (and everything related to this decision), moving into the new place, picking out new flooring and kitchen designs in the new place, money, weekly appointments that take time away from work, baby/pregnancy stuff, getting in at least the bare minimum of workouts to try to have some success at this race which is now barely 2 weeks away, potentially the best shape I will ever be in for a race and the possible disappointment that it won't be as good as I want it to be, figuring out the new budget estimates, packing, decorating/furnishing/unpacking new house, etc. There are plenty of other things going through my brain, mostly when I lay in bed trying to sleep every night, but these are some of the highlights. Crazy!
Anywho, no one cares about what's causing me stress. After the crazy day I had on Saturday, I still haven't recovered. I'm not sore or anything, but it was very physically demanding. I slept 9 hours the next night and was very tired the next day. Since then, I have averaged around 6 - 6 1/2 per night and this has kept me behind on sleep. So I've definitely been a bit tired. Take that combined with everything above and it gives me less time than I would like. So this is one thing that has been left out.
I played my last softball game of the year, potentially. I've already been invited to join another fall league, but with everything else going on, I think I might need to pass. I got tons of action in left field and left center which was fun, but the other team was just way better. They crushed us 15-1. We ended the season something like 2-9. Horrible.
Monday's interval workout called for 8x800s at 5:36 (2:48) pace. As it was warmer and I wasn't into it, I didn't expect much out of this workout. I was close on most of the numbers, except the last two. Given the temps and my energy level, the results weren't too disappointing.
1 - 2:47, 168 bpm
2 - 2:50, 169 bpm
3 - 2:52, 168 bpm
4 - 2:51, 171 bpm
5 - 2:49, 170 bpm
6 - 2:54, 173 bpm
7 - 3:01, 171 bpm
8 - 2:58, 174 bpm
Today's run called for a 5 mile tempo at 6:42 pace. This is 10 seconds under race pace. My last 2 Wednesday runs have been something like 10-20 seconds faster than goal time so I expected that today would be the same. I didn't set any time goal in my head other than to push it a bit. As I mentioned before, since my workouts have been limited, I decided that I would push a bit harder. My numbers for today were faster than I thought I was capable of running. I could have easily broken 40 minutes in a 10K. I wasn't sure I was capable of that. I think I would have easily broken 19 minutes for a 5K if I was racing today. I did 5 miles in 31 minutes. That's a 6:12 pace. It was way faster than the schedule called for and I felt like I could have gone faster and/or longer if either was required. Nice!
1 - 6:24, 151 bpm
2 - 6:14, 168 bpm
3 - 6:16, 170 bpm
4 - 6:11, 174 bpm
5 - 5:55, 178 bpm
As I mentioned above, we bought a new house and move in next week. There is lots to do and decided between now and then. Most of my spare time and energy go into thinking/stressing about all this stuff. I guess I need to learn how to relax and enjoy all this stuff.
We watched The Biggest Loser tonight. The new season started this week. I haven't mentioned it in awhile, but I love this show. It is so inspirational. It motivates me so much to see these people who have struggled their entire life, who always say I can't and always choose the easy path find so much joy stepping on that scale at the end of the week, especially week 1. Even though tons of the weight is only water weight, the look of complete shock/joy at the numbers they lose is very enjoyable. They worked so hard and put themselves probably through more than they've ever been through and they get to see immediate results. This has got to be one of the greatest shows ever. They teach these people so much. I think a lot of people get themselves into trouble with their weight because they do not know a basic truth. If you want to lose weight, you have to take in less calories than expend. That's it. Simple math. Most of these people are so sedintary that their basal metabolic rate is only like 1200-1600 calories. Ok, as big as they are, it's probably higher. But still when you sit down and eat 800-1000 calories in one meal, you ate 1/2 if not more than 1/2 of the total amount you should be eating all day, especially if you are not exercising. I don't think people realize this. Once they get the basic idea of this down, they need to learn things that affect their metabolism like it's horrible to skip breakfast and glycemic indexes of food.
Maybe I should take this blog in a new direction once I finish this race. Since I will have so much spare time on my hands, I might as well take on another hobby to go along with the too many I already have. I should start adding daily, weekly, whatever posts about weight loss and was to help other people. I am so inspired by people who are able to overcome their weight problems through education and hard work. The problem is that I'm more of a teacher by example. So I'm not sure how succesful I can be at this needing to use words to motivate. Hmm, this will require some thought. Can I come up with something that will people will use as a resource to help themselves become more active and lose weight. There's so many resources out there already on the internet that I'm not sure there is need. Maybe this could be a resource to consolidate what is out there into a central location. Need some more thought and ideas on this I guess. Nothing like brainstorming as I type.
Well, this ended up being ridiculously long as I rambled on about things as they entered by head. Sorry about that. It's all because of The Biggest Loser. That shows rocks and it inspires. If you have never seen it, I highly recommend it.
Anywho, no one cares about what's causing me stress. After the crazy day I had on Saturday, I still haven't recovered. I'm not sore or anything, but it was very physically demanding. I slept 9 hours the next night and was very tired the next day. Since then, I have averaged around 6 - 6 1/2 per night and this has kept me behind on sleep. So I've definitely been a bit tired. Take that combined with everything above and it gives me less time than I would like. So this is one thing that has been left out.
I played my last softball game of the year, potentially. I've already been invited to join another fall league, but with everything else going on, I think I might need to pass. I got tons of action in left field and left center which was fun, but the other team was just way better. They crushed us 15-1. We ended the season something like 2-9. Horrible.
Monday's interval workout called for 8x800s at 5:36 (2:48) pace. As it was warmer and I wasn't into it, I didn't expect much out of this workout. I was close on most of the numbers, except the last two. Given the temps and my energy level, the results weren't too disappointing.
1 - 2:47, 168 bpm
2 - 2:50, 169 bpm
3 - 2:52, 168 bpm
4 - 2:51, 171 bpm
5 - 2:49, 170 bpm
6 - 2:54, 173 bpm
7 - 3:01, 171 bpm
8 - 2:58, 174 bpm
Today's run called for a 5 mile tempo at 6:42 pace. This is 10 seconds under race pace. My last 2 Wednesday runs have been something like 10-20 seconds faster than goal time so I expected that today would be the same. I didn't set any time goal in my head other than to push it a bit. As I mentioned before, since my workouts have been limited, I decided that I would push a bit harder. My numbers for today were faster than I thought I was capable of running. I could have easily broken 40 minutes in a 10K. I wasn't sure I was capable of that. I think I would have easily broken 19 minutes for a 5K if I was racing today. I did 5 miles in 31 minutes. That's a 6:12 pace. It was way faster than the schedule called for and I felt like I could have gone faster and/or longer if either was required. Nice!
1 - 6:24, 151 bpm
2 - 6:14, 168 bpm
3 - 6:16, 170 bpm
4 - 6:11, 174 bpm
5 - 5:55, 178 bpm
As I mentioned above, we bought a new house and move in next week. There is lots to do and decided between now and then. Most of my spare time and energy go into thinking/stressing about all this stuff. I guess I need to learn how to relax and enjoy all this stuff.
We watched The Biggest Loser tonight. The new season started this week. I haven't mentioned it in awhile, but I love this show. It is so inspirational. It motivates me so much to see these people who have struggled their entire life, who always say I can't and always choose the easy path find so much joy stepping on that scale at the end of the week, especially week 1. Even though tons of the weight is only water weight, the look of complete shock/joy at the numbers they lose is very enjoyable. They worked so hard and put themselves probably through more than they've ever been through and they get to see immediate results. This has got to be one of the greatest shows ever. They teach these people so much. I think a lot of people get themselves into trouble with their weight because they do not know a basic truth. If you want to lose weight, you have to take in less calories than expend. That's it. Simple math. Most of these people are so sedintary that their basal metabolic rate is only like 1200-1600 calories. Ok, as big as they are, it's probably higher. But still when you sit down and eat 800-1000 calories in one meal, you ate 1/2 if not more than 1/2 of the total amount you should be eating all day, especially if you are not exercising. I don't think people realize this. Once they get the basic idea of this down, they need to learn things that affect their metabolism like it's horrible to skip breakfast and glycemic indexes of food.
Maybe I should take this blog in a new direction once I finish this race. Since I will have so much spare time on my hands, I might as well take on another hobby to go along with the too many I already have. I should start adding daily, weekly, whatever posts about weight loss and was to help other people. I am so inspired by people who are able to overcome their weight problems through education and hard work. The problem is that I'm more of a teacher by example. So I'm not sure how succesful I can be at this needing to use words to motivate. Hmm, this will require some thought. Can I come up with something that will people will use as a resource to help themselves become more active and lose weight. There's so many resources out there already on the internet that I'm not sure there is need. Maybe this could be a resource to consolidate what is out there into a central location. Need some more thought and ideas on this I guess. Nothing like brainstorming as I type.
Well, this ended up being ridiculously long as I rambled on about things as they entered by head. Sorry about that. It's all because of The Biggest Loser. That shows rocks and it inspires. If you have never seen it, I highly recommend it.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The Last Long Run
I woke up Saturday morning know it was going to be a very long day. The goal for the morning run was to head out for the last long run before race day (which is now only 3 weeks away). We were looking to do the Tour of San Diego which is a 22 mile loop around downtown San Diego. We started at 6 am. Just under 3 hours later, we were done. It was another bad run for me again. this means my last 2 longs runs before race day were crappy. That's not good for the mental training that I need. I was able to push myself for the last 3 miles when I was really struggling. When I get to that point in a marathon, I tend to crumble. Hopefully when this hits again, I'll be ready for it.
I was hoping for a speedy recovery so I jumped into an ice bath when I got home. It's amazing how much and how long that lowers your overall body temperature. I was cold for a long time, but hey, my legs weren't hurting anymore.
After that we had a bunch of running around and shopping to do. Nothing exciting, but just making things clear that I'm not resting yet. After that, I was able to rest for around 30-60 minutes.
After the rest period, it was time to start the 2nd major part of the day. My company had a softball tournament all day Saturday. There were 3 different levels. I was playing in the very competitive Open division. The talent is very high in this division. I have played with the the same the last 4 years. We won it a few years ago and had a very disappointing tournament last year. There has never been a team in the league that has a woman playing, except us. The same woman has played with us every year. I guess most teams figure it would be a waste of a spot to add a woman. Not us. She is one of our best players. Anyway, I digress. Long story short, we played at 6, 7, and 8 in a round robin fashion to set the seedings for the finals. We won the first 2, was a head in the third 8-6 until we we gave up 12 runs in one inning. In 3 games total we gave up 35 runs. It's pretty sad that 12 of those runs were in one inning. Three teams were 2-1 and one was 0-3. The tie breaker was runs given up. We ended up second seed by 2 runs. D'oh! We won the first game at 9 pm and we were in the finals schedule for 10 pm. We played the same team that scored 12 runs against us. It was back and forth until the 4 or 5th inning were down 7-8 and scored 11 on them to go up 18-8. That's ironic. We held on to win by 7 or 8 and took it down. Sweet! It's now 11:10ish by the time we were done with everything. I was home, showered, in bed and sleeping by pretty close to 11:35. Man was I wiped. What a long day!
I was hoping for a speedy recovery so I jumped into an ice bath when I got home. It's amazing how much and how long that lowers your overall body temperature. I was cold for a long time, but hey, my legs weren't hurting anymore.
After that we had a bunch of running around and shopping to do. Nothing exciting, but just making things clear that I'm not resting yet. After that, I was able to rest for around 30-60 minutes.
After the rest period, it was time to start the 2nd major part of the day. My company had a softball tournament all day Saturday. There were 3 different levels. I was playing in the very competitive Open division. The talent is very high in this division. I have played with the the same the last 4 years. We won it a few years ago and had a very disappointing tournament last year. There has never been a team in the league that has a woman playing, except us. The same woman has played with us every year. I guess most teams figure it would be a waste of a spot to add a woman. Not us. She is one of our best players. Anyway, I digress. Long story short, we played at 6, 7, and 8 in a round robin fashion to set the seedings for the finals. We won the first 2, was a head in the third 8-6 until we we gave up 12 runs in one inning. In 3 games total we gave up 35 runs. It's pretty sad that 12 of those runs were in one inning. Three teams were 2-1 and one was 0-3. The tie breaker was runs given up. We ended up second seed by 2 runs. D'oh! We won the first game at 9 pm and we were in the finals schedule for 10 pm. We played the same team that scored 12 runs against us. It was back and forth until the 4 or 5th inning were down 7-8 and scored 11 on them to go up 18-8. That's ironic. We held on to win by 7 or 8 and took it down. Sweet! It's now 11:10ish by the time we were done with everything. I was home, showered, in bed and sleeping by pretty close to 11:35. Man was I wiped. What a long day!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The Last Longer Tempo Run
I did a 10 mile tempo run last Wednesday and the schedule called for 8 miles today at race pace. As the temp was down and the tempo runs have been a bit on the quicker side, I figured this run would be a bit faster. I met Mike S. right at the start and he rode the 8 miles with me. We spent the hour talking which made this work out much harder than last week's. Both the 10 and 8 mile tempo runs were supposed to be at 6:52 pace. But as I've been slacking on the quantity of my workouts lately, I feel it's that much more important to stress the quality of the workouts I do get in. I averaged 6:40s for the 10 miler and 6:30s today for the 8 miler. Like I said, the 10 seconds per mile definitely felt harder than it should have been that I was talking the whole time. The speed of this work out wasn't one of those that fit into the saying that if you can't carry on a conversation while running, you're going to fast.
I did 8 miles in 52:03 with an average heart rate of 172. That approximately 90% for me. That's definitely a bit high, but as I've been too busy to work out too frequently, there should be plenty of recovery time built into my schedule.
1-6:26, 152
2-6:25, 168
3-6:31, 173
4-6:36, 173
5-6:40, 173
6-6:25, 177
7-6:27, 180
8-6:17, 181
I also heard from John A. today. He ran a 10 mile tempo today at 7:14 pace. He is shooting for a race time of 3:10. That's puts him right on track. Given that the race is easier than the course he ran today, he will go just fine.
Boston qualifiers, here we come.
I did 8 miles in 52:03 with an average heart rate of 172. That approximately 90% for me. That's definitely a bit high, but as I've been too busy to work out too frequently, there should be plenty of recovery time built into my schedule.
1-6:26, 152
2-6:25, 168
3-6:31, 173
4-6:36, 173
5-6:40, 173
6-6:25, 177
7-6:27, 180
8-6:17, 181
I also heard from John A. today. He ran a 10 mile tempo today at 7:14 pace. He is shooting for a race time of 3:10. That's puts him right on track. Given that the race is easier than the course he ran today, he will go just fine.
Boston qualifiers, here we come.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Quality Training Sessions
As my work and life schedules continue to only allow me quality running of quantity, I'm taking whatever I can get.
My schedule called for my Saturday run to be 15 miles at marathon pace + 10 seconds. That equates to a 7:02. As the route was tougher and hillier, I had no intention of running that fast. I was just looking for a good running session unlike my prior workouts. Ended up doing a touch over 16 miles at 7:19 pace with about 750 feet of ascending/descending. I definitely pushed it, but I felt good. I finished by doing the last two at 6:43 average. Not bad.
I was able to hit the gym on Sunday and got in about 1 hour of lifting and core exercises. Wow! I am getting so incredibly weak. I guess all this running (even though it's not nearly as much as I wanted) and stress are causing me to lose weight. That and the lack of working out has made me very weak. I better hit the gym before my daughter is born else I might not be able to carry her. :)
Today the schedule called for 10x400 at 5:26 pace (approx 81 seconds) with 400 recoveries. For each recovery, I decided to walk the first 200 fast and jo the next 200. I averaged 11:30 for each 400 recovery. I had enough in the tank today to jog the recoveries, but I felt like pushing harder during each interval. It went really well today and I was able to be fairly consistent the first half. I decided to pick it up a bit for the 2nd half and put in some very good times.
1 - 84s, (5:39), 169
2 - 81s, (5:27), 169
3 - 81s, (5:25), 166
4 - 78s, (5:13), 167
5 - 80s, (5:10), 171
6 - 77s, (5:12), 171
7 - 77s, (5:10), 171
8 - 77s, (5:11), 174
9 - 74s, (5:05), 175
10- 72s, (4:50), 177
Well, I'm back to night time working. So no more procrastinating.
My schedule called for my Saturday run to be 15 miles at marathon pace + 10 seconds. That equates to a 7:02. As the route was tougher and hillier, I had no intention of running that fast. I was just looking for a good running session unlike my prior workouts. Ended up doing a touch over 16 miles at 7:19 pace with about 750 feet of ascending/descending. I definitely pushed it, but I felt good. I finished by doing the last two at 6:43 average. Not bad.
I was able to hit the gym on Sunday and got in about 1 hour of lifting and core exercises. Wow! I am getting so incredibly weak. I guess all this running (even though it's not nearly as much as I wanted) and stress are causing me to lose weight. That and the lack of working out has made me very weak. I better hit the gym before my daughter is born else I might not be able to carry her. :)
Today the schedule called for 10x400 at 5:26 pace (approx 81 seconds) with 400 recoveries. For each recovery, I decided to walk the first 200 fast and jo the next 200. I averaged 11:30 for each 400 recovery. I had enough in the tank today to jog the recoveries, but I felt like pushing harder during each interval. It went really well today and I was able to be fairly consistent the first half. I decided to pick it up a bit for the 2nd half and put in some very good times.
1 - 84s, (5:39), 169
2 - 81s, (5:27), 169
3 - 81s, (5:25), 166
4 - 78s, (5:13), 167
5 - 80s, (5:10), 171
6 - 77s, (5:12), 171
7 - 77s, (5:10), 171
8 - 77s, (5:11), 174
9 - 74s, (5:05), 175
10- 72s, (4:50), 177
Well, I'm back to night time working. So no more procrastinating.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Can't Sleep
My busy schedule continues. I only managed to get in 3 workouts this week, two speed session on Monday and Wednesday and my long run tomorrow morning. This is no way to prepare for a race. The race is only 4 weeks away from tomorrow. I guess I'm in the middle of a super extended taper. The continued stress and pressure caused me to miss workouts and now it's preventing me from sleeping. The only thing that trying to sleep has gotten me this week is a lot of extra time to let me mind think about everything going on. So, here I'm am, writing about nothing. Maybe this will help. If not, running 15 miles in little sleep may help me crash during the day tomorrow. The goal pace is 10 seconds over marathon pace, but as the run tomorrow will be hillier than the race course, it may be more like 20-30 seconds over race pace. Anyway, I'm too tired to write anything productive like my August summary blog. I will work on that over the weekend and see how bad the month really was. Enough babbling, off to other things that do not include me sleeping.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
A Race-Pace Tempo Run
The schedule called for a 10 mile tempo run at race pace which for me is 6:52 per mile. This is my goal marathon pace. The race is less than 5 weeks away and my confidence is not all that high as I've only been getting in about 3 runs per week for the past 4-6 weeks. They have been key workouts, but that's about I'll I've been able to fit into my schedule. So I didn't expect much today. It was also over 80 at the start too which is not ideal.
I was thinking I would try to start out around 6:52 for the first 5 miles and then pick it up a bit the last 5 miles. I started out a bit faster right out of the gate and kept trying to slow myself down. It didn't really work as my average pace continued to be under the goal pace of 6:52 for every mile. The watch finished the 10 miles in 1:06:49, but I think it was 33 seconds faster as I stopped for a few seconds around the start of mile 9 having seen someone I knew. I hit the lap button on my watch instead of the stop button. After analyzing the data, it looked to be about 33 seconds. So i think that lap ended up being closer to 6:05. All of this averages to a 6:40 per mile pace (6:37 with taking off the 33 seconds).
Here are the lap totals.
1 - 6:43, 151 bpm
2 - 6:37, 163 bpm
3 - 6:41, 165 bpm
4 - 6:38, 169 bpm
5 - 6:50, 170 bpm
6 - 6:35, 173 bpm
7 - 6:39, 175 bpm
8 - 6:42, 174 bpm
9 - 6:38, 177 bpm
10- 6:39, 179 bpm
I felt like I could have gone more miles and/or faster pace. This was a very needed confidence booster that I have needed lately. I feel that I could have easily tacked on another 5K to the workout to total a 1/2 marathon distance. At the pace I was running, I could have easily finished with a 1:27 1/2 marathon time and that's not going all out. I think this is why I was a bit disappointed with my results at the AFC Half Marathon because I knew I was capable of this. Even though the race was warm, it was cooler than it was during today's run. Of course, the run today was quite flat (only 210 feet of elevation gain/lost) compared to the race. I guess that made the difference.
As the St. George race profile is a downhill course, I would expect a slightly slower pace than I average today spread out over 26.2 is still still in the realms of the possible. I need to average 6:52 per mile during the race to finish under 3 hours. My confidence is climbing, a bit.
Any of you other there looking for a good training plan and like what you read here, I may have a recommendation for you. You've read how much I've been slacking and I still feel that I'm arguably faster than I've ever been.
I was thinking I would try to start out around 6:52 for the first 5 miles and then pick it up a bit the last 5 miles. I started out a bit faster right out of the gate and kept trying to slow myself down. It didn't really work as my average pace continued to be under the goal pace of 6:52 for every mile. The watch finished the 10 miles in 1:06:49, but I think it was 33 seconds faster as I stopped for a few seconds around the start of mile 9 having seen someone I knew. I hit the lap button on my watch instead of the stop button. After analyzing the data, it looked to be about 33 seconds. So i think that lap ended up being closer to 6:05. All of this averages to a 6:40 per mile pace (6:37 with taking off the 33 seconds).
Here are the lap totals.
1 - 6:43, 151 bpm
2 - 6:37, 163 bpm
3 - 6:41, 165 bpm
4 - 6:38, 169 bpm
5 - 6:50, 170 bpm
6 - 6:35, 173 bpm
7 - 6:39, 175 bpm
8 - 6:42, 174 bpm
9 - 6:38, 177 bpm
10- 6:39, 179 bpm
I felt like I could have gone more miles and/or faster pace. This was a very needed confidence booster that I have needed lately. I feel that I could have easily tacked on another 5K to the workout to total a 1/2 marathon distance. At the pace I was running, I could have easily finished with a 1:27 1/2 marathon time and that's not going all out. I think this is why I was a bit disappointed with my results at the AFC Half Marathon because I knew I was capable of this. Even though the race was warm, it was cooler than it was during today's run. Of course, the run today was quite flat (only 210 feet of elevation gain/lost) compared to the race. I guess that made the difference.
As the St. George race profile is a downhill course, I would expect a slightly slower pace than I average today spread out over 26.2 is still still in the realms of the possible. I need to average 6:52 per mile during the race to finish under 3 hours. My confidence is climbing, a bit.
Any of you other there looking for a good training plan and like what you read here, I may have a recommendation for you. You've read how much I've been slacking and I still feel that I'm arguably faster than I've ever been.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
A Quick Post
Did a speed session on Monday. The goal was 3x1600m at 5:51 pace with 400m recoveries. As running and working continues to be more and more limited, I didn't expect much. The results weren't horrible, but also weren't great.
1 - 6:08.54, 169
R - 3:32.16, 122
2 - 5:55.62, 173
R - 3:29.19, 131
3 - 5:52.09, 176
As we are now out of the casual softball league, I'm now in one league. Our team is bad. We got our first win last week. We were ahead by 1 in the game tonight going into the top of the last inning. Our pitcher walked the first 2 batters who eventually both came around to score. We lost by one. Bummer! I got more action tonight in left field than I have in all the other games combined. It was nice to get the chance to make some plays. I ended up making 3 really good, tough plays amongst all the others. My hitting was much better tonight as well as they batted me lead off.
Tomorrow speed session will be 10 miler at 6:52 pace. I suspect this should be doable without too much work, as long as it's not really hot.
My eating still has not improved that much, but I have become more conscious of it and have been making some better decisions. Unfortunately, I've been and will likely be over the next couple days way to busy to keep track of everything in this journal. Writing it on a piece of paper will not have the same affect as putting it up here when I know others see it (even though they could care less).
Anyway, lots of other things to prepare for as other things are going on in life. I will post some of it in the coming days once things solidify a bit.
1 - 6:08.54, 169
R - 3:32.16, 122
2 - 5:55.62, 173
R - 3:29.19, 131
3 - 5:52.09, 176
As we are now out of the casual softball league, I'm now in one league. Our team is bad. We got our first win last week. We were ahead by 1 in the game tonight going into the top of the last inning. Our pitcher walked the first 2 batters who eventually both came around to score. We lost by one. Bummer! I got more action tonight in left field than I have in all the other games combined. It was nice to get the chance to make some plays. I ended up making 3 really good, tough plays amongst all the others. My hitting was much better tonight as well as they batted me lead off.
Tomorrow speed session will be 10 miler at 6:52 pace. I suspect this should be doable without too much work, as long as it's not really hot.
My eating still has not improved that much, but I have become more conscious of it and have been making some better decisions. Unfortunately, I've been and will likely be over the next couple days way to busy to keep track of everything in this journal. Writing it on a piece of paper will not have the same affect as putting it up here when I know others see it (even though they could care less).
Anyway, lots of other things to prepare for as other things are going on in life. I will post some of it in the coming days once things solidify a bit.
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