It's been awhile since my last post for a variety of reasons. Here's how life has been hitting me lately:
* Got sick for a weekend - NOT the swine flu
* Hosted cousin's family with a newborn for a week (6 kids in all, their 3 plus our 3)
* Trying not to stress out about my job for next year(teacher's union decided to take a pay cut, which may in the end save my job)
* Got my annual physical and eye exam (everything looks good so far)
* Watched my two oldest daughters win their respective spelling bees! (Katie spelled the word, "Colossians" and Emma managed to spell one word correctly after her only competitor spelled, "leg" incorrectly =)
In the midst of all this, I've continued my marathon training as I approach my final month. Although I only ran 4 times last week, it was probably my toughest training week I've had. Here's a summary of that week:
Tuesday: 8 miles easy (run in 90 degree weather, still a little sick, one of the worst runs ever!)
Wednesday: 9 miles w/5x1000m @ 6:50/mile pace (I have never done 1000m intervals and this was by far much harder than the 12 miles with 7 at LT pace)
Saturday: 12 miles - 9:00 pace
Sunday: 20 miles - 14 @ 8:33 pace, overall 20 miles @ 8:51/pace
I originally had 17 miles scheduled for Sunday, but since I had missed a 20 miler previously because of injury, I thought it would be a good time to add a few more miles. I was definitely spent at the end of the run, but I felt good running the 14 miles at 8:33 pace. At this point, I'm feeling pretty good about being able to run under 4 hours. Now, I'm starting to think that a 3:50 marathon may be possible. Am I fooling myself?
This week I travel to Seattle for a family wedding. It's probably not the best time to be traveling, given the recent news with the Swine Flu. I'm leaving Thursday and won't be back until Sunday evening. I have a 17 miler that I need to squeeze in somewhere; it'll probably be on a treadmill early in the morning. At this point, I'm just hoping to return to San Diego with everyone in my family healthy.
Have a great week everyone and stay healthy!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
32 Miles in 1 Day!
Okay, so that title is a little deceptive. The miles weren't consecutive, but over a 24 hour span. I ran 12 miles yesterday at 2:00 PM and followed that this morning with a 20 mile run.
The plan was to run a 6 mile loop around my home, fuel up, and then go out for a 14 mile loop. Boy, did that plan completely get thrown out the window. All was good when I first set out. The skies were cloudy and I was wondering if the rain was going to come. The forecast had predicted a 10% chance of rain, so I figured I would probably be okay. After the 1st mile, it started to drizzle. It was intermittent and didn't bother me much. At this point, I was debating whether or not to increase the first loop to 8 miles so the second loop would be shorter. I was feeling pretty good so I decided to run a little further and didn't think fueling later on would make much of a difference.
When mile 4 came around, the rain started to come. My first thought was that it would come and go like the drizzle previously, but it never stopped. My gear kept me pretty dry for the first few miles, but as the rain continued, I ended up getting drenched. At this point, I was debating whether to keep running outside or continue the run outside. I still had 2 more hours to go, and didn't want to run the risk of getting sick for being in the rain for too long so I decided to head home to change gear and head to the gym for the remaining miles.
First part of the run:
9.37 miles/1:25:36/9:08 pace (a little quicker, probably because I was trying to outrun the rain!)
When I got home, I quickly changed, took a gel, and got to the gym 5 minutes later. The gym was absolutely packed today. They have close to 20 treadmills and there was only 1 available, the last one by the wall. I didn't care because I was dry and inside! I had 10.7 more miles to go and knew this was going to be the hardest 10 miles I ever ran, outside of running the last 10 miles of the Rock and Roll marathon last year.
Mentally, I broke down the run into 3 sections. The first part was to get to 3.0 miles which was relatively simple. The next goal was to get to 5.7 miles where I would fuel up again with another gel. That proved to be pretty difficult. My legs were shot from the run yesterday and I had to stop to stretch my hamstrings a few times. With 5 miles to go, I broke it down into 5-1 mile segments. After each mile, I walked for 30 seconds and drank some water. The last 3 miles were especially difficult, but I tried to think about what it would be like if those were my last 3 miles at the RNR marathon. This helped a little with the pain. When I got to the last mile, I mustered enough energy to increase the pace to MP, 8:57/mile, and finish the run. After the run, I was exhausted but glad to be finished.
Second part of the run:
10.7 miles/1:43:00/9:38 pace
Total run:
20.07 miles/3:08:36/9:24 pace
Overall, I was pretty pleased with the run. I knew that my legs were going to be tired from yesterday's run and experienced that soreness, but was glad to know that I was able to run the mileage at a quicker pace than expected. I don't think that a sub-4 marathon is in the bag yet, but I know that I'm close. I have one more 20 miler planned, and I think that I'm going to try and run that a little quicker and see how I feel.
Up next, another 50 mile week. In the meantime, lots of rest, an easy 5 miler tomorrow, and lots of time on the couch watching the Masters!
The plan was to run a 6 mile loop around my home, fuel up, and then go out for a 14 mile loop. Boy, did that plan completely get thrown out the window. All was good when I first set out. The skies were cloudy and I was wondering if the rain was going to come. The forecast had predicted a 10% chance of rain, so I figured I would probably be okay. After the 1st mile, it started to drizzle. It was intermittent and didn't bother me much. At this point, I was debating whether or not to increase the first loop to 8 miles so the second loop would be shorter. I was feeling pretty good so I decided to run a little further and didn't think fueling later on would make much of a difference.
When mile 4 came around, the rain started to come. My first thought was that it would come and go like the drizzle previously, but it never stopped. My gear kept me pretty dry for the first few miles, but as the rain continued, I ended up getting drenched. At this point, I was debating whether to keep running outside or continue the run outside. I still had 2 more hours to go, and didn't want to run the risk of getting sick for being in the rain for too long so I decided to head home to change gear and head to the gym for the remaining miles.
First part of the run:
9.37 miles/1:25:36/9:08 pace (a little quicker, probably because I was trying to outrun the rain!)
When I got home, I quickly changed, took a gel, and got to the gym 5 minutes later. The gym was absolutely packed today. They have close to 20 treadmills and there was only 1 available, the last one by the wall. I didn't care because I was dry and inside! I had 10.7 more miles to go and knew this was going to be the hardest 10 miles I ever ran, outside of running the last 10 miles of the Rock and Roll marathon last year.
Mentally, I broke down the run into 3 sections. The first part was to get to 3.0 miles which was relatively simple. The next goal was to get to 5.7 miles where I would fuel up again with another gel. That proved to be pretty difficult. My legs were shot from the run yesterday and I had to stop to stretch my hamstrings a few times. With 5 miles to go, I broke it down into 5-1 mile segments. After each mile, I walked for 30 seconds and drank some water. The last 3 miles were especially difficult, but I tried to think about what it would be like if those were my last 3 miles at the RNR marathon. This helped a little with the pain. When I got to the last mile, I mustered enough energy to increase the pace to MP, 8:57/mile, and finish the run. After the run, I was exhausted but glad to be finished.
Second part of the run:
10.7 miles/1:43:00/9:38 pace
Total run:
20.07 miles/3:08:36/9:24 pace
Overall, I was pretty pleased with the run. I knew that my legs were going to be tired from yesterday's run and experienced that soreness, but was glad to know that I was able to run the mileage at a quicker pace than expected. I don't think that a sub-4 marathon is in the bag yet, but I know that I'm close. I have one more 20 miler planned, and I think that I'm going to try and run that a little quicker and see how I feel.
Up next, another 50 mile week. In the meantime, lots of rest, an easy 5 miler tomorrow, and lots of time on the couch watching the Masters!
Friday, April 10, 2009
Halfway Done!
Went to the gym today and ran 12 miles at a 9:30 pace. Legs were okay, but towards the end they got pretty tired. I'm supposed to run 20 miles on Sunday, but decided to push it up to tomorrow because I want to watch the Masters tournament Sunday afternoon and I'll be going to church on Easter Sunday in the morning.
For the week, I've logged 30 miles, but still have 25 more to go. 20 tomorrow and 5 on Sunday.
I've never run double-digit mile runs back to back so I'm not sure how much my legs will have recovered by tomorrow, but I'll keep you posted on how things turn out. I'm thinking that my pace will probably be above 10:00 pace. We'll soon see . . .
For the week, I've logged 30 miles, but still have 25 more to go. 20 tomorrow and 5 on Sunday.
I've never run double-digit mile runs back to back so I'm not sure how much my legs will have recovered by tomorrow, but I'll keep you posted on how things turn out. I'm thinking that my pace will probably be above 10:00 pace. We'll soon see . . .
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
No More LT Runs!
With only 8 weeks to go until the Rock 'n Roll Marathon, I feel like every workout is critical, especially since I missed two weeks of training, including a 20 miler. Today's run was definitely the hardest workout I have had since I started running. I have been thinking about this run for the past few days, knowing that I would have to be totally focused and strong mentally to nail this run. The schedule was to run 12 miles with 7 at LT pace. My initial thought was to run them at 8:30 pace, thinking that I still have another 12 miler and a 20 miler this week. But the competitive side of me scolded myself for trying to take a short-cut. I've been attempting to run all my LT runs at 8:00 pace, and didn't want to lower my expecatations, especially on my last LT run on tap.
So, I prepared myself to run them at 8:00 pace. I decided to do it at the gym, since I wanted to make sure my pace was precise. The first 3 miles of the run were a warm-up and I ran them around 9:20 pace. At the end of the warm-up, I turned on my MP3 player and cued it to an 80s mix of When in Rome, Anything Box, Erasure, and other New Wave artists. The length of the mix was longer than the rest of the run, which worked out perfectly. I set the pace to 7.5 mph, which is 8:00 pace. The first mile was okay. My HR was around the 160s and I mentally geared up to sustain this pace for the next 6 miles. To help me through the LT miles, I broke it down into smaller segments. The first segment was to get through the first 2 miles. This would leave me with 20 laps to go. The next milestone was 1.5 miles later, which would put me at the halfway point of the LT run. The last milestone was with 10 laps to go, which I could then do a count-down to 0.
After 3 miles at a steady 8:00 pace, I took my one and only gel, a Double Latte Power Bar Gel. I downed it with half of my water bottle and kept going. The LT run got pretty hard with about 1.5 miles to go. I began to get a cramp in my side and my legs were definitely feeling it. At this point, I took off my ear plugs and just focused on each lap. With 1 mile to go, I told myself, 'let's finish this with a bang!' So, I increased the speed to 7:53 pace just so I could say that I ran the 7 miles at sub 8:00 pace (7:59 to be precise).
When I finished the LT portion of the run, I was beat, but I wanted to finish the run strong so I slowed it down to an 8:57 pace, which is my goal marathon pace, and completed the last 2 miles. When I finally finished the 12 miles, I was spent. I'm not usually one that sweats a lot, but my shirt was completely drenched. I couldn't even sit back in my car on the ride home because I didn't want to get my chair all sweaty and disgusting. But in the end, I felt great for finishing a very tough LT run.
12 miles/1:42:00/8:30 pace
Tomorrow is a rest day (watch Tiger and the Masters) and then my plan is to run a 12 miler on Friday, followed the next day by a 20 miler.
So, I prepared myself to run them at 8:00 pace. I decided to do it at the gym, since I wanted to make sure my pace was precise. The first 3 miles of the run were a warm-up and I ran them around 9:20 pace. At the end of the warm-up, I turned on my MP3 player and cued it to an 80s mix of When in Rome, Anything Box, Erasure, and other New Wave artists. The length of the mix was longer than the rest of the run, which worked out perfectly. I set the pace to 7.5 mph, which is 8:00 pace. The first mile was okay. My HR was around the 160s and I mentally geared up to sustain this pace for the next 6 miles. To help me through the LT miles, I broke it down into smaller segments. The first segment was to get through the first 2 miles. This would leave me with 20 laps to go. The next milestone was 1.5 miles later, which would put me at the halfway point of the LT run. The last milestone was with 10 laps to go, which I could then do a count-down to 0.
After 3 miles at a steady 8:00 pace, I took my one and only gel, a Double Latte Power Bar Gel. I downed it with half of my water bottle and kept going. The LT run got pretty hard with about 1.5 miles to go. I began to get a cramp in my side and my legs were definitely feeling it. At this point, I took off my ear plugs and just focused on each lap. With 1 mile to go, I told myself, 'let's finish this with a bang!' So, I increased the speed to 7:53 pace just so I could say that I ran the 7 miles at sub 8:00 pace (7:59 to be precise).
When I finished the LT portion of the run, I was beat, but I wanted to finish the run strong so I slowed it down to an 8:57 pace, which is my goal marathon pace, and completed the last 2 miles. When I finally finished the 12 miles, I was spent. I'm not usually one that sweats a lot, but my shirt was completely drenched. I couldn't even sit back in my car on the ride home because I didn't want to get my chair all sweaty and disgusting. But in the end, I felt great for finishing a very tough LT run.
12 miles/1:42:00/8:30 pace
Tomorrow is a rest day (watch Tiger and the Masters) and then my plan is to run a 12 miler on Friday, followed the next day by a 20 miler.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Valencia Hills
This weekend, my family and I decided to take a trip up to L.A. to visit my sister and her family. After renting for a year and watching home prices plummet, they found a great house in Stevenson Ranch. Our kids are similar in age and love playing together, so we figured it would be a fun time hanging out for the weekend.
I had an 8 mile run with 8/100m strideouts on schedule for Saturday, and because our day in L.A. was already filled with a trip to see Noah's Ark, dinner, and a movie, I decided that it was best to run early Saturday morning. Knowing that I had a 14 miler that I was going to run the next day, I decided to run around 9:00/mile pace. It was great being outside early in the morning just as the sun was rising. There's something therapeutic about being outdoors with the mountains in the background, sun just rising, wind in your face, and no one to have to share the world with (except for a few other runners!). It was a little chilly out, so I wore my gloves. My hands always get cold for early morning runs. The rest of my body always acclimates within the second mile and stays relatively warm. The run itself was relatively uneventful, but peaceful. At the end of the run, I ran my strideouts. I really enjoy the speedwork that I only started doing this Pfitz cycle. It's definitely challenging, but it's the favorite part of my workout. Here are the numbers for this run:
8.0 miles/1:09:17/8:40 pace
Sunday's run was a 14 miler, the longest since my injury a few weeks ago. Because I was staying in L.A. until Monday, I knew that I would have to run this in my sister's neighborhood. I initially mapped out a 3.5 mile loop in her area that I figured I would just run 4 times. When we got to my sister's house on Saturday, I decided to drive the route so I would be used to the turns and the street names. Turns out, my sister lives in a pretty hilly community. They're up on a big hill so there's nowhere to run but downhill, which means that I'd have to run back uphill at some point. After driving through the route, I made the decision to not run the 3.5 mile loop 4 times. The uphill climb back up to my sister's house was a mile long, and I figured that if my legs were pretty shot after the first loop, I wouldn't go back down and would end up running a short 1/2 mile loop on the street where my sister lived, 20 times to make up the last 10 miles of the run. Instead I decided to let my legs take me in every different direction, as I descended the initial hill and then down another hill into a retail district. There, I made a few loops around the shopping center. I started my run at 7 a.m. in the morning so there was very little traffic.
After getting to mile 12, I decided it was time to run back up the hills. I picked the street with the most gradual slope and began the uphill portion of the run. Because I had run even further down the hill than I had originally planned, I had a 1.5 mile climb with 500 ft. of elevation. The first mile was okay, as I slowed down my pace and shortened my strides. However, the last half mile was the steepest portion and I had to break down the climb into shorter portions where I would identify a spot ahead, run to it and then take a short 10 second break. Eventually I got up to the top, ran an additional .5 mile to get me to 14 miles in all. This hill was definitely the most challenging hill I've run, more so because of the length of the hill, more so than the steepness of it. The run overall was good, but hopefully not too taxing on my legs. I have a pretty big mileage week coming up. Here are the numbers:
14.0 miles/2:11:51/9:25 pace
This week is my Spring Break, and I'm looking forward to getting lots of rest, spending time with my family, and focusing on the 55 mile week ahead.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
First Time Intervals
Last night, I ran my first set of intervals on the treadmill. Not sure what to expect, I decided to start conservatively and increase the pace as necessary. Having never raced a 5K before, I wasn't sure what pace to run the 600m intervals at, so I decided to start at 7:30/mile pace and see how my heart rate was after the first interval. To begin with, I ran 4 miles around 9:00/mile pace and then started the intervals. The first one was relatively easy and my heart rate was only in the low 160s. So after a 45 second jogging break, I ran the next one at 7:19/mile. My heart rate was a little higher, in the mid 160s, so I decided to run the next one a little quicker. The 3rd interval was around 7:09/mile and this brought my heart rate to the high 160s. Knowing that I could push my HR a little bit higher, I ran the last 2 at 7:00/mile pace. This finally got my HR working at close to 100% VO2 max rate - in the mid 170s. To finish off the run, I ran around 2 more miles to complete the 8 mile interval run. The next time I run the intervals, I think I'll start at 7:00/mile pace and go from there. Overall, I enjoyed my first set of intervals. Between intervals and tempo runs, I think that I prefer the intervals, probably because growing up, I've always been more of a sprinter than a long distance runner. Who knows how long before that switches around.
On Tuesday I also ran a GA 8 miler at 9:00/mile pace. Tonight I ran a recovery 5 miler at 9:30/mile pace. Tomorrow is a rest day followed by another 8 miler with strideouts and then a 14 mile long run on Sunday. This week will bring my mileage to 43 for the week. Surprisingly this is a recovery week per Pfitz. Next week is the highest mileage week of the program - 55 miles! The good news is I have Spring Break, so I'll make sure that I get lots of rest in between runs.
On Tuesday I also ran a GA 8 miler at 9:00/mile pace. Tonight I ran a recovery 5 miler at 9:30/mile pace. Tomorrow is a rest day followed by another 8 miler with strideouts and then a 14 mile long run on Sunday. This week will bring my mileage to 43 for the week. Surprisingly this is a recovery week per Pfitz. Next week is the highest mileage week of the program - 55 miles! The good news is I have Spring Break, so I'll make sure that I get lots of rest in between runs.
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