Nov 3rd-Nov 9th: Gettin' Busy

I'm feeling pretty good about the week I was able to have. I started taking care of 'bidness' at my new job and still had fairly decent volume. 56ish miles isn't a lot by any means, but it still averages over 9 miles/day for the days I did workout. If anything, my intensity hiked up a bit this week as there were technically 2 races in a 7 day span and I had to take some fitness classes to orient to my new workplace. I'm pretty excited to get started with work; it's a great atmoshpere to be fit and get fitter. I've had to do some objective fitness measurements as a part of my on-boarding process, so I'm getting to know my body even better than 'running by feel'.

Here's what I know so far:
Wt. is still 150#, body fat 6.9%, Resting Metabolic Rate is 2481calories, 'Body age' fit assessment puts me at 18yrs, VO2 max 68.8, Anaerobic Threshold is somewhere north of 176bpm.

The race on Saturday was one of the tougher 10ks I've endured. The course was quite soggy and hilly but had more rhythm than the previous 8k. The weather was chilly, windy, and damp. Besides that, I just didn't feel like I was racing. My legs lack the strength and speed at this point to keep up with my heart & lungs. I guess things could be much worse; I could be injured, or burnt out, or fatter.

I'll gladly take this feeling over those. Training plans include maintaining current strategy while bumping up mileage and adding in a regular balance & strength endurance resistance program to my core work. I'm really eager to find out what I can do when I add pace-specific training. Here's the breakdown of the week:

11/3 Rest (first day without 'active recovery' in a while)

11/4 10 (1:06:40) River Rd/Summit loop w/ RnF

11/5 7 (49:09) Pleasant lake in the evening, felt pretty good. Also did a 45 min 'Strictly Strength' class @ Lifetime.

11/6 10 (1:11:26) Resneau loop in the rain. 'strictly sore' today

11/7 ~6? I had my VO2 max tested on the treadmill @ Lifetime (twice!-the machine wasn't working properly) So when I finally got a successful test, I was fatigued from a 4:30am wake-up and an hour plus of treadmill work w/ weights/bands. I coulnd't reach my true threshold due to the fatigue. Peak VO2 measured below threshold was 68.8. Guess I'm a little more aerobically fit than I thought at this point. Not sure how to measure total distance...

11/8 2.5 warm-up (17:59) HR max 155, Avg 144
10k race (36:03) Even split, HR max 172, Avg 165
3.5 cooldown (26:25) HR max 149, Avg 134

11/9 10 (1:06:47) Resneau loop, HR max 183?, Avg 140

Total ~56 miles in 6 sessions
Month to date mileage: 76 miles

Oct 27th - Nov 2nd: Strappin in on again

Here's how my week went down:

10/27 7.5 (52:10) Easy shakeout around Pleasant Lake trails. Hip flexors were a bit tight from the long run the previous day. HR 112

10/28 10 (1:05:58) River/Summitt loop in St.Paul w/ RnF guys

10/29 10 (1:08:04) Resneau loop, effort was up too high for that pace. HR 140 and legs felt flat. Full core/balance/active stretching circuit.

10/30 13 (1:30:06) Tamarack double loop from home. HR 142 Weather was so nice I didn't need a shirt for this one! 4x150m strides on grass w/ spikes on...can I still run fast???

10/31 7.5 (52:16) Pleasant Lake trails easy. HR 108.

11/1 9ish (56:27) 8 miler prior to MN State HS XC meet. Ran quite a bit during the races but the extra mile is from the cooldown I did with R.E. after a tough character test. Go cougars.

11/2 11 3 miles warm-up, 8k race, 3 mile cooldown. I didn't get splits on the watch but heard:
1 mile 5:22
4k 14:05
5k 17:11
finish 27:23 but the front-runners took the wrong finish loop that ended up to be 150-200m shorter than the correct course and of course I followed. I went in thinking sub 28 was reasonable and that's about where I likely would've ended up. The weather was warm if not perfect. I felt fine cardiovascularly but never quite felt like my legs were under me. Is that a good sign? Have I run all the speed out of my legs to the point where I can't coax it out anymore?

Total 68 miles in 7 sessions
October Mileage 278 in 29 days of running

It's been a while since I've strapped on the XC spikes (Nov 2005?) and it showed today. To close out a decent week of training where I found myself feeling tired pretty often, I ran the 8k Rocky's Run on the UofM golf course this morning(results can be found here. It's a good thing I'm not expecting to see or feel big gains in fitness after just a few weeks of consistency, or today's effort would be disheartening. (Really, I just wanted to beat my former roommate and teammate Pat )Instead, I'm pleasantly surprised that I was able to feel pretty comfortable at much faster speeds than I've even been thinking about in this phase of training. A little improvement in pace over the TC10but felt much better physically even on a challenging course.

From an aerobic standpoint, I'm making progress as needed and I don't feel any physical injuries other than occasional soreness in my calves and IT bands. Flexibility and core strength are going to be my main focus in the next few weeks to ready my body for higher mileage and strength gains. I'm starting to work soon (finally!) and hope that it only inspires me to get workouts in regardless. I'll be building a business as a personal trainer and nutrition coach. Will I be good enough to be hard on myself? We'll see.

Solid Progress. Oct 20th to Oct 26

I witnessed my first MN snow flurries since early 2006 on my run today. Funny how they don't look so friendly when the wind is whipping them in your face at 30 mph for an hour straight. They were so distracting that I didn't even realize I had to run another hour back to where we started our Sunday long run. Yep, over 2 hours in the worst weather I've seen since moving back to MN, and it somehow felt great. This week was one of those I've been looking forward to since I started blogging my training last month. For the fist time since 2006 I've busted the 70mpw barrier and I don't plan on dipping much lower in the coming months. Here's how it went down:

10/20 10 (1:11:09) Nice even, easy run around Tamarack nature center. I was going to make it more like 12 miles but I noticed I was running in the middle of a 'special permit deer hunting day' in the park. I decided to head back home via the roads than do another loop on the trails.

10/21 AM 7.5 (55:28) HR 138 Legs felt good on the trails around Pleasant lake. Followed by hip mobility exercises and thorough stretching.
PM 10 (1:06:57) Loop around Lillydale/St. Paul w/ the RnF guys.

10/22 10 (1:10:10) Around Lake Resneau in the cool rain. Low back was a bit tight but legs felt good.

10/23 7 (52:32) Easy pace for shorter day. Legs feeling the miles a bit but this was a good re-charge day.

10/24 10 (1:06:33) Around Lake Resneau again but this time I picked up the tempo for miles 3-5-7. Here's how it went: 7:13, 7:00, 6:03, 6:44, 5:57, 6:43, 5:55, 7:00, 6:40, 7:13. Overall I felt very comfortable but can tell my legs are going to need some real strength work even to build up to regular tempo training. Good things will come. No need to rush it right now.

10/25 6 (43:45) Recovery run. Great weather...

10/26 18.5 (2:02:53) Chilly & windy out-n-back with some RnF guys on the LRT trail out of Hopkins. We went just under 64minutes for the "out" into the wind and came back a bit quicker but still at controlled pace.

Total 78.5 miles in 8 sessions.
Month to date 230.5 miles.

It feels good to know I can put in a solid 2 hour run after the mileage hikes of the past few weeks. I just hope the legs continue to hold up through the long base phase. I am planning on particpating in two cross country races in the next two weeks. I'm approaching them like I did the TC 10 miler; as fitness tests meant to be kept within the comfort zone of hard running. Better to just be in them for the mental sake of racing at this point in my training. Now on to another important tool of training...SLEEP!

Oct 13th - Oct 19th Running all over

This week was pretty busy with a trip to KS for a cousin's wedding but I feel like 'bidness' was taken care of. A few solid long-ish sessions and no bad training days made the week one for progress. Just what I needed to jump start a mileage hike heading into cool fall temps. Here's how it went down:

10/13 14.5 (1:42:51) Went around Bald Eagle Lake and got caught in a rainy cold front mid-way through the run. Temps dipped about 12 degrees and the rain picked up, and so did my pace. This made up for the missed long run from the day before...

10/14 10 (1:03:54?) Winding route around St. Paul w/ RnF guys. Little quick but good company.

10/15 7 (49:51) Nice re-charge run.

10/16 10.5 (1:16:00) Afternoon run around Faribault to some nature center.

10/17 7 (51:30) AM run before hitting the road to Topeka.

10/18 12.5 (1:26:31) Shunga trail and around KS capital. Good run despite the celebratory mood of the weekend. Felt really good.

10/19 5 (35:00) Shakeout run after a loooooong car ride home to MN.

Total 66.5 in 7 runs
Month to date 152

Hoping for another week like this before building up with a longer long run and a few more miles on my 'down' days. My left calf soreness is gone thanks to a lot of good stretching. Legs are feeling strong but I don't want to test that in race-pace efforts yet. Base, Base, Base...

Back to training? Oct 6th-12th

After the TC 10 mile effort I knew I'd require some careful decision-making regarding training for both recovery and building up mileage. The last thing I need at this point is an injury or setback from reckless training. Yeah, I know the 10miler could've been run harder and left me more taxed, but it didn't, or at least I thought I was fine.

10/6 7.5 (52:33)
Monday after the effort I went conservative; slept in and settled for an easy 7.5 miler on mostly gravel trails around Pleasant Lake. The legs felt a bit heavy to start but loosened up and the miles went by rather effortlessly.

10/7 10 (1:06:54)
Tuesdays I've started running with a group from the RnF shop to get some company and keep my motivation up. I've decided I hate running in the evenings (most of my runs are in the am's lately) but the chance to run with this group is worth it. Typically we tick off about 10 miles around St.Paul at about 6:40 pace. It's a little faster than I usually feel like going but for now this day serves as my 'up-tempo' day. It will be a great chance to recover and get some strength once I start bumping up the volume on Sunday long runs.

10/8 10 (1:12:39) end HR (140)
Wednesdays are a good day for slow recovery and I like doing these on the trails at Tamarack Nature Center, especially while the leaves are changing color. Anything to get my mind off task or minor aches/pains is good to have mid-week. My left calf/Achilles is still a bit bothersome but it doesn't tend to feel any worse if I take it easy on the grass trails.

10/9 10 (1:09:34) end HR (132)
Thursday I went to an old stand-by route that was always noted as a 9 miler in previous logs with times around 64-65 min(although mile splits always were around 6:25-6:35). I re-measured it finally with a dependable cycle odometer and found it's actually 9.96miles(oops). Obviously my legs were recovered as I was holding back and running around 6:50 for most of the run.

10/10 10.5 (1:15:59)
Friday I waited until late afternoon to run because I knew I'd be down in Northfield where I could run the nice grass and gravel trails on the St. Olaf campus. I felt like shit for some reason and struggled through just over two loops of the 8k collegiate course thinking I'd be going long on Sunday...

10/11 0 miles
Saturday I was lazy and tired; couldn't drag my ass out of my sister's house in Faribault to plod out even 4 miles. What a waste of a training day...

10/12 0 miles
Same feeling as Saturday. Two late nights of a few beers and eating like junk will do that. I gotta start using my head and set myself up to get my runs in now. Mistakes are great tools for learning...

Total 48 miles in 5 sessions
Goal for this week is 60-65 miles in singles. I have a wedding to attend in KS on Saturday but will try to get the runs in regardless.

Good week 9/29-10/5

Theme of the week is efforts. I can't bring myself to call it work while in my head comparing it to the work that needs to be done to meet my goals for the next 12-24 months. Monday I went to afternoon practice at the ol' high school, a move I thought I'd regret on Sunday. The HS workout was "The Beast"; a workout perhaps pushing most high schoolers past the point of quality race-pace sessions into junk training territory. 23 minutes of continuous race-pace 800m repeats around a loop rich in 90-degree corners. Rest between intervals is alternating push-ups/sit-ups, so under 30 seconds for most. It may have been worse when I was there 8 years ago when we did 30 minutes of 800's inducing more than a handfull of school lunch 'returns'. I was surprised the kids were doing this workout on a Monday after a hard, hilly fartlek session the previous Saturday and a race coming up Wednesday! I hung with the teams' 2-3 runner because frankly I don't have any speed or leg strength to stay with the top guy right now(16 flat-ish 5ker).

The middle of the week was spent just putting in miles and nursing a deep soreness in my left calf that developed about a week prior. Ice, stretching, mild massage, and NSAIDs were in order anytime I wasn't on my feet. So far the pain hasn't spread or gotten worse and I've completed my highest mileage week since starting this blog.

The week was capped off with TC10 yesterday in a good effort in good weather with a good result. While I could have trained smarter this week, I don't think I could have approached my race plan much smarter. I started with a conservative goal that I felt was realistic but marked decent progress at this point. I was pleased with what my body did for me, and I felt strong mentally throughout the race as well.

Race conditions were nearly ideal with temps hovering around 50F with overcast skies and damp roads. For the first 2 miles I was trying to stay conservative as the course is mostly downhill at this point. I went through 2 miles in 11:45 and followed that with a 6:06 mile up and over the Franklin Ave. bridge on the way to the next two miles. A 5:28 felt good on the flat part of East River Rd. but I made myself back off to conserve for the climbing ahead. Mile 5 was a 5:51 (29:11 halfway split) before turning up onto Summit Ave. and its miles of gradual uphill (& into the wind). The second half of the race actually felt better than the first. Summit proved as difficult as remembered and anticipated but passing people one-by-one is what kept my tempo up and I don't think I got passed after mile 1. Mile 6 was 5:57 as I neared Macalaster college, then I really felt the wind and struggled through a 6:05 before finding more rhythm. Miles 8 & 9 were pretty constant at 5:41 and 5:51. I was laboring pretty heavily by this point but just pushed harder and smoother through the downhill finishing mile which eneded up being 5:09(where did that come from). I passed two more people in the final mile including one of the elite women (they started 8 minutes in front of us)to finish in 57:55, just under my goal of 58 minutes.

Here's the week summary:

9/29 10 (1:09:31) 23 min of 800's with 6 mile cooldown
9/30 10 (1:05:03 with RnF team
10/1 7.5 (53:18) HR 130 @ finish of Pleasant Lake loop
10/2 9ish (1:06) Tamarack nature center from home
10/3 4 (27:27) 1 tempo mile @6 min pace before backing off due to sore L achilles
10/4 5.5 (38:45) on the grass at Tamarack with Richie
10/5 12 TC 10 with short warmup and cooldown

Total 58 miles

More of the same volume over the next two weeks before jumping up again in mileage...

A setback not requiring a comeback

After a good week of focusing on my task of building up mileage to lay the groundwork for fitness, I spent a few days on the couch with a nasty head cold. It didn't help that I stayed up too late and drank too much beer while we had visitors from out of town for vikes game last weekend. My planned two days off from training stretched into 5 days off. I'm still spitting lugies and coughing up stuff but it's been easier to sleep the last few nights.

Finally on Thursday of this week I was able to hit the roads, and I was able to salvage 4 days from this week. It was rejuvenating to trot around at the Griak invite yesterday and see some familiar faces from my running past (and also some unfamiliar ladies with great legs!). The meet was a perfect opportunity to get a long run in on some great terrain as well as some cruise-type intervals while darting around the course watching all the races.

I didn't realize how much I miss cross country, as I turned into more of a track trotter in my college days. Run hard, turn left...over and over again. Yesterday confirmed that fall in MN is definitely my favorite season; cool mornings that stretch all afternoon while you're running around a golf course so long you miss lunch. The course is just another opponent you have to read while your body is screaming for you to stop. Lately, I've been hearing those screams at much slower paces and much lower mileage than I'm used to hearing them. It's got me wondering if I'm really durable enough to withstand the long haul ahead. We'll see...

So a stretch of 5 days off is a setback, but there really isn't a feeling that I've lost ground at this point in the game. There's a lot of time and hard work I plan on putting in before expecting real, measurable progress. Plans are getting back on track in the later days this week so I'll be able to run with some rhythm at next week's TC10 miler. The weather outlook is good with start temps in the mid 50's and virtually no chance of inclement weather or wind. The course will be challenging enough itself; after all, it follows the last 7 miles of the marathon course where I fell apart in 2005. I imagine that the hills in the closing miles will make this feel more like a half marathon or 25k than a 10 miler. Tentative race plans have miles 1&2 around 6:00-6:10 pace before settling in at about 5:45 pace. I would love to scoot just under 58 minutes and feel comfortable like tempo training. With that said, here's how the last two weeks of running has gone:

9/15 7.5 (51:25)
9/16 10 (1:06:26) Ran with the RnF Team around St. Paul
9/17 10 (1:11:35) recovery run
9/18 5 (36:02)
9/19 14.5 (1:42:28) Long run around Bald Eagle lake from home
9/20 rest
9/21 rest (vikings game, probably the only win of the season)

Total 47 miles in 5 sessions

9/22 sick, tired, didn't run
9/23 sick again
9/24 sick again, headache, sinus problems, lugies everywhere
9/25 6 (43:27) felt sluggish and couldn't breath through my nose at all...
9/26 10 (1:12:43) easy longer run to nearby nature center loop
9/27 13+ (over 90-100 minutes) solid 70 minutes running the griak course before warming up with former teammate, then did a fair amount of darting around the course watching the races. Felt pretty good but the hills may have caused some mild left calf tenderness that I've been icing, massaging, and stretching a few times a day.
9/28 5.5 (42:12) EASY loops at the nature center, nice soft grass trails

Total 35-ish miles in 4 days. Still getting over this head cold thing.
Month to date total 167 miles