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...