Training is picking up a notch for sure this week. While I was feeling a little flat early in the week and even at the end of last week, today the legs were a little more spry. So funny how cyclical training like this is. I said to Ali that my mental and physical state after some really good or bad runs usually means down the road, whether that's 4 or 14 days later, things are bound to flip to the opposite side, usually with the same intensity. What's that they say about actions and reactions....
It's just impossible and unrealistic to be feeling good all the time. Making real gains in your training means having ups and downs. Big ones and little ones, and staying level headed as best you can throughout the process.
This past weekend I was also in upstate NY for my college friend Streets' bachelor party. It's always so fun seeing my college buddies. Such an entertaining group dynamic that I really miss sometimes. As you might imagine, that weekend wasn't super conducive to hard training, so I moved some days around and took a day off (which was planned) and an easy run. On Monday I was still feeling pretty flat trying to do a "step up" style workout which was 2x15 minutes at tempo (z3) HR immediately followed by 5 minutes at z4 HR. I couldn't make it happen for the second set and had to bail towards the beginning of the 5 minute chunk. I think my body was still catching up on sleep and recovery from the weekend.
Tuesday I did 21.6 miles in Jackson at mostly z2 pace. Sort of stayed on the edge of z1 and z2. Average for the run was 6:15 pace, and my legs were feeling a little better at this point. I was dealing with some pain in my right hip area that was a little concerning. I have since done a bunch of hip exercises and things have definitely calmed down a lot and I'm not as worried about it. It's amazing how much of a difference that makes for me right now. I can't slack on that stuff. Easy 30:00 double later that afternoon.
This morning was an easy 7 miles followed by an hour long "plyo run" in the PM. This entailed a warmup, then 4x strides, butt kicks, high knees, karaoke, and high skips for 30 seconds each with 30 seconds rest in between each drill. Harder than you'd think. Very different than just straight running, as doing all that repetitive jumping felt like I was waking up other aspects of my gait cycle that I don't typically use. I covered about 8 miles during that run, bringing me to about 43 miles in the last three days. Fairly typical mileage wise from the last couple weeks. I do have some more intense workouts later in the week which should add to the workload a lot compared to previous weeks. Hills tomorrow, then some quick track work on Friday.
AH
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
10 mile progression
Got out this morning for a planned 10 mile progression run. HR zone 1-2 for first 3, then z3 for miles 4-6, then z4-5 for 7-9. My legs were still feelin' it for yesterday's 20 miler so being able to execute this well was a big plus.
Happy this went well. I had my doubts in the beginning as my calves were sore and the top of my foot was achy. I worked through the kinks and am quite pleased.
AH
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Two hours
Went for a two hour run this morning, planned zone 2 HR the whole way. Zone 2 is characterized as "aerobic," for SC, aka not recovery, but not tempo. Kind of a sweet spot. I maintained what I thought was a solid pace throughout, averaging 5:54 pace with a HR average of 155, covering 20.6 miles. I looked back at a similar workout from April of 2014 when I did 90 minutes of zone 2 running and averaged 155bpm and 5:55 pace. Pretty. Darn. Similar. This made me happy because that was two months before Grandma's and I know I was pretty darn fit at that time. The contexts are certainly different but still interesting to see the similarities.
Need to work on some speed, but otherwise I'm feeling good and mentally amped to dive into the week ahead.
AH
Need to work on some speed, but otherwise I'm feeling good and mentally amped to dive into the week ahead.
AH
Monday, October 12, 2015
Great Island 5K race recap
Yesterday I ran the Great Island 5k in New Castle. It was a perfect fall day for a race and I was pumped to be out there. I found out when I arrived that Nate Jenkins and Aliaksandr (sp?) Leuchanka (AL) were running as well so I knew I wasn't going to be walking away with this one easily. AL has been running well all season and Nate is always a super tough competitor when I've raced him in the past. I didn't know exactly what kind of shape each of them were in, so I focused on myself. I tried not to think too much about the training I had put in over the previous 5 days, as the miles have really piled on. I actually didn't add it all up until just now, where I count 93 miles of running in 6 days if you include the mileage from race day.
I knew I was in for a battle as soon as the gun went off. The three of us separated from the pack and it was clear nobody else was in the picture. I got out and led for about the first mile, which we covered in 4:48, the quickest of the race. I felt good, straining, but ok. I felt some slight twinges in my right groin but overall nothing too scary. I threw in a surge or two here and there to try and test those guys but they hung really tough. From that point I knew it would come down to the last few hundred meters.
I relaxed slightly and Nate jumped ahead going around this corner by the water that led into a quick little downhill. He was trying to break open a little gap by using the downhill, but AL and I stuck with him. Ripping through some of those turns was really fun, and the race itself can be pretty tactical from that perspective. Especially when you add in all the little tiny ups and downs.
Through the next mile or so I was hanging on the back of these two as we were all clearly working pretty damn hard. Turning down on Pit Lane and then back onto 1B I was gassed, let off the pedal for a moment and lost a little bit of ground on the two of them. I worked my way back a little bit and was momentarily inspired by the cheering crowd with about 500m to go, but was burning on all cylinders at that point and though I was gaining for a short time, it wasn't something I could keep up through the finish. I ended up crossing in third, momentarily disappointed to have lost, but overall pretty pleased with the way I competed and the time I was rewarded with. After just a couple months of dedicated training, and only a few weeks of hard training, I was pretty proud of myself.
When I add in the fact that I'd run a moderately hard 13 miles the day before and done plenty of tough running and mileage over the days prior, I had a lot to be optimistic about. At the same fitness level but with fresh legs I'm confident I could've run much faster and been more competitive with those guys in the latter stages of the race.
Looking back, it was a lot of fun really racing people again. It's been a long while since I've been in those dire late race scenarios where everyone is just crushing each other and themselves for a small little edge. It's without a doubt the best and most exhilarating part of running. Also the most stressful. Too bad I didn't come across with the win on this one, but hey, there are always more races on the calendar.
AH
Results:
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/15/nh/Oct11_22ndGr_set1.shtml
Seacoast Online article:
http://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20151011/SPORTS/151019886
I knew I was in for a battle as soon as the gun went off. The three of us separated from the pack and it was clear nobody else was in the picture. I got out and led for about the first mile, which we covered in 4:48, the quickest of the race. I felt good, straining, but ok. I felt some slight twinges in my right groin but overall nothing too scary. I threw in a surge or two here and there to try and test those guys but they hung really tough. From that point I knew it would come down to the last few hundred meters.
I relaxed slightly and Nate jumped ahead going around this corner by the water that led into a quick little downhill. He was trying to break open a little gap by using the downhill, but AL and I stuck with him. Ripping through some of those turns was really fun, and the race itself can be pretty tactical from that perspective. Especially when you add in all the little tiny ups and downs.
Me, dude in the back, in my attempts to stay with the leaders
Through the next mile or so I was hanging on the back of these two as we were all clearly working pretty damn hard. Turning down on Pit Lane and then back onto 1B I was gassed, let off the pedal for a moment and lost a little bit of ground on the two of them. I worked my way back a little bit and was momentarily inspired by the cheering crowd with about 500m to go, but was burning on all cylinders at that point and though I was gaining for a short time, it wasn't something I could keep up through the finish. I ended up crossing in third, momentarily disappointed to have lost, but overall pretty pleased with the way I competed and the time I was rewarded with. After just a couple months of dedicated training, and only a few weeks of hard training, I was pretty proud of myself.
When I add in the fact that I'd run a moderately hard 13 miles the day before and done plenty of tough running and mileage over the days prior, I had a lot to be optimistic about. At the same fitness level but with fresh legs I'm confident I could've run much faster and been more competitive with those guys in the latter stages of the race.
Looking back, it was a lot of fun really racing people again. It's been a long while since I've been in those dire late race scenarios where everyone is just crushing each other and themselves for a small little edge. It's without a doubt the best and most exhilarating part of running. Also the most stressful. Too bad I didn't come across with the win on this one, but hey, there are always more races on the calendar.
AH
Results:
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/15/nh/Oct11_22ndGr_set1.shtml
Seacoast Online article:
http://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20151011/SPORTS/151019886
Thursday, October 8, 2015
Rapid fire updates
Tuesday I did the longest run of my year, 23 miles on the roads surrounding Jackson, NH. I did 3x15 minute pickups up to about 5:50 pace, which was very comfortable and easy feeling. The distance was the toughest part of this run. I was never in real discomfort, but I could tell my body is certainly still adapting to this kind of running. I got back, ate a solid lunch, then headed back out for a 30 minute shake out jog on the soft trails. All told almost 27 miles on the day!
Wednesday (yesterday) I had a 10 mile zone 1 or 2 run in the morning. I have to say, this was one of the most satisfying efforts I've had all season. Really caught me off guard. I was running super comfortably around 6:00 pace and couldn't have been happier. It was one of those perfect fall days and the perfect temperature for a long sleeve shirt and shorts. In the grand scheme it was a filler kind of day, but mentally this stood out to me in terms of how well I seemingly recovered from the effort the day before. Now this will probably all come back to haunt me and my body will react to the training effect of that long run soon enough, but for that day I was absolutely thrilled. Easy double in the afternoon capped off a solid day.
Today I hit up the track for a 5xmile workout. After a short warmup I covered the miles in 5:08. 5:08, 5:08, 5:04, 5:00, each with a 200m jog in between (about 2 minutes worth). A longer 4ish mile cooldown, plus an easy 30:00 double in the afternoon brought me to about 57 miles of running in 3 days.
Feeling good!
Now time for sleep.
AH
Wednesday (yesterday) I had a 10 mile zone 1 or 2 run in the morning. I have to say, this was one of the most satisfying efforts I've had all season. Really caught me off guard. I was running super comfortably around 6:00 pace and couldn't have been happier. It was one of those perfect fall days and the perfect temperature for a long sleeve shirt and shorts. In the grand scheme it was a filler kind of day, but mentally this stood out to me in terms of how well I seemingly recovered from the effort the day before. Now this will probably all come back to haunt me and my body will react to the training effect of that long run soon enough, but for that day I was absolutely thrilled. Easy double in the afternoon capped off a solid day.
Today I hit up the track for a 5xmile workout. After a short warmup I covered the miles in 5:08. 5:08, 5:08, 5:04, 5:00, each with a 200m jog in between (about 2 minutes worth). A longer 4ish mile cooldown, plus an easy 30:00 double in the afternoon brought me to about 57 miles of running in 3 days.
Feeling good!
Now time for sleep.
AH
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Quick recap on the week thus far
Update on notable runs this week:
10x3 minutes up a steep hill in Jackson on Tuesday. It was super rainy but otherwise really nice running weather. I was running hard and felt really good despite the difficulty of the whole thing. It reminded me of running up Bald Eagle hill in college, specifically in the '09 cross country season when Kevin McGoldrick crushed my spirits and beat me up the hill on multiple occasions. Would've loved to have some company out there the other day as it got a little lonely cranking up that hill time and time again. It's tough not having teammates sometimes. I forget how great that was to have someone there going through the same difficulties, working toward the same goal.
Easy 8 miles on Wednesday.
Today (Thursday) was 7x800 with 90 seconds rest on the track, reminiscent of my 5x800 effort on the track a couple weeks ago. That workout I did 2:30, 28, 27, 24, 23. This time I was 2:29, 25, 23, 24, 21, 23, 23, or something along those lines. Those 90 seconds flew by but I held my own I think. Especially happy with the improvement compared to a couple weeks ago. Still a long way to go, but it's certainly some progress.
After the track workout I went to see SC at the gym, where he showed me some super helpful core and hip exercises. These were TRX style exercises (hey, first time for everything) that use bands with loops on the end, tied to a bar overhead. All body weight stuff that focused on glutes, hamstrings, hips, and adductors. Overall it was exactly what I was looking for in terms of added strength work. Very functional and helpful for running.
Easy bike planned tomorrow. Great Island 5k next weekend.
AH
10x3 minutes up a steep hill in Jackson on Tuesday. It was super rainy but otherwise really nice running weather. I was running hard and felt really good despite the difficulty of the whole thing. It reminded me of running up Bald Eagle hill in college, specifically in the '09 cross country season when Kevin McGoldrick crushed my spirits and beat me up the hill on multiple occasions. Would've loved to have some company out there the other day as it got a little lonely cranking up that hill time and time again. It's tough not having teammates sometimes. I forget how great that was to have someone there going through the same difficulties, working toward the same goal.
Easy 8 miles on Wednesday.
Today (Thursday) was 7x800 with 90 seconds rest on the track, reminiscent of my 5x800 effort on the track a couple weeks ago. That workout I did 2:30, 28, 27, 24, 23. This time I was 2:29, 25, 23, 24, 21, 23, 23, or something along those lines. Those 90 seconds flew by but I held my own I think. Especially happy with the improvement compared to a couple weeks ago. Still a long way to go, but it's certainly some progress.
After the track workout I went to see SC at the gym, where he showed me some super helpful core and hip exercises. These were TRX style exercises (hey, first time for everything) that use bands with loops on the end, tied to a bar overhead. All body weight stuff that focused on glutes, hamstrings, hips, and adductors. Overall it was exactly what I was looking for in terms of added strength work. Very functional and helpful for running.
Easy bike planned tomorrow. Great Island 5k next weekend.
AH
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