Easy Swim

I woke up today with horrible congestion in my head and didn't think I was going to get my swim in - this after feeling sluggish yesterday. I decided to try the pool anyway - and whatdoyaknow - it felt pretty good. I didn't swim with much intensity - but my times looked ok: I was swimming the 'fast' 100s at a 1:55 min pace and the 'steady' 100s at a 2:10-2:20 pace. I was really not forcing those at all. I actually felt pretty good during the workout and afterwards - felt better than before - although not near 100%.

What's incredible is that I've been sick for 3 weeks, we've had crappy weather for 4 straight days now - and yet I managed all my scheduled workouts: long run, tempo run and 2 swims. I've even had a decent week with the strength training/yoga. All told - I'll have 1 hour 51 minutes running; 1 hour 31 minutes in the pool and I should be able to 1 hour 20 minutes strength/yoga - a pretty good start. Now if I could only get healthy.

First Tempo Run of 2010

Not a good one. It looked like it was raining pretty hard - so I went to the UCAP pool/gym to use the treadmill. Turns out, pool/gym is a lethal combo when they put the treadmills on the second floor wings on either side of the pool - felt like near 100% humidity. Anyway, the workout was 9 minute warmup; 3 mile tempo; cooldown. The 3 mile tempo was broken up: 7:30 mile; 7:20 mile; 7:40 1/2 mile; 7:10 half mile. The tempo part took about 22:15 - or a 7:25 min/mile pace. Ideally this would've been lower - but it was just too damn hot in there. Another disturbing fact - the heart rate monitor said my heart rate was 175 - max for 40 year olds is 180! I think that's a bit high. I should've run outside...

Spring Week 1 Begins

I have finally begun my spring 1/2-marathon training - keeping my sites tentatively set on the Providence 1/2 on May 2nd. The plan initially was to do my long run on Sunday - followed by 2 swims and a tempo run from work during the week. However, with the move/illness hangover on Sunday I failed to make it out until yesterday from work. I did 8.1 miles in 1 hour and 9 minutes; good for a 8:31 min/mile pace - which was much faster than I'd planned. I did 2 loops - the first at a fast pace with Larry and DaveB (~8:21), then I did the second loop with Larry, who was feeling the Olympic spirit or something, and pushed me to another faster than planned loop (~8:42). Difficult - but a good start.

Last night I did my first strength work in over a week - 8 minutes of upper body.

Today I did an "active recovery" workout in the pool. The workout totaled 1400 meters/yards/whatever and took 48 minutes to complete. I'll do a similar distance - probably on Thursday. I'll try and squeeze my tempo run in either Wednesday or Friday.

Winter Warmup

Well my winter warmup is officially finished. This last week was difficult: my family moved our living quarters from one house in Mystic to another (bigger) house in Mystic. This occurred basically Sunday-Thursday. In addition - I'm still fighting a head cold which has made even these easy runs seem difficult. Nevertheless, I managed the following workouts:

• Monday - easy run 3.8 miles; about 36 minutes
• Wednesday - easy run 4.5 miles; about 42.5 minutes
• Thursday - easy swim - same workout as last week ~ 35 minutes
• Friday - easy run 4.2 miles; about 38.5 minutes

All told - almost 2 hours running - a lot more than I'd though, and a solid 1/2 hour+ in the pool. The big thing I missed was the strength/yoga work.

Next week I start the half-training. This should look like: 2 runs - one long, one tempo + 2 swims. In addition I need to get at least one of all of these in: leg workout, pushups/situps, upper body, core and yoga. I want to still focus on overall fitness during the Spring half - and then worry more about breaking PRs during the Fall half.

Week 6 Recap

Week 6 ended with a bit of a whimper. I felt worse Friday than I did all week - still made it out for a short 4 miler - just around Avery Point and back up. We're in the process of a moving at home - so I packed and moved boxes all weekend - but felt sick even then. I didn't do my long run yesterday. I'm thinking this week I'll aim for: short run today, off Tuesday, swim or long run Wednesday and then get the other 2 workouts in Thursday and Friday. If I can get a run in today - I can backlog and finish up the last 3 days. We'll see. Hopeful this congestion will go away.

Swimming, swimming.

Back to the pool finallyI've have 2 swims done this week. I felt like crap for today's workout - coming off of a head cold. In addition to the head cold - we had a brutal storm yesterday - not as bad as further south, but what we got was wet and heavy - not easy work. But the swims are easier to push through than the running. Todays workout was:

• Warmup: 200EZ;3x100(50kick/pull);
• Workout: 5x50 fast; 300 steady; 5x50 fast
• Cooldown: 100 Breast.

Now I can kickback watch the season premier of Survivor and hope I can get to feeling better tomorrow. Until later - Parvati! whatever the hell that means...

Week 6 Underway

I started week 6 off Super Bowl Sunday, with a pre-game 7-miler (65 minutes). The run took me down to Groton Long Point - and back. I was going to do my first of two pool workouts Monday - but felt horrible (hangover with sore throat) - so I'll try it today. It looks like:
Warmup: 200 warmup; 1x150 pull; 2x100 kick.
Workout: 1x200 slow; 2x200 build; 1x200 fast.
Cooldown: 1x100 breast; verticle kick; 2x30 seconds.
Hopefully the word "breast" won't garner too much traffic...

Week Five Recap

I rounded out week 5 by skipping my 3rd run on Friday. I didn't really skip it - I just decided that I'm going to aim for 2 runs and 2 swims per week. Ideally, I'll try and get my long run in on Sundays - do 2 pool workouts from work and 1-2 runs from work - but 1 of those will need to be the tempo/interval work. I adjusted my half plan accordingly.

I also found this short training plan for the pool. I'll try this week to complete the week 1 plan. Hopefully I'll be a better swimmer by week 4. It seems like a pretty drastic reduction in running compared to the marathon training - but I think the 2 runs will be quality and the swimming should help my overall fitness. I think - over the next 2 months - I'll be glad I paid for the pool time - since the weather can be spotty in the NE until late Spring.

Starting to Gear Up!

So this is - so far - getting to feel more like training. Following Monday's Sneaker's Mile pickup - I did a 16:20 'almost tempo' for about 2.17 miles. This would be, if accurate a 7:32 min/mile pace. A little slower than what I want to get to - and a little shorter than I'd planned. Larry ran through Tyler to catch up - which is why I stopped when I did. He was pretty out of breadth from his 1/2 mile Tyler sprint - so we poked along after that for about 5.7 miles total - over 48 minutes. Which is fine - I got a 'tempo' and some decent mileage. Tomorrow I'd like to go longish - maybe 7.3 to round out the weeks mileage.

Today I woke-up with a mild upper-back/neck sprain - so I hit the UCAP pool for the first 'official' time (meaning that I paid-up for the year). It felt ok - more like work than last week. I'd like to try and hit 2 times a week some weeks - but it'll be hard the next 2 weeks do to the move. But at least I'm obligated to go now. And you can't beat the pool facility itself. So I'll learn to love it.

Sneakers Mile

I made it out for a nice run today with some of the slower guys at work today. We went about 4 miles in 35:40 before Larry and I broke off and did the "Sneakers Mile" pickup - same as last week. I did it in 7:14, again - same as last week. After that comes the toughest hill in Groton - "the Bitch" - very steep for 1:40 - then back to work. A little over 6 miles total over 55 minutes. It feels good having done the mile pickup in back to back weeks. And I still have a few more easy weeks before the real tempo work begins.

Tonight - I celebrate life and running with a Stone IPA. Salude!