Friday, February 26, 2010

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.

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Wednesday, February 24, 2010

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...

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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

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.

Friday, February 19, 2010

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.

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Monday, February 15, 2010

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.

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Thursday, February 11, 2010

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...

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Tuesday, February 09, 2010

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...

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Sunday, February 07, 2010

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.

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Thursday, February 04, 2010

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.

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Monday, February 01, 2010

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!

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