Friday, September 30, 2011

Week 9 Long Run.

I did my long run today.  16 miles - brutal.  2 hour 30 minutes.  My main goal was to keep my achillies from having issues, so, in addition to doing 2 swims this week instead of a mid-week run, I decided on a 4 minutes run; 1 minute walk strategy for the long run.  My  reasoning is that, if I'm going to miss a run, I'd rather not miss the long run - however I didn't want to push my luck.  I did the run/walk thing for the first 9 or 10 miles, then I tried running for 10-15 minutes at a time because I did want my legs to get tired (it is, after all, the 'long run').  The last half-hour felt pretty horrible.  The good news is the legs, though tired - did pretty well.  No stabbing pain the the achillies.  And that's probably the longest run I've done in almost 2 years - so that's good.  Hopefully the achillies will respond well to another few days of rest and I can get a good run in on Monday.  Next Wednesday and Friday I need to do runs of 10 and 12 miles - so I can do those at work.

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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Achillies.

I signed up for the UCAP pool yesterday and did 1300 in about 34 minutes.  That was the alternative to my 12x400 which I ditched because of lingering achillies tendon pain.  I'm hoping to do another swim and then try the 16 miler on Friday.  I may do the 4 minutes on 1 minute off plan.  At a moderate pace (8 min/miles while running) - I can still belt out 9 minute miles.  That'd put me a little over 2:20.  Hopefully the walk/run will let me train through the injury.  That, and heavy doses of ice and ibuprofen.

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Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Go Devils!

Yesterday I did my first night run in a while: 6.5 miles down to GLP and back.  I took it easy for 1.4 miles, then ran harder (maybe 7:40s) for a little over 4 miles.  Then 1 mile easy to finish.  My achilles tendon is still sore - but didn't really start feeling sore until the end of the 4 mile tempo part.  Certainly better than last Friday - but still a major source of concern.  Other than that the run felt great.  The tempo pickup felt fast and the muggy air was offset by pretty cool temperatures.  I'm going to try and do the 12x400s today - hopefully that won't kill.

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Friday, September 23, 2011

Week 8 Long Run.

So I made it through my long run without getting whopped in the head by a falling satellite.  The day started with the kid drop-off at 8:50 and cool, but very humid conditions (95%!).  I started at a very modest pace down route 215, did the loop in Noank and then headed toward GLP.  I did an extra short loop there, since I was thinking I wasn't going to get 15 total.  I then headed into Mumford cove and over to Bluff Point.  I felt pretty good heading into the trail.  However, about half-way in, my left calf/achilles tendon started having a fairly sharp sensation.  At that point I stopped stretched and walked along the harder part of the trail.  Although it felt a little tender this week, I think the uneven trail aggrivated it.  I maybe walked 5-8 minutes total the rest of the way - usually for 1-2 minutes at a time.  It's always hard to walk, but the words "live to fight another day" always ring out with injuries.  It started to rain steadily for the last hour.  I'm icing the sucker now.

I have to say, the 'middle-long' runs these last 3 weeks have been really hard.  It only gets harder now: 3 of the next 5 weeks I'll be running my 'long-long' runs - starting one week from today with a 16 miler.  Hopefully October will bring stronger legs and cooler weather.  

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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Week 8 Going On.

Today I did yet another sweltery run - 5 miles total in 40 minutes - including a 'tempo' part of 3+ miles in about 22 minutes.  It felt hard, but at least I had company.  Monday I did the off-track/around work intervals of: 1 mile; 800; 1 mile and 1:45 uphill hard.  Sandwiched in between that was 18 miles of biking yesterday.  I'm finding it hard to get in all the x-training I'd like to get in.  Maybe that's because I need to be limiting it to 2 workouts - but I have biking, swimming and strength training to squeeze into that.  Mileage this week so far is 11 running and ~4.5 xtraining.  I'll be doing another 2+ xtraining and 15 running for a week of 26 running miles and 32-33 'equivalence miles'.  To put that into perspective - I did 38 miles 2 years ago - all running during week 8.  So that's a little weird - but the idea is to avoid injury - so we'll see.  I will say that all the workouts feel acutely hard.  So hopefully it'll workout.

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Saturday, September 17, 2011

Wharrgarbl.

Long run yesterday.  My second 14 miler in a row.  Although it feels good to be in, what I call, the intermediate-long distances (14 and 15 milers).  I was hoping the second 14 would feel less painful than the first 14.  I started after dropping my kids off at school and just heading into work.  It felt bad from the start and was a 2 hour struggle.  I did the GLP loop (2 miles), as well as extra mileage around work - including the Jupiter loop.  2 hours even.  Weather was the first cold day of the year (40s when I headed out).  Felt like crap all day afterward.  Ate like a horse at dinner.  Strength training today - off tomorrow.  Next week starts with 12x400 intervals.  I'd like to run these hard at a track - but all the tracks are starting to fill up.  Maybe skip out at lunch...

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Friday, September 16, 2011

High Tide Workout.

Yesterday, in a time crunch, I skipped the UCAP pool thinking it'd be quicker to run down to the beach for a quick swim.  12 minutes down, 17 in the water, 13 back up.  The thing is, the water was weird.  I didn't notice it right away, but it was very brown for ocean water.  High tide effect?  Toxic sludge?  Feeling the need to get the workout done - I stayed in and swam - but a weird feeling to be sure.  What happened to my beautiful swims this year?  Anyway, as the topper I biked home ~9 miles after work.  Felt good - but sweltery.  So the day ended up being a good cross-training day.

Tempo run Wednesday.  5 miles total (40 minutes).  Did the middle 3 miles ~7:20 pace.  Again, very hot and humid and hard.  A good workout - although I'm lacking on the 'long' tempo runs.  The training plan is going pretty well, but I am starting to feel like my mileage is way down.  I may do a 1/2 next weekend to 'test my fitness'.  I haven't run a race since May (???) - so a tune-up would probably be a good plan.  Hopefully I can get to a consistent bike/swim/weights every week (2 of 3 probably more realistic).  Although I feel the mileage is lacking - I do feel more fit than ever.  So that's good.

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Monday, September 12, 2011

Intervals and Good 'Ole State

So I made it to Penn State this weekend for the big 'bama Penn State football game.  It was an awesome visit.  I had forgotten how wonderful Happy Valley is on football weekends (and all other times).  Did dinner with the former advisor Friday night before wondering around town: found my old house and hit Zenos for a few beers and even managed to remember a few gift items for the wife and kids.

I also managed to not get to mangled Friday night and made it out for a 6.2 miler on Saturday morning.  Headed from the overnight RV parking, past the stadium into campus - looped around the golf course, then came back up past the stadium into muddy RV park.  Tailgated remainder of morning and afternoon before game.  Perfect.  Run was a sweaty sweltery mess and I couldn't run fast - but that's ok.

Got back into serious running today: 6x800 off track intervals along Tyler at work.  I think most were ~3:15s.  Felt hard but not very long which I take as a good sign.  Not sure how the rest of the week is going to go.  I should bike home Thursday and run long into work Friday - but I need to double check the schedule.  I should also try to do a strength workout Tuesday.  Wednesday should be a tempo run and Thursday should be a swim.  But we'll see, sounds a bit aggressive.

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Thursday, September 08, 2011

Hard Long Run Today.

Forgot the ol'water bottle today and paid for it.  The weather was absolutely great.  Rain moved out about 10am and I hit the road around 10:45.  Had to do 14.  First 5 in 43, second 5 in 43, the last ~3.8 34 minutes.  I really started feeling the lack of water at about mile 11-12.  Found this training calculator at runners world.  They may have had it before - but I don't seem to remember the nice pacing layout - almost everything you'd need.  For me it looks pretty simple:  long runs ~9:00 min/mile, tempos ~7:30, intervals anywhere from a 6:47 to 6:16 pace depending on length.  That's pretty much me running right there.
It's about an hour after I finished today and my legs are really throbbing.  I think I'm going to get some "vitamin I."

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Swim Workouts

From Amateur Endurance.

So glad I found this today.  I did the 4x50 (fast); 1x300 (steady); 4x50 (fast) at the UCAP pool over lunch.  Quick, lung searing fun.  Save the legs some pounding (for tomorrow!)

Monday, September 05, 2011

Long Run Friday and Interval Monday.

I did my best long run last Friday - 12 miles at a nice pace: 1 hour 41 minutes.  I did the first 5 in 42 minutes, the second 5 in 43 minutes and the last two in 16 minutes.  It felt great.  Larry dragged me along for the first 10 miles.  The day was nice and dry.  What a difference some non-humid weather makes.

I did a tough strength workout yesterday and then did some off-track intervals today.  3x1600s approximately.  I went to the track this morning, but found it closed (painting the track before football season???) - so I ended up doing them later in the afternoon off-track.  I did 7 minutes intervals - hopefully slightly over one mile.  Humid and difficult - but always good to run fast.