Monday, February 16, 2015

Sweetheart 5k and weekly training update

Every now and then I like  race the shorter distances for fun and see how the speed and training are going so I signed up for  a Valentines Day 5k in Rocky Mount.  Of course I am in the middle of marathon trainng but racing helps to keep you sharp and is a good workout at a faster pace.

 Normally I would expect a flat course in Rocky Mount and in fact I ran my 10k pr there on a very flat course in 1984. But I heard this one was a hilly course and I found out that there are indeed some rolling hills in the neighborhood where the race was held.

  It was a cold morning in the upper 20's by race time with about a 10mph breeze but after my warmup I stripped down to the racing shorts and lined up after speaking to a couple of friends. I hadn;t felt too zippy in my warmup but then I was coming off the two highest mileage weeks of the past year and no taper along with a lot of hard runs over the past few weeks. I normally don;t feel too good in the warmup anyway and somehow I usually perform a lot better than I expect one days lke that.

 Well I got off to a good start and even with the hills I ran the 1st mile in 7:04.I couldn't tell how many were in front of me but I was guessing top 20 and by the mile I was already reeling in some of the quick starters and was settled in. The next mile was a bit harder and by halfway i was already making my death noises but I was still picking off other runners. Mile 2 was 7:14 and ther were 3 other runners in sight that I had a shot at so i just kept pushing.

 I passed one guy and soon caught up to another with half mile to go up a short steep hill. After that was a nice downhill and i tried to put as much space between us as possible. We made a turn with about 1/4 mile to go and a nasty uphill to the 3 mile mark. I was giving eveything I had and despite the hill ran 7:13 but he passed me just before the top and I had nothing left. The last 1/10th I was dead, gasping and nauseous. there was no kick to the finish !

 My time was 22:18, not bad consideirng the course and my training so I was pretty happy with it. Turns out the guy that passed me cost me first in my age group but at least I got 2nd and was 10th overall out of 188 finishers although about 1/3 of those were walkers and little kids.

 So here is how the week went.

 Mon. Feb. 9th 
  Nothing ! Decided to take a rest day after more than a month  without a day off.

 Tues. Feb 10th
10 easy miles on the ATT in 1:28:13

 Wed. Feb. 11th.
 6 miles in  51:14 on the crabtree greenway. Did some strides and the pace was pretty spiffy considering the easy effort over most of the run.

 Thurs. Feb 12th
6 miles along the neuse greenway in 52:01. Again an easy effort with 1 minute surges each mile to liven things up a bit.

 Fri, Feb 13th
 Another 5 miles on the neuse with 30 second surges each half mile on the return trip. Exact same overall pace as the day before !

 Sat. Feb 14th.
 Sweetheart 5k plus 2 mile warmup and cooldown.

 Sun. Feb 15th.
Planned 10 but quit at 8 after batttling wind gust up to 30mph on a 21 F morning. This was suppose to be an easy day !

 And the usual cross training with 2 days with the weights, a body weight day and 4 core  workouts,

 Stay tuned, just 5 weeks until the big one !

Sunday, February 08, 2015

Training update week ending 2-8-15. 6 weeks to go !

Things continue to go better than I could have hoped for at this point and I am having a lot of fun in the process. I ended up with 54 miles which was actually a cut back from the previous 2 weeks of 60 and 64 ! But it was a good quality  week ith 3 very hard workouts which I was very happy to do very well. Here is the breakdown.

 Monday Feb. 2.
 An easy 6 miles but a good pace, 8:44 average on the day after a hard 20.

 Tuesday Feb 3.
 10 miles in 1:23:00 or 8:18 with the middle 8 at a little better than my marathon pr pace !

 Wednesday Feb. 4
 A recovery day with an easy 6 but still at 8:43 pace.

 Thursday Feb 5.
 another easy day and short on time so I did 5 at 8:48 pace.

 Friday Feb 6.

 another awesome Fun Friday with Laura Frey. today was fartlek with 8 x 3 minutes with 1 minute recoveries. 5 of the 8 were under 7:00 pace and the total workout was 7 miles at 7:37 pace including the wu and cd miles. And in the middle of all that was a segment of a 22:45 5k !

 Saturday Feb.7

An easy day with 6 a little slower  at 8:57 pace.

 Sunday Feb 8.

 A short but intense long run, 14 miles at 8:21 pace which is 2 seconds pe mile faster than my BQ pace. 1 mile wu and cooldown. In the middle was 3 miles at 8:14 pace, 2.5 miles at 8:08 pace, 2 miles at 7:58 pace, 1.5 miles at 7:46 pace and 1 mile in 7:31 with 1/2 mile recoveries.

 So another very good week which aso included 5 core workouts, 2 weight sessions and one body weight day.

 I expect fewer miles and ess hard running in the coming week but I do have a 5 k coming up next Saturday for fun and a test of where things are speed wise. Stay tuned !

Sunday, February 01, 2015

Another exciting week as the journey continues. Training update week ending 2-1-2015

I can't say enough how exciting it is to have my training going so well right now. I would have never believed that after barely being able to run just 4 months ago that I have not only fully recovered the fitness I had before but I am doing workouts better than I was a couple of years ago and even going back to 2005-2006. But then that has been my goal ! So lets see what has me so excited !

 Monday Jan. 26
 This was an easy 6 the day after my long run but I had a lot of zip and was already doing a progression when I had a chance meeting with Laura out doing a time trial. She ran the last half mile with me and of course it was close to my tempo pace !

 Tuesday Jan. 27
    Ok, this was just awesome. 2 year ago while training with Amy to prepare for Tobacco Road Marathon we did a 3 x 3 mile at marathon pace workout which we stretched out to a half marathon and she set what was then a pr. I decided it was time to try it again and nailed it ! All the sets were faster than 2 years ago  and faster than my marathon pr pace. The whole workout was 2 mnutes faster in 1:47:56 ! A real confidence boost.

 Wednesday Jan 28
  Short on time but it was an easy day anyway. did 5 miles and had a lot of zip even after the tough run yesterday !

 Thursday Jan. 29
Another easy day and I forced easy this time because a hard one is coming up Friday !

 Friday Jan. 30

 Yay, another fun Friday with Laura! Todays pain was a planned 3 x 2 miles at tempo pace with just 1/4 mile recovery. Nailed it !  Averaged 7:30 pace even with slipping on icy bridges and a 15mph gusting wind in the last few miles. As always she was great in bringing out more effort out of me than I would have given on my own. Total 8.5 miles and even with recoveries , warmup and cooldown the average pace was 7:51 !

 Saturday Jan. 31
  Finishing up the month with an easy 6 on the gentle rolling hills at home. Decent pace but i could surely feel the hard run from Friday.

 Sunday Feb. 1

 Finished up the week with a strong 20. Was hoping to have a good one in me. I made a last second decsion as i was walking to the trailhead to do the same workout Laura was going for but at my paces of course ! 10 miles at 40 seconds slower than marathon BQ pace then 3 x 2 miles at BQ pace. I was happy to have some zip and had no trouble bumping up the pace and was faster than needed on the repeats !

 So, there it is. Finished up the week with 64.6 miles, the best week so far since the injury. And lets not forget the cross training. 6 core workouts and 2 weight sessions at the gym. Today was suppose to be a body weight day but I decided I could just rest after the long hard run.

 Stay tuned. I am looking forward to another strong week but maybe a few less miles.