Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Moab Week 4

This week was scheduled to be an easier week, backing off the mileage and intensity so I can come back strong next week. So the Theory goes....

Monday - Did an easy Cheesman 4 mile park run with the group. Craig, Tom, Jeff and I, Bob went long. Sore from yesterdays long run so it was good to run short and easy.

Tuesday - I had to work late Monday night and all day Tuesday, so no track workout or run. Just a quick walk with the dogs to clear my head. I only got about 4 hours sleep due to work.

Wednesday - Yoga. Same Sub as last week, but an easier class with more sitting poses. She might have overheard us talking after class...

Thursday - Middle 3. Great day for a middle 3. Sunny in the 50's. I ran 19:39. Disappointing compared to last year, but did improve a bit over 2 weeks ago. No track work helped. Good group but not a lot of middle 3ers. Matt ran with me from about Alameda on the way back for a half mile and then pulled away from me. Sore right calf afterwards 7 Miles with 3 at tempo.

Friday - Golf Course 7. Great Day, sunny, 65 Degrees, no wind. Nice Golf Course Run with Matt at a comfortable pace. Calf was sore before the run , but it stretched it out. Nice Recovery run.
7 Miles.

Saturday - Rest Day, Spent several hours watching Zach wrestle in a tournament. Walked the dogs late in the day.

Sunday - Tempo 6.5. Woke up with a sore back (thanks to the bleachers). Stretched it out some and then went for a 6.5 Mile Tempo run from my house through CC Park and then back through the neighborhood to Bellview and home. I wanted to average around 7:20. It's a tough route with some serious uphill. I was running 7:30's when I started to fade a bit in the 3rd mile. I really had to focus to get back on pace. Then I saw Jill running the other way at mile 3. I hadn't seen her in a while so we stopped to talk a bit. I caught my breath as we chatted for about 5 minutes. Then I took off, ran the 4th mile in 7:05, my fastest but it is flat there and the rest/recovery really helped. I did pretty good on the hills, felt stronger and finished strong. Ran the 6.5 in 49:35. The fastest I've run that route, but the rest stop helped. It does give me a bit of a confidence boost that my 4 weeks of training are starting to take hold. After the tempo run, I ran an easy 1.5 mile cool down with the dogs in the fields at SH. 8 Miles total with 6.5 at tempo.


Weekly Summary - 4 Days, 28 Miles, 2 Tempo Runs

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Moab Week 3

Monday - Nice Day, ran with the group to Wash Park and Back. Group of about 7 Split up on the way, at the turn around and at the path, so ended up just Andres and I for the 7. I was kind of sore from my long run, but we had a decent pace. Also ran on Humboldt on the way back which has a pretty good hill for about a half mile. The MLK parade was going on so we had to dodge it as we crossed Colfax on the way out. Pete M was there and Matt met us at 7th since it was a holiday. Matt and Bob went around the park. Tom came back on the bike path with Pete. 7 Miles

Tuesday - 50 Degrees for about 3 days in a row, so the track was melted. Did my first real track workout in about 3 months. 6 X 800 Intervals with a 200 recovery between. Time range was 259-305. About 5 seconds off where I should be and about 10 seconds off from last year when I started the track. Felt good overall though. Craig M ran them with me and Pete C did some 400's with some 800's. Bob ran the mile high loop. 7 Miles total with 3 at speed.

Wednesday - Yoga. Substitute Teacher, Challenging class

Thursday - Worked at home and it snowed. I was still sore from Tuesday's track workout and new the footing would be bad for a tempo run. I ended up running 5 miles with the dogs around the neighborhood at an easy pace. Waited till about 3 for the snow to melt in the sun. 5 Miles

Friday - Ran the Golf Course with Matt at a decent pace. Traded my 5 miles yesterday for 7 today, but no tempo. Still sore from the track, hamstring mainly. Nice day though and snow was mostly gone but we ran in the street down 23rd due to the snow.

Saturday - Rest Day, spent most of the day at Smoky watching the Varsity Wrestling tournament they hosted. Zach had 4 matches. Tough day, lots of good wrestlers. Spoke with Manley a bit about track coming up. He dropped by to see some of the runners wrestle but missed them and had to leave.

Sunday - Long Run 12. Left at 11, ran the trails at CC Park up to the entrance and down by the Marina, then home via the bike trail and the road. Nice running weather. I faded some on my pace and I had some stomach cramps about half way through. Slower than I wanted but it was 12 miles. Seems like I say this every week but I have a lot of work to do before Moab.

Weekly Total 5 Days - 38 Miles with 1 speed workout and 1 long run of 12.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Moab Training Week 2

Monday - It was cold, 10 degrees and 6 inches of snow on the ground. It had quit snowing and the sun was out but it was still really cold, so I decided to run inside on a treadmill for the first time in almost a year. I contemplated skipping the run and making it up when it warms up and dries out later in the week, but decided to hit the hamster wheel for 6 at the Y. Actually felt ok on it and did 6.5. Matt dropped by on his way outside, he and Bob were going to run outside today. I saw Pete on the treadmill next to me for a while doing some sprint intervals and then some quarters. I started my pace at 7.0 and increased it a 1/10 every mile with a max speed of 7.6.

Tuesday - Treadmill 800 Intervals at the Y, still very cold but the sun was out. I was dreading this workout all morning, having spent 6.5 miles on the treadmill the day before and my first interval work in about 3 months. But once I got warmed up with a mile easy and then did my first interval I felt good. I did 5X800 with a 1/2 mile recovery between. The 800's were slower than I'd do on the track but a good starting point. I increased the pace 1/10 MPH per interval from 9.0 to 9.4 (3:10 pace). Matt was on the treadmill next to me doing a tempo workout. My workout was better than I was expecting, the intervals make the treadmill time go by quicker.
6 Miles total.

Wednesday - Yoga. Tough Class, some tough binding poses

Thursday - Warmed up to 57, Ran the Middle 3 under Icy/snow packed roads with Tim. I took a few seconds off from last week 19:46 for the tempo 3. Ran on the sidewalks more and got a couple of traffic stops. Tim's running Moab too and starting to train for it. Craig C met us on the way back and ran with us back. 7 Miles with 3 at tempo.

Friday - Easy Duck Pond 5 Mile run with the group. Most of the group did the 7 mile golf course but I kept it to 5 to keep my miles down and recover before my long run Sunday.

Saturday - Rest day, easy dog walk after wrestling tournament with Zach

Sunday - Long Run 11 Miles. Did an out and back to CC Park around Noon. Temperature in the 50's with some clouds. Ran on the bike patch which was icy/snow packed in spots that were shaded. Had a pretty good pace for the first 5 miles where it was dry. Faded a bit but finished strong on the last mile up the hill to the house.

Weekly Mileage 35.5.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Zach All City 2010 Aurora Team for Cross Country

Zach made the Aurora All City Cross Country team with his 76th finish at the State Meet (Top 7 from Aurora schools make the All City Team). Way to go Zach!

Here's a link to the article with a great Picture of the teams, Smoky Hill dominated the boys team with 4 of the 7 and had two on the girls team. Congrats to them all.

1st Week of January

First week of full training in 2011. Week 1 of the Moab 10.

Monday - Group run from the Y 8 of us, nice day. Ran with Andres and Bob to Wash Park and back. A bit up tempo the last mile.

Tuesday - Plan was to go to the track and do some 800's, at least 4. Warmer today with sun but the EHS Track was still snow covered though so we went to City Park to do half mile intervals on the road. But the road was frozen over and slick so we ended up just doing 5 around the park. Bob and I did some dry-spot intervals where we would run on the dry spots of the road at 400 pace as far as we could till it got slick again. We did this for about 2 miles and then had an easy mile back. 5 Miles

Wednesday - Yoga. First time in Yoga in about 6 weeks. Susan's class was packed. Good session, my muscles and back were cracking and popping. Felt good, but I'm out of Yoga shape even more than running shape.

Thursday - First Middle 3 since September, 3 months. Nice day in the 50's with sun. Short Sleeve running. First tempo run since October and it showed. 19:52 for the middle 3. My string of sub 19 middle 3's is over after 2 Years and 8 months, of course not running one for 3 months helped to extend the streak. 19:52 gives me a mark to improve upon. I would like to get in down under 19 by the end of February. I have definitely lost that speed edge and toughness, felt it in my lungs trying to push the pace. The road was icy in spots but I ran on the sidewalk on the way back which was pretty clear. Craig ran it also. I have a lot of work ahead of me...

Friday - City Park Duck Pond, easy 5 miles with the group. Nice weather but snow is heading back.

Saturday - Rest day, took the dogs for a walk and did stuff around the house. Nice day with a big snow storm coming tonight.

Sunday - Long run 10 Miles. I was going to go early and beat the snow, but when I got up the snow was already on the ground. So I waited. Zach was going to run a few with me, but he was tired from wrestling and staying up late. I should have gone about 10, but it was 12 before I left. By then it was snowing hard and blowing from the northeast. I took the dogs for a 2 mile run through the Smoky Hill fields and then dropped them at the house. I then ran an 8 mile loop through CC Park. A nice route, but the weather really turned on me. At 3 miles in, I stopped and got a drink and thought about turning back and making it an 8 mile day. I decided to tough it out and go on and finishing the loop. In hindsight that was the wrong decision. My pace was very slow due to the snow, even with yak trax and running to the north or east was very cold temperatures were in the 20's with a wind chill in the teens. I was dressed OK, except for my bare face which took a frosty beating. I pushed through the 10 and finished, I was freezing by the time I got home though. A real character builder run that one was or maybe stupid. I did burn more calories trudging through the snow.

34 Miles for the week in 5 days, with 1 tempo run and some speed. Long run of 10 in the snow.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

A quick look back at 2010

2010 Was a good running year for me. Here's a quick recap of the year that was... /cliche


Positives...

I ran 1875 miles, 2nd most ever from 1924 in 2008.
I ran 241 Days out of 365, 66% of the days. 2nd Most from 272 in 2007
I averaged 7.75 Miles per run, 2nd highest MPR from 2008

I ran in 13 races over the year, racing in 6 different states.

I set 3 PRs this year
10 MIle at Snowman on 2/27 - 1:09:41
1/2 Marathon at Michelson Trail on 6/6 - 1:31:37
10 K at Evergreen Town Race on 8/1 - 42:25

I ran 2 relays, a week apart in August. Cache Teton with Team Anadarko and Pickled Prostates for the 6th year in a row. Both teams did very well, winning their divisions and finishing 3rd and 2nd overall and I have a lot of fun memories from both relays and made some new friends with the Anadarko Team.

I ran two half marathons with my son Zach. Who had a great year running and suprassed me at every distance except the marathon.

I achieved my longtime goal of running the Boston Marathon on 4/19/2010 with a time of 3:28 qualifying for Boston at Boston.

Negatives...

Not a lot of negatives this year. I lacked motivation after the relays and felt beat down and slow to recover. I was healthy overall with no major injures, but I had a lot of nagging injuries with my left heel and my left hamstring that plauged me since Boston and are still not gone.

I only did 13 races, down from 17 the year before, not a real negative, but racing definately helps to keep that edge and motivation going. I lost a bit of confidence in my last few races after the relays. I did not have that push I did earlier in the year, I am left wondering if I can get my speed back to where it was.

I did not do a fall marathon, that is probably my biggest negative, even a mediocre marathon would have been a nice accomplishment before I cut back on my mileage.

So it was a good year, I would change a couple of things, but lots of great memories and runs and friends along the way.

Still thinking about my goals for 2011. A PR half at Moab is on the list but not sure after that.

Happy New Year!

That's an original title, I bet I'm the first blogger to use that one. If I can call myself a blogger, it's been 2 months since I blogged any running.

A quick catch up about the last 2 months

I cut back my running to casual, easy running since October, my last race was the Band on the Run 2 mile. I felt I needed a break from the training but wanted to keep a base and not miss the good running weather we've had. I ran 108 miles in October and 110 in November, no races, no speed work. Some good group runs at lunch and some runs with friends and Zach and the dogs. I picked it up a bit in December doing some longer runs and got my mileage back up to 133 miles. The weather has been really good for December running

In addition to the physical pains of training for a while without a break, I have also had problems with motivation for running, not so much the easy runs to keep a base, but no desire to do speed work or races or anything that pushes me beyond that comfort threshold. I've also had some issues in my professional life that have put running on the back shelf. Also spent the night in the emergency room on December 12th, I won't go into the details but will say that I'm fine and it's something I have been dealing with that is not running related, in fact I had a great 10 mile run the day after. One of those great to be alive type of runs.

2011...
I registered for the Moab half and got in, so now it's 2011 and I'm ready to start training for it. I decided to go on a 10 week training schedule starting Jan 3rd with a goal of a PR 1/2 marathon 1:31:16. That should motivate me. My weight is 156, so I've put on about 4 pounds with the cut back, not too bad. My base long run is 10 miles. I still have a few nagging issues, left hamstring, heel and right knee. I would like to get my weight down to 150 for Moab. I have been really lazy with my diet and cross training

I plan to blog my progress and see if it is possible to take this much time off and get back in half marathon shape in 10 weeks with winter training. I will fill in my Calendar below and post progress, setbacks and updates.