Practice To Suffer So Racing Becomes Easy

Afternoon:  Core exercises

Evening:  7.27 recovery miles Avg pace 7:57

Afternoon:  4.4 miles around Fort @ 7:45 avg pace.  75% humidity and 75 degrees

PM:   10 mile progression run - wow the heat was tough to deal with today.  I'm not acclimated for the heat yet.  I managed to work through it, but I was way off on my end target pace for the progression.  I was hoping to finish in 5:40's and struggled to hit 6:17!  Nonetheless, I did a good job accomplishing the progression going 8:09, 7:53, 7:45, 7:43, 7:30, 7:15, 6:50, 6:48, 6:35, 6:17.  (Glacial River Trail toward Jefferson out and back)

7.44 miles star school + 4 hard hill sprints at the end - Avg pace 7:27

Evening:  Medium long run on Glacial River Trail - 4 mile warm-up, 3x2 mile w/90 sec. rests @ 1/2 mp pace, [11:36 5:48 avg], [11:38 5:49 avg], [11:31 5:45 avg]   4 mile cool down  Avg run pace 6:43.  Windy and humid, but cool enough to make it comfortable.

9 miles @ Kettle Moraine on Blue loop.  Afterward we did some grilling around a camp fire with friends.  Jen's 1st time at the trails, she really enjoyed them.  Best of all I think her knee came out okay after running the hills.   

Afternoon:  10 miles in town loop avg. 7:10 pace

Evening:  5 miles in town loop avg 7:12 pace 

Afternoon: 4 miles observatory loop 7:04 avg pace 

Evening:  2 mile warm-up + 4 strides

9x1000m w/60 sec. rest - miscounted otherwise I would have done 10, oh well

[3:24, 3:24, 3:25, 3:27, 3:25, 3:25, 3:24, 3:23, 3:18] Avg - 3:24

Well I averaged 1 sec. faster than a couple weeks ago, so I guess you could say I'm improving! 

2.33 mile cool down

Avg run pace 6:33 

Afternoon:  Core work  

PM:  7.5 miles Glacial River Avg. 7:09 pace + 4 hard hill sprints

Afternoon:  5.16 miles in town loop 7:03 avg pace

Evening:  9.23 miles - 2 mile warm-up then [4x200 w/200m jog recovery 35, 36, 33, 34], then [2x400 w/400m jog 71, 71], [1x800 w/800m jog rest 2:26], [2x400 w/400m jog 71, 69], finally [4x200 w/200 jog 33,34,33,31], dragged my legs around for a 2 mile cool down.

The workout was pretty much identical to what I did 2 weeks ago, but I'm running higher mileage and have more workouts layered on top of each other now.  Today, was really windy from the north but cool out.  So I think I'm doing well to run these paces with a full recovery.  The 800 wasn't at goal pace of 2:20, but it's going to take some practice to dig that deep.  I know my speed endurance is weak right now, but I hope to improve that in later weeks.  In all reality my speed endurance probably won't come back to full form until I start racing some short track stuff like the mile, 3K, and 5K races.

Afternoon:  Core work

Evening:  7 miles 7:10 avg pace

10 easy miles around Fort Avg. 7:24 pace

Long day standing around in the sun coaching at what I would call a poorly run track meet.  The meet wound up being around 2.5 hours behind.  This threw off my nutrition intake and gave me more sun than I could handle today.  Not a good mix of problems before a long run. 

Ran my 1st ever run with my new friend Andrew who ran Division III and has very similar college times.  I found out today we are almost a perfect match in fitness, so I think we're both excited to have each other to train with.  I found myself breathing really hard because he and I were motoring away with the chit chat.  The plan was 14 for Andrew and 17 for me with a 8-10 mile tempo run @ 5:45-5:55 pace with maybe a couple faster miles at the end.  It went exactly as planned and it felt surprisingly easy!  I've been doing these workouts on my own for the past 3 years, so having a partner made this workout feel about 10-20% easier than it would have been on my own.  Splits 6:48, 6:18, 6:02, 5:48, 5:48, 5:48, 5:52, 5:48, 5:42, 5:31.

Avg run pace for 17 miles 6:36 pace 

Evening:  14.04 miles on a hot windy afternoon.  I ran with this one again with my new running partner.  We ran a couple warm-up miles then went into our workout of 3-2-2-1 @ 5:35-5:45 goal effort.  Well we struggled a bit with the heat and the wind so it wasn't the prettiest workout, but not a lack of effort!  For the 3 mile we went 5:36 w/wind, 5:38 w/last quarter mile into the wind, 5:53 all into the wind and all uphill. Took 90 sec. recovery jog and then went 5:42 all into the wind, then 5:56 into the wind and mostly uphill.  We grabbed some water at Andrew's house, our throats were bone dry and the heat was getting to us.  I was questioning if we'd be able to finish the workout.  After about a good 3 minute rest we went back out for a 5:32, 5:39 all but a 1/2 mile into the wind with some downhill.  I lady pulled out of a gas station and almost made me a hood ornament.  Andrew probably saved me with a warning, somehow I got out of the way.  We both decided to just run the last mile as a 1/2 mile and called it quits for the day.  Heat acclimation charts show this workout needed to be around an average of 5:50, but we hit an average of 5:42 for the entire 7.5 miles of tempo.  Avg run pace 6:40 pace 

Predicted 3 M Finish Times by Temperature (just for the 3 mile tempo portion)

 http://www.runworks.com/calculator.html

Temperature Time min/km min/mile 

60F/16C or below 17:00.0 3:31.3 5:40.0 (ideal temp and avg pace we wanted)

65F/18C 17:06.6 3:32.6 5:42.2 

70F/21C 17:13.8 3:34.1 5:44.6 

75F/24C 17:21.7 3:35.8 5:47.2 

80F/27C 17:30.2 3:37.5 5:50.1 our 1st 3 mile tempo was 5:42 average, so we probably ran too hard if comparing what we wanted to run for an ideal 60 degree of 5:40 avg.

85F/29C 17:39.4 3:39.4 5:53.1 

90F/32C 17:49.2 3:41.5 5:56.4 

95F/35C 17:59.7 3:43.6 5:59.9 

100F/38C 18:10.8 3:45.9 6:03.6 

Calculations are based on data from Daniels' Running Formula by Jack Daniels PhD. 

Late Evening:  7.18 miles E + 3 hard hill sprints

Afternoon:  9.98 miles avg. pace 7:18

On a day that was almost impossible to find time to run I managed 3 miles.

16 miles before the big track invitational I've been planning for our track team.  Today wiped me out!  The sun and heat was tough to deal with in the press box.  For my 1st time running a track invite I thought I did well because we wrapped up the meet an hour faster than the school last week did and they have 10 years experience.  I was fortunate to have some amazing volunteers keeping things running smoothly.

Averaged 6:47 for the 16 miles, but I felt off on the run I think it was due to lack of sleep this week. 

Morning:  4 miles no watch just to shake things out from yesterday.  Hopefully, my 30% volume reduction will give me the energy to put together a fantastic 3 weeks of 1/2 marathon training.  

AM:  7 miles Avg 7:30 pace around Fort

PM:   Workout with Andrew - 2 mile warm-up, then 6x1 mile with 60 sec. rest.  5:27, 5:25, 5:28, 5:27, 5:32 (mentally fell apart on this one because Andrew left me for a 4:59)!  He's much more comfortable running 5 min pace than I am.  Hopefully, by doing some more work with him I can improve on my speed.  He struggles with the long runs and the long repeats, where I struggle more with the short stuff.

Nonetheless, I improved my average time by 1 sec. again on these intervals.  Again today the legs felt what I would call flat.  I'll try increasing sleep before I cut intensity or volume since I'm still feeling healthy.

Afternoon:  3.5 miles no watch

Evening:  7.5 miles Avg. 7:30 pace + 4 hard hill sprints and lifts

AM:  3 miles - no watch  

Afternoon:  10.58 miles w/repeat 200's, Andrew and I did 5 sets of 4x200m with a 400m rest between sets and a 200 jog between reps.  It went surprisingly well, we had 1/2 into the wind and 1/2 with a strong wind.  

2 mile warm-up

Set 1 [33.40, 35.28, 34.32, 32.93]

Set 2 [33.04, 33.00, 33.24, 33.40]

Set 3 [32.16, 33.63, 32.78, 34.24]

Set 4 [33.60, 33.83, 33.88, 33.60

Set 5 [32.50, 33.78, 32.98, 29.91]

2 mile cool-down

Afternoon:  3.2 miles around St. Joe's - no watch

Evening:  6.3 miles around Fort - no watch

Morning:  5 mile very light progression run 9 min pace down to 6:00 min pace for last mile Avg. 7:35 pace

Afternoon:  4.5 miles - no watch 

Afternoon:  4 easy miles around Madison

Evening:  3 very easy miles (not feeling well), Madison 1/4 Marathon, 2 miles easy

Well lucky for me I was able to run the majority of this race at my 1/2 marathon pace for the win because I wasn't up for a hard mental effort.  This is a new event to kickoff the Madison Marathon.  Normally, a 5K the morning of the Marathon is the race to kickoff the Sunday 1/2 and full.  They decided to change it to a twilight 10K to help shrink the number of people on Sunday.  I think it's a good idea because running at twilight is so enjoyable.  We had a nice cool evening and a lot of support.  About a 1,000 runners registered, which to me is a good amount for a 1st year event.  I have to admit I'm a little perplexed about why they decided to cancel the full marathon.  I know a heat index of 97 is crazy hot, but why not wait till the day of the race.  So it looks like everyone who was in the full has the opportunity to race the 1/2 marathon now, but they aren't doing any corral assignments!  It's going to be a sketchy start with all the marathoners now joining the 1/2 marathoners.  

Not a whole lot of excitement to report in terms of how much guts I showed tonight.  I basically used this race as a 1/2 marathon pace workout due to a really stressful week of training and work.  I certainly wasn't ready for a PR tonight and the competition wasn't there to probably push me to one anyway.  

The 1st mile went 5:19, which felt comfortable.  I was familiar with the course because it was basically the same one used for the Crazy Legs race I ran a month ago.  It's up and down through the 1st miles then a big climb through mile 2, but flat with slightly rolling until uphill the last mile.  I was sitting in 4th feeling very relaxed and under control with the pace.  I was running really conservative and content with letting other people do the work.  Mile 2 with the big climb was slow.  We split a 5:40, it felt pretty slow during the race.  I wanted to push it harder, but again I held back and focused on my goal to get a good 1/2 mp workout.  The 3rd mile was a 5:35 and our pack had shrunk down to 3 guys.  I could tell the guys I was running with were working a lot harder than me, but I was kind of just enjoying the strong, but relaxed pace at this point.  The 4th mile was a 5:54, highly likely this mile was long.  The pack was now down to 2 guys.  Each time I tried to run next to the other guy he would surge ahead of me.  He must have done this at least 15 times!  Not a very efficient strategy.  Each time he made a move I would just hold my pace and he'd drop right back to me.  Then he'd do the same thing again. Finally with 1.5 to go I made a strong move because I was getting tired of the yo yo pace this guys was running.  He stayed with me for about 15 strides then he was gone for good.  Mile 5 I split a 5:35 and I was still feeling like I could run this pace all night long.  Mile 6 was all uphill to the capital for a 5:36.  The cop leading me almost got hit twice on his motorcycle, one time he actually reached out and banged on the hood of 1 of the cars.  Needless to say I was glad he was leading the way for me!  The last .28 I coasted in at 5:23 pace feeling really good.

The race was a nice way to finish off a BIG week for me.  I did two quality interval workouts, a medium tempo and ran a solid 80 miles.  I basically have a long tempo and a few more interval sessions before I taper for Grandma's 1/2 marathon.  Just got to stay healthy and focused for a few more days.  Tonight's decision to not push for a PR was a smart one for me.  Probably, not something I would have done in my early days.   

Morning:  5 miles easy + Lifts

Evening:  10 miles easy around Lake WI area

Morning:  6.35 easy miles around camper country roads avg 7:35 pace 

Afternoon:  4.5 miles at steady pace - no watch

Evening:  BIG workout today in 20-25 mph winds.  Andrew and I were going to doa  8x1mile interval workout, but decided we would be miserable hitting target paces on the track in the high winds.  So we opted to flip flop Friday and Monday workouts. 

So today wound up being a long day with a 10 mile tempo at 1/2 marathon effort.  The pace wound up being marathon pace, but with the wind and heat we were atleast somewhere between marathon and 1/2 marathon pace if not actually at 1/2 mp effort. 

2 mile warmup then 5:55, 5:50, 5:46, 5:51, 5:48, 5:51, 5:41, 5:54, 5:53, 5:45.  Andrew was hurting after 6 so he stopped at 7, that made the last 3 in the wind a little more challenging for me.  I didn't push the pace though, I just took what the day was giving me.  I doubled back with some water and met up with Andrew to finish the cooldown to his house.  Then I added another 3-4 miles for a total of 18.

Avg. run pace 6:37

Avg tempo pace 5:49

Afternoon 4.5 easy miles around St. Joe's neighborhoods and arb.

Evening 9.66 easy miles in town loop 7:38 avg

Afternoon:  Quick 3.1 run of the Family Fair 5k course during my short lunch

Evening:  8.6 miles - no watch + 5 hard hill Sprints