Practice To Suffer So Racing Becomes Easy

Whoops lost my notes for the day.  I guess that's why you should save.  

Today 4:50 mile and goal number 1 accomplished post Grandma's Marathon.  Now that I've broken the 5:00 minute mile and build up my mileage to 70 per week and made interval work a part of my weekly training routine the next step is to improve my 10K and 1/2 marathon performances.  

I felt good today despite the awful week of running in the heat.  I felt a little burnt from my Thursday and Friday runs so I took Saturday off to ensure I could accomplish my goal today in the mile and it paid off! 

My accomplishments this past month included the following:

5:09 1600 meter race

5:01 mile race

4:50 mile race

Built up mileage from 30-70 miles per week after recovering from Grandma's marathon

Changed diet to a more vegetable, fruit based diet

Dropped 5 pounds in unwanted fat and muscle

Built up to 10x400 meter in avg 1:18 pace, 10x200 in avg 36 sec pace, 4x1 mile w/5:50,5:50 @ T pace, 5:24,5:24 @Interval pace

Built the long easy run back up to 15 miles

Avoided burnout and injury

Well that mile race yesterday and the tempo intervals helped me shake the legs out.  I felt good today.  Average pace was 7:45 per mile on the Garmin.  The humidity was only 36% and the temp was 80 so I think that had something to do with the higher energy on the run.  I capped the run with 4 striders at 30 sec in the last 2 miles.  I was going to do 6, but decided to hold back due to 12x400 and 10x200 @ mile race pace tomorrow. 

Good solid 16 miles today from 10:30am-12:30pm.  Temp around 83, but low humidity made it more enjoyable.  Started with 11 on the road, finishing with 4 at (Steady State-Marathon pace according to Mcmillanrunning.com) on track and last mile as a cooldown mile.  Sometimes I can't believe how dumb I can be.  I thought I was running on pace for 5:55's in my track miles running 1:36-1:38 splits - duh not the correct pace after looking at my watch.  So those 4 were actually in no man's land between 1/2 marathon and marathon pace for me.  To my credit it was probably okay due to the heat and the fact I've got some tough interval workouts this week, so I just stuck at those miles and didn't push it.  My miles according to the Garmin - 8:08, 7:53, 7:38, 7:22, 7:21, 7:07, 7:06, 7:09, 6:56, 6:54, 7:07, 6:05, 6:05, 6:05, 6:13, 7:21 = 16 miles w/Avg of 7:02.  The road was rolling hills on hwy 106's shoulder.  Wind in the face on the way out (felt good) and wind at the back (could feel the sun and heat building on the way back - no shade).  This was my first run over 15 with any pace change during the long run in about 7 weeks.  It felt good to do one of these runs and I plan to do more in the upcoming weeks as I prepare for a 1/2 marathon.  I haven't decided which 1/2 yet, so I guess I better figure that out soon.  Added an hour of strength work at the gym to top off an excellent day! 

AM:  7  miles easy cool temps rolling hills, gravel shoulder (8:14,7:50,7:29,7:26,7:29,7:22,7:09) Avg. 7:34

PM: 5.26 miles easy cool and humid in town 8:09, 7:31, 7:37, 7:44, 6:32 = 7:27 Avg.  Storm rolled in and lightning was all over the place so picked up the pace the last mile just before it got really bad.  Nice blister on the bottom of my foot from the rain now.

Today I woke up in a funk and it just didn't get any better.  My day started with my 2 year old son biting me in the side and me flying out of bed screaming!  The rest of the day was one of those dreary days that make you want to crawl back into bed, but the days of doing that are long past me now that I have a son.  So I dragged myself to the coffee maker and found the next best thing to revive my body.  I would have gone for an am run to clear the mind, but I didn't want to push the week seeing as how I'm already on pace to go over a 10% increase in mileage and the humidity levels today were 93-95%, plus I had a feeling tonight was going to be tough.  Although, I finally broke down and went out for a 1 miler with my son after lunch.  It felt good to get out of the house push the little flesh eater around. I was definitely on edge all day.  Maybe it had something to do with a little anxiety about tonight's workout 5x1 mile intervals or maybe it was just a little over training, maybe a combination of both.  My new friend Karen met me at the track for her first interval workout since the Fort Atkinson 1/2 marathon.  We talked about her pacing and came up with a nice workout at 1/2 marathon pace for her.  She did a great job!  My work out on the other hand wasn't even close to being on the mark for me.  I was supposed to go 2x1mile at 5:33-5:40 and 3x1 mile @ 5:18-5:26 pace and instead I hit 5:42 and 5:44.  I thought to myself okay that's fine just settle in and start cranking it like I normally do for my 3x1 mile at 5:18-5:26 pace.  My legs felt good, but my lungs just couldn't take it.  I hit 5:38, 5:41 and at that point I was going to call off the last one thinking I'm way too off to justify doing the last.  I gave it a 2nd thought thinking it had more to do with the humidity than an off day, so I gutted out the last one for a 5:47 (at this point my shoes felt like boat anchors due to the flood my body was producing).  I'm questioning now that maybe my 4:50 mile race isn't a good indicator of a jump in fitness, or maybe my new fitness was spoiled with the hard 16 miler I ran on Tuesday.  It's hard to say, but I sure hope my 400's and 200's go better on Saturday so I can have some confidence going into my 5k race on Tuesday. 

Rather than feel bad about this workout I'm going to take away the positives! 

I completed the workout without injury.

I helped another runner complete a hard workout on a bad weather day.

God gave me the opportunity to spend a full day with my son.

Couldn't sleep last night.  Sure sign of burnout for me.  That happens only when I'm over training.  So tonight I made sure to go running when the sun went down to maximize an easy effort.  Deliberately ran slow running 8:08, 7:50, 7:59, 7:59, 7:59, 7:44, 7:02 (during this mile a bat hit me square in the side of my left ear - I jumped out of my shoes and started sprinting not knowing what the hell happened, the bat went rolling into the road out cold.  This was the first time that's ever happened to me and I'm sure the first for the bat!), 7:26, 7:56, 7:51 = 10.20 Avg 7:47 pace Temp 90, humidity 60%.

Anyone else been hit by a bat before?  After I was hit I noticed they were all over the place when I went by tree canopy over the road.  I found myself very freaked out by the amount of bats I saw flying just over my head and across the road.  No wonder I was hit!  No broken skin or you could bet I'd be getting a rabbies test.

Lift at Anytime Fitness - Usual for me

2xpushups to fatigue

2xpull-ups to fatigue

2xcable crunch to fatigue

3x8 single leg squat with 10 lb dumbbells and opposite foot on balance ball

2xhyper bact ext. to fatigue

2xhanging tucks to fatigue

2x medicine ball to fatigue

1 min bike crunch

1 min running arms with 10lb plates (focusing on big arms back and forward)

Nice day at Devil's Lake with the family.  Spent about 45 minutes doing some hard kayaking on the the lake and then spent the rest of the day swimming.

Interval workout mid 80's with 73% humidity.

4 mile warm-up 8:28, 7:28, 7:07, 6:56

12x400 meter w/6 at cruise interval and 6 at speed interval pace 81, 80, 80, 81, 78, 74, 76, 75, 76, 74, 73, 72 w/ 200 meter jogging rest

8x200 meter w/100 meter jogging rest at speed interval pace 36, 34, 33 35, 33, 32, 31, 30

3 mile cooldown 7:28, 7:00, 7:14

T=13.5 miles

Legs and arms tired from lifts, but starting to find the optimal balance between the two.

AM: Temp 90's, 95% humidity - 4 mile shake out 8:28, 8:08, 7:50, 7:40

7th year anniversary - spent the day with the family at the Dells.