Tempo Tuesday

Did my planned tempo run today. Even tacked on something extra, was feeling pretty good.

Running short on time, here's the quick version:
One mile warm-up. 3 x 7:00 which the first mile I had some trouble getting into the groove. Then began to feel relaxed and just cruised along. Started the cool-down 5th mile, but after a few minutes decided to do a quick 800m interval to take advantage of feeling some speed. Was about 4 mins of recovery and then half mile in 3:10 or 3:15... I actually lost track of time but I know it was 3:15 at the slowest. May have been closer to 3:05_ish. Then cool-down mile. Total 6 in 46:40.

Hit some weights today. Had big salad for lunch!

Weekend Recap

Fell behind on updates (again)...here's a quick post covering the weekend:

Sat- 5 mile trail run. EZ effort. It was very humid in the woods from rain the night before. My shoes got quite muddy (and stinky). The regular muddy spots are becoming swamp mud sections! Bunches of people out today, mostly hikers/walkers. Several dogs running loose; owners with the same old "he's harmless" excuses.

Sun- 5 miles on the roads through my neighborhood. This was also supposed to be an easy effort but it ended up averaging around 8:00 pace. The wife rode along with her bike, which is becoming more of a regular thing. It's nice but I've noticed the pace is a bit faster when she's biking.

Last week's total hit 36 miles. Very happy with that number. Now if I can just my average weekly up to that number then I'll be in good shape. This coming week is planned to be easier intentionally/rest week. Then pile on the miles beginning in August.

Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)

(Stones song title4 today) Ever feel like just running away from it all? I have the day off today, but tons a little things to get done before heading to the Phillies game tonite - WOOO Hoooo!!

But the break in routine made me skip my run this morning. Now there's just not enough hours left in the afternoon to finish what i have to do and squeeze in my workout. UGH, don't u just hate that?

If I can get 5 miles run tomorrow morning then I'll salvage 36 for the week. I'm fine with that total. But I'll have to take it easy at the game so that nothing interferes with running in the a.m. And I had actually woken up at like 4:00 this morning, couldn't get back to sleep. I got up and looked outside and momentarily thought about do a very early morning run. But laziness held me back and now I'm imagining how nice that would've been. bummer. On a bright note I've already hit 100 miles for this month and so my mileage is up. Certainly will be my biggest miles month of the year! Then even more in August will set me up for a fine fall race season.

A friend had a bad wipe out on her bike. Broke her collarbone... no running for 4 weeks. Now that's a bummer! I've got to be extra careful out there on the streets. Yesterday I did about 17 miles on bike (which I count as 5 miles for running log). It was just spritzing a bit off & on during the last 30 minutes. I'm not sure if the timing is the same, but this may have been when T hit a slippery patch and went down hard. I've never had a bad bike fall on roads. Had plenty of wipe outs on trails (which is why I rarely ride on the trails anymore!).

When I Come Around. . . later & later

Here's something I've noticed recently, don't think I've mentioned it yet: It's been taking me longer & longer to warm up. Over the last few years I've incorporated "my plan" to begin each workout with some easy running. Usually one mile; sometimes two. Prior to that I would always just launch right into whatever pace I felt like.

Well lately I've been feeling tired & sluggish at the beginning of a lot of runs. But then I feel more comfy after one or two miles. . . then really feel ready to crank it up after the third or forth mile is complete. I hope this doesn't get stretched any further because then I'll be doing like a 5 or 6 miles warm up! WTF?!?!

I'm not sure if this could be a bit of over-training in the immediate cause, or maybe just plain getting older in a broader view. Maybe combo. What other reasons come to mind? Maybe all the months of marathon LSd (with hardly any speedwork) has somehow reset my internal engine to need the long warm up/?

Today's plan was 5 easy to moderate on the treadmill at the Y. The first 3 were at 8:30 pace, tread set to 0.5 incline. Was feeling blah & achey just until I came around to the end of 3rd mile, then started feeling much better. Increased speed so that mile 4= 7:50 and then #5= 7:25. At this point I was feeling so good I wanted to rip into a really fast final mile, and planned to tack on something for a cooldown. Mile 6= 6:50 with the final 1/4 being an ever increasing pace. Very easy last mile, total today 7. That's 26 so far this week. Shooting for 2x5 to finish week with 36.

Next week will have to be a drop-back week in mileage. My knees & feet are feeling some general discomfort. But I'm having a great mileage month!

Legs are beat up

This is a recap of Sunday, Mon., Tues since I've been busy and not blogging.

Tues: whew, my legs are sore. Some aches & pains in feet & knees, but nothing too bad. Main problem is quads very beat up from Sunday's long trail run. Glad I did it, but paying the price of DOMS today. Rest day, no workout.

Mon: Legs tired & sore from yesterday's really long hard effort. But I really forced myself to get out there and put in a few miles. Alot of times Runner's World and/or other sources say to clear out the legs by running a few miles the day after a tough effort. We'll see if there's any truth to that. I've always taken the approach that easy 'junk' miles are counter productive and so instead will usually just take rest days totally off to recover. I can see the mileage benefits of a more active recovery... just hope the body holds up okay with this new approach. 5 miles ez.

Sunday: Great long trail run - done solo - with plenty of hills. 14 miles total, about evenly split with flat sections and hills. Some hills very steep. Really took my time, 10 minute pace. Also took 2 five minute breaks back at the car to refuel/hydrate. So that would make it more like 11 min.pace but I stopped my watch during these breaks. Total climbing approximately 700 - 1,000 feet. I just looked at the Topo maps and seems to be closer to 1,000 ft. Also add the same for downhills, some of which were very steep/not traditional trails.

I am toying with the idea of a very long trail race/hiking challenge in Sept. The Susquehanna Super Hike is a running and/or hiking event. It is 25 miles and features 4,200 of elevation gain (8,400 total up and down). Link is here. I came to find out about this by chance, but it's interesting. Problem is that the PDR 13.1 is 8 days later. However, I am increasingly doubtful that I can take a real shot at a new personal best because my workouts just don't seem to be showing me that I've got it right now. So the trail race is appealing in leiu of a PR attempt.

So I'm thinking about it. And the long long trail runs with tons of steep hills can't hurt no matter which way I decide ... right?

run-bike-run

this post is from 2 weeks ago, while reviewing July's totals (stellar) I noticed these workouts were never mentioned.

Wed.15th - planned to ride my bike today but just wasn't feeling it. Decided to mix it up by running a few, transition onto bike, then finish with a few more run miles. Went ahead and laid out the gear needed and then hit 2 miles at just under 7:30 pace. Very quick shoe change, helmet, and onto mtn bike. Did 14 miles (out Shipley & then around neighborhood twice) in under an hour. Got back to garage and changed back into my Brooks. As I started to run my legs felt soooo weird! I was like all pumped up in the quads and the legs just were not doing the usual thing. Felt stiff legged. Must've looked funny to my neighbors, if anyone was looking. However, the feeling/not feeling it didn't seem to impact the speed because the first split was 7:26. Began running 'normal' and the second split was a comfortable 7:21 only pushing the final 200 yards.
Very pleased with this workout!

Fri. 17th - i skipped yesterday but still having a decent mileage week. 4 easy on treadmill today. Hit the weights a bit after, and a good stretching. Plan to take a rest day tomorrow and hit it hard for a trail run on Sunday.

Philly Distance Run - the preview

I am excited to go up to Phila PA and run a workout on the PDR course. I volunteered to lead a road trip from here (Del.) so that we can get familiar with course... and generally for something new & different to do. Here's the club announcement.

This is open to anyone - so feel free to join us if you're in the area. Here's a link to the course map. I love that the elevation profile shows range from low of 24' and high of 55'. Did I mention that i don't run hills very well?

Although my enthusiasm is being cut by the fact that I'm not sure how I'm going to pull together a PR attempt. Based on my recent hard effort work outs I have lost all my speed. I traded in my speed for marathon long runs... and now I can't seem to get the speed back. Here's a summary of last Sunday's long run, second week in a row that I did this workout. This was intended as a Cooker (but ended up more of a steady simmer?)?

July 12 - first 6 miles averaged 8:30 over varied home neighborhood loop. 75 degress & 75% humidity.
mile 7 - 8:05 includes one hill
mile 8 - 7:59 big hill
mile 9 - 7:46 why am I not going faster, and when will this end?
mile 10 -7:40 is this measured correctly? Feel like I'm working much harder than 7:40.

tacked on one extra as a cool down. I got noticably slower compared to last week. Maybe the trail run the day before took something out of me? Maybe a bit more heat & humidity too. This workout felt good, but the times are just not what i was hoping for.

I'm going online to search for some half marathon training schedule/plan. At least the preview is no Hills at PDR - hoping for no Heat or Humidity.