Rainy Wet and COOOOOOLD!!!!1

Well, for us here in Southern AZ....the weather here has been what we would consider cold. Yesterday I scrapped the plans of my morning workout for a bit more sleep. The forecast was supposed to be windy, rainy and cold, but that's not how it turned out at ALL! It seems as though all the predictions just kept pushing themselves out, and I ended up outsmarting myself. So, I figured it was important to get that mid-week long run in! Once i got home, I changed into my running gear and went out for an hour and a half run through the neighborhood. My goal was to run parts of the workout with some intensity, as I wasn't sure what this morning would bring. It was also a weird feeling, I don't usually run in the evenings, and for that matter, I don't ususally run well in the evenings. I started out on the course that I did last Wednesday, my typical 9.5 mile course. As I went out, I noticed that my starting pace was a bit higher then what i do in the morning, but it felt good, and I didn't have to wait for my legs to wake up....So I just went with it. Miles 1, 2, and 3 were very nice and even. For miles 4 and 5 I figured that would be a good place to do a little race pace scenario. 4 is a continuous and gradual uphill segment. Along the way, I saw a pair of runners out who had a nice lead on me, and I used them as a rabbit that I could catch and overtake. I passed them, and kept up with the great leg turnover and motored my way along trough 4 and the downhill mile 5. From there I backed out of the throttle a bit and settled into a nice 8:15 pace and pretty much stayed there up until mile 10, where I struggled a bit as the course changed to again going slightly uphill, but added in the wind in the face factor as the strom front finally decided to make it's appearance. I'm sure your sitting there going...but he said above that the course is 9.5 miles, how'd he get to 10....Well, at mile 8 I decided that I was running well, so I took a left turn through a neighborhood that ended up taking me down to our marked path, and I extended the run from 9.5 to 11 rather easily. Mile 11 was nice and even as I made the right turn for the 1 mile straightaway home, which turned the wind to cross and slightly at my back. Some great things to focus on, my 7 mile time was 59:04! 4 seconds slower then Tuesday, and still 1:51 faster then Monday! I did the full 11 miles in 1:28:50. Dr. Garmin put that at a 8:34 pace....Not bad for a average everyday run! Sheesh, I can remember plodding along at 10 min/miles thining I was cruising. That was so 33 pounds ago, and a totally different stressed out me.

Today did finally getting washed out. I may actually do the workout this afternoon as it looks like the front may have mosved through for good. The suns back out, and it's a balmy 52 degrees. It's the standard 12x400m repeat day, so I can run across the street and do them in the seclusion of a nice and quiet retirment neighborhood. Today also marks my last day of work for this Calendar Year. that means I get to sleep in tomorrow and go running when nanna and pop pop show up. 9ish...10sh...Whatev! I get two full weeks where I can focus on nothing but training, just like it was my JOB! I'm going to give myself the gift of working out as if I'm a pro athlete. I'm going to see if I can get 60 miles in each week, and break out the bike for a few afternoon rides.

Anyway, I should finish up those last few things I need to get done before I'm off for the year. Until tomorrows Blog adventure, LIVESTRONG and train HARD!

The quest for More Cowbell.....Errrr......7s....

HA....And I'm not talking about gambling! I'm talking miles. Today's workout plans with the group got scrapped when I took a look at the workout and saw that they were only doing 2 1/4 miles. I thought to myself...What the?? After not running the prescribed 15 miles in the rain on Sunday, I've got a little bit of makeup to do, and 2 1/4 miles wasn't the prescription. No, my workout had a fever! And the only perscription was more COWBELL....errrrr....Miles. So I did the same run that I did yesterday, the 7 mile run through my neighborhood. My goal though was to be yeasterdays time since Tuesdays was a more of a speed day. As usual, I took the first mile easy to wak the body up. Once the alarm went off, I then gradually started to ratchet up the speed. I started at 8:35, down to 8:25, and then 8:20. At thispopint I decided miles 4-5 should be at my hal marathon pace, so I ratched up to a 7:40. After that I dropped back into an 8:15 and stayed there till the end of the workout. I managed to take 1:55 off of yesterdays time, and still got some speed training on my legs.

There's not a whole lot to report out there. Last night I did the unthinkable and went into my pools 58 degree water. WHOAH!!! You talk about an ice bath! Thankfully I got the Hot Tub back up and running, so the transition to the hot water was oh so nice.....You know, you can't not do a double dog dare from your nine year old son!

On that note.....Until tomorrow....LIVESTRONG and train hard!

Mixed Weekend of Results

This past weekend was a mixed bag for me. I knew that Sunday's run was going to be jeopardized by the weather, and that held out to be oh so true. Needless to say, as the downpour raged on at 4:30am, I made the command decision to call it and go back to bed. I had a long day ahead and starting off soaking wet wasn't going to help the cause. And I felt as though I had kind of earned it with the effort I put out on Sunday in the 50 minute workout where every five minutes we altered from 10K pace back to Half Marathon pace.

This whole new running experience is quite an experience. We're in that cycle where we we have about 3 to 4 week between same workouts. This I like because you can really see how far you've progressed. This particular workout we did 3 weeks ago, and I had a GREAT run, so I was a little unsure how much I'd progress. What I didn't expect was what happened....

My first 5 mins on, I set out on a blistering pace, one that was FASTER then my 30 minute tempo the previous Saturday. I felt great, but I was running in a territory that I'd never seen before. We're talking 7:04 pace. But it was only 5 minutes, so I wasn't too alarmed that I went out too fast. My off set I trottled back to 7:45 and my legs just felt GREAT and overall I was running nice and relaxed. Set two started, and I took off like a greyhound trying to get the rabbit. I didn't even realize how fast I was going until I passed the 2 mile mark at 14:04.....yes, you read that right...14:04. I was TRUCKING!!! I looked at the pace of Dr. Garmin, and it read a 6:40 pace, and I still had 56 seconds to go on the on set. I kept it going as I figured that it was only less then a minute of effort.....But When the set ended, I had a little discussion with myself. I didn't need to go out there and blow up on sets 4 and 5. So I made a concious decision that I needed to slow down a bit. I set my target on pace at 7:15, realistically where it should be. And with that when the on set came, I settled very nicely into the 7:15, and that's where each of the 3 remaining sets were, ON THE NOSE. there was absolutely NO variation. And, I finished the 50 minutes at 6.75 miles. The last time I ran that workout, I only managed to get 6.4 miles. That's a FULL 3 tenths further, in just 3 weeks! Another MAJOR step towards where I want to be. In two weeks, we get another version of this workout, but we add one more set. I'm thinking that I should be able to do a full long loop, and close the short loop by then. That's my ultimate goal. In fact, I should go past closing the short loop, as where I finished was about a mile from that point, which I'll cover more then a mile in 10 mins. So all looks very very promising. This coming Saturday, we'll get an official reading to where my Long Loop 5 mile time trial is. I'm going to have to go deep into the spreadsheets to see what my PB is. When I find it.....We'll set the goal to CRUSH that time!

And I started the week off by doing a nice 7 miler this morning. Since i didn't run yesterday my legs were incredibly fresh. I kept the last 6 miles under 8:30 pace, as I always take that first one pretty easy. Today, that was a 9:15. I'm really starting to evlauate the caledar and see where to work in that marathon. Right now I'm looking for a fast March timeframe event, but I don't see any. If anyone knows of a close marathon to Tucson in the March timeframe...lemme know....I'm in the HUNT!

Until tomorrow, Train Hard and LIVESTRONG!

And the weekly grind continues

Yesterday was the standard 12x400m intervals. Thursday workouts are going to be rough for a while as I get adjusted to the mid week Wednesday long run. Last week, I was fairly well recovered, but only because I did 8 miles and didn't do the Thursday run at 5am, instead I waited until 6pm to get it done. that extra few hours of recovery seemed to really help. This week, I didn't give myself that break and I added an extra mile and a half. So the fact that I didn't totally rock the house wasn't shocking. I will say this, my goal on that workout is to keep the 400s under 1:45 per set. And I managed to accomplish that goal, even on the first set which is typically my slowest as I ease into the workout. I will say this, my last three sets, although not the 1:32s that I ran last Thursday, were VERY respectable at 1:37. They weren't easy by any stretch of the imagination either, I really had to work at them to make them happen. But that's just the thing you have to do if your going to continue to make progress. Push hard, and do it on tired legs. As you roll through that 20 mile mark of a marathon, you're going to be tired. But your body has to be trained and you have to mentally push yourself through it and know that you've done that a million times in previous workouts and have the confidence to keep going.

Today's workout my legs were sluggish. There was no time requirement, just go on out there and turn the legs over for 5.6 miles. I was doing the big loop around the neighborhood. Today's temperature, for whatever reason was about 10 degrees warmer then the previous two days. In my morning fog of trying to wakeup....I didn't quite notice that, and I bundled up like had for the rest of the week. I will say this. If the temps in the 50s.....Don't wear so much clothing, unless theres a really stiff wind. I got warm....Almost to the point of stripping stuff off. I didn't, cuz i didn't want to have to carry it around...so I just sucked it up. If I were racing...That $4 winter cap I bought at Walmart yesterday....would have ended up missing somewhere. :) The miles were not fast, but they were very consistent ranging from 8:55 to 9:01. Nothing real spectacular to report. I got it done, and it's job of a recovery run should serve itself well. So far this week, I've already got 26.6 miles in the books. If that's any indication of where I'll be after my Sunday run, that's a good sign I'll be somerewhere around 45-47 range. That could get a bit dicey as we're expecting some rally bad weather this weekend. I just hope it's not of the thunerstorm variety, as that's going to cause me not to head out the door....uggghh....But, so goes life eh!

Until Monday AMs weekend report, Train Hard and LIVESTRONG!

Putting Your Past Behind you

Today was the second time that I've run a midweek long run on phase two of my training plan. This is really where the fun starts in the program. From previous training cycles, the mid week run was kind of my nemesis. When I did them, I ran well and benefited greatly, but I ALWAYS had problems with gettin' my mind right, and most of the time ended up skipping it. The biggest problem was that life got in the way. Doing a longer run meant getting up earlier, because life as a small biz owner meant getting to the bank in time to make that days deposit. And what usually happened was that I wouldn't get up in time, and ended up not running at. Well, those times are behind me.....or as Timon from Lion King said...No, no no. Amateur. Sit down before you hurt yourself. It's "You got to put your past behind you." Which is EXACLTY what I'm doing. I'm doing it so fast, it's having a hard time keeping up!

Today was one of those it's going to be cold mornings. When I woke up and turnedon teh weather channel, that cold I felt inthe house, was even worse outside. It was 41 degrees, and DROPPING! So I decided i should layer up. And GOOD THING I DID.....Cuz I was really cold for most of the run. Never really got the chance to warm up much.....Not even in my hour and 21 minutes on the run. It was cold....And there seemed to be a pretty good wind on occasion out there. I decided that even though it was drak outside, I would wear my iPod and jam out to tunes. Normally I wouldn't do that, but my ears needed covering. I'm glad I did. My darned lips felt frozen! My run started out slow. I like to take it easy for about the first mile. Just get everything moving in the right direction and wake up right. My pace startedout at a 9:11 for the first mile, and from there I eventually brought it down to a very respectable 8:15 for the last mile and a half. Don' tknow if it was because i was cold and just wanted to get over with it....But in any case it felt very smooth and rhythmic, and nver once was my breathing ever labored. So, two weeks in a row, I've managed to get the 2nd most important run of the week in. The most important being that Long Run on Sunday....I think what makes it important, it really gets your running into overdrive. Right now I'm sitting on that edge of breaking 50 miles per week. I can FEEL it, and I can taste it. That will be my next short term goal. From there, I don't really want to increase my mileage a whole lot, I want to keep that 50 miles per week base going strong, and when my body tells me it's time and I'm strong enough to step it up....I'll take that next step. I think part of the reason I got sick a few weeks ago is becasue I wore myself out by getting to 40 too quickly. Right now my body is settling into 45 miles per week, and I think the perfect time to go after the big 5-OH may be during the 2 weeks I have off from work, where I can be assured to get the extra sleep, and have the extra time to really crunch out mile after mile. That's not far away, as I only have 7 more days of work after today. It will be here before I know it.

I know the progress will come, and I've seen remarkable progress so far. I'm running better then I was when I was in my early 20s.....Heck, I may even make an effort to head back to my 20 year high school reunion in July and when people ask me what I've been doing I can tell them....ahhh...not much, just qualifying to run the Boston Marathon. :) I really wish I had been more of a runner when I was in High School and college. Remember.....You've got to put your past behind ya! But don't forget those mistakes you made along the way. Learn and grow from them.

Tomorrows workout is the standard 12x400 with wamrups and cool downs. I'm going to do a longer then normal cool down. I'll have the extra time. I may even get out early and jog to the start instead of driving. :) Until tomorrow, TRAIN HARD and LIVESTRONG!

Nope....Not a Fluke...

So, I figured today would be the tell tale sign if Saturday's run was a fluke or not. Well, I've got my answer. Today's workout was one that we ran about a month ago and one that I blogged about. It entailed 3x2mile intervals with a 2 minute rest. And boy....2 mins didn't seem like a whole lot as compared to the time you were actively running. The last time I ran this workout, I was given a projected pace of 8:05/mile by coach Momma Michele. I don't think she realized all of the miles I had been putting in with Paul in the mornings we weren't running with the group, so it was an eye opener when I ran the workout amazingly consistent at a 7:30 pace.

Fast forward to today, I wanted to 'prove' to myself that Saturday was for real, but in my mind, I figured my pace should realistically be 7:30/mile or 15 mins per set. Well, that went out the window....but in a great way! My first set I came in at 14:30, on the nose. A picture perfect 7:15/mile! In fact, I crossed the 1 mile marker spot on at 7:15. Did I mention there was a NASTY headwind on the way out. We had some wicked front rolling through this morning, and I can say with confidence....the wind is NEVER in our face on the outward legs of this course. Today, it was. Set number two, my goal was to stay consistent with set ones times. And I did that, with a little margin....I ran the first mile of the interval in 7:18 and finished the set in total of 14:38, which means my second set was a 7:20. Still very consistant in my eyes. I don't see 8 seconds as that huge of disperity over 2 miles. That's only 4 seocnds per mile, and STILL under a 7:30 pace. Set number 3 I had to modify a bit, and only got a mile and a half in. What I did was run out to the half mile marker, turn around and run the mile back to the car. During the rest period I checked what time it was and I noticed that it was alreadcy 5:42am. There was no way I was going to make it back in time for my 6am meeting if I ran the whole set out to the 1 mile marker and back, and then jogged the half mile back to the car. This is a MUCH longer day then we usually do on a Tuesday, and my work at Honeywell entails me working globally and I have an engineer that I meet with via telecon at 6am every Tuesday. The set held AMAZINGLY strong hoever, and I kept the total pace under 7:30, and around the 7:20 mark, and that includes the slowdown of a turnaround at the 800m mark.

In all I'm very pleased with the workout. All these miles during the week are really benefitting. I think in the month, I'm going to have to drop down to a 30" waistline on my jeans. 34s are amazingly baggy, and 32s are starting to get loose. Thank goodness for belts! Nobody needs to see a massive plummer crack incident at work!

Tomorrow I'm on my own for an 1:30 minute run through the neighborhood. I shoudl be able to get between 9 and 10 miles in. Until then, have a great day, and LIVESTRONG!

Weekend FULL of Goals CRUSHED!

I'm sitting here absolutely amazed at the progress this training session has been for me. At no point would I have ever 'believed' I'd be where I am today. I knew the training plans put together by Mama Michele were amazing. We've got the results in the group to prove it. Never was that ever a doubt for me. My biggest doubt in my mind was ME. So, the fact that I've been religious about making the workouts has been one MAJOR accomplishment. A lot of that has to do with the fact that I'm not straddled with the day to day stresses of being a small business owner. I look back at where I was in my life mid August to early September time frame when we closed the store. NIGHT and DAY. Officially, I'm 34 pounds lighter. That's right. 34 freakin' pounds of FAT no longer plaguing my joints every time I put one foot down in front of the other. Every day when I wake up, I'm excited about what my run will put in front of me. I never want to miss a run, and I get angry when I do. Before, it was always....The coffee house got in the way, and there was never a consistency. That's all in the past, and and the me of NOW is FULL THROTTLE about achieving and setting new GOALS!

Which takes me to my Saturday workout. On tap that morning while most of the group was in Sacremento for the California International Marathon was a 30 minute tempo run. All along, my goal was to get to the elusive corner of Coachline and Silverbell. On that corner sits a Walgreens. My goal for the past 5 years has to be able to run our large loop and get to the Walgreens. And every single 30 minute tempo run in the past five years, I've always come up quite a bit short. My best effort to day was about 5 weeks ago when I made it 3.88 miles. To get to my goal spot, is 4.25 miles. The group was small on saturday, but there was FAST runners. I was the slowest of those that showed up, and so we wnet off in waves. I took point as the rabbit, and went out first. I set off at a pace that felt comfortable. To my utter amazement, about a half mile into it I start hearing the footsteps of a couple of the runners. It was at this point, I looked down at my watch to see what kind of slacker pace I'm running. Sheesh, even with the faster runners in the group, I usually hold out for a mile before getting caught. When I looked at my Garmin 305, imagine my amazement when I noticed that 6:57 as my current pace! WHAOH! I'm freakin flying!!! But, those guys passed me like I'm standing STILL, and the next thing I notice is their red flashy light moving off in the distance. After the workout, I find out they were running a 5:20/pace. Showoffs. :) Anyways, I go past the first mile marker in 7:02. Strangely enough, I'm still feeling GREAT! I keep going and get passed by a couple of other faster runners, about the spot I expected to get passed at. At mile two, I was at 14:04, so another 7:02 in the books. How all of a sudden did I become Mr. Consistency.....Mile 3 slowed a little bit, but came in at 7:08, and at this point is where I actually start to realize that my goal is rapidly approaching. This is kinda where things start to get sketchy....My pace was ALL OVER THE PLACE between mile 3 and 4. Mostly because I found myself getting so exicted that I would almost start hyperventilating. Somhow I managed to put all of that in check, and when I crossed my 4 I had something like 1:40 to go in the 30 minute workout. So yes, it was slower, then the previous 3, but I WAS GOING TO MAKE IT!!!! AND MAKE IT I DID!!!!! Not only did I make it, I crossed the street, and ended up towards the BACK OF THE WALGREENS BUILDING!!!! That's when I'm sure somebody in the neighborhood probably had to wonder why is there some stranger in lycra tights the middle of the street jumping up and down screaming!! Those are honestly the moments I would love to have on video. BUT.....That would entail having someone there to video it....namely my wife....and the sun was barely up....so that ain't happnin! HA!

Because I accomplished my goal, I allowed myself to sleep in an extra 35 minutes and cut my 16 miler to 12. I still did the wade loop course because the hill work is ABSULTELY necessary. But I didn't want to kill myself before travelling up to Phoenix to watch the Cardinals win their FIRST EVER NFC West Championship. By the end of the day I was totally WIPED OUT! I had nothing left in the tank. My boys and I actually got home, and all three of us pretty much went straight to bed. I had INTENDED to run this AM for a little 5 mile jog through theh neighborhood, but Mother Nature had a different plan when she decided to schedule that impromptu THUNDER STORM at 4:50 this morning. Honestly, I've never lived in a place that had more violent weather in the 40 degree early mornings. What's up with that. Oh well, I fugure I'll just do a short run when I get home so as not to completely wipe out the day. Mother Nature, if you're listnening.....I really despise treadmills, and I love enjoying the beauty of which you helped create. Please leave me dry and unstruck by lighteneing.

Your Pal.....KidStallyn. :)

And I would be remiss if I didn't give HUGE SHOUTS OUT to those who ran California International yesterday from my traingin group. The Grinders went out, KICKED ASS and took Names. Here's their results.....(EVERYONE Boston Qualified!)

Todd 2:36:08 (33rd overall, 5th age 35-39)
Steve 3:13:11 BQ
Merry 3:24:27 (942nd overall, 2nd age 50-54)
Rhonda 3:43:56 BQ

Untill tomorrow, LIVESTRONG and Train HARD!

Two Great Days...One Awesome Blog...

This has been an absolutely AMAZING week of running for me. I'm really seeing the fruits of all this hard work and o'dark early mornings. I even had to change out the battery in my headlight last night after only 3 weeks of constant usage. Things are going incredibly well! This is my first week of making my Wednesday run a mid week long run. So, I went out for an hour and 15 minutes and ran really really strong. I did my normal 5.5 miler, but through on an extra short loop 3 miler to add in the extra time. And I just kept feeling stronger and stronger with every single step! It was absolutely amazing! No need to hurry, but by the end I was clicking the miles off at a nice 8:30 pace. This is where you get to see the fruits of the speed work sessions. It's such a mental boost to see easy running at that pace. I even passed a runner out there. I remember the days of slogging along at a 9:30 pace and not making much progress at all. Why....Because the running was always trumped by some coffee house incident. It also helps that I've lost 33 pounds, and I've got a nice steady progression to my overall goal. I'm really starting to see the definition in my legs as they lean up. MO MILES.....MO MILES!

Thursday was an interesting day. On the schedule was a 12x400m day with 45 seconds to catch your breath. I ended up not being able to run with the group, and headed into work early for a one of my worldly telecons with people located in Frankfurt, Germany and Toronto, Canada. It not only got me into work early, it allowed me to get out of work early. early enought to get home, get the kids fed, and go running after dinner when my wife got home. Sure, it was going to be dark.....Wahtev! If I ran it at 5am....Guess what...It's dark then too....Actually, I really like runing in the dark. I know...that's weird, but the thing for me, your out there and your focusing on your running, not the epic distance in front of you. You can't see it.....So it's not a barrier anymore. Running is sooooooo mental. It gets in your head. So, if you can get out the bad thoughts, DO IT! And that's exactly what I did last night. My 12x400m got off to a little rocky start. My first set came in at 1:49, which really kind of upset me, but gave me the motivation to kick it up a notch. From there, I never went above 1:41. Every single set was nice and consistent, ranging down to 1:39. So, when it came down to the last two, I really pushed. The second to last set came in at 1:37. With that I told myself. WIN THE WORKOUT. And with that, I took out on a pace I haven't seen since I was at my 6 week basic training in ROTC. At the midway point of the set, I checked my pace and I was running at a 6:00/mile. That just fuelded me even more! I kept that pace, and really focused on every single stride and breath, trying to keep everything nice and event. In the end, when the distance timer went off on my Garmin, I finished the set in 1:32! YEP...1:32! That equates to a 6:08/mile. Did I mention, I haven't see that kinda speed in over 16 YEARS! Yes...16 YEARS! That's right, this 37 year old guy is running as fast as he did when he was 21! Look out world, I'm coming to GET CHYA!

With that, I earned that Friday off day. Saturday is a 30 minute tempo, and Sunday is going to be another 16 mile day with loops of our hilly course called Wade Rd. I've got to get those in early, so I'll be heading out the door by 4:30am and hopefully be done by 7. That gives me enough time to get the Truck loaded up for a full day of tailgating and FOOTBALL as my Arizona Cqardinals attempt to WIN THE NFC WEST for the FIRST TIME IN THEIR HISTORY! I'm really jonesin' for some FOOTBALL!!! Let's GET IT ON!!!!!

Another Brutal Workout in the Books!

And the hits just keep on coming! Today was another tough workout. 4x1000 (30seconds) 3 min rest 4x1000(30 seconds). Looking at it on the spreadsheet, you just say to yourself...It's only 8K...how hard could it be? Well, after the third 1000, you realize...dang...this is hard. Especially with very little time to recover your breath.

My goal for today was to run them even. It had been a while since I had run the 1K intervals, so I didn't really have a goal time until after the first couple were in the books. Once I settled into a pace, I targeted 4:35 per 1K set as my goal. And I didn't stray too far off that for the entire workout. Surprising considering I basically ran the last 4 all alone seeing as the marathon racers this weekend only had to do the first set. Us non-racing slackers got double duty today, and there were only 3 of us on the course for round 2. But, I held my own and kept them nice and consistent. You can't ask for much more then that, especially after a 16 miler 2 days ago. And speaking of that I was a wee bit sore in my calves when I wok up today. I'm sure it's because of the length of Sundays run is something I haven't experienced in a while, but once I got going there was no complications to worry about.

And with that I was able to add another 6.25 miles to the log. That's double what I had at this point last week, so I'm in a good spot to get that increase from 43 that I've been searching for. Tomorrows a nice easy 1:15 jog through the neighborhood. It's going to be used to just clea out some of the junk in my legs, and get them fresh for the quarters on Thursday. Saturday will be the big test that I'm looking for. It's a 30 minute tempo, so I get to see how much closer I get to that elusive Walgreens stop!

Until tomorrow, Train Hard and LIVESTRONG!

MIssed the 50...But Got 43.....

So, this past holiday weekend I missed out on hitting the big FIVE OH, but I did manage to get in a SOLID 43 miles. It all started out on Thursday as a wicked front moved through. I knew that I was going to have to run through some rain, but what I encountered in the wee hours of Turkey Day, I totally didn't expect. Basically, I got caught out in a brutal downpour thunderstorm about a mile and a half from home. Needless to say, my 8 mile run, turned into an ALL OUT SPRINT FOR HOME. It was kinda eerie. It was just a light sprinkle as I left the house, and there were openings in the clouds to where you could see the stars. I didn't think it was going to be all that bad, and at the start it wasn't. It was actually quite pleasant. That all changed when I hit the Silverbell stretch. I made the right turn, and the morning had progressed enough that I could see the clouds pretty clearly. They were VERY puffy, and all of a sudden, I started seeing flashes. I didn't really think much about it, I couldn't hear any thunder, so it was pretty far off in the distance. But what I didn't know, was that this was a FAST moving and aggressive storm that, roughly a quarter mile later, consumed me. It was so quiet outside. I only saw a couple of cars out. And that that ultimately the calm before the storm. You know your in trouble when all of a sudden, the hills in front of you totally dissappear. Then, I could hear the rain pounding on the pavement in front of me. That's when my 8:30 pace, was quickly elevated to a 6. And that's when I turned into a drenched swamp rat. Everything was soaked, head to toe. And my 6 min mile pace turned to a 5 something when that lighting and thunder burst hit. I turned the corner, went through a Safeway, and sprinted the downhill to home. Never before had I been so excited to make it home. It was raining so hard, my kids and dog were all up. The rain was hiting the windows and echoing off the roof. Totally weird for a November storm, and nothing that I've ever experienced this late into the year. I was a bit dissapointed that I didn't get all of my miles in. It was Turkey day, and I knew that there was a ton of great food waiting for me up in Phoenix. But I did manage to get in a 4 mile effort later that evening after all of the food settled to round out the day at 7 miles.

Fridays run totally got overcome by events. My wife an I headedout for Black friday shopping to get a new TV. Ours died on Wednesday morning, and we figured we would take advantage of the great deals. I guess if it were going to break, it picked an oppertune moment to do it. After we got back form teh maddness that was shopping, I spent the rest of the afternoon getting my fathers deisel motorhome an emissions inspection. That was after the tow service came out and got the batteries recharged....What should ahve taken less then an hour, turned out to be an all afternoon adventure. By the time we got back, there was no time for a run, and we had to eat dinner and get back to Tucson.

Saturdays run is where it gets exciting. On the menu was 4x1 mile repeats. I really like this workout. It's set up to get you to run a nice Consistant pace. I probably should have run them at my goal marathon pace, like many of the others, but I was feeling GREAT. My first set I went out and hung on the tail of Butch and managed to eek out a 7:20. My breathing felt great and I really didn't labor too much. We walked in circles during the rest period and headed back out. Set number 2 came in at a 7:19. Great for consistency, but I really didn't feel all that labored. Again, we walked ciricles through the rest period, and I set off for set number 3.....At this point, I was about 5 seconds behind Butch....He'd crossed the line a few seconds before I had on the previous two sets. So I took off somewhat alone. My goal was to run with Butch, so I figured I needed to catch up. Especially after I looked up, and he looked much farther away then ususal. So I looked down at my watch, and I noticed my current pace at a 6:54. So I thought to myself, he's not going to keep that pace up. At the half mile, I had caught up to him, and sat right on his heels. By the 1000m mark, I had actually passed him, and when I finished the set, I crossed the line at 7:02! I thought to myself...Are you kidding me! A 7:02 on the THIRD set. One of the faster marathoner runners saw the grin on my face, and asked what my split was...I think he took a longer rest so that he could pace with me on the last set. His marathon goal pace is a 7 min/mile next Sunday. I took off, and he went with me. We finished the 4th set in 7:09! All I can say is WOW! Actually, Dave threw in a WHOAH!!! You're flying today! That was a nice little booster there. After we finished the workout, which included a 5x1minute, I logged 6 miles, plus the 1.25 mile warm up and cool down. We all went back to the cars together, and Michele came up with a big smile and said great job! That was a huge booster. My running is REALLY turned a corner to the next level.

And that takes me to Sunday. I started the day with a little Sunday weigh in ritual. To my surprise, I weighed in at 176 pounds. Officially, that 33 pounds lighter since August. I set out on my run and I was still coming off the high from Saturday, which really helped out. It was a crisp morning, and my legs felt fresh. I did the same route that I did for the 14 miles, and added two to the end. As I crossed through the street that could have led me to home, I was CRUISING at a 8:30 pace, and felt strong. No mental barrier there. I got to the 14 mile mark in 2:04, 3 minutes faster then before. I decided to take a little break, to get my last bit of Gatorade endurance down, and took in the beautiful morning. I then started back up after a couple of mins, and finished out the last 2 miles, which ended up being two and a quarter. And I finished strong. I continued my 8:30 pace and completed the entire run in 2hours and 30minutes.

In all, I ended up with 43 miles for the week. yes, it was a little short of the goal, but nothign to get down about! My legs still felt frech this morning on my 3.5 mile recovery run, and I am already looking forward to tomorrows group run!

Until then, TRAIN HARD and LIVESTRONG!

The thanksgiving week....pour it on....

And I'm not talking gravy....Well at least not until Thursday when it's mandetory to eat 8 cups of gravy! I'm talking about miles. I'm going out for a new all time high. The Big 5-0....50 miles. And this is the perfect week to get 'er done....That is if the rain holds off. BUT.....The training plan is top priority. I've got rain gear to keep my for the most part dry....And once you start sweating, you're all wet anyways right???

Today started of the week with 16x400. I ended up running these predominantly by myself. I started off with the marathon training group although they were doing a different workout. The rest of the group was only doing 6x400 since they will all be racing on Thursday. So since I started out by myself, I was basically alone at the end of the first set. That meant, I didn't have my usual paces out there, so I set my goal to hold each of the 16 sets at around 1:45. And so I did! And to be honest, even though my legs were feeling great, my head was full of this wicked congestion that reared it's ugly head at about 1am as the front rolled through. It has to be weather related. There really isn't any other excuse. I did manage to exhume most of it during my run, and on my 45 second off periods. So it's probably a good thing that I was running by myself. Didn't need to collect any collateral damage by an errant snot rocket. You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose.....but in no way is it ever good to pick your friends nose. And it's even more important to keep those snot rockets to yourself. :)

In all, I got the 5.25 miles that I was hoping for after the warm-up and cool down run back to the car. Now, tomorrow I've got my eyes set on 7 or 7.5 miles. My meeting that I asked to be pushed to 6:30 on Wednesday starting in December, actually got pushed starting tomorrow...that's a whole week ahead of schedule. That gives me an extra 30 mins to get in my miles. So I'm thankful for that.

I'm also tahnkful that I get to eat whatever I want on Thursday and not have to worry about it. I need to fuel my body properly, and that doesn't mean just water, that means fuel. I'm only 3 pounds away from my initial weight target of 175. From there, I start the next ramp up in training to work my weight down to 165 by marathon day in late January or ealry February. The jury is still out on wether or not I'll be able to run on the 18th. See, that happens to be the NFC Championship game, and if all goes well, and the Cardinals work that deep into the playoffs, there's a possiblility of hosting the game in Phoenix. Which means, I'm going to have my hands full tailgating and celebrating something thats NEVER BEEN DONE by this team. That's a long ways out, and many things have to happen.....And the Cardinals don't control their own desinty in that respect. BUT.....I won't really know until the week or two before....So, you train like you're going to race that day, and if you don't you schedule a backup. So, in the meatime...I'm just going to put in mile after mile.

And with that, it's time to get some work done, and get ready for tomorrows run. LIVESTRONG and Train Hard!

A Weekend of Mixed Emotions....

This was a weekend of mixed emotions that go along with the recovery from the brief illness that killed last weekends running efforts. On one hand, I was able to get out for my 6 straight days after taking off those 3 days, which is good. On the other hand, I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get in the number of miles that I wanted too. Well.....And my Cardinals suffered their first loss at home this season with a 8 point loss to the reigning world champions....Oh well...It happens.

Saturday I had an absolutely GREAT run. It was a 50 minute mixture of alternating 5 mins at 10K pace and 5 mins at your Half Marathon Pace. We had a LARGE group out too, I think there was over 20 of us out there Saturday morning. Very impressive!!! The first set seemed to start off somewhat slow....but when I went back and looked at the garmin data, it was much faster then I had anticipated, somewhere near a 7:20 pace. After the brefi 5 min pace where you get to somewhat get your breath back, we HAMMERED set number 2. That was somewhat surprising. We actually crossed the 2 mile marker with about 15 seconds lef in the set. That's a 14:45 2 miler. An AVERAGE of 7:22ish. AVERAGE. Remember, there was a 5minute 'off' set in there. When I went back and looked, we ran that second 5 minute on set at a 7:08 pace. Crazy!!! And even worse was I had one of the marathoners hangning with me, and she had a 20 miler the next day. During the 5 min 'off' period, I convinced her that we needed to throttle it back a bit. I didn't want to kill her run the next day. And she was insistent on letting me dictate the pace. So, the next on set we dropped back to a 7:30 pace. At the end of the 30 mins, we were right around the 4 mile mark. Both of us were feelign great, and not laboring at all. Set number four took us pretty close to closing the 5 mile loop. We closed it at 38:30. We just kept going around the loop and finished the on set of 5 mins or the 5th set and flipped it around and headed back to the start. At the end, we had complete 6.5 miles in 50 mins. I really LOVE this workout. The 5 on set get you at near your max threshold, but you don't cross over it....We never had a pace below 7:30....In fact, the last two sets (after we discussed slowing down and running one slower) went right back and settled in at 7:20. S'all goood! But that's not the end of the workout by any stretch....We still had to do our 5x1mins. Those.....WHAOH.....Let me just day, 6:20 pace, and at the end (when you include the 45 second rest intervals), we were MORE THEN A MILE! I'm very happy with that, especially wne you consider that's AFTER doing a tough workout. Afterwards, I went home and hooked up to my Compex to 'extend' my workout a bit. Ran the strength workout on my legs and calves with an Active recovery after each. It's nice to do after a Saturday workout....I think that's one of the reasons I'm getting so much faster. Strength, strength, strength.....

Sundays run got off to a late start. I was pressed for time since I had to leave for our all day Phoenix trip to see the Cardinals by 7:45. That meant, get home, get the truck loaded with the tailgate stuff, get the kids ready, etc, etc, etc....So, I figured i needed to be home by about 7am to get everythign done. Well, I didn't get out of the house until 5:45, so that left me an hour fifteen. Not what I had wanted, but when you've got commitments to meet someone, I don't like to leave them hangin' around. The run itself was great. It was a nice brisk 50 degrees when I set out, and that's the temperature where my legs just plain and simple respond. I started off easy at a 9:20 pace, but eventually ramped it up down to a 8:20 consistent mile after mile. And that last half mile.....I just GUNNED it and put the hammer down. I don't ususally run with my iPod, but since i was solo this am, and not running with the group, I was all over it. And one of those Kid Rock songs came up, and I couldn't resist. And I felt great.....Ran that at a 6:45 pace.. :)

This week will be a big heavy hitting milage week. I'm going to get some extra z's with the 2 days off from work and the holidays...So I'm also going to ramp up the miles, cuz i know there will be some extra food. NO WEIGHT GAIN THIS YEAR! I'm going to LOSE weight this Thanksgiving week!

Mon - Rest
Tues - 5.5
Wed - 7.5
Thurs - 7.5
Friday 7.5
Sat - 7.5
Sun - 16

That sets me up for a 51 mile week, and only 2 speed sessions. I'm feeling good, and I'm going BUST this OUT! So, until tommorrow, LIVESTRONG and Train Hard!

And then there was one.......

Runner that is....So last night I was hit with the news that my training partner, Paul, has decided that he can't make the morning commitments to be a running partner. That's a big blow to the training plan, because a large majority of the reason I'm up and out there is because I made that commitment to be there. Sure there have been a couple of setbacks here and there, but in large, we were a good team and making significant strides. So, at least until '09, these morning runs are going to have to be done SOLO. I still have the running group 3-4 times per week, it was those extra two days that really helped to the trick. I do understand his reasoning. He and his wife just had a new baby, and these first few weeks of sleepless nights have really been pretty tough to adjust to. He's said his wife ends up sleeping on the couch to be closer to the baby when it's time to take action. This is similar to the situation I had, only mine wasn't a newborn, it was being a small business owner of a small coffee house, and having to deal with the day to day issues of what seemed like 13 newborns. That was the main driving factor to why I was never making any progress in running goals, and my times progressively got slower and slower.

But, I need to keep to the task at hand, and keep making strides forward, even if it's in the O Dark early hours of the morning. Today I set out on the standard Friday run of 5.6 miles. Nothing real significant to report there. The time by myself allowed me to totally restructure my training plan to the next level. I'm constantly figuring out ways to juggle the schedule around and get in quality miles. I'm coming up on that next phase where I need to intorduce that mid week long run into the plan. So, starting the first Wednesday in December, I'm going to up my hour long run to 1:30. That not only will get in some quality miles, it's starts adding to that base to the Sunday Long Runs. I'm hoping that next week I'll hit the big 5-0! Yep...that would be 50 miles in a Single week. That's a big challenge, but I'm extrememly confident my legs can handle it. Here's a preview of what's on tap:

Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 5miles
Wednesday - 7 Miles
Thursday - 7 Miles
Friday - 5 Miles
Saturday - 8 Miles
Sunday - 16 MIles

Very doable, if you ask me. And nothing too taxing. The 7 mile says are right at an hour. The 5 mile days are around 45 minutes. Sturdays a mile repeate speed workout and then Sunday is the long run. I may even bust out more miles since it's Thanksgiving week, and I have 2 days off from work. We'll just have to play it by ear and run by feel.

Well, until tomorrow.....LIVESTRONG and Trian Hard....


P.S. GO CARDINALS! SHOCK THE WORLD ON SUNDAY!

Back with the group at O'Dark early....

Winter time is really a hard time to muster up the gumption to get out of bed and go running. Here in Tucson, we at least have that advantage where the temperatures aren't too extreme like they could be say in the North East. Most mornings it's cold, but not to the point where adding an extra layer wouldn't get you by. Today was one of those days. Low 50s, just a nice morning for running. The hardest part was that it's just so darned dark out there. So dark, to the point, that you can't see much in front of you. Thank goodness for headlights! Those little LED lights you wear around your head...you know the ones....they make you look like your a coal miner....or going spelunking. Okay....I jsut wanted to say spelunking...

So, I finally got back with the group today. Officially over that head crud that I had, only having minor gunkage coming out. The only problem with the cold is that my nose runs like a freakin fire hydrant when it gets cold. Which is a really nice site as I'm blsting snot rockets out in between sets. It's okay....Most of the group is doing the same thing...we just try and get out of range of one another. It's a good thing to keep your runny snot to yourself. Not the gift that keeps on giving. So, you can just imagine the sounds of heavy breathing between each of the 12 400m repeats. I swear, the people that live in those houses along that path.....I just wonder what goes through their minds when you hear 12 people out there clearing their sinuses. All at different times, because we have little packs that end up running together. What a site we are. This is also going to be a staple Thursday run for a while. My target pace is 1:45 for the quarters. The goal is to keep them even, and that seems to be my problem. Well, not that they're even, but that I think I'm running them too fast for my target marathon training. The last thing I want to do is get to marathon day and go out too fast and ruin what's been a great training segment. Or mayby I'm jsut underestimating my talent level. Either way, I managed to run all 12 sets between 1:40-1:43. Not a huge disparity. And actually, I'm pretty proud of that fact because I never actually took the full 45 second prescribed rest. Coach Mamma Michele pointed that out to me as well. But, she wasn't either, and I didn't want to tail the group. I wanted to run fairly close to my pack. But, I can honestly say that I'm realy happy with my times.

This week isn't going to be huge action packed mile week. I really need to let my body catch back up after going through what I went through this weekend. I had initially planned 18 miles on Sunday as the next increase from teh 15 mile "tempo" run two weeks ago, but since I didn't get my 16 mile run back in, I'm going to keep it at the 15 the rest of the group will be running. We have it coming up again three weeks from Sunday, so then will probably be an appropriate time to up it to 18. We have some really good tough runs coming up, so I don't feel like pushing that out will be harmful. I'll take the 14 that's scheduled next week and up that to the 16 I was to do last Sunday. Flexibility is the key to any good training plan!

With that, LIVESTRONG and Train HARD!

3 days felt like an eternity....

Well, the last time I blogged, I just wasnt' feeling myself on the run. Every step just kept sending back signals to the engine room...i'm given' er all shes GOT captain! Well, Friday afternoon I figured out why....I was on my way to coming down with a nasty cold that ended up knocking me out of my weekend runs and Mondays as well. Thankfully, it really only lasted Saturday and Sunday. I took Monday off because it was my first full night of sleep that I had gotten since Thursday night. I think it didn't last very long mainly because I'm in such good shape right now. I watch what I eat, I take my vitamins, and most of all, I each a fresh fruit soy protein smoothy every night to aide in recovery. I'm sure that played a big part.

Yesterday, I got the chance to not only sleep in, but still get in the workout midday. I was able to work from home since we had the final inspection on our pool that we're building, so it meant that I didn't need to get up at 5am for the group workout. I also didn't want to take the chance of passing on whatever I was just getting through to them, seeing as there are several who are on their last dificult week of marathon training. They don't need to have an awesome training session messed up by me. Besides, I had my target times, I knew what needed to be done. And so I did it. Yesterdays workout literaly seemed as if I had missed a week. Whatever I had, thankfully never got fully entrenched in my lungs. That's normal mode of operations for me. I could tell that it had started to go there, but not comepetely. The workout entailed 1 mile at your Half Marathon pace, 3/4 miles at your 10K pace, 1/2 mile at your 5K pace, and 1/4 mile at your 3K pace. Defeinitiely a tough workout that would gaurantee whatever was in my lungs, would soon be gone. :) The first set, my legs were fresh and felt great, and I definitley ran it faster then the 7:50 targeted pace. In fact, I came in at 7:30, and boy were my lungs burning. After the 2:30 rest period, I knocked oout the 3/4 mile in 5:33, faster then the targeted 5:40. This trend continued for the entire workout. My 800 was in 4 seconds faster, and my 400 which was targeted for 1;45, was done in 1:40. I added in a 1 mile cool down and by the time I got home, I could really feel that I was going to be hacking up a lung. And for the next hour or so....weird things kept coming up at random intervals. I'm glad for that because once they were gone, they were gone!

In the evening, my son Dylan had his first ever track meet. He's in 4th grade, and he was singed up for the 400m and the 4x100 relay. As a spur of themoment, he addedin the 4x200m relay. His first running event's ever. On the 400m relay, he ended up finished 6th with a time of 1:27....DANG!!!! Good job son! Dad was proud with that time, especially considering he lost a couple of sends and places when he lost his shoe about 100m from the finish. After that I laced them up properly so he wouldn't lose them, and his relay team got 3rd in both events!!!! I think I have a little track star on my hands. Even better, I may have a new running buddy!

By the time we got home, we were all dog tired. The entire family went to bed at 8:15. What a bunch of dorks. :) But, It was good for whenmy alarm went off at 4:20 this morning, as I had no problems getting up for the run. I got out of bed, got dressed and headed out the door to meet Paul. he must have had a rough night with the baby, so I ended up doing the 5.6 miles solo this am. It felt so good to get back ou there on that loop. And I can officially say, whatever I had is in the rear view mirror. All of my mile splits were much faster then Fridays, and I feel strong again. I so bad want a makeup of Saturdays run. On the schedule was the Long Loop Lope 5 Mile Time Trial. I know that there was a several minute personal best in there.....but that's just going to have to wait until next time. It's on the schedule for 12/20. I'll just have to make sure that not only I PR it by a couple of minutes.....I need to add in the couple that I would have PR'd it this time!

Until the next run....LIVESTRONG and Train Hard!

Strong in Mind You Must BE......

That's my mantra for today, a quote from the amazing Jedi Master Yoda. Strong in the mind.......It means so many different things. Today it meant you have to will yourself to get out of bed, even though your body is tired and telling you otherwise. Thank goodness I had that guilt factor of a training partner out there going to meet you for that 5am run. I had already screwed up once this week, and missed him on Monday, there was no way I could do that to him on Friday. I made the commitment, I have to mentally stay strong and get out there.

Today my legs just weren't ready for the days run. They felt heavy, and didn't want to go. The rest of my body....Didn't really care either way. I just knew that I set a goal, I MUST do my best to accomplish it. This is hard week #2 out of three. The remainder of the weekend and next week is going to be an absolute mental battle. I don't have a scheduled day off until next Friday. I may swap Wednesday for Friday, just because my legs will have gone 8 days in a row without a break at that point, making them go 10 could just be insanity. And I don't intend on messing up a speed workout session on Tuesday by taking that day off. Those are way too valuable. Anyways.....back to today's run. On the schedule I had just a 5 milers planned. The way I felt this morning, I really didn't want to go 5 feet. But, it was a nice bright morning with the full moon out, pretty much rendered my headlight useless. Not far from home, met up with Paul, and we started our planned run. Those thoughts of cutting it short kept dancing through my head. See how you feel at Safeway. Those inner daemons were playing havoc on me. We finally got to Safeway, and I absolutely didn't feel strong at all. But, I cussed myself out a bit for being a wuss, and that I could make it to the next street turn in. In between those two points, I started doing math in my head. When I started out the door today, I had a little over 18 miles officially in the books. So, to get to 45, it became apparent that I MUST get 5 miles in today. I really had to play those mind games to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. We got to the second shortening point, and I put the strength of my mind to keep on going. Passing that spot, there was no more shortening spot along the route. To get home, you have to get through it, and suck it up soldier! And suck it up I did. We made our final turn into the Sunflower retirement community, and it was the last homestretch to get back on home. In all, I ended up with 5.25 miles. Even better, the average split times were ALL UNDER 9 mins. For how I felt, I didn't think that was possible. I would have sworn we were running a 9:30 pace. Not so much...They were all around 8:40.


So, Jedi Master Yoda, you are correct, "Strong In Mind You Must BE!"

Train Hard and LIVESTRONG!

Still on Schedule

With today's run of 4.25 miles officially in the books, I can say that things are still on schedule to hit the 45 mile target goal. Hitting this goal will be another huge milestone, that's mostly mental. Mentally, it's hard to comprehend running 45 miles in 6 days of running. It's even harder to imagine that it's something that I've been able to get to in such a short time. When I look back at my training logs that go back to July and August, I really wasn't running a lot of miles. Maybe 15-20 per week. There definitely wasn't much quantity there, but there was quality. I was hitting most of the group workouts, which are for the most part speed sessions. Mentally I wasn't ready to accept long days, and basically would consider a long run 6 miles. Oh what a couple of months can do for your psyche. Now, when I look at my runs, if I'm doing 4 miles, it seems like a day off, and six miles is the norm. In fact, this week, I've taken my 6.5 miles to 7 and those are the strolls through the neighborhood. Weird. I actually enjoy going our for those long runs on Sunday.

So on todays schedule was a group speed session, with the workout being nothing out of the norm. It was 12x400m with a 45 second rest in between. Today's group was actually smaller then usual. Some of the regular faces weren't there, which was weird. Since I didn't go on Tuesday I don't know how people were feeling after Sundays workout. Perhaps there are some tired peepz in the group. I know that I'm tired, but my legs still had a little get up and go in them. I definitely didn't break any land speed records, but I wasn't a slacker either.....Well...except for that first set. I think that one was like 1:48.....We all seemed to be dogging a bit there. But we picked them up from there, and I would say the large majority were all around the 1:41-1:42 range. That's a nice 6:45ish pace per mile, and definiitly faster then what I was running several weeks ago. So, I can definitely say that progress is still being made. The nice thing is, I wasn't destroyed either. I still had some energy left in the tank. To me, that's pretty important. Sure, I probably could have run just a bit harder, but at what expense. To totally kill tomorrws run......Or even the time trial on Saturday. No way. You have to put the whole week in perspective. If you want to achieve your goals, and get theappropriate feedback, you sometimes have to just run consistent. I think that if I would have gone out harder, I probably would have blown up on the last two, and not run them in the fashion that I did. After that first set, once we settled into the pace, everythign was nice and even. So needless to say, I'm really looking forward to Saturday, so that I can see how far I've come. NO WAY NO HOW I'm missing that one!

But, there's still one more day to go before we get there, and I need to get those 5 miles in the books. Until then, train hard and LIVESTRONG!

Monday Night Footbal!!

This week got of to an absolutely crazy start. I totally knew it would, but I didn't want to think I would get caught up in all the excitement of Monday Night Football in Phoenix. Who was I kidding. My first mistake, was not resetting my alarm on Sunday night before. So, when the alarm went off at 5:30, I realized rather quickly that I screwed up and missed the scheduled run with Paul. What was I thinking.....Probably wasn't thinking clearly on Sunday night. That run Sunday AM really took a lot out of me. I went to bed feeling as though I had run a race. Basically, I did. In the on times, I was only 1.1 miles from doing a Half Marathon. So, that threw a MAJOR wrinkle in the training plan because I knew that I wasn't going to be able to make the group workout Tuesday AM. But it made it imperative that I get a run in. More on that to come later.....I need to talk Monday Night Football!!!! If you've read my profile, you know I'm a huge football nut. I'm that fan guy who dresses up, in my case to look like Kid Rock. Well, this was MY night to get crazy in front of the World. Monday Night Football is a HUGE stage. And the team set up everything amazingly! They had American Idol champ, Jordan Sparks singing the national Anthem.

That's her hamming it up for me during the pregame. And then you have the Hank William Jr intro song, 'Are You ready for Some Football'. And to my absolute amazement, I MADE THE CUT! At the very end, there was a clip of me that was taken during the Buffalo game, and even best, it was right at the very end of the song. That's been a dream of mine since god only knows how long to be part of that game intro! That's just plain HUGE to me! My crazy antics with HANK WILLIAM JR! I love it! The only thing better would have been to tape it with him, but I'll take this as one small victory for the KidStallyn! Next I was in the live broadcast on two separate occasions. Once giving the first down signal after a key 3rd down catch in the first quarter, and again around the two minute warning where we were on defense, and I was working my hardest to get the crowd rowdy and was pounding on the stadium padding. And to top it all off, the Cardinals avoided another Monday Night Meltdown and somehow managed to keep San Francisco out of the endzone as time expired with the Niners down by 5 points and having the ball on the 1 yard line. Talk about an exciting end, but man, I was hoping for a blowout!

So, by the time my boys and I got home, it was 12:30. No way I was going to make the run in the AM, but I knew that. But since my kids didn't have school, and my wife also got the day off from teaching, I decided to stay and work from home on Veterans day. I actually managed to get a TON accomplished. And finished up my work around 3:30 pm. From there I went out for a nice run. I was feeling pretty good, so midway I decided mentally I would extend my 6.5 mile run to make it 7 miles. I've got 45 miles scheduled as my goal this week, and since I fubarr'd Monday, I needed to do a little extra credit. And it was a very nice 7 miles...I threw on my music and just went by feel. Sure it wasn't a speed work session, but I wanted quality miles instead. And quality they were. I managed to run each mile split at around an 8:15 pace. At the end, I came in at 57 minutes. HUGE for me. It just shows how far I've come in such a short time. And I absolutely LOVE IT!

Today, I also wanted to run the same course, this time it was at 5am with Paul. Paul enjoyed the extra credit as well. His running was scaled back a bit in the past two weeks since the new baby's arrived, but he's getting back into his normal schedule. And since the turnaround time was really like 14 hours instead of 24, I decided I didn't want to run real aggressive. But, I also didn't want to slack it. So the middle ground was that we ran it and finished right at 1 hour. Absolutely perfect in my opinion. I haven't gotten a chance to look at the splits, I was in a hurry this am to get into work since I had to participate in a 7am teleconference that's taking place in Europe.

With that....I need to figure out how to dial internationally so that I can be a part of this meeting rather then watching them type.

A weekend of Major Accomplishments

When I last left you, I had completed just over 21 miles and taken a much needed Friday off. But the weekend is ALWAYS jam packed with mega miles, and the Sunday run was going to be a major test of endurance.

Saturday started off with 40mins of alternating reps of 5 mins 10K pace and 5 mins HM pace. It was a group workout and I didn't want to go out there and really hammer the course. I had to leave something in the tank for Sundays run. The only real marker I have to go by, is where would I be at the 5 mile point. Typically, I run that course in somewhere around 40ish or just a few seconds under. But over the past few weeks, Paul and I have really made great strides on our weekday workouts. I did manage to keep my paces under 8 mins per mile on each segement. On the 10K sets, I ran a nice 7:15 pace. On the off sets, I ran a nice 7:45 pace. POIFECT. The nice thing was that I crossed the 5 mile point in 38 mins. CHECK! Goal accomplished there. HUGE goal accomplished there. And by the time I finished the workout, I was quite a ways down silverbell. That's a really nice feeling. Butch, wast too far ahead of me, maybe 30 seconds overall. That's a huge accomplishment considering I'm used to him being minutes ahead of me on the finish of a workout like that. I jogged past the half mile mark and started my 5 x 1 min intervals back to the starting point. These I was able to run at a very brisk 6:45 pace. Not too shabby after pumpin out a pretty tough tempo workout. In all, I was able to log 6.6 miles. That's exactly where I wanted to be going into Sundays run of 15 miles.

Sunday's run wasn't the normal 15 mile jog through the park. It was going to be the first real endurance test to really see what my projected marathon pace is going to be. Can I hold that 8 minute mile pace during a run like this.....ON TIRED LEGS. Remember, last week, I cut back to 36 miles to allow for recovery. This week was back to 41, and if I complete it, it will be a hair short of 43. The 15 miles consisted of 2 miles of warmup, 4 miles at marathon pace, 2 miles recovery, 4 miles at marathon pace, and a 3 mile recivery back to the start. That's right, 8 miles of this run were at your targeted marathon pace. We had a group that are about 3 weeks out from thier goal race, doing the same workout, but doing 23 miles. They started at 5:30, and we started at 6. Two of the UBER fast runners came through the first 5 miles at roughly 6ish, so 30 mins and averaging a 6 minute pace. NICE! But, for me I needed the group aspect of this run, and I did the taboo thing....I had my iPhone jammin musinc in one ear. I was using the playlist that I used for the NYC marathon. And boy did that come through for me. Mamma Michele led me out at the start, she set the opening warmup pace at 8:25s for the first two miles. At the time I thought that was a little fast, but it felt really good so I didn't question it and just hung on. when we hit the 2 mile point, that was where I had to get it on. I jumped up to speed and left Michele to do her own thing. I think she was only doing 10 miles yesterday, as she's not training for any upcoming races. I immediately settled into a 7:45 pace, fromthere I eased it back after the fisrt couple of miles and held right on my target of 8ish. I had the alarm set on my garmin to keep it between 7:45 and 8:15 with a butter zone of 8 minutes. And I kept it very nicely at 7:55. When we got tot he end ofthe first 4 mile segment, I was under 32 minutes, and felt very accomplished. Butch finished maybe 10 seconds ahead of me, which was much closer then I had expected. I then started the 2 mile recovery jog in between. That's where it got interesting. Butch took his much sloer then i did. I never once got over a 9:10 pace. Managed to keep that right around 9:05. It allowed me to get my breath back, and start mentally preparing for the next set. I didn't want to slow down so much that I lost my rythem. When I started the next 4 mile set, I knew it was going to be tough to get back going. My legs already had 8 miles on them but I managed to puch through that zone and get right back up to speed. Granted, I was a little bit slower, but I still managed to end up that 4m ile set spot on in 32 minutes, a whopping 20 seconds slower then the first set. To me, over 4 miles, that's in the noise. I'm not going to lie, it was dificult, but mentally, I just kept telling myself to stay focused. and keep turning the legs over, and take them one mile at a time. And to be honest, towards the end, I started feeling stronger and stronger. But boy was I happy to see that 2 mile marker on the road that signified the point at which my 4 mile segment was OVER. From there, there was the 3 mile jog back to the start of our famous 5 mile loop. Strangely, that was the hardest spot for me. By the time I got tot the last mile, I was pretty wiped out. I took a quik look to see where everyone was, and I saw a couple of our marathon trainers and Butch coming up. I slowed and did some backwards strides and started the jog back with them. They were just about complete, and ready to finish as much as I was, but it was the motivation i needed to get through it. They kept a nice brisk pace, and with about half a mile to go, pulled away to get some striders in. I picked up my own pace, but it was no match for their striders. These guys are in a different class then me right now, but it's the place where I want to be. When my watched beeped for the end of the 15 miles, I couldn't believe my time. 2 hours 8 minutes and 16 seconds. I actually had to do a double take. That's a full 2 and half minutes FASTER then what I ran 14 miles in last Sunday. Honestly, that's AMAZING! I didn't think that I could do that.....and shockingly.....I DID IT!

So, next weekend will be a true test of speed, as Saturday is a Long Loop Lope Time Trial on that 5 mile course, and Sunday will be an easy 16 mile run. Two weeks will be the ultimate though....I'm extending what I did on sunday, to 18 miles! Look out world, here I come!

Until then, Train hard, and LIVESTRONG!

2 Days One Blog....

Today I'm going to combine the last couple of runs into a single blog. I'm volunteering at a Science and Technology fair for my work, so I don't get the opportunity to do this during the day, and last night, after a full day of slinging kids on our homemade hovercraft, I was tired to say the least. Yesterday was a 6.6 mile run with Paul, and we really kept it nice and up tempo. We always keep the first mile nice and easy, and it came out at 9:05, from there we picked up the pace and ran each mile split in under 8:25. Compare that to just3 weeks ago when we were running them in 9:15s and really happy. We were ecstatic when we hit our first 8:45, and now we were running them in under 8:25s. We've really come a long way and it all has to do with the added extra miles, and having a running partner with similar abilities that lives less then a mile form my house.

Today was a group run, but since my day was getting started late, I decided that sleeping in was a better alternative. Making that decision during the summer would mean that I would probably skip the workout. Doing that today.....Not so much. It was perfect running weather this afternoon. No way I was going to put all that hard work I've done in jeopardy. I have my scheduled day off tomorrow, and running a speed session on Fri, with a tempo on Saturday and 15 miles with 8 at marathon pace would have been way too much. So it was imperative that I left the schedule alone, and get 'er done today. The only drawback is that running in the afternoon, you don't get the push of the group, and you have to really fight through it mentally. And I managed to run my pace on the 12 x 400m intervals. My targets have been to run them at 1:45, and I kept it right on that mark. I had 2 or three that were close to 1:40, but they were all in the butter zone where I should have them. Mentally that was a challenge. With only 45 seconds rest between each rep, it was a lung burner. Just when you've caught your breath, time to get on going again. And with that, I got it done, and I managed to earn tomorrows actually schedule rest day. It's going to be close to 36 hours before I run again, so my body can do the necessary recovery it needs. I'm currently hooked up to my Compex and I'm running the active recovery as I type this blog. It's 1 of 4 muscle groups, and it's my normal every night routine. I absolutely love this thing. It's an amazing targeted massage, without a masseuse.

For the week, I've got 21.2 miles in the books. I've got a minimum of 5 on Saturday, probably something more like 6-7ish will be more like it. And then the 15 mile doozey on Sunday. That's a target of almost 42 or 43 for the week. If that's how it ends up, GOAL COMPLETE.

Until then, have a great rest of the week, Train Hard, and LIVESTRONG!!!

Promotion Time!

That's right.....Today I was officially promoted to the next group above! For me, that is a very momentous occasion. It marks something that I haven't been able to do over the past 5-6 years of running. And realistically, I have nobody to blame but myself when it comes to the reasons that the promotion took so long. Never before was I this dedicated to may training. I always had so much on my plate, that something had to fall off the side, and usually it was my running. I was never consistent with the group, and that's had a huge effect to me not seeing the gains I had hoped. Now that I've restructured my life around after closing the coffee house, I have time to get everything to fit on that plate, and it's not only helping me reach those goals I've wanted to attain, I'm feeling phenomenal and my health has never been better!

Today's election day workout was a new one that we've never done before. It's fairly typical in the Kenyans training plan and it involves doing 1K repeats with a 30 second rest in between. The full workout was 2 sets of 3 1K segments, with 2 minute in between sets. My target time as set by Mamma Michele was set at 4:35 per interval. That works out to be sub 7:30 min/mile pace. The first two sets Rhonda and I hit right on the mark, no problemo. On the third when the alarm went off, it was a little weird....We were doing our normal out and back on a marked path, but it seems that the wind had changed directions. I didn't remember the wind being in my face at the start. Anyways, it was noticable. By then, the group had settled out as well as spread out to where it was just Rhonda and I. I was staying with her stride for stride, but throughout the workout, I could feel her push the pace every now and then. But I managed to stay with her on those brief accelerations. At the end of the third set, we hit the mark at 4:29, a full 6 seconds ahead of our target. These times are based on what we expect to run in our upcoming marathons. That's a marathon target time of 3:12....A little agressive, but still a good place to train at when trying to get to 3:30. It should allow for some slowdown in the later miles. Eventually, we will add more and more onto this workout to where we are doing at least 20 mid week, basically, this times 4. That's for another day though.. :) The nice thing about the workout was I was able to stay consistent with my leg turnover at this pace. It was like a metranome, and I was in tune with my breathing and everything. I even finished the last set with a little kick on the last 200m! Another goal is to finish every single workout strong. Pick up the pace a bit. And that is where running in a group environment has it's HUGE plusses. I find that it really helps me keep my focus. I look to stay with the other runners, and I don't lose focus mentally. This Sundays group run will definitely be best suited by running with the group. It's not a 15 mile stroll through the neighborhood. It's a pre-marathon run where we do two different 4 mile segments at our marathon goal pace. For me, that's an 8 minute mile. It's imparative I keep it there. Its going to be tough, but you have to get it into your mind and legs know that this is the speed your going to run. Wrapped in between there is 7 miles at an easy pace, probably at the 9/min mile range. In all, I'm hoping to finish around the 2:10 time that I ran 14 miles in this past Sunday.

So, seeing that it is election day, I figure I would make my pitch to get out there and VOTE! This is an important duty that EVERY American needs to do. You're vote counts, irregardless of whether you're voting for Obama or McCain. make your voice be heard. You don't have a right to complain if you didn't take the time to get out there and do your civic duty. At 5:40am today, as I was leaving the parking lot of Coyote Trail, it put a smile on my face to see a large number of people already waiting in line to cast their vote when th epolling station opened. To my estimate, it was a bout 40 deep, and cars were already streaming into the parking lot. This is a very important time in our nations history. The collapse of our econmy has effected many many people, myself included. As an ex-small business owner, I saw it first hand.

So as they say in Chicago, VOTE EARLY, VOTE OFTEN! Oh yeah.....and LIVESTRONG and Train HARD!

Another day in the books.....

And on tired legs no less. To me that's a victory that cannot be beat. For 1, in the two previous days I completed 22 miles in 2 days. I ended up with the 8 on Saturday, and the 14 on Sunday. Both runs resulted in GREAT split times. Times that when you consider where I was, even a month ago, I would have never thought possible. So, when Paul sent me the email that he wanted to GET BACK OUT THERE, I was truly excited. Paul, ended up taking 9 straight days off. But to say he had a great excuse would be an understatement. Last Tuesday, his wife gave birth to their third child, and so far it's been a few nights of re-adjusting to the life's little schedule of new baby. But, as with most of us runners......He was ready to get back out there on the pavement at o'dark early. And I have to admit, running with Paul has really helped me get to where I am right now.

So the morning started off, just like any other normal morning run and we set off on our 5.7 mile loop. No extra credit for me today, I did that on the previous two. From looking at the Garmin splits, we started off at a 9:11 pace. And as usual, we ended up cranked down at a 8:40 pace for the majority of the run. How, I cannot tell you. Sure, his legs were fresh.....but mine didn't feel like we were going that fast. They definitely felt sluggish, as they should. you just did 22 miles this weekend, remember?? Seven of which were at a 7:30 pace mind you. But, the great thing was that my cardio felt AMAZING. Not once was I breathing heavy, I was just trying to keep the focus of putting one foot in front of the other. And we managed to do that very well.

Once we hit the 5 mile point, Paul turned off and headed into his neighborhood back to the house, and I slugged my way back to my house. Having hit the stopwatch for the end, I became taken back a little by that sense of fulfillment. Fulfillment in the sense of realizing what you done over 3 days. With that, I headed in, and took a nice hot shower to start off what hopefully ends up being a GREAT week of injury free running. And with that, I'm off to start blasting my back and calves with my Compex and start the recovery process for tommorow a little bit earlier then normal. This is the first step in what will hopefully end up being a 41 mile week. It's the first of 3 steps upwards. From there, it's 45 and then maybe......just maybe.....the big 50!

You'll just have to keep checkin' the Blog to see if the Kid can get there! Until tomorrow, LIVESTRONG and Train HARD!

A special Weekend

The first weekend in November will always be a special time for me. Last year, I had the opportunity to go to New York City for the first time ever, and participate in the ING New York City Marathon with the Lance Armstrong Foundation. It was an incredibly special time for me, in what was an incredibly difficult year. See, back in February not only did my wifes grandmother pass away, but a good friend of mine was diagnosed with Stage 4 Kidney Cancer. It was so far progressed, that it had spread through his lyph nodes and had reacehd his lungs and liver. At this point we had thought he had gotten a handle on it. It wasn't progressing, and when we went to dinner with them, he looked really good. From the outside you would never know that his body was being ravaged by this aweful disease. It wasn't long after I came back from NYC that his health took the ultimate turn for the worse. So this weekend, I decided both my runs would be with my NYC LIVESTRONG jersey that I ran in NYC with.

Saturday started off with a 3x2mile interval set followed up with a 5x1min. This was a crucial marathon paced workout, plus I could use it as a guage to see where my fitness has progressed over the past couple of months. At the start, my target splits were set at an 8:05 min/mile pace for 16:10 per set. I was paired off with a new face in the group, which turned out to be kind of a mistake....for him. We took off with the slower paces first, and I was the third group out of the gates. And I took off fast.....I had taken Friday off, and my legs felt GREAT! Every couple of minutes I would look down at my watch to see where my average pace was at that moment, adn I was shocked to see it around low sevens. So, I decided to throttle back a bit because I knew it was a long workout. I eventually settled into a 7:30 pace. MUCH FASTER then what mamma Michele had wanted me to run. When I got to the 2 mile marker, I had finished my split at 14:58, but I felt great. So set 2 I kept up the same pace, and actually came in a few seconds faster at 14:55. This is a SIGNIFICANT milestone because I just ran 4 miles then under 30 minutes. To be exact, 7 sencods to space. That's HUGE! That gets me ever so close to reaching my goal of getting to that elusive Walgreens corner. That's where I want to be in 30 minutes SOOOOOOOOO bad. And if I were to run another 7 seconds, that puts me about 15-20 seconds short. VERY VERY VERY doable by my January timeframe when I want to run my marathon. My thirs set kicked off and I still sayed amazingly consistent. The end of the thirs set clocked in at 15:02. Only a 7 second slowdown form the previous set. And I finished roughly a minute off of two runners that I have never been able to keep pace with. That's the making of that first stepping stone that I wanted to hit, and it's only th ebeginning of NOVEMBER! With the 5 times a minute at the end, it left me with about a mile to jog back to the start, and a full 8 mile morning, hence the reason I took off Friday.

So that left me with a 14 mile run through te neighborhood to finish out a great weekend. The rest of the group was going to go run with another running group in Tucson, so I did this one SOLO. Nothing wrong with that. So I put on the headphones and took off at a nice easy 9:30 pace. I knew that I would eventually turn up the screws towards the end when my legs were tired, it's a new peice to my training puzzle. I'm working on the negative split. Trying to keep yourself in check at the start and not go wild by blowing all of your energy too early. And it's bene working out beautifully. By the time I got to the 4 mile mark, I had already ratched the pace down to a nice 9:15, and I was GOING UPHILL! I added onto last weeks route a new segment of road that JUST reopened yesterday. And man...that pavement is NICE! Not once did I EVER want to stop. I just kept getting stronger and stronger and stronger. Mentally, I was getting tired, but I kept clicking off the miles, one after another. Eventually I worked my pace into the 8:45 zone. PERFECT for the long run SUNDAYS! That's where I want to be. Did I mention that I kept it up as I went through the run. 7, 8, 9, then 10.....They just kept clicking off. By 12 I could tell my legs were getting tired. I told myself...lets' just get to 13. I got to 13 and headed up a tough hill....Part way up the hill, the mile marker clicked off.....and by the time I got to the top, it was time for the nice stroll on back home......I ended up having to do a little bit in my neioghborhood, but I just wanted to get on home.......so, tired legs and all, I managed to finish up with a nice little 8:35 pace.. :) And why was I wanting to get home so bad....So I could get on te computer and watch the NYC Marathon. Trust me....I've really been down a bit becaeu I just wanted to be there with all of the excitement. I'm not ready to do a full yet...Mentally or physically. I haven't done all of the hard work yet. Last year I did enaough to get through, but the business of owning a business played a roll in that. This year I don't have that, and I'm making strides I never thought I could have made. And what a race it was. It was amazing to see Paula Radcliff run the race of her life, winning NYC not only back to back, but adding her name to a short list of people who have rwon the race three times. And what a race the mens marathon turned out to be. Gomes Dosantos who led most of the race, recovered from his midrace bonk to blow my the leader and win the race in the final mile through Central Park. Just makes me a little more dissapointed that I wasn't there to see it in person. I'm going to have to circle it on my calendar for next year to either run it, or at least be there. And finally, congratulations to American Kara Goucher on mer marathon debut by getting 3rd place overall in what I think ended up in a new record for an American Womans debut. GREAT RACE!!!

So, when the alarm

Today's Run.......Postponed....

Well...At least until tomorrow. That's because Saturday's run became increasingly more difficult when it was changed from a 30 minute Tempo run to a 3x2Mile adventure over the same course. Since this change added about 3 miles to the run (after warm up and cool down), I decided to sleep it in today and take that extra day of rest since I was only going to be out for 3 miles anyways. My target times are 8:05 according to Mamma Michele.....Well...We'll have to see about that. I think she just slapped me and called me a fatboy with that one. ;) Not exactly sure how to take that one yet. I'm thinking about 20 pounds ago that would have been a difficult pace to hold, but I've been running my easy days at an 8:45....So 8:05 just doesn't seem so hard.

I guess we'll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out now won't we.

1-2-3

Today's targeted session with the group was a 3 set series of intervals that consisted of 1 min, 2min and 3 min on times with a 1 min not so on pace in between. This is one of our typical post race workouts. The group this past weekend ran a very difficult 10K that consisted of some MONSTER hills. I did a base workout where I alternated 5 min sets of my 10K and HM paces for 30 minutes. Not nearly as difficult since mine was on a relatively flat course, but still a good workout nonetheless since I probably went at 5K and 10K pace after looking at the data. And the way my legs felt yesterday, nothing like a nice day to clean out the junk!

So when I got to the meeting point at Coyote Trail, I actually felt much better then the day before. As I posted yesterday, my legs were having an off day and just plain felt dead. Today, they felt crisp and ready for a good run. We took of as a single group today and did 2 sets out, and one set back, which left a nice miles and a half jog back to the car. The weather was absolutely PERFECT this morning. Shorts, short sleeve shirt, and glove to keep the hands warm weather. At the start I took off great, managed to run with Scott who kept about 5 yards ahead of me the first couple of sets on the way out. I totally boned up and hit the wrong button on my watch for the start, so I had to wait it out till the second set to start it....uggghhh. hat it when that happens. No wirries there though, I was boxed around by Scott in front and Butch right behind me, so I could hear the starts and stops. I have NO idea how fast I ran those first fet reps, but I'm guessing the were sub 7 since my second set was right at the 7 min/mile marker. I always run faster on the first set and get progressivley slower after settling into a comfortable pace. And when I looked at the 3 min average on the second set, that explains why Butch gained ground and passed me. No biggie there, the fact is....I'm running these workouts at a pace I've never been able to hold. Paul and I set out two sets of goals....Short term was to get to where we could last an entire workout with the Butch groupers. Long term goal, and a bit more lofty, hang with the Big Dogs.....Dave, Todd, Steve, Shawn....That's definitiely a long term route there. Those guys are in a totally different zip code when it comes to running. And they are runningn a totally crazy amount of miles right now. Something I would LOVE to be doing. I'm going to give myself 6-12 months to attain that one, and right now focus on hanging with Butch and Glenn (when he shows up), and get sub 3:30 on my marathon time. These I think are totally doable. And along the way, increase my base mileage to that 60-70 miles per week zone. Looking back in retrospect, getting to 60 should be NO PROBLEMO! Shoot, increase my long run to 22 miles that's 51 right there, then sprinkle in 9 miles over the other 5 days....that's less then 2 miles per day. And realistically, that's going to come on the Thursday workouts by itself. Eventually, I'll be running 10-12 miles on those workouts. I intend to start doing mile repeats on Thursdays. Start at five or 6, and work my way up to 10, all at my targeted marathon pace. I need to get my legs grinding that pace.....The over and over repetition of a single pace is what I need. It's going to make the day when the BIG day gets here in January.

So in the books right now, on this rest week, I've got 14.6 miles. Saturday is going to be at least 5, I may push it to 6 or 7 with the warm-up and cool down. It's a 30 minute tempo that I'm really going to PUSH HARD. I actually think instead of taking tomorrow off completely, I'll sleep in a bit till 5, get up, and go do a 3.5 miler. Nothing hard, but enough to keep the legs fresh for Saturday AM. That would put me at 18 plus the 5 on Saturday and I can end up with around 35ish after Sundays run. That is 6 less then the previous week. I'm just thinking that dropping back 11 miles in one week was a little too much, so 6 may be a better goal. That way, my ramp starts at 41 next week, and goes up from there.

So, it does look like I'll be blogging tomorrow!! Until then, train hard and LIVESTRONG!

That Familiar Dead Leg Feeling

So today, as expected, my legs were out of any go go go.....Yesterdays workout was so good, that I was pretty much depleted. But, I still managed to get out of the door for my early morning run, although, the late start dictated that I cut it shorter then usual. Either way, I still managed to get in just over 30 mins of quality running in, and even though my legs didn't feel like they were moving properly, I still managed to end up with a 8:45 pace. Take the 'little' victories when you can, and I can use that term incredibly loosely.

My route planned was the original 5.5 mile loop that I run with Paul. And since his wife was re-scheduled to have their baby this morning, he wasn't going to be able to make it. Go figya! So, out the door I headed at 5:15ish and headed on the same route. I did manage to still see Dave and Todd out for their run as they both get ready for the California International marathon coming up this December. They are at that final stage where the LONG LONG LONG runs come in. I think they still have a couple more 22 milers in store for their legs, and I know they've been regularly doing 100+ mile weeks. That's actually where I would love to be someday. It's just going to take time and a nice slow progression to get there. My upcoming weeks are looking something like this starting with this week:

10/27: 31
11/3: 38 ( 3 back from the high point)
11/10: 45
11/17: 50
11/24: 40 ( 2 plus my start of the last period)
12/1: 45
12/8: 50
12/15: 55
12/22: 45 (Drop)
12/29: 50
1/5: 60
Taper
Marathon Day: 1/18

I think this scedule is VERY doable. In fact, I think that the mileage may be a little low in some cases, as my long runs are going to be getting up to the 22 mile point as well. Heck, I may even add in some two-a-days in there.

So, until after tomorrows workout of 1/2/3s, train hard and LIVESTRONG!!

Mile Repeats...

Today was an unscheduled group workout that involved some mile repeats. It's funny, every time we do mile repeats I can't help but think of the movie groundhog day....I have NO idea why, but I about 3/4 of the way through the first mile, I get that scene in my head when Bill Murray is driving the car with Phil and they're in the quarry...You know, the part where he tells him that he drives pretty good for a quadruped....and "Don't drive angry!". Then the next thing they show, is the truck going off the cliff and bursting into flames into a HUGENORMOUS fireball......and then BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP......His alarm goes off and it's ANOTHER groundhog day.....For me....The BEEP BEEP BEEP was us finishing the first set....

And what a great workout it was. 3x1mile and 4x400 back to the start. First off, I really need to check my watch. Because this is the second time in a row, where i thought I left with AMPLE time to get there, but they were starting the last group as I came up....It was Butch, Michele and I, but Mamma Michele was doing her own 30/30 workout. Butch and I ran the 1st mile together. That's kinda strange for me, because I'm used to being quite a bit behind him. Running with him is a new and exciting adventure. The first mile was at a nice 7:15. My legs felt GREAT! even better, we even caught up to the other groups that started in front of us. :) Set two, not as fast, but it is was the back of the first mile and slightly uphill. Came in a bit behind Butch at 7:30. I'm a little upset with myself on that one, because I allowed myself to lose focus somewheres areund the 3/4 mark. When I crossed the split I noticed the terrible quarter, got re-focused and then came back strong. That's definitely somethign I need to work on...FOCUS.

So the third set, I set that as my goal...FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS. And I kept it nice and even through each split and ran a 7:18. Very consistent with my first split, only 3 seconds slower. I'm very happy with that result. That led into the quarters. Those are a more up tempo pace, more like your 5K grind 'em out, with a much smller rest in between (45 seconds). And grind them out consistent I did: 1:44, 1:43, 1:43, and 1:43. BAM BAM BAM BAM! That put a huge victory stamp of approval on theworkout. To be able to run a consistent sub 7 pace was GREAT!

Whats even better is that I had several members of the group tell me that they had to do a double take to see who that "skinny" guy was running with Butch! YEAH BABY!!!! Just 12 short weeks ago, I was running with the group, not on a consistent basis, and I weighed in at a miserable 206 pounds. Today, I've been able to take over 25 pounds off that number. I credit that with a LOT of will power, and a major change in eating habits....And a nice bout of dedication to running and staying fit. Meeting my goal and breaking through 40 miles last week was a HUGE accomplishment. This week, may be considered a rest week, but it's not really a rest from running, it's just allowing for my body some extra recovery time while I change my focus from miles to speed. 3 of my 5 workouts are dedicated to SPEED. Todays, Thursday, and Saturday. Tomorrow I will get in a 6.5 miler and Sunday I'm planning on doing 9-10. On paper that's about 30-32 miles. We'll see how it shakes out. I'm feeling great and running strong, aand I have to hold back the urge to run long this week. It's ALL about performance. My progress report comes on Saturday with the 30 minute tempo run. That's where I get to see the real progress!

So, untill tomorrows post I'll reminisce a little bit about my trip to NYC last year. This weekend last year, I was getting ready to make the long trip to Manhattan. Talk about a great time....I had a blast....I'm really kinda bummed i'm not running it this year, but I will say...that was one expensive TRIP! Until tomorrow....LIVESTRONG and Train HARD!