The Ever Elusive Negative Split

So today's run was a little hard to get going on. My mind played that little you're tired change the alarm to sleep in trick. I battled back and forth between snooze hits to dig deep into the bowls of every bit of energy I had left in me to roll myself out of bed. Thankfully my morning buddy (my 13 year old Beagle Bailey) was there to provide a little NUDGE. We have a morning routine, that starts with my alarm clock. by the time the snooze has been hit a couple of times, he's awake enough to want his treat, and go outside. Finally, by 4:30 I was alert enough to get out of the bed, gather my running gear, and get the process rolling.

I started out today's run, very very slow....We're talking 10 minute mile range. My legs were feeling the effects of yesterdays 5:51 and 6:30 madness. There, turning over, but just not that ooomph that make you feel like a track star. Every night I use the Active Recovery feature of my Compex EMS, and that usually works out all the lactic acid but you still have those low energy days. The good thing was there was no soreness whatsoever. Anyways, I made it out the door and headed for the corner where I usually meet Paul....This morning, he wasn't there...I was wondering a couple of things...1) His wife went into Labor. 2) He felt like I did, but didn't conquer the morning deamons. :) Turns out neither happened, he just got a little bit of a later start on the warmup jog he does before hand. And so, we set off on our 5.7 mile trek through Continental Ranch. The further we got, the better my legs started feeling, and the faster Paul kept upping the tempo. He had a goal that he wanted to averge less then 8:59 for the whole run. The next thing I know, we had the pace cranked down to 8:30s....then 8:20s....In fact, our fastest mile was 5-6 (we did the extra credit) at 8:23! Did I mention there's a pretty nice hill on that segment.

So, even after all the morning arguments with myself, I STILL managed to get in a great workout, and EXCORSIZED those deamons yet again. So far on the workout Dockett, I've got 23 miles in the books. That's about 6 more then I had last week at this time, so I'm well ahead of schedule. Tomorrow, I think I'm going to limit myself to 5-7 miles. Last week I did almost 9, but I've got 3 straight in the books, and will have 5 by the end of Sunday. The great thing about this weekends runs is that the temperatures are cooperating so munch that not only can I get some extra sleep in, I can run at 8ish and not get blown away by the heat. That's going to be a HUGE PLUS.

Well, the tomorrows going to be onstep closer to 40, and my present to my legs for getting me there will be the drop back in mileage next week!!! HUA! Until then and probably a blog about the weekend, LIVESTRONG and train hard!

400s and 200s GALORE!

Today was a very interesting day. For most of our running group, it was a day off to rest the legs for difficult 10K this Saturday. For us 'Non racers' (all three of us), it was a up tempo workout of 4x400 (60 sec), 4x200 (45sec), 4x400 (60 sec), 4x200 (45sec). Needless to say, when I got there, Paul and Michele had already started. I actually thought I was on time, since i had left the house earlier then normal... :) But the red blinky light markers were out and flashing so I knew they were somewhere on the maked course, and would be back shortly. And I was right, typically we do an out and back on the 400s, so I was only 2 back and joined in at the start of #3 during the first set.

Since I wasn't fully wamred up, and it was actually pretty cool, I took the first two 400s pretty slow.....So I thought! My first registered at a 1:37. 1:37??? Are you kidding me?? That's exactly what I thought to myself. Even more bizaar, Paul finished about 3 seconds AHEAD of me. Normally my target times for the 400s has been 1:45ish. That's a HUGE improvement over several weeks. The way back was a tad bit slower due to the headwind at 1:41. Still fast though.

This is where my workout got really weird. So.....to stay on cycle with them, I went into the 200s, and would make up the two missed 400s at the end. No biggie really. So, after the 1 min rest, we set out ont he 200s. And by set out, I mean I ran the first two at what turned out to be a 5:51 pace. HUH??? Let meput this in a little perspective. The last time I ran a 5:anything pace the year was 1993, roughly 15 years ago, and I was a mere 21 years old going through 6 weeks of baic training in AFROTC. So shocked was an understatement when I was going over my splits this morning. And mind you, there wasn't just 1, there was 3 of them! The rest were all in the 6min mile range, with the slowest fo the 8 being 6:09. I never thought I could be anywhere near that level of fitness again, let alone have the capability to run a mile and a half in 8:55 ever again. Who knows, I may have to give that a shot sometime during training to see if it's possible.

The 400s were at a slower pace, but still.....for me.....anything but pedestrian. All 8 were under a 7 minute pace, with the large majority at 6:30. In fact, I think my slowest splits were the frist 2 at 1:41. I can really feel the changes in my runnin gstride. With all this weight I've lost over the past couple of months, my legs are restricted by all those fat deposits, and I'm developing a little bit of a "kick", and it just plain feel GREAT! Sure I have the 'off' days where my legs are tired, that's to be expected. But right now, they're CRAVING my morning workouts. I'm actually waking uup a few minutes BEFORE my alarm, and I feel like I've slayed goliath having completed a workout. It's almost a feeling of invincibility. I'm actually haveing a GREAT TIME!

And as for weekly miles, I'm right no track to hit 38.5. Right now, 16.5 are in the books, with 3 running days left. Tomorrow, I plan on another extra credit morning by getting in 6.5. That should put me at a nice even 23 with Saturday and Sunday workouts to go. If I got with a 5 mile tempo, plus warmup and cool down, that will put me at about 7 for that day. Leaving me in striking distance of 40. It all depends on how I feel Sunday am, but that's the plan so far!

So, until tomorrow, TRAIN HARD, and LIVESTRONG!

Yesterday a No-Go...Today a Go-Go!

So yesterday was called due to work getting in the way. It was a group session run, but my normal 6am telecon got trumped and was replaced with a 5.5 hour version that started at 5:30am. See that's the joy of outsourcing! I manage a team member who's in Bangalore India. Along with that comes a 12.5 hour time difference. So, to make it easier on each of us, we've adjusted our schedules accordingly. I actually don't mind the early meetings. It just mean my day ends sooner....Well.....accept for yesterday, but that's a different story. :) By the time we were done, it was almost midnight for him, so I figure, I had it easy. As I was still able to finish up with my last meeting by 4pm. What's a 10 hour day when you enjoy what your doing? It's all cream cheese.

So, seeing as yesterday got washed out, I was antsy to get out there this morning and really let my legs go. And did they ever! It was the normal meet Paul at 5am Wednesday. We are both really making great strides by running together. As I've said before, having a training partner with similar goals really does a body good. And, it turns out he took yesterday off too. his legs were tired, and he needed a day off. No need in getting injured. That's just bad joo joo. Anyways, we met up at the normal location and headed off on our 5.7 mile course. The first mile was pretty pedestrian as we worked our way into stride. But by the time mile 2 came around, I could tell we were clipping along at a nice pace. We were at that point where you could converse, but just needed to suck air every now and then. A little faster then conversational, but not sprinting by any means. As we ran, the mile alarm beeped, and I hit the lap to try and record mile splits.....About mile 4 I decided to see where we were, and BAM...just as I thought, we ran a 8:40....Then mile 5.....BAM...another 8:40.....consistency, consistency, consistency.....We came around by my house, and I was feeling GREAT....So I made the command decision that I wanted a little extra credit and added an extra mile onto my normal run. And whats funny, was Paul was going to "cut it short", but he too was feeling good, so he did the extra credit as well.

I'm really enjoying my running life right now. My goal of 38.5 miles this week is ABSOLUTELY attainable. I've got 12.2 in the books, and already have Thurs, Friday, and Saturday workouts planned. From there, I will see how many I need on Sunday, and just go out for a nice stroll through the neighborhood. This is when the schedule gets fun! I love the ramping up of the miles. I'm doing everything the body needs. Getting quality hours of sleep in, not running beyond my abilities, and I have a training partner that's a huge part of keeping my focus. This is a BIG week, and hitting my goal will be a HUGE accomplishment. Next week is the planned "rest" week. Basically it's a cut back to about 30 miles. Part of my philosophy is taking strides forward, but taking a step backwards to allow the body to recover. The thing that's crucial about next week. SPEED SPEED SPEED. Sure, I wont run as many miles. But they are going to be at a higher then normal tempo so that the engine room inside your body gets a boost!

So, for all those out there keeping track of this blog: TRAIN HARD, KEEP FOCUSED, and LIVESTRONG!

The Trek to 40 Continues!

Some may ask, Trek for 40?? What's that? Well, it's a little thing that I've got going in my pursuit of marathon training. My first hurdle was reaching 30 miles per week. My second hurdle will be achieving 40 miles per week. It's been a long time since I've run 40 miles per week. And when I say a LONG time, I sure do mean it. I'm guessing that it's been at least a year, but unfortunately my Garmin deleted all of those previous workout logs when my watch stopped communicating with the computer and i was forced to upgrade software versions. I'm guessing I had weeks where I hit 40, it's not completely out of the realm of possibility considering I was doing long runs of 18 to 20 miles on Sundays in preparation for NYC. And it was all being done about this time last year. But last year was very different for me. 1) I was about 10 pounds heavier. You don't think that's much, but when you consider all of the pounding your legs take, it's actually quite a bit. 2) I had the iinterfereance of the coffee house. When an employee got stupid, it was usually me that ended up covering their shift for them. And aroudn this time of the year, it seemed to happen frequently. 3) I didn't have a running partner. So, there was a LOT of time to myself to think and think and think.....

All three of these aspects, are 180 degrees from where I was just a year ago. I'm running at 181.6 pounds as of this morning. at a full 10 pounds less then last year, that's about 20 seconds per mile I'm running faster. And since we closed the coffee house, that stress is gone (although not totally complete yet). And finally, I've got a running partner whose goals are very similar to mine. What that means, total dedication to the sport I love!

Last week, my goal was to se out and run 35 miles. And after the first 3 days, I was right on track. I wanted to do it in 6 days of running, but wouldn't you know it, life happened, and I ended up taking 2 days of rest. Not that it's a bad thing, just made the weekend runs a little longer then previously scheduled. But it actually turned out to be a good thing. Because I changed my focus to a my Saturday run, and turned it into a 6 mile tempo run, with a 2.8 mile cool down. I wanted to go out there and run a little bit faster then my HM pace, but not wquite my 10K pace. And the route I chose was a bit more dificult then our Long Loop Lope which is a 5 mile marked very fast and flat course. This route I chose was my normal long run, but I cut it short and cut through a neighborhood after the 6 mile point for the cool down. Miles 1 and two are very fast and pretty flat. I ran those two in 7:25 and 7:27. Miles 3 and four is where the challenge begins. They are steady uphill segments, that took me into Continental reserve. It's not bad that my pace slowed, because it was pretty much expected with the hills the way they were. They were 8:02 and 8:31. As the hill started to turn the other direction, I ran mile 5 in 8:05 for a 39:30 split at the five mile point. I held that pace for mile 6 and actually ran a 7:55 finishing at 47:25, a time that put a HUGE smile on my face. After a couple of minutes to catch my breath I started off on the recovery part of my run the 2.8 miles home. This was the time I used to reflect on the run that was. When I got home, I was tired, but I was beaming with the accomplishment of a great tempo run where I averaged 7:49 for the whole run, basically EXACTLY where I wanted to be. Faster then the 8 min/mile pace of a HM, but slower then the 7:40 pace of a 10K.

So when I woke up Sunday with tired legs, I wasn't surprised one bit. Sunday was all about getting in the miles. It didn't matter how long it took, its a nice easy run to go clear out the junk from yesterdays run. Basically I ran the same course, but instead of cutting through the retirement community, I ran the entire long loop for a 9.5 mile day. I started out very predestrian at a 9:45 pace to warm up the legs, and it wasn't too long before I was at my normal stide. the nice thing was, as I ran along, my pace kept increasing. In fact, I ran a negative split. By mile 5 I was running at an 9:05 pace. Milres 6, 7, 8, and 9 gradually increased until I was running an 8:45 pace. And it was all good! I got home, made my post run omlette and sat back and watched the Cowboys get spanked. Nothing puts a smile on my face like watching the Cowboys lose. I finished the week with 35.5 miles. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

This week I have a great big target on 38.5 as my goal. I don't like to increase by more then 10% over the previous week. No need to push it and get injured at the beginning of the training when your running so well. So when the alarm went off today, I knew it was a meet paul morning. I had intended to cut the run at 3.5 miles, just for my legs sake, but at the cut point, I was feeling OKAY and ended upt doing the full 5.7. It's kind of a nice feeling, running on tired legs, and accomplishimg more then you mentally had set out to do. The thing about running with Paul is that the time goes by faster then when your by yourself. I still need those day of solitude, but I definitely need the motivation of having to meet someone. If you skip, your letting them down, and they are out there getting stronger while your slacking. Plus, it's nice to see the other runners in your group out there. Every day we run that loop we see Dave and Todd, and somedays in there we'll see Steph joining them. It's good to see them getting ready for California International marathon coming up.

So, with 5.7 on the board this week, we'll keep the trek to 38.5. After that its game on with 40!!

LIVESTRONG, and keep on training HARD!