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!

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!