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!

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!

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!