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!

Taking Victories, One Workout at a TIME!

I think that my time playing, watching and coaching football has really helped me clearly see that you cannot look ahead in order to meet your goals. In football terms, it's focusing on that BIG game 2 weeks from now, and not taking care of business the way you should with the teams your supposed to beat. I'm starting to apply that same philosophy to my speed workouts in the morning, and it has really had an impact on my performance, it a positive way.

Mamma Michele is the master creator of some of the most amazing workouts. Where she comes up with some of these workouts is beyond me. I swear....there has to be some torture book out there. Either that, or she's writing a psych book on getting grown adults to do insane things. I've compared us to Pavlov's dogs. We're out there doing the session....beep beep beep.....slow down.....beep beep beep......speed up.....and so on and so on. We're conditioned to the beep beep beep. And today there was a WHOLE lot of beeping going on.



On the schedule, 20x1 minute with decreasing rest periods (1 min, 45sec, 30sec, 15 sec). Those rotated as we went through the workout. What was funny, I had programmed my Garmin to do the workout. And, it gives you a heads up that the interval is about up....little 5 second beep warning....Threw everyone off thier routine a bit at the start.. hehehe....Like I said, we're conditioned to the beeps. you hear a beep, you either speed up or slow down.

But, those who weren't used to the Garmin got used to it...Or got used to Dave giving the verbal, 5 seconds left, warning. :) The last time I did this workout it was only 16 1 minute sets. This time, being 20, I wasn't totally turned off. I actually like the challenge of building up the number of sets. And after examining the data of Dr. Garmin, my body agreed. I had a great run! Almost all of my sets were in the 7:15 range, and I had several at 6:59. Yep.....Mark that, there's a 6 in that first digit! Hopefully that's a trend that you'll be seeing more of those as the blog goes on. That's the goal: Hammer the hard workouts, and cruise the tweeners all the while building up the miles and doing more with less. That's the important part. The repetition of running for a predetermined amount of time, but because your getting faster, you're mileage increases.

So today, I managed to get in exactly 4 miles during this workout! With the 1.75 miles of warm up and cool down, I got in 5.75 miles. I've set my goal this week at 35 miles. And after 2 days, I'm almost a third of the way there with just over 11 in the books. So now, with Today's in the book, I can officially look forward to tomorrows workout. It's a 5.7 mile meeting with Paul.

Until then, Train Hard and LIVESTRONG!

WOW! What a Sunday.....

Talk about an EPIC performance! Sunday was definitely the day of all days. I had a HUGE day planned. Normally, on Sundays, I don't set my alarm for the 4am wake up call. Not in the NORM. But yesterday wasn't normal by any stretch of the imagination. Let's break it down, blow by blow! Saturday ended up getting washed out by a garage sale. The early start of trying to capture those early buyers made me forgo the group workout, that just was moved to 6am for a little bit more light. And to be honest.....I'm glad I didn't go out. for my horrible allergies sake, it would have ended up as a disaster. The winds were howling as a front moved through, and at about 10am, it collided and brought about MUCH cooler weather. So yesterday when I stepped out the door, I encountered my first go at 43 degree running weather. I had a compression shirt, and a long sleeve running shirt, shorts and GLOVES. The wind had really calmed down quite a bit, but it was C-O-L-D and D-A-R-K at 5am. WHAOH! But, you got to git er done. And I started off on my 10 mile stroll through the neighborhood. I took my mormal route down to the running path, up to coyote trail elem, down silverbell to wade, up wade and around the reserve loop, and then finally the BIG loop. And because I had to git 'er done, I couldn't dilly dally around. When I got home, it was a little after 6:30ish....and I did the 10 miles in 1:30. Not bad at all for running my myself, and starting off really slow in the first mile (9:45). But as the sun started to rise and I managed to get on home, I was FREEEZING by the end. It was that cold....But I felt GREAT afterwares. But there was no rest for the weary. After an overly long hot shower....I re-warmed up and managed to wrangle up the kids and get them loaded up in the truck for a long day to Phoenix. WHY??? Because the Arizona Cardinals had a battle with the Dallas Cowboys. And boy, all this running has really helped out with my cheering from the front row seats. As a DIEHARD Cardinals fan, we had a tough job on our hands to drowned out the Cowboys fans that showed up. And my Ton Loc voice today is a great reminder of one of the BIGGEST victories this franchise has EVER seen. And for those who haven't seen it, this is what I saw from my seat in the South Endzone.

And that's how we won the game. For the first time in NFL History, a game in Overtime was won by a team with a blocked punt returned for a TD. How fitting. And the Cardz are 4-2 with a 2 game lead in the NFC West for the first time in team history.

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention todays BRRRRRRRRRRR of a run. It was again 43 degrees at the start, but today I was a little bit smarter. I did wear the long spandex to cover my whole legs, but I couldn't find my cold weather hat.....well...that was until AFTER I got home.....Peachy, just when I needed it. Anyways, I met with Paul, and we managed to do out 5.7 mile loop. I actually didn't think I would get the whole thing in. I was drained after yesterday, and my legs were tired. But we cranked out a 9 min mile pace and got it done. That's 15 miles in 2 days! My legs ROCK right now. Tonight, I've got a date with my Compex and a protien fruit smoothy! Can't wait!!! And tomorrows workout....20x1 minute! BOO YEAH!

Until tomorrow, my Ton Loc voice bids you farewell!!!!

Sluggish, but complete!

The title says it all. Today, my legs were had that traditional dead feeling about them. In latin, it's called Elegusbetiredus. And that they were. Mostly from the above threshold workout from yesterday. Those 16x400m were a killer. And I knew they would be too. So I fully expected todays run, whihc was scheulded as the same as Mondays, to be slower. And that it was. And thank goodness for running partners. Otherwise I wouldn't have been there. Having that guilt hang over your head that you were at home sleeping while your training partner is out there getting stronger is not a good feeling. I'll get that one on him tomorrow, since he has to go into work early and can't make the group session. I'll be grindin out those 800m repeats! All eight of them. Seems crazy that we put our bodies through this motion. But there one thing I can honestly say is, I've never met a runner who hasn't been goal oriented. We're a strange breed. And now that my Coffee Shop nightmare is over, I suddenly have all this extra time that I can dedicate to the sport that I love, and stay trim and fit along the way! That's the greatest part. Getting out there and exercising an hour a day, it means you care about yoursself. That's probably the main reason that you can find yourself blend into a running group so well. It's like minded people that have similar goals and care about themselves.

That was actually one of the many topics we covered in our run today. Surprisingly, we weren't a whole lot slower then Monday. About 15 seconds per mile difference which equated to a little 2 mins overall. Not too shabby considering my legs didn't have the getup and go they had on Monday! And not too bad considering we beat our time from two weeks ago. I can always find the silver lining and make it into a positive. I guess that's my gift. I'm a glass half full kinda guy. There's always an oppertunity in somthing.

And with that, I'll end this post. It's time for a little post run relaxer of Green Tea and some breakfast. Throw in a side dish of my compex on my back, and my morning is SET. If only I could take a little nap.... HA! I wish!

Train Hard and LIVESTRONG!