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!