Training Widget

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

End of August - 2 months until MCM

Day 608 - August 31, 2010

20 months - that's how long the streak is now. Here are the stats so far:
Miles:
YTD: 1143
Streak: 2603

Time:
YTD: 148:27:32
Streak: 337:33:28

August was another good month for me. I logged 188 miles, ran a good 5K, and even completed a 20 miler. I'm feeling pretty good about my training for the Marine Corps Marathon in October. Tomorrow I will run another speed/interval workout at the track and keep working to bring my mile splits down. I'm thinking Yasso 800's and I'm going to try and stay under 3:00 min. I feel like the endurance is right on track, I just need to get faster. I'll keep working and hopefully my goal of breaking 3 hours will be reached.

Have a great September!

Saturday, August 28, 2010

20 miles

Day 605 - August 28, 2010

The marathon training schedule said twenty for today and I decided to run the Charlottesville 10 miler course twice. My friend Mike decided to join me for the entire thing and Roger met us at the track for the first 10. We started really slow at 5:40 this morning and the first mile was around 8:30 pace. Over the next few miles we gradually loosened up and the miles passed more quickly. I think our average pace was below 8 min/mile by mile 5, but definitely by mile 6. Normally when I run the 10 miler course, my body starts telling me we are almost done around mile 8 and by mile 9, it is shouting at me it is time to stop. But today, I was pleasantly surprised that the first 10 miles clicked off rather effortlessly as far as 10 miles goes. We finished the first lap in 78:30.

After a short hydration break and saying our good-byes to Roger, Mike and I started out on the second loop. I would have been perfectly happy to maintain that pace and run an even split for the second lap, but that was not to be. We started out much quicker than the first lap and got to mile 11 in about 7:55 and followed up with the next three miles or so at 7:50ish pace. As always happens, we picked up the pace running the long downhill on Preston Ave, but we never slowed down after that. In fact, we averaged 7:10's for the last three miles. Our second lap was nearly 5 minutes faster than our first!

Back in April, Mike ran a PR on that same course and finished in 75+ minutes. Today, on the second lap of a 20 miler, he ran 2 minutes faster than that. Way to go Mike!

Tomorrow I'll take it a bit easier. My legs are pretty sore from today. But I feel confident that I am in good shape and the training is progressing better than expected. Nine weeks to go!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Wow, I missed Day 600

Day 601 - August 24, 2010

The days just keep on rolling. I actually thought today was day 600, but when I checked it was 601. I guess that's a good sign that the streak is safe for awhile and I'm not ready to quit.

If you get a chance today, click on over to The Longest Run. ACE gave the Leadville 100 a shot this past weekend, and although it didn't go as planned, he still has 32+ miles to be very proud of. Just attempting a race of that difficulty is an accomplishment. Great Job ACE!

Saturday, August 21, 2010

CTM5K2010

Day 598 - August 21, 2010

Today it was clicking! I intentionally let all the kids sprint out ahead at the start of the race and waited for the path to widen before getting up to race pace. The last thing I wanted to do was knock an over ambitious youngster down at the bottleneck. At the half mile, I was comfortably in the top 15 and working my way up through the pack. I hit the mile mark in 5:50 and was in 6th place and right on the heels of the lead pack as we started the first climb of any length. I quickly passed the next two runners to move into 4th and set my sights on 2nd and 3rd place. The climb was a little over a quarter of a mile, and when I reached the crest and made the turn back down, I managed to get the inside angle and slip past those two and move into 2nd place. First place was about 5-10 seconds ahead and looked to be running comfortably, but wasn't really accelerating on the down hill which allowed me to close the gap and pull up on his shoulder. I thought for a second that he was going to fade, so I made a move to get into first. My expectations for this race was a solid top 10 finish and at the halfway mark, I was leading. Probably the first time in a race with over 100 people since I was in college.

We started back up the hill toward the 2 mile mark and unfortunately I surrendered first place back. We went through 2 in 12:02 - much better than I had expected. I wish I could say that I put on a furious charge and managed to regain the lead, but the leader was able to pull away. I did hang on for second place and finished in 18:46, which is over a minute faster than last year. I also received a $35 gift certificate to my favorite running shop for my effort. All in all, a much better day than I was expecting.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Back to back long runs

Day 592 - August 15, 2010

This weekend I scheduled two long runs. Saturday, I met a friend and we ran 18 miles @ 7:45 pace for a pretty decent run. On Sunday, another friend asked me to run his 11 mile long run with him and I thought what the heck. We ran much slower, but still managed 9:30's. I think 29 miles in 27 hours is the most I've done in that time frame. I was a little sore after the run, but so far I think I managed to finish without hurting myself. The real test will be tomorrow!

The two long runs give me 95 miles for the month already - in June, I finished with 110. I think I'll do a little better than that this month.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Breaking 1000 miles

Day 586 - August 9, 2010

This morning's five mile run puts me at 1002 miles for the year. that's 37 days faster than last year! 2010 is truely turning into a Y.A.K.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Time to review my goals from January

I was cruising through my friends' Facebook stati (I guess the plural of status is similar to the plural of octopus)and my good friend at Empowering Moments - Personal Training for the Body, Mind, and Soul asked the question - how are those New Years Resolutions coming along? At first I thought, man I'm killing it. But then I wondered, am I? So below, I've relisted them with the current updates:

1. Run everyday and accumulate at least 1500 miles
- So far so good...on pace for 1600 miles

2. Break 18:30 in a 5K
- first race is in two weeks - we'll see how it goes

3. Break 65 minutes in the Charlottesville 10 miler
- done - Ran sub 63 minutes

4. Break 24 minutes in a 4 miler
-Men's 4 miler is in December - we'll see

5. Run at least 3 races of 10 miles or more
- 2/3 complete - scheduled a marathon on October 31

6. Run a marathon or 2 half marathons
- ran a half marathon, full scheduled on October 31

7. Qualify for Boston
-remains to be seen on October 31. Back-up plan is Richmond in November

8. Do at least 100 push-ups in a single set
- Got to 70 and then fell off the wagon. Need to restart program.

9. Do at least 15 pull-ups in a single set
- Got to 7 and then fell off the wagon. Need to restart program.

10. Do at least one 50 mile ride on my bike.
-Wow, completely forgot about this goal. I haven't even had my bike out yet. Time to get started on this one!

Looks like I'm on the right track for 7/10, but I have some work to do. I'm going to try and hold myself accountable for the rest of the year and hopefully get there without screwing up my marathon training. But since many of my goals hinge on that marathon, I'll let the others go if something has to suffer.


Being flexible

Day 579 - August 2, 2010

The alarm went off this morning and I hit the snooze as fast as I could. A morning run just wasn't going to happen. My legs were still tired from Saturday and I was suffering a bad "case of the Mondays". Instead, I packed a bag and decided I would run an old favorite. As soon as I was done at the office I drove over to the old neighborhood and ran the trails around the lakes. It was a great change of pace and the six miles I logged are much better than the two I would have struggled through had I run this morning. Some days I don't have that kind of flexibility, but I'm glad I did today!