Freethinker ~ Freerunner

My original goal when I set this training run last week was to attempt to run 13.1 at my goal race pace.  That goal had to be put off when on Wednesday of this week I realized my right calf was possibly injured or strained and needed a few days rest.  On resuming my training I wanted to approach my runs somewhat cautiously as to run at a pace that won't re-injure my calf. 

So I ran this morning at an average moving pace of 7:24 instead of 6:52.  I got rained on the last 40 minutes of my run, but it was nothing like the gully washer style down poor that soaked my bones last week.   

I felt my right calf a little but I never felt any pain.  I am going to proceed cautiously.  I may decide to rest tomorrow instead of running my easy three.  

I'm proud of my run today.  I ran four 1600's at an average pace of 6:15 with 1:30 rest between each repeat.  My goal was to run them in 6:23 or less since that is my goal pace for the 5K race coming up in under two weeks.  I believe I am on target to snap my 20 minute 5K which has been my goal since last August.  My workout today included one warm up mile and one cool down mile run in 7:52 and 8:42 respectively.   

Splits: 

6:10

6:14

6:16

6:23

This morning I ran an easy 3 miles at an 8:27 pace.  When I woke up my calves felt sore, but not too sore to run.  I'm going to ice them both tonight and hopefully run a good tempo run tomorrow.  

I'm stoked about my tempo run this morning.  My goal was to begin at 8:30 pace and drop in 30 second increments each mile until peaking at 6:30.  At 6:30 the goal was then to move back up in 30 second increments until the 55 minute mark.  I pretty much nailed my pace goals coming within five seconds on the two fastest pace miles.  

Splits: 

8:11

7:52

7:28

7:05

6:35

6:59

7:24

My schedule called for a 5 mile pace run today, but I conked out at 3.26 miles.  I made the mistake of thinking too far ahead to runs and races that are up coming.  First I started thinking about the vicious speed runs I had already done this week.  Then I started thinking about my long run tomorrow morning with 30 minutes of a grueling fast finish.  Then I started thinking about upcoming races and it just all hit me at once.  I had to stop at 3.26 miles and walk home.  Some days you just can't bust out your workouts as fast and efficiently as you would like, but I've never just felt the need to stop before a workout was finished.  I'll make it up to my self tomorrow morning by having a great long run with a fast finish.   

I ran what was supposed to be a 2 hour run that ended up taking me 2:08:28.  The reason it took longer is because I intended on negative splitting, but because I went out too fast that did not happen.  My average pace was 7:47, which I'm not completely unhappy with, but I do need to work on getting that pace closer to 7:15 to 7:25 for this distance on a semi vigorous training run as I did today.  It felt a little warm today at 62 at 6:05 this morning when I started.  It was sunny and had warmed about 70 by the time I finished.  I got into an ice bath after I finished, but I was only able to stay in for about 3 minutes.  My feet were going numb, but hopefully that three minutes helped my muscles out enough so that I can hit it hard this week before tapering slightly next week.   

Good speed work today.  I ran 6 800's in an average of about 3:14.  I ran one warmup mile and one cool down mile.  My legs are feeling pretty good, although my calves are still feeling just a bit sore.  

Splits:

3:08

3:04

3:04

3:09

3:04

3:07

Easy run today at average pace of 7:49.  I think my actual pace was somewhat faster than this because my Garmin was acting funny for the first quarter mile.  It took it a long time to find my pace.  It slowly came down from 42 minutes per mile.  By the time I think it was reading my position accurately I think it had not actually tracked my first few tenths of a mile.   

My calves feel a little sore from yesterday 800's, but otherwise I feel good.  It was really hot this morning too.  Over 70 degrees when I started.  I should have gotten up before sun up, but I was watching the final episode of Star Trek Deep Space Nine last night and did not get to be early.  

I clocked a new PR at one of my favorite races.  The Full Moon 5K is a Saturday night race that is very popular.  Probably because there is always a good band and unlimited beer after the race.  The band this year was Rock Show, which is a Journey Tribute band.  They were freaking awesome.  I joked that they might even be better than Journey.  I was singing along to the lyrics 'I'll be alright without you,' and having my self a great time. 

I really love this race for the course if self.  It is fast and flat.  It has been one of my goals for about 9 months to break the 20 minute mark.  Since I don't participate in very many races I probably could have hit this goal a little sooner, but I did it tonight and I am happy.

Official time: 19:34

Division Place: 9 of 111

Gender Place: 54 of 929

Running with a Garmin helps tremendously when going for a time goal.  I stuck to my plan of running slightly faster than the pace I knew it would take to beat 20 minutes.  My splits at 6:11, 6:19, and 6:21 were spaced no more than 10 seconds apart.  Being able to run at my goal pace early on and not go out too fast was key.  

It was a bit of a tough one this morning.  I ran the Full Moon 5K last night and clocked a new PR, which I'm still very stoked about.  We got home late after picking up Ty from Granny's and did not get to bed until sometime around 11.  Ty was of-course not sleeping well last night and my turn to take care of him came at 3:30 when Alisha woke me up because she was exhausted.  I ended up sleeping in his room on a pallet on his floor from 4 to 5, when it was about time for me to start getting ready to run again. 

I left the house at 5:50 so I could meet up with Kevin at 3 miles in on my run course.  We ran for an hour together.  He and I have both been a little sick this week, and so we talked about that and about our races coming up.  His Iron Man is this weekend in Huston and my half marathon is this weekend as well.  

I ran 8 or 9 miles at close to a 7:40 pace, and then I dropped down to around a 8 pace for the remainder.  My legs were really feeling fatigue.  Probably a combination of last nights race and sleep deprivation.  I chugged out my full 2 hours still so as not to slack on my training.  This is m last long run before the half next weekend and I don't want to have any excuses not to be prepared. 

I was a nice cool 45 degree slightly breezy morning.  I would love to get a weather/temperature repeat of this morning on race day.  The current weather report shows a temperature of 64 with a 30% chance of thunderstorms.  It looks like I won't be so lucky, but this is Oklahoma and the weather can change drastically in a day. 

My goal for this week: I need to focus on my workouts and go into the race feeling strong and confident in my self. 

I went running after work today because it did not happen as usual in the morning.  I woke up feeling my sore throat was back with a vengeance.  I think I aggravated my immune system that was working on kicking my cold after the weekends race and Sunday morning 2 hour run on only 5 hours sleep.

So I decided not to run this morning.  I went running when I got home instead.  It felt good after the first quarter mile when my muscles finally loosened up.  Now I just need to kick this cold before the half marathon on Saturday.  

I ran six 400's today at a 5k pace wit a mile warm up and a mile cool down.  I'm still recovering from my cold.  It is interesting that when I finish my workout my throat feels more clear and less sore.  Running cures my cold symptoms if at least only temporarily.  

Splits: 

1:35

1:28

1:29

1:30

1:32

1:33

It really feels weird to only run two miles.  It almost feels more like a short stroll through the neighborhood than an actual workout.   Mere child's play.  My half marathon training is tapering this week and the workouts are slightly less intense. 

I'm looking forward to the race this Saturday.  I'm looking to run it in something close to under 90 minutes.  My previous half time is 1:42:22, so a sub 1:30 should be a nice improvement for me.  I've been training pretty hard for it, but I honestly can't say I've trained as hard as I would like to have trained.

I am also hoping that the world does not end on Saturday as one Christian group has proclaimed will happen as reported on in this Runners World Face Book Update. 

I actually already new about this group and its bizarre prediction from the video below.  This guy actually made this same prediction back in the 1990's that of-course failed to come to fruition.  Needless to say I'm not too worried about it this time. 

I'm finished!  This was the last run of my half marathon training.  It was a Hal Higdon tempo run.  My peak speed which came at 20 minutes in was about a 6:30 pace.  I held that pace for about 3 minutes, and then dropped to about 6:50 for the remainder of the run.   

 I finished tonight feeling really refreshed and strong, which is exactly how I hoped to feel at this point.  I'm not sure if I have achieved sub 90 minute fitness, but I believe I am close.  The adrenaline on race day just might buy me that time, but we will see.  I'm going to enjoy a full nights sleep tonight, pending the little one does not wake us up, and relax tomorrow morning.  I'll go into the race on Saturday feeling strong and fresh.  I think I'll follow Catra Corbett's example and call my race this weekend my rapture run.  

Damn those hills!  Wicked, wicked hills.  I train on the hills weekly, but I did not train on the right hills.  This course had about 120 foot elevation change beginning at mile 6.  I am willing to admit that I also went out a little too fast for my level of training.  I had hoped to finished in under 90 minutes, so I ran my first 3 miles under a 6:50 pace.  I should have played it more conservative and gone out closer to 7:15's.  Had I done that, I probably could have finished in about 1:34:58 instead of 1:39:19.

My actual average pace ended up at 7:34, which is a little discouraging because I had a 13.1 training run 3 weeks ago that I finished at a 7:27 pace.  I should be able to run a race faster than a training run right?  So to recap my errors.  I went out too fast.  I did not account for the hills.  And I'm not sure, but I think I may not have hydrated properly in the morning before the race.  I was feeling pretty parched and was getting liquid at every opportunity.  At the turn around point a volunteer was actually handing out bottles of water.  Most people were not taking them, but I did.  I drank about a third of it and poured another third over my head to cool off.  I took two packs of gel during the race.  The first at about 32 minutes, and the second at 1 hour 5 minutes. 

Considering my aforementioned errors, I actually feel pretty good about this race for the following reasons.  I placed 6 of 24 in my age division.  Only two in my age division achieved my goal time of sub 90 minutes.  I placed 24 overall.  Focus on the positives right.  

Splits:

6:49

6:42

6:53

7:08

7:16

7:26

7:59

7:24

7:18

7:34

8:01

8:19

8:00

Today begins my first week of Olympic distance triathlon training.  It is going to appear that my mileage has dropped significantly going forward because in fact my running mileage will have dropped.  That will only be because I will now only be running three times a week instead of five, and for slightly shorter distances.  This will be to make room for biking and swimming three times a week each. 

Being mostly a runner at heart I really wanted to select a program that has an emphasis on running so I could keep my mileage up.  Not only because I enjoy the running more than the other two sports, but at the end of my tri training I will have ten weeks until the Route 66 Marathon.  A marathon in which I wish to BQ.   Given that I am still a tri nubie, I've only trained for an completed one sprint distance tri, I'm not sure how this training will affect my running conditioning since it will overlap the marathon training by six weeks.  I ended up choosing a tri training plan that has an emphasis on all three sports.  I did not want to sacrifice the running for two reasons.  I enjoy and I need the mileage going into marathon training.  I needed emphasis on the other two sports as well simply because I need the practice and to develop better skills especially in swimming.  

It will be interesting to see how this plan plays out in juggling it with my personal and professional life.  I just ordered a book from Borders called The Time Crunched Triathlete.  The authors Chris Carmichael and Jim Rutberg claims that using their plans you can train for up to a half Iron Man distance and still have time left over for work and family.  I may be drawing heavily on their recommendations as I get into the book and into my training. 

Short easy run.  This triathlon training is pretty intense on total hours per week but very light on the actual running portion.  As I become more conditioned to the bike and the pool over the next few weeks I'm going to have to figure out how to pump up my running miles to keep from going insane.  

I am currently training for an Olympic distance triathlon in September.  The runs in this program are way to light for my current level of running fitness and liking.  I was only supposed to run 40 minutes this morning.  That just sounded way to boring and worthless of a workout to me.  I went out the door thinking I would probably run at least an hour.  When I got about 30 minutes in I realized that only running an hour felt too short.  I told my self that I would run for an hour and half.  By the time I got to the 45 minute mark I was almost to the University so I decided to not turn around until I got at least to that point. 

I ended up running a time of 1:39:23 and 12 miles.  That was more like it I thought.  I want to feel like I accomplished something after a Sunday long run.  Maybe this is why some have compared the running addiction to a drug addiction.  The more miles you run the more you have to run in order to feel fulfilled.  Yeah I said it.  Just like drugs.  

What a nice morning it was to experience the joy of running it was.  The metaphysical benefits are enormous.  I am out all alone early in the morning before sunrise with nothing by my thoughts to keep me company.  I feel the wind on my skin and I hear the occasional babbling brook as I run along.  That was the perfect way to start my Memorial day weekend. 

I'm still trying to figure out how to modify my Olympic Triathlon training program to balance higher mileage running workouts with the rest of the biking and swimming workouts.  Taking today as an example my run workout was only supposed to be 24 minutes, but that just feels way to short of a work out for me considering my current level of fitness and marathon training to begin in 9 weeks.   

The run portion of my Triathlon is only six miles.  When I consider the run portion of the race I think that I don't need to be running 30 plus miles per week, but when I consider that by the time I'm finished with my race I will be ten weeks out from my marathon I know I need to begin bumping up the miles now.  I've looked a little bit online for good training plans that accommodate a triathlon followed by a marathon ten weeks later, but I can't seem to find anything.  Is my best bet just to run more during triathlon training so that by the time I'm finished with the tri I will have a suitable running base?  If anyone has any suggestions or has experience running triathlon and marathon I'd appreciate any suggestions.