Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Training Week 10/21 - 10/27

Monday: Easy 8.5 / 60 minutes mostly on roads due to daylight constraints. Slow to start but found a groove eventually 6:50s pace. 9" of planks, 100 sit ups, 60 pushups and 30 pull ups for core.

Tuesuday: Easy 8.3 / 61 minutes, 2 mi on the roads and 6+ on the trails around the double drummer of Weir Hill in North Andover. Pretty sweet view from the top of the hill.

Wednesday: 5 / 35 minutes easy. Had a planned workout on the schedule but pushed it back a day since my energy was low. No worries. Glad I got out and moved.

Thursday: Workout! Stole this one from Eric or Greg or somebody on the interweb. Warmed up 24 minutes. A few drills, a couple light stretches and then straight into it. 1600 (800), 2x800 (400), 4x400 (200) was the target. Tried to keep the rest honest. I went 5:03, 2:26, 2:25, 71, 70, 69, 69 for a total of 25:10. Down 23 minutes for a total of 11 on the day. Felt okay. I was working.

Running Mayor's Cup on Sunday as a rust buster!! Might as well jump in the deep end, right? It would be cool to run 27:xx and be part of the scene again.

Friday: 8 miles / 60 minutes easy on trails.

Saturday: 8 miles / 61 minutes with Dad on the roads of Nelson. Felt oddly drained afterward. Dinner with the parents at a Thai restaurant downtown Keene and then drove home to rest up for the race. On the drive I noticed my throat suddenly became really sore and my energy plummeted to the point that I almost pulled over to nap (at 9:30 PM!).

Sunday: 0 - Off. Sick as a dog. Chills, cough, aching throat and head. Oh well. I'm pretty ticked off but there's nothing I can do about it and I've been doing everything right. I missed what might have been a really fun race, but there are plenty more opportunities. I'll spend the day sipping green tea and working on getting ahead on Q1 report cards. Not the Sunday I had in mind...

49 miles, one good workout, and a bunch of easy running, wrapped up with a serious head cold and possibly fever. I'll be treading lightly next week.

Monday, October 14, 2013

10/14 - 10/20

10/14 Holiday - off from work. Warmed up 25 minutes, stretched out, a few drills, 4 x 1600 cruise interval pace on 2 minutes recovery. 23 minutes back home. Felt great! 11 on the day.

5:22
5:18
5:17
5:12

10/15 -  Easy 57 minutes on the trails at Weir Hill. Aerobically lethargic but legs felt generally good.

10/16 - Easy 30 minutes on trails. Standard lift session at the gym.

10/17 - Off

10/18 - Steady 79 minutes on trails. Felt slow, ran slow!

10/19 Off

10/20 Tempo workout - 3 miles up, 6:45, 6:29, 6:14 then rolled into a 4 mile pace run 5:21, 5:28, 5:24, 5:25. 1 mile down to catch the Pat's game. Originally planned to target 5:40 so I ran too hard to call this a tempo. But... I felt good, could have pushed on for another mile or two, and legs are no worse for the wear. Loving my NB 1080s!

Low mileage this week. Looking to run 55 miles this coming week which sounds low to me but is probably a reasonable place to be for now. I need to do more core workouts and continue to incorporate speed and tempo efforts. Eventually I'll do a real long run.

Winter is coming.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

10/7 - 10/13

10/7 Easy 65 minutes in the Vale, Indian Ridge and Baker's Meadow reservations.

10/8 Hard 64:35 for 10.8 miles rolling roads in North Andover and Georgetown. Surprised myself with this one.

10/9 Easy 45 minutes with a few strides at the end.

10/10 Planned day off. Trying to take my runs as they come. Today the best approach was to nap from 4-7 and eat a hearty dinner before an early bedtime. Perfect training for the comeback trail :)

10/11 Easy 62 minutes. Pretty low energy after the work week. Expected to feel better after a day off but I'm still getting into things. I want to do something harder tomorrow but the homecoming race looks to be a bit too early.

10/12 Opted for a morning workout. Slept in until about 9:30 which felt amazing. A few slices of raisin toast and a couple glasses of water before heading out. 28 minutes warm up. A bit longer than planned since the first track I went to had a huge game going on. Once at the Phillips track I targeted 3 sets of 5x400 @ 72-74 on 1 minute recoveries. I took a 400m jog and got water from the fountain between each set which took about 3 minutes. Tried to run relaxed and overdid it on the first one. Feeling good at the end so decided to open it up for the last one. Good workout!

78, 73, 71, 73, 72
73, 72, 74, 72, 72
74, 71, 71, 71, 66

Big congrats to teammate Eric MacKnight on his 2:22 for 3rd place at Hartford. Awesome run!! Also to UNH alum Erica Jesseman on defending her title there in 2:38!

10/13 Easy 60 minutes on trails and roads in Andover. A hair over 8 miles. Took it very easy.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Recent moves

10/4 71 minutes on roads moving well! Felt great to push a little bit.
10/5 42 minutes, 6 miles out and back on Rattlesnake Road. 
10/6 Easy longer run in the trails with Tim. Kinvara trail runners for Ward and Harold Parker worked great. A few miles opening the stride on the roads to finish up back at Phillips.

Congrats to everyone I know at Maine, Smuttynose and others! What a perfect weekend for racing, if not for football...

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

30" a day

Just looking to spend time on my feet over the past week. I got in a bunch of runs, feeling good, and getting into the groove again. It is pretty relieving having the clean bill of health and I'm just enjoying being out there during my favorite season of all. Lots of trail running too which is far more engaging for easy running. Past week was a big 22 miles spread over 6 days on the trails.