Sea Rim Striders Summer Series Run #6

Sea Rim Striders Summer Series Run #6, at Tyrell Park. Always nice to get together with the local runners at these weekly short runs. Another good turnout-- I'm sure there were over 200 again. It's supposed to be a "rest" day in my training schedule, and it was also very hot, so I didn't push it past tempo pace. Still about 91 F at 7 PM with a 72 degree dewpoint. Mile splits: 8:31, 8:26.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/98559609

50K Training

50K Training Schedule

I officially start 50K training today. I looked at training plans online and settled on this one. Similar structure to marathon plans I've used in the past, but with longer long runs. 

The schedule is a slightly modified plan from the Run for the Toad, a 50K trail run in Ontario. The structure and distances of the plan looked good, so I converted the kms to miles, and changed Mondays from “Rest” to “Rest or Cross train.” That’s what I’m used to in past marathon plans. On shorter mileage weeks, I may cross train more. On the biggest mileage weeks, I'll need the extra rest. I’ll probably modify the Wednesday workouts also. My 50K race isn’t very hilly and there are no hills nearby to train on, so I won’t do much hill training. I also may switch the longest runs from Saturdays to Sundays, may substitute cycling/running bricks for some of the weekend runs, and will probably experiment with some run/walk intervals for the longest runs.

My target event is the 21st Annual Rocky Raccoon 50K Trail Run at Huntsville (TX) State Park on November 5, 2011. http://trail-race.com/stone/rocky_raccoon/

Sea Rim Striders Summer Series Run #4

Sea Rim Striders Summer Series Run #4 at the Gulf Terrace Hike & Bike Trail. Huge turnout of local runners, had to be well over 250.  Hot running-- still 90F plus at 7 PM, but it's nice to run with all the local runners.  I figure if I don't push the pace too much, I can't get too overheated in a half-hour. Time: 31:09 by the clock, 31:12 by Garmin.  Mile splits: 8:57, 8:56, 8:52, 0.5 mile @8:54.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/95368869

Sea Rim Striders Summer Series Run #3

Sea Rim Striders Summer Series Run #3-- a nice 5K course in Claiborne Park. My legs were a little tired, this was a sixth consecutive day of running, and I also ran 5 miles in the early morning.    A brief rain on an already hot, humid afternoon left it feeling really steamy.  I ran the previous week's 2 miler at race pace, but took this one easier,  pushed it a little for the conditions, but held back from race pace. Basically, a 5K tempo run: 8:47, 8:42, 8:41, 0.12 mile @8:37. Nice to visit with local runners again this week.

Sea Rim Striders Summer Series Run #2

The local running club, the Sea Rim Striders has a series of weekly summer runs at 7 PM on Monday evenings.  They rotate between area parks, and are all short distances appropriate to the warm weather, between 2 and 3.5 miles.  These are fun runs, but some run them pretty competitively, just like an official race.  Clock timing, no chip timing; there's a big digital timer at the finish line.  I missed the first of the runs, but this was the second.

A nice short run at Tyrell Park. Just a 2 miler, second of the SRS Summer Series. Splits: 8:26, 8:04. Always good to be able to visit with a lot of local runners that I know.  Pretty hot running, still near 90 degrees at 7 PM, but a good breeze helped, and humidity was only about 50%. Good attendance-- 227 turned out!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/92282736

Weekly Running: May 9 through 15, 2011

Weekly Training 11 - 17 April, 2011

(Graphic from my page at DailyMile.com.)


The week started strong and ended with a whimper.  Started with a good tempo run Tuesday, and a medium/long run Wednesday.  I planned an easy paced six for Thursday, but ended up running it at almost tempo pace again.  Wednesday evening, UPS delivered the new shoes I ordered, a pair of Saucony Kinvaras.  I'm working at developing the "Chi Running" form, and wanted to try one of the "minimalist" shoe designs to help facilitate a midfoot running form.  The Kinvaras were so light and flexible that the run seemed to take less effort, so I ran a little faster than I intended Thursday.  I did slow it down a little Saturday, and intended to do a longer run Sunday.  Saturday afternoon, building a fence gate, my hand slipped and I slightly punctured my left thumbnail with a screwdriver.  I still thought I'd run the next day, but by Sunday afternoon, the wound was still slowly seeping blood through the bandage.  I decided that it wasn't wise to run and elevate my HR to 150 bpm with even a small seeping wound.  All's well though.  By Sunday evening, bleeding had stopped.  I saw my doctor Monday morning and she gave me a tetanus shot and antibiotics.

Yoga streak continued, daily practice at 232 days.

YTD: 440.6 miles running, 147.1 miles cycling, 587.7 miles total.

Week: 27.0 running miles;  Month: 72.1 running miles.

Weekly Training April 4 - 10, 2011

(Graphic from my page at DailyMile.com.)

Getting (hopefully) back on track with my weekly running/training summary, not that it's likely to be of much interest to anyone else, but part of the purpose of this blog continues to be as a training journal.

A pretty uneventful week, no big miles, just building back gradually in this fourth recovery week after marathon.  Trying to be cautious and allow further healing of a right knee that still isn't 100% after a January injury.  With the exception of a tempo pace run Tuesday, everything else was at moderate comfortable pace.

Continuing with weights & core work Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  My current favorite core routine is doing crunches lying on my back on a stability ball.  I like the ball mcuh better than either the floor or the bench.

Yoga practice continues to grow; made 225 consecutive days on April 10.  Durations are progressing also.  Early in this streak, I practiced mainly in the morning for 10 to 20 minutes, with an occasional evening practice.  Lately, I've practiced 15 to 25 minutes both morning and evening on most days, with occasional longer practice.  I'm not forcing it.  It has been a natural progression because the more I practice, the better I feel.

YTD: 413.6 miles running, 147.1 miles cycling, 560.7 miles total.

PR - Sea Rim Striders Spring 5K - March 26, 2011

Sea Rim Striders Spring 5K - 25:25, 8:12 pace. 19th place out of 109.
Garmin data and map: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/75139878
Results: http://www.searimstriders.net/results/2011-Spring5K-OV.html

PR? At first, I thought I'd missed it by a few seconds. I didn't remember the exact seconds of my best time, but remembered 8:14 as my PR pace. Garmin showed my average at 8:17. I finished this race 25:25 by the clock, 25:27 by Garmin. After I got home, I looked up my previous best time and found it was 25:34. So, if the course distance was an accurate 3.1 miles, this was a PR. Garmin showed the distance 3.07, which may be within expected measurement variation of 3.1. I'm going to claim it.

At first, I had no intention of going for it. At the starting line, I told my friend Jeremy that with a still tweaky knee and only two weeks of marathon recovery, I was going to treat this as just a "fun run." But after starting out, I felt too good to not give it a try. I think it really helped to do a slow, longer warmup pre-race.

I normally warm up with 4 or 5 minutes of easy jogging.  That's enough to warm up, but not enough to expend a significant amount of energy needed in the race itself.  However I found recently that my knee responds better with a slower, more gradual warmup, and I modified my aproach slightly.  I just warmed up from a walk to a brisk walk to a slow jog to an easy run pace. About 12 minutes of walking, 3 minues of jogging and 2 minutes of running.  Total warmup: 1.2 miles - 17 minutes.

The Gusher Marathon - March 12, 2011

The Gusher Marathon - 26.2 miles - 5:13:27
Garmin data and map: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/72660419
Results: http://www.iaapweb.com/results/11/03_12_2011_marathon.htm#55-59%20Male

When I hurt my knee during this cycle of marathon training, I drastically changed my expectations.  At first, I thought I'd have to drop out of this race.  I took most of two weeks off from running, during what should have been peak training weeks.  During several of the final training weeks, I trained lighter than normal, substituting cycling minutes for some of my running miles.  It was a trade-off.  If I rested enough to heal completely, I'd have been so undertrained that I'd have no chance of lasting the distance.  If I tried to run my scheduled training miles, my knee would have been in no shape to run at all.  So I tried to strike a balance between the two, and revise my goal downward from PR to simply finishing.  However, the best the balanced approach could yield was to get me to race day both slightly undertrained and underhealed.

As I feared, this race got ugly, was 28 minutes longer than last year's marathon PR, but at least was a finish. Although my knee had made great improvement in the preceding weeks, I knew going in that I was undertrained and not 100% healed. I had almost no pain on my last few training runs, but the runs were short, and that allowed me to deceive myself into thinking the knee was farther along than it was. I even had a few taper-induced delusions of a possible PR. I'd considered possible pacing scenarios, and thought I might be able to comfortably average around 10:30 pace through the halfway point, and assess the situation from there. Even if I had to back off to the low 11's after that, it would be possible to finish a few seconds under last year's effort. The first half went pretty well, but the knee started getting a little sore around 12 miles, and got worse from there. I still managed to keep on track for a possible PR through about 18 miles.  It all came apart at about 18 ½, and by 19, a PR possibility was gone and it was just a matter of survival. I walked more than I ran in miles 19 through 21, got a small second wind around 22, and found a slow jog pace that made the knee hurt less than either running or walking. This pace, plus a few short walk breaks, brought me home. Coming around the final bend, I pulled together what little I had left, and tried to hit the finish chute looking better than I felt. It wasn't pretty, but I'll take it.

Ironically, even with my relatively slow finish, I later found that I'd taken a 3rd place age group trophy.  Only 5 men in my age group ran, and I at least finished before two of them!

The mile 26 sign was such a welcome sight!

After the finish, with two local running friends, Dailymilers Will and Jeremy Fermo. 

Weekly Training: January 24 - 30

(The graphic is from my page at dailymile.com.)


This was better than the previous week, but still just trying to hang on to as much conditioning as possible while this knee continues to recover.  It looks like a lot of miles, but only six of Saturday's eleven were running; the rest were cycling.  However, the cycyling was much less knee strain, and I'll take what I can get.

Don't get me wrong.  Cycling is great, it's just not comparable mile-to-mile with running.  With that in mind, instead of substituting cyling miles for running miles, I substituted cycling minutes for running miles at a ratio of 10 minutes of hard cycling for each scheduled running mile.  The rationale for this conversion was based on run training at roughly 10 minutes/mile.

By the end of the week, knee soreness was gradually improving, and I'm optimistic about working more running miles back into the mix.  Daily yoga practice is now up to 156 days.

YTD: 98.2 miles running, 104.3 miles cycling, 202.5 miles total.

Weekly Training: January 17 - January 23

(The graphic is from my page at dailymile.com.)

A pathetic week, five miles on the bike Monday and a six mile run Saturday.  I had rested a sore right knee since for a week and it felt pretty good, but soreness and a little swelling developed after Saturday's run.  I'll have to allow more recovery time.  I'm also forced to consider the possibility of dropping out of my March 12 marathon. 

I tried to maintain the activity I could, and continued with normal schedule of weights, core and yoga, even investing extra time to these activities.  My daily yoga practice is up to 149 days.

YTD: 91.9 miles running, 36.8 miles cycling, 128.7 miles total.

Weekly Training: January 10 - January 16

(The graphic is from my page at dailymile.com.)


Week: 28.09 miles running, 10.0 miles cycling, 38.09 miles total.

Lowlight:  Sore knee condition, cancelled Thursday run.  Soreness was gone by Saturday morning, but returned after Saturday's run.  Cancelled Sunday run.

Training Tip Thursday

"Do you know your maximum heart rate? formulas don't work for everybody, meaning. One way to determine maximum heart rate is to measure your heart rate in the last 90 seconds of a race where you have sprinted all-out for the tape. If your heart rate hits a peak, then flat-lines for that length of time, that should offer you an accurate reading."

Hal Higdon's Tip of the Day, January 11, 2010, http://www.facebook.com/halhigdon

Weekly Training: January 3 - January 9

(The graphic is from my page at dailymile.com.)


Week: 40.08 miles running, 26.8 miles cycling, 66.88 miles total.

Highlight: 20 mile run, 1/8/11.

Marathon Training - 20 Mile Run

20 Miles - 03:24:00 - 10:11 minutes/mile pace

My original plan was to run 10 miles today and 20 tomorrow. However, with 90% forecast of thunderstorms for all day tomorrow, I wanted to make sure I got my LSD run completed.  I moved the 20 miler to today, and I'll take whatever I can get tomorrow.

This run went pretty well. I planned to try to keep it a little slower, on the high side of 10:30, but I had to keep pulling myself back in the first couple of miles. I finally settled into a comfortable stride around 10:14 pace and cruised in that neighborhood through about 12 miles. I struggled a little in the low and mid teens, caught a little second wind at about 17 miles, and finished feeling good. Mile splits: 10:53, 9:59, 10:09, 10:15, 10:10, 10:13, 10:15, 10:12, 10:19, 10:15, 10:15, 10:08, 10:25, 10:23, 10:28, 10:26, 10:18, 10:06, 9:39, 9:21. More stats at http://connect.garmin.com/activity/62495323

Weekly Training: December 27 - January 2

(The graphic is from my page at dailymile.com.)

Not as tough of a week as it appears by the graph.  Actually kind of a "stepback" week in marathon training, with fewer running miles, but 20+ cycling miles inflates the total.

Runs: 6/8/3 miles Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, a 3.3 mile race Saturday, and a 14.4 mile long run Sunday.  Cycling miles: 5.1/5.61/5.75/5.6 Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday.  For the week, 35.77 miles running, 22.06 miles cycling, 57.83 miles total.

Race Review - Resolution Run 5K

Resolution Run 5K Run
3.26 miles,  27:19, 8:23 pace

Nice local 5K to start the new year. 27:19 clock time/27:23 Garmin time. Finished 38th overall, won't know the number of the field until web posting later. The event's Facebook page says "about 160" No PR, 1:45 behind my best. Saw local dailymilers Tammy H., Shauna A., William F.(running barefoot!), Jeremy F.(in VFF's), and John F. Perfect temps for running, low 50's and low humidity, although north wind was gusting to almost 30 mph. Stayed ahead of PR pace through 2 miles, but finishing into strong headwind made for a slower finish. Splits were upside down, as the turn into the headwind started at 1.55 miles.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/61408059

A 2010 Running Retrospective

2010 Miles – Running: 1,900.3; Cycling: 474.75, Total: 2,375.05.

2010 Goals:
Run 1,500 miles – Done. October 30, 2010.
First marathon – Done. May 1, 2010, 4:45.
PR half marathon <2hrs – Logged PR 2:04; missed target time. December 11, 2010
PR 10K race – Missed this one by 2:24. My 2009 54:29 still stands.
PR 5K race – Done. 25:34, beat previous 26:41. May 15, 2010

2011—Bring It On!



Weekly Training: December 20 - 26

(The graphic is from my page at dailymile.com.)

A mixed bag this week, some great stuff and some not so great.

Monday - Rested the legs.  Weights and Yoga.
Tuesday - Running,  6.12 mi 00:59 09:34 pace.  A comfortable run, followed by a short yoga practice.
Wednesday - Running, 8.1 mi 01:26 10:35 pace  Ugly run.  Struggled all the way.  Weights and yoga.
Thursday - Hill Repeats, 6.37 mi 01:05 10:07 pace - Struggling in the recent hilly half marathon told me I need hills in my otherwise flat terrain training.  There are no hills in my area.  Ran about a mile from my home to the nearest rail overpass, over and back seven times for about four miles of hill simulations, fourteen uphills and fourteen downhills, and back home again.  Followed with a short yoga practice.
Friday: Rested the legs. Weights and Yoga.
Saturday - Running, 8.42 mi 01:19 09:22 pace.  A nice Christmas morning run.   Ran from home to the Gulf Terrace Hike & Bike Trail, 2 laps on the trail, and back home. Followed with a short yoga practice.
Sunday - Long run, 16.3 mi 02:44 10:03 pace.  Ran a long tour of the city's west end (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/60675196).  Tired at the end, but recovered quickly. Followed with a short yoga practice.

Running Miles - YTD: 1,882.3; Month: 144.0, Week: 45.3.  Personal daily yoga practice now at 121 consecutive days.