Another Week Wrapped Up

Okay - I know I'm in the middle of this training cycle. I'm not sure what week this is. Too many weeks finished. Too many weeks to go. Kind of like being a sophomore in college. You know you've finished your first year. You know there's light at the end of the tunnel. It's just that the past is a memory, and you can't quite see the light yet. That's what I feel like right now. I have some little tweaks and niggles all around. Sore legs. Tired quads. Tender IT band.

But, another week is done. I wrapped up with an easy 8 miles yesterday. Put in a total of 26 plus miles last week. With 2 days left this month I'm just over 130 miles. This is more like the training load I want. I want to hold it here now for a few months and give my body ample time to adjust and adapt. I feel like I'm right on the edge. If I add more, I'm afraid that I'll push myself over the edge and end up on the shelf again with another injury.

Planned for this week:

Monday - 4 miles easy; visit the gym for stretching and core work
Tuesday - Intervals - whatever the interval gods have in store (should be around 6.5 miles)
Wednesday - 4 miles recovery; visit the gym for stretching and core work
Thursday - Tempo Thursday! 50 minute tempo run (should be around 5 miles or so)
Friday - Scheduled rest day (woot!)
Saturday - 12 mile long run
Sunday - 4 mile recovery; visit the gym for stretching and core work

Total damage planned for this week - 35.5 miles.

Back Home from the Upper Midwest

I'm back in town after my whirlwind trip to Southwest Michigan. I didn't get a chance to run or anything - flew in late Sunday and flew back about noon yesterday. Not that I would have anyways. The winds were howling. I'm not talking a stiff headwind like we see here near the coast in the afternoon. I'm talking stiff, cold 20 mile an hour Easterly winds. Made the nice sunny mid 40 degrees seem soooo much colder.

I'm moving forward on week 7 of this training cycle. I have a 10K race this Saturday, so I think I'm going to swap out intervals tonight for a regular run - something on the order of 8 miles or so:

Monday - Off (travelling)
Tuesday - Eight easy miles
Wednesday - Four recovery. Gym for stretching, core
Thursday - Rest
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 10K race
Sunday - Eight easy miles

That will put me at 26.2 for the week. Considering 6.2 will be a race, I think that should be good enough. Next week I ramp back up into the mid 30's for a few weeks until tapering for my race on May 3rd!

I Needed My Recovery Run

Yesterday I had delusions of grandeur. I was a legend in my own mind. Maybe even megalomaniacal. My plan said four mile recovery run. Damn it! I knew I could put in six miles! About a mile and a half in, I realized I really did not want to run more miles today. Why? Because despite what I was trying to convince myself of, I was tired! My legs were slow and heavy. I felt like I was lumbering my way down the trail. So, at two miles, I turned around and headed back to the car. After all, fours miles *is* pretty close to six miles. Right?

When I got back and looked at the data, it wasn't as bad as it felt. Average pace was 10:31 (pretty consistent with other recovery runs) and my average heart rate was below 75% MHR. So, the first week of my new Half Marathon cycle finished up at 21.3 miles. I lost 10 miles due to my back (Monday and Tuesday), so I'm pretty much on schedule.

This week I'm travelling. Normally, I try to get workouts in at my hotel, but I'm travelling every evening starting tomorrow - getting into Cleveland at 9:30 PM tomorrow, Knoxville at midnight Wednesday, and back here to OC at 10:30 PM Thursday. So, I think my week will stack up this way:

• Monday: 4 mile easy run, gym for stretching and core work
• Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: Rest/travel
• Friday: 6 mile easy run
• Saturday: 12 mile long run
• Sunday: 4 mile recovery run, gym for stretching and core work

This will put me at 26 this week - still a few miles less that I want to be at for a base, but considering I have to take 3 days off...

Tempo Thursday

Yup. Back to it. After Wednesday, I decided to step it up just a little and get a 40 minute tempo run in. This is the first workout other than a straight mileage run since late November. I put in a 10 minute warm up at a 9:24 pace, followed by 20 minutes at a 9:00 pace and a final 10 minute piece at a 9:40. It really didn't seem that fast. My average heart rate was 85% MHR, which means that I was probably pushing LT during the 20 minute piece. That makes for a successful workout in my book!

This week also kicked off my next Half Marathon training cycle. Right now I am planning to run a half on the weekend of May 3rd, 12 weeks away. I'm in the process of modifying my training plan to get rid of hill work in the first half of the plan. I will probably substitute intervals, exchanging speed for strength. This plan has me averaging 32 miles a week over the plan. I'll see what I can do to lengthen my non-race weeks to 40 mpw. At that point I think I'll be ready to transition into a marathon program when this one is done.

Back into the Swing of Things

Okay folks. I'm back in the training rut! I've started the Higdon Advanced Half Marathon plan. Yesterday was Three Mile Monday (as with all Higdon training plans). I shuffled down to the Upper Back Bay/Bayview trail to put in my three miles. It was kind of weird to run again. When I first started, I had some nagging knee pain that went away in less than a quarter mile. Once that went away, I felt pretty good.

I noticed that I stayed in the 80% to 90% MHR zone for most of the run and actually ran negative splits. These runs should be in a lower zone, so I'll watch this in the future. I shouldn't be running three miles in LHR zone!

Today though should be an LHR workout. 6 hill repeats. Ugh.

Getting Started Again

Well - tomorrow starts my next training cycle. My plan is to run the Southern California Half in early January. Living here in Southern California, we have our choice of races year round. The best part for me is that all of these races are within an hours drive from home, and in fact, most are within 30 minutes! Having just finished the Harbor Heritage Run last weekend, here's what's next on the platter:

• Dana Point Turkey Trot 10K - 20 minute drive in Dana Point
• Crystal Cove XTerra 15K - less than 10 mins away in Corona del Mar
• So Cal Half Marathon - 10 mins away in Irvine
• OC Marathon - literally within walking distance from my home

I was going to use the Higdon Intermediate Half training plan until I started looking closely at it this morning. It seemed a little light on both distance and intensity. I started looking at the advanced plan. This had a little more in the way of speedwork and distance, running between 29 and 37 miles per week, and one day of hills or intervals and one day of tempo each week. I get started tomorrow!