Five Miles of Exhaustion

Note: This entry was actually supposed to be for last Tuesday, August 19 for my run the prior day. I wrote it on a plane on my way to Atlanta:

Yesterday was supposed to be an easy 5 mile run. Strange thing was it was anything but. I don't know if it is back to back to back hard workouts (even though Saturday's and yesterday's weren't supposed to be), or just the heat and/or humidity, but I plain ran out of gas during the third mile. I did my normal north from the NAC run. The first mile was a bit fast (9:40 pace, including the hill). Second mile I was trying to slow down, so did a 10:00 pace, but by mile 3 I was spent. As in spent some time walking. My heart rate was fine, breathing was fine, but my legs had nothing left in them. The last two miles were very slow, but I got the five in.

I am wondering if some of the issue here is that I am not spending any time in the gym after a run stretching and doing core strengthening. Since I ran out of the NAC yesterday, I did spend some time in the weight room afterwards. During my last marathon training cycle I did stretch at least twice, if not three times a week. I also had started the Runner's World core workout before vacation, but haven't done any of those exercises for at least three weeks. Time to recommit to those....

First run back

I'm trying to get back into the swing of things after vacation. Yesterday, after much hemming, hawing, and procrastination, I drove on down to Crystal Cove and put in an easy 5 miles. Nothing earth shattering , just an easy run at a 10 minute pace. One thing for sure - it's much more humid here than it was on the East Coast the last week. I didn't expect that for sure!

I was looking forward to my day off Friday today, but I guess I was too smart for myself before leaving on vacation. I moved my rest day to Wednesday (flight day) and the hill workout to today. So, this afternoon I'll lace up the shoes and do my workout. Talk to you later today!

Short Run Day (Again)

Yes - it was three mile Monday. The run was supposed to be followed by some strength work, so I decided that I would run from the Newport Aquatic Center. I took off to the south, which meant that I had to climb the "Hill". Turns out that the "Hill" can also be used for my hill runs, since it is a quarter mile long! I now have three hills for Hill Day Wednesdays.

It was very pleasant yesterday. I ended up running the bluff above the bay at Castaways on my short out and back. I then hit the weight room at the NAC for my normal stretching and core workout. It seems that I'm starting to see some results - my times are coming down (my easy run yesterday seemed to be easy at a 9:30 pace) and my core workouts are getting easier. Now I just need to drop the pounds that I put on the past couple of weeks. I've been a food magnet since starting my running again. My body must be trying to tell me something....

Turn up the heat!

Yesterday I tried to keep my four miler pretty easy. Someone has turned on the heat around here! I took off at 5:00 PM, and according to the NWSZ, it was a balmy 85 degrees outside! Add a little humidity, and I was soaked in no time at all! I kept it to an easy 4 miles at a 10:00 pace.

These runs have been getting easier and easier lately, but for some reason, after today's run my legs were pretty tired - fatigued even. I think that means I'll take it slow and easy tomorrow...

Something seems to be working...

Today was a short run day. I went down to Crystal Cove and ran along the coast for the allotted 45 minutes. Something seems to be working right, because I didn't run real hard, but still covered almost 5 miles!

I get a little time off now. Gotta travel tomorrow and Wednesday. Will be back to run on Thursday. See you then!

Short Run Day

Very interesting these days. Short run equates to 40 minutes. That's a little over 4 miles for me at a pretty easy pace. Looks like training is working after all.

Today I ran long the coast at Crystal Cove State Park. Beautiful sunny day. A little headwind head up the coast, but that of course means tailwind on the way back. Our Saturdays are starting to get long (12 miles this week), so I really took it easy on the pace. All in all an enjoyable 40 minutes.

Tomorrow should be interesting. 12 miles - which means around the back bay. The thing that will make it interesting is the weather. It's supposed to be 89 here close to the ocean. That means the Santa Ana's are setting up, which means hot and dry. I'm hoping that it doesn't start before 9AM so that I can be done with most of my run before it gets too hot.

Kicking it up a notch

As mentioned yesterday, I 've made it about halfway through the Higdon book. Two things are clear in this book. The first I talked about yesterday - rest is good. Based on this, the second point is counter intuitive - to run a marathon, you've got to put in the miles. Right now on this Cal Coast training plan, 20 minutes of running a day - sorry to say - it ain't the miles.

Starting today, I'm going to ramp up the three times a week runs. I know I can handle 60 minutes at an easy pace, so that is what I'll do. Today I put in a 60 minute, 5.9 mile run along the back bay. Nothing hard - average heart rate around 150. With this plan, I should be able to start putting in 20 and 30 mile weeks - something that Higdon is high on. This week for example, assuming that I run easy and get 5 miles in each day, I should be able to put in 19 running miles and 12 rowing miles.

The general consensus of most of the coaches in the book is that to run a marathon and do well, you should be putting in at least 50 miles a week. I looked at the training plan and we never get to those levels. So, I'm going to make an adjustment here and start running one hour per day, 3 days a week until about 3 weeks prior to the marathon. At that point, I'll begin my taper. My goal is to make sure I finish - and enjoy it while I'm doing so.

Tomorrow I'll talk about a new calorie counting website I found.