Decision Time

Well – my training has hit an all time low. Life is getting pretty stressful these days, and I’m not adapting well right now. It seems that everything I’m trying isn’t working out the way I planned – running included. I am in a deep funk. I’m up about 8 pounds from where I started the year. I’m struggling to find make the time to get my training runs in. I am, in a nutshell, blowing it….

I’m at a decision point here. The Long Beach Half is seven weeks away. My last two HMs were (in my humble opinion) disasters. I’m not into paying good money to put in subpar performances. Which – if I don’t get my crap in order here pretty quickly – is bound to happen again.

So here’s my modified plan. I’ve got to take this in little bites. One day at a time this week. We’ll see how this week progresses. If it does, then I’ll do Long Beach. If it doesn’t, then I think I’m going to pull the plug and take a couple weeks off to get everything sorted out again.

• Monday: Scheduled rest
• Tuesday: 8X400 intervals. One mile warm up/one mile warm down for 6 miles total
• Wednesday: 3 miles easy
• Thursday: 30 minute tempo – 3 or so miles
• Friday: Scheduled rest
• Saturday: 9 miles.
• Sunday: Scheduled rest (Run to the Top on Monday)
• Planned week: 21 miles

Once I make it past this week, I’m confident that the following six weeks have enough volume that I’ll do fine. I just need to make sure I’m in the game mentally….

The Plan is Good

The only thing that seems to be suffering is The Execution. With last weekend’s fun and games, what should have been a mid to upper 30 mile week became 19 instead. I’m happy that this time around I don’t have a goal race. I don’t need to worry about speed/fitness level etc. It’s kind of nice to not *have* to worry about where I am in my fitness. I understand that I may not have any PR races in the upcoming few months. It’s nice to just be running for the fun of running. The only thing suffering right now is my weight – but that’s a matter of adjusting my intake appropriately (hasn’t happened yet).

I’m patching a plan together for this week. It will deviate from the plan on my original schedule, but that’s becuase I ran 13.5 on Monday and have a race on Sunday. Here’s the way this week will shape up:

• Monday: Laguna Hills Half Marathon. 13 miles.
• Tuesday: Recovery day. Rest.
• Wednesday: 3 easy miles. Resistance workout of two sets each: Single leg squat, oblique bridge, lying draw-in w/ hip flexion, quadruped, followed by one set each: Lying Hip Abduction, Cook Hip Lift, Kneeling Overhead Draw In, Knee Fall Out, Single Leg Squat Jump
• Thursday: 7 easy miles.
• Friday: Rest
• Saturday: RnR expo! Tweetup! Fun times!
• Sunday: RnR relay. I have 7 miles on my (first) leg. Then I’m hoofing it to the finish to cheer my fellow runners on their way in. Who’s running?
• Puts me right around 30 miles for the week.

As an aside, remember the story I posted about the bobcat in the neighborhood? Guess what happened this past week? Here’s a picture taken yesterday:

Story here: http://www.dailypilot.com/news/dpt-bobcat060210,0,6487829.story Hopefully they won't be injured by *their* biggest threat - the two legged and for wheeled kind.

Week = Fail!

Yesterday wrapped another week in my training. This week can be summed up in one work - FAIL. I had 14 miles on the schedule. But, I woke stiff and sore. My quads were *really* tired. My lower back was sore and my left buttock was producing some sharp pain. But most concerning to me was the burning sensation I would feel every now and then in my left shin and the sharp pain inside my left knee. I've been visited by the latter before in my life. The telltale signs of tendinitis.

So - it was decision time. Go out and do an easy 14 miles? Keep it really slow and easy? Or take a rest day, which, coupled with Monday's plan, would give me a couple of back to back rest days. Well - for me the decision was pretty cut and dry. One day of extra rest cost me 14 miles. One day of running with tendinitis and other little tweaks and niggles bothering me could put me on the shelf for a couple weeks. So, I took a day off. That means last week's number were rather pathetic - 15.2 miles total.

I am also letting this be my lesson that when it's time for new shoes it's time for new shoes! I was trying to squeeze some extra miles out of my old shoes since I only have about 300 miles on them. With the longer distances, it appears (and smells) like my shoes have gotten and stayed wet. I'll watch my new shoes to make sure that they get a chance to dry out between runs!

What I've done is moved last week's training to this week, with a minor adjustment for a 5K on Saturday:

Monday - Rest day. Going to take it off completely to give my legs and knee a rest
Tuesday - 8 mile GA. Finish up with 10 x 100 stride outs
Wednesday - 5 mile recovery. Hit the gym for stretching and core work.
Thursday - 9 mile GA
Friday - Rest day.
Saturday - Magic Shoe 5K. Tack on a couple miles warm up/warm down. Hit the gym for stretching and workout.
Sunday - 14 mile long run
Total: 41 miles

Wrapping Up the Week

With my 4 mile recovery run, I wrapped another week in the history of the Running Fat Guy. Final stats for the week: 37 miles running and 10 miles walking. This also wraps May. I ended up running fewer days than last (11 days off compared to 9 days off in April), but putting in more miles (142 compared to 136). The fatigue that I started the week with seems to be gone as well. A couple nights of extra sleep and a couple days of pigging out seemed to do the trick! I'm not sure that I did the weight loss thing any justice, but I'm feeling a whole lot better than I was on Monday.

This also wraps up four months of consistent running. Since my groin strain back in December and recovery in January, I've been able to remain pretty consistent with my running. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that I slowly came back. If I look at my training progress over the last few months, I've doubled my January mileage, but it was a slow build over a couple of months.

(In fact, now that I'm looking at the graph - check out that doubling of miles between August and September. Hmm. Maybe my groin strain was well deserved.)

I'm feeling pretty good about where this training is leading. I've dropped 10 pounds since the beginning of the year. I need to get my night time snacking back under control to work on the other 10 pounds on my goals for this year. I'm going to knock on wood here so that I can keep the streak alive.

This week's plan includes more base build and a 10K race:

Monday: Rest day. No cross training since I'm on a plane to East Texas

Tuesday: 8 miles GA. Wrap it up with 10X100 stride outs.

Wednesday: 5 mile recovery

Thursday: 9 miles GA

Friday: Rest day.

Saturday: Wrigley River Run 10K

Sunday: 14 mile long run.

Total planned: 42.2 miles (new mileage record if I get it).

The catch this week is that I am getting on a plane today for a short business trip to Texas. In the past, I've always used my travel time as extra rest days. But I am eager to continue base building. So I'm going to try to get my run in Tuesday afternoon. Hopefully there will be a running path close to my hotel. That would be pretty prime. Maybe 4 miles on a trail and four miles on a treadmill. I'll have to play it by ear.

Finally, I want to apologize to my readers if some of these blogs sound like I'm full of myself. Being a male, I'm not good at things like keeping a diary (heck - as long as the Dodgers and Lakers are winning and the Stanley Cup is on TV, who cares about anything else?). So, I end up using my blog here as my diary. It's actually kind of neat to go back and check my old blogs to see how things are progressing (or not).

Hope that this week is good and injury free for all of you out there! And San Diego Rock n' Roll runners - take some time off! You all deserve it!

Whaaa...? Isn't it Recovery Day?

Yesterday I went out for a quick recovery run only to find out that I had a pace run on the schedule! I found myself facing rolling hills and a beautiful view at Crystal Cove. But, as we used to say at Andersen Consulting - "Plan the work and work the plan." So I put my head down and took off on my four mile pace run.

I keep my pace on these runs by glancing at my Garmin every now and then to make sure that I am running in the right pace zone. My Half Marathon pace is set between 9:15 and 10:00 per mile. As long as I stay in that zone, my Garmin is happy and won't beep at me. Yesterday, I only heard one set of beeps - I started a little faster than I should have. I tucked back into the pace zone and finished the run.

I finished up in a little over 38 minutes. I checked out my data and found that my average heart rate was only 78% of MHR at a 9:43 pace. Man - it sure seemed like I was working harder than that!

And so week 5 wraps up. This is the third week in a row over 30 miles (32 miles). I am beginning to feel comfortable with the 30 mile per week base (after not quite two years on my feet) . This week will be another 30 mile plus week:

Monday: 4 mile easy. Hit the gym for stretching and core strengthening.
Tuesday: Whatever the interval Gods have in store. I want to total about 7 miles or so.
Wednesday: 4 mile recovery run. Hit the gym for stretching and core strengthening
Thursday: 45 minute tempo run. Should be around 4.5 miles
Friday: Rest (yay!)
Saturday: 12 mile 3/1.
Sunday: Climb in an aluminum tube and make my way to Michigan.
Total planned: 31.5 miles

After this week, I get a little rest with a 21 mile week. I will have a little travel coming up (going to Grand Rapids, Michigan - any poker nearby?) and the La Habra 10K the following Saturday (3/28). As physically tired as I've been lately, I want to take two days off before the race so that I can perform a little better than just a hard training run. Then, after that, only five more weeks until my goal race - the PCRF Cinco de Mayo Half Marathon!