Monday, August 29, 2011

Blog #3: August 28th to September 3rd

The goal for this week is to run 85 to 90 miles. Not completely sure yet about workouts this week. May run the tempo on Thursday and time trial on Saturday with the team. Planning on doing an interval workout Tuesday.

Sunday:
Long run up South Cottonwood. I felt good on this run. It was nice to be on a trail run on a place like Cottonwood. I went out for 58 minutes and came back in about the same for a total time of 1:55 of 1:56. The distance was about 16 miles. (16/16)

Monday:
Recovery run 12 miles. I felt pretty good on this run. My left knee felt a bit tight. Need to roll out my legs and butt so that whatever is pulling at my knee stops. MSU track had its paperwork filling out meeting this evening. This was one long meeting. It lasted for well over two hours. Hopefully everyone will be cleared for practice by Wednesday and the season will be off and running. (12/28)

Tuesday:
Had a really nice workout today. Little over three mile warmup and general mobility. Did 8 times 3 minutes on and 2 minutes off in the greater Lindley Park area. This workout really went pretty well. The 7th interval I started at the same spot as my first interval and I made it a little further on my 7th interval than 1st interval. Felt like I was moving along pretty well. I ran the two minutes easy downhill so I probably ended up running maybe 65% of "on" intervals uphill. (11.5/39.5)

Wednesday:
Easy Run down to Sourdough Trails and back, a little over 5 miles. I carried a can of paint with me so I could put some directional arrows down on the ground for the team's tempo run on Thursday morning. In the afternoon, I ran about 6 miles with a couple of the guys from the team. Seth Grossman was pushing the pace, so I just let them go the last bit and kept it at easy run pace. After the easy run, we did 4 times 100 meter strides followed by 6 times 40 meter fly-ins. Felt pretty fast on the 40 meter fly-ins. (11/50.5)

Thursday:
6:30am tempo work with the MSU team. We did 3 times 2 mile tempo on Sourdough Trails with 1 minute rest between. The times don't look super fast, but the course is kind of slow with its gravel surface and tight turns. The three 2 mile tempos were about 10:40, 10:40, and 10:30. In the afternoon, I did an easy run of about 4.5 miles. (14.5/65)

Friday:
Easy run in the morning of about 5.5 miles. Felt ok on morning run, but my knee was a little tight again. Rolled out after the run, which seems to make it feel better. I need to use the roller more consistently. Ran the hospital loop with the team again the same route as Wednesday. MSU Men's XC loves running the hospital loop, the worst run in town. Odd bunch! J/K The hospital loop is six miles or just a bit over. (11.5/ 76.5)

Saturday:
Ran a 5 mile tempo run/solo time trial on the course before the MSU XC teams ran their time trials. I ran 26:20 with splits of 5:14, 5:10, 5:21, 5:28, 5:05. I started the tempo at about 6:50am and it was cold, maybe 40 degrees at start. This run went pretty well except for the 4th mile which was slow. The time time trials went pretty well. Trevor Poison came across first for the men and Heather Haug and Keely West went 1-2 for the women. Heather Demorest, Seth Grossman, Dan Jackson, and Jake Turner also ran really well. There were also quite a few new comers on the women's side who had good races. Overall a good day for MSU XC! (9.5/86)

Weekly Summary:
A pretty good week of training. Good mileage and the workouts went much better overall. 86 miles in 10 runs.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Blog #2 - Training August 21 - 27th

The goal for this week is to run 85 to 90 miles. I am going to do a tempo on Tuesday, a fartlek on Thursday, and a progressive run on Saturday with maybe four 30 second segments at mile pace, just like last week. I plan to do some plyos and strides on Monday and maybe Wednesday.

Sunday:
Long Run 18 miles. Sierra dropped me off at Sourdough Canyon Trailhead and I ran a little more than 6 miles up and back the trail/road and then ran home the which was about 5.5 miles. The way up on the trail took 47:46 and the way back 42:33. The rest of the run home took 35:43 for a total time of 2 hours and 6 minutes. I actually felt pretty good on the run. It was warm on the run especially the last part on the pavement from the trailhead home. (18/18)

Monday:
Easy Run 8 miles in 55 minutes. Ended up running pretty late at night because I had a meeting in the morning and I didn't get my run in beforehand. Didn't get Plyos and strides in today, but I will do them on Wednesday and maybe Friday. Wheeled out time trial course in afternoon which was probably about a 3 mile walk.(8/26)

Tuesday:
6 times tempo miles with 60 seconds rest between. Warmed up and cooled down 2 miles and did general mobility before tempo miles. This workout didn't go real well. Averaged about 5:20 for the tempo miles. Gonna change up the workouts this week and do some mile pace/rep work on Thursday to see if it will help me be and feel more economical. Wheeled out a tempo course for the team on the Sourdough trail system area, which was about a four mile walk. (10/36)

Wednesday:
Easy Run 6 miles. Ran before an appointment in the morning. I had planned on running again today, but decided to just run again tomorrow. (6/42)

Thursday:
Little over a 3 mile workout over to the grass fields. Decided to combine the strides/plyos with today's rep workout. Did the typical 5 stations of plyos and strides, then headed out onto the trails and did 7 times 30 seconds at rep (mile pace), 90 seconds rest, 30 seconds at rep, 90 seconds rest, 60 seconds at rep, 150 seconds rest. This workout went well and it felt great to run fast. I think this will help to make other pace workouts feel better and more comfortable. Between the strides and rep work, there was about 4 miles at or close to mile pace. The morning workout totaled about 12 miles. Did a six mile easy run in the evening. (18/60)

Friday:
Easy run on trail around town, 11.5 miles. Stopped halfway through and did a quick hurdle mobility. Was pretty sore from fun speed workout yesterday. (11.5/71.5)

Saturday:
Did a progressive run on the same loop as last Saturday. Was planning on doing six loops like last week, but was not feeling great so I only did five loops which is about 8.5 miles. Still a little sore and tired from Thursday workout. At 10am, I drove one of the vans filled with MSU distance runners and sprinters and picked up trash along our section of adopt-a-highway.(12.5/84)

Weekly Summary:
84 miles in 8 runs. This week wasn't great for workouts once again, but I did get in quite good mileage. I have definitely gone from doing very little, to doing too much the last 3-4 weeks. My legs have been sore and tired a lot. I am going to try and get in another pretty good week of mileage next week. Then cut down to 65 to 70 the week of the half marathon September 11th. Hopefully, in the next couple weeks I will adjust to the mileage and start feeling a little better.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Gettin' my blog on and such! (Initial blog with week of training 8/14-8/20)

This is my inaugural blog! This blog is going to focus on running/training, but there is a pretty good chance it may cause you to 'LOL' or yell this is the 'TOML' (time of my life) or 'OMG' that is so funny! This first one I will just stick to training and such though.

Anyway, I've decided to run the Bozeman Half Marathon on September 11th. My fitness is not great and I am running the half marathon for the heck of it. My goal for training between now and the half marathon is to increase my fitness so I can really start doing some quality workouts after the half marathon. Not sure what race(s) I will be training for, but I will find something.

Week of Training (8/14-8/20)

Sunday:
Ran Chestnut Trail to Mt. Chestnut with Graydon and Adam. One of the hardest runs of my life. Basically 45 straight minutes of steep uphill running. Ran 55 minutes out and the entire run totaled 1 hour 45 minutes. (14.5/14.5)

Monday:
Took the day off Hoss. I had to go to the optometrist because my left eyeball was super sore and had a bump on it. The doctor told me it was caused by dry and dusty air and sun. It was quite a relief to know what it was because my eye was unbelievably sore, felt like a large grain of sand was stuck on my eyeball, and was watering constantly. The optometrist told me to wear sunglasses when I run and use eye drops before and after each run. It started to feel better quickly after doing this. Also, I took our dog Higgins into the vet and had his two top front teeth pulled. The vet had to put him under because Higgins would not let him get a hold of his teeth. It was pretty gross to see them pulled and there was a lot of blood. Higgins seems to be feeling much better now without those two rotting teeth though.

Tuesday:
Ran twice today. In the morning I ran 10 miles and tried a workout. I was too sore and bound up from running up and down Mt. Chestnut on Sunday. The workout was 2 times 3 mile tempo with 2 minutes rest between. The tempos ended up being closer to swing pace or something. In the afternoon, I ran about 6.75 miles. Felt better in the afternoon. (16.75/31.25)

Wednesday:
Easy run and hurdle mobility, strides, and plyos like previous (single leg jumps - 10 each leg, frog jumps - 10, single leg jumps, bounds - 30 total, single leg jumps--100 meter strides after each of the 5 Plyo Stations). Felt much better than yesterday. Starting to feel a little faster on strides. (11.5/42.5)

Thursday:
Warmed up three miles, did a little gen mob, then did a workout. The workout was 10 times 3 minutes on, 2 minutes off. The 'on' was a bit faster than tempo. The volume of the workout was pretty good, but the intensity of this workout as well as the other workouts I have done needs to improve. (12.5/55)

Friday:
Ran up Sourdough Canyon today. This may have been the slowest I have run on an easy run. Very tired and out of energy. Didn't think I ran yesterday's workout too hard, but it may have been based on my energy level today. 12 miles very slow.  (12/67)

Saturday:
Did a progressive run on the Sourdough Trail System in town. I decided to just run 6 loops on a 1.67 mile loop so I had good feedback on pace. The goal was to try to get faster each loop for a total of 10 miles. My six loops were run in 9:49, 9:32, 9:16, 9:08, 9:07, 9:10 for a total for the 10 miles of 56:03. Had a hard time staying on pace the last couple loops. Seemed like I would pick it up for a bit, but then my mind would drift causing me to slip into a slower pace. Overall this workout wasn't too bad. Had an overall average pace of 5:36 per mile for the 10 miles which isn't too bad for the winding trail system. (14/81)

Weekly Summary:
81 miles in 7 runs and 1 day off. Pretty good week overall, although the quality of the workouts needs to begin to improve.