Tuesday, 5/1... 4 mile run trail run today, alternating between sprints and walk breaks. Something different to throw at my bored legs. I dated myself with the topic for the month...lol
3 miles Monday morning before getting ready for work.
4 miles this morning because I started a little earlier.
Crazy weather we're having here. Upper 90s during the weekend, going to a forecasted low of 75 tomorrow as this cool front goes through. Chance of rain. Ha! Then back up to 100 this weekend. So we get a few more mornings of nice weather.
Dan - A couple of good runs there. Looks like you're ready for the half.
Altair - Some nice marathons to chose from. Hard to pick one, isn't it?
Rich - Good runs there. Getting back to the distance slowly is good. Eventually we get there. I don't think anyone would mistake me bieing in the tri on my mountain bike. I went past the bike corral and all I saw were the racing type bikes. I don't know if it was just this race or what, but it didn't seem like there were a lot of sponsors there. A lot of team tents though.
Art in AZ
Mesa, AZ
Wednesday, 5/2... 8.5 mile trail ride on the mtn bike today, weather was 85 degrees and sunny. Just one day of this weather, we're going to cool back down with rain showers tomorrow....
Art... that 29 mile ride is a lot more impressive on a mtn bike, those tri guys were probably intimidated when they saw you... We have triathlons here, but they're the shorter low key affairs. I remember running a 5K a few years ago that apparently a few triathletes had entered as well. When the gun fired, I had one of 'em next to me throwing elbows for the first 10 yards...lol I guess it's what they do, one woman was complaining about a guy who came up beside her on the trail and gave her an elbow on his way by. Weird...
Happy May everyone!
We were treated to SNOW May 1st and today!! WHAT?!?
We were in Moab Fri-Sun for a car show, DH showed his '57 Buick. Fri was nice, I drove the truck, hauling our tear drop trailer while DH drove his Buick. Saturday, I volunteered at the Amasa 10k, 15k, 25k Trail Race. Would have liked to run the 10k or the 15k as a 'training run' but DH was still working on his Buick on Thursday night, not sure if he would have it ready on time. Anyway, it was a gorgeous day to be out. I handed out the medals which also serves as a bottle opener! COOL!! And helped with packing up afterwards. Only 4 of us including the RD. Nice group of people, we had alot in common, talking about our races. The wind picked up later in the evening and into Sunday!! OMgoodness! The return drive was crazy!! Glad we made it home safe and sound.
So I did run on Thursday, April 26: 3 miles first, then met up with trail divas and ran another 5.5 miles so 8.5 miles total. Cool evening!
No runs at all while in Moab, should have but didn't.
Mon, April 30: Ran about 5.5 miles.
May 1: REST
Today: not sure if I will get a short run in, was planning on 3-4 miles. But the rain/snow yesterday and snow again today may have left the trails pretty muddy/slushy. Can't risk injury. It's pretty windy too. I've toughed it out before ........it's "ONLY" 3-4 miles, HA!!
Will be leaving for NM tomorrow. Marathon is on Saturday at 7 am. DH will be flying to MN for a week to check on the house and reconnect with colleagues/former co-workers. It's warmer there than here, LOL!!
I'll be staying/visiting family/friends for a few days before returning home to AZ.
NH: so glad you are getting some miles in!! Walk breaks are so underrated, it really helps me get a strong finish. Nice break in the weather to get those miles on the mtn bike, yay!! We've had crazy weather here too, not complaining though..... nothing like up there.
Art: wow! you've been getting in some bike miles when some other event is going on! You always that lucky?!? LOL!! Temps there are warm, and getting warmer!! Those early runs are tough to do but almost no choice if you don't want to risk heat stroke, yikes!
Hello to everyone else!
Got an easy 1 mile in before a 7:00AM web training session. No rain as I expected. Was still windy out though.
Rich - It was warmer there than here. We had a high of 75. Way below average. But come this weekend we'll be back into the 100s for a few days. I do have a road bike here that my daughter used a little before giving it to me. I need to get it fixed up so it doesn't just collect dust. See what kind of difference there is in riding it. Of course, replacing what needs replacing from her leaving it outside would probably cost as much as a new one. Needs new tires and tubes, chain is rusty, tape needs replacing and one gear shift cable is really stiff. It could be an evening job in the garage when it gets dark out.
AZ - Good luck in your race Saturday. The state sure has had some strange weather the past couple of days.
Runs in the rain
Rich - Good job doing the 9 miles, HM distances not too far away! As for all those race options, right now only the Sept half and full marathons are sure things. That list of fast marathons was for if I can't make the BQ cut on the flat one I do now. As far as the ultras go - I don't think I could finish 50 miles with steep hills in the 12 hour time limit and a 50k would be a better option for my first run over 26.2, that is if I am ambitious enough to try
az - Crazy to get snow in May isn't it? I love old cars, a 57' Buick is very cool! Nice that you helped in the trail race, it must be fun to congratulate the finishers. Good luck in the marathon!
Dan - good luck on your half marathon! By the way, I was looking at old posts on the "HI!" topic and saw your posted photo (May 8, 2013) of the Door County HM medal and a nice picture of you running the race! Interesting to see how many people who no longer post.
Art - It is good to get those early morning runs in, particularly if you are facing 90 degree temps. The local Oak Tree is my marathon choice for this year anyway, the starting line is less than two miles away from my home!
I also experienced drastic weather extremes for the end of April and start of May. Last Sunday I woke up to snow flurries and a light dusting of snow on the ground! Yesterday the temps topped out at 85 degrees! From winter to midsummer in a 3 day span! Anyway, last week the weather was mostly dry, but I decided to get my garden work done. I did some clean up of fallen branches in the yard. The next few days I spade over the entire bed to loosen the soil each spring, 320 square feet! This took several days, so I went 7 days with no runs. Between doing overtimes and training classes at work, the sore throat and the yard work My April training was poor, with not a lot of mileage. Good news is most of my garden prep is done and I should be able to focus on my training. Sunday, after work, the temperature was up to 48 and the snow gone, did a bit over 4 miles. Monday it was 60 degrees and sunny and I did close to 4 miles. I've been working on my pace and did some short sections at race pace or better. Tuesday I felt tired and had a mild headache but I did 7.4 miles and it got up to 78 degrees during my run ! Not used to the heat now, I took off my shirt and only did one speed section, a short downhill at the beginning, and ended up taking a few rest stops. I decided to take a break Wednesday, that speedwork sure makes my muscles sore. My dryer is broken, so I did several loads of wash and hung them outside on the line. With the 80 degree heat and strong winds they quickly dried! I also took a sponge and used a bleach solution to clean my deck, it is on the north side of the house and green algae grows on the planks. I then picked up more branches and twigs from my yard.
I purchased two more books on training and read them, Hanson's and Pfitzingers.I decided I did not know enough on my own as to what it takes to reach my pace goal to BQ. I know I was short on any speedwork last year and mostly focused on mileage. I need to finish a marathon in about 4:05, a 9:20 pace.From the books I see that I need to do tempo runs at that pace, at least up to 10 miles and add a mile or so for warm up and also for cool down. I should do speed intervals at a 9:00 pace or faster. My regular pace should be in the 10 to 11 mpm range and recovery pace like 11:40. Right now I struggle to maintain an average pace better than 11:40! I also am lousy in knowing my pace without looking at my garmin. The books all say you should learn to just feel how fast you are going, but in my speed sections it varied from 7:25 pace to 9:40 and it all seemed the same effort to me! I guess as I run further speed distances I will get the feel for it. Also, my pace slows going up hills and towards the end of the section when I start to poop out. My heart pound and I'm gasping and sometimes stop to catch my breath for a while. However, after running a race pace section my general pace does seem improved. Note that I am not running any fixed distances, more like "I'll run this flat section past this field to that stand of trees". As I improve I will combine sections together until I am able to run most of the course at that speed without even thinking about it. I am surprised that I was able to do that speed this week after so many day off from running, but maybe that is why I did poor on the 7.4 mile run. My other concern is fueling. Maybe the reason I had to start jogging at mile 20 in my last marathon was low glycogen. I know most people just use gels, but I am thinking of carrying a mix of beet juice, chia seeds and some sugar to try on my long runs.
Non- running note: Last week I finished a book series I was reading, the Bolitho novels, about British naval warfare in the 1800s. This must be the longest series I have ever read consisting of 30 novels! When I stacked the books I measured the pile as over two feet!
Long distance runner, what you standin' there for?Get up, get out, get out of the door!
Thursday, 5/3... 6 mile trail run today. Walk breaks caught the attention of a thunderstorm at about 2 miles and motivated me to pick up the pace. Thunder stopped, but the rain continued just long enough to soak me good. I'm sick of Summer already...
az... here's hoping for a good race this weekend. Reading your posts lately, you're ready. And you're right, walk breaks are coming in handy lately...
Art... enjoy the cooler weather while you can, I don't envy what's coming your way. Yep, with all the mechanical work you do on cars, bringing that road bike back to life would be a snap. There's some satisfaction in reviving what someone else has discarded, even if all you do when you're done is give it to someone who'll put it to good use...
Altair5... good luck as you dive into this year's marathon training program. I think I've mentioned before I never had problems training for a marathon, but usually struggled getting the fueling right. You can be in great shape, but if your body runs out of fuel 20 miles into a marathon, those last 6 miles will be more difficult than the first 20. When you get into longer training runs, that's the time to find what works best for fuel...
Got a 5 mile run in this morning, did a little yard work pulling weeds and washed the car. Then caught a 10:45 AM screening of the Avengers movie with the grand boys. Was a good movie and now have to wait to see how it ends when the next one comes out.
Altair - Even though you didn't run, you still got some exercise in getting the garden ready. Trying to plan for a race can be difficult with all the choices we have in the different training plans. Hard to know which is best for you just by reading. It's the experimentation that is the work.
Rich - Hey! It's just water. It could have been sleet or something else to make the run really uncomfortable.
Decided on another bike ride. This time I headed East taking the canal path into the wind so I had to work a little harder on the way out.After hitting the hill at the half way point I was glad to have the wind at my back for the ride home. Finished a little over 23 miles.
The last time I took this path they were doing maintenance to the canals adding rings to aid in getting out of the canal. Well they finished the rings, added some steps and small landings and repaired the areas where the concrete was broken up or had big cracks. After getting on this path there are four sections til you have to exit. What surprised me was that they paved the first two sections. And it's not a six foot wide path either. They covered the whole path, about 15 feet across. Not sure why they did that, but it beats going over the rocks that were there the last time I went this way.
Friday, 5/4... decided to experiment by running in a pair of Altra minimalist shoes on the trail today. My heel's starting to act up and I thought a shoe with no heel lift might calm it down. Didn't work, a mile into the run I'd had enough, the mile to return home gave me 2 total...
Saturday, 5/5... 6 mile trail run today, wore a compression sleeve on my heel that seemed to help. Walk breaks...
Sunday, 5/6... I didn't run today, but got in a couple mile walk and used my recently acquired scythe to cut my neighbor's lawn. Yes, the scythe probably hasn't cut grass in 50 / 60 years, took me a while to get back to useable condition and I was clueless how to use it. All I can say is planks ain't got nothing on a scythe for working your core, which is exactly why I bought it. Here's a little demo of a scythe going up against a weed whacker... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsfIHiBB6xE My neighbor's yet to build on the lot across from me and his grass wasn't that high, but it was good experience for me before I hire myself out as the 'Scythe Guy'...
Art... after Thursday's run with a few claps of thunder to go with the rain that got me wet, I was thinking a lightning rod for runners might be a great idea for a product. A helmet with and a 6 foot antennae that's wired to your shoes would work, how difficult would that be? I just need a guinea pig to test out my idea before applying for a patent, would you be interested? lol Another good bike ride to go with yesterday's 5 miler, eh? Nice! Man, I'd love it if the state paved a section of the railtrail here, there are days when consistent footing would be a big help for this sore heel of mine. Congrats. again on the ride, a good change-up to give your running muscles a break...
3 mile easy run this morning.
Rich - I watched the video and then read a few of the comments. All I could think of was, "Folks, get a life. It was just a demonstration." But like you said, that was a good upper body workout. That helmet sounds … interesting. I think with that antenna you should add a flashing light so people can get out of your way.
Monday, 5/7... 5 mile trail run today / walk breaks.
Tuesday, 5/8... 6 mile mtn bike ride on the trail. Met up with a willing wild turkey gobbler this morning. Actually, a group of 4, 'til one came home with me.
Wednesday, 5/9... 4 mile run today, 1 mile warm-up, 2 miles of running the HS track, sprinting the straights and cruising the corners, 1 mile cool down. Not much of a workout, but another effort to give my legs something different.
Art... I thought you'd get a kick out of that 'lightning rod for runners' idea. My guess is wearing a helmet with an antenna while running, you probably wouldn't need a flashing light to get people to move out of the way, they'd give you all kinds of room...lol I actually did buy a scythe and use it to cut the neighbor's grass, it took a little practice, but it actually worked pretty good. Weather Channel talked about your weather yesterday, 3 miles is a good distance in that heat...
Well, didn't quite catch the pace bunny when I expected. Took 'til 1/2 marathon on Sunday to catch up. Should have caught up earlier, but 4/30 just couldn't muster the energy to run, so URD. That ended a streak of 13 days. Currently on a new streak, if I get out and run today, that will be day 9. Here's a recap for last few days. Saturday, 5/5 a fairly low keyed run of 3.5 miles on TM, knowing I would make up mileage on Sunday. Sunday, 5/6, Horseshoe Half - sunny and cool at start of race, much warmer by the end with any overcast burned off. Race went reasonably well. Was pretty much in top 20 almost whole way (except for the start) - didn't work too hard and walked a couple of the steeper sections, given the hills I was surprised at how consistent my mile times were and even tho I didn't feel like I worked the race that much, still set a PB -- 16th OA and 2nd AG. Monday, 5/7, recovery run of 4.5 miles on TM. Tuesday, 5/8, 8 mile run mostly by feel while charging car -- this turned out to be much fast then I expected, so was pleased.
Az - You had a race this weekend, no? Hope it went well and look forward to a report.
Rich - We'll just need to call you John Henry! Or, what ever the scythe wielding equivalent is...I know here at work I'm kind of a dinosaur as I seem to be the only person who uses a DOS window consistently to search for file and/or carry out administrative tasks. It always seems that a keyboard is faster if you know what you're doing. Everyone else seems wedded to their GUIs.
Art - Most of the warmer weather seems to be missing the Bay Area so far. Not that we're anywhere near the coldness of the midwest and northeast, just a bunch of below average temps. Some nice runs and bike rides for you.
Dan - Hope the half marathon went well.
Altair - Haven't read the Pfitzinger book, but have read Hanson's. My big takeaway was be consistent and try to run most days. Hanson's is more of an intermediate/advanced training then most. I think you're still in the early stages of training/racing where you will benefit mostly by increasing mileage and consistency (read more days of running). As I've stated before, racing a few more times in the year would also be a good idea - these are mostly for experience and to to determine what strategies will work best for you. I also know that you've got some time and money constraints. One thing to remember is that it takes the body a certain amount of time to adjust to the different stresses that you need to subject it to make improvements. Which means it might ultimately be a multi-year project to accomplish you goal (BQ). Taking 30 minutes off your marathon time (about 1 minute per mile) isn't an easy task, but it isn't impossible either. Just requires the time and dedication to the goal. The more joy you find in the journey, the more likely you will be successful.
On side note on all the people that used to post and have sort of fallen off. Many are still checking in every now and then. Hopefully everyone is still doing reasonably well...
Ray
Ray - I got the Hanson's because you had said it helped you to BQ by following it's plan. For the rest of you the plan basically relies on "cumulative fatigue" where by consistently running many miles at easier pace you then train by running up to 16 miles at race pace, nothing longer than that. The idea is that this simulates running the last miles of the marathon without the injurious effects of running over 20 miles in training. The .Pfitzinger plan is more conventional with the typical up to 20 mile long runs. The plans call for running certain distances at various paces. Some of the paces vary by only 10 seconds a minute and I don't think I can pace myself that accurately unless I use my Garmin to buzz if I slow or go too fast. Both plans are rather advanced and I am not ready to do either one at the paces needed to achieve the BQ. Still, the more I learn the better I will be able to construct my own plan. I also found from a link in one of the forums, a good website with lots of information on marathon training: MyMarathonPace.com . Looking there I read information from the trainer McMillan about finishing strong and he recommended doing a long run of like 24 to 28 miles a month before the marathon! Interesting how much the plans disagree on the long run length. Right now I am experimenting by just focusing on doing some speed. Mostly I do my 3.87 mile course which has some flat or slightly downhill sections. I try to run those sections at my 9:20 race pace or better, sometimes I briefly am running at 8 minute miles or better, I just can't get a feel for how fast I am going, but as long as I learn to be in a faster running form then I am working towards my goal. My pace had slowed to like a shuffling jog and now I am working those muscles to run better. So far these speed sections have been shorter distances, the longest being like less than half a mile, and in the 3.87 mile run the speed sections total only about a mile. I may feel soreness or fatigued the next day and often choose to do yardwork and rest from running . As a result my weekly mileage is only about 20 right now, last year at this time I was doing some 50 mile weeks. Still, if I judge the effectiveness of the training by how sore I feel, my legs and butt say I am making progress! My typical "easy" pace has increased from like the 13 minute miles I was running in March to more like 11:50. I now plan to find some longer flat sections to run, perhaps to try a "Yasso 800" and see if I can run a half mile in 8 minutes. I want to continue my experiment to focus on the speed for now, perhaps even until the end of May. I know I am terribly slow and want to develop a better pace even for my "easy" distance runs. Learning to be in a running form rather than shuffling will make me work the proper muscles. I realize that I will need to start high millage weeks to train for the marathon, but feel if my legs are in good condition from the speedwork I can ramp up the mileage fairly quickly. I know I am behind in training this year and may not meet my BQ goal, but intend to at least try and hope with improved training perhaps to do better than my 4:30 time of last October. As far as races go, I should like to try a 5 or 10k race perhaps sometime in June to see if my racing speed has really improved. Then my Half is in early September and it should give a good predictor for how I will do in the full a month later.