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Tom's Journal (Read 596 times)


Future running partner.

    Fall of 2006-- Started running roughly about a year and a half ago. My weight was once about 195. Started running/walking in VA in fall of 2006 but, not consistently. I was doing more mountain biking than anything. January 2007-- Started running on the treadmill at my apartment complex. Started with about 15min of running at a very slow 4 to 4.5 mph. I Worked my way up to about 30min of running, every other day. February 2007--No running. March 2007--Started running again. Lake Lynn paved trail that's 2.2 miles around the lake. Started with one lap everyday and gradually, added 5 minutes to each run on alternate days. April 2007-- Eventually got up to a 50 min run on the weekends. Then I jumped into an 8k race. Considering that during my regular runs that I ran at about a 11 to 11:30 pace my time of 49:12 was surprising to me. Also may weight has dropped into the high 180's. May 2007-- Took a few weeks off. Started reading an old book I read in High School called "Running Your Best" by Ron Daws. This gave me the itch again. Based on info from this book the best way to start is to slowly and easily build up to as high a mileage as possible to the point of injury. Then cut back by about 5 or 10%. I built a schedule that would take me through the end of September with goal of about 7 hrs a week I figured that at the pace I was running this is as much time I would ever want to put into running. I used an old HRM to keep my pace below 70 to 75% of maxHR. The plan which started in may was to start with 15min of running every day. I slowly increased each week by about 10% by increasing specific runs by about 5min per week. Ultimately my long run would be close to 2hrs my short runs would be 30min and intermediate runs about 1 to 1.5 hours. My schedule had me running every day. Started the first week of training running 15min/day and covering about 1.25miles per day. Oh boy Sleepy June 2007-- Reached 35 minutes for long days and 15 minutes on short days. July 2007-- Averaging a 11 to 11:30 mile now. A friend talked me into running the Va Beach RnR HM. This race was scheduled for Sept 2. By that time I would only be up to about 30 miles a week with my long run only being about 1hr20min. I decided to risk it and increase each week a little faster so that by the second to last week before the race I would have a 1:50 min run and I'd be around 40miles/week. Aug 2007-- I have reached my mileage goal from July. The final week was pretty tough. I did 7.5 hrs of total running and I covered about 41 miles that week. My long run that week was 1:50 for about 10 miles. I tapered the week of the race. Actually I ended up skipping a few more days then planned in the process. September 2, 2007 Race day— Low 50s at wake up time. by Race finish high 70's. I ate a big pasta meal the night before. I couldn't get to sleep until after midnight (just to excited). Awaken at about 430AM. Eat a yogurt and drink some water. At the start of the race I did a 5 min warm up and plenty of stretching. At about 7:45 my corral finally reaches the starting line. I start off nice and easy. The first mile is in about 10:35. As the race progresses. There are so many people cheering, rock bands playing every mile that it's starting to pump me up. My pace starts to increase after the first mile until about mile 4 I am running sub 10min/mile. I feel awesome! The bands have pumped me up so much that while passing one of them, I throw up the horns and yell out a big loud YYYYYYEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! I feel so good that I believe I can continue this pace for the duration. I finish 6 miles in under an hour. (I am running well under 10min/mile. I continue very smoothly even over a hill at mile 9. I pass mile 10 in under 1:40. Just a few minutes later, it was like someone had flipped a switch. I feel so exhausted that at 10.5 mile water station I actually stopped and walked to take a drink and eat an energy pack. The energy pack just turned into a heavy paste in my mouth that I couldn't swallow. Soon I will be getting on the boardwalk for the last leg of the race. That will feel nice with the cool ocean breeze. At mile 11 you turn onto the boardwalk for the final straightaway. Ohhh myyy gooooooooaaaaaghhhhh thats a long straightaway. 2.1 miles and you can see where the finish line is. Hey where’s that cool breeze. All I feel is freaken HOTTTT! and exhausted. This turned out to be the longest 2.1 miles in my life. It just seemed to go on and on. I think the finish line kept getting moved farther and farther away. I finally finished in about 2:15. My last 3.1 miles must have been in about 35 minutes. What a slow down! Sept. 2007-- With a solid base now I decided to start training for the Old Reliable Run 10k in Raleigh. So I planned Out my next schedule with some tempo runs and mile repeats for a few weeks. Then hills for another few weeks, and finally some speed before the race comes. Two weeks after the race I ran 12 miles in about 2hours. I started this run off slow, but at about 1:15 minutes into the run the pace just started getting faster. The last 30 minutes where actually quite fast and hard. I felt so good and strong, I just could not resist. Two days later I couldn't run. My right hip was really sore. I decided I would take off running until it started feeling better. I wasn't able start running again for 2 weeks. October 2007-- With only about 5 weeks until the race, I decided to forgo the hills and speed and just focus on tempo, mile repeats and long runs. I managed to get up to 2.5 hours for a long run 13-14 miles. My mile repeats dropped from the low 9s to the low 8s. November 2007 Come race time using the McMillan calculator I set a tough goal of about 55min. Given I was injured, if I ran 56 or 57 that was fine. I end up finishing in 53:24. Wow! Awesome! I now decide to start training for another 10k taking place in early April Cooper River Bridge 10k in Charleston SC. This time I want to get my weight down to about 164 and also break 45min. I take a week off and start to build. I plan a schedule for the next 24 weeks. 6 weeks of just slow easy buildup this counting by miles to 40. I chose 40, because this is where I started to get hurt or wore out the previous schedule. 4 weeks of fast aerobic, (Tempo, mile repeats). Then another 4 weeks of hill training. Then 4 weeks of slower anaerobic. Then 4 weeks of sharpening, and finally 1 or 2 weeks of tapering. This time I decide to start taking one day off per week, incorporating short stride sessions at the end of longer runs and really try to focus on stretching more. I also am more aware of how I feel by taking my pulse in the morning and taking it easy when I feel tired or a little sore. December 07 - January 08 All goes well until Mid January. I've started mile repeat sessions with mile times below 8/mile and my weight is down to about 177. All of a sudden my right lower back starts to really hurt. I take a little time off and it doesn't get better. Worried, I get some X-rays done. All is good, I just need some time off. I then read the article in RW on core training. After I started core training my back started to feel good again. February 08 After about a 3 -3.5 week layoff I start running again. Unfortunately the layoff has really set me back a lot. I am a lot slower and my weigh is back up to 183. I don't think I can come close to making my goal at this point. Also a friend decides to have a wedding on race weekend. I see a local 10k race a week later and another 8k 3 weeks after that. I decide to really focus on the 8k with the 10k as good tune up. I plan for 3 weeks of fast aerobic, 3 weeks of hills, 3 weeks of anaerobic and 3 weeks of sharpening/tapering. March 08 -- I ran pretty consistently until the third week of hills. I was really running the hill training very hard and I think I wore myself out. I also haven’t been monitoring myself as well lately. I really cut back a lot for a week and a half. My first 2 our long run after this I completely bonked. My legs are feeling really strong and fast, but aerobically, I am struggling to keep up with my legs. April 08-- I decide to not use what I had scheduled and start improvising. I put in a good couple of weeks of aerobic running to try and make some of my aerobic fitness up. My pace on my 2hr long runs is getting fast again (9:25/mile) I run the 10k on April 12 at the end fast aerobic week. Man, I felt terrible. First of all I showed up a little late and did not have time for a proper warm up. Secondly my legs just felt stiff and dead. Hoping to run around a 47-48 min 10k, I end up only running 52:12. I was awfully disappointed. I know I could have run much faster. This is tedious Roll eyes A few days later I ran 10 miles in 1:31 and it felt easy. I then decide to set an 8k goal of breaking 40 minutes. This would be the equivalent of breaking 50 in a 10k. At this point I was hell bent. I decided work really hard for about 3 weeks. I do tempo runs at race pace. I do one more 2hr run. I do 1 more hill workout. I do another moderately paced 9 mile run. I run mile repeats in 7:15 to 7:30 with 3:20 of recovery jogging. I run hard 1200's in the 4:54 to 5:06 range with enough rest to bring my heart rate down to 100. I do stride sessions. In my final week before the race I cut back the mileage to about 30/week. I do an easy 9 miler. I do a sharpening workout of 1 mile at 7:50 and a half mile 3:40 on the track. I do a 100/100 float workout with my hundreds in 18/19 s. May 3, 2008. I get to the race with plenty of time to check in and warm up. I drive the course and notice a big hill in the 1rst and 4th mile and a nice down hill in the 2nd and last mile. Temperature is in the mid 70s and rising to above 80. I get in plenty of stretching and 1.5 miles of jogging with sweats on. In the first mile of the race, I feel so loose I pass most everybody effortlessly in the first half mile. The second half mile is all up hill, so I decide to try and maintain my effort and not push it too hard. A few people pass me going up, but I don't worry about it. As mile marker 1 approaches, I start to worry. "Am I going to be way behind pace like last time?" I pass the marker at 7:54, right on schedule. The second mile, mostly down hill, I decide to relax, let my stride open up a little and take the breaks off. Cruising effortlessly I pass a few people. (This is a low key race; only about 80 runners). I get through the second mile in 7:47 and I feel really good. The 3rd mile is mostly flat and I just focus on maintaining my tempo and pass quite a few people. I pass through this marker at 7:41. The 4th mile is almost all uphill. Here I accept the fact that it will be a slower mile, but I am still well under goal pace. I try to just maintain the effort, not the speed. I pass mile 4 in 8:22 or 31:50. I am going to make it. I start to push the down pretty hard. Catching someone and passing them on this downhill. With a half mile left to go the course levels out. I am really pushing hard, but I am still feeling strong. I am breathing at full capacity now. I turn the final corner with about a 200m straightaway and I just push as hard as I can. People are saying nice kick. I look at the clock as I approach and I see it's in the high 38s. I cross the finish line stopping my watch at 39:02. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Wow! I feel really self absorbed right now. Embarrassed Big grin If you have made through all of this w/o falling asleep I congratulate you. You have tremendous endurance. Big grin


    Future running partner.

      Plan is to take a little time off to regain some motivational juices and get a rest. My next goal is possibly the Baltimore Marathon. Then either NY or the local City of Oaks Marathon here in Raleigh. The plan right now is to start actual training on 5/18 starting with a 9 mile long run and a 32 mile week. Then ramp up the mileage to 50 mpw in 5 weeks Then continue to ramp up the long run until I get to about 3hrs of continuous running. I plan to keep the paces slow enough to focus on increasing my VO2 max and running efficiency. Based on my previous running experience I feel as though I can develop speed very quickly and naturally. I also thing I have done most of my traing at this point at close to LT levels. LT strength is good. I think my weekest component is a low VO2 max. For one I am still overweight and I think it's just low because my training paces have been too hard up to this point. This week I've done 2 runs, slow, sluggish feeling 3 miler and yesterday a similar but slightly faster 5 miler. I am off work today and plan to do a slow easy 7 miler tomorrow just to easy into my first actually week of training starting on Sunday.
      Hannibal Granite


        I must say I didn't make it through your entire running history, but I did quote you in another thread: http://www.runningahead.com/forums/topic/7abd1703ee934de593edfa33b0ea243a

        "You NEED to do this" - Shara

        Wingz


        Professional Noob

          Hi, Tom. The City of Oaks HALF marathon's one of the two I'm looking at. Did you run in COO last year? I didn't see it mentioned in your marathon-post Tongue but I might have missed it! What I understood from what you've written is that your plan for training for your fall marathon is to run slower overall in order to help improve your aerobic fitness instead of concentrating so much on fast, hard running. This is a good time to be building a base, and my mostly uneducated guess from what you've said is that this would indeed be the area you can make the most gains in. Good luck in your training! Janell

          Roads were made for journeys...


          Future running partner.

            I must say I didn't make it through your entire running history, but I did quote you in another thread: http://www.runningahead.com/forums/topic/7abd1703ee934de593edfa33b0ea243a
            I feel honored that you quoted me. Shy I've come across these in a few different articles on RW and other places. When I started doing them, I was trying to be as carefull as possible. Since I had not run at that kind of speed since I was a high schooler. The first time I did them was only 3 repeats at about 5k pace. I also didn't want to tax myself anymore than I already had from the actual workout. So it just kind of developed the way it did. As I have been researching lately I find more and more that back up what I was doing. My strides may be a little shorter than what alot articles recommend, but maybe I am just running them slower then others so they come out to be a shorter distance. That thread's become amusing.


            Future running partner.

              Hi, Tom. The City of Oaks HALF marathon's one of the two I'm looking at. Did you run in COO last year? I didn't see it mentioned in your marathon-post Tongue but I might have missed it! What I understood from what you've written is that your plan for training for your fall marathon is to run slower overall in order to help improve your aerobic fitness instead of concentrating so much on fast, hard running. This is a good time to be building a base, and my mostly uneducated guess from what you've said is that this would indeed be the area you can make the most gains in. Good luck in your training! Janell
              I haven't done any marathons yet. I wanted to give myself at least a year of running and to build up some speed before I tried to do any. Last year at that time I focused on the Old Reliable Run 10k down town. Which was a great course. Most of the last 1.6 miles where a nice steady down hill. I think my first marathon will probably be Baltimre then either COO or NYC (If I make the lottery)


              Future running partner.

                Saturday 5/17/08-- It was so unbelievably nice out that I couldn't help but to go run. I did a 7 miler on this fire road that runs along the Neuse River. I kept the pace at what I felt was pretty slow and easy however after about mile 5 there was a few small hills that made my breathing get a little heavy. It never really calmed down after that. Maybe I am just getting back into the swing of things. Sunday 5/18/08-- First day of scheduled training. I was scheduled to do 9 today but since I ran 7 yesterday I decided to a short 3 today and do the 9 tomorrow. Running 3 heavier and 3 lighter days each week allows for this kind of flexibility. I also wanted to get in a good mountain bike ride today. The run today was really easy. It literally felt like nothing. I took my dog out with me today too. She is so afraid of everything she sort of made into an impromtu fartlek workout. She would slow me down when we approached something she was afraid of. Then she would pull me to run faster once we got passed it. Big grin


                Future running partner.

                  I am currently building my schedule through the end of October. My longest run will be about 3 and half hours. YIKES! I hope to also get up to 60mpw. Which is also a little scary. One of my goals is to hopefully take my training to another level without repeatedly getting injured. I will use lots of core training, stretching and striders to help me accomplish this. If I don't make it to 3:30 or 60mpw due to injury or just plain getting burned out, then I will plateau it a few miles/week below that point. I've noticed another good reason for the occasional break from running. It helps you to reflect on your past so that you are able to learn from your mistakes.


                  Future running partner.

                    Was planning on running a 9 miler last night, before my wife was supposed to fly in at around 11. She ended up catching an earlier flight and arrived at 8. I was glad she made it in earlier, all though this put a bit of monkey wrench into my running plans. I might have been able to run later perhaps when I came back from picking her up, but since we hadn't seen each other for about a week I ended up skipping a day. Tonight, I am going to have to do my run after our appointment with the vet. It's supposed to be stormy tonight so it's looking like I will be on the treadmill for about an hour and a half. I'll try to run it while Hell's Kitchen is on to take the boredom away.


                    Future running partner.

                      I managed to get in a 9 miler last night. I after the vet the rain stopped, so I was able to run outside. It was already dark and very humid. May pace is getting closer to where it was about a month ago despite my effort being relatively easy. I think in another week or 2 I will be back to the kind of aerobic conditioning I was in about a month or 2 ago. I focused on my breathing, to make sure I wasn't running too hard.


                      Future running partner.

                        Ran 3.1 yesterday kept it easy, although it was somewhat disrupted. Havn't been eating well in the last week so my weight is still fluctuating aroung 175, 176. Pulse this morning was 48. Tonight I have 7 easy miles to run.


                        Future running partner.

                          Managed to get in over 7 miles last night. I ran a pretty relaxed pace, but after about 4 miles I was getting really uncomftorble. I wasn't intentionally increasing my pace at all. Could be the peanuts I ate a couple of hours before. I think if I would have continued I would have bonked beyond 90 minutes. Tonight I'll do an easy 3 miler.


                          Future running partner.

                            ARGGH, I've been slacking. Angry Had friends in town over the weekend. I still managed to get in runs on Sat. and Sunday. On Monday, I was feeling tired and hung over and found myself doing other chores in order to avoid having to run. The mental games we play in our heads. Yesterday, was a better excuse, as it was the wifes bd. I am definately doing a 10 miler tonight.


                            Future running partner.

                              Finished well last week. Even though the week started off with 2 missed days including a 7 mile workout. I was able to make up for the shorter workout. I still only managed to get in about a 29 mile week. When I should have finished a 36 mile week by now. This coming week I have 40 miles scheduled. This is what I have done so far. Week Scheduled Actual 1 32 29 2 36 28.7 3 40 ? 4 45 ? 5 50 ? Thus far my long runs are on schedule, today I completed a 1hr 50min run for 10.5 miles in high humidity. Next week will be a 2hr run. Should I try to stay on my weekly schedule and run 40 miles this week or should I cut back a week and settle for 36, extend my build up a week longer while maintaining my long run schedule?
                              Wingz


                              Professional Noob

                                Hey, Tom. Looking at your log, it seems like jumping to 40 would be a bit much. That's an increase of, what, more than 30%, two weeks after another significant increase? Yikes. Plus, we're getting into some hot, nasty weather here in Raleigh - the change of weather is another stress on the body. FWIW, it looks like Friday might be the best day, weather-wise, for a long run this week - only supposed to get up into the 80's instead of the 90's... Black eye

                                Roads were made for journeys...