DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
13 Weeks to Go (Lightning and Neighbors and Blisters, Oh MY!)
Another week down. A bit of a hodgepodge of all types of training runs went on this week. Let's see what happened...
Date - Day - Scheduled Workout (Intervals within desired pace, Speed +/- 5 sec, everything else +/- 10 sec)
6/29/16 - W - Medicine Ball Workout (MBW)
6/30/16 - R - 1 mile @ 8:47 min/mile + 7 miles @ 7:33 min/mile + 2 miles @ 9:19 min/mile (6/7)
7/1/16 - F - 8 miles @ 9:11 min/mile (6/8)
7/2/16 - Sat - 10 miles @ 8:33 min/mile (6/10) + MBW
7/3/16 - Sun - 15 miles @ 8:13 min/mile (9/15)
7/4/16 - M - 8 miles @ 9:11 min/mile (4/8)
7/5/16 - T - 2.5 miles @ 9:40 min/mile + 5 x 1200m @ 6:39 min/mile with 400m RI @ 9:40 min/mile + 2.5 miles @ 10:00 min/mile (0/5)
Total mileage = 60.75 miles
Number of intervals within pace = 31/53 (58%)
Thursday was going to be a unusual day. My wife had to work 10am-2am because UW-Madison is switching to Under Armour and so her store decided to do a midnight opening to celebrate. The weather looked like rain/lightning for the evening forecast but they weren't solid predictions. Lastly, I had a retirement party for my boss's secretary who has been here almost 30 years to attend in the afternoon. So my MIL and daughter picked me up from the retirement party at 4:00pm and the first thing I checked was the weather. A HUGE bomb of red was headed our way. Using my unscientific means by looking at how far the weather has traveled in the last 4 hours (using my finger width on the screen of my phone) I estimated the weather would be arriving around 6:00pm. As we drove home the storm looked worse and worse out the car windows getting darker and darker. We got home around 4:45pm, and I knew my run was scheduled for 1:22 so it was going to be tough to get the whole run in before the lightning storm arrived. I literally ran into the house, threw on my clothes, and ran out the door with minimal stretching and preparedness. I think from pulling into the driveway to starting running was only about 15 min max (that's fast for me). The last thing I said to my MIL is, "If it looks bad out there, meet me at the park." I started running and typically I do a 1.5 mile warm-up but I was too anxious to get to the tempo part. So I dropped the WU to 1 mile and probably pushed the pace a tad too hard (8:47 instead of 9:47). Then I quickly hit the tempo part. I disregarded any feelings of pushing the pace too much because well "darn it, I'm going to get this run in!". Saw the first split at 7:28 and was like "WHOA, I'm 5 seconds under desired pace. That hasn't happened yet all cycle." But it was really getting tough to maintain that pace but I kept pushing. Then around interval 4 of 7, the rain started. I knew that once the rain started that the lightning wouldn't be far behind. Oddly enough, to that point I hadn't heard any thunder. I went on to hit 6/7 intervals and was very happy with where those intervals were. The pace seemed less stressful during the later portions of the run than the earlier parts. As I rounded the corner to drop off my stuff at the house to wrap up an additional 2 miles of cool-down, my MIL was coming out of the house with Gigi and was about to come find me. I said "this" (gesturing to the rain) "this is nothing!" I can run in this hard rain all day. And then I was off to finish off 2 easy miles of cool-down. Overall I was ecstatic about getting all 10 miles of the workout in, with 6/7 intervals within close pace to desired marathon pace. A big success all around. Maybe the lightning allowed me to push a little extra harder because I was motivated to finish that workout in full.
Friday was good. Nothing special.
Saturday was interesting. Nice 61 degree weather. I came up on mile 4 of 10 and saw one of my neighbors running. He had run a marathon last October as well and I've seen him a few times during that training. He hadn't been running all winter because of a knee injury and decided he was ready to get back out there. So he decided to join me for a portion of the run. I'm almost always a solo runner. But it was nice to have a fellow runner to click off the miles with. The pace was a bit out of his comfort zone (between coming off injury and not running for several months), but he did well. We talked families, training methodology, careers, etc. He helped me run 3 miles and then he headed home. It was nice. However, it did cause me to lose track of pace a bit and I was running a tad slower than desired. Oh well. No worries as everything went well.
Sunday was the first 2hr plus training run of the cycle. I was excited! I love the feeling of fatigue in the morning. My legs were tired before I started running so I was ready for the challenge of trying to hit pace on tired legs. This was also the first 100 min plus run, so it was the first time I used nutrition during the run. My goal time, VO2max, and current weight suggest I need to consume about 44g carbs per hour to stave off glycogen depletion for my marathon. My gels are 37g carbs per packet. It takes 1 oz of water for every 2 g carb to be digested, thus 37 g carb needs 18 oz water. I plan to take a gel every 6 miles because I consume approximately 3 oz per mile (3x6=18 oz). Goal marathon pace of 7:33min/mile means I run 7.94 miles per hour. Thus, I plan to consume ~49g carbs per hour. Everything was going well through 10 miles. Nice cool summer weather. No issues whatsoever. So I decided that at mile 12 I would do a slightly faster finish (not quite the Hammer) of 3 miles. Success! I slowly increased the pace without issue. Still comfortable at long run type effort down to a 7:46 min/mile. I really excel as the miles go by because I think it takes quite a bit of time for my body to warm-up. However, I got home and noticed a bloody sock. Took off the sock and noticed a massive, sore to the touch blood blister (gross I know). In fact both feet had blisters on the big-middle toe gap, but only the one on the right was bleeding. Had to limp around a bit but no long lasting concerns.
Monday was a morning run because of the holidays. Was a tad worried about the blisters but there was little to no effect on maintaining effort. In fact, the effort was super easy and I was still in the 8:55 range. This is continued good news. The 8:55 EA and 7:55-8:00 LR are fitting a pattern of me moving into a marathon time of 3:12. I am continuing to like where this is headed. This new training cycle is paying off.
And then Tuesday came. It was a 5x1200 speed day. Needless to say it did not go well. It probably goes down as one of my worst workouts in the last 1.5 years. I hit 0/6 intervals and honestly they weren't even close. It was a really frustrating workout. But.... I came home and Gigi was sitting in the window sticking her tongue out at me while she waited for me to come home. It just washes away all those negative feelings. She has a way of reminding me of my ultimate goals. So, rather than dwelling on how it didn't go well, let's evaluate reasons why it probably didn't go well.
1) It was hot. It wasn't that hot, but it was 20-30 degrees warmer than the last 3 days. Plus it was full on sun with no clouds to be found.
2) I just ran 121.75 miles in the last 13 days. That's a lot of miles. More miles than I've ever done in that timeframe. Only a year ago that would have been PR type monthly mileage. While I don't feel tired, my legs clearly do.
3) I'm squeezing every ounce of my abilities out. I'm getting to a point where my endurance is surpassing my speed abilities (that's what I want). Because of this it's becoming increasing difficult to hit my speed workouts and easier to hit the endurance workouts. I'm probably not capable of a 6:39 5K, but I'm getting more capable of running a 7:33 marathon.
So based on Tuesday's workout around 86, it now gives me a nice range of marathon predictions at this point from 55-85 degrees. It looks like in the 60s around a 3:12 and in the 80s around a 3:30.
One of my lowest % interval rates in a long time as well. The weather played a role in the % interval rates because when it was cool I was a tad fast, and when it was hot I was a tad slow. But just remember it's just another week in the overall goal of getting better.
Another week down. A bit of a hodgepodge of all types of training runs went on this week. Let's see what happened...
Date - Day - Scheduled Workout (Intervals within desired pace, Speed +/- 5 sec, everything else +/- 10 sec)
6/29/16 - W - Medicine Ball Workout (MBW)
6/30/16 - R - 1 mile @ 8:47 min/mile + 7 miles @ 7:33 min/mile + 2 miles @ 9:19 min/mile (6/7)
7/1/16 - F - 8 miles @ 9:11 min/mile (6/8)
7/2/16 - Sat - 10 miles @ 8:33 min/mile (6/10) + MBW
7/3/16 - Sun - 15 miles @ 8:13 min/mile (9/15)
7/4/16 - M - 8 miles @ 9:11 min/mile (4/8)
7/5/16 - T - 2.5 miles @ 9:40 min/mile + 5 x 1200m @ 6:39 min/mile with 400m RI @ 9:40 min/mile + 2.5 miles @ 10:00 min/mile (0/5)
Total mileage = 60.75 miles
Number of intervals within pace = 31/53 (58%)
Thursday was going to be a unusual day. My wife had to work 10am-2am because UW-Madison is switching to Under Armour and so her store decided to do a midnight opening to celebrate. The weather looked like rain/lightning for the evening forecast but they weren't solid predictions. Lastly, I had a retirement party for my boss's secretary who has been here almost 30 years to attend in the afternoon. So my MIL and daughter picked me up from the retirement party at 4:00pm and the first thing I checked was the weather. A HUGE bomb of red was headed our way. Using my unscientific means by looking at how far the weather has traveled in the last 4 hours (using my finger width on the screen of my phone) I estimated the weather would be arriving around 6:00pm. As we drove home the storm looked worse and worse out the car windows getting darker and darker. We got home around 4:45pm, and I knew my run was scheduled for 1:22 so it was going to be tough to get the whole run in before the lightning storm arrived. I literally ran into the house, threw on my clothes, and ran out the door with minimal stretching and preparedness. I think from pulling into the driveway to starting running was only about 15 min max (that's fast for me). The last thing I said to my MIL is, "If it looks bad out there, meet me at the park." I started running and typically I do a 1.5 mile warm-up but I was too anxious to get to the tempo part. So I dropped the WU to 1 mile and probably pushed the pace a tad too hard (8:47 instead of 9:47). Then I quickly hit the tempo part. I disregarded any feelings of pushing the pace too much because well "darn it, I'm going to get this run in!". Saw the first split at 7:28 and was like "WHOA, I'm 5 seconds under desired pace. That hasn't happened yet all cycle." But it was really getting tough to maintain that pace but I kept pushing. Then around interval 4 of 7, the rain started. I knew that once the rain started that the lightning wouldn't be far behind. Oddly enough, to that point I hadn't heard any thunder. I went on to hit 6/7 intervals and was very happy with where those intervals were. The pace seemed less stressful during the later portions of the run than the earlier parts. As I rounded the corner to drop off my stuff at the house to wrap up an additional 2 miles of cool-down, my MIL was coming out of the house with Gigi and was about to come find me. I said "this" (gesturing to the rain) "this is nothing!" I can run in this hard rain all day. And then I was off to finish off 2 easy miles of cool-down. Overall I was ecstatic about getting all 10 miles of the workout in, with 6/7 intervals within close pace to desired marathon pace. A big success all around. Maybe the lightning allowed me to push a little extra harder because I was motivated to finish that workout in full.
Friday was good. Nothing special.
Saturday was interesting. Nice 61 degree weather. I came up on mile 4 of 10 and saw one of my neighbors running. He had run a marathon last October as well and I've seen him a few times during that training. He hadn't been running all winter because of a knee injury and decided he was ready to get back out there. So he decided to join me for a portion of the run. I'm almost always a solo runner. But it was nice to have a fellow runner to click off the miles with. The pace was a bit out of his comfort zone (between coming off injury and not running for several months), but he did well. We talked families, training methodology, careers, etc. He helped me run 3 miles and then he headed home. It was nice. However, it did cause me to lose track of pace a bit and I was running a tad slower than desired. Oh well. No worries as everything went well.
Sunday was the first 2hr plus training run of the cycle. I was excited! I love the feeling of fatigue in the morning. My legs were tired before I started running so I was ready for the challenge of trying to hit pace on tired legs. This was also the first 100 min plus run, so it was the first time I used nutrition during the run. My goal time, VO2max, and current weight suggest I need to consume about 44g carbs per hour to stave off glycogen depletion for my marathon. My gels are 37g carbs per packet. It takes 1 oz of water for every 2 g carb to be digested, thus 37 g carb needs 18 oz water. I plan to take a gel every 6 miles because I consume approximately 3 oz per mile (3x6=18 oz). Goal marathon pace of 7:33min/mile means I run 7.94 miles per hour. Thus, I plan to consume ~49g carbs per hour. Everything was going well through 10 miles. Nice cool summer weather. No issues whatsoever. So I decided that at mile 12 I would do a slightly faster finish (not quite the Hammer) of 3 miles. Success! I slowly increased the pace without issue. Still comfortable at long run type effort down to a 7:46 min/mile. I really excel as the miles go by because I think it takes quite a bit of time for my body to warm-up. However, I got home and noticed a bloody sock. Took off the sock and noticed a massive, sore to the touch blood blister (gross I know). In fact both feet had blisters on the big-middle toe gap, but only the one on the right was bleeding. Had to limp around a bit but no long lasting concerns.
Monday was a morning run because of the holidays. Was a tad worried about the blisters but there was little to no effect on maintaining effort. In fact, the effort was super easy and I was still in the 8:55 range. This is continued good news. The 8:55 EA and 7:55-8:00 LR are fitting a pattern of me moving into a marathon time of 3:12. I am continuing to like where this is headed. This new training cycle is paying off.
And then Tuesday came. It was a 5x1200 speed day. Needless to say it did not go well. It probably goes down as one of my worst workouts in the last 1.5 years. I hit 0/6 intervals and honestly they weren't even close. It was a really frustrating workout. But.... I came home and Gigi was sitting in the window sticking her tongue out at me while she waited for me to come home. It just washes away all those negative feelings. She has a way of reminding me of my ultimate goals. So, rather than dwelling on how it didn't go well, let's evaluate reasons why it probably didn't go well.
1) It was hot. It wasn't that hot, but it was 20-30 degrees warmer than the last 3 days. Plus it was full on sun with no clouds to be found.
2) I just ran 121.75 miles in the last 13 days. That's a lot of miles. More miles than I've ever done in that timeframe. Only a year ago that would have been PR type monthly mileage. While I don't feel tired, my legs clearly do.
3) I'm squeezing every ounce of my abilities out. I'm getting to a point where my endurance is surpassing my speed abilities (that's what I want). Because of this it's becoming increasing difficult to hit my speed workouts and easier to hit the endurance workouts. I'm probably not capable of a 6:39 5K, but I'm getting more capable of running a 7:33 marathon.
So based on Tuesday's workout around 86, it now gives me a nice range of marathon predictions at this point from 55-85 degrees. It looks like in the 60s around a 3:12 and in the 80s around a 3:30.
One of my lowest % interval rates in a long time as well. The weather played a role in the % interval rates because when it was cool I was a tad fast, and when it was hot I was a tad slow. But just remember it's just another week in the overall goal of getting better.
rotein to ensure it's close to 3:1-4:1. Almond milk tends to have a lower and more incomplete protein source than does animal protein. However, just adding in an additional protein source (like whey or soy) can boost the almond chocolate milk's benefits.
