My Journey to 50 miles (2nd attempt)... (comments welcome)

[DopeyBadger]

I’d probably reintroduce the running with Donna at a lower volume. So instead of 2.5 miles of run/walk, I’d start off with 5 or 10 min or run/walk with the rest as just walking. Also, if you can tolerate shorter intervals than 30 seconds run, then all the better too. Unless there’s a race that she’s aiming for in the near future, then her long term will be benefited by slowly reintroducing everything. Nothing gained by rushing it.

As for you, you have to decide whether this replaces the time you have available for your own activities or if you do this in addition. But if her activities are vastly slower than yours then their effect is probably 1/4 or less of the same time spent on your own. Thus it would likely have a minimal impact on the plan as written.

 

[disneygpa]

Thanks Billy! I will be doing her run/walks and walks in addition to my runs. I don't feel like it should interfere with my training.

Message received about Donna's running. The easier the better to start off!

Tuesday's run was great! T&D was 133 so paces should have been around 15:10. Pacing wasn't super horrible and no problem with the groin.



Tuesday afternoon was gym time.

All exercises are 3 sets of 3-5 reps.
Leg curl
Bench Press
Leg ext
Lat Pull-down
Bent over row

Substituted leg extensions and curls for deadlifts and squats. This seemed to avoid any aggravation of the groin. I'll go back to deadlifts and squats when the groin is back to 100%.

 

[disneygpa]

Wednesday, I did a core workout at the gym. We were also planning to go for a walk with a few short runs thrown in. But boy oh boy. Thunderstorms rolled thru as we were heading home from the gym, and we decided to not go play in the lightning.

Thursday morning. 10k pace intervals. I totally enjoyed this run! It was a little muggy out this morning. Temp was 72 and dewpoint was 69 = 141. Paces should have been WU/CD 16:20 and 10k 11:42. I was a little fast on some of the intervals, but overall I'm pretty happy with today's run. WU/CD could stand to be a little slower but I swear this is as slow as I can go.



Gotta hit the gym a little later than normal tonight because I need a trim. Hopefully it won't be too crowded.

 

[disneygpa]

Saturday's EA run was uneventful. I didn't note the T&D but it must have been around 137 or so. Easy run not real issues.

Sunday's long run. Can't remember the last time I ran 6.5 miles. It's been a while. T&D + 141 with a chance of thunder and lightning when I left. Paces should have been 13:54. Pretty happy with my paces overall though I could have slowed down a bit on all of them. Last half mile was faster as the lightning started to get closer and I wanted to get home. Also, I gotta remember to have a snack before I leave. Normally I can do my EA runs on an empty stomach. But I was getting pretty hungry after mile 4.



Tuesday morning's EA run. T&D127 with a cool breeze blowing. I know this sounds crazy to the folks up north but even thought the temp was 67 I almost went back in and put on a long sleeve shirt. Nothing remarkable about this run. Nice and easy. I enjoyed the coolness of the morning.

 

[GollyGadget]

I know this sounds crazy to the folks up north but even thought the temp was 67 I almost went back in and put on a long sleeve shirt

You’re right, sleeves and 67 does not compute

 

[nancipants]

I know this sounds crazy to the folks up north but even thought the temp was 67 I almost went back in and put on a long sleeve shirt.

I agree. If I wasn't running, 67 would definitely be long sleeves.

 

[disneygpa]

Thursday's 10k intervals! I love this run!
T&D 116 10k paces should have been 11:25 & WU/CD 15:56
Temp was a chilly 63!! (Florida chilly)



Overall I'm happy with the way this run turned out. Even though I ran a little too fast, it was a great morning to run.

Most exciting thing was seeing the rocket launch. I've seen plenty of them, but this morning it was crystal clear and I could watch it until it was just a speck in the sky!

 

[disneygpa]

Back from our first cruise! We had a lot of fun! Definitely would do another one, but probably not one that goes to Nassau. Once you got away from the entrance the pier it wasn't too bad. But getting off the dock was a bit overwhelming.

I managed to get Saturday's EA run in. I ran it a little too fast. Well, probably just too fast.



This is what running around a 1/6th mile track on the cruise ship looks like to my Garmin. I love that I ran my 2nd mile at 3:14!! Obviously I didn't run a 3:14, but it was definitely still too fast whatever it was.

Sunday. If I'm being honest I just skipped it because I was being lazy. I could make an excuse that I woke up late and it was hot and I was exhausted from the sightseeing the day before. But I could have run it at any point on a treadmill in the gym. So, Sunday was skipped because I was lazy.

Tuesday morning run! Back at it.
T&D 132 EA pace should have been 15:10.

A little on the fast side but it was still a nice easy pace.
Ended up running about a half mile extra(unrecorded) because there was some sketchy guy on the sidewalk in front of me when I got to about 1.75 miles. So instead of taking a chance on interacting with said sketchy dude I turned around and ran back the way I came.

 

[disneygpa]

Thursday morning's run. 10k pace 4/1200-meter intervals. Dang, I like these runs!
T&D 144 paces should have been 16:24 and 11:45.
Overall, I did really well with the 10k paces!!
It was a little warm and muggy, it's starting to feel like Florida even in the wee hours.

 

[disneygpa]

Saturday EA run
T&D 141, EA pace should have been 15:19
Another EA run in the books. Miles 1 & 2 were a little fast but not too bad. I don't recall anything special about this run. Just nice and easy.



Sunday long run! 7.5 miles at LR pace. I didn't note the T&D but it must have been between 136-140 because I was super excited about being really close to my pacing.
This was a nutrition run. So, I started with a granola bar and peanut butter about 30 minutes before the run. I stretched and then took off. I took in a GU at 45 minutes and then another 30 minutes after that. I drank plenty of water and the run went really well, I think!
The only problem was some chafing that developed into a blister in a not very great spot! I've never had any issues with chafing before, so this is a new development. I ordered some squirrel nut butter to hopefully avoid this in the future. I'm blaming the fact that running in FL is like running in a sauna. You are sweating from nearly your first step.
All in all I'm super happy with this run AND to find out I can still do 7.5 miles without much problem!!



Tuesday morning run. Again, I forgot to record T&D but paces were supposed to be 15:14 so I was a little fast the for the first and second miles again. Run itself was easy and enjoyable.

What happened during the run was a little exciting. As I'm running down the sidewalk, I can hear a car coming up behind me travelling at a VERY high rate of speed for a city street. They were probably doing north of 80 when they passed me. The hit the brakes hard at the upcoming light, made a hard right turn and sped off. A few seconds later here come the city police and an equally high rate of speed. The first officer didn't see the car make the right turn and mistakenly went left. The second officer slowed enough to ask me which direction they went. I yelled that they went right, and he sped off in that direction. Quite exciting for 3:45am. I've been looking on the internet to see if they caught the driver, but I can't find anything. Bummer. I really want to know I they were caught.



That should catch me up!!

 

[disneygpa]

Time to catch up... I've been a little behind on this journal this week.

Thursday 5-18

T&D 139

Nothing really special to see here. It was a pleasant morning for my favorite runs!



I missed my Saturday run. I turned on the wrong alarm and slept until my go to work alarm went off. Couldn't run in the afternoon because we were on the road to the kids right after work. UGH.

Sunday 5-21
T&D 149
Ran this at the kids place in Windermere. It was hot and muggy even though I was out before the sun came up.
The run itself was great despite the weather. Really happy with my consistency on the pacing and I really enjoyed the run!
After the run I may have over done it. My oldest grandson wanted to play baseball. And by play baseball he wanted me to pitch to him and then catch for him while he pitched. After playing ball for an hour or so we moved to the gym. He wanted to work out. Soooo squats, deadlifts, bent over rows, lat pull downs and bench press proceeded. After another hour or so in the gym I was spent body battery was flatlined at zero and it really showed up Monday morning. I could barely get out of bed. Spent all day Monday trying to recover and when the alarm went off Tuesday morning, I turned it off and went back to sleep for another hour. It was wonderful and exhausting at the same time and I'll do it anytime he wants!



Wednesday morning! Oh boy did I almost screw this up.
T&D 142
So after skipping Tuesday mornings run I started my Garmin and it asked if I wanted to do the run on my calender. My 3am brain was thinking that it wanted me to run Tuesdays run and so I said no and figured I'd go do 3 miles at EA which was supposed to be Tuesday's run.
About 1/3 of a mile down the road my brain woke up enough to realize that this week, I was supposed to run on Wednesday!!! So I had to restart the Garmin and apologize to it for turning down it's original invitation to do my scheduled workout. Completed my 3 miles at EB with strides! I love doing strides!



So that brings me up to today's run! 16- 200 meter intervals at 10k pace.
T&D 142


I know it's really hard to read this and that is just as well. This run was a disaster. I started out just fine and about 1/2 mile into my warmup lightning lit up the sky. It was still pretty far away so I decided to continue the run and if it got closer, I'd seek shelter under someone's eave. Well the lightning didn't get closer but the rain sure did! If you've ever been caught in a Florida downpour you know what happened next. I got soaked to the bone. Ran thru puddles ankle deep and thoroughly loved it! What I didn't like was missing one of my run intervals, and my pacing was all over the place. I was feeling really bad about the run and to just poke me a little bit, Mother Nature decided to stop the rain when I got to my cooldown.

I still loved this run even though I don't think I did very well with it.
Time to look forward to this weekend's runs!!!

 

[disneygpa]

Saturday 4 miles @EB + strides. I didn't record T&D for some reason, but I think it was in the low 130s given my pacing.
This run felt great! I love doing strides! Given the bummer of a run-on Thursday, this was a nice rebound run.



Sunday 7.5 miles @LR. We were back over at the kids house pet sitting this weekend so I had to run an old familiar route. This was a great, and I do mean great morning for a run. T&D was only 124!!!! This felt so nice to be out in given the recent 130 and 140 runs. Had a half of a gronola bar with PB pre run and fuel at 45 and 75 minutes (GU). Took in plenty of water! I made a note that my legs were a little tired after this run. They felt fine the next day. Pacing was great!(at least for me) I wish all my runs could be like this!



Tuesday morning EA run. Still at the kid's place. T&D 130. I was a touch fast but not too bad. Nice run. Interesting note that 76% of this run my HR stayed in zone 1. I don't think I've ever run an EA run where I stayed in zone 1 a majority of the time. I don't really think it's anything significant, but I did find it interesting.



A little bad news. My youngest Grandson is in the hospital with nephrotic syndrome. This isn't his first hospital stay for this. He's doing well and is probably going home tomorrow. If you are in a praying way maybe throw in a special request on his behalf? Thanks!

 

[disneygpa]

Thursday's 5k interval run was fun but definitely tiring. T&D was 144, so my 5k paces should have been 11:17. Well I ran almost all of them way too fast. It's like I have a mental block that doesn't let me run above my paces and I almost always run too fast. Sigh, still a work in progress. The run was fun! I really like the hard run days. I really need to bring back more stretching in my life. Even if it's just once in the evening. (I can't get up any earlier)


Saturday's EA run. T&D 141 EA pace should have been 15:19. Paces weren't horrible for this run. As great as my HR was on the last EA run. This one was just the opposite. I ended up with time in zone 3 & 4! What the heck? It still felt like an easy run. Not sure why the HR was so much higher than the last EA.



The littlest grandson is out of the hospital now. They are changing up his diet with hopes that will delay another episode. They are still hopeful that he'll grow out of this condition. Thanks for any and all prayers!

 

[disneygpa]

A bit of catching up to do.

Sunday's M Tempo run. T&D 140 M pace 12:42
I was really happy with this run! It felt good and I wasn't exhausted afterwards.
Pacing was good. I ran this a little later in the morning. Left about 0530 so I missed a lot of the direct sunlight.
Overall a good run for me.



Tuesday EA run T&D 137 EA pace should have been 15:14.
Well, I really screwed up pacing on this one. My 0300-brain looked at my pace chart and read the first line which is my WU/CD pace. My brain said, "Hey that's right". Turns out it's not right and it took me about 2 miles to finally realize this run was too EASY even for an easy run. That's when I started to try and guess what I was supposed to be running. I figured if I got a little slower than my Garmin programmed paces, I would be ok. So anyway, I ended up getting close to my 15:14 for my last mile.



I'll throw in a little walk with Donna on Tuesday. We are trying to get her back to running and this is our attempt to get back in the groove.



OK. Wednesday morning M Tempo. I added a half mile WU to this to help me get a little loose to start the run.
T&D 139 M Tempo pace 12:42. I forgot to actually look at my pacing chart this morning. But I figured T&D was about the same as Sunday's run, so I guessed the pace would be about the same. This run felt great! My pacing was good, and I felt like I could have easily continued for a couple/few more miles.



Interestingly, I ran the same exact route Wednesday as I did on Sunday and my avg/max HR was lower despite having a faster avg pace and running a larger portion of the same distance.

 

[disneygpa]

Last Thursday 3 miles EA t&d 142. Nice easy run. Felt easy. Big surprise my first mile was rather fast. Should have been 20 seconds or so slower. Something of note today. I saw 3 red foxes. I've never seen a fox in the wild so it was pretty cool. What wasn't cool was that after I passed them on of them started to trot down the road after me. It didn't really pursue. I just think it was curious about me.



Saturday 4 miles at EB plus strides. I do enjoy a stride day! Again a little fast on the first mile. Corrected pace should have been 14:17. But all in all a good morning! No animal sightings to report!



Sunday 5k intervals. I forgot to make a note about t&d but I'm guessing it was between 144 and 147 because I'm sure my pace was supposed to be 11:17. I really enjoyed this run. It hit me kinda hard when I was finished, and I my legs were definitely feeling it. Another run that I really enjoyed.


Tuesday morning. 3 miles at EA. t&d 148!!! It's crazy how much you can feel the changes in the air down here. Even from a 142 over the weekend to a 148 this morning. The air just feels heavier. Today's wildlife included a bunch of tiny stupid lizards that want to run under my feet in the dark. These things may eventually kill me by causing me to fall. A frog in the middle of the sidewalk, and shortly after Mr. Frog, a tiny black snake. Oh, and I scared a bunch of birds out of a tree which in turn scared the crap out of me. Eventful morning!

 

[disneygpa]

That's another @DopeyBadger training plan in the books! Thanks Billy!

So this last plan was something to get me back to running consistently. I asked for something to get me back to 20 ish mile a week and maybe pick up some speed along the way.
Pre plan 5k 33:43
Post plan 5k 32:12
RHR back to the low to mid 40's, Garmin VO2 max steady at 36. I am a little bummed at the lack of improvement of the VO2 max but it is what it is and I'm not sure how much the added heat and humidity is affecting it. We'll see if it improves over next "winter".



I'm not nearly as fast as I was a few years ago, but I'm happy that I'm still able to run and I'm seeing a little improvement over the last 12 weeks.

Still lifting weights twice a week and doing a core workout once a week.

Next up is the Clearwater Rock n Roll half for me. I'm going to try racing this half. I haven't raced a half in a couple of years because I've been running them with Donna. She is unfortunately still nursing an troublesome IT band so she is just focusing on getting some walks in.

After the Clearwater half it'll be time to get serious about training for a 50 mile trail run in Feb.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Way to go!

 

[disneygpa]

Whoop whoop!!! New training plan, for my upcoming half. Thanks Billy! I'll be running the Rock n Roll half in Clearwater FL the first weekend of October. I absolutely think this plan rocks! Lots of variety in the runs along with the easy stuff!

Found a brand-new Fleet Feet store nearby. I didn't really need anything, but I wanted to go in and have a look. The people were super friendly, and we ended up visiting with them for a fair bit. Found out that one of their employees is a trail runner down here, so I'll be swinging by to pick his brain when I need a new pair of kicks in about 150 miles.

Speaking of shoes. I've been exclusively running in Brooks Glycerins ever since my accident, so about 5 years ago. I've been looking for a different shoe with similar cushion and fit. I'm wondering about the Brooks Aurora. I have yet to actually find a pair in a store yet but I'm wondering if anyone has tried them or read any reviews?

Anyway, Wednesday, first day was 4 M @ EB plus strides. T&D was hot and muggy at 152. Even at 3am FL can be brutal. There isn't much I miss about the North West, but I do miss the coolness for running.



Thursday was a Crescendo run. T&D was 152 again. I wasn't really sure what to expect with this run but it turned out to be fun and quite a workout.



Friday 3M EA. T&D 151. Nice and easy run. Still warm and muggy. I suspect that will be the theme until October.

 

[disneygpa]

Well I'm a week behind. Still loving this new training plan! NOT loving this FL summer weather. T&D has been in the mid 150s all week. I've finally gone to running shirtless. I'm sorry to anyone that happens to see that. But it just seems pointless with the shirt just being soaked after 5 min.

Last Sunday. Was supposed to be 4 miles @ EB plus strides. But for some reason I programmed 4.5 miles. No worries I don't think it matters that much. I didn't record the T&D but I'm sure it was miserable.



Monday 6 miles LR. T&D 149. Muggy muggy muggy. This morning was interesting as I heard some coyotes that weren't very far away. As I was running it sounded like they were getting closer. My only thought was whether I had ever heard of coyotes attacking a human. I couldn't remember any but it definitely was enough to keep me on my toes.



Wednesday another EB + strides. I apparently haven't gotten around to updating my plan and ran 4.5 miles again instead of 4. T&D was 155 this morning. That mugginess seems to be exponential when it gets over 150.



Thursday another Crescendo run! Whoop whoop!! This was fun and challenging! T&D 154.



And finally Friday's EA run. 3 miles and EASY!! T&D 153



Also, we did two lifting workouts and one core workout. Oh yeah and I turned 57 on Thursday!!

 

[GollyGadget]

Happy belated birthday!