To Infinity and Beyond - Becoming a Better DopeyBadger (Comments Welcome)

[DopeyBadger]

2022 Hot2Trot 5k w/ G Recap



G is back for another recap!

Well I woke up around 6am (an hour before we had to leave) and had a nutella waffle (breakfast of champions). I watched some Big City Greens to get me in the race mood. I decided we would wear our Buzz Lightyear and Pizza Planet Delivery Guy outfits again because "Lightyear" the movie just came out. I haven't seen it yet, but I'd like to.

The race was pretty close so we didn't have to leave until 7:10am, and the race would start at 7:45am. Dad has done this race a few times before and I've done the Kids 1k before. But this was my first time doing the 5k. We drove over and parked in the grass. The grass was wet but mom carried me like a toddler (not like a baby) to the dry pavement. I saw some friends near the start line who were going to do the Kids race. My friend from flag football was there, and my friend from school who is in first grade was there (I was in second grade and about to be in third).



We watched my friends do the Kids race and I cheered them on. Then a few minutes later it was our turn to do the 5k. Dad said the race course for this one was more difficult than my other two 5ks. So we were going to try and be conservative. We lined up towards the middle of the group of runners. I was the youngest person in the race. On the last day of signup there were only four other runners under 14 years old female, but when I looked around I saw a few other girls who were probably just a little older than me. The race started and we were off.

We decided to do run/walk, but not 30/30. We just ran when I felt good and walked when I felt like I needed to. We weren't too far into the race before I felt like I needed to walk. But Dad said no, because there were so many people around us. So I held on to the run as long as I could before we found an opening to start our walk. Lots of people passed us, so we probably should have started further back. It didn't seem like anyone else was using run/walk around us, so we would catch some and then they'd pass us. But you'll never guess who we saw on course...



THANOS! Like for reals. That guy isn't suppose to be around anymore. So it doesn't make any sense why he was running in the Hot2Trot 5k. He didn't have the stones with him thankfully. Maybe he's from another timeline, or maybe from another Multiverse. It's hard to know these days. I feel like he was probably searching the running path for the infinity stones. Thankfully I'm pretty confident there aren't any stones in Cottage Grove. My Dad and I decided we needed to make sure we beat Thanos just like the Avengers did. Except I was going to do it in a race.

We continued on with run/walk and approached the second hardest hill on the course. We ran up some and walked some. About the time we got to the top of it someone called out my name. It was my neighbor's mom. She was like "hey, do you know who I am? I'm your friend's mom." Dad and I looked at each other, and agreed we couldn't let her beat us. GAME ON! So I bolted off at a super fast pace, and Dad was like, "Whoa buddy don't do that quite yet." I guess he was right because we had quite a bit of race to go. As we passed my grandfather's automobile shop, we closed in on where some of the family was going to be. They were cheering me on and I sped up when I saw them because when you see a camera you're suppose to ham it up. Not too long after this I was asking my Dad how close to the finish we were, but he said we weren't even to Mile 1 yet. We ended up doing the first mile in 13:04.

During the second mile, my dad was teaching me about how to run the shortest distance on the race course. So we would hug the corners. But not like hug hug, but like hug.



We ran down a hill and were going pretty quick. We kept looking backwards to see where my friend's mom was. We were staying ahead of her. She had a stroller, and my Dad wondered whether she rode the stroller down the hill. I don't think so. We were jockeying back and forth with several other runners. Soon we were on main street and since we only got to run in the bike lane Dad told me to let my friend's mom with the stroller pass us so that they wouldn't have to try and pass us in the road. We kept going down main street but I was slowing down. There was one more really big hill to go, and I was having issues keeping up. I got a bit of a side ache, but I was ok. We finished the second mile in 13:51 and had only the large hill to go.

Dad kept saying we were making good time. Our goal was to save energy for the big hill so we could get up that and then run downhill to the finish. The hill was by my old school so it was cool to run by that. I wanted to walk more because that hill was hard. But then my friend's mom was right behind us and I didn't want her to catch us after we passed her right before the big hill. We got up to the top of the big hill and one of the other runners we had been going back and forth with said I was speedy. She had a weird running form. Like she was cross country skiing on pavement. Long strides, walking, and swinging her arms way out. But it was clearly working for her. We tried to keep a good pace down the hill. Only stopped once or twice, and we were trying to catch up to a few other runners ahead of us. But I was getting tired. Before I knew it, Dad was saying we were almost finished. We turned on a street towards the finish and a lady was yelling something like "Go, Go, you're almost there." Which was true, but then my eyes told me it was further than "almost". We finished the third mile in 13:09.

Dad said I had a chance to finish faster than BratFest if we could keep it up. I told him we would super boost to the finish once we got to the tree line. I was trying to fix my pants. I was hot and should have worn shorts. But then Dad said that my friend's mom was catching up to us and we started running to the tree line to do the super boost. Once we hit the tree line, then it was to infinity and beyond. We did the last 0.1 miles in 6:55 min/mile pace hitting a max pace of 5:30. We were flying, or maybe it was falling with style.



We crossed the finish line in 40:43. We finished ahead of my friend's mom, and most importantly ahead of Thanos! We beat him once again. You're welcome.



After the race I had a cookie and did not like it. I also got a picture with my friend's mom and separately with Dad. My Dad said that maybe my friend should run the race next year, and his mom said it would be a rematch. He was going to train for it with some strength and conditioning. So now I've got a rival for next year's race. Hopefully Kang the Conqueror doesn't show up too...



If you are running this race, I suggest looking for someone that you know out on course, and then you'd have someone to race against. AND, if you see someone dressed up or literally is someone that you know from a show or movie you could also race them, like Thanos. Thank you for reading, and until next time.

 

[DopeyBadger]

21 Weeks to go - Canova Intro Phase - Week 9/10





6/13/22-6/19/22
Tues (6/14): 60 min @ Easy (9:13 min/mile, 140 bpm) & LIIFT4-Arms/Shoulders
Wed (6/15): 60 min @ Easy (9:13 min/mile, 134 bpm) + LIIFT4-HIIT
Thurs (6/16): 60 min @ Easy (9:11 min/mile, 134 bpm)
Fri (6/17): 6 miles @ Easy (8:50 min/mile, 132 bpm) + 5x15s at Max on 2-3% grade hill
Sat (6/18): Hot2Trot 5k w/ G + 7 miles @ Easy (8:59 min/mile, 128 bpm) + LIIFT4-Chest/Back
Sun (6/19): 7 miles @ 80% M Tempo (8:19 min/mile, 131 bpm) + LIIFT4-Legs

Total Run Miles - 43.9 miles
Total Run Time - 6:50 hours
Total Strength Time - 2:27 hours
Total Training Time - 9:17 hours


Tuesday

Conditions - Humid, Wind 17mph to 29mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 91°F + 75°F; FL - 102°F
End: Temp+Dew = 89°F + 76°F; FL - 102°F

I could still my left knee a little bit, but it wasn't too bad. The temps were CRAZY again. T+D of 166. It's hard when the temp changes so quickly. I tried to run slow, but I was boiling on the inside. The sun was full bore. I thought I was going slow enough but as I was getting to the end of the run I was melting. I was drenched in sweat when I got inside. I even felt a little dizzy. But after cooling off in front of a fan and drinking some more water I was ok.

My body didn't really want to do the LIIFT4 workout, but I managed.


Wednesday

Conditions - Partly Cloudy, Wind 21mph to 38mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 87°F + 72°F; FL - 93°F
End: Temp+Dew = 83°F + 73°F; FL - 93°F

The left knee felt good. No real issues. The T+D cooled off a little from 166 down to 159. I felt better during this run than the day prior. It was mostly because it was cloudy. There was a MASSIVE storm coming in and I finished the run just in time.

The LIIFT4 was HIIT. It was going fine until I tried to do the pushup knee tuck jump move. My right knee audibly popped. I felt fine to continue.


Thursday

Conditions - Clear, Wind 19mph to 35mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 82°F + 59°F; FL - 82°F
End: Temp+Dew = 80°F + 60°F; FL - 82°F

No issues with the right knee during the day. The run was when I could notice the right knee. It felt a little sore. No swelling or anything. Just didn't feel right. Felt worse on the uphills than the downhill. Didn't know if I'd do the uphill sprints on the next day but just decided to take it day by day. The T+D cooled down to 141. I did the same pace as the other two days and HR was 134.


Friday

Conditions - Clear, Wind 11mph to 16mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 79°F + 60°F; FL - 79°F
End: Temp+Dew = 78°F + 60°F; FL - 79°F

RIght knee was a little upset with me during the day. It was off and on during the run. I decided I was good enough to try the hill sprints though. So I did six miles at an easy pace at a faster pace with lower HR than the past few days. The hill sprints were good for the first three. I did them on the 2-3% grade hill in 4:50s pace with top speed in the sub-3 area again. The fourth rep I could tell my left knee/hamstring was feeling a bit weaker. I decided to do one more rep and could feel the knee/hamstring just a bit more. So I pulled the plug at five reps. Quality over quantity. I did them all between 4:40-4:55 pace. The uphill is bothering me like it has in the past. I might try and pull back on the pace just a touch to see if they won't bother my left leg as much.


Saturday

Conditions - Clear, Wind 7mph to 15mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 58°F + 46°F; FL - 58°F
End: Temp+Dew = 60°F + 48°F; FL - 58°F

G and I did the Hot2Trot 5k (link).

We headed home and I headed out for another 7 miles. I couldn't pass it up since the T+D dropped. It felt so glorious compared to earlier in the week. I took it nice and easy and my HR was much better off for it. The left knee/hamstring was still sore from the hill reps the day earlier, but at least the right knee which popped was feeling normal.

I did the LIIFT4 workout afterwards and it felt fine. It's the last week of the program.


Sunday

Conditions - Clear, Wind 5mph to 10mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 57°F + 43°F; FL - 57°F
End: Temp+Dew = 61°F + 45°F; FL - 57°F

Steph had to work, so it was a slightly earlier morning. Which just means I got out there for the good weather. The goal was to aim around the Canova 80% M Tempo pace (8:24) since the real training starts in a week. For the most part I was on point. Enjoyed some of the last nice cool day before we're back to summer again next week. Left knee/hamstring still tight, but getting better.

I did LIIFT4 Legs afterwards and my legs felt pretty beat up afterwards.

G and I spent Father's Day working on her Ms. Marvel costume. I'll detail that in a separate post.

Running still going well. Only one more week of intro training to go, and then finally I'll be back to real pace work. Continue to make good progress just biding my time.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Ms. Marvel Cosplay: Initial Design and Working on the Bracelet

See the final product -Finished!

I decided I'll do the Ms. Marvel Cosplay creation in a different post because then I can create a new section in the training journal in case anyone else wants to use anything I learn along the way. So G has settled on Ms. Marvel for her 2022 Halloween and 2023 Princess outfit. We're going for something like this:

Spoiler: Ms. Marvel MCU image

But G has big "+" plans for the costume. She wants to add a giant glowing hand, and maybe some "hardlight" going on with her shoes. As far as the hand goes, something like this:

Spoiler: Ms Marvel hand

We're going to attempt to make the hand and bengal/bracelet out of plastazote foam (link). It allows a decent amount of light through. It's what we made her Wanda headpiece out of for the last costume.

So we started off with trying to figure out the size of the hand we wanted to make, but also something that would reasonably fit in our hard luggage bag for transport to Disney. So it has to be practical. We settled on it being about 13 inches long, 8.5 inches wide and 7 inches tall. In order to get the proportions of the hand, we traced my hand, measured the distances, and then converted those measurements to scale up to our desired size.







We plan on building the fist into two parts (a top and bottom). This way the inside will be easily accessible when it comes to the LED wiring. So we had to figure out a place that made sense to cut it in half.

Once we determined our measurements, we wanted to do a paper mock-up just to get a good idea of the scale of it. We wanted to confirm whether it was going to be too big or small for G's body. Ultimately, the original plans seemed reasonable once we made a 3-D model.





Just for scale you can see my hand in the 1/2 model (this is only the top) which lacks the thumb.

We then wanted to make the bracelet first since I have a feeling that's going to be the easiest thing to make for this hand piece. Our goal was something like this:

Spoiler: Ms Marvel bracelet

This size bracelet is when her powers are activated in the MCU version of Ms. Marvel. There's also a smaller version of the bracelet, but G didn't want to make the smaller version. So to get everything to fit, we had to expand past our original 13 inch design. So that meant we were going to break the total handpiece into four total pieces (top/bottom bracelet and top/bottom fist). Everything will be held together with tiny magnets. They're tiny but quite strong.

In order to get the proportions of the bracelet right, I drew out a mock-up on paper.



The bracelet appears to follow a pattern of 0.5, 1, 0.5, 1, 0.5 1.25, 0.5 for the different sections. So that's 5.25 total inches long.

Like I said earlier, we used the Plastazote foam. I used a Dremel 4000 with the flex shaft rotary to do the designs into the foam.



You can see the Dremel 4000 hanging on the left hand side of the picture, and then the flex shaft tool hanging down off of it. This shaft accessory was immensely useful because it allowed me to get in the nooks and crannies of the design without the much larger cumbersome dremel itself in the way.

We used a variety of tips to carve out the desired patterns from the foam. We wore safety goggles as well as respirator masks because it created a lot of debris. Once we got the top/bottom of the bracelet carved out into our desired shapes, then we coated them in Flexbond primer. It's a special primer paint that is flexible and meant for foam cosplay crafts. It paints on white, but dries transluscent. The Dremel took some getting used to, and we used a spare piece of foam to see what each of the tips could do for us. But ultimately, I think we're pretty pleased with the initial work we've done.



This is were we stopped for the day. I'd say all in all, this took us about:

-2 hrs for the initial paper mock-ups and measurements
-1 hr for craft table clean-up and reading the Dremel 4000 instructions
-3 hrs to carve out the bracelet and paint it with two coats of Flexbond.

So we're about 6 hours into the project at this point.

Next: Fun with Magnets

 

[DopeyBadger]

Fitness check-in coming out of Canova Introductory phase

This is the last week of the Canova Introductory phase, so I figured I'd do a little check-in on the fitness level using the HRvPace data. As a reminder, during the Canova introductory phase, I've only been doing easy running and limiting myself to no more than about 60 min per day. In addition, I've been doing the LIIFT4 BeachBody routine in full. So all four days, all the HIIT, and all the core workouts. I can say without reservation that my whole body (arms, chest, core, legs) are significantly stronger today than they were eight weeks ago. The strength training has paid off without question. So I thought I'd compare myself today (mid-June) to different points in time along the Madison 2021 training cycle (first return to six days per week running in three years leading to my 2nd fastest marathon ever at 3:15).

The fastest run I've done in this phase of the training cycle (April 15th to June 19th) was a 7:58 min/mile on 5/22. For comparison, my 2017 marathon PR is a 7:24 min/mile, my recent marathon was a 7:27, my HM PR from 2019 is a 6:46, and my 10k PR from 2018 is a 6:25 min/mile. So that puts the 7:58 min/mile in perspective in relation to recent races as well as PRs. In addition, my average training pace during this phase has been an 8:40 min/mile. So that's about 75 seconds/mile slower than my marathon performance level.

I looked through my 2021 Madison M (Hansons Intermediate) training for runs with HRs lower than 135 bpm to compare against where I'm at these days.

7/7/21 - 4 miles at 9:26 (adj 9:15) at T+D 129 with HR of 131
7/14/21 - 4 miles at 9:25 (adj 9:03) at T+D 146 with HR of 131
7/30/21 - 3.3 miles at 9:22 (adj. (9:11) at T+D 130 with HR of 130
8/18/21 - 4 miles at 9:33 (adj. 9:06) at T+D 152 with HR of 128
8/21/21 - 6 miles at 9:02 (adj. 8:44) at T+D 142 with HR of 129
8/28/21 - 6 miles at 9:21 (adj. 8:54) at T+D 153 with HR of 131
9/4/21 - 8 miles at 9:06 (adj. 8:58) at T+D 121 with HR of 128
9/11/21 - 6 miles at 8:38 (adj 8:33) at T+D 113 with HR of 132
9/18/21 - 8 miles at 8:13 (adj. 8:11) at T+D 101 with HR of 132
10/2/21 - 8 miles at 8:22 (adj 8:12) at T+D 125 with HR of 133
10/16/21 - 8 miles at 8:40 (adj 8:40) at T+D 76 with HR of 131

This isn't an exhaustive list of sub-135 HR runs, but more-so a selection of what I saw as the best conversions.

Compare that to:

4/15/22 - 60 min at 8:41 (adj. 8:41) at T+D 66 with HR of 133
4/24/22 - 60 min at 8:29 (adj. 8:24) at T+D 115 with HR of 134
5/3/22 - 60 min at 8:45 (adj. 8:45) at T+D 90 with HR of 131
5/17/22 - 45 min at 8:45 (adj. 8:40) at T+D 115 with HR of 131
5/25/22 - 60 min at 8:32 (adj. 8:27) at T+D 118 with HR of 131
6/5/22 - 49 min at 8:11 (adj. 8:04) at T+D 121 with HR of 132
6/7/22 - 61 min at 8:43 (adj. 8:35) at T+D 121 with HR of 127
6/19/22 - 58 min at 8:19 (adj. 8:17) at T+D 106 with HR of 131

Honestly, I'm in a much better place right now then compared to most anytime during that entire training cycle. Maybe in peak training in September I was doing some things to rival my low HR training right now, but by in-large I'm still in better place in a few places. Like 9/18/21 is one of the best low HR runs in that training cycle and 6/5/22 is better by 7 seconds per mile. And I've still got several months of training to go.

It's fair to say, I'm in really good shape when looking at my HRvPace data. The current values rival some of the stuff I was doing in Fall 2017 and Winter 2017 during my peak running fitness shape. I'm not in racing shape right now, but I think I've put myself in a good place to handle some good hard training runs that hopefully yield a good outcome in 21 weeks. It'll be interesting to see how the remainder of this training cycle plays out.

 

[avondale]

2022 Hot2Trot 5k w/ G Recap

View attachment 677771

G is back for another recap!

Well I woke up around 6am (an hour before we had to leave) and had a nutella waffle (breakfast of champions). I watched some Big City Greens to get me in the race mood. I decided we would wear our Buzz Lightyear and Pizza Planet Delivery Guy outfits again because "Lightyear" the movie just came out. I haven't seen it yet, but I'd like to.

The race was pretty close so we didn't have to leave until 7:10am, and the race would start at 7:45am. Dad has done this race a few times before and I've done the Kids 1k before. But this was my first time doing the 5k. We drove over and parked in the grass. The grass was wet but mom carried me like a toddler (not like a baby) to the dry pavement. I saw some friends near the start line who were going to do the Kids race. My friend from flag football was there, and my friend from school who is in first grade was there (I was in second grade and about to be in third).

View attachment 677793

We watched my friends do the Kids race and I cheered them on. Then a few minutes later it was our turn to do the 5k. Dad said the race course for this one was more difficult than my other two 5ks. So we were going to try and be conservative. We lined up towards the middle of the group of runners. I was the youngest person in the race. On the last day of signup there were only four other runners under 14 years old female, but when I looked around I saw a few other girls who were probably just a little older than me. The race started and we were off.

We decided to do run/walk, but not 30/30. We just ran when I felt good and walked when I felt like I needed to. We weren't too far into the race before I felt like I needed to walk. But Dad said no, because there were so many people around us. So I held on to the run as long as I could before we found an opening to start our walk. Lots of people passed us, so we probably should have started further back. It didn't seem like anyone else was using run/walk around us, so we would catch some and then they'd pass us. But you'll never guess who we saw on course...

View attachment 677773

THANOS! Like for reals. That guy isn't suppose to be around anymore. So it doesn't make any sense why he was running in the Hot2Trot 5k. He didn't have the stones with him thankfully. Maybe he's from another timeline, or maybe from another Multiverse. It's hard to know these days. I feel like he was probably searching the running path for the infinity stones. Thankfully I'm pretty confident there aren't any stones in Cottage Grove. My Dad and I decided we needed to make sure we beat Thanos just like the Avengers did. Except I was going to do it in a race.

We continued on with run/walk and approached the second hardest hill on the course. We ran up some and walked some. About the time we got to the top of it someone called out my name. It was my neighbor's mom. She was like "hey, do you know who I am? I'm your friend's mom." Dad and I looked at each other, and agreed we couldn't let her beat us. GAME ON! So I bolted off at a super fast pace, and Dad was like, "Whoa buddy don't do that quite yet." I guess he was right because we had quite a bit of race to go. As we passed my grandfather's automobile shop, we closed in on where some of the family was going to be. They were cheering me on and I sped up when I saw them because when you see a camera you're suppose to ham it up. Not too long after this I was asking my Dad how close to the finish we were, but he said we weren't even to Mile 1 yet. We ended up doing the first mile in 13:04.

During the second mile, my dad was teaching me about how to run the shortest distance on the race course. So we would hug the corners. But not like hug hug, but like hug.

View attachment 677782

We ran down a hill and were going pretty quick. We kept looking backwards to see where my friend's mom was. We were staying ahead of her. She had a stroller, and my Dad wondered whether she rode the stroller down the hill. I don't think so. We were jockeying back and forth with several other runners. Soon we were on main street and since we only got to run in the bike lane Dad told me to let my friend's mom with the stroller pass us so that they wouldn't have to try and pass us in the road. We kept going down main street but I was slowing down. There was one more really big hill to go, and I was having issues keeping up. I got a bit of a side ache, but I was ok. We finished the second mile in 13:51 and had only the large hill to go.

Dad kept saying we were making good time. Our goal was to save energy for the big hill so we could get up that and then run downhill to the finish. The hill was by my old school so it was cool to run by that. I wanted to walk more because that hill was hard. But then my friend's mom was right behind us and I didn't want her to catch us after we passed her right before the big hill. We got up to the top of the big hill and one of the other runners we had been going back and forth with said I was speedy. She had a weird running form. Like she was cross country skiing on pavement. Long strides, walking, and swinging her arms way out. But it was clearly working for her. We tried to keep a good pace down the hill. Only stopped once or twice, and we were trying to catch up to a few other runners ahead of us. But I was getting tired. Before I knew it, Dad was saying we were almost finished. We turned on a street towards the finish and a lady was yelling something like "Go, Go, you're almost there." Which was true, but then my eyes told me it was further than "almost". We finished the third mile in 13:09.

Dad said I had a chance to finish faster than BratFest if we could keep it up. I told him we would super boost to the finish once we got to the tree line. I was trying to fix my pants. I was hot and should have worn shorts. But then Dad said that my friend's mom was catching up to us and we started running to the tree line to do the super boost. Once we hit the tree line, then it was to infinity and beyond. We did the last 0.1 miles in 6:55 min/mile pace hitting a max pace of 5:30. We were flying, or maybe it was falling with style.

View attachment 677784

We crossed the finish line in 40:43. We finished ahead of my friend's mom, and most importantly ahead of Thanos! We beat him once again. You're welcome.

View attachment 677790

After the race I had a cookie and did not like it. I also got a picture with my friend's mom and separately with Dad. My Dad said that maybe my friend should run the race next year, and his mom said it would be a rematch. He was going to train for it with some strength and conditioning. So now I've got a rival for next year's race. Hopefully Kang the Conqueror doesn't show up too...
View attachment 677797


If you are running this race, I suggest looking for someone that you know out on course, and then you'd have someone to race against. AND, if you see someone dressed up or literally is someone that you know from a show or movie you could also race them, like Thanos. Thank you for reading, and until next time.

View attachment 677785

Congratulations, G!

 

[azrivest]

We crossed the finish line in 40:43. We finished ahead of my friend's mom, and most importantly ahead of Thanos! We beat him once again. You're welcome.

Thank you for beating Thanos, G, you're a true superhero. Congrats on a great race!

 

[DopeyBadger]

Thank you for beating Thanos, G, you're a true superhero. Congrats on a great race!

 

[DopeyBadger]

20 Weeks to go - Canova Intro Phase - Week 10/10





6/20/22-6/26/22
Tues (6/21): 60 min @ Easy (9:53 min/mile, 128 bpm)
Wed (6/22): 60 min @ Easy (9:17 min/mile, 128 bpm)
Thurs (6/23): 60 min @ Easy (9:21 min/mile, 129 bpm) & LIIFT4-Arms/Shoulders
Fri (6/24): 5.8 miles @ Easy (8:57 min/mile, 130 bpm) + 9x15s at Max on 4-5% grade hill
Sat (6/25): 7 miles @ Easy (9:05 min/mile, 122 bpm)
Sun (6/26): 10 miles @ 80% M Tempo on Jack&Jill (8:25 min/mile, 134 bpm)

Total Run Miles - 43.4 miles
Total Run Time - 6:41 hours
Total Strength Time - 0:35 hours
Total Training Time - 7:16 hours


Tuesday

Conditions - Humid and Partly Cloudy, Wind 14mph to 23mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 90°F + 77°F; FL - 104°F
End: Temp+Dew = 89°F + 77°F; FL - 104°F

Blazing hot again. In 2020 and 2021, I had 3-4 runs over a T+D of 160. Mostly occurring in July/August. So far in 2022, I've now had three runs over a T+D 160. With two of them hotter than any run during all of 2020 and 2021. OOooff! Not looking forward to what may be coming in July/August this year. Last week I also had a run over a T+D 160 and I didn't handle it well. Despite slowing down to what I thought was an appropriate pace, my body didn't respond well. So I went REALLY slow (relatively speaking) with like an effort level near zero. So this time around I was averaging a 9:53 min/mile and had zero issue with the temps. Finished with a HR of 128 which I'm pleased with given the effort level. So I definitely felt like I handled this run better than last week. The T+D adjustment chart said this was an +8%, but in reality I ran it as a +15%. I'm not heat acclimated at the moment, and the sun was out in full force.

The internet was out when I got home, so no LIIFT4 workout.



Wednesday

Conditions - Clear, Wind 11mph to 15mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 81°F + 62°F; FL - 82°F
End: Temp+Dew = 79°F + 63°F; FL - 82°F

Went to Fleet Feet to use some rewards dollars. Bought some E-gels. Saw a woman in a Princess 2022 HM shirt and asked her if she had signed up for 2023. She had not, but oddly enough the woman I was talking to's daughter was the person checking me out. So it turns out her daughter plans on running Wine and Dine and MW. So we all got to talking about nutrition, runDisney, etc. A quick stop in lasted like 20 min. I almost felt like I should have been working there as I was going through with the daughter (again who does work there) on all the pros/cons of the different products, and tips/tricks with runDisney. Told her to come join us on the DIS, but she seems more like a person who would "lurk" then post. So if you're reading this now, then time to stop "lurking".

The T+D was better today. Something about how a T+D >160 makes a T+D of 140 not seem so bad anymore. Part of that heat acclimation process I guess. The sun also was less brutal, so that helped. Kept the effort and HR the same as Tuesday, but the pace dropped by 36 sec/mile.

It was a late start because of the Fleet Feet adventure, so when I got home everyone one else wanted to settle into Obi-wan and Ms. Marvel. So I pushed LIIFT4 to Thursday.



Thursday

Conditions - Clear, Wind 6mph to 10mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 86°F + 63°F; FL - 87°F
End: Temp+Dew = 85°F + 65°F; FL - 87°F

I don't remember anything remarkable about the run. Afterwards, I did the final LIIFT4-Arms/Shoulders workout. I can say without hesitation that the LIIFT4 workout made a big difference in the last 8 weeks. I'm definitely stronger and my muscle mass definitely seems to be in the right places. I look forward to running through the program again with some modifications now that real run training will start, but increasing the weights that I'll be pushing.



Friday

Conditions - Clear, Wind 9mph to 13mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 87°F + 65°F; FL - 88°F
End: Temp+Dew = 86°F + 61°F; FL - 88°F

I decided to do some hill work today. The first real workout of the Canova General phase is on Tuesday. So doing some hills today wouldn't have much of a negative impact on Tuesday. The last two times I've done the uphill work my left knee/hamstring has caught up a little. So I moved to the 4-5% grade hill, changed the side of the street I'm running on, and lessened the pace/effort to see if that would alleviate some of the issues. It mostly worked. I could feel the left leg twinge a little during the run, but it didn't last and didn't carry over once the run was done. I dropped the pace from the 4:50s to the 5:50s for most reps (Strava GAP in the 5:15s area) and for the most part everything felt smooth and maybe a little too easy. But I'm fine with taking the edge off a little if it means I'll come out of the run 100%.



Saturday

Conditions - Overcast, Wind 12mph to 23mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 69°F + 65°F; FL - 69°F
End: Temp+Dew = 71°F + 66°F; FL - 69°F

Nice overcast. We had some off/on rain in the morning so I delayed to a little later in the day. My legs were a tad stiff from the hill work, but no pain. The run went well. Ok, so maybe that's an understatement. According to my years of HRvPace data this was the single best low HR run I've ever done when adjusting for the T+D at 9:05 pace (8:49 adjusted) at a HR of 122. Even unadjusted it would have been the second best all time compared to a run from Dec 2017. So I think it's safe to say I'm in a good place as the Canova Intro phase comes to a close.



Sunday

Conditions - Clear, Wind 14mph to 23mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 67°F + 51°F; FL - 67°F
End: Temp+Dew = 69°F + 50°F; FL - 67°F

The last run of the Canova Intro phase. I was scheduled for 7 miles of Easy. Next Sunday I've got 14 miles of 80% M Tempo. So I decided to break the "no run over an hour" during the Intro phase and do 10 miles (around 84-85 min) today. I wanted to change up my normal long run route that I've been using for the last several years. Per Strava, it has 28/ft per mile elevation gain. The Madison Marathon is 38 ft/mile. This new route I've nicknamed "Jack & Jill" is 46 ft/mile. It's essentially running up my biggest longest hill and then down. Over and over and over again. The route is about 1 mile in climbing and then 1 mile in downhill repeated. The goal was 8:24 min/mile pace with an adjusted pace of 8:29 min/mile. I ended up running it at 8:25 min/mile pace. The route was ok, but the loop was 5 miles per loop and my old route is 4 miles per loop. So my normal water consumption rate was a bit delayed from normal. So the route might need some tweaks. The goal was to have an even GAP despite me either climbing or descending the hill.



I did alright, but I'll want to clean some things up. Looks like the uphill climb is a +25, +18, +26, +17 and the downhill descent is a -12, -16, -15, -16. So on the straight uphill I should aim for a +25, on the abbreviated uphill a +18, and the downhill something like a -15.

Ultimately, I barely broke much of a sweat and this run was pretty easy. At the end it was 10 miles, 8:25 pace, 8:20 GAP, and HR of 134. With a T+D of 119, it is 8:20 adjusted pace.

Now we move into the Canova General phase. Next week I've got three runs of interest. I've got a 10x15s uphill run (which is mostly the same as the last few weeks), a Canova Circuit workout (400m reps at M Tempo intermixed with HIIT moves like squat jumps, bounding, hopping), and then a 14 mile (120 min) run at 80% M Tempo. Excited to be done with the Intro phase and finally get to do some paced work.

For house keeping purposes, my Garmin watch has VO2max at 54 and my projected times at 19:24 5k, 40:53 10k, 1:33:27 HM, and 3:34:24 M. It'll be interesting to see how that progresses over the next 20 weeks.

G and I were quite busy with her Ms. Marvel cosplay, but I'll update that separately.

 

[DopeyBadger]

An interesting tidbit about the Canova plan as written. The pacing is based on my 2018 10k of 39:54, 2019 HM of 1:28:40, and 2020 Mile of 5:42. According to Garmin, I have done 8 non-racing training runs with an average pace under 7:30 and over a duration of 90 minutes. In this single Canova training plan, I have 7 such runs. So it's almost like Canova sneaks in these faster average runs under the disguise of workouts. So that part of the training will be interesting.

 

[DopeyBadger]

10 Year Run-a-versary

Today marks my 10 year run-a-versary. On 6/27/12, I laced up my shoes for the first time in years and got out the door. I didn't want to exercise. I was in the process of trying to lose weight, and doing so solely by calorie deficits had led to a plateau. So on this day 10 years ago, I laced up shoes and did something simple, I ran. Nothing complex. No nutrition strategy. No "train slow to race fast". No ideas about carb loading. No thoughts about doing a 5k or a marathon or any other race. No clue who the Hansons, or Jack Daniels, or Galloway were. Just me, my wife, and a pair of shoes. Since that day, I've made a lot of progress as a runner, but arguably more progress as a human being. It's nostalgic, but I look back with pride on my first run on 6/27/12.

Keep in mind that the app I used (Runtastic) was off by about 5%. So the total mileage was more likely 2.56 miles with a pace of an 11:36 min/mile average (10:13, 11:30, 13:16). This was an all-out effort. And judging by the pace graph, I had to take a walking break about 15-20 times during it.

Over the last 10 years, I have:

-Run 15,481 miles
-Cycled 12,410 miles
-Lifted weights for >300 hours
-Competed in ten 5ks.
-Competed in nine 10ks.
-Competed in nineteen half marathons.
-Competed in sixteen marathons.
-Competed in five Dopeys.
-Created 591 training plans for other runners.
-Completed one baby dash, two 100m races, one mile race, and three 5ks with my daughter.
-And maintained a weight loss of 80 pounds from my peak weight in 2009.

I'd be lying if I told you ten years ago that I'd be where I am today. Running went from something I did everything in my power to not do, into something I do everything in my power to continue to do. I continue to do it to set an example. An example that you shouldn't let others set your limits. If you want it, PROVE IT, by doing what is necessary to get it.

 

[azrivest]

Happy Run-a-versary!!

 

[SheHulk]

Happy Run-a-versary and we are all so much the richer for that day. Thank you for all your energy and generosity.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Happy Run-a-versary!!

Happy Run-a-versary and we are all so much the richer for that day. Thank you for all your energy and generosity.

Thanks!

 

[LosAngelesRunner]

What an amazing and inspiring post! Congratulations on your 10 years.

 

[DopeyBadger]

What an amazing and inspiring post! Congratulations on your 10 years.

Thanks!

 

[DopeyBadger]

19 Weeks to go - Canova General Phase - Week 1/4



6/27/22-7/3/22
Tues (6/28): 6.1 miles @ Easy (8:50 min/mile, 130 bpm) + 10x15s at Max on 5-7% grade hill
Wed (6/29): 6.5 miles @ 60-70% M Tempo (9:26 min/mile, 130 bpm)
Thurs (6/30): 3 sets of Canova Circuits (7.8 miles in 1:15 hr)
Fri (7/1): 6.5 miles @ 60-70% M Tempo (9:25 min/mile, 127 bpm)
Sat (7/2): 8.5 miles @ 85% M Tempo (8:04 min/mile, 135 bpm) + LIIFT4-Chest/Tri (No HIIT)
Sun (7/3): 14 miles @ 80% M Tempo on Jack&Jill (8:36 min/mile, 131 bpm) + LIIFT4-Back/Biceps

Total Run Miles - 51.5 miles
Total Run Time - 7:39 hours
Total Strength Time - 1:07 hours
Total Training Time - 8:47 hours


Tuesday

Conditions - Partly Cloudy, Wind 13mph to 20mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 80°F + 55°F; FL - 80°F
End: Temp+Dew = 79°F + 55°F; FL - 80°F

And here we go... After 10 weeks of Canova Introductory phase, we can actually start with the real training as I move into the General Phase. The 60 min max running cap has been lifted, the no paces faster than easy has been lifted, and the strength workouts move from being a focus to being the secondary activity.

With all that being said, this workout is pretty much the same as it was in the tail-end of the Intro phase. I do several miles of easy running and then wrap the workout up with reps of near max effort on as steep of road hill as I can find (that I want to actually travel to). Nothing terribly remarkable about the easy run. The GPS was definitely off. I run my route ALL THE TIME. So I know where the mile splits are. So when the first mile split didn't happen until a good 0.05 miles or so later, I knew things were being weird on me. The third mile was way off too (except it was too quick). Ultimately the easy portion of this workout was recorded as 6.2 miles but it was more like 6.1 miles. Minor thing in the grand scheme.

For the uphill max efforts I found the steepest/safest road hill I've got which appears to be about 5-7% grade. The goal was no more than 10 reps. But this is a quality over quantity workout. So if at any point the quality feels like it's gone, then the reps are done. Regardless of how many are left. So it might go from 10 reps down to 6 reps, and that's ok. Quality matters. I've done uphills 3-4 times recently and each time my left knee/hamstring has caused issues progressively less. So I think everything is settling in there. But I may have taken a hair off the "max" effort and gone really hard for the first few. I did end up doing all ten reps. The elevation wasn't working (bad GPS) so I don't have GAP data, but according to other runs in this area it appears to be about 30-45 sec/mile cost. So the estimated GAPs of each rep were 5:02, 4:58, 4:58, 5:16, 4:54, 4:34, 4:18, 4:16, 4:06, 4:26. You can tell something changed after the fifth rep. That's when I got an audience. A small boy and his mom came outside their house around this time, and the boy had a bottle of water. They were at the bottom of the hill. So each time it looked like I was going to pass their house, I'd turn around and run back up the hill. I figured the boy was just enjoying some water or was waiting for someone else. But after a few reps of waiting for me to pass his house, he came out into the street to offer me the water bottle. Told him thanks, but I was good. Apparently they had been watching me from inside (and I suspect they watched me during Sunday's Jack and Jill run) because they referenced how I "run a lot" and "run by their house a lot" which is mostly only the case on the Jack and Jill run recently. So they decided to come outside and watch me. The mom said that she had attempted a 50 miler recently but due to the heat had to pull out at 33 miles. I told her I want nothing to do with racing in the heat and that making it that far is respectable. Wished each other well and I continued the remainder of the workout . Leg felt good and didn't really cause any issues during the run. After the run everything felt 100%. Workout was about 75 min in total.


Wednesday

Conditions - Clear, Wind 8mph to 13mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 85°F + 61°F; FL - 85°F
End: Temp+Dew = 84°F + 62°F; FL - 85°F

Just an easy run. I feel like something happened during this run as well that I was going to write about, but at the moment I can't think of what it was. Regardless, it was an easy day and I took it easy.



Thursday

T+D = 87F + 59F = 146 with 13-25 mph wind

First attempt at Canova Circuits. A new to me style of workout where you intermix running with HIIT exercises. This is meant to be a bridge between the Intro phase in which I did several strength workouts that incorporated these same HIIT moves with running at M Tempo which I'll be doing far more of in the near future. So a bridge between two different uses of the body. The workout is:

3 sets of (6 x 400m at 100% M Tempo w/ 30 sec HIIT exercise between reps) w/ 5 min resting interval between sets. HIIT exercises included: squats, squat jumps, squat jacks, lunges, lunges w/ power through, butt kicks, skipping, bunny hops, or bounding.

I was excited to get back into running something other than 15s hills or easy pace. The 100% M Tempo goal was 7:02 min/mile, and adjusted for T+D should have been around 7:20 min/mile. To complicate things, I decided not to do these 400m reps on my flat route so with the sometimes uphill/downhill of the route it was hard to know in the moment how accurate I was being with the pace. So I just went with 400m of what felt like a good effort. I also struggled with were to run this and not be all up in other people's business when I'm doing strange HIIT moves (squats seems like an awkward thing to do in front of someone else's front door on the sidewalk). So the first rep set I was in front of other people's but then I found a 400m route that would take me to an empty lot. So I used that route for the 2nd and 3rd set.

Overall the workout was interesting. The HIIT actually felt easier than the 400m of M Tempo. It was strange for my body to try and go from M Tempo to HIIT. Like the mind/body connection felt off. Particularly on "bounding". I watched plenty of videos and did some practice shadow moves to understand how to do it, but then once the workout started bounding wasn't going to happen. I must have looked like a wounded animal trying to do it. It felt so off. I ended up doing butt kicks for the 2nd/3rd reps instead. But most of the other HIIT moves felt fine. I was a little concerned with how tight I normally get during running that it might cause some issues, but everything was fine. If anything I'm not sure my heel as ever come that close to my rear end in a long time given how flexible the leg felt in that moment. So that came as a surprise. Ultimately I didn't find the workout overly challenging. Only doing 400m reps of M Tempo is fairly easy. With the 30 sec HIIT moves intermixed, each set was about 13.5 minutes. So a little under about 2 miles of M Tempo effort (but actually only doing 1.5 miles of actual running). Ultimately, the workout felt fine and I see no reason that it's something I couldn't do again.

As for the pacing, I was a bit too quick. The goal was 7:20 min/mile pace. The average GAP of the first set was 7:07, the second set 6:57, and the third set 6:59. Overall the 18 reps average was 7:01 min/mile. Based on the T+D that was more like HM Tempo effort than M Tempo effort. But given it's 400m reps, it's probably easy to overrun this workout and survive. It just means I made it slightly harder than it should have been. Accomplishable, but not the goal. Workout was about 75 min in total.



Friday

Conditions - Mostly Cloudy, Wind 9mph to 14mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 78°F + 61°F; FL - 78°F
End: Temp+Dew = 78°F + 60°F; FL - 78°F

Right knee felt a little tight after the Canova Circuit workout on Thursday, but nothing too concerning. I don't remember anything particularly notable about this run. About an hour of an easy pace and low HR.



Saturday

Conditions - Clear, Wind 3mph to 3mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 61°F + 56°F; FL - 61°F
End: Temp+Dew = 65°F + 58°F; FL - 61°F

The goal was 8.5 miles (about 70 min) of a moderate pace (85% M Tempo or 7:55-8:05 min/mile). Stranger Things Season 4 Volume 2 came out Friday, and it was about 4 hrs in total. I was going to wait until Saturday to watch it, but then once I got back from my Friday run I started it and couldn't stop. So I was running on limited sleep on Saturday morning. Combined with Steph having to work, I had to get up early and get the run done. So I was up at 5:30am and running by 6:40 to make sure I got back before she needed to leave. With the T+D I was aiming for something around the 8:10s.

The first mile I felt quite stiff. My body really didn't want to work it's way down to low 8s. I was hovering around the mid-8s through the first half mile (which is downhill). But I tried to force the issue a bit and get the legs to respond. Eventually they did and things settled in after that. But it took a bit of convincing to the legs. The GAP ended up being quite consistent after the first mile.



Overall a decent run. Got home right in time and then Steph left right after.

I headed down to the workout room and did the Week 1 Day 1 LIIFT4 workout Chest and Triceps. But I didn't do any of the HIIT in the workout. I just focused on the lifting and the core work. This was my first time with the 30 pound dumbbells that I borrowed from my SIL and it went well. Felt comfortable doing the sets with them, and it felt like an appropriate weight because things got real real towards the end.



Sunday

Conditions - Clear, Wind 2mph to 4mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 64°F + 62°F; FL - 65°F
End: Temp+Dew = 73°F + 65°F; FL - 65°F

Back to longer running! Hooray! Originally I was going to wake up at 5:30 to start at 6:30, but 5:30 turned into 6:30 which turned into a 7:45am start. I needed the sleep. So I had to deal with slightly warmer weather than if I had gotten out there sooner. But a T+D of 137 isn't terrible. Not good for racing, but for an easy paced long run, totally doable. The goal was around 2 hours at 80% M Tempo (or 8:26 min/mile pace). Based on the projected T+D I was aiming for something around 8:42 min/mile or so. This was also done on the Jack & Jill route which means I was aiming for around 8:27 min/mile on the downhills, 9:07 min/mile on the uphills, and around 9:00 on the water loops.

Since we're >90 min, it also means the reintroduction of in-race nutrition. Up to this point it's all been normal diet and nothing taken during the run. But now since we're over 90 min, it's time to get back to the in-race nutrition routine. I wasn't entirely sure I would need it since the pace is so much slower than I normally do the long run, but ultimately didn't think it would hurt too much just to do it. So I followed the pattern of:

-15 min - Maurten 320
45 min - Conc. Tailwind
60 min - Maurten gel
75 min - Egel
105 min - Conc. Tailwind

The legs felt much better being two days removed from the Canova Circuits. The nutrition felt on point as well. The run overall was pretty easy. The legs got a little tight from 1:45 to finish, but I was never really concerned. Ultimately, I felt pretty good for someone who hasn't done but one run over 90 minutes since February (and that was just last week). Otherwise it's almost been exclusively 60 min runs.



I did alright on the pacing. I was a little too fast. It felt like I was a touch too fast on the uphills and a touch too slow on the downhills. Which I guess makes sense. I'm a much better uphill runner than downhill. But I think I realized during this training run that this Jack & Jill route is going to serve me well. While the uphill running is needed to better simulate the Madison M course (35 ft/mile vs this route of 48 ft/ mile), it may actually be the downhill running that ends up being more beneficial. Just getting my legs more resistant and in better form to handle the downhills during the Madison M. Because that's where I was feeling more fatigue during this run. I was fine on the uphills and again, too quick on them. But as the run wore on, the downhills were started to get to me in their pounding. With that being said, this run was pretty easy and I never really questioned my ability to do it. I could have kept going for a long long time at this effort level. Ended up doing 14 miles in 2:01 hrs at 8:36 pace with HR of 131 bpm. After adjusting for T+D (8:21 min/mile) this puts me squarely on the Dec 2017 "best every HRvPace" line. So continue to be in a good place. Body actually felt better after the run than it did going into it. So that's always a good sign.

Came inside and headed downstairs to do the LIIFT4-Back/Biceps workout. No HIIT scheduled in the workout, so the whole video was done in full. Felt decent, and the 30lbs were useful on a few moves.

So that marks the end of the week. First time over 50 miles or 7.5 hrs running since February. Felt good. Next week is the 10x15s uphill workout, a 20 sets of 1 min 80% M Tempo + 1 min 100% M Tempo workout, and a mixture of 100% M Tempo (in reps of 9 min) with uphill 15s reps (another bridging workout). Lots of rain in the forecast, so we'll see what happens.

 

[DopeyBadger]

18 Weeks to go - Canova General Phase - Week 2/4




7/4/22-7/10/22
Tues (7/5): 5.9 miles @ Easy (9:19 min/mile, 127 bpm) + 9x15s at Max on 5-7% grade hill
Wed (7/6): 6.5 miles @ 60-70% M Tempo (9:39 min/mile, 125 bpm)
Thurs (7/7): Canova Minutes - 20 sets of (1 min 80% M Tempo + 1 min 100% M Tempo)
Fri (7/8): 6.5 miles @ 60-70% M Tempo (9:26 min/mile, 128 bpm)
Sat (7/9): 8.5 miles @ 85% M Tempo (8:04 min/mile, 135 bpm) + LIIFT4-Chest/Tri
Sun (7/10): Canova 100% M Tempo w/ 15s uphills + LIIFT4-Back/Biceps (No HIIT)

Total Run Miles - 46.8 miles
Total Run Time - 7:04 hours
Total Strength Time - 1:06 hours
Total Training Time - 8:11 hours


Tuesday

Conditions - Humid and Mostly Cloudy, Wind 6mph to 8mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 84°F + 79°F; FL - 95°F
End: Temp+Dew = 82°F + 78°F; FL - 95°F

The chance for rain was low, but as the day progressed a massive storm was rolling in. All while I was running I could see the nasty storm to my south in the distance. I don't actually know how close it was, but I'd say within 20 miles or so is a good estimate. The goal was just to keep running until the storm forced me to shut it down. I made it through the initial 5.9 miles of easy running, and the storm appeared to take a turn from going mostly west to east to a more north easy direction. So as I was doing each successive 15s hill rep I could tell the storm was getting closer and closer. Rumbles of thunder, lightning in the distance, and some gnarly looking clouds. Made for a nice backdrop. The hills were mostly good. Somewhere around the 6th-7th rep I flexed my left side of my hip groin a bit too much during the uphill and definitely felt a pop. It was noticeable and sore, but didn't prevent me from finishing the workout. Around the 8th-9th rep the temperature dropped suddenly. It went from high 90s to something in the 50s at least. After the 9th rep, I decided to head back home because the storm was pretty close. I ended the workout just in time because as I was stepping into the house the skies opened up and torrentially down-poured. That 10th rep would have gotten me soaked in seconds. So it was a good call on my part. Taking the 5-7% uphill grade into account, most of the reps were in the mid to low 4s.



Wednesday

Conditions - Mostly Cloudy, Wind 9mph to 11mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 77°F + 69°F; FL - 78°F
End: Temp+Dew = 76°F + 69°F; FL - 78°F

Groin was sore upon waking and throughout the day. I did a search history on this training journal and found a groin injury during the Lakefront 2017 training (multiple occurrences over several months) and Halloween 2021 when I was just standing still. I feel like there may have been a few other times not noted. But the data from the past groin injuries is that it usually bothers me during the day, but it has zero impact on my running. That's why I love having a training journal as an instant reference to that kind of past information.

Because of the hard Tues uphills and then upcoming hard Thurs workout, I took this run nice and easy. Ended up averaging 9:39 min/mile which is pretty slow for me, but it felt like the right level of effort for the day. As in the past, the groin was mostly a non-issue during the run.



Thursday

Conditions - Humid and Mostly Cloudy, Wind 5mph to 7mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 84°F + 72°F; FL - 89°F
End: Temp+Dew = 83°F + 72°F; FL - 89°F

Groin still lingering through the day, but definitely feeling better.

This was a Canova Minutes workout:

20 sets of (1 min 80% M Tempo + 1 min 100% M Tempo)

80% M Tempo = 8:26 min/mile w/ T+D adj. = Goal 8:54 min/mile
100% M Tempo = 7:02 min/mile w/ T+D adj. = Goal 7:25 min/mile

Actual average = 8:29 and 7:14

It's a nice introduction to pace work because you're not trying to sustain the particular pace for a long time. But at the same time it's a sneaky workout in that the average pace is still relatively challenging. The unadjusted average pace should have been around 7:44 pace which is my old long run pace (or 90% M Tempo for Canova). With such a high T+D at 156, I wasn't sure what to expect from my body. So I just settled in and let my body do what it wanted. One minute reps are hard to get comfortable with and so there was a bit of "finding" the right effort at the start and then things got more routine. It also didn't help the pacing when I was doing my hilly route and so I couldn't really trust the one minute lap paces to be consistent (because of GAP).

In all, I'm pretty happy with how the workout played out. I felt alright for the majority of the workout, and the paces via GAP where relatively consistent.



I did feel as if I was getting stronger as the workout progressed, but it also felt more difficult to hold onto the 80% pace in-between M Tempo reps. In all, I averaged 8:29 and 7:14 for the two effort levels, and a 7:48 min/mile for the 40 minutes at 147 bpm HR. Adjusted for T+D that's more like 7:22 pace. So that's nothing to sneeze at for a 40 min period of time this early in training. And doing the workout at T+D 156 is all the more gratifying. So I like how the workout went. No effects from the groin.


Friday

Conditions - Partly Cloudy, Wind 13mph to 17mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 75°F + 65°F; FL - 75°F
End: Temp+Dew = 74°F + 63°F; FL - 75°F

Groin finally feels mostly normal. Little touches here and there, but nothing to be concerned about. Body feels decent after the workout yesterday. Took it nice and easy, and hit that recent 9:26 pace that I've been settling into lately.



Saturday

Conditions - Partly Cloudy, Wind 8mph to 16mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 63°F + 54°F; FL - 63°F
End: Temp+Dew = 67°F + 56°F; FL - 63°F

Some nice temps so I was up reasonably early to enjoy it. Aiming for 8.5 miles at 85% M Tempo (7:55-8:05 pace). Just like last week my body did not want to do this pace right out the gate. It fought me through the first mile or so, and then eventually things opened up a bit. Got a little too quick on two of the miles, but all in all I stayed in the area I should have been. Don't need to gas myself before another hard workout coming down the pipe. Ended up with 8.5 miles, 68 min, 8:04 pace, and HR of 135. Which lines up well with what I did last week.

I did LIIFT4-Chest/Tri right after the running workout. It went well.



Sunday

Conditions - Clear, Wind 2mph to 3mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 56°F + 50°F; FL - 56°F
End: Temp+Dew = 63°F + 53°F; FL - 56°F

I've got to head to work super early tomorrow morning for an experiment, so it's going to be an early night for me. Combine that with some fabulous temps and I was up early to enjoy the day.

The workout on tap was another bridging workout. A combination of the uphill 15s reps I've been doing with the 100% M Tempo that's going to continue to increase in volume and sustained work as time goes on. To compensate, this workout has a lot of resting intervals in it. The goal is quality work at pace and not necessarily to challenge me. Still months before I need to be in peak condition and capable of sustaining goal pace for 180 minutes.

I wore the orange Nike Next%2 and took in no nutrition either before or during the run. Only had a Liquid IV pre-workout.

4 sets of (9 min @ 100% M Tempo on hills + 2 min RI + 4 x 15s hard on 5-7% uphill w/ 2 min RI)

I did a nice short 1 mile WU down and up the hill, and then it was time to rock and roll. I wanted to do a sustained downhill and then sustained uphill from the 9 minute 100% M Tempo reps. So with that came a route that I haven't done before and thus don't know the GAP goals. But I figured there was going to be slightly more down than up and so the goal GAP was likely to be close to a net zero. And for the most part the post-data analysis shows that to have been the case. I did about 6:45-ish pace down the hill (took me about 4 min), and then ran back up the hill with a few jut outs to finish the first rep in 7:04 pace. So pretty much on target. I backed off on the intensity of the uphills. One, because I'm doing 16 reps in the midst of a hard workout unlike the 10 reps after an easy run, and two, because I pulled my groin earlier in the week and didn't need to exacerbate the issue anymore. So I "only" did GAP reps in the mid 5s instead of the low/mid 4s.

The second 9 min rep was 6:49 pace. I knew I was going too fast down the hill because I was seeing low 6:20s for some time. Instead of hitting the change from down to up at about 4 min, I did it in about 3:40. So definitely picked up the pace a bit more than intended. Turned around and came back uphill at a decent clip. Felt strong through the 2nd rep. I checked my watch after the 2nd 9 min rep and saw I was at 39 min but hadn't had any during run water consumption yet. So I pivoted and did the 15s reps on undulating road to get back to my house, pound some water, and then head back to the top of the hill before the third rep started.

The third 9 min rep was 6:49 pace and continued to feel sustainable. Faster than I needed it to be, but all things considered I was doing alright. I did the 4 reps of uphill. I think I had an audience for this one so I put a little extra juice in the steps. Although my right hamstring was getting a little tight.

The fourth 9 min rep my right hamstring was a little tight, but tolerable. I hit the turnaround at like 3:45-3:50 (so around 6:35 pace) and then worked my way back up the hill. Finished the rep in 6:51 pace and felt accomplished. Wrapped up the final four uphill reps, and then did a nice and easy cool down home.

For the four 9 min reps I averaged 6:53 pace and a HR of 145. Although the reps were short (about 1.33 miles) and there was a ton of walking during the workout, so I don't know how much I'm willing to buy the 145 HR at the moment in terms of HR responsiveness. With that being said, it's all in a good place and it was a strong workout overall. I enjoyed having some cooler weather.



Next week is going to be a wreck on my sleeping patterns. Like I said, I've got to get to work pretty early tomorrow morning so I'll probably be up a little before 3am. Then this week is G's Addams Family play and we're going to all four performances. Since they start not long after I get home from work it means I'll probably have to get up at 3am to do the Thursday workout. I may be able to take off on Friday to help my sanity. But that remains to be seen. For the week's workouts I've got a 40 min Progression (going from 80% M Tempo to 100% M Tempo) on Tuesday, then a repeat of the Canova Circuits (mix of M Tempo and HIIT) likely super early Thursday morning, and 80 min of 85% M Tempo on Saturday (9.75 miles), and 130 min of 80% M Tempo on Sunday (15.5 miles). A total of 55 miles and just under 8 hours.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Oh forgot to mention one other thing. Since the route by my house was new, I ran into a Strava segment that's a stones throw away from my house. Ain't no way I'm allowing someone else have the course record in my neighborhood. So at some point I'm going to try and obliterate the record. I'll find a run that lines up with that effort.

 

[DopeyBadger]

17 Weeks to go - Canova General Phase - Week 3/4




"When you're an Addams...., you don't get a lot of sleep"


7/11/22-7/17/22
Tues (7/5): 2 mile WU + 40 min Progression from 80% M Tempo to 100% M Tempo + 2 mile CD
Wed (7/6): 6.5 miles @ 60-70% M Tempo (9:22 min/mile, 126 bpm)
Thurs (7/7): 3 sets of Canova Circuits
Fri (7/8): 6.5 miles @ 60-70% M Tempo (9:11 min/mile, 123 bpm)
Sat (7/9): 10 miles @ 85% M Tempo (8:01 min/mile, 134 bpm) + LIIFT4-Chest/Tri
Sun (7/10): 15.5 miles @ 80% M Tempo on Jack/Jill Route + LIIFT4-Back/Biceps (No HIIT)

Total Run Miles - 56.2 miles
Total Run Time - 7:55 hours
Total Strength Time - 0:58 hours
Total Training Time - 8:54 hours


Monday

Just as a note, I had to be at work at 5am on Monday. So I was up at 3am to be on time for an experiment. The sleep cycle was all wonky this week.


Tuesday

Conditions - Clear, Wind 10mph to 15mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 80°F + 63°F; FL - 82°F
End: Temp+Dew = 79°F + 64°F; FL - 82°F

The training is working. Despite the hard work I'm putting in my body feels pretty fresh and is recovering quickly. My resting HR is staying in the mid-40s. All good signs. I felt particularly good before this run started. I was aiming for a 2 mile WU with 40 min Progression from 80% M Tempo to 100% M Tempo and then a 2 mile CD. I planned to do the run on my normal rolling hill route and adjusted the progression to better match the GAP. So I was aiming for goal splits based on grade adj. - 8:35, 8:07, 7:30, 7:25, 7:15. I considered adjusting for the T+D and decided to do it in the moment if it felt needed.



The final result was a pretty progression based on GAP. I was essentially dead on for the first few miles, and only a small hair off on the last mile (7:04 vs 7:02). The effort level was pretty high there at the end though. Interestingly this is a different way to do the same thing as last week's 1 min 80% and 1 min 100% for 40 min total. Since they both average 90% M Tempo for 40 min. I'd say the end effort of this progression was harder than anything during the 1:1 run. But the HR for the progression was far less than the 1:1. I'd be a betting man to say if I ran 90% M Tempo for 40 min under the same conditions straight up it would probably end up being a lower HR than either of these two types.

All in all it was a hard effort. My right knee was a little sore during the ending stages of the progression. Probably because it got pretty beat up from Sunday's down/uphill M Tempo reps with uphill sprints. The downhills tear me up. But as soon as I moved into the CD during this run the knee was a-ok.



Wednesday

Conditions - Partly Cloudy, Wind 8mph to 10mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 76°F + 63°F; FL - 76°F
End: Temp+Dew = 75°F + 62°F; FL - 76°F

Right knee was sore throughout the day, but not too bad.

Simple easy run. The right knee was a tad sore, but not too bad. I used this as a test run to see whether I'd go through with tomorrow's Canova Circuit workout. I felt like the knee passed so I gave myself the green light.

I got home and shoved food in my mouth to try and force myself to go to bed at 7:30pm. G's first play performance was Thursday night with no time to get in a run in after work before play. So it was either wake up super early on Thursday morning to run, or no run at all.


Thursday

Conditions - Clear, Wind 3mph to 4mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 57°F + 54°F; FL - 57°F
End: Temp+Dew = 56°F + 53°F; FL - 57°F

I was up at 3am and out the door at 3:59am. I was tired, but determined.

3 sets of (6 x 400m at 100% M Tempo w/ 30 sec HIIT exercise between reps) w/ 5 min resting interval between sets. HIIT exercises included: squats, squat jumps, squat jacks, lunges, lunges w/ power through, butt kicks, skipping, bunny hops, or bounding.



I eased into the workout, but honestly I felt like I was giving a good effort at the start of the M Tempo. But running M Tempo at 4am after only just waking up never seems to go that well for me. The first segment was a 7:40 GAP (1:54 interval length). But as time progressed I could feel myself getting stronger and stronger. The first set ranged from 7:40 to 6:40, then second set was 6:55 to 6:33 and last set was 6:56 to 6:22. So I started with a 1:54 interval length and ended with a 1:38 on the same stretch of road. So 16 seconds is a pretty big difference, but honestly it felt pretty easy and smooth. I was happy my legs opened up. I was also happy that my knee felt strong throughout. Lastly, I was happy because I had just completed 3 hard days in a period of 5 days (Sunday to Thursday). Wasn't sure if I was going to be able to pull it off, but I managed and feel like it went well. Moving forward I don't have any more hard days within 2 days of each other. Hard days are going to get harder, so I'll need more rest between them. The run was 8.5 miles, but the duration was 1:17 as Strava cut out some of the walking periods. VO2max moved up to 55. I've been holding steady at 54 since I started this training plan.

My new Nike Alphafly shoes arrived (on the right). The price drop ($122 off) was too much to pass up.



Got back home, showered, ate breakfast, went to work (long day there too), got home at 5pm, slammed dinner, got to the play at 6pm, saw the play from 7pm to 9:30pm, cleaned up the theater, and got home at 11:00pm. Long day.



The play was amazing. G had so much fun participating. The cast exceeded my expectations. The quality of talent was impressive. It was interesting to attend all four live shows because little things were different in each when something unexpected happened. G starts Frozen Jr. practice on Monday. She's Townsperson #1 with five lines, and the show is in late August.








Friday

Conditions - 🌧 Rain, Wind 9mph to 20mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 66°F + 65°F; FL - 67°F
End: Temp+Dew = 68°F + 67°F; FL - 67°F

I took the day off from work because I wasn't about to try and pull off what I did on Thursday on back to back days. There was some rain in the early morning, so I ended up running more towards mid-day. The run was easy. The pace was decent and the HR was really low. Body feeling good.

We went to G's second performance and didn't get to bed until past 11pm again.


Saturday


Conditions - Overcast, Wind 6mph to 13mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 62°F + 59°F; FL - 62°F
End: Temp+Dew = 61°F + 59°F; FL - 62°F

Steph had to work at 7am. So I had to get my 10 mile run done before she left. So I was up at 4:30am and out the door at 5:25am. Burning the candle at both ends at this point. Gave me some good early morning T+D though.



Goal pace was between 7:55-8:05 (85% M Tempo) and adjust for the weather if I felt like it was needed. The first mile was slow (as is usual) and then things settled in (3rd mile was too fast as is usual as well). But other than those two, the other 8 miles were pretty tight on GAP. All within a ten second window. I felt good and strong during and after. HR was 134 which is in line with the last couple 85% M Tempo runs.

I did the LIIFT4 Chest/Triceps workout.

G and I did some work on her Ms. Marvel hand, and then it was time to leave for the play again. Same routine with a 6pm arrival, and getting home just after 11pm.


Sunday

Conditions - Overcast, Wind 6mph to 10mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 67°F + 63°F; FL - 68°F
End: Temp+Dew = 74°F + 67°F; FL - 68°F

Thankfully Steph didn't have to work, but the play performance was at 2pm instead of 7pm. So that meant I had to make sure I had adequate time for my nearly 3 hours of exercise ahead of me.

The workout goal was 15.5 miles (about 130 min) at 80% M Tempo (8:26 min/mile pace) with a T+D adj to 8:44 pace on the Jack/Jill route. So the uphills are +25 and downhills -15. So a lot of numbers running around on this one. I went full nutrition on this one with my race routine.



Overall it was too fast. With a goal average of 8:44, it's not good to see nothing at 8:44. Most of the miles hovered in the 8:00-8:25 area. So too fast for the conditions. But overall it felt pretty easy. I'd say the first 10 miles were barely noticeable. The next 2-3 miles were a small increase in noticeable, and the last few miles were a little more noticeable. But never a real effort of any sort. My glutes were taking a beating, and that's a good thing. Happy with how the run turned out, but I wish I would have pulled back a touch more. Ended up being 15.5 miles, 129 min, 8:20 pace, GAP 8:14 and HR of 134.

Garmin race predictor moved to 19:20 5k, 40:44 10k, 1:31:02 HM, and 3:24:25 M. As I continue to put in hard training runs this will continue to improve. This Garmin 235 definitely takes more of a prove it stance.

Next week is the last week of the Canova General Phase. On Wednesday is the Canova Minutes workout with 2 min 80% and 2 min 100% at 68 min total (plus WU/CD). Sunday is a repeat of the Mona workout (mix of M Tempo and uphill sprints). Happy with the progress to date.

 

[azrivest]

I saw your super early runs on Strava. Kudos for that it's not always easy balancing work, family and running.

And congratulations to G for her performance.