week of 9 Feb

Endurance/ General Strength Phase 1-2x this week – Core Plank - Begin face down elbows bent, lift entire body off ground in a pushup position except for hand to elbow touching ground. Hold position for up to 2 minutes. Back should not slouch. Suck in your abdominal muscles. If you start slouching immediately stop! Forearm Plank w/Alternating Leg Lifts – Same position as above but lift one leg up off the ground approx. 1 1/2 foot or until it is level with your head. Hold for 30 sec, place foot back down and repeat with opposite leg. Foam Roller Exercises 1-2 x this week 5 Weeks to goal Half Marathon race MPW 66 Monday, Feb 9 - rest Rested. I'm good at this. Tuesday, Feb 10 8-10 mile moderate run including the Rock Circuit 8.8 miles I think. Great run. Woke up early (4:45) and there were less people out there when I ran. Wednesday, Feb 11 AM 12-14 mile moderate run including 10 x 10 sec steep hill sprints w/full recoveries and 10 x 2 hill min @ 5k effort w/2 min jog rests. Full recovery then 10 strides Underestimated my route and ended up with 14.7. 8+ on warmup loop (including the 10x10'' hills). Did the 10 x 2 min @5k hitting 180-181 bpm at the end of the last couple. Did 2 min rest between except after the 5th I did 3+ min rest to get back to the bottom of the hill as I was inching my way up until I ran out of hill. Did 10 "strides" on the way back. The strides were kind of short and half-hearted. PM : 3 mile moderate w/ 5 strides Did 2.75 miles at 10+ min/mile. Forgot to do the strides. Argh. Thursday, Feb 12 6 mile easy run Did 5 miles at lunch. I was quite sore and did maybe 10 min/mi. It was also *incredibly* windy. Airport reported 50 mph gusts. Was literally knocked off my feet once. Friday, Feb 13 9-10 mile moderate run over rolling hills w/ 30 sec @ 5k effort/30 sec jog rests x 15 This went very well except that I tweaked the same place from last Friday on one of the 5k efforts ["sharp twinge in a muscle (or maybe tendon) on the medial side of my left knee between the knee and that big hamstring tendon. I also had some pain at the very, very top of my right calf, below the back of my knee."] It had been slowly getting better and hadn't interfered with running. Anyway, it didn't stop me from completing the intervals. I hit the lap button every 5 min just to keep count and keep the mile auto-lap from triggering. The paces for the 5 min segments (includes 5k and jog) were 7:58, 7:57, and 7:51, but they were all quite uphill (gained 120 feet in the first 5 minute segment). Just for the hell of it, here's the elevation profile for my standard 9+ mile work route. From mile 2 - 5.5 actually looks like a pretty nice Boston simulator. Saturday, Feb 14 6-7 mile moderate run including the Rock Circuit I could feel the tug on the back of my leg at first, but it subsided. I felt kinda tired and I believe we talked about going easier on Fri/Sat to be more recovered for Sunday, so I kept around 140 bpm. Rock circuit was fine, but passers by always come buy when I'm doing lunges or supermans and never when I'm doing push ups or something normal looking. I went to home depot procured a 2x8 for the treadmill. The deck is 60 inches long which makes the math nice since one radian is about 60 degrees. A 2x8 is actually 1.5'' thick, this should be about -1.5 degrees. Sunday, Feb 15 15-16 mile moderate run including 15 min run down a slight grade hill (try to run down the same grade as Boston) @ marathon effort then 45 min run up a hill @ LT effort Finish run w/10 strides I did my old run around the lake I used to do all the time and got back to my house after 8.6 miles. Jogged a few minutes on the treadmill with the board underneath (neg incline) and had a few sharp pains in my runner's knee. It was OK after I got up to speed though. I did