training - week of 2009.03.16

MPW 66

-- 63.5

Monday, March 16

rest

-- check

2-3 sets max push ups

-- 30 on the 1st and 6 on the 2nd. Pushed it to make to 30 (I like round numbers) and didn't have much left for the 2nd set

Tuesday, March 17

AM: 5-6 mile easy run

-- 5.4 @ 9:32

PM: 3-4 mile easy run

-- 3.2 @ 9:06

core plank
-- check

Wednesday, March 18

AM: 10-12 mile moderate run including 5 x 10 sec hill sprints and Everest Hill drills and 15 x 1 min hills @ 5k effort w/1 min jog rests
-- 11.5 miles. My legs were sore, but this went fine. I'm not sure I can claim 5k effort though. I ran pretty hard, but my muscles didn't have the oomph to drive the heart rate up.

PM: 3 mile easy run w/last 10 min @ marathon effort

Wednesday – 2-3 sets max body weight step- ups

-- 3.4 miles. cursed my coach for the first mile, but was ready for marathon effort after the second. 10 minutes at about 7:15 on a 10 laps/mile gravel track
-- forgot step ups

Thursday, March 19

5-6 mile jog
-- slow, tired, sore, unpleasant, but done. 5.0 @ 9:50
-- did yesterday's step ups in AM

Forearm Plank w/Alternating Leg Lifts
-- did these in PM

Friday, March 20

7-8 mile total moderate run including 3 strides then sprint training:

Use the first few sprints as a warm up and always run in control with good form

3 x 15 sec's w/75 sec rests

3 x 20 sec's w/75 sec rests

2 x 25 sec's w/90 sec rests

- 7.9 @ 8:23 including strides and sprints

Friday - 2 -3 sets max body weight or light weight one leg squats

- 40 left/40 right, 30 left/~10 right. I stopped on right for disturbing, but not painful, clicking sound

Saturday, March 21

4-5 mile easy w/4-6 strides

- 4.6 @ 8:54

100 reps of abdominal exercises of your choice

- forgot, but my excuse is being locked in a hotel room with crazy children

Sunday, March 22

HM workout

20-22 mile total moderate run including 5-7 miles easy before race then 5 miles @ 7:10-7:25 min pace then 3 miles @

6:42 pace then alternate the next 4 miles between 7:10-7:20 min and 6:42 pace. Run the last mile as hard as you desire. 2- 4 mile easy jog cooldown

- Warmup was 6.07 @ 9:12 pace. I got there about 5:50, jogged, hit the porta-john, and jogged some more right up until race time. It was a nightmare getting in the corral, but I made it in 3 minutes before the gun and I ended up starting 20 feet behind the 1:45 pacer. Ugh. They didn't have any water out before the race and I forgot to bring a bottle. So much for the hydration plan

- below are the splits for the race. More babbling below that

Time Distance Split time Split distance Split pace Avg. HR
0:07:25 1.00 7:25 1.00 7:24 161 (81%)
0:14:44 2.00 7:19 1.00 7:19 161 (80%)
0:21:57 3.01 7:12 1.00 7:11 165 (83%)
0:29:09 4.01 7:12 1.00 7:11 166 (83%)
0:36:20 5.02 7:10 1.01 7:08 168 (84%)
0:43:01 6.03 6:41 1.02 6:35 178 (89%)
0:49:26 7.02 6:24 0.98 6:31 179 (90%)
0:56:05 8.02 6:38 1.00 6:38 182 (91%)
1:03:19 9.02 7:14 1.01 7:12 175 (87%)
1:09:58 10.02 6:39 1.00 6:40 180 (90%)
1:17:12 11.03 7:13 1.00 7:12 174 (87%)
1:23:59 12.03 6:46 1.01 6:44 178 (89%)
1:31:08 13.06 7:08 1.03 6:58 177 (89%)
1:31:53 13.18 0:45 0.12 6:24 184 (92%)

I weaved my way in and out of traffic for the first mile and actually hit the 7:25 for the first mile. I took splits at the mile markers. The "split time" column is the split time at the markers (didn't miss one!) and the "split pace" is Garmin pace. For the most part, they're very close. I was hitting the prescribed pace like a robot the first 6 miles. Right after mile 6 my shoe came spectacularly untied and I stopped to tie it. It took forever with my gloves on and then came untied again in 20 feet! I stopped my watch though both times out of instinct. I think I overcompensated running afterwards and was shocked by the 6:24. Looking at splits above though, it looks like mile 6 was long and mile 7 was short. I was pretty much on target the rest of the way.

I guess my legs were a little fatigued and the first minute or so of mile 12 was slow (maybe 7:00 pace) and then I picked it up, but only got down to 6:46 (missing the prescribed 6:42). I took a loophole on "run the last mile as hard as you desire" and went back to MP rather than pick it up. Here's my weeny excuse: I never completely shook the soreness from the 8k and I had a couple of niggles. Plus I really didn't want to push it that hard. I did pick up the pace down the homestretch though.

The clock time was about 1:33:00 when I croseed. My watch said 1:31:53 and I now know my chip was 1:32:34. Looking at my Garmin data, I was paused for 23 and 21 seconds on my shoe tieing events (yikes!), which roughly agrees with the watch versus chip. Yikes! Even with the fiasco and the fact it was a training run, this would have been a 53 sec PR before January.

I grabbed my schwag, including some food to eat after my cooldown and did 3.06 @ 9:29. The food wasn't great and I ate my banana, cookie, granola bar, and pretzels in the car. 22.3 total for the day! We stopped by Williamsburg on the way back and I got another 2+ hours of walking as a bonus :-)

This was way easier than I thought it was going to be. I guess the race magic carries over to a training run. It was a real PR day out there. Flat as a pancake course, 40 degrees, and no wind. I think I could have run a big PR today. Those 7:12's were not hard at the beginning and the heart rates are a little under my normal HR in a marathon.

My biomechanics are terrible. I felt pretty "smooth" at MP, but when I go lower than 7:00 pace, I start to feel like I'm galloping, dipping my shoulder and almost limping on my duck-footed right legs. I also walked around Williamsburg feeling like my hips were "twisted." Maybe I'm just self-conscious about this stuff.

I just did my makeup 100 reps of ab stuff. I still say "ouch."