week of 24 July

 Activities

• Mon. gc 5.  4.8@12:24/132.
• Tue.  gc 5.  4.8@11:54/132.
• Wed. gcc 7.  7.0@10:39/147.  uptempo
• Thu. rest.  work.
• Fri. svbgc 5.5.  5.5@12:01/136
• Sat.  gc 8.  7.9@12:12/135.
• Sun. 7.83@11:02/142.  usual route but garmin gave me 0.05 less.  guessing b/c of stops.  tight left calf, but ran anyway. wanted to do uptempo but did a little in in certain places.  strange run.  calf got worse as I went. afraid I'll pay for this one.

Miles.  37.7.  7h18m.  4755 calories.

Most miles in current "comeback."  Feel like the calf will make me pay.

Going with my uptempo when I feel recovered plan.  Every third or 4th day as my old man body deems fit.  Back-to-back 8 milers is probably enough not to push the pace on either.

Weight:  191.8, 190.4 on Th and Sun.  191.1.  up from last week, but I think that was an anomaly.

BP been up.  average last 3.  124/73.  work stress, I assume.

RHR 54.  Was lower when I first got the watch,  51 bpm avg week of May 15th, crept up to 55 by week of 5 June and then has stayed there. 

weeks of 10 and 17 July

Was on work travel, leaving 10 July and flying back 21 July. Brutally hot and humid Destin, FL.  Did one outside run and rest on hotel treadmill, which was still warm with no airflow but not the humidity.  Numbers are infllated.  Was usually ~5.0 mph.  But since I had on the foot pod and should have been calibrated after 2 outdoor runs with it, maybe it's fair?

Missed some days because working 12-hour days.  Did really well to get 33 miles the first week, just getting some miles 6 days but no real long runs.

 came home with only 8 on a friday.  Managed to get miles friday, saturday, and sunday to hit ...

week of 10 July

• Mon.  ran at home morning before flight.  usual gc 5.  4.78@12:17/136.
• Tues.  Destin.  5.83@11:14/144.  Flat.  77F/73dp. Kinda brutal.
• Wed. nothing.  damn work.
• Thu. hotel treadmill.  watch read 5.44@11:06/144, but was probably 5.0 in 1:00:25 (set at 5 mph).
• Fri. 5.01@11:33/133 treadmill.  probably 4.8-5.0 mph on mill.
• Sat. 5.01@11:15/130 treadmill.
• Sun. 7@10:52/134 treadmill.  I think it was set to 5mph, but I'll take a cheat this week.

Miles: 33.1.  6h15m.  3832 calories

BP.  one reading on 7/10.  125/65.

Weight: no weigh ins.

Week of 17 July.

• Mon. 0.7 outside.  yes 0.7.  no sleep, brutal weather.
• Tue.  hotel tmill.  2.4.  working crazy hours.
• Wed. 5.0 hotel tmill.
• Thu.  nothing.  had to get to work at 0545 after up until 1am.
• Fri.  Back home after flight.  1:30pm.  84 degrees but low humidity felt great by comparison to Florida.  Ran 1 burke lake loop.  4.58@11:34/142.
• Sat.  2 burke lake loops.  77 degrees (80 by time done).  9.14@11:11/147.  Lots of upward cardiac drift but even pace/power.  avg power 298W.  Low lap  was 28 and max 304.  Pace between 11:02 and 11:22.  Last 0.6 of first lake lap was 11:20/147 and last 0.6 of 2nd lap was 11:13/161.  Quads sore after this.
• Sun. gc 5 very easy.  quads quite sore from yesterday (11:11 pace makes me sore. sad!)  63 degrees.  Kind of wish I didn't waste my effort on yesterdays run.  4.8@12:52/127.

Total: 26.65.  5h11m.  3400 calories.

Weight:  188.5 (n=2).  189.2 on Sat an d 187.8 on Sun.  pre-run.  drank glass of water before weight in on Sat, so think maybe it's real?  Although I usually weight less after a long run and gain during the week.

BP:  was 125/79 on sat.  surprised that high after sleeping, but 114/62 on Sun.  had my flax seed on Sat, but doubt it would act that fast (and am not sure it does anything).

Dissapointed in the mileage, but I worked 138 hours in 2 weeks with two travel days and averaged just shy of 30 per week.  Would have done more this week except my overexuberance on Sat.

My watch was impress by my Sat run and bumped me for a VO2max of 41 to 42.   Would have hoped for more with the weight loss.  Also hoping cooler weather improves my paces, but I think Garmin takes that into account in VO2max.

So, at 188.5 I'm down about 10 pounds from my April average.

week of 3 July

 Think I'm getting used to the heat.  If I stuck with the hanson just finish, I'd have done 6 and 10 and Sat and Sun this week but I did a repeat of last week and did 8 and 8.  I pushed the pace up the tiniest of bits, letting go of my HR-consciousness, especially in the heat.

Not sure if a 22-person study makes for good science, but I'm kind of inspired by the simplicity of the crplots tanda calculator and like to image pushing my blue dot towards those marathon time contours.

I'm basically working towards the kind of training I did when I ran 1:05:55 for 10 miles. Then I was doing 8 every day with some 12-14 a bit faster (like MP+30) every third of fourth day depending on how I felt.

Now, I'm doing ~5 as my base with 8 being the longer runs.  If I feel good, run with a little more intent and not worry as much about HR.  No idea what metabolic zone I'm in.

Based on my prior experience, I kinda don't believe in all the specific work for a hobby jogger, especially for a marathon and especially for an old, brittle guy.  I kinda like the hanson's thing where MP-10 is their strength session.  If you're fast, MP-10 gets your attention but if you're slow, it's just high end aerobic running.  Works nicely.

I do think I should do some VO2max-ish stuff at some point, but might do very steep treadmill intervals or something (maybe rowing) that doesn't create a lot of injury risk.

This week

• Mo.  gc 5.  4.8 @ 1323/131
• Tu. gc 5.  4.8 @12:32/135
• Wed.  No run.  fleet feet glute + running channel strength (22 minutes)
• Th.  gc 4.  4.8@11:53/139
• Fr. gc 5.  4.8@12:05/133
• Sa.  gc 8. 7.9@12:03/139
• Su.  gc8 7.9@12:06/142.  First run with footpod.  Run was 6 secs slower than yesterday, but avg power was 302 versus 283 yesterday.

Total:  34.9 miles. 7h31m (maybe includes 23' strength?).  Calories 4654.

average weight: 192.9 (n=7). Down 0.1!

tand online calculator / crplot.com

The idea behind the tanda formula is that workload described as weekly mileage and average pace is predictive of marathon time.  Not yasso 800s or whatever, but just weekly mileage and pace. Kinda skeptical, but it was really close for my PR marathon.

I like that it's not only a predictor but it uses the variable that you can do something about.  What do you do to run faster yasso 800s?  A lot of people would say run more 800s, but the answer is mileage.  I also found that during my best year, I didn't do a bunch of intervals, but just ran some steadier paces rather than super easy + workouts.

Looking back at some logs with the tanda calculator in mind I can see where things went south.  Even when I ran OK mileage of ~50/wk in Sept 2014 I was doing it super slow -- 11:15/mile -- because I was just trying to run easy mileage and not worried about PRs.  I was surprised I only ran 1:18 at a 10 miler Oct 14, but that's well ahead of the tanda prediction.  40h11m and 213.9 miles Sept 2014 equals 11:16 pace.  Plugging in tanda gives 3:58 marathon and 1:25:44 for 10 miles.  People use an offset for shorter distances, but I also think I coasted on residual fitness for a number of years.

Now

Here's where I am now.  Predicts a marathon of 4:28. I think that's generous, but not crazy.

I love this graph because it says what to do.  Move right or move up.  Do either slowly of course.  I plan to move right with miles and move up with lost weight -- a virtuous circle.  When I'm out of time in the week, maybe I move up with a little more effort.

Then

Here's where I was when I ran my BQ.  This is remarkably accurate.  I averaged 8:54 pace that year and think it's pretty close to my average in the lead up. And I was doing about 70 miles/wk or 16k per day before the marathon.  5:32/km is 8:54/mile.

Future?

Now, it's hard to imagine my blue dot taking a sharp left up the graph, but I guess I can see it floating up as I lose weight.  The dream goal is to get to 3:35 by Fall 2025, so I can qualify for Boston 2027 as a M55.  Unless I tire of this silliness before then :-)  At 16km/wk, this suggests an average pace of 6:11/km or 9:57/mi is required.  70 mpw doing 10-minute miles doesn't seem crazy... says the guy doing 35mpw at 12:30+

week of 26 June

 Plan

Using Hanson 'just finish' plan -- but not for running a marathon.  just an outline for basebuilding.

Week 6 calls for 4, 5, rest/xt, 5, 4, 8, and 8.

• I did my usual 4.8 for mon/tue:  4.8@13:09/132, 4.8@12:50/129.
• Did a 10-minute glute routine (https://youtu.be/ZJ8adeMEXuo) on wed.  no running
• Only cool wx days lost to canadian wildfires.  On treadmill th/fr.  Did 4 on and 5 on friday at ~12:15 pace.  1 deg incline.  Garmin called 11:06 on th and 11:57 on friday.  No fan on th and small fan on friday.  HR climbed.  4.42@11:06/140, 5.24@11:57/135
• The stride length measurement are all over the place.  I think I need to put my garmin foot pod back on my shoes to get decent treadmill pace.
• Sat. Lake A route.   8.72@12:20/141(!).  Super humid.  72/dp 67.  Let the HR go up, but slogged the way home.
• weighed before and after:  lost 3.8 pounds.
• Sat. PM.  Did running channel core strength 12-minute routine (https://youtu.be/qOtTIOPI6qc)
• was sore for days after last week, but felt OK next day this time.  Progress?
• Sun.    7.9@12:49/135.  Planned a "recovery" 8 miles on road (usual out and back).  Felt good up until about 5 miles and then I was just soaked and probably dehydrated.  Had a bit of a knee niggle and rising HR.  Decide to run/walk at the end (had 3:18 of walking).  
• garmin advised 28m at 13:50 due to lack of sleep :-)
• 74 and dp of 72(!)
• weighed before and after.  lost 4.2 pounds  I guess I need to bring water on even these 8 miles, which seems nuts.

Ran one of my old great routes on saturday that I don't know exactly why I avoided.  There's a lake with a 3.8-mile route around ~2.5 miles from my house.  I used to always call it 8.3 based on my old garmin, but apparently it's 8.72?!  But actually I think I might have walked the hill by my house at the beginning and end as  wup/cdn.

Total:  35.8 miles, 7h45m.  4762 calories.

Weight (all pre-run):  192.2, 193.2, 193, 193.2, 193.2, 193.6, 192.6.  Average: 193.0.

BP.  Back down to normal.  last 3 average 116/69.

ARHR.  53 bpm.

Sleep.  Continues to be crap as verified by garmin.

Race predictor thinks I'm getting slower.  But always has my VO2max at 41.  So higher mileage makes you slow... don't buy it.  Assuming just the wx effect.

Feeling much more solid with just a couple of strength routines.  Need to keep this up.

Very happy with the mileage.  Legs feel OK. I'm slow and humidity stinks.  another 34 on tap for this week with 6/10 instead of 8/8, which seems easier to me.