Training Blog February 27 to March 5, 2017

Monday AM road 4 with Uta, 30:54
               PM road 10.1 solo, 1:06:33

Tuesday AM road 4 with Uta, 29:54, bit of a knot in my right shin.
               PM 3.1 warm up, drills and strides, Moneghetti Fartlek around my normal Glendale route, covered 3.83 miles in the 20mins that is 8/100ths more than the last time out and more important it got me back into the finish area I have tended to view as being fit in the past.  If I can get to a road called Woodhill ln, which is where gmap-pedometer says 4 miles is I have considered my self running well.  Tonight I made it just a stride past the far side of Woodhill.  6/100ths shy of my best ever on this loop. 3.5 cool down, 25mins. 6x6 squats 105lbs up to 155lbs after.

Mona gives this Fartlek a good job!  

Wednesday PM road 16, 1:45:06, ran in the light and in shorts and a t-shirt, crazy for this time of year.

Thursday AM 4.1 miles on road with Uta, first 1.4 with Melissa too, 30:54

Friday PM road 10.1 with Uta, 1:07:07, 6x6 dead lifts after 135lbs up to 185lbs. 

Saturday AM road 6.2 with Uta, 45:04, cold 10 degrees wind chill around 0.

                 PM road 10.1 solo, 1:03:53, cold 15 degrees wind chill much colder.

Sunday Noon 3.5 warm up, 25:20, drills and strides, 4x2 miles with 3:00 recovery with drills in each recovery.  10:23.9 (5:03.2/5:20.7), 10:28.3 (5:05.2/5:23.1), 10:33.5 (5:09.2/5:24.1), 10:27(5:07.5/5:19.5).  This is on a lollypop shaped out and back and the 2nd mile was pretty much all into the wind not only were they much slower but I was working much harder.   This looks a bit worse then when I did this session a couple months back but using the garmin to measure made the loop 15 seconds longer than how it was measured on gmap which is what I used when I was doing this last.  Also that wind killed me. 2.7 cool down in 21:00

Summary 92 miles for the week, two good workouts.  Super happy with the mona this week.  8/100ths better than two weeks ago and only 6/100ths off my best on that loop is a great step in the right direction.  Thursday and Friday were kinda crap as I was super tired and felt like I was getting sick but I took it easy, skipped a workout, took a ton of supplements- C, echinacea, congaplex, elderberry and as of right now, knock on wood, I'm not sick.  This has been my basic theme as I'm coming back.  I'm being very cautious. Focusing on being consistent, even if I'm consistently less than spectacular.  I'm making no major setbacks my mantra. Deal with the fact that I'm not training how I want but really key up on just having a decent week every week.  No injuries, no illnesses.  If I can get though the winter like that I'll be one happy guy. 

Training Blog February 13 to 19, 2017

Monday AM snow removal, about 3 hours of it, after a large storm.  School was canceled so I also slept in.
               PM road 10 with very snowy, 1:09:41

Tuesday AM 5 miles with Melissa and Uta in 40:30
               PM 5k warm up, drills, strides, Moneghetti Fartlek,roads much improved but definitely not great, almost fell twice and had to be very careful on the turns.  Covered 3.75 according to the garmin, exact same as two weeks ago but in tougher conditions so another improvement. 3.6 mile cool down

Mona rates this fartlek an "atta boy.  Keep moving forward"

Wednesday PM medium long run of 16 miles- felt like shit on a stick at the start but started feeling ok around 7 or 8 miles.  The coordination leg also felt off very early on and I was sure I would have to stop and do drills, not all that uncommon last week on the same loop I stopped at around 11.5 miles, but as I approached 11.5 I was ok but not great so decided to work to 12 or 13 but as I continued on it felt better and better so by the last couple miles it felt perfectly normal and I never did drills. 1:47:38 running time, roads still improving but certainly still stretches that are not so hot- I purposely run a lot of side streets and culdesacs to avoid traffic but sometimes they don't get as cleaned up as the main streets. 

Thursday AM snow removal.  I had school so I didn't have much choice had to do this rather than the morning run. 

                 PM 5.8 miles with Uta.  Now if you haven't caught on I hate winter.  I would move to Hawaii in a second if Melissa would let me but she likes the seasons.  That said this was an absolutely beautiful run.  The sun was setting and shining through the branches of the trees and every single branch was still covered in a couple inches of fresh pure white snow and every other surface was covered in that perfect white blanket as well.  The soft setting sunlight setting off it just gave me a feeling of being happy to be alive. 

  Dropped Uta off and did 15 short hill sprints.  I didn't time them though I would guess they were about 10 to 12 seconds based on doing hills in the same spot in the past. 

Friday AM road 4 with Uta, 29:34

            PM road 10 solo, 1:08:32, very tired, 6x6 squats starting at 95lbs up to 145lbs.

Saturday AM road 10 solo, 1:05:03, footing mostly ok but a couple miles were a good bit icy and slushy.
                PM 6 and change solo, 43:03

Sunday AM 3.5 or so warm up, some on track 2.75 on 1200m loop around Harvard facilities with a group. Drills, strides and a bit under 200m hard effort.  Race 5000m at USATF-NE Indoor Championships. 1st place 14:41.78.  So that makes 15 straight years of at least one sub 15 5k race which makes me happy.  This was much faster then the same race last year, 14:55, and again I felt really strong for most of it so I'm very happy.  Obviously I have run much faster but a more apples to apples comparison is that my fastest 5k without specific track work is only a 14:20 so being only 20 seconds off of that makes me very happy and I feel I could certainly go 20 seconds faster with 6 to 8 weeks of specific work.  Now the weather and my schedule doesn't have me doing that just yet but it really does have me getting excited for the racing to come later in the year.  Post race I went for a long cool down with a large group, 10.25 miles in 1:11:40.  Mostly around the Charles.  Mixed in some of Dan V's 5/55 sprints that he loves for cool downs.

Summary 97 miles for the week.  One good hard workout, one nice moderate session and one nice race.  Another solid but not spectacular week.  I though for sure I was finally going to get a hundred mile week in but the snowy morning on Thursday killed that. To be honest I'm not sure I have ever run a 5k much under 15 before without at least some 100 mile weeks in the months before.  Now that is a bit of a misleading stat because there are very few times in the last 20 years when I haven't run a number of 100 mile weeks in any two month stretch.   Anyway very nice to be back racing in a normal range at last.  It is even nicer to be feeling good and running feeling free and loose.   I ran basically 3 seconds per K faster then at the same race last year.  If I can do the same at New Bedford I would be looking at being a minute faster.  I'm not sure I'll see the same improvement and I'm still have a lot of coordination stuff but it is really nice to be going in with an honest reason to have some bigger better goals.  Hope your week went well.

  

January 30 to February 5, 2017

Monday AM road 4 with Uta, 30:42 tot. 4
               PM drills and massage with Anna

Tuesday AM road 4 with Uta, 30:51 tot. 4

Wednesday PM road 14.3, medium long run, 1:32:56

Thursday AM road 4 with Uta, 30:23
                 PM Moneghetti Fartlek, did 3 mile warm up with Uta in 21:11. dropped her off at the house, jogged another quarter mile or so, did drills- a skip, b skip, a+c skip, fast exchange, side shuffle, side shuffle with cross, karaoke, 3 hop fast exchange and sensory hops, 4 strides.  Did a Mona fartlek on my normal glendale loop.  Covered 3.75 miles, .05 more than 2 weeks ago and this got me back up to the area I was finishing in last year, albeit barely, but still nice to be back in the normal range.  Basically I have a 2/10th of a mile window that I finished all but one of my Mona's in prior to last years stress fracture. I was into that zone by about 30 or 40 yards.  I mean on gmaps this is 3.9 which is right in the zone I was very happy with last winter.  So I'm very happy now to be back in that range. 3.6 mile cool down.  I did 6x6 dead lifts after starting at 135 lbs up to 185lbs.

Steve Moneghetti rates this Mona a "good job" showing steady improvement and working back to competitive fitness.

Friday AM road 4 miles with Uta, 30:08

            PM road 10 miles solo, 1:05:03, felt pretty good for a Friday night normally I feel like death warmed over.  I did 6x6 squats after starting at 95lbs up to 145lbs.

Saturday AM boxford road 10, 1:03:29, felt a little heavy.
                2PM 6.4 miles road, 42:24
                4PM bikram yoga, 90mins hot yoga

Sunday AM Race Super Sunday 5 mile, Cambridge, MA.  3+ warm up, 22:15, full drill set, Strides, 30 second hard effort, Race, did most of the leading which I didn't mind.  I really just wanted a sub 25min time and didn't care much about place today.  Not my normal attitude but for today that is where my goals were at.  At 4 miles the pack just rolled by me and I didn't have a gear to shift to.  I ended up at 24:50 in 4th.  I'm really happy with this for a bunch of reasons.  first 14 straight years with at least one sub 25. Second this is one second faster than I ran last year which is a huge return to running in my normal range.  The low end of normal but normal all the same.  Third I split 15:25 which is about what I raced a month ago in very similar conditions. Fourth John Schilkowsky, I raced him in early December or late November and he beat me and today he was 1:34 behind me.  Now maybe he has been hurt or he doesn't run in the winter.  That's ok it is just very nice to be the one moving in the right direction for a change.  Splits 4:55, 9:54, 14:50, 19:49.  Then did a 3.5 mile cool down in 25:31. Total 12.5ish

Summary 81 miles for the week.  One good workout, one good race.  Good week with a rough start, not feeling very well, not sick just run down and feeling like I was going to get sick and played it safe. Feeling very optimistic about being back into regular shape and having a chance to build up to some good racing in the coming months.  Hope you are running well. 

Training January 16 to 22, 2017

Monday AM boxford 10 mile with Uta, 1:07:55
               late AM few drills and massage with Anna
               PM road 4 solo, 28:31

Tuesday AM road 4.1 with Uta, 30:19
               PM 3 warm up, drills- a skip, b skip, a+c skip, fast exchange, side 1, side 2 and karaoka, fast exchange 3 with 3 hops, hopping, strides, Moneghetti Fartlek covered 3.7 miles- 0.05 more than last time so an improvement.   I dodged a bullet on this one it was supposed to be sleet and freezing rain but it arrived late so it just started to drizzle as I started the fartlek and it was just getting going good over my last few efforts.  It was a cold 3.6 mile cool down to the house but two weeks ago the whole thing was in a driving cold rain so this was a nice improvement.

I should also note that I'm using a garmin now to measure in the past I used online mapping.  For the most part this hasn't changed anything pretty much everything is within a 1/10th a mile up or down from what the other measure said.  That said on the loop I use for the Moneghetti the garmin is consistently .15 shorter.  So on the computer this was 3.85.  This is unimportant except for comparison to when I have done Mona's on this loop in the past.  For perspective I was quite fit at this point last winter and was covering 3.9 to 4.1 miles pretty consistently on this loop per computer measurement.  So seeing 3.7 could be pretty frustrating as 3/10ths of a mile is a LOT of distance over only 20mins.  It is the difference between 5:24 per mile and 5:00 per mile.  Realizing that really I'm only running 1/10th to 0.15 less than last year is important in that I don't panic and think I'm in abysmal shape and not making progress.

 I must stress it doesn't matter what matters is the effort for the workout and for tracking training what matters is the comparison to past results.  IE you don't need to measure the loop at all you could just keep track of landmarks telling you how far you get.  For me I know if I finish past Mt. Vernon street I'm killing it.
  For the type A folks among you who need to know which is more accurate I would guess the garmin.  This loop is pretty hilly and based on my race times last winter while I was doing this loop regularly the performances lined up with being able to do a 4 mile Mona on the perfect flat but not over rolling hills.  To be honest in measurements I only trust a USATF cert. over the top steel tape and the full nine yards type thing I few everything else as ballpark.  That said the technology today has made the ballpark much much smaller.

Mona rates this fartlek a "would you please just shut up and run."

Wednesday Off day- semi planned.  Been right on the edge with training and work and this week has been a bit over the top at work, pretty much 10 hours every day in the building not counting 'homework'. So figured I'd take a day, either today or Friday

Thursday AM road 4 with Uta, 31:17, felt very flat after a day off 

                 PM  off, got home very late and it was Melissa's Birthday so no time to run.

Friday PM 3.5 with Uta then 12x12 second hills with jog down recoveries. Not a good day for volume but very happy to squeeze this session in.

Saturday AM road 7.2 with Uta, 47:21, 40 degrees sunny felt spring like.
                PM boxford 10 mile loop, 1:06:04, very warm 50 or so ran in shorts!

Sunday AM warm up with Ruben, drills, bunch of strides, one 27 second effort, race GBTC invite 2 mile, 7th place 9:15.91.  I was very pleasantly surprised by this one.  I though 9:20 was the absolute best I could hope for.  I planned to try and run 35 laps as long as I could.  Instead I was consistently a shade under and it felt very easy/smooth.  I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop but it didn't I ran hard the last 800 but I really feel like I could have run a second a lap faster just by being more aggressive. I really haven't done much work so this was really nice. 5.2 cool down with a group.

pic from Sunday by Mike Giberti showing me looking about as good form wise as I ever have.

Summary 66 or so miles for the week, 1 good workout, 1 moderate session, 1 race.  Not a great week volume wise but I hit the stuff that mattered so I'm happy with it.  Hope your training is going well.

Weekly Training Blog December

 Alligator from an awesome boat tour in Wakulla State Park during which we saw a bunch of these guys and a few Manatees.

 Monday AM 4 miles with Uta, 30:15, tot. 4
                3:30PM cross training and massage with Anna, mostly did handstands and variations of jerks
                6:30PM raliegh tavern 10 mile, total ice skating shit show, 1:10:38, dead lifts after 6x6 start at 95lbs up to 155lbs tot. 10.2

Tuesday AM out and back on Dale with Uta and Melissa, 33:45, it was icy again but not nearly as bad as last night but Melissa HATES ice so we went pretty slow tot. 4
                PM 3+ warm up, drills, strides, half Mona fartlek on Glendale loop, not as icy as last few runs but there were a couple spots, averaged 5:12 pace for the 10mins and felt much better. 3+ cool down

I thought this would get a Steve Moneghetti "Atta Boy" rating but…

Instead I actually got a "what the hell are you talking about?" because it is only the 2nd Mona of the cycle and it was still only a half mona.

Wednesday AM road 4 with Uta in mix of snow, freezing rain and rain. 30:37 tot. 4

                     PM raliegh tavern 10 mile, 1:08:38, box jumps after 3x10 at 20in, 24in, 30in tot. 10.2

Thursday AM road 4 with Melissa and Uta, 31:57

                  PM off I had a very long day at work, it was getting late and I knew I had to be up at 2:30am the next morning for our flight so I had dinner and went to bed.

Friday AM off for travel to Tallahassee 

            PM 41mins of jogging around the course and drills, tot. 5++

Saturday AM 10min warm up with Melissa before her race.  Then 18min warm up after she started the race, drills, 4min jog to start, wait in check in line then forced in 5 strides in the 5mins before the start.  Race USATF club xc championships.  I finished 119th and ran 32:10.  Splits 5:02, 10:11, 15:15, 20:43(long), 25:36(short), 30:55.   I finished about 15 seconds and 17 places in Front of John Schilkowsky who beat me by about 15 or 20 seconds last weekend so I felt good about that.  I followed my race plan pretty much perfectly and I competed well over the last couple miles.  I'm super unfit so this was about as good as I could hope for.  In 2005 I was really fit and ran club cross but raced like an idiot and though I had a shot at the top 10 I ended up 85th or so.  The field is much deeper now and I got 119th in awful shape so I feel pretty good about how I approached things.

  Now the story….  So let me be clear.  I started it.  I was moving up through the field and after 2 miles I was cutting across on the tangent and I cut a guy off.  Not on purpose but I was cutting across the field and there was contact and we both got a good stumble in.  A few seconds later the other guy rushes up next to me and gives me a good elbow. Ok fair enough.  Then he keeps leaning into me and elbow pushing me over to the edge of the course, which at this spot was some heavy bushes.  I probably should have said something but I didn't.  I have a temper when I race, and yes I know I was in the middle of the pack with no shot at doing anything but that doesn't have any impact on my competitiveness.  Anyway I sort of used my right arm and threw the guy to the ground.  That wasn't really my intent.  I just wanted to give him a good enough jolt that he would cut the shit and we'd move on but down he went.  Now his teammates around him were none too happy, for obvious reasons and were shouting and stuff.  I was moving faster so I was out of range fairly quickly but when someone tells you I'm an a-hole, keep in mind sometimes I'm an a-hole.   I actually sort of figured I'd be dq'd but either they never ended up complaining to the officials or the officials were like Umm you all finished a 100 and what? and blew them off.

Sunday AM 14 miles solo out and back on St. Marks rail trail, 1:30:22. Awesome place to run would love to do tempo's on this.  We do have the Chelmsford rail trail now which is very similar, though has more road crossings and obviously living up here it is out of commission for fast running for the next 4 or 5 months. tot. 14

Summary 75 miles, one decent workout, one decent race. I'm happy with this.  The race is poorly placed in the overall scheme of things, So I end up not increasing to the 90's this week and with a travel nightmare that ended up in Melissa and I getting back to our house Monday morning at 5:20AM and me at work at 7:20AM after that I didn't run yesterday or this morning so this week will not be an increase week either.

  That said it was a nice trip and I was very happy with the race for the shape I am in.  I executed my race plan perfectly.  I really would have loved to be sub 32 and top 100 but honestly I thought those goals going in were wildly unrealistic so to come as close as I did I'm very happy.

  Generally speaking I am feeling strong and moving freely.  I am still having coordination issues but I could see those being wiped out in the coming year if I continue to make the muscular progress I have been making.  Additionally I feel that the improved muscular power, and more importantly range of motion, have made me MUCH more efficient at speed and so I am noticing very fast improvement with little work and I think I could end up running quite well in the coming months with some good training.

  That said I have some concerns about moving training forward in the winter. I have to lay out a training schedule that will be balanced and effective but can be accomplished without access to a track or much in the way of extended flat ground.  Where footing will be to varying degrees a problem on nearly every run.  That will work with 10 out of 13 runs being completed in darkness each week.  All of these issues can be overcome but it means that planning becomes very important.  I have my schedule to a point that I'm pretty happy with it and I should have it pretty well squared away by the end of this week.  There are some small things about running in the dark and on the ice that annoy the hell out of me that I'll simply need to such it up and deal with but other than that the biggest hurdles were making a plan that would accomplish my goals within the constraints of a New England winter, my schedule, and my current training resources.


Lastly, and I think this is pretty obvious, Mona is not judging my workouts, I don't know him, He certainly doesn't know me.  I'm just a fan, of him and his fartlek.  I don't own the pics.  I just stole them offline.  I don't have ads on the blog.  I don't make any money for this as such I don't feel guilty doing that.  If you own one of the pictures and don't want me to use it just post a comment or message me.  If you are Steve Moneghetti, first thank you for checking out my blog!  I'm honored!  Loved your book by the way.  Second I'm guessing you know it is all in good fun but if for whatever reason you don't want me to continue just message me or comment.  Getting a cease and desist note from one of my running hero's will rate right up there with my other odd life accomplishments like taking an ice bath with Teg and Solinsky and Frank Shorter saying "Hi, Nate." to me.

Weekly Training November 28 to December 4, 2016 Almost real training...

Monday AM road 4 mile with Uta, 30:07 tot. 4
               PM 8.3 miles, roads in 56:32. This was in a cold rain, of course it was dark as well. This was
                      one of those runs where you are kinda certain someone is going to run you over tot. 8.3

This is the start of my race Saturday.  If my form looked that good all the time I'd be a happy man. The gentleman on my left shoulder is the eventual winner John Schilkowsky.

Tuesday AM 4 miles in cold rain with Melissa and Uta on roads, 31:26 tot. 4
                PM 45 degrees and pouring cold rain.  I did a 3.1 mile warm up with Uta then toweled her
                       off before heading out again- this time spent socked to the bone not moving much was
                       not helpful to the warm up process.  I jogged a quarter mile from the house to my fartlek
                       loop, did drills- a skip, b skip , a+c skip, hops, both types of side skips fast exchange
                      with hold.  Then some strides.  Then did a half a Moneghetti Fartlek, 10mins- 1x90,
                      2x60, 2x30, 2x15 with equal rest.  I covered 1.87 miles in the 10mins that is 5:20 pace.
                      Interestingly in the 90 second rep I was in the range of how far I would go when running
                      Full Mona's that cover 4 miles.  Just keep in mind when I do that the recovery pace has to
                      be in the 5:20 per mile range and today I was averaging that pace overall. It was good to
                      get in a fartlek but humbling to see how far from full fitness I still am.  2.4 mile cool
                      down in 17:39. tot. 8.3 miles

Even though it was nice to get back to doing one of my favorite workouts if I'm going to be honest this half Moneghetti would definitely have to rate a Steve Moneghetti is not impressed. 

Wednesday AM 4 miles with Uta on the roads, not really raining just really foggy.  No time as I forgot

                            to stop the watch tot. 4

                    PM Road 8 miles solo in cold hard rain, 53:21, not an enjoyable run tot. 8

Thursday AM 4 miles with Uta in, you guessed it, a cold rain. tot. 4

                  PM at North Andover track, 2 miles warm up, 15:17, full drills. 15x200m with 2mins rest-

                         jogged 200m on most of the recoveries.  I did the first 4 with some of the 400/800 girls

                         from Merrimack College who were working out and on those ones I walked across the

                         infield with them on the recoveries. I averaged 31.74 for the 200's. Felt pretty easy

                         overall.  I wanted to do this 'on' 2mins not with 2mins rest but I took the chance to run

                         with some people at the start over my original plan as extra rest is not a problem on this

                         session because it is all about the muscular development, 3+ mile cool down 20mins 

                         tot. 8.6 miles

Friday AM 4.1 miles roads with Melissa and Uta in 31:26.  Holy crap it wasn't raining at all.  I mean it

                    was still dark and cold because well all my weekday runs in the winter are in the dark and

                    cold but no rain! tot. 4.1

             PM 8.2 miles on roads with Uta who wanted to hammer, particularly after we ran into and then

                    for a short stretch sort of with a group of deer. time-52:45 tot. 8.2 miles

Saturday 1pm 3+ miles warm up, bunch of drills, bunch of strides, Race Frozen Frolic 3.4 mile in Wakefield MA. finished 2nd behind John Schilkowsky who has run 4:02 and 8:06 in the past but I have no idea what kind of shape he is in now. I lead to about 2.8 miles or so and then he went by me and really buried me from there to the finish.  The course is very flat but it was super windy.  From about 600m to 2 miles most of the course was into a VERY strong head wind.  From 2 miles to the finish you had mostly a very nice tailwind.  Splits 1-5:03.02, 2-10:04.28 (5:01.26), 3- 14:57.35 (4:53.09), 1:53 for the last .4 (4:50 mile pace).  The good news was that I ran this course 2 years ago and ran 16:53.  That was a bad day at the time but to be back to a place where I am running faster on a good day than I was in the past on a bad day is a big step forward.  Back into the ballpark of my normal racing.  So I'm really happy with the run. I was also really happy that I was able to race hard been locked in a sort of 90% effort the last few races so it was nice to start to get tough again.  Did about 3 miles cool down mostly with two UML runners who did a tempo in the race.  tot. 10.4 miles 

This is me at the finish. Form isn't that bad.  Little forward lean at the waist, some collapsing in the hips but not awful. 

Sunday AM 14.1 miles on roads, 1:30:56, sadly this kinda felt like a long run, but hey its been a while so I'll take it.  I did hops, knees to chest jumps, box jumps 10x20in, 10x24in, 10x30in and squats, 6x6 starting at 65lbs and going up to 115lbs after the run. tot. 14.1 miles

Video of me doing the last set of box jumps

PM bikram yoga


Summary ~86 miles for the week, two workouts, one race.  Like I said that is almost real training.  The miles were a nice step up.  The workouts obviously pretty light but they were fine for where I'm at and the race was certainly a step forward and honestly better than I had hoped for.  My goal was to run 5:00  pace, which would have been 17:00 but with the wind I really thought there was no way that was going to happen so I was very happy to actually be under that.  Slowly, ever so slowly, I'm working my way back.  Unfortunately for the next 3 to 5 months the weather and darkness are going to make things harder so this is a rough time to be just getting my wheels under me but sometimes that is just how it goes. Hope your running is going well.

Training February 15 to 21, 2016

Monday AM valley spofford 6 mile solo, 0 degrees a bit cold for Uta,  41:45.
               3PM road 10, first 6 with Uta in 43 mins then solo for 4, 69mins total time.  Low back was tweaked a bit after AM run- weird it has been great for almost 2 years.
               5PM Bikram yoga, 90mins hot yoga, skipped sit ups and was careful on forward bends. Back felt much improved after.


Tuesday AM 6 miles, valley spofford loop, with Uta, in around 45mins- Uta just wanted to shuffle along- she is usually less bouncy when Melissa and I are around the house all day for a few days.
                PM 3.1 warm up, strides with jog back.  I actually timed these strides and was shocked that they were around 20 seconds.  I kinda assumed my strides off the track were always short.  Seems maybe they are always long.  By this point it was raining pretty hard and I was having a hard time staying warm.  That combined with how poorly my last two hard sessions had gone had me feeling very nervous.  Moneghetti Fartlek around glendale loop- covered 3.89 miles, 5:07 pace.  Huge improvement from last weeks abysmal 3.80.  Honestly I was hoping for 3.85 so this was real nice.3.1 cool down

Wednesday AM 18.2 miles, same loop as Sunday.  Worlds of improvement. 1:55:26.  Felt pretty good. Calves shredded.  Struggled to toe off well after 14 or 15 miles,  Feld coordination threatening in the last mile or so.  good run.
                    PM bikram yoga, 90mins hot yoga, put the back to rest.

Thursday AM valley spofford 6 mile with Uta, 41mins, calves really shredded.
                  PM 3.1 warm up, skipping warm up, light drills, strides, 3 mile tempo run in 15:22- 5:12, 5:10, 5:09, focused on taking it a little easier and feeling strong.  Still not without some trepidation as that was the plan last Saturday and I died after a 5:14 first so this was a good step in the right direction.  1min recovery then 8xhill sprint- estimating around 100m. with jog down recoveries.- all jog downs were 49 or 50 seconds all the reps were in 20 seconds except the 6th which slipped to 21.0 and the last which dipped down to 19.9. Focus on toeing off and keeping shoulders back with good power. tough to do calves very tired. 3.3 cool down, 23:45.

Friday AM valley spofford 6 mile with Uta in 44mins
             PM raliegh tavern 10, 67mins
             5PM bikram yoga, 90mins hot yoga

Saturday AM Raliegh tavern 12.2 miles in 1:19
                 PM valley spofford 6mile  solo, 41mins calves very tight still but on right side this has brought in the ITB as well.  Did a lot of foam rolling and exercises

Sunday AM 3+ warm up, skipping warm up, light drills, strides, Race USATF- NE 5k 3rd place in 14:55. 3.5 cool down in 26mins.  splits(220yard laps on this track not 200m) were very consistent- fastest was 35.4(twice), slowest was 36.8. mile- 4:48.7, 2mile- 9:34.99, 3 mile- 14:24.5

Summary 

 111 miles for the week, two decent workouts, one race. Made it to yoga 3 times thanks to being on vacation from school for the week.  

  The race;  On the positive side 14 straight years of at least one sub 15 5k race is checked off the goals for the year list, My 2016 goals . I was also happy that although the pace became hard to maintain it never felt fast.  I felt controlled and steady.  That is a much better place to work from than when you feel like you're flying and the splits tell you that you're crawling. I ran very consistently and was hurting but I didn't get a great effort out.  That is to be expected given the lack of racing and track work that I'm doing at this point in the year.  In terms of fitness I would say this is a slightly better performance for me than the Jax half and the super Sunday 5 mile.  On the downside 14:55 is pretty slow even without doing track work and I have a long way to go to get real fit.  So out the door again tomorrow and hopefully build on the consistent last couple of weeks and keep chipping away for a while.

Training February 1 to 7, 2016

Monday AM 10k in 45 with Uta, sore throat.
               PM 10 miles in 66 felt like I was flying, that's not good. still had sore throat.

Tuesday AM 10k with Uta in 42. sore throat
                PM 3.3 warm up with Uta then another 1/2 mile of jogging with strides mixed in. Mona fartlek- only covered 3.87 miles- 5:10 mile pace.  5k cool down. No pop at all just slogging. sore throat, exhausted.

Wednesday Off sick- fought through the last one and that didn't work so trying a different approach.

Thursday off sick

Friday off sick.

Saturday- feeling a bit better but not great.
                 AM 90mins bikram yoga
                 PM 10 miles with Uta and Mark Larosa in 68mins.

Sunday AM 3 mile warm up, skipping warm up, light drills, strides, race RaceMenu Super Sunday 5 mile, 2nd place 24:50, splits- 1- 4:58, 2- 9:54(4:56), 3- 14:47(4:53), 4- 19:59 (5:12)- wicked side stitch- 5-24:50(4:51).  I don't get side stitches often and I haven't had a bad one in a long time.  This thing killed me I felt like I couldn't breath. It started to let go in the last mile but never fully subsided. Though obviously it was MUCH better.
                 PM 4 miles with Uta in 28:07

Summary Obviously a crap week. Not sure what to make of the race.  If I hadn't stitched up and I had run the 4th mile in the range of the 3rd and 5th I would have been about 20 seconds faster and very happy with that.  As it is I just don't know.  The time isn't that good but it isn't that bad.  On the plus side it checks off one of my 2016 goals extending my streak of sub 25 5mile/8k races to 13 years.
  I'm feeling much better sitting here now and hopefully that was my last cold of the year and I can get some consistency going.

My Current Spin on Complex Training

 I had been meaning to do a blog on this but Rich gave me a push and so here it is…

  I am a huge believer that the devil of racing fast is that you need a training system and not to just be running a lot and tossing in some random workouts.

  It is like cooking. Making a meal we can all pretty much figure out the ingredients and you can do pretty well as long as you put in good quality ingredients.  But the key to really making a great dish is to balance the ingredients properly and to mix them in at the right times.

  There are a number of great training programs out there and it is no secret that I had my greatest success using Renato Canova's program.  Although I actually set my 10k best off Joe Vigil's system and honestly if I had the time on weeknights I would love to use that again.   However time is a serious issue for me particularly on weekdays.

  My next issue is that I like simple repetitive training.  I am a creature of habit and I like to keep to a routine.  With all that in mind I settled on the idea of using Australian complex training.  This system was started by Pat Clohessy who coached 2:07:50 man Rob de Castella as well as 2:11 and sub 28' 10k man Chris Wardlaw.  Wardlaw in turn would use the system to coach Steve Moneghetti who would run 1:00:07 and 2:08:10.   A number of other of great runners came out of this system.

  The basic system is workouts on Tuesday and Thursday tempo or race on Saturday a medium long run on Wednesday and a long run on Sunday.  The key is in the details of this system.  The track and fartlek work is almost all alternation or 'bounce' threshold style- which means the recoveries are fast enough that you get a huge improvement in your threshold when using them.  The long run involves either hard climbs or a fast finish and should be run at the quicker end of your training pace.  Also some form of sprinting and hills would be mixed in.

  The way you adjust this program from season to season or event to event is to make twists in the sessions themselves.  So when getting ready for a marathon you would do a set of Aussie quarters with slower reps but faster rest then you would when getting ready for a 5k.

  Anyway I used this as my jumping off point.  I love that the standard weekday workouts tend to work multiple systems and don't take too long so I can get them done and still get to bed in time to be ok to get up for the morning run the next day.

  My two week cycle

Week 1
Monday- AM 6 PM 10 to 12 miles

Tuesday AM 6 PM Mona Fartlek http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2015/01/monaghetti-fartlek.html

Wednesday PM medium long run 15 to 18 miles

Thursday AM 6 PM 3 miles of sprint float sprint

Friday AM 6 PM 10 to 12 miles

Saturday - Fundamental paced tempo(5:50 down to 5:20 pace depending on conditions and fitness) run of 15 to 25 miles

Sunday 6 and 6 double

Week 2
Monday AM 6 PM 10 to 12 miles

Tuesday AM 6 PM Mona Fartlek

Wednesday PM medium long run 15 to 18 miles

Thursday AM 6 PM 3 mile tempo 4x400 hills- After the winter is over I'll do Aussie Quarters http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2014/12/workout-wednesday-australian-quarters.html

Friday AM 6 PM 10 to 12 miles

Saturday AM Tempo run or race PM 6

Sunday AM 22 miles with last two miles fast- goal 5:00 pace.


So obviously the fundamental paced run is a Canova session. It is a session I love to do and I have finally got my coordination to the point where I can do them again.  Also it is a session I get huge fitness from.

  Also if I start to do marathon training I'll do marathon workouts for the long runs.  I have always felt that the Aussie system was good for the marathon but not perfect.  For example if you look at Steve Moneghetti's PR's he slows at just about 5 seconds per K as the distance doubles from 3k to the half marathon.  If he continued this to the marathon he would have a best of 2:04:11.  I think with specific work he could have run the marathon in that range off his fitness.  To be clear I don't think he could have actually run that time in the early to mid 90's when he was racing at his best.  He would have needed pace setters and competitors willing to chase that sort of time and that didn't exist at that time but he certainly could have been closer to it.   I could and should write a whole blog on the basic idea but the short story is look at the top times in the 5k, 10k, half marathon from the 1990's and early 2000's and the times in the marathon.  Look at the times today.   The change in the marathon is stunning. The other events are close to the same, actually on the track a they are weaker with the drop in epo use and decrease of money in those events.  Road race times are roughly the same.  What happened?  The kenyans and Ethiopians embraced the Italian style marathon program and began to run within 3 to 5% of their half marathon performance in the marathon.

  That is my basic cycle. I can do it cover all my bases and stay healthy and almost get enough sleep to keep myself together.

Training Since Mid October 2015

  I'm including the first few weeks here to give you a sense of my baseline fitness and what my training had looked like going back to labor day.  These couple weeks are pretty representative of that time frame.  I had one or two decent weeks mixed in with over 110 miles but mostly this is about what it had looked like. I include the October 11 race to show the fitness that work had given me.

Sunday October 11 raced Great Island 5k, flat but crazy turn 5k- upwards of 50 or so turns on the course, finished 2nd in 15:10, 3rd placer Andrew Huebner is a 2:17:05 trials qualifier though he is not in top form.

October 12 to 18

Monday AM 4.1 mile recovery run 30mins

                PM 4.1 mile recovery run 30 mins

Tuesday AM 4.1 miles

                PM 5 miles in 40 mins

Wednesday AM 4.1 miles

                     PM 3.5 warm up strides, Monaghetti fartlek on Glendale loop, covered 3.84 miles in 20mins, 3.3 cool down total bit over 10 miles.

Thursday AM 4.1 miles 28mins

                  3pm 2 miles with middle school team

                  5:30pm 10 miles in 62mins

Friday AM 4.1 miles in 29mins

             3pm 2 miles with middle school team

             5:30pm 10.6 miles in 68 mins

Saturday off moving day

Sunday AM 5 miles 35 minutes.  had hoped for second run but moving and getting set up prevented it. 

October 19 to 25

Monday AM 4.1 miles 29mins

               PM 5 miles 35 mins

Tuesday 3pm 3 miles with middle school kids

                6pm 3++ warm up strides, moneghetti fartlek around glendale loop covered 3.97 miles in 20minutes 3++ cool down.

Wednesday PM 14. 6 miles in 1:34

Thursday PM 4 miles in 32 minutes

Friday 3pm 2 miles with middle school kids

             6pm 6.5 miles in 48 minutes

Saturday AM Race great bay 5k, 2nd place 14:40, 5k warm up, drills, strides, 37 second hard effort, splits 4:49, 9:32(4:43), 14:13(4:40), got out kicked.  Pushed from front from the mile mark on.  I wanted the time so I went for that and hoped it would get the win as well but it didn't long cool down including some uptempo stuff with 1st and 3rd place finishers. total 13 miles

Sunday AM 15 miles in 1:37

              PM bikram yoga

October 26 to November 1

Monday PM 10. 6 miles in 71:11

Tuesday PM 20minutes easy with Uta and Melissa

Wednesday off due to life.

Thursday PM 3.5 mile warm up with strides, 3 mile hilly tempo 15:24, 1:30 recovery, 4x400m hill repeats with jog down recoveries(~2mins each) reps-1:33, 1:36, 1:35, 1:35, 3+ cool down. This can be viewed as the start of real training from here on I start doing more then just running.

Friday PM 12 miles in 1:17

Saturday 2pm 4k warm up, 32k around phillips fields in 1:47:54, average pace 5:25 per mile.  This needs to be viewed in context.  First I'm an aerobic monster. Second I had done a 30k on the fields at 5:29 pace on October 4.  Third I respond to this type of training like no other so I improve at it very quickly.

Sunday AM 5 miles in 35 mins
              PM 5 miles in 35 mins

November 2 to 8

Monday AM 5.3 miles in 37 mins
                PM 10.4 miles in 68 mins
               later in PM bikram yoga

Tuesday AM 5.3 miles in 37 mins

Wednesday PM 3.5 warm up with strides, Moneghetti fartlek around glendale loop covered 3.94 miles in 20mins 3 plus cool down

Thursday AM 5.3 miles in 38mins
                  PM 8.7 miles in 56 mins

Friday AM 5.3 miles in 37 mins

Saturday AM bikram yoga
                 PM 5.3 miles in 35mins

Sunday late AM Race USATF-NE xc championships, 8th place 31:12, felt strong to about 4.5 miles then just couldn't seem to go. Had that feeling like if I slowed down just a bit I could run all day but as soon as I pushed I was shit out of luck. 3 warm up, strides, 30 second hard effort, splits mile 4:52, 2mile- 9:58, 5k-15:37, 8k-25:05, 4 mile cool down.

November 9 to 15

Monday AM 5.4 miles in 39 mins
                PM 12 miles in 1:17
                XT bikram yoga

Tuesday AM 5.4 miles in 39 mins
                PM 3.5 warm up with strides, moneghetti fartlek on glendale loop 3.95 miles in the 20mins, 3+ cool down

Wednesday PM 16.5 miles in 1:46:17

Thursday AM 5.4 miles in 39 mins
                  PM 3.5 mile warm up, strides, 5k tempo in 15:23, 1:30 recovery, 4x400m hill repeats with jog down recoveries, 1:38, 1:42, 1:41, 1:41 2 mile recovery.

Friday AM 5.4 miles in 39 mins
             PM 12.3 miles in 1:20

Saturday AM 4k warm up, 36k around phillips fields in 2:01:30- 5:25 pace. very windy.  Best long run I have had since the 2007 Olympic Trials.

Sunday AM 5 miles with Melissa and uta in 36mins
              PM bikram yoga

November 16 to 22

Monday AM 5.6 miles in 40mins

Tuesday AM 10k in 46mins

Wednesday PM 3.5 miles warm up, moneghetti 3.97 miles in the 20mins, 3 plus cool down.

Thursday AM 5 miles in 36mins
                  PM 15 miles in 1:37

Friday AM 10k in 46mins
            PM 12.6 miles in 1:22

Saturday AM 4 mile warm up, drills, strides, 8k tempo around phillips fields at half marathon goal pace, 24:33, 2k splits- 6:11, 12:21, 18:29. 1 mile cool down.
                 PM 5.2 miles with melissa including 2 miles in 11:12.

Sunday AM 22.3 miles, first 20 in 2:13 including 6 miles with Melissa, then 2 miles in 10:03(5:01.8, 5:01.2) then 0.3 easy back to house. total time 2:25:33

November 23 to 29

Monday AM 10k in 46mins

                PM 10.2 miles in 68mins

Tuesday AM 10k in 44mins

                PM 3.5 miles warm up with strides, moneghetti fartlek covered 3.88 miles in the 20mins, 3 miles cool down

Wednesday PM 16.5 miles in 1:47

Thursday AM  3 plus warm up, drills, strides, 5k tempo in 15:07, last mile in 4:47, 1:30 recovery then 4x400m hill repeats with jog down recoveries, 1:38, 1:38, 1:39, 1:39, 2 mile cool down.
                  PM 5 miles with a crazy full stomach in 38mins really quite proud I didn't puke.

Friday AM 10.3 miles in 68mins
             PM 6 miles in 42mins

Saturday AM 13 miles including 62mins at 5:30 pace over hilly loop, felt good but really struggled with coordination on slippery roads(it was raining)
                 PM 4 miles in 28mins with Melissa and Uta

Sunday AM 10.2 miles with Melissa in 73mins
              PM 7.3 miles in 47mins
              XT bikram yoga

November 30 to December 6

Monday AM 10k in 47mins
                PM 3.5 mile warm up with strides, moneghetti fartlek around glendale loop covered 4.02 miles in the 20mins, 3++ cool down

Tuesday PM 16 miles in 1:46

Wednesday AM 5 miles in 38mins
                     PM 3 mile warm up on woodway curve, drills, 3 miles of sprint float sprint around 160m indoor track 80 on 80 off, 16:10, 3 mile cool down.
             
Thursday AM 10k run in 46mins
                  PM 16 miles in 1:44

Friday AM 10k run in 45mins
            PM 10 miles in 66mins

Saturday AM 4 mile warm up, strides, 10k tempo on phillips fields at goal half marathon pace, 30:43. 2k splits- 6:08, 12:17, 18:25, 24:36. 4 mile cool down
                 PM 10k with melissa including pacing her for her 6k tempo in 21:15.

Sunday AM 22.3 miles, first 20 miles in 2:07:38 then 2 miles in 10:00 (5:03, 4:57), 0.3 miles easy back to house

December 7 to 13

Monday AM 10k in 46 mins
               PM 10.1 miles in 67 mins

Tuesday AM 10k in 45 mins
                First hiccup- I tried a new shoulder exercise and it was way too much for me- almost impossible for me to explain how week my mid back and shoulder region- lower traps, rhomboids are. Anyway I threw my upper back into spasm and by mid day I could barely breath.

Wednesday off All I did was go to bikram yoga which didn't fix the problem but made it like 50% better which was awesome because that took it from real pain down to I just couldn't do shit.

Thursday 3:30pm Accupuncture.
                   6pm 4 miles with Uta in 31mins back/shoulders much better.

Friday AM 10k 47mins
             PM 6 miles in 41mins

Saturday AM 13 miles in 1:21
                 PM bikram yoga

Sunday Second hiccup. I was planning to go for a fast long run but I woke up feeling like I was coming down with a cold.  Bad sore throat and a head ache.  If you live in the Northeast you probably know a nasty virus has been going around and laying people out.  I teach and most of us have pretty awesome immune systems but this had been laying people out.  However Melissa had some crazy immune supplement mix of zinc, vitamins A, C and B6 with garlic, ginger and licorice extracts that I had taken earlier in this cycle when started to get sick and it kicked it fast.  This time I was not so lucky.  I got a tough chest cold.  Thing is I didn't feel sick.  I just was coughing something awful.  I took some easy days and off days to try and get healthy if I had it to do over I would just train full miles and strides. I will be taking this supplement whenever I feel sick from here on out.  I really was shocked how good I felt considering I was sick.  
             AM 15 miles in 1:41

December 14 to 20

Monday AM 10k in 46mins
                PM 6 miles in 42mins

Tuesday AM 10k in 46mins
                PM 10 miles in 67mins

Wednesday PM 12 miles from my school in 1:14- parent conferences today so I don't have time to go home and run.  I run from school between the end of the day and the start of conferences. I had hoped to have time for 16 but I had an unplanned early meeting with a parent right after school so I had to settle for 12

Thursday AM 10k 44mins
                  PM 12 miles from school, second night of conferences, 1:15

Friday AM 4.1 miles in 31mins

Saturday AM 4 miles in 28 mins

Sunday AM 7 miles in 53mins.  I had planned to try and sleep a lot and take it easy just running with Melissa for a few days to kick the cold.  I executed the plan but didn't get the desired result.  I think this was a mistake. I should have just kept running full volume.

December 21 to 27

Monday AM 5 miles in 37mins
                PM 10k in 43mins

Tuesday AM 5 miles in 37mins

                PM 10.3 miles in 70mins

Wednesday 1pm- half day at school. 16.1 miles in 1:41
             Went to new chiropractor Melissa knows who is very good with exercises and she gave me new exercise to activate lower trap. Huge help for posture!

Thursday AM 12.1 miles in 1:19, only one run because of family get together for Christmas Eve

Friday Merry Christmas!!! AM 7 miles in 48mins including a 5:24 mile with Melissa
            Noon 11.6 miles in shorts and a T-shirt!!! in 1:12.
I was feeling pretty good by today.  Still coughing but not nearly as bad.  However I was feeling very confused about how to approach training for the next week.  I have a goal race now only 9 days away. I haven't run fast for nearly 3 weeks. I need to get back in the swing but at the same time taper.  I am very good with setting up full cycles but a spot like this I just didn't have a solution.  I must have settled on 15 different plans.  I should have called Gary Gardner. That is my normal fall back.  Gary doesn't use the exact same methods I do but he more than understands what I do and he is one of the absolute best when something goes off plan at figuring out the best way to adjust and balance things.  I can't tell you how many times I have gone to him with a seemingly intractable problem I just couldn't figure out and he thinks for 10 seconds and then has the perfect plan that ends up saving my cycle.  Anyway it was Christmas and I was doing all the family stuff and what not so I didn't call him.  All this is to say I'm not confident in what I ended up doing.

Saturday AM 10.3 in 70mins

Sunday PM 13.7 miles with last two miles at goal half marathon pace. first 11.4 in 1:12 then 2 miles in 9:41.8- bit quick.  I run on the roads so I don't have a lot of splits for these things. (4:54.3, 4:47.5) actually didn't feel that bad considering I have done zero speed for weeks. 

Summary

 So there you have it my training for this half marathon.  Not ideal but the course and competition look ideal.  I keep trying to remind myself that I have run a handful of 1:07 to 1:08 halves here in New England off worse or similar training on much tougher course in much tougher conditions.  Also I keep reminding myself of a story from my good friend Tommy Neal.  Tommy was training for the Gary Bjorkland half marathon as a qualifying attempt for the 2012 trials and he joined that group that Scott Simmons put together that was advised by Canova.  The week of the race Tommy gets to sit down with Canova for a while and go over his training logs.  At the end Canova says to Tommy who has best in the mid 29's for 10k, 49 something for 10 miles, and low 2:20's for the marathon that the good news is that he has not been training he just runs a lot.  This means that Canova thinks he can improve in leaps and bounds with a few adjustments because the volume he is running shows he can handle heavy training.  But poor Tommy is panicked his race is that weekend.  He tells Canova as much.  Canova asks what the course is like and what time Tommy needs to run.  Canova says something like 'well it isn't a sure thing but 1:05 isn't that fast and a person could certainly run that sort of time on just a lot of running.'  The result.  Tommy ran 1:04:59 and qualified for the trials.

Weekly Training Blog March 23 to 29- Duck Tape and Bubble Gum

Monday

PM 7.2 miles on road, first 3.2 with Melissa and Uta in 22:33 rest solo, 48:08

XT whartons, rubber bands, Thoracic Bridge

Tuesday

PM Barker farm 16 at fundamental pace, 1:34:10, this felt VERY easy, I was fighting the coordination a good bit but it held all the way which was the point of doing this run.  Trying to get the form back to where I'm again holding the coordination for 20 miles plus.  This run was at 5:53 pace but this loop is very hilly and tends to be about 10 seconds per mile slower than my regular loop which is about 10 seconds per mile slower than flat running.  I have run this fast on this loop but not with this ease it felt like 7min pace plus.  Just walking. total 16 miles

XT whartons, YTI, rubberbands, thoracic bridge

Wednesday

PM Regular 20k, 1:16:30, with temps in the mid 40's this was far and away the warmest run I have had in quite some time, of course there are still a couple feet of snow on the ground so it isn't summer just yet…

XT whartons, YTI, thoracic bridge,  My left heel/ankle spasmed when I was running some errands around 8:30pm and I did some ankle drills when I got home, very tight at the solues attachment.

Thursday

PM 11miles first 2 miles with Uta in 16mins.  It was raining hard and she didn't want to run when she didn't perk up I just swung back and dropped her off, she was happy about that, rest solo in cold driving rain.  1:14:38, left heel was very sore and week was actually limping for most of the first two miles with Uta until it loosened up some.

XT went right to Bikram Yoga after the run, also did whartons, YTI, ankle drills, some wharton stretches for the foot and ankle and rubber bands

Friday

PM bearhill 4.2 with Uta for a warm up, 26:53, dropped her off then did skipping warm up, light drills, and strides.  Then a Moneghetti fartlek around my 'block'.  Covered 4.114 miles in the 20 minutes.  Just about one house further than on the same session last week so a new Mona PR.  Average pace was 4:51.6/3:01.2.  This was a very good session.  The heel, soleus attachment, still very sore but was able to get it loosened up enough to do this. 2+ mile cool down, 14:45.

XT ankle drills, YTI, whartons, rubberbands, wharton stretches for ankle and foot

The loop I was doing this workout on is just over 1500m and goes around the roads that surround our town home complex.  Melissa could see me going by from our living room and noticed that though my shoulders were back I had my head "really far forward, like awkwardly far forward"  so we are assuming that has been part of my recent struggles with the coordination again.

Saturday

PM 6.3 first 4.2 with Melissa, got a bit of a sore throat last night and hoping to get in a good workout tomorrow so I decided to take it real easy today, 43:30 

XT Bikram Yoga- interestingly ran into 1:03:30 half marathoner Eric Ashe who had been dragged to his first class by his girlfriend. also whartons, wharton stretches for ankle and foot, YTI, rubber bands, eccentric calve raises

Sunday

PM I slept in and then had a lazy morning hoping the throat would clear up but I ended up deciding to scrap the workout.  I have done marathon workouts a few times when feeling a bit off or a bit of a sore throat at the start and by bedtime that night I've been sick as a dog and I didn't want to risk that.

  So I did my regular 20k, with a fast last mile.  I ran 1:14:00 for the 20k with a final mile of 4:51.2.  The idea was to run marathon pace for the last mile this was a good bit faster than that but I was feeling good.  Putting more focus on head position seemed to help with the coordination though it was feeling a bit off from the recent tests of it. 

XT whartons, YTI, rubberband, ankle drills, eccentric calve raises

Summary

I'm very fit.  I would like a few more marathon specific workouts and obviously I would love to have the coordination thing 100% gone and just a memory but after 8 years it is unrealistic to think it would just disappear overnight.

  Looking back at some of my past cycles for comparison this one is a bit more spread out and the miles are lower but in terms of workouts it isn't bad.  Before the Olympic Trials I ran  5 good marathon workouts and had two workouts that were aborted part one, one for coordination, one because I was hurting.  

  Before New York City 2008 (the best fitness I have ever had going  into a marathon) I had 7 moderately good workouts basically I would get through about 1/2 to 2/3 of a marathon and then lose coordination then in the afternoon I would do 3 to 6 miles at marathon pace.  I was super fit but not surprisingly I lost coordination at about 10k into the marathon and limped in to a mid 2:20's finish.

  Before my debut at Austin in 2006 I ran 2 good marathon workouts and 1 good not specific workout as well as 1 good half marathon race.  I ran 2:15:28 there but I had not done enough specific work and I ran out of glycogen and ran 5:15, 5:40 (uphill), 5:15(downhill), 5:28 for the last four miles. After averaging 5:07 pace for the first 22 miles that is a pretty bad bonk.  

  This year I have 4 good marathon workouts and 3 moderately good ones and a number of good non-marathon specific sessions.  I would really like to get in at least one and possibly two marathon workouts before tapering.  I am very fit and that can be maintained without specific work but I would like to make sure I am still specifically prepared for marathon.  Fitness is only half the battle in the marathon you must be ready for the specific challenge of the marathon or you will just be another fit runner shaking your head wondering what happened out there and mumbling about fueling better or carbo loading.  

  My plan is to do a specific workout next Sunday and then maybe take a personal day the following Wednesday to do one last session.  Now before you judge me too harshly this is my third year back teaching and I worked part time for a year before that and in that time I have taken one day off, I got stuck at an airport in L.A. so I'm not some lazy ass who skips work willy nilly. 

  Other than that I want to mix in one weekly longish run at fundamental pace focusing on coordination.  this is not specific to marathon racing but it is specific to my holding control of my right leg which will be the biggest limiting factor in my race performance.  I'll probably do 16 to 18 again this week then go for an 18 to 20 about a week out from Boston. 

  As for the sore throat and the heel.  I still have the sore throat.  Hopefully it doesn't become anything more.  The heel was improved quite a bit by the yoga.  I'll try and go again tomorrow and the eccentric calve raises help a lot so I think that will come around real quick.

  Hope you are holding together better than I am and you have a great week.

  

Weekly Training March 9 to 15 Limbo

Monday

Off

XT Bikram Yoga, 90mins, whartons, rubberbands

Tuesday

PM bear hill 4.2 miles 27:53 with Uta, tot. 4.2 miles

XT whartons, rubber bands

Wednesday

PM 9 miles, first 4 with Melissa and Uta next 5 solo total 9 miles

XT Bikram Yoga, 90mins, whartons, rubberbands

Thursday

PM road 11, first 4 with Uta and Melissa, last 7 solo at 6:00 pace, 1:10:21 total 11

XT whartons, rubberbands

Friday

PM I had noticed the local HS had plowed their track and my heart jumped.  I was so pumped so I decided to do Aussie Quarters instead of the Mona fartlek I was planning.  I did a 5k warm up to the track with Uta and Melissa in 21:34. Then I did drills and strides.  There were some icy patches so I decided to jog a lap of the track to make sure it was ok and there were no crazy ice ponds.  Now there is still A LOT of snow up here so the snow banks on the inside of the track and in the outside lanes were well above my head.  As I ran down the back stretch I noticed ahead of me something looked odd.  Then there it was.  for some reason they had plowed 390meters of the track leaving an 8 foot wall of snow 10 meters thick around the 200m start. There was a zig zag single lane shoveled around to the outside but it would be nearly impossible to run it at much under 6min pace never mind in a workout. CRAP.  So now I needed to invent a loop/route to do a Mona fartlek.  I actually have a loop around the high school but they are building a new fire station and eliminated part of the road so that was a no go.  I settled on an out and back sort of set up that if it turned out to not be long enough I could loop around the parking lot to head back out.  It was a bit more rolling than I would have liked and it had a few icy turns greater than 90 degrees.  From the gun I just didn't feel great.  

  For me on a mona I always have a goal of covering 4 miles in the 20 minutes.  To do this if I'm running 4:40 pace on the efforts I need to be running 5:20 pace on the rests.  I felt like crap.  I was afraid I wasn't running under 5 on the efforts and on top of that I couldn't seem to get a great effort out. Normally by the end of the mona I'm in a world of hurt.  To be honest I was hurting but not to bad at the end of this one.   It wasn't until I measured it afterwards and found I had run 3.98 miles and averaged 5:00.9 per mile/3:07 per k that I realized it was actually a decent effort.

  3 mile cool down. total 10 miles

  Oh if you are new to the blog and don't know what a Mona Fartlek is check it out here http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2015/01/monaghetti-fartlek.html

XT whartons, rubberbands

Saturday

AM 10 miles, 66mins, first 3 miles with Uta at a bit over 8minute pace because she was not happy that Melissa was home in bed and we were out running in the rain. last 7 miles solo at 6:00 pace total 10 miles

XT Bikram yoga 90mins, whartons, rubber bands

Sunday

2PM 3 warm up, skipping warm up, light drills, light strides. on merrimack college loop. Goal 4x4k at mp with 1k recoveries at 90%mp (total of 20k)  I started to lose coordination about half way and called it.  It was a cold rain and rather miserable all around. splits-4k-12:33.3( with a 2:59 first K- oops!) 1k recovery in 3:28 (5k-16:01.6) 4k- 12:27.9, 1k recovery in 3:29 (10k-31:59.1, 2nd 5k-15:57.5) stopped. I hadn't lost coordination yet but I could feel it going and I wanted to avoid that as in the cold rain/snow mix that was going on hobbling along for a long fight home would have sucked! did some light drills to get coordination firing 100% again and did 3 cool down total about 12 and half miles.

XT ankle drills, light drills, skipping warm up, whartons, rubber bands, YTI

Summary

So I was scheduled to race the New Bedford half marathon today. To any of my teammates at CMS please don't hate me for missing again.  After last weekend my thought process was if I did a workout and it went south, it did, I could stop and go home fairly easily.  However if I was running New Bedford and I lost coordination again I'd have to either hobble to the finish or try and find my way through town. Neither sounded like much fun.  

  Sunday's workout. This session is a canova session. For those who know Fernando Cabada he posted a video of him doing the same session last week, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rs_H46f_Kg , He ran the 20k in 62:21- that is 2:11 pace for the whole thing. I think he averaged 4:55 for his on's- so 2:09 pace.  Now he has a 2:11 PR.  I don't know what his goal for Boston is but I would guess he would be happy with 2:11.  Basically for good workout people with the shorter reps you tend to run a bit quicker than mp and average around marathon pace.  As you do sessions with longer reps you tend to run marathon pace on the reps and be a little slower than mp over the full session.  Now I have never been able to run much faster than mp on any long rep session, but I also used to do much bigger miles when I was doing these workouts.  For me my on's were on 2:11 to 2:12 pace and my overall average was 2:15:00 pace.   I felt very controlled at half way so I have no doubt I could have finished the workout in terms of fitness.

  What does this mean?  I haven't fallen apart fitness wise.  The foot is about 90% I can train full volume this week.  If I can't get the coordination on track by next weekend however I will pull out of Boston.  

  So moving forward.  I will be doing this same session again next Sunday.  This week was the trial ballon. Next weekend is the real test.  If it goes well GREAT we are on.  If not well those are the breaks and I'll regroup and figure out a new plan.  I'm fit and the foot is getting better.  I just got to remember it isn't supposed to be easy and nobody owes me anything. 

  Hope you are well and it isn't snowing where you are.  It is here and I'm not happy about it.

Weekly Training Log February 23 to March 8 Soul Crush

  I'm not one for believing much in jinxing yourself by saying something out loud or in a public way but if I was….

  Anyway I have mentioned a few times on this blog that I feel relatively confident that I'm not getting hurt because since I have been going to yoga consistently I haven't been hurt.  I even pointed out that I haven't missed a day of running do to injury since early 2013.  What I haven't mentioned but I have been personally concerned about and you may have noticed is that in the time I have been posting this blog I have not been going to yoga every week.  I have found that if I go at least once a week it is enough to maintain but I might get a light niggle here or there and if I go at least 2 to 3 times a week.  Over the last two months I have been going every two weeks at best.

  I know this seems basic. You have something that works just go out and do it.  On some levels it is. Reality is I have a lot going on with work, running and the basics of trying to cook, eat and sleep.  Melissa and I joke that no one is allowed in our house until after Boston because it is such a disaster.

  At the finish of my last heavy week of training, which is posted here, http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2015/02/weekly-training-blog-february-16-to-22_22.html , I was certainly feeling banged up overall but I just hadn't got into yoga.  Monday I took a light day because I had meeting at work and it was a scheduled lighter/recovery week.  Tuesday I was doing my regular 10 and my right foot was painful.  I could tell it was hurt.  I took the next day off, first in two years off due to injury.  I went to yoga, it helped but the foot was still pretty sore.  I ran the next day and ran did yoga the next.  I did a mona on friday and it was ok but after the foot was quite sore so I decided not to do the much longer workout I had scheduled for Sunday.   A couple more trips to yoga and some regular running.  This past week Monday through I did either 11.1 or 11.2 each night, no morning runs.  I did yoga on Tuesday and Thursday.  I went to acupuncture on Wednesday and Thursday.  Saturday I did 20k in 1:16 after going to yoga in the AM.
 
  Today I raced the Old Fashion Ten Miler in Foxboro, MA. It was like having a nightmare while I was awake.  The foot was sore but not too bad, much as it had been the last few days. However not long after 3 miles my right leg started to get the old familiar feeling of fighting the coordination wanting to go.  By 4 miles I was having a few bad steps here or there.  By 5 miles, 25:22, I was pretty much done. The coordination doesn't go as completely now but I had little control and my leg kept buckling.  My last 4 miles were pretty much at 5:30 pace, walking in my current fitness.  There was a right turn in the last 100 meters.  I basically had to stop and pivot to avoid falling.  It sucked.

  I'm not 100% sure what the problem with the coordination was. I had the harness on and I felt I was doing a good if not perfect job of keeping my shoulders back and my back pretty upright.  Now the foot problem is tendonitis in my Flexor Hallucis Longus which means I'm not toeing off fully which may have meant I wasn't getting much range of motion in the ankle.  I don't really know.  There are some other possibilities but that is my best guess.

  This is bad news.  First off I'm at the point where I should be doing the meat and potatoes of the marathon prep.  Second the foot hurts.  I can run on it but it isn't great for workouts and what not.  Third if it means I can't do marathon work or long races that is a major wrench in my plans.

   If I get the foot cleared up in a couple of days and that is what caused the set back in coordination today than this has just been a big hurdle.  If not than I'm probably out for a spring marathon.  I mean perhaps I could sort stuff and get after it again for Grandma's but that is unlikely.  So I'm not in a great mood right now.

  Of course I could have trained less. That isn't going to happen.  One a tiger doesn't change it stripes.  I believe in training hard I've succeeded and failed by doing it.  I'll continue to do that.  However I know I needed to be going to yoga more. My schedule is full but the fact is I needed to make it happen and I didn't and now I pay a price, perhaps a heavy price.

I was going to post the day to day details here but that seems a bit repetitive. So I'll just add that on the Mona the roads were a bit icy which slowed things a bit but I did 3.9 miles in the 20mins.  For the 10 mile I ran 52:49.

  Hope your training is going better than mine!  Have a great week.