Training Blog July 24 to 30, 2017 Getting Stronger...

Monday noon road 10 miles 1:08:34, tired, spent most of the day catching up on yard work and errands...

Tuesday AM 5.3 miles with Melissa and Uta, 39:25
PM at rail trail 3 mile warm up, drills and strides, 4x2 miles with 2mins of drills recovery, 10:22, 10:27, 10:15, 10:09.  Actually started to feel good by the last one which was nice.  Getting a bit of endurance back.  2.2 mile cool down

Wednesday AM 7.1 miles in 54:24, pacing Melissa through her 2x2 mile, in 12:40 and 1xhalf mile in 2:55 workout.  We also did some drills and strides during this.
PM 8.1 miles on roads solo, 55:27

Thursday AM at Phillips Academy, 3 warm up, drills, strides, 10x300m with 300m jog, ie full recovery and then some.  This is muscular work so the first one basically felt the same as the last one except I had bit of fatigue in the quads and calves, no acid burn etc...  Averaged 46.9 with fastest at 46.5 and slowest at 47.3, jogs were very slow, mostly over 2mins.  3 mile cool down

Full disclosure I went fishing instead of doing a second run, pretty lazy choice but it was a really nice afternoon and I'm trying not to go too crazy with the mileage...

Friday AM road 10 mile solo, 1:05:37
PM 5.1 miles around Phillips fields with Melissa and Uta, 42:11

Saturday PM 3 warm up, drills and strides, 5x mile on rail trail, 5:21, 5:08, 4:59, 4:52, 4:50.  Goal was to be in the 5:20's then 10's then 0's then 50's then 40's.  Given my current 5k fitness, ~15:00 that was a fairly big ask and by being on the low end of the first 4 reps I pretty much screwed myself.   The first 3 actually felt pretty good I was even having delusions of grandeur that I would bust out a 6th rep in the 4:30's but by the half mile in the 4th rep the reality that running much under 5min pace is pretty hard for me right now settled in.  Rests were 2mins with drills. Actually the rests were exactly 1:59 for every one which I find a little funny, I'm not usually that consistent. 3 mile cool down.

Sunday AM with Melissa on rail trail.  This was here long run/workout.  So we ran 11.6 miles with no stopping 3 miles easy as warm up, then 5 miles of 3/4 in the 4:30's, 6:0's pace, with 1/4 slow jog recovery then 3.6 miles easy at the end, 1:30:16 for the whole thing.
PM road 8.2 solo, 55:19, saw a deer very close up, about 15 feet.  Finished off a good week for wildlife.

Summary 102 miles for the week, three nice workouts.  I'm starting to get to a point where I can see my body wanting to get back to 'normal' paces and abilities.  I'm not there yet but hopefully over the next few weeks it will happen.
  The weather this week was crazy nice, probably the nicest whole week I have ever trained through in a Massachusetts summer.  Generally we have very high humidity and very high dew points so that even 80 degrees tends to feel like a death march.  This week not only was the temp in the high seventies and low 80's but it felt cool.  It really was a nice break.  It looks like the humidity is going to be back this week so we'll see how I handle it.  Generally it doesn't bother me too much for a single session but it grinds me down and I have to start putting in more rest days.  We are however coming into August and often the mornings and evenings are cooler in August giving a chance to work around the heat more effectively.
  This week I'm going to do a couple of workouts and a 5k race.  I'm planning on trying to start racing into shape over the course of this month.  Just hopping into some local races and running hard.  I'm ready for that.  I still don't know for sure what I'll be focused on for the fall, that is going to depend on how the next 6 to 8 weeks go but it is time to start trying to hurt a little for real.
  This weekends race will be the John Leclerc Memorial Wind Turbine 5k in my hometown of Templeton, MA.  It raises money for cross country program which was a power house for many years but fell on hard times right after I graduated with the addition of a lot of other sports, Narragansett is a tiny school.  From the programs inception in 1963 through to 1998 they never had a losing season and won state titles in 1966, 1979, 1983, 1995, 1996.  The titles in '79 and '83 were when Massachusetts didn't have divisions so that was beating schools that were 10 to 20 times larger. Since then they have struggled.
   My expectations are pretty low.  I'm going to aim for 15:00 but I'm not feeling confident that I'll be able to run that.

'back in the day' front page of the local paper from the first state champion team I was on at Narragansett

Training February 20 to 26, 2017

  Before getting into this weeks training rather then repeat myself constantly through each day gushing about the weather let me just say if I had this weather during my April vacation I would be thrilled. The long term implications of winters like this are obviously bad but short term every run this week was a pleasure.  Heck today's run would normally be some of the best February weather I would get and it was some of the worst I saw all week.   Awesome for the motivation, bad for our future.

Me at USATF-NE last weekend, that is my college coach and former boss, also one of my groomsmen Gary Gardner on the infield. Also notice the dude behind me barefoot!  I like me some barefoot running but not on a mondo track surface that will peal some skin right off. Photo by Leslie Whiting Poitras

Monday 7AM bikram yoga-90mins
               9AM 10.1 solo, 1:04:20 on roads.
               2PM road 4 solo, 26:25
               3:45PM drills, strides and massage with Anna

Tuesday 8AM 3 warm up with Uta, half mile more solo, drills, stides, 3 mile rolling tempo run 15:17 (5:02, 5:05, 5:10), 2mins recovery with drills- 10x30 second hills focus on form and power.  3+ cool down after run 6x10 weighted lunges starting at 45lbs up to 95lbs.
               5PM road 4 solo, 28:25

Wednesday 7AM bikram yoga-90mins
                    9AM road 16.1 solo, stopped for drills because of coordination at about 13 miles, 1:43:15

Thursday 8AM 3.1 warm up, drills- about 12mins worth, strides, 6x mile on road. Lightly rolling point to point stretch, more up on even reps, 3mins recovery with 3 to 4 drills in each recovery. 4:59, 5:04, 4:54, 5:02, 4:54, 5:03, 2.3 cool down, 16:00, after run 6x6 deadlifts starting at 135lbs up to 185lbs.

Friday 7AM bikram yoga-90mins
            9AM road 10.1 mile with Uta, 1:07:13
            5PM road 4 solo, 28:25

Saturday 9AM road 4 with Uta, who was tired from yesterday and watching over her Mom and I all week, 29:51
                11AM massage and treatment with Brad
               3PM at North Andover Track, 3 warm up, full drill set about 15mins, 30x100m focus on relaxation, felt great- average 15.3 but felt controlled and easy, jog back recoveries then a 200 in 30.7 just to hold the pace a bit longer, again felt smooth and great. 200 jog then a mile cool down- short on time.

Sunday 8AM 2.7 warm up,20:23, drills about 15mins worth, 19.1 mile fundamental tempo run, 1:49:34 about 5:44 pace, felt great but had to stop for drills because of coordination just after 8 miles and just after 15miles. ran 6:10 for the 9th mile with drills but really rolling in the closing miles and ran 5:47 for the 16th mile with the drills.

Summary 109 miles for week, first 100 plus mile week of 2017.   Two good hard sessions and two good moderate sessions.  I'm thrilled with the progression of the form in terms of how I feel at speed.  I have maybe never felt as good running 15 second hundreds as I did Saturday.  Keep in mind my all time 400m PB is 58.8 (14.7 per 100m).  I continued to feel just amazingly easy on the fundamental tempo today. But and it is really a BUT!!! As easy as it felt I started to come apart form wise after 5 or 6 miles and I started to feel the coordination going so I did the 3 hop exchange.  The nice thing is that is like starting over in 20 seconds and I then get right back in the game without letting the heart rate drop and so I can do workouts like this.  Actually if I find I go about the same distance at marathon pace 7 to 9 miles without loosing coordination I might even consider doing a marathon and just excepting that I'll be giving away a minute or two doing drills three times during the race.   Not ideal but if your in 2:15 shape a minute or two back isn't really all that different.   Still my hope is that with the continued drill work, all told I did over an hour of drills this week, and strength work I will get stronger and be able to hold the form for longer and longer and perhaps finally put the coordination problems to bed.  

                  

Training January 2 to 8, 2017

Monday AM boxford 10 mile, 1:03:00
               PM road 4, 30:00

Tuesday AM 4.2 with Melissa and Uta, 32:23
               PM in hard cold rain, poor footing, 3 mile warm up, drills, strides, Mona Fartlek- 3.65 miles- about as short as I have ever done.  I was pretty tired and I'm pretty out of shape and it was not nice out there so I wasn't too bothered by that. 1.4 mile cool down, really 1.4 miles of getting freezing trying to get back to the house as I was soaked to the bone and it was about 35 degrees.

Mona rates this fartlek a very un-impressed but at least you got it done. 

Wednesday PM raliegh tavern 10 mile with Uta, 1:09:32, crazy tired even though I skipped the AM run

Thursday PM 3.5 mile warm up with Uta, felt like death warmed over, so I decided to scrap the workout

Friday Off stomach bug

Saturday AM 2 warm up with Melissa and Anna in Boston, drills 6x mile(full miles on 220yd track), at Harvard with 3mins recoveries including drills, started with 4x200, first 3 with Melissa in 39 then one solo in 34.  Miles were 4:59, 5:00.0, 4:58, 4:58, 4:58, 4:58, about a half mile jogging with Melissa and Anna, bit of stretching then 3 miles solo.  

  Working out today was not ideal but I had already missed my Thursday session and I knew I was too weak after yesterday for the 4x2 mile I had scheduled.  Also with our forecast, snow, I knew that this would be my only shot at a workout over the weekend.  I'll obviously switch out the mile repeats on Thursday this week. 

Sunday AM snow removal

             Noon 13 miles, slowly.  First 8 with Melissa and Uta, very slow.  Footing was not great, 1:39:41

             PM bikram yoga, 90mins hot yoga.  It was really nice to be too hot after 2 hours of very cold snow removal and an 1:40 minutes of running in temps that had only come up to about 18 degrees. 

Summary only about 67 miles this week but given how poorly I felt and getting sick I'm not bothered by that at all.  I was very happy to get in two workouts and I was suprised that I was able to do the 6x mile without leaving sort of a tempo/controlled effort.  So given everything I'm pretty happy.  I'm not happy I got sick and I feel run down.  I may just not be fit enough to train like this yet.  I'll get a better sense this week and I'll adjust from there. 

  Hope your training is going well. 

Training December 26, 2016 to January 1, 2017

Monday AM raliegh tavern 10 mile, 1:03:36, first two miles with Melissa and Uta, it was 19 degrees but felt warm because there was no wind.
               PM road 4 solo, 28:13

Tuesday AM tempo run with hill repeats. 5k warm up, drills and strides, 3 mile tempo on roads, 15:20, (5:00, 5:14, 5:06) couple drills, 10x30 second hills focus on power and form,only about 90 second efforts, jog down recoveries. 5k cool down
                PM wieght and medball circuits with Anna. Mostly cleans, squats and the like some handstand stuff

Wednesday AM Medium long run, 12.3 miles, 1:22:03, felt heavy took it easy
                    PM 4 miles on road with brother in laws dog who is not quite as good a running partner as Uta, 29:29

Thursday AM at North Andover HS, 3+ warm up, drills, strides, 6xmile on track, no wind at start bit more by end, 3min recoveries with 3 to 4 drills during each recovery, 4:58.8, 4:58.7, 4:58.7, 4:57.8, 4:58.8, 4:57.8, 3+ cool down
                PM no running just snow removal

Friday AM raliegh tavern 10, 1:06:48, first 2.9 miles with Melissa and Uta. squats after 7x6 starting at 75lbs up to 135lbs
            PM road 4 solo, 28:46

Saturday AM boxford 10 mile solo, 1:04:45 bit tired
                PM road 4 with Melissa and Uta, 30:36

Sunday AM 5k warm up, drills, strides, 30 second hard effort, some jogging and more strides, Race Hangover Classic 5k, 1st place 15:25, 4:56, 4:59, 4:56.  From the front. great weather but it was windy.  Wind may have cost me 10 seconds or a bit more but I wasn't strong enough to crack 15 today.  Got a good effort out though. 4 miles cool down with Whirlaway crew.

Summary ~95 miles, two good workouts, one ok race.  Would like to be faster.  I guess that is always true.  I shouldn't really expect more for where I'm at but I still do.  I'll take it however as a starting point.
  I'll do a track 5k in 6 or 7 weeks and hopefully be able to crack 15 by then. I expect if I did some specific work I could get there pretty quick but frankly I'm not in a place to be getting specific.  Time to work general fitness and try to get actual fit not sharp.   I think six to 10 weeks like this and I'll be getting there.

My Current Training Plan

  This is an outline of my training schedule for the near future.  Basically until I get really fit or come up with a goal race.  This is a base phase or general fitness schedule.  This is not targeting racing well.  It is targeting improving my overall fitness.  It isn't too different from good half marathon specific training but I'm not doing it with a specific half marathon race in mind though I will likely run the New Bedford Half Marathon in March as well as the Jones 10 mile in February and a 15k in early April.

  This schedule is designed around four main goals.  In no order to return general aerobic fitness, to improve lactic threshold, to improve muscular power and efficiency, and to touch on every major training speed and effort in each two week cycle.  The workouts I selected were selected based on two main criteria.  First did they accomplish the training goal and second they had to work with the training resources and limitations I have currently.  Ie, I need to be able to do them without a track, in a New England winter, and in the dark as 11 out of 13 of my runs each week from early November until March are generally run in the dark.

  I like repeating a similar or even identical micro cycle a few times through a phase of training.  Partially because I can gauge how my body is progressing but also I'm just a very habital person who if I didn't give a damn about performance would probably do the same double every day over the same routes at the same effort. I like what I'm doing to be a bit mindless so I can focus entirely on doing it well.  Or at least that is the excuse I give myself.  

  Without further B.S. here is the schedule

For both week one and two I do an easy morning run, almost always 4 miles because of time constraints, Monday through Saturday.  On Saturday the run maybe done as the afternoon session and it maybe longer.

Week 1

Monday in the afternoon I'll do 10 miles at a steady effort- generally between 6:00 and 7:00 per mile, depending on conditions and how I'm feeling.  This is a fairly hilly run as there are a lot of hills around here.  After the run I'll do either Squats, dead lifts or box jumps.  The run is for recovery and general aerobic fitness, the exercises are for range of motion in my hips, power in my ankles and glutes and to increase strength as a means of increasing efficiency.

Tuesday in the afternoon I'll do a Mona Fartlek (http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2015/01/monaghetti-fartlek.html) This is most importantly a bounce threshold or alternation session.  I would actually prefer to do Aussie quarters, (http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2014/12/workout-wednesday-australian-quarters.html) right now to be able to focus on specific paces but with no indoor track option that isn't happening.  The secondary focus of this session is to touch on a bunch of quicker paces 5k down to perhaps mile.   After this session I'll do either squats, deadlifts, or box jumps.

Wednesday in the afternoon I'll do a medium long run.  Right now that is only 12 miles I'll build it up to 16, I should go up to 18 but frankly 18 miles after work in the dark is a tall order particularly when sandwiched between two workout days. Physiologically this workout is for basic aerobic fitness and there is a time on the feet efficiency training effect for the leg muscles but for me it is much more plainly about building up my ability to run longer without coordination problems.  Finally you guessed it I plan on doing either squats, deadlifts or box jumps after the run.

Thursday in the afternoon, short hill sprints- max effort very short, 10 seconds give or take. I'd prefer to keep with the 100's and the like but without a track that isn't an option and I don't have much for flat areas with good footing so short hills it is.  To be honest as a general rule I like short hills better anyway but right now I want to focus on my form on the flat so I'm sorry to lose that.  These are obviously a muscular exercise though they do also help increase the stroke volume of the heart.  I will start the winter only doing about 10 of these but I'll increase that by 2 or 3 sprints each time.  In the past I have done 30 or more sprints though I doubt I'll get to that many.  It will be key for me to keep good form on these which is a struggle for me on hills but I have been improving so hopefully it will be good practice. squats, deadlifts or box jumps after

Friday 10 miles, same as Monday.

Saturday 4x2 miles at Half marathon pace. with 3min recoveries with drills.  This is for lactate threshold and muscular endurance at speed.  The drills help with the latter and with improving form.

Sunday Long run- I'm around 13/14 miles now will try to push out to 20 to 22.  Long run is for basic aerobic fitness, efficiency and muscular endurance. I may do squats, deadlifts or box jumps after this.

Week 2

Monday same as last week

Tuesday 3 mile tempo, half marathon to marathon pace, 10x30 second hill repeats at a good effort, but not max, focus on form putting weight of stride on glutes and quads. Try not to hunch at shoulders. This is for lactate threshold and muscular power and efficiency.

Wednesday same as last week

Thursday 6 x mile at 10k pace with 2 to 3 mins recovery with drills- bit of threshold, lot of muscular efficiency and muscular endurance.

Friday same as last week

Saturday 20 to 30 x 20 second sprints fartlek style, meaning I'll just put them in on a run where the footing looks good. Full recovery.  This is for muscular efficiency and endurance.  Though it is also good for stroke volume but not as good as the hills.

Sunday fundamental tempo run in the 5:25 to 5:50 per mile range over rolling hills.  Hopefully as the coordination improves I'll be able to increase the volume on these.  This is my single favorite type of workout.  I have since beginning the form work I have been able to to up to 22 miles like this but only on soft surfaces.  So on the road I've been stuck in the 12 to 15 mile range on a good day.  I'm going to start in the 9 mile range and try to build up.  I may play with stopping for drills and continuing on in an attempt to 'teach' the body to hold the form that doesn't lead to coordination issues.  This is for aerobic fitness.  Sessions like this can lead to huge jumps in general aerobic fitness as well as your threshold.  I actually don't know exactly why perhaps it is simply that it is an under trained area or it is that threshold is impacted well by not going over it but by testing it from below.  I can tell you that these workouts changed my life as such for me I simply believe in them as an article of faith.  Also as I mentioned I love doing them.  Running for a long time at a quick pace is to me the single most enjoyable training experience.

Odds and Ends

 In weeks that I race I'll just drop the hard effort from the weekend.  If I race on a Sunday I'll skip the long run as well.  I'm planning a few races over the winter.  A 5k on the 1st.  A 5 mile, a 10 mile and a track 5k in February and a half marathon in March.  Hopefully by that point the winter is coming to an end and I'm getting fit and I'll be able to move onto a new training program with more specific goals.