This was another not so hot week. I’m really starting to realize that I peaked mentally/emotionally for the Walt Disney World half marathon. Right now, I’m just kind (poorly) going through the motions of training for a marathon. I think I’m there. I’m not going to set the world on fire, but I think I’m in good enough shape to take 2 hours off my previous PR and that’s basically my goal this time around. When I compare my long runs, especially, I’ve done two 18 milers and 3 20 milers this time around compared to 1 of each last time. On top of that, I’ve put in some fast miles during a few of those runs too.

It’s not totally burnout, though. The rest of life has been pretty stressful lately and that especially gets to me in the morning when I don’t have a lot of motivation to face the day in general. If not for running with Steve and Justin and injured Richie’s text message coaching, I don’t think I’d have put in the long runs. I have to say, though that Saturday afternoons have been the best times of my life lately. The week is behind me and I’m exhausted from the long run and I just vegetate in front of something that pretends to be educational - I’ve become especially fond of Revolutionary War specials on the History channel.

In any case, I’m 3 weeks from the marathon and it’s time to taper! Though this week was so pathetic, I may just run more mileage in my first taper week. Here’s how it went:

Monday AM: 1 hour (21.5 miles) stationary bike
Tuesday AM: 6 miles (2.5 at 6:40 pace)
Friday AM: Almost a mile, though I’m not counting it
Saturday AM: 20 miles at 8:35 pace
Total: 26 miles

I’m going to try to get a 2×3 miles at 6:45 pace workout in this week and the “long” run will probably be 14 this weekend - and that seems positively short!

I made a pretty good comeback this week.  Even though it was sometimes difficult to get out of bed, I hit all of my planned workouts this week.  I’m 4 weeks away from the Gasparilla marathon.  I’m officially registered and I’ve only got one more week before the taper.  Here’s how it went:

Monday AM: 21 miles (60 mins) stationary bike

Monday PM: 6.1 miles with Alice at 10:20 pace

Tuesday AM: 8×1200 m in 4:45-4:51 with 30-60s rests.  10 miles total

Wednesday AM: 6 miles at 8:15 pace

Thursday: Off

Friday AM: 6 miles at 8:40 pace

Saturday AM: 2×1.5 miles at 6:45 pace + 17 miles = 20 miles in 2:42

Sunday AM: 6.2 miles with Alice at 10:35 pace.

Total: 54.3 miles

The speedwork on Tuesday went quite well.  I was surprised to get all 8 1200’s in at under 6:30 pace.  I’ve gotta believe I’m capable of a sub 40 min 10K now.  Saturday’s long run was tough.  I did 2×1.5 miles at 6:45 pace before meeting up with Steve and Justin (they were running 13).  I ran about 11 with them and Steve drove the pace over their final 6 miles at 7:30-7:40 pace. That wore me out for my last 4 miles which were straight into a 22 MPH headwind.  I held onto my run despite an extreme desire to walk and finished my 20 miles in 2:42 - which is actually a 20 mile PR for me.

I’m starting to feel pretty confident about the marathon even though the distance is still intimidating.  I’m definitely ready to tackle it and then spend a few weeks without a training plan to follow.

Here I am at the peak of marathon training.  This is how I roll.  Here is the kind of week I put in at the peak of marathon training:

Monday AM: 3 miles at 8:16 pace

Tuesday AM: 21 miles stationary bike (1 hour)

Friday AM: 40 minutes stationary bike + 2 miles treadmill at 8:22 pace

Saturday AM: 18 miles (12 easy + 6 at 7:30 pace)

Sunday AM: 2.6 miles

Total: 25.6 miles(almost a marathon!)

Yeah.  That’s about what Ryan Hall did this week, I think.  The Saturday run was a solid 18 miler, but it’s pretty sad that I couldn’t put together enough miles in the 6 other days of the week to even equal a marathon.  I’m pretty mentailly drained right now.  I’m ready for the race to be over so I can get up in the morning and run (or not run) however many miles I feel like at whatever pace I feel like without a schedule to follow.

5 weeks to go.  I’ll try to be better this week.

I know a lot of you know this, but it’s really hard to get yourself out of bed when the weather is really, really cold.  I slept really well last night, but the urge to stay warm and cozy under the blankets was very strong.  It is Florida, after all.  It’s rare that I’m not lying in bed sweating, so this is all a very special treat in some ways.

When I’m in the mood to stay in bed, it often takes some internal negotiation to get me out.  Today’s negotiation ultimately led to an agreement upon 18 miles on the stationary bike rather than 6 miles in the cold.  The thing that sealed the deal in this case was that the shower at the gym would be much more luxurious than my shower at home (which generally sucks in the cold weather).  So, I dragged myself out of bed and headed for the gym.

Once on the bike, I rode for about a mile before recognizing the back of Steve on the treadmill.  He has a fairly distinctive running style that kind of reminds me of a bulldog.  I certainly wouldn’t call it elegant, but powerful would be a word that fits.  Anyway, I decided to ditch the bike and put in my 6 miles on the treadmill, so I hopped up next to him.

We exchanged pleasantries and I asked how the long run went last weekend.  He, Richie and Justin had run 20 miles (all the way to the beach).  I was impressed and a bit jealous, but not too jealous (many consider 20 mile runs to be torture after all).  I whipped out 6 miles at an average pace in the low 8’s and then stretched.

Meanwhile, I’m starting to freak out about the weather for the Walt Disney World half marathon this Saturday.  It looks like the weather will be in the low 30’s with a chance of rain at the start of the race (5:45 am).  If I run my goal time, I’ll be finished before sunrise.  Last year, the temperature was 46 at the start.  I ran in a sleeveless T-shirt.  I was very cold in the corral waiting for the start, but felt great during the run.  This year, I’m not sure what to do.  I might get arm warmers, or cut up toddler tights and make my own arm warmers, or maybe I’ll just say “screw it” and wear a long sleeve shirt.

I like the arm warmers idea for it’s flexibility during the race.  I can discard the homemade ones, or just roll down the store bought ones.  One the other hand, if I’m finishing before sunrise, it’s not likely to get warmer between start and finish.  Any advice is much appreciated - especially if you’ve run with arm warmers before.

I didn’t put in nearly the mileage I was hoping over the holidays.  The cold temperatures, crazy schedule and copious amounts of booze were sufficient excuses to keep me from doing too much.  My one saving grace was that I did manage to hit pretty much all of my quality workouts during that time and only skipped out on so called “easy” runs.  I’m not going to lay everything out here mostly because it’s been a crazy day and I just want to put all this behind me.  So, the highlights include:

A Christmas eve session of 1.5 mile intervals at 6:45 pace in the cold, windy rain.

An 18 mile slog on the treadmill

A 16 mile run two days later that included several 1200 m intervals at 6:20-6:30 pace and a 15th mile run sub 7 minutes.

The final 16 miler was a good confidence booster going into The Walt Disney World half marathon this weekend.  I’m ready to rock and roll and I’m pretty confident in my ability to break 1:30.

On another note, life has been pretty crazy lately, so I apologize to those readers who’ve missed my regular and incredibly insightful comments on their own blogs (ha!).  I’ll try to get back to being my usual blogosphere social self in the very near future.  I’ve also got some plans for changes to this blog.  I’ll try to spill more on that later this week, along with a look back at my goals for 2009 and how I fared.

With holidays travels looming at the end of the week, the beginning of this week was jam packed with mileage.  It was definitely the toughest week I’ve had in some time and it felt good to complete all the workouts as planned.  Here’s how it went:

Monday AM: 5×1200 m at 6:15 pace (9 miles total)

Monday PM: 4 miles at 8:11 pace

Tuesday AM: 20 miles stationary bike + full body strength training

Tuesday PM: 4 miles with Alice at 9:23 pace

Wednesday AM: 2 miles easy + 2x 1.5 miles at 6:45 pace + 7 miles easy = 12.5 miles total

Wednesday PM: 3 miles at 9:32 pace with Alice

Thursday AM: 16 miles at 8:30 pace

Thursday PM: 8:50 warmup mile before Alice’s intervals

Friday: Off

Saturday: 6 miles at 10:00 pace with Alice at Walt Disney World

Sunday: Off

Total: 55.5 miles

The week was a great confidence builder for me.  I’m in better shape than I thought I was.  Right now, I’m thinking of 1:30 as a goal for the Disney half marathon and tentatively 3:20 as my full marathon goal in February.  We’ll see how the half marathon goes, though.

So far, this week has not started out well.  I had Monday in the car all day and then had a pretty good shakeout 6 miler on Tuesday.  It’s been raining cold rain all day today, though so I doubt I’ll get out.  Tomorrow doesn’t look any better weather-wise.

With lots of traveling later this week, the early part of the week takes on some serious priority.  I’ve completed both of my “quality” workouts already and they both went well.  The first, an interval workout, fell on Monday.  The plan was for 5 1200 m intervals at 6:15 pace (4:42).  Here’s how it went:

2 miles warmup

1200 m in 4:34

1200 m in 4:35

1200 m in 4:39

1200 m in 4:40

1200 m in 4:41

1.7 miles cooldown

Total: 9 miles (there were 600 m jogging recoveries in between intervals)

The second workout was today.  It called for 2 x 1.5 miles at 6:45 pace followed by 7 miles easy.  Here’s how it went:

2.25 miles warmup

1.5 miles in 9:25 (6:18 pace)

1.5 miles in 9:30(6:21 pace)

7 miles at 8:20 pace

Total: 12.5 miles (including walking recoveries after Intervals)

So, I’ve gotta be happy with two quality workouts faster than prescribed pace.  My legs are very tired and I’ve got a 16 miler tomorrow, so hopefully they’ll hold up.  After that, it’s a day off, then an easy 6 on Saturday and lots of time in the car!

Finally, a week worth talking about!  I finally feel like I’m “back in the game”.  I did start off the week on the stationary bike as my right foot was feeling a little tweaked, but I managed an encouraging 3 mile race, a solid fartlek run and a nice consistent 15 miler over the weekend.  It looks like there may still be some hope left for a 1:30 half marathon at Disney next month.  Here’s how the week shook out:

Monday AM: 18 miles stationary bike + lower body and core strength training

Monday PM: 4 miles at 10:45 pace with Alice

Tuesday AM: 6 miles at 8:18 pace

Tuesday PM: Put together new sleep number bed - made me sweaty, but Ohhh the reward of a good night’s sleep.

Wednesday AM: 2 miles at 8:45 pace (shake out for the race)

Wednesday PM: Jingle Bell Run (3 miles in 18:58) - 4 miles total with w/u

Thursday AM: 18 miles stationary bike + upper body strength training

Friday AM: 6.5 miles of windy fartlek work.  Threw in 200-400 m fartleks at 6-6:15 pace and a couple of 7 minute miles

Friday PM: Jogged 2 miles warmup with Alice before putting her through a 4×400m workout

Saturday AM: 15 miles at 8:45 pace with Richie, Justin and Steve

Sunday AM: 6 miles at 10:45 pace with Alice

Total: 45.5

I was shooting for 50, but I’m not complaining.  Now that I feel good, I’m willing to take my tentative “injury reigns” off and go full throttle for a couple of weeks (assuming my holiday travels don’t get in the way).

Justin, Steve, Richie and I were going to run a half marathon on Sunday, but Richie tweaked his calf during the Jingle Bell run, so we decided to do an easy 15 on Saturday instead.  We did make cool matching shirts that we all wore during the long run (pictures coming in the future).  I think we got a little more respect from the cyclists because of them.

I’m not even going to recap last week, it was so pathetic. I had only one run. It was Saturday. It was 3.5 miles and it was encouraging. I ran it with a knee brace and things went well until about 1.5 miles when I felt a little tightness in my left knee. It wasn’t pain. Just tightness. So, I stretched and removed the knee brace for about a half mile. Nothing got much worse, so I put the knee brace back on and finished off the run.

I took Sunday off.

Monday, I went out for a 4 mile run with the knee brace in my hand. I made it the whole way, though some tightness set in at around 2 miles. On Tuesday, I headed out with Richie. We went about 4.5 miles at 8:15 pace. The tightness kicked in at about 2 miles again.

Today, I headed out with the intention of doing 6-8 miles. I felt great through 3 miles and just felt a little bit of tightness here and there after that. I was getting below 8 min/mile pace several times, but I’m still lacking any kind of “explosive” acceleration. I got 7 miles and felt pretty good about it. I’ve got an off day with a trip to the chiropractor tomorrow and then I just have to run across the state of Florida. The course changed, so I’m runner #7 now.

Last week, I said that I was looking for consistency. This isn’t exactly what I meant. Monday started off well and I even felt pretty good going into my quality workout on Tuesday, but then things began to unravel. During my 3rd of 5 1200 m intervals, I started to feel that distinct pulling on top of my kneecap that signifies the onset of a bout of runner’s knee. Otherwise, I felt great, though. I was killing the intervals. I finished the 3rd interval, walked for a minute and the pain went away. So, I jumped right into the 4th interval. The pain came back. I finished the interval and walked for a minute. The pain more or less went away. I flew into the 5th interval. That one hurt pretty bad, but I finished and walked for a minute.

“All that’s left if 7 easy miles,” I told myself but easy was not a good word. Even easy pace was killing my knee and I hobbled the 1.5 miles back home. I tried some cross training the rest of the week and things didn’t get any worse, but they didn’t get much better either. Thus, I’m officially injured and resting. I’m just hoping it all gets better before the Ragnar Relay. Here’s how the week went:

Monday AM: 6 miles at 8:00 pace with 4 strides + full body strength
Monday PM: 4 miles at 8:12 pace
Tuesday AM: 2 miles warmup + 5×1200 m at 6:45 pace + 1.5 miles cool down
Wednesday AM: full body strength
Friday AM: 9 miles stationary bike
Saturday AM: 30 miles stationary bike
Sunday AM: 3 miles at pathetic, painful pace

Total: 22 miles running, 39 miles cycling