Long and Less Long Runs: 4-2 to 4-8

[Grog]

Thanks KSH.

It worked well for last week so let's do it again this week:

MONDAY
Probably a bike ride in the afternoon if I've been nice. I'm still quite sore from yesterday's run.

TUESDAY
Early morning 30-40 minutes with my running partner.

WEDNESDAY
Probably another bike ride.

THURSDAY
OUTDOOR POOL OPENS!!! Swimming will be a joy again. Even when it's cold, I love swimming outside (the outdoor pool runs on the same water as the indoor one so it's warm enough). That might motivate me with the swimming routine.

FRIDAY
Speed work. Can anyone make a suggestion? I'm getting bored with the usual stuff we do.

SATURDAY
Club bike ride.

SUNDAY
Another long run, maybe I'll suggest pushing it to 18-19 km? Next week will be sort of a recovery week so this might be the week with the biggest volume before our half-marathon.

The half is in a month. I almost wish it was next week, I'm afraid I'm peaking to early. Or it's the sun (at last!!!) that makes me so energetic?

[KSH]

Hey Grog... happy to hear posting up your week helped you stick to it. That's cool that the outdoor pool is opening again.

I did everything as planned by my coach.... except I only swam once last week.

I SWORE I would start swimming 2 days a week this week, but alas... no swimming on Friday with my tri club (due to holidays). So... next week I start 2 times a week.

Otherwise, here is the plan my coach gave me:

April 2 - 8

MONDAY
OFF


TUESDAY
Swim workout #1B
20 - 25 mile ride

WEDNESDAY
3- 4 mile easy run

THURSDAY
4 mile run:
1 mile easy, 2 miles hard, 1 mile easy

FRIDAY
Swim workout #2B
3 mile easy run

SATURDAY
30 - 40 mile ride

SUNDAY
25 mile ride/3 mile run brick

[kelownagirl]

Well, I fit into the "less-long" category. I ran 2.5 km today. My legs are still a bit sore from Saturday but thought I'd go out anyway and run a little.

I hope to do 3km two more times this week.

[Wahine]

My lunch run was about 1:26 and a little over 9 miles. It included 3 reps of a half mile hill working in zone 4 and pushing up into zone 5 for the last 1 minute. Then I did 5 reps of 6 min on zone 4 running on relatively flat terraine.

Phew. It was a toughy.

[KSH]

My lunch run was about 1:26 and a little over 9 miles. It included 3 reps of a half mile hill working in zone 4 and pushing up into zone 5 for the last 1 minute. Then I did 5 reps of 6 min on zone 4 running on relatively flat terraine.

Phew. It was a toughy.

I hope I can run like you someday.

[yellow]

KSH, you'll continue to improve. We've all seen you take giant steps already. It takes time. We're all so close to our own personal training regimes and the day-to-day that I don't think we realize just how far we've come sometimes! I think it's taken me a good 1.5 years of pretty hard work to bring myself to the point where I am now. I was in good shape before, but I'm now at a point where I am surprising myself with my own fitness on a regular basis.

I am still on my family visit (returning home tomorrow--yay!) and decided that I needed to find someplace that wasn't totally flat. Running on the beach is nice, but I found that the constant flat was starting to make my back hurt. It's all in what you're used to.

So after yesterday's 7.5 on the beach, which was nice, I headed to a local state park to hit some trails. Found one with the word "peak" in it and decided I needed to run it. Aside from the minor considerations of ticks, mountain lions, and poison oak, it was an absolutely fabulous run. I was only going to go about 5 miles but ended up with between 9-10 (as near as I can tell...gps died on me during the run as I forgot my charger). And I felt great the whole time, still feel good, and never really felt tired. Spooky. It seems that after 2 runs of that length 2 days in a row I should be tired, but I'm not.

I was thinking that there was no way I was ever going to be able to run anything longer than a 20-25k but now I'm thinking pretty hard about one of the fall trail marathons. I would definitely say that the experience I had today was a big surprise (of course, it could also be that I'm running at sea level and am used to running at about 5000', but I'm not sure how the reverse altitude adjustment thing really works). I do need to start riding eventually. But running is going so well I'm not sure I really want to switch gears. Bad, bad.

[Shiraz]

So far it's been a great week. I ran 7 miles Sunday and today ran 5.25 miles then biked 39 miles (I would have went around the block until I had a full 40 but had to get the taxes dropped off). I plan to run 12-13miles on Friday AM with the buddies.Wow, how I miss my bike rides. My half mary is 2 1/2weeks away........

Yellow, it sounds like you have had some amazing runs!! Trail running is your thing. I find running in the sand very hard. I would love to be able to run on dirt trails more often. Today I took some detours from my usual path and hit some dirt roads and it is some much nicer to your joints.

KSH, you are doing wonderful! I am so impressed with your determination.

[Wahine]

I hope I can run like you someday.

I think you will. It's all about consistency and you're certainly consistent with your training.

Like Yellow said, You've made huge improvements, just in the last 2 months!!

You're doing great.

[tattiefritter]

KSH - second what Wahine says being consistent really pays off.

I was quite busy at work yesterday so didn't get a chance to update. Went out at lunchtime to do 7 miles at a steady pace. It was a hard run from the off as my legs felt pretty tired from yesterdays commute (16 miles in and 27 home at carried away speed as I was on the roadie for the first time this year ). A little voice in my head kept telling me to cut it short but I made myself run the whole seven miles. When I looked at my lap splits they were quite consistent around the 9:00mm mark until I started to head back to work at mile 4 and the last three got quicker and quicker . I've not had a mentally tough run for a while and although they hurt at the time I find them very useful (especially when I win) in that they train me to ignore the quitter voice when it gets tough. So 7.2 miles in 1:04, 8:45 mm average.

That's as much distance as I want to do for now I think. I will be doing 5 or 6 miles on Thursday with some fartleks and 5 miles easy on Friday. Next week will be a step back week with 2 or 3 runs of 3.5 miles max and easy commuting. My plan after my stepback week is to repeat this weeks sessions to consolidate and then possibly introduce some intervals in place of the fartleks but no more distance for a while. Still need to find a 10K to enter which is proving more difficult than I anticipated.

[KSH]

I think you will. It's all about consistency and you're certainly consistent with your training.

Like Yellow said, You've made huge improvements, just in the last 2 months!!

You're doing great.

Yellow and Wahine... thank you both for the kind words of encouragement. I really do appreciate it.

Tattie and Shariz... thank you so much too! Very kind words indeed.

I have come a long way... as I wasn't even running last year.

From May to December of 2006, I only ran 85 miles! From January to March of 2007, I have logged 125 miles.

It's just frustrating sometimes... the lower leg pain that never goes away... the side cramps... being so DAMN SLOW!!!

I know I should be proud of what I can do... but when I see that I could do pretty dang well in tri's (placing top 3-5 in my age group!)... IF I could RUN FAST... I get frustrated.



Well, I ran last night on the treadmill as it was raining.

45m 4.00 miles 11m 15s /mile

No side cramp! WOO-HOO! My legs were hurting pretty bad, but not my side. HA!

It's always one or to the other... although the legs typically always hurt.

[colby]

Great job, everyone. Good to see what progress we've all made as we move back a better season for running... and events!

Monday, I did 4 miles. Tuesday, a quick 3 miles, Wednesday I tried cardio kickboxing at a friend's gym, Thursday 4 miles with 20 minutes of hill repeats. Tomorrow... we'll see. This weekend is the last weekend of ski season and I'm already committed to that, so there won't be anything productive then.

My plan is 12k in 1 month, 1/2 marathon in almost 2 months. I'm excited to see what my progress is... I'd like to better my times by 1-2 minutes per mile, which comes out to almost 30 minutes for the 1/2 marathon and 10-15 minutes for the 12k. We'll see... hill training, here I come.