Back to Life

Sunday afternoon 10 miler today in the slush turned out to be a pretty great run. I felt really good after I warmed up a bit so I pushed myself to the turn around and ran a pretty strong 5 mile. The Obrien hill hurt a little bit, but I can see that I am starting to regain strength.. As with all my long runs, I run as comfortably as I can without tensing up. Today I allowed myself to run at a medium paced sub 7:40 pace for the first 5 miles of my 10 mile run. I slowly jogged the last 5 miles home and just enjoyed myself while cooling down. This marks the beginning of my 4th week back in training. I feel pretty good. Next week I add a couple miles to my long run. Most likely will finish my week off at the Y with my mile repeats. I can not imagine how slushy the track is going to be this week.

Coldest Week in Years

Yep, the title says it all. My 10 mile run was run in 15 degree weather. Its done. 1 3 mile run in 5 degree weather just to do it. Did my repeats on a treadmill at the YMCA. 1 more little 3 miles and the week is done.

3x1 mile

Its amazing how much fitness you lose when you take 2 months off from training. After the Chicago Marathon I spent 2 months resting and rehabilitating my tired and some what broken body. On January 5th I returned to the track with a fire in my belly and the will to build a strong, healthy body in a sustainable fashion. To do so I had to look at what I had done wrong in the past and adjust my training accordingly. The one staple of my training that I will never give up is the dreaded mile repeats. I have been doing this workout since I was 15 years old and nothing else in my mind helps shape the runner's mind and body like a good set of evenly paced 4 laps around the track. The one issue that I find myself running into with this workout is that I historically try to 'beat' the workout, and run these intervals too fast. This leads to burnout, injury and a feeling of dread on Wednesdays knowing what workout lays ahead. This cycle I am going to pace my workout down to the second, slowly building strength and adjusting my interval pace and recovery time as my speed, stamina and strength develops over the 4 months leading up to my goal race. The idea that you can just race yourself into shape is just not a sustainable practice for the runner who wants to train and race 12 months out of the year. I have 16 more sets of mile repeats to go before my goal race. I have broken down the weeks into 4 phases. My pace and recovery times are 10k-1/2 marathon pace w/ 5 min recovery. Phase 2 10k pace w / 4 minutes recovery phase 3 1 mile - 5k pace with 5 minutes recovery Phase 4 10k pace with 2 minute recovery. Exciting things to come.

Week 17 (Week 2)

10 miles @ 8:40 pace easy / even easy 3 3x1600 meters w/ 5 min between 1/2 marathon - 10k pace core workout 2 times stretching everyday The plan.. With an 18 week training plan I have the ability to ease myself back into shape. I am working on a 4 phase plan that starts off with lower mileage and less intensity. Phase one will simulate the stress and intensity of the later phases but will not tax my body before its acclimated to training again. Week 18,17,16,15 will have a standard 10 mile run, 2 easy 3-4 mile runs and a hard mile repeat track session. Phase 2 The easy 10 mile run goes up to 12 miles, the 3-4 mile runs turn into 4 mile runs and the recovery time between mile repeats goes from 5 minutes to 4 minutes while the pace comes down to race pace. Phase 3 will switch things up again with upping the intensity during the long run by stepping back down to 10 miles but including a tempo section run at race pace or 1/2 marathon pace.. Again my Mile repeat recovery time comes down and my pace increases as well.. A hill / speed workout will be included and I will be racing again bi-weekly.. From here I can round out my training and hopefully peak for my May event.. I am hoping that slowly building up this winter into spring will keep me from burning out by May and hating every minute of Summer training. The month of June will an easy month of mountain biking, and easy running in preparation for another build up for a late October race.

Cobwebs

The beginning of week 2 brought a return of 60 degree weather followed by icy rain and snow. I started my week off with a nice and easy 10 mile run in the cold and nasty. I love the 10 mile run for many reasons. The ten mile run can be treated as a nice and slow hour and a half long run, split into a warm up, tempo, cool down run, or broken down into a strong wave, or finish faster run. For this training cycle the 10 mile run will be the base of most of my training. I tend to enjoy picking a course with lots of post 5 mile hills and later in the season tend to attack the distance as a time trial. 17 weeks from now the easy 1 hour and 25 minute 10 miler will fade into the distance as my fitness improves and I attack with strong sub 1:10 training runs. It also is the perfect distance for the spring 10k runner who will later build up to a fall 1/2 marathon. blah blah blah...

Week One (Taking it slow)

For the past 3 training cycles I have found myself getting in peak shape weeks before my goal race. During my Chicago Marathon build up this turned out to be a fatal flaw, and weeks after I hit my peak I wound up breaking down, getting injured and racing from a place of weakness instead of from a place of readiness. These next 18 weeks will be crucial in my quest to figure out how my body works, and exactly how I should train myself for goal races. First off, I know I training too hard for too long. An 18 week cycle is too long of a time to be pushing yourself through 3 key workouts a week building mileage and speed without a break. I believe that I can sharpen myself into a racing machine in only 10 weeks from a good base. My marathon base from the Fall has been broken down by my weeks of time off and physical therapy. I have gained a couple pounds and am aerobically out of shape. My plan of action is to take these next 4-6 weeks to just get back into the groove of training. Instead of pushing myself from week 18 down to week 1 my plan is to simulate my training week for the next 4-6 weeks in order to ease my body back into training. My weekly long run will be long, but easy. My weekly mile repeats will be run at between 10k and Half marathon race pace. My easy recovery runs will be short and sweet. It is my hope that at about 12 weeks out from my goal race I can start turning up the volume and not burn myself out by my goal race. It is difficult to not go all out when training, but I have concluded that it is even more difficult to be injured and try to train while hobbling around for many week.

Mile Repeats

You can't beat the repeats. 3x1 mile at a little slower than my 10k pace with 5 minutes in between. Not so difficult but you just have to get over the idea of going too fast early on. I have 17 weeks to get my repeat times back down in the 5:40 range and am in no rush to force my body into shape. Tonight was all about getting the workout in and not hating the feeling of being this out of shape.

Getting back on my horse

Yesterday marked my first day back in training in many weeks. Having spent the last couple of months in physical therapy / recovery mode I am not willing to lose any more time to injury. My plan for the next 18 weeks is to be smart and slowly build up my strength and speed over a longer period of time. I have 18 weeks. I normally can get into fantastic shape in 10-12 weeks, so I am going to take advantage of the extra 6 weeks or so and focus on building a stronger base before launching into my exhausting schedule of intense training. My first major change in my training is going to be how I approach the long run. For the first phase (4-6 weeks) My long run of 10 - 12 miles is going to be more of a march. I tend to push too hard on my long runs. For this first phase in my training I will not be using the finish faster, or the middle mile tempo run that I have historically been doing on my long run. The long run for the next 6 weeks will be a simple easy 2-3 minutes slower than race pace run focused on just putting in some steady easy mileage. I am also going to slow down my mile repeats for the first 4 weeks to a pace that is just below half marathon pace / maybe 10k pace. The goal is to get my body re adjusted to my training schedule and slowly crank up the pace as my strength returns. I plan on using a tempo run of 6 miles, short sprints and hill repeats to round out my training. When the time comes I am going to push myself deeper into the interval and speed work, focusing on developing my 5k speed. My first race is in 10 weeks, and I plan on being sharp, fit, and fast by May. First things first, slow and easy.

18 Weeks to go.

As of tomorrow I start my training for my spring races. My main focus will be getting myself back into shape for the first 4-6 weeks while slowly turning up the intensity in the last 12 weeks of the cycle. I don't plan on running more than 40 miles a week during this cycle, but will focus more on my speed and the mechanics of running fast. I see lots of hills, mile repeats, and sprinting drills in my future. My goal is to start racing at the end of March and hopefully knock out a strong 10k in May. We will see.