City of Oaks, Week 10 Training

So another humid week from hell passes causing a week full of struggles.

Tuesday wasn't too bad. Typical warm up and cool down. This week's intervals were 6 x 800's. The first half was solid, but on the second half, the humidity got the best of me. The lap paces were 7:45, 7:46, 7:46, 8:01, 8:09 and 8:19, so it's obvious that I ran out of steam. Average hr was 139, with a max of 171.

Thursday's run was short and a bit slow. I only had 5 miles on my schedule to keep me fresh for the long run. Bill and I ran the Montibello to Black Creek to Harrison route. I should have been able to do a 10:20-10:30 pace, but I fell short. It was a foggy, humid morning. I ended up running 4.86 miles in 53:15, which is a 10:57 pace. Average hr was 149, with a max of 168.

Sunday's run was not all I hoped for, but definitely better than last week. I had a 20 mile out and back on the plan, starting at Maynard and Evans. The route was Evans, right on Dynasty, left onto the Black Creek trail to Umstead, Reedy Creek trail out onto Reedy Creek Road, and turn around at the 10 mile, and follow back. I hit a little snag at the end of Black Creek. Saturday night's rain caused the lake at the end to wash out the trail. Thank goodness for the gps watch. I doubled back to a path that took me through an apartment complex and out onto Weston, where I caught Old Reedy Creek Road to the Umstead trail. That added a little less than a mile onto the run, so I was able to cut the out part short before coming onto Reed Creek Road. I was feeling pretty strong the first half. I finished the first split at an 11:21 pace. I was feeling pretty good through about 14 miles. I slowed up a bit at that point, so I could try to make my way to the finish. I took a couple of short walk breaks on some of the hills. I made it out of Umstead pretty well, but I was feeling tired. I made it back to Black Creek and filled up on water. My goal at that point was to just make it through Black Creek at a slow pace without stopping, and I would take a two more walk breaks on the two hills on Dynasty. I made it most of the way through, but I had to stop a couple of times toward the end. Once I made it out, I took the two breaks I planned on the hills because they are pretty tough hills. Once I hit Evans, I psyched myself through the pain and finished out the last mile. It was a tough run, but I made it. If I had to do 26.2 today, it would not have been pretty. My second split was at a 12:21 pace. A full minute off the first, so I can't say it was a great run. My final time was 3:56:48, which was an 11:50 pace. My average hr was 152 with a max of 165. I upped my gell intake to every three miles, based on an article I read this week in Runner's World. I think it helped, but I was going to try electrolyte capsules and forgot them. I'll try them on my next long run.

Overall it was a so-so week. The coming week has morning lows in the 60's, so hopefully the cooling trend is starting.

9 weeks to go...

City of Oaks, Week 11 Training

Well, it wasn't such a great week, especially compared to last week.

Tuesday's track run was pretty solid. After the usual 1.5 mile warm up, I ran 2 x 1200's and 4 x 800's with 200 RI's. The lap paces were 8:47 and 8:32 for the 1200's and 8:04, 8:07, 7:47, and 8:18 for the 800's. The last two 800's should have been a bit more consistent with first two 800's.

Thursday felt a bit off. It should have been a fairly easy 6.2 mile run, which I ran at an 11:08 pace, but for whatever reason, it felt hard. I finished at 1:09:07. I forgot my heart rate strap, so I couldn't track heart rate.

Sunday's run was straight out crap. The workout was a slow 17 miler. I tried to take a nice easy pace. I ran the first 8.5 miles at 11:47. When I hit mile 13, I started to crash. I needed a lot of walk breaks to finish. The second half pace was 12:44 because of the walking. I ended up finishing in 3:28:27, which is a 12:16 pace. My average hr was 146, with a max of 165, so my body didn't appear to be working too hard. I had 4 gels on the run, with about 48 ounces of fluids, but it was a hot morning, so I think I needed more to drink. I have 4 8-ounce bottles, so I'm going to see if I can get bigger bottles that fit in my belt.

10 weeks to go...

Running in the depths of hell

Originally posted on Facebook blog on June 8th.

We were having a nice spring. It was fairly mild. Actually most days were below normal temps. Then global warming reared its ugly head. We've been hovering around 100 degrees for days now, and weather reports say the heat will last for at least a couple of weeks, although probably not around the 100 range, but definitely above normal highs.

This is greatly impacting my running. I'm glad I'm not officially training for anything, but I will be starting at the end of June, and July/August is only going to get worse.

Today's weather monkey wrench caused me to cut my 6.5 mile run to 5.5 miles with a bit of walking on the sunny hill parts. And I was a very slow 11:22 pace.

I can't fully blame this on the heat, though. I donated blood on Thursday, so my body is not at 100% yet. I feel like I get dehydrated faster. Tonight is not going to help, as we're having friends over for margherita's and mudslides, but we all have to sacrifice a little ;)

Since when is 90 degrees cool

Originally posted on Facebook blog on June 15th.

So today was a lot better. Actually, the last few days haven't been as hot. Funny that lows 90's is not that hot. Makes you realize that everything is relative.

I tried to head out early to see how my body would do before the sun/heat/humidity really got going, but it didn't help much. I'm noticing that hills are still pretty killer. I think I have to do a long run in Umstead next weekend in the really early morning and see how my body reacts. I'm worried that when I start official training in a couple of weeks, that I'm going to struggle to finish my long runs.

I'll start testing next week...

Week 12 Training

Originally posted on Facebook blog on August 17th.

Ok. I've slacked on the training blog, so I've decided one weekly blog is doable.

I've been training for 7 weeks now, and my feet are taking a beating. I just got my orthotics this week from the Chiropractor, so I'll try those on Tuesday's track run. Hopefully, they'll help.

This week's track run was awesome. It's amazing how well the body responds when there is no humidity. I ran 3 x 1600 meter intervals, with the typical 1.5 mile warm up and .5 mile cool down. My first 1600 was at an 8:57 mile pace, which was really good for me. The next two were at 8:30 pace, which is awesome for me. I was surprised at how good I felt after the third one.

I did an extra run this week on Wednesday instead of cross training. I ran an easy 3.5 miler at a 10:22 pace.

Thursday's tempo run was strong as well. I ran 7.65 miles at a 10:16 pace, which is probably the fastest tempo I've run since training started. I'm really looking forward to the next few months as the humidity gets lower and the temps cool.

My long run today was a 15 mile run starting on Maynard and Evans, up to Dynasty, onto Black Creek, which I took to Umstead onto Reedy Creek trail. I turned onto Graylin, and down the first hill, which took me to the 7.5 mile mark and the turnaround point. So the total route was an out and back. My pace at times was probably too fast, which took its toll late. I was running out of steam the last couple of miles. I was definitely happy to finish. My overall pace was 11:06, which is a little too fast for the long run. I really need to keep them around 11:30 or so.

11 Weeks to go...