Sunday, March 29, 2009

3 weeks and March Madness...

As the Beatles once said, I get by with a little help from my friends...

So the brain trust that inspires me gave me some words of wisdom, a little tongue lashing, and some positive reinforcement. 'Nuff said about the sickness. I got down with the sickness... and am on the road to recovery.

Monday - off day

Tuesday - took one last sick day just to be safe.

Wednesday - an easy 6.3 miles @ 6:53 pace.

Thursday - easy 7.2 through the woods @ 7:21 pace.

Friday - took a recovery day to travel up to Seattle.

Saturday - 8.3 around Lake Union @ 6:48 pace. Crappy Seattle weather... it was pouring.

Sunday - 2 loops around Lake Union for 13.9 miles @ 6:50 pace. At least it didn't rain but damn it was cold out...

Do I feel better, yes. Am I ready, I will be. Race day is in 3 weeks. Cool.

As for March Madness... yeah, I nailed it this year. I'm quite happy with 3 of 4 teams picked for the Final Four, and my 2 Championship teams look to be the right picks for the National Championship. My brackets were lagging, but I knew that a MSU win over Louisville would move me right back into position for the win.

3 games to go!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

4 weeks... and illness

So, I'm trying to keep positive here, but this just bites. 4 weeks to go and I'm sick. Upper resperatory gunk... I'm taking meds and will see how this plays out. If I can't get back into this by Tuesday, then it's off to the doc I go. Not what I want to have happen, but I guess it's better now than to have it happen with 1 or 2 weeks left.

Monday - rest

Tuesday - not bad considering the residual dead legs from the race. 3 sets of 1k, 600m, 400m, with 400 jog recovery between intervals and sets: 3:44, 2:10, 83, 3:33, 2:03, 81, 3:26, 2:02, 74

Wednesday - took it easy and went to the track to watch the kids. Did warm ups and cool downs with them, a light 3 miles thinking I'd get in a solid Thursday-Sunday.

Thursday - 8.7 at a moderate tempo, just under 7 min pace. Felt easy, but I did notice that I'm fighting off a cold now.

Friday - that's it... I'm sick. Taking the day off. Should be 6-8 with a tempo push in the middle.

Saturday - still sick... missed out on what should have been 8-10 at moderate tempo.

Sunday - and I'm sick... and frustrated. This was supposed to be my last hard long run in training, 18-22 with some tempo pushes.

I need to kick this cold ASAP and get back on track... nothing but focus on the day from here on out. 4 weeks to go.

On a side note, I did get to watch 6 NCAA games live this year at the Rose Garden. Very cool, great games! It's all about the Madness...

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Tune up race and 5 weeks to go...

Shamrockin' it today... I love that race. It's always been a fun one to do. Today, I can't complain, I had a good race in less than favorable conditions. It was flat out miserable by Portland standards with the heavy rain and strong headwinds. The uphills are tough enough, I don't need a headwind on top of it.

This year I made the switch (mostly due to Boston) and ran the 15k as a preparation for the longer distance. It's easy to PR in a race when you've never done that distance before. That said, 15k (9.3 miles) in 57:19 (6:10 ave pace) is a good time for a hilly, wet, nasty day. The salmon were making it upstream faster... the best part though was mile 7-9 in ~11 minutes and catching 3 runners in the process.

For the week - lower mileage due to racing and having some leg issues (tire hammy's):

Monday - rest day

Tuesday - 4x1000m @ 3:35, 400m recovery between, 800m jog before the 4x300m @ 56 w/100m recovery.

Wednesday - 6.8 easy miles @ 7:01 pace

Thursday - 5.4 @ 7:18. Hamstrings were really sore and tight, went on the nature trail to go easy. Did some light strides on the grass to help with recovery.

Friday - Light tempo work: 7.2 miles @ 6:54 ave. Did some hill work, but very light.

Saturday - easy 4.1 miles @ 7:14 ave pace.

Sunday - 1.5 mile warm up, 1.5 mile cool down, 15k race @ 57:19 (6:09 ave). Tough course. 5:55 through the first, then it slowed down over the next 4 miles. I passed through 6 @ 37:40 - slower than expected. I started to pick up the tempo w/5:55, then the last 2 in ~11 minutes.

Good times!


Sunday, March 8, 2009

6 weeks to go...

42 days... wow! That's all that's left to go before race day. Crazy...

As I mentioned last week, there's bad days and good days, bad weeks and good weeks. This week was a good one after recovering from whatever it was that had me down for a day. I'm glad it passed. Now if we'd only get our normal spring weather and not this arctic blast things would be easier.

Monday: Rest day

Tuesday: Killer workout - 16x400m @ 80-83, 100m recovery jog (35 seconds on average). Last 2 were 78 and 77. Great way to start off the week. Consistency makes me feel good.

Wednesday: Screwy work schedule, but got in 7 up on Fairmount. Was supposed to be easy, but ended up with 7.2 miles @ 6:42 pace. Oops...

Thursday: Easy group run w/BAC. 6.5 miles @ 7:02 pace. Felt a little sluggish, but that's OK.

Friday: Hard tempo work today. Did 9.8 miles, first 8 were at MP, so I was 6:30-6:35 (a little fast), but the weather was great and I had on new shoes... finished with a 6:43 ave pace.

Saturday: Easy 5.8 miles. Shortest run in a while, but needed the recovery after hammering a lot Friday. 6:50 average for a nice short jaunt.

Sunday: Spring forward and lost my group... it's easier for me to slow it down with those guys. Oh well... 15.9 miles at 7:19 ave pace. It felt very easy, and that was my goal.

Next week will have some easy tapering towards the end as I get ready for the Shamrock 15k. This will be my first real test in a long time. It should be very interesting. The goal is to go steady, in control, and hit my pace.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Bumps in the road...

One of the things that I teach my runners is that you need to expect the bad days (or weeks) along with the good ones. This goes for races as well. They are facts of life. You will have good days, great days, and not so good ones. I've learned to accept these things, not like I have a choice...

Overall, to put things into perspective, I can't complain about where I'm at physically and mentally (well, maybe a little... it's human nature). I have 7 weeks to go... 49 days. Wow... objects in the mirror are closer than they appear. I hadn't looked at it this way until just now.

Monday: Rest day

Tuesday: Was supposed to do 3 x 2 mile @ 10k tempo, legs weren't 100%, so I changed it to 3 x 1.5 mile @ 10k tempo. Went 8:13, 8:18, 8:30... meh, I think I was mentally not there as well as not fully recovered from Sunday's long run.

Wednesday: 7.3 miles @ 6:49 ave pace. Felt better, but still a little fatigued.

Thursday: Right leg was bothering me, not sure if it was mild IT band, hip/lower back, or fatigue... so I went easy and did 7.2 @ 7:19 ave on the Nature Trail and Berm.

Friday: Definitely fighting something here. Exhausted, achy, not good at all today. Taking the day off - went home early and slept for a few hours. Got some extra sleep that night too (~10 hours).

Saturday: Error on the side of caution... taking a second day of rest. I don't want to do that, but I'm going to listen to my body on this one.

Sunday: Went 10.4 today and felt good. Not great, but good. I'll take it. 6:49 ave pace over 10.4 and I felt like it was an easy tempo.

197 miles for February, up from January's totals (and also a short month with 2 extra rest days) and only 32 miles for this last week.

I'd like it if my right leg was feeling 100%, but I'll work on it and just watch it daily this week. I should be in the 50-70 range...