Training Log Archive: mmrj

trails/hills, about 2/3 firetrails and 1/3 singletrack. didn't pace myself well and so did end up doing some walking in the last third. but i hadn't done this loop in a while, and i was faster than my best ever on this course by over 10 minutes, so overall went ok.

2 miles at 8%. was slow on this today.

out and back paved bike trail with markers every 1/4 mi. mostly flat, but a little up on the way out and a little down on the way back.

easy 1mi: 11:43
mp 1mi: 9:57
easy 1mi: 11:18
mp 1.5mi: 14:11
easy 1mi: 11:21
mp 1mi: 9:36
easy 1mi: 11:43

did the mp miles a little fast but even so this felt great and super easy. it's sort of ridiculous how much my running on flats has improved over the past few months (and how far i still have to go with my running on hills! but, we're working on it).

trails, mostly flat. took a good 2.5miles to feel warmed up.

afterwards, 4 x strides and one set form drills (high knees, butt kicks, skipping, fast turnover).

out with the boy.

we went out to dinner and walked there and back.

trails / hills, running the whole way. this was even harder, slower (by ~10minutes for the loop), and less efficient than i thought it would be, and i couldn't convince myself to do the second loop.

i think i should just repeat this whole week for next week so i can get it right.

trails / hills, loop (1.5mi from ~mile 28-29.5 on the firetrails 50mi course, then ~2mi rolling with a couple of smaller hills back to the staging area: firetrails topo).

easy loop: 3.5mi in 46:16 (13:13min/mi)
hard loop: 3.5mi in 5:52 + 6:44 + 15:28 + 5:13 + 7:36 (40:53, 11:41min/mi)
cooldown: 5 minutes
total running: 1:32:03

such a contrast -- i felt so great during the race and last week, but this week been feeling crummy and training has been kind of a disaster. wanted to do at least something from one of the harder workouts today to feel like i'm getting back on track. did two progressions, each up to 6%. felt ok.

had some unexpected schedule interruptions this week, notably a very sudden job interview this afternoon that completely threw off my work, eating, and training schedules. tried to at least get in my easy day run but about a mile in my stomach just wasn't having it. turned back shortly after that.

short version of the around the neighborhood walk with the boy.

trails, mostly flat with a few gentle rolling parts. kept this nice and relaxed and felt pretty good. legs a little tired at the end which surprised me only because of how great i felt after thursday's run.

lower body + abs:
2 x 20: leg extensions (but did this two-legged); leg curls (also two-legged); calf raises; lunges; hip abduction machine; hip adduction machine.
short abs video at home afterwards.

8 x 1 min at 6% incline at 1mi, 1.5mi, ... 4.5mi.
did the workout at normal easy pace (11:30min/mi) but did 0.25 mi of walking at the very beginning and end for warmup/cooldown.
i guess this wasn't that hard but it was certainly no fun. good that i got it in though.

upper body lifting with the boy.
2 x 20: back (rows), chest press, overhead press, bicep curls

1 mile @ 8%. went to the gym with the boy and he wasn't feeling so great so we cut our workouts short.

paved bike trail, gently rolling. felt really great today.

trails, mostly flat, took the gps. felt pretty good.
mile 1: 16:04 (walking)
mile 2: 11:32
mile 3: 10:43
mile 4: 9:04
cooldown 0.6mi: 9:33 (15:49 min/mi pace: walking)

walk around the neighborhood with the boy. legs definitely ready to run.

firetrails, gently rolling, 5km loop (race management says +150 ft per 5km loop, which sounds about right). my splits weren't that great in the second half which makes sense because i haven't done that many long runs lately. weather was super windy but reasonably cool, overcast for several hours in the morning and then sunny.

lap #1: 38:25
lap #2: 38:06
lap #3: 38:26
lap #4: 40:13
lap #5: 39:26
lap #6: 40:52
felt really great for the first several laps. used the first lap to figure out where to walk based on terrain, it was total 5-6minutes of walking per loop across three different sections for these first several loops. that worked a lot better for me because it felt natural based on the terrain and i didn't have to be checking my watch very much, could just run -- much more mentally relaxing.
lap #7: 48:24
i was at the aid station snacking right at the start of this loop and a bee stung me on my ankle bone! spent 5-7 minutes sitting with a synthetic ice pack on it.
lap #8: 44:54
this was the lap where i decided i would go 13 laps and then call it a day.
lap #9: 59:01
not doing so great here. took another 5-7minutes at the beginning and then walked the whole loop.
lap #10: 43:31
the walk break did the trick and i felt very up again. missed my 50km PR by 2 minutes, but it was good that i did the walk loop.
lap #11: 48:12
finished this one at 7:59:34 and saw your email in my head ("make sure to go 8+ hours...")
lap #12: 57:30
another all walking loop
lap #13: 49:05
tried to finish strong but didn't have much left.

overall felt pretty good the whole time. ate a lot which really helped but then stopped eating as much the last 3-4 laps and definitely noticed the energy lag. decided to stop at 40 miles since this isn't a goal race, i do this for fun, and i wanted to stop on a positive note, while i was still having a good time. overall pretty pleased. no regrets today.

legs a little tired plus i'm getting pretty nervous about my race, so i only did two of these. i went to the track so i could run the miles more by feel rather than playing with the gps.

warmup ran down to the track 16:31
4 x strides
1 mile 10:07
2 min easy
1 mile 10:07
cooldown back home 18:58

after 3 weeks away, the boy is home for 48 hours before leaving for another week. so i took the day off and we hung out. we went hiking at muir woods. not sure this was my first choice given the other stuff i have going on this week (race, etc), but it was good to spend time together.

sidewalks, mostly flat. hot again today and i had a hard time getting into a rhythm.

yoga dvd

0.5mi @ 10%, 1.5mi @ 8%. nice to get this done on a day when no one was at the gym.

650 yds breast stroke, nice and stretchy and relaxing.

6 x 5:00 at 5%. the first 4 went fine but i had to slow it way down to get through the last 2 + cooldown.

sent super quickly through these since i was only doing 2 x 10 reps, with minimal rest in between: wanted to keep it light since i haven't done weights in forever.
back @ 40 lbs; overhead press @ 20 lbs; upright chest press @ 20 lbs; bicep curls @ 20 lb bar; tricep dips; seated leg extensions @ 45lbs; seated leg curls @ 45 lbs; hip abduction @115lbs; hip adduction @ 115lbs; seated calf raises @ 110 lbs; 10 steps lunges.

trails, mostly flat. did two loops from the race course for next weekend and then another bigger loop on the other side of the park. used a 2/13 walk/run but wasn't super strict about it, and didn't make any effort to run the 13s at anything more than somewhere between easy and ultra pace. felt really relaxed the whole way, which was nice.

well, so far at least it looks like my falling asleep last night at 8:30/missing my evening workout went ok -- i really nailed this one! legs felt great the whole way. only reason i didn't overall feel great is that we're in a heat wave and it was really hot. normally i don't like wearing sunglasses while running but i should have thought about it for this one, the way back was right into the sun. oh well.

trails, rolling.
easy 1mi 11:49
surge 6:12 (9:12min/mi pace)
easy 1mi 13:05 (incl. stop at water fountain)
surge 5:19 (9:09min/mi pace)
easy 1mi 12:23
surge 3:13 (8:18min/mi pace)
easy 1mi 11:45
surge 2:08 (7:55min/mi pace)
easy 1.15mi 16:44 (walked the last 5-6min, uphill to the end)