65

That was my mileage in the end for this week after my workout yesterday and my long run today. A very satisfying week. Two decent workouts and nearly two hours on my feet today. This morning headed out to the Whitewater Center to run for the first time. Once over the mild contempt for having to pay five bucks in order to park I hit the trails on my own for 35 minutes while I waited for the other guys to show up, then did another 1 hour 20 when they turned up. Thoroughly enjoyed the run, the trails are excellent, really nice to work different muscles and systems and good to run with a bunch of other people- no way would I have run that amount of time on my own! It's funny though, there were eight or nine of us but because the trails are generally single track we were all running single file, so 'group conversation' is difficult! At one point as we were climbing a section with switchback turns every twenty yards or so it looked like we were the peloton making our way up Alpe D'Huez! Oh and we saw a f@cking big snake!

So the last 4 weeks have built from 40 to 50 to 55 to 65 miles. The week ahead I'm looking to cut back a little and consolidate my recent gains. So a light mileage week ahead but keeping the quality- tempo on Wednesday, 5k time trial planned next Sat

Recap

Long time no post! Figured my daily posts were getting increasingly boring so to spare you all that I'll just update this every now and then

So it's been a fairly decent week of training so far. My calves were very sore Saturday after the race so when i got up on Sunday I initially thought a long run was a no go, but with the family out of town I got in the car anyway and drove up to Latta Plantation to meet up with Jay, Keith, Jocelyn and a few other guys to run the trails there. Legs were fine but the Company and new trails certainly helped. Was good to hit up a new route and enjoyed running on proper trails for a change. I'll never be a trail runner though. I find myself spending most of my time looking at my feet making sure I don't trip. Did manage to fall once still! Ran for just under an hour and a half so called it 12 miles which made it the planned 55 for the week

Monday and Tuesday legs were still very sore so kept it nice and slow. Wednesday I felt recovered at last on my run with Jay and Caitlin from the Dowd and got over 10 in. Nice to run with others. I'm typically a bit of a loner when it comes to training but I'm trying to commit to meeting up with folks at least a couple of times a week. Certainly makes the 'daily grind' easier to face and keeps the motivation up. Over the next few weeks I'm hoping to get some solid miles in so the more company the better!

Thursday I felt ready for a workout again so I hit ten miles with 6 in the middle that came in at 34.40 which was pleasing and a bit of a confidence booster and today I just took it nice and easy again for 6. Fartlek planned tomorrow and then meeting up with folks again on Sunday to run at the Whitewater Center for the first time which should be fun.

Training seems to be coming round, long may it continue....

Nice and hard

Well first the positives. I came third, was never passed in the race and felt I ran pretty solid- my splits were pretty consistent. The weather was frankly awful. when you wake up at 6 and it is already 73 degrees with dew point of 71 you know it's going to be rough! No excuses of course- I mean it's June, in Charlotte, what else do you expect, but talking to other runners afterwards and looking at some of the results, I think my 17 minute time was a lot closer to the 16:30 shape I thought I was in before the race (if that makes sense!!)

So onwards and upwards. Already got my next few weeks mapped out and am excited about seeing improvements over the next couple of months- at least I can't get any slower can I?

Girls have been away since Wednesday so I'm looking forward to their return tomorrow. Only problem is I've got to get out and mow the yard and that's not an enticing prospect in this weather! Hoping to take advantage of my temporary 'bachelor status' for one last time tomorrow, heading out to Latta Park for the first time for my long run with some other folks. Also going to take in my first Charlotte Eagles game tonight. Will be interesting to see what the standard is like

Post Script. Couldn't be bothered to go to the game in the end- will take Emily next week. And didn't mention earlier, Pete ran 22.14 for a pr. We thought 22 was definitely doable and 21.40 at a stretch so in the conditions it was a great effort!

Nice and easy

Enjoyable run tonight. Signed up for Saturday's race and then ran a couple of loops of the course. May need to temper my 16:30 expectation! Weather forecast is not great for distance running and the first two miles has some significant hills. However, the last third of the race is either downhill or flat so the key is to get to mile three in one piece and be able to take advantage of the fast finish. Ran this course in 15:51 a couple of years ago which is a nice reminder to me of where I'm trying to head back too!

It was nice to run in the evening for a change, in spite of the heavy humidity that made my legs feel like sides of beef! Going to take tomorrow off and hit it hard and fresh on Saturday

Tired

did a repeat of last Thursday's tempo workout adding on 4 * 1 minute on/off at the end. Legs were pretty unresponsive today and it was a bit of a slog to be honest. was about 30 seconds slower than last week but the effort was solid and after hard runs Thursday, Saturday and Monday the slow down wasn't unexpected. Will take it easy now till Saturday. Lying in tomorrow will run after work and then probably take Friday off. Still plan to hit 55 miles for the week so that will dictate how long my Sunday run is!

Tuesday routine

The usual Tuesday 4.45 alarm call today for 4 miles at 5 before meeting up with Pete for his last workout before the race on Saturday. I had him doing 10 400s with 200 recovery so paced him round that, throwing in some striders for good measure. Total 9.2 miles at around 7.15 pace. Tempo planned tomorrow, then the girls are out of town for a few days so my running times and locations become a little more flexible!

Fartlek

So the morning workout went pretty well. headed out the door and after 15 minutes warm up, straight into 8*2 minutes on/off. Managed to run 2.9 miles total for the 16 minutes 'on' and the recoveries were 7.30 pace. Total run 7.5 miles in 51:40.

I have a confession to make....I'm going to run a 5k this weekend. Despite my comments last week, I have succumbed to the temptation. Couple of reasons. Lisa and the kids are going to be out of town so what else can I do on a Saturday morning?? Two, Pete will be laying down his new 5k pr and I would have been going to watch him anyway. Three,it's a low key race, no grand prix points, etc. so I might be able to place and get some confidence back. Four, the legs seem to be coming round nicely. My goal will be to be able to beat 16:30. We'll see.....

Procrastination

I am an absolute master of it when it comes to running sometimes. Tired from yesterday's efforts and a busy day I didn't want to get up early this morning to run and we had a trip to the Zoo planned so needed to get going pretty early. So I was going to head out of the door and 8 and squeeze something in before we went but the legs didn't feel all that great and I was STARVING. So took the shoes off, heated up some left over pizza (I have the diet of a champion at the weekend let me tell you) and decided I would run after we got back from the zoo. So nine hours later, after three hours in the car, 6 hours melting in the Colombian heat and the usual day trip fare of burgers, fries and ice cream I headed out for my last run of the week. Eschewing the planned workout, I decided to swap Sunday and Monday around and ran a nice and easy 5.5. Still hit my planned 50 for the week and gave the legs an extra day to recover from Saturday's efforts, so hopefully I will wake up ready to hit my workout in the morning

Where did that come from?!

Headed out the door at 5 this morning so I could get my 12 in before the kids woke up and Lisa could have a lie in. Certain amount of trepidation as haven't run over an hour for what seems like months! First mile passed in 7.30 and I figured I would just run nice and easy for an hour and then maybe pick it up if I was feeling good.

Well the second mile was 37 seconds faster than the first and it appeared I was beginning to roll a little early. Mile 3 6.30, 4 6.24, 5 6.21. I was feeling nice and easy though so just went with it. I was at the stage now where I would have been pissed off if I started running 7 minute miles again so the dynamics of the run had now changed! Mile 6 6.17, then 6.09, 6.04, 6.10, 6.13. From mile 8 onwards it was becoming a bit of a struggle and my turnover decreased and I was having to push harder. Mile 11 was a struggle in 6.25 but I finished strong with a 6.07. I was pretty spent afterwards but I'm taking all the positives from this run. I felt pretty comfortable throughout despite the fast pace. Now we'll see how that impacts my workout tomorrow and my runs in the days ahead!

Got home at 6.30 thinking I had about half an hour before peace would be disturbed but of course Sophie woke up immediately and my day began! Busy busy today. Discovery Place this morning, yard work and grill out this afternoon, possibly the zoo tomorrow

Total 12 miles in just over 1:17, 6.25 average pace

Today's numbers

7.34 miles in 51:37

Glad it's the weekend! 12 miler and fartlek workouts planned. Will be my longest run for months!

Tempo

So the workout went fairly well. I hit up the Mcalpine out and back at 5.30 am, jogged to the two mile mark then 6 miles 'tempo'(6.06,6.05,5.55,6.02,5.55,5.49=35:52). Felt pretty smooth but my resting heart rate is too high at the moment so everything is much more effort than it should be. I need to quit my job so I am not so stressed every morning when I wake up! Hip area feels fine, as long as i keep on top of the stretching it appears I'll be okay.

None

Confession time. I didn't run today. Reluctantly dragged myself out of bed at 5.15 and was just about to head out the door when I thought "F@ck it, I have a day off planned for tomorrow, let's take it today instead". So I filled my face with breakfast and got into work early. I had a load of work stuff on my mind anyway (as usual- grrr!) so at least I was able to address that. No excuses tomorrow now!

Nine

Apologies for the inevitable title but yes I ran 9 miles today. Did my weekly run with my first ever 'pupil' Pete where I run 4 miles then meet Pete and jog to the track and help him through his workout. Today I had prescribed for him 5*1000 with 400 jog recoveries. I thought it would be a useful guide to what he may be capable of running at the Summer Breeze 5k next week. The workout went well and he ran 4:20s on average. He's got his long run up to 11 miles as of last week too, so I am excited to see him race next week!

While Pete does his 400 jogs I fit in a couple of 100m strides while I am waiting so it works out quite well!

It was ridiculously humid this morning however and no sign of any let up for the next few days. Will make my planned workout tomorrow am interesting to say the least. This will actually be my first proper workout for a while other than the races I have been doing! And luckily it will be under 10 miles so the title trend can end.

Oh and hi to my new 'follower', Richard. That's three readers then...

Eight

Another beautiful morning here for running. Headed out early on a route I had never run before (which is a rare occurrence). Clocked 8 miles starting out at 7.30 pace closing the last couple in 6.30s. Felt pretty decent today and am looking forward to a good spell of training before my next race

Seven

All the sevens today. Just over seven at just below seven, out of the way just before seven! Tougher workout ahead- taking the kids to Carowinds today!! Hip,groin,pelvis, whatever soreness not an issue this morning at all!

Better- but at what price?

Headed up to the University area this morning for the early (7.30 start) running of the King Tiger 5k. Resigned to mediocrity I had slept well the night before and the usual pre race adrenaline was strangely lacking. Had never run the course before so the warm up route was a gimme- check out the course. Weather was perfect, dry no wind, little humidity. Course was fair, reasonably flat throughout but a challenging long hill in the last mile.

Wasn't feeling all that great during the warm up, the hip was feeling kind of sore. As I was stretching while lining up at the porta potties the pain was pretty bad- to the extent that trying to bend my right leg past 90 degrees was painful! I was even considering pulling out of the race at this point, envisaging a potential first ever DNF if I did go ahead and race. Changed into my brand spanking new flats and did some striders and the pain had subsided, to the extent that I was confident that I'd be fine for the race.

And I was. The race went pretty well. I came 4th in 16.52 and actually felt like I competed, challenging for third for the first 2 miles and holding off a late charging fifth place runner. As soon as I finished I could feel the hip stiffening up and sure enough it was a very short and slow warm down that was necessitated. Since then the hip seems to be cooperating. I managed a couple of laps of the football field with the dog this evening, but we'll see what tomorrow brings. By the looks of it will certainly booking some time for some ART with Dr Duffy this week.

So a better, more promising race but concerns over an old injury flaring back up. Oh the ups and downs of running!

Field day

It was Emily's first field day today. It has rained incessantly for the past day so they had to switch everything inside but she loved it anyway. I took the day off work so I could spend the day with her. Sneaked in a run at 9 am though, and really enjoyed the cooler temps and rain! 5 miles in 33.35

Why I am unfit

Checked my training log. Since October I have run an average 28 miles per week- that's effectively three runs a week.

Today I headed out to run 6 nice and easy followed by two fast miles. I went through 6 miles in 7-7.30 pace and then hit 6.14,5.59 but it was a much harder effort than it should have been. My hip flexor is very stiff when i wake up in the morning and this is definitely impacting my running as the muscles around there aren't firing properly. Something for me to keep an eye on. I'm trying to get into the routine every night of doing a wide range of stretches so hopefully i will get the benefits of that showing through soon

I have the day off work tomorrow which will be nice. We were meant to be going to Emily's first Field Day but that may now be put back to Monday because of the forecast rain

Happy National Running Day!

Celebrated mine with just over 9 miles at 5am, helping Pete out with his workout again

whoops!

So I hit the track last night. It took my level of fitness, chewed it up and spat it out with contempt! Didn't even break 5 minutes for the mile, decided not to even bother doing the 2 mile later on. Took a good, hard look at everything in my post 'race' analysis and have decided to lay off the races and track workouts at least until I get a reasonable level of fitness back. Unfortunately I am 'obliged' to race a 5k this weekend but once I get that out of the way it will be time to lie low for a while, get fit and return to racing when I'm better prepared.

Rest day

Nice to lie in this morning. Really needed the day off. Hope legs will appreciate it tomorrow night when the plan is to jump in to a mile race at the Summer Track Series, then do the 2 mile race if I feel up to it.

As I was updating my race results this morning I noticed that I ran Saturday's 5k at a slower average pace than when I set my Half PR in Cleveland in September. Wow- how things can change!