When I was updating my training log earlier, I realised that 5 of my last 6 runs have been with Charlotte Running Club folks. This is unusual for me. For want of training chums, especially since Tim B moved back North, I would guess I usually train for 75% of the time on my own. But I'm loving this group thing!
Those five runs encapsulated all the benefits of group running!
First there was Sunday's long progression run. Having Billy and Jordan along made for great company as we did the workout together and kept the effort honest and in line with what we needed from the workout. On my own I would probably have gone out too fast and defeated the object of the workout immediately! And it's not every day you get the chance to run with a marathoner shooting for low 2:20s in his next marathon!
Then there was Tuesday's Miners Run. I wanted a nice low key shake out before the track workout in the evening. Mission accomplished
Then the track workout. having 10 people on the track at the same time offering each other encouragement as we all did our own thing was great. we all split off and did our own things but all had a sub group to run with and share the workload with. then when our group was recovering we would cheer the other group on and vice versa- great stuff....Had I been on my own I am sure my repeats would each have been 5 seconds slower and also I wouldn't have been given the motivation at the end to try and keep with Jay next time he tears up the last quarter!
Wednesday am, just ten hours later, most of us met up again for the recovery run. Tales of the workout were shared, legends created, mutual legs nursed back to some sort of decent shape.
Finally, today I was down to do my second workout of the week. However, instead of heading out on still unrecovered legs I decided to run from the Dowd again in yet another group. Again the pace was nice and the company good and gave my legs another day to recover in time for tomorrow am's workout- which I will be doing on my own!!
Faster, better, more beneficial workouts and long runs; slower, easier, more beneficial recoveries, it's a win-win!!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Fried
Two days after the workout on Tuesday night and the legs are still feeling it! I guess it was to be expected after doing my first proper track workout in months! The last two mornings have just been 8 or 9 miles as easy as possible with the folks from CRC. So glad to have people to meet up with, makes these runs a lot easier and ensures a proper recovery pace rather than me belting it out on my own! Back to solo running tomorrow morning as I have another workout planned as I can't do it at the weekend. Hopefully by the morning my legs will be feeling more cooperative!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Back on the track
Last evening I headed down to the JCSU track for the first workout of the new training block. I had never run at this track before as I have two accessible tracks within jogging distance from my house, but having run there last night I would definitely consider making the extra effort to head there again. The 'Mondo' track surface is super fast and the view of the city skyline as you come into the home straight is awesome. Also, as a result of the “public-private” partnership formed between JCSU and the Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Commission the general public can utilize the track for exercise everyday from 8:00 a.m. to dusk. Last night the floodlights were even left on for us until we completed our workout!
Inspired by this and the good company of at least ten other trackites from Charlotte Running Club I proceeded to notch a solid workout. The goal was 5 mile repeats at half marathon pace (5:28) with a minute recovery and the option of running a 6th if the legs were feeling good. I managed to hit 5:26,28,26,21,26,12. Yes I did the 6th and generally felt great throughout the workout. I had Jay's company throughout and Aaron and Jordan jumping in too. Enjoyed it!
Having also run Tuesday morning (I can only run Saturday this weekend so am having to frontload the week a little) I ran over 17 miles yesterday and it will be interesting to see how the legs feel on this morning's run from the Dowd. Again the Company will make it feel easier regardless!
A good start to the new training block!
Monday, January 11, 2010
The curse of DVR
Sitting here at 4.45 ready to head out the door later for the first 7 miles of the next training block. Nothing too remarkable about that except for the fact that I probably had less than 4 hours sleep last night. Started off with not going to bed until well after midnight because of the football. Even though the Packers' game was in the afternoon, family duties had caused me to DVR it to watch it later.
Once I sat down at 9 to watch I of course became transfixed by one of the greatest games in play off history and before I knew it my planned relatively early night went out the window. Waking up at 4 feeling both starving and needing the bathroom I had to get up and then my choice was either go back to bed and wake up at 6 feeling grouchy and hungry and unmotivated to get out the door or suck it up eat some food and head out the door at 6 for my run. I chose the latter....
Work will suck later but at least I will have got my run in!! And tonight I will MAKE SURE I am in bed by 10 as it will be another 5am alarm call tomorrow for the weekly 'Miners Run', so called as a bunch of us meet up at Mcalpine armed with headlamps for a run on the trails.
Motivation to get up so early is clearly better when I am committed to meeting people for a run. To give you some sort of an idea of how this week should play out, well it will be an easy 7 miler on my own this morning, a shorter than usual Miners Run tomorrow am doubling with an evening track workout of 5*1600, early morning run from the Dowd Y with Charlotte Running Club folks Wednesday, another workout on my own on Thursday morning and 12 miles either in one run to work or a morning/lunch time double on Friday. Lisa is away for the weekend from early Saturday so not even a chance for a lie in at the weekend, having to get my 14 miler in early before Lisa hits the road. Sunday will then be a blank with hopefully 65 miles in the bank for the week....
Once I sat down at 9 to watch I of course became transfixed by one of the greatest games in play off history and before I knew it my planned relatively early night went out the window. Waking up at 4 feeling both starving and needing the bathroom I had to get up and then my choice was either go back to bed and wake up at 6 feeling grouchy and hungry and unmotivated to get out the door or suck it up eat some food and head out the door at 6 for my run. I chose the latter....
Work will suck later but at least I will have got my run in!! And tonight I will MAKE SURE I am in bed by 10 as it will be another 5am alarm call tomorrow for the weekly 'Miners Run', so called as a bunch of us meet up at Mcalpine armed with headlamps for a run on the trails.
Motivation to get up so early is clearly better when I am committed to meeting people for a run. To give you some sort of an idea of how this week should play out, well it will be an easy 7 miler on my own this morning, a shorter than usual Miners Run tomorrow am doubling with an evening track workout of 5*1600, early morning run from the Dowd Y with Charlotte Running Club folks Wednesday, another workout on my own on Thursday morning and 12 miles either in one run to work or a morning/lunch time double on Friday. Lisa is away for the weekend from early Saturday so not even a chance for a lie in at the weekend, having to get my 14 miler in early before Lisa hits the road. Sunday will then be a blank with hopefully 65 miles in the bank for the week....
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Next phase eve
Sitting here watching to see if the Ravens can hold off the Patriots. Finished my long run about 6 hours ago and haven't left the house since! It's so bloody cold outside, even though it's sunny you can't really do too much! It's meant to start warming up again next week luckily!
So finished off another solid week and am ready to embark on Tim's latest schedules for me starting from tomorrow. This week ended up hitting 60 miles again, this time on 6 runs, with the 'quality' being provided by Thursday's workout and today's long run/workout which went thus....
"1st,3rd and 5th finishers from T Road hit up Mcalpine this am for a long 'progression' run. The first 4 we ran nice and easy, picked it up a little for the middle 4 and then picked it up a little more for the last 4.
Before the run I had some goal paces in mind but as it happened I didn't even look at my watch the whole time, just consciously picked it up a little at miles 5 and 9. Ran pretty hard towards the end but was chatting throughout so never really got uncomfortable. Solid run heading into the next training phase starting this week!
7.27,6.58,6.48,6.45
6.11,6.01,6.02,6.07
5.57,6.02,5.42,5.41,5.40 (0.87m)"
So yes, I ran with Billy and Jordan this am. Jordan sent me a note via this blog last night asking if he could step in with us so we had a pretty solid line up for our run!
Ready to launch into next phase and ready for it to warm up a bit!!
So finished off another solid week and am ready to embark on Tim's latest schedules for me starting from tomorrow. This week ended up hitting 60 miles again, this time on 6 runs, with the 'quality' being provided by Thursday's workout and today's long run/workout which went thus....
"1st,3rd and 5th finishers from T Road hit up Mcalpine this am for a long 'progression' run. The first 4 we ran nice and easy, picked it up a little for the middle 4 and then picked it up a little more for the last 4.
Before the run I had some goal paces in mind but as it happened I didn't even look at my watch the whole time, just consciously picked it up a little at miles 5 and 9. Ran pretty hard towards the end but was chatting throughout so never really got uncomfortable. Solid run heading into the next training phase starting this week!
7.27,6.58,6.48,6.45
6.11,6.01,6.02,6.07
5.57,6.02,5.42,5.41,5.40 (0.87m)"
So yes, I ran with Billy and Jordan this am. Jordan sent me a note via this blog last night asking if he could step in with us so we had a pretty solid line up for our run!
Ready to launch into next phase and ready for it to warm up a bit!!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Update
Been slack of late on the Blogging front so a quick update of what's been going on since my last post.
Running has been going well. I feel officially out of the recovery phase and moving into the next training phase. Last week I hit 60 miles on 7 runs, with 2 workouts and a 'long run' of 11 miles. Quick recap of both workouts per my training log....
Workout 1- "First workout since TR. Met up at Mcalpine at 6.30, 9 cars in the lot. Great turnout- Jay, Ben, Mike, Justin, Billy, Aaron, Thomas, Steve, William. We ran to the 3 mile mark and then did five miles progression 6:11,5:46,5:27,5:27,5:26. I picked it up during third mile and felt pretty decent running with Jay and Ben through 4.5 before I started feeling it a bit and was having to strain to hold pace. So I backed off a little to try and keep my form and Ben and Jay finished about 5 seconds ahead of me looking strong. All in all I was happy with this as a first workout back. Really hope I can do some more workouts with these guys as it is so much easier and more beneficial!"
Workout 2- "Headed out in the afternoon but it was still bloody freezing. Wanted to a bit of up tempo stuff today so decided to head to the cross country course and run 400 'on', 200 'off' over the 5k (ran the last 0.8k straight through). Wasn't worried about pace just wanted to get some turnover. the 400s/800 ended up being around 5:35 pace and the 200s 6:40. It was cold and I was wrapped up and could hardly get my legs moving but the effort was good. I then ran a couple of easy miles before closing out the last 1.5 miles in 9:00."
Spent New Years at a friend's beach house in Ocean Isle. Great time of chilling out, plenty of food and drink, while the kids all played with each other. Got a couple of runs in while there- hit the beach for a few miles but it was bloody freezing!
Back to work last Monday refreshed and ready to go. Took Monday off from running but still plan to hit 60 miles this week with one workout done this morning and one long run/workout of 12 miles on the plan for Sunday. The Sunday workout I am taking straight from Mark Hadley's most excellent blog long runs. I'll be doing the 12 mile progressive long run described....
Today's workout was another 'Tempo' effort, described in my training log thus...
"Headed out on my Alexander, Providence and Sardis loop for an 8 mile progression run. The aim was to run 2 miles at 7:00, 2 miles at 6:30, 2 miles at 6:00 and then the last 2 sub 6 but I am useless at running these progression runs on my own and the run turned into more of a standard tempo run after I hit the second mile in 6.27
7:06,6:27,6:04,6:01,6:03,5:57,5:44,5:39
Decent enough effort in the cold"
The most exciting thing that happened this week was receiving my Spring training plan from coach Tim Tim's blog
I received it Wednesday afternoon and all work productivity went immediately out of the window for the rest of the day. I'm excited to get started on the plan next week!
Running has been going well. I feel officially out of the recovery phase and moving into the next training phase. Last week I hit 60 miles on 7 runs, with 2 workouts and a 'long run' of 11 miles. Quick recap of both workouts per my training log....
Workout 1- "First workout since TR. Met up at Mcalpine at 6.30, 9 cars in the lot. Great turnout- Jay, Ben, Mike, Justin, Billy, Aaron, Thomas, Steve, William. We ran to the 3 mile mark and then did five miles progression 6:11,5:46,5:27,5:27,5:26. I picked it up during third mile and felt pretty decent running with Jay and Ben through 4.5 before I started feeling it a bit and was having to strain to hold pace. So I backed off a little to try and keep my form and Ben and Jay finished about 5 seconds ahead of me looking strong. All in all I was happy with this as a first workout back. Really hope I can do some more workouts with these guys as it is so much easier and more beneficial!"
Workout 2- "Headed out in the afternoon but it was still bloody freezing. Wanted to a bit of up tempo stuff today so decided to head to the cross country course and run 400 'on', 200 'off' over the 5k (ran the last 0.8k straight through). Wasn't worried about pace just wanted to get some turnover. the 400s/800 ended up being around 5:35 pace and the 200s 6:40. It was cold and I was wrapped up and could hardly get my legs moving but the effort was good. I then ran a couple of easy miles before closing out the last 1.5 miles in 9:00."
Spent New Years at a friend's beach house in Ocean Isle. Great time of chilling out, plenty of food and drink, while the kids all played with each other. Got a couple of runs in while there- hit the beach for a few miles but it was bloody freezing!
Back to work last Monday refreshed and ready to go. Took Monday off from running but still plan to hit 60 miles this week with one workout done this morning and one long run/workout of 12 miles on the plan for Sunday. The Sunday workout I am taking straight from Mark Hadley's most excellent blog long runs. I'll be doing the 12 mile progressive long run described....
Today's workout was another 'Tempo' effort, described in my training log thus...
"Headed out on my Alexander, Providence and Sardis loop for an 8 mile progression run. The aim was to run 2 miles at 7:00, 2 miles at 6:30, 2 miles at 6:00 and then the last 2 sub 6 but I am useless at running these progression runs on my own and the run turned into more of a standard tempo run after I hit the second mile in 6.27
7:06,6:27,6:04,6:01,6:03,5:57,5:44,5:39
Decent enough effort in the cold"
The most exciting thing that happened this week was receiving my Spring training plan from coach Tim Tim's blog
I received it Wednesday afternoon and all work productivity went immediately out of the window for the rest of the day. I'm excited to get started on the plan next week!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Just runnin'
Enjoying this phase of the training. No set schedule, no specific workouts or mileage targets, just nice and easy running, ticking over until the hard work begins again. Being someone who likes structure and to know exactly what he's supposed to be doing on a given day, periods like this are unfamiliar to me but extremely gratifying!. At the same time a piece of me is really looking forward to getting back to a more formal plan in the coming weeks
Wednesday was 7 miles with some of the CRC guys from the Dowd, Thursday I took completely off, Christmas Day I waited for the rain to calm down a little before heading out with Aaron for 8 before sitting down to eat and yesterday was another 7. I ran a bit harder for this one, averaging a 6:25 pace and finishing off with some strides to start reminding the legs how to run fast again. Today again will be a random run, Lisa is going to drop me off on our way home from the Mall and I'll just run as long as it takes me to get home.
That will be 40-45 miles for this week. Next week I'll probably try and hit 50 on 6 runs and after that I'll probably ease back into full training. In the weeks leading up to Thunder Road I was hitting over 75 miles a week for the first time ever on a regular basis so without the need to run 2 hour plus runs in the next phase I would like to see my mileage around the 70 miles a week mark if possible.
Thursday I have pencilled in my first 'workout' of this phase. That will be 19 days post Thunder Road. I had already planned a 4 mile tempo workout for this day before we head off to the Beach for New Years and then Ben Hovis yesterday sent out a note asking for some company on his first workout back which coincidentally was going to be on Thursday too. He's planning a five mile 'progression' run so I'm going to jump in on that. A few of the big guns from CRC are lining up to hit this one too (Aaron, Billy, Jay and Thomas) and we're also trying to bring in sub 15 guy Bert Rodriguez who is in town this week, so it should be fun!
Hope everyone is having a great Christmas. We certainly are, the kids have had an absolute blast and that's what matters!
Later,
Paul
Wednesday was 7 miles with some of the CRC guys from the Dowd, Thursday I took completely off, Christmas Day I waited for the rain to calm down a little before heading out with Aaron for 8 before sitting down to eat and yesterday was another 7. I ran a bit harder for this one, averaging a 6:25 pace and finishing off with some strides to start reminding the legs how to run fast again. Today again will be a random run, Lisa is going to drop me off on our way home from the Mall and I'll just run as long as it takes me to get home.
That will be 40-45 miles for this week. Next week I'll probably try and hit 50 on 6 runs and after that I'll probably ease back into full training. In the weeks leading up to Thunder Road I was hitting over 75 miles a week for the first time ever on a regular basis so without the need to run 2 hour plus runs in the next phase I would like to see my mileage around the 70 miles a week mark if possible.
Thursday I have pencilled in my first 'workout' of this phase. That will be 19 days post Thunder Road. I had already planned a 4 mile tempo workout for this day before we head off to the Beach for New Years and then Ben Hovis yesterday sent out a note asking for some company on his first workout back which coincidentally was going to be on Thursday too. He's planning a five mile 'progression' run so I'm going to jump in on that. A few of the big guns from CRC are lining up to hit this one too (Aaron, Billy, Jay and Thomas) and we're also trying to bring in sub 15 guy Bert Rodriguez who is in town this week, so it should be fun!
Hope everyone is having a great Christmas. We certainly are, the kids have had an absolute blast and that's what matters!
Later,
Paul
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