Saturday, March 17, 2012
Wednesday to Friday
Off to race soon! Looking forward to a tough test of the fitness! The kids also get to 'race' after!
Wednesday- 9 including 8*600 off 1:30 on the roads (av 1:47/48)
Thursday and Friday- 15 miles total with the usual strides and drills on Friday
Feeling pretty good. Two weeks till Ukrops
Wednesday- 9 including 8*600 off 1:30 on the roads (av 1:47/48)
Thursday and Friday- 15 miles total with the usual strides and drills on Friday
Feeling pretty good. Two weeks till Ukrops
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Quick update
So yeah I've already fallen behind recapping day by day. Oh well here's what has happened since the Thursday long run...
Friday was the usual second Miners Run of the week. I added on a couple of miles to make 9 and did my strides and drills that I have been religiously fitting in on a weekly basis. For these I basically do 8*strides/butt kicks/skipping/side steps/high knee raises, etc. up and down a stretch of Old Bell Road. I think it is so important to keep in touch with these each week. It helps keep the fast twitch fibers and other neglected muscles happy and firing and definitely has some 'pre hab' injury prevention benefits in my mind too. This is always one of the first workouts I put on the schedule each week.
So I was pretty tired heading into Saturday's highly anticipated workout with Jay. Fresh off his first ever sub 16 posting on a tough course and having the best training cycle of his life heading towards Boston I was excited to be training with my buddy again! I hadn't seen Jay in a while so it was good to catch up with him during the three miles warm up and it would have been nice for this to be longer but we had work to do!
The workout was 2 miles, 4 * 400, 2 miles and we did it at Mcalpine on what was a beautiful cold and sunny morning for training! Jay provides a more detailed review here but suffice it to say we nailed it and worked hard together as we had hoped we would be able to. My training would be 10% better than it is right now if we could run together more often.
After a quick recovery including a splendid visit to Yoforia with Lisa, the kids and Jay and his better half, we laced up our shoes again for some recovery miles through the Providence Road neighborhoods in the afternoon. Aaron also joined for this one, fresh off a 5k victory earlier in the day himself and it was a trip down memory lane for the three of us who had trained together for Richmond Marathon in 2010.
These easy and enjoyable miles closed my week out at over 70 miles and I celebrated that evening by meeting up with Jay (common theme here??) and a bunch of other friends at Selwyn Pub to share some beers and laughs. Michael Jordan just happened to be present at our choice of venue too, although I never actually got the chance to see past his entourage and check if Guinness was his beverage of choice also.
Sunday I was able to take off and spent a great day with Lisa and the kids. Man U rose to the top of the Premier League for the first time since October and after watching that I spent the afternoon at the Schiel Museum of Natural History in Gastonia which ended up being a great choice of venue by Emily who had been on a Field trip there two weeks previously! We ended with pizza at Brixx and any day that ends on this note is a good one!
After Sunday's 'rest day' it was time to get back at it on Monday morning as I intend to hit 70 plus miles again this week, including the Shamrock 4 Mile race on Saturday.
I ran an easy 8/6 mile am/pm double on Monday and another 12 plus miles this am with the other Miners crew to start the week off on a good note. Working out tomorrow (8*600 on the roads), then a mini taper into Saturday's race which should be able to provide a good indicator of what I might be capable of at Richmond, my goal race, in two weeks time.
Friday was the usual second Miners Run of the week. I added on a couple of miles to make 9 and did my strides and drills that I have been religiously fitting in on a weekly basis. For these I basically do 8*strides/butt kicks/skipping/side steps/high knee raises, etc. up and down a stretch of Old Bell Road. I think it is so important to keep in touch with these each week. It helps keep the fast twitch fibers and other neglected muscles happy and firing and definitely has some 'pre hab' injury prevention benefits in my mind too. This is always one of the first workouts I put on the schedule each week.
So I was pretty tired heading into Saturday's highly anticipated workout with Jay. Fresh off his first ever sub 16 posting on a tough course and having the best training cycle of his life heading towards Boston I was excited to be training with my buddy again! I hadn't seen Jay in a while so it was good to catch up with him during the three miles warm up and it would have been nice for this to be longer but we had work to do!
The workout was 2 miles, 4 * 400, 2 miles and we did it at Mcalpine on what was a beautiful cold and sunny morning for training! Jay provides a more detailed review here but suffice it to say we nailed it and worked hard together as we had hoped we would be able to. My training would be 10% better than it is right now if we could run together more often.
After a quick recovery including a splendid visit to Yoforia with Lisa, the kids and Jay and his better half, we laced up our shoes again for some recovery miles through the Providence Road neighborhoods in the afternoon. Aaron also joined for this one, fresh off a 5k victory earlier in the day himself and it was a trip down memory lane for the three of us who had trained together for Richmond Marathon in 2010.
These easy and enjoyable miles closed my week out at over 70 miles and I celebrated that evening by meeting up with Jay (common theme here??) and a bunch of other friends at Selwyn Pub to share some beers and laughs. Michael Jordan just happened to be present at our choice of venue too, although I never actually got the chance to see past his entourage and check if Guinness was his beverage of choice also.
Sunday I was able to take off and spent a great day with Lisa and the kids. Man U rose to the top of the Premier League for the first time since October and after watching that I spent the afternoon at the Schiel Museum of Natural History in Gastonia which ended up being a great choice of venue by Emily who had been on a Field trip there two weeks previously! We ended with pizza at Brixx and any day that ends on this note is a good one!
After Sunday's 'rest day' it was time to get back at it on Monday morning as I intend to hit 70 plus miles again this week, including the Shamrock 4 Mile race on Saturday.
I ran an easy 8/6 mile am/pm double on Monday and another 12 plus miles this am with the other Miners crew to start the week off on a good note. Working out tomorrow (8*600 on the roads), then a mini taper into Saturday's race which should be able to provide a good indicator of what I might be capable of at Richmond, my goal race, in two weeks time.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Thursday 16
And so on to the aforementioned 16. Lately I have started to get my weekly long run in on Thursday rather than at the weekend. Gone are the days when I was able on a weekly basis to knock out a hard race or workout on Saturday without compromising the quality of my 2 hours on a Sunday so this is a good option to have. It means I get at least 9 (and usually more) of the miles in with a great bunch of people and frees up Sundays to spend more time with the family. Win win!
Today was no exception. I left the Dowd at 5am for 7 miles just me and my ipod before circling back for a Gu, dry shirt and a bathroom break to join the 6am group for their miles. By 8am I was showered, re-fuelled and at my desk, long run out of the way for the week. Legs felt very reasonable today considering yesterday’s workout. They’re going to need to be in fine fettle for my workout on Saturday when I actually have a workout partner! That he is merely visiting from New York is by the bye….
Today was no exception. I left the Dowd at 5am for 7 miles just me and my ipod before circling back for a Gu, dry shirt and a bathroom break to join the 6am group for their miles. By 8am I was showered, re-fuelled and at my desk, long run out of the way for the week. Legs felt very reasonable today considering yesterday’s workout. They’re going to need to be in fine fettle for my workout on Saturday when I actually have a workout partner! That he is merely visiting from New York is by the bye….
I need training partners!
Since Myrtle I have not been able to find anyone to do any of my workouts with me. I’ve done after work, Saturday morning and Wednesday early morning but no takers in spite of the range of hours I have offered. Surely someone else in Charlotte does hard workouts from time to time?? The main problem I have is that most of the local competitive runners who I should be training with have far more flexible or different working hours than me. I seem to be the only 8 to 5 office based runner in Charlotte! My teacher friends often work out after school with their teams and my friends who work from home can usually find a nice slot in their day to get a workout in at a ‘normal’ hour
Anyway, train hard I must (and want) so I’m just getting on with it. Yesterday I headed up to PDS track at 5:30 am and cranked out a workout of 3*1k,4*400,2*1k. Apart from the last k which I was struggling through, I hit all the prescribed times and didn’t feel I had gone to the well like I had on Saturday’s mile repeats so that was satisfactory, although as I told my coach afterwards I think the satisfaction was more down to actually having got another solo workout out of the way rather than with the results themselves. I had spent ten minutes at home thinking of alternatives to doing the track workout before sucking it up and leaving the house but there was no other time. I couldn’t leave it until after work as I had 16 miles planned today and I couldn’t leave it until today as, well, I had a 16 miler to fit in somewhere!
Anyway, train hard I must (and want) so I’m just getting on with it. Yesterday I headed up to PDS track at 5:30 am and cranked out a workout of 3*1k,4*400,2*1k. Apart from the last k which I was struggling through, I hit all the prescribed times and didn’t feel I had gone to the well like I had on Saturday’s mile repeats so that was satisfactory, although as I told my coach afterwards I think the satisfaction was more down to actually having got another solo workout out of the way rather than with the results themselves. I had spent ten minutes at home thinking of alternatives to doing the track workout before sucking it up and leaving the house but there was no other time. I couldn’t leave it until after work as I had 16 miles planned today and I couldn’t leave it until today as, well, I had a 16 miler to fit in somewhere!
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Small Miners' Group
With the temperatures dipping back into the 20s again, it was a small but hardy trio that headed into Mcalpine this morning. Mike B, Jason and I did the usual 6.9 mile loop (7.7 total for me). I sported tights for the first time in ages for this run and am hoping it warms up for tomorrow’s planned track workout!
Monday Double
I’m going to start trying to post my daily runs again. We’ll see how long this lasts.
I took Sunday off so was fresh and ready to start this week off with a double. With 70 miles the aim in 6 days it was good to get over 12 miles in on the day without undue stress on the legs. I ran solo in the am in Mcalpine for just under 6 miles. Nothing to note other than I felt good, the trails had held up very well after all the weekend rain and the only other soul I saw out there was the guy who rides his bike with the brightest light ever shining directly into your face.
After work I headed to the Dowd to attend my first CRC ‘Case of the Mondays’ run with my work colleague Ryan. We joined up with Caleb, Jocelyn, AJ and Jay B for a nice evening’s run around Freedom and Latta Parks for 6.5 miles. On my way home I noted that at 6:30 it was still pretty light out and that next week it would be this light at 7:30. All well and good but not much help for me when I am not an evening runner and the mornings will be darker again for a while.
I took Sunday off so was fresh and ready to start this week off with a double. With 70 miles the aim in 6 days it was good to get over 12 miles in on the day without undue stress on the legs. I ran solo in the am in Mcalpine for just under 6 miles. Nothing to note other than I felt good, the trails had held up very well after all the weekend rain and the only other soul I saw out there was the guy who rides his bike with the brightest light ever shining directly into your face.
After work I headed to the Dowd to attend my first CRC ‘Case of the Mondays’ run with my work colleague Ryan. We joined up with Caleb, Jocelyn, AJ and Jay B for a nice evening’s run around Freedom and Latta Parks for 6.5 miles. On my way home I noted that at 6:30 it was still pretty light out and that next week it would be this light at 7:30. All well and good but not much help for me when I am not an evening runner and the mornings will be darker again for a while.
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