"Captain's Blog"

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Week in review

75 miles on nine runs (two doubles). Long run (18), two workouts. Good week! Day off tomorrow!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

This morning I headed out at the reasonably earthly hour of 6:30 for some tempo action at McMullen Creek Greenway. I had emailed all the great and good of the Charlotte running community to advertize the workout but only my trusty training partner Steve had responded to the call. We did a two mile warm up and caught up on recent events before changing into our flats, doing some strides and getting straight into it.

I was pretty excited about doing this workout as though I had run at McMullen on various occasions I couldn't recall ever actually doing a workout there and it was going to be a nice change from McAlpine! Also, in spite of the workout on Tuesday and a sub 7 minute average 18 mile run on Thursday my legs were actually feeling okay!

We headed out on the trails 5 miles out and back and nailed it. I ran 56:58 (57:17 once I had added on the 0.07 miles at the end to make 10 miles on my Garmin!) and Steve hit 57:24, over a minute faster than when he last did this workout in October. A quick warm down and some strides in the parking lot and it was back to the house to watch Man U beat Wigan 4-0, England beat France 17-9 and help Lisa get the house ready for Emily's 8th birthday party that is just about to start as I write this!

Very satisfied with the workout and with only 6 miles needed tomorrow and a 'down week' next week I am looking forward to getting some freshness back into the legs before next week's 5k. The last 4 weeks were the key weeks of the current schedule (65,65,70,75 with some tough workouts) and I've come through it seemingly unscathed. On Tuesday I have a 'fun' workout planned of 1 mile on the track as fast as possible followed by full recovery and as fast an 800m as possible. I'll let you know how it goes!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Pushing through

After my latest workout last night (12 600s with 1:30 recoveries) I sent a note to Coach telling him how the workout went. I had got the workout done and was pretty pleased with it considering the tiredness in my legs at the moment but was concerned that I hadn’t met the prescribed goal paces towards the end and indeed after 9 of the repeats had considered pulling the plug and not completing the workout. This was the response I got….

“You're in that spot of training where leaps and bounds are made... but not realized for a few weeks. Thanks for finishing the workout, there's a method to the madness and unless just a stupid move, pushing through is the way to go”

This made me feel a lot better and justified my decision to finish off the workout despite not feeling my best. I know there are definitely times when it is much wiser to stop doing a workout than carrying on but this wasn’t one of them as there was no risk of me aggravating an injury or anything like that. When I’m hurting with 800m to go in next week’s 5k I can draw on how I finished off this workout for inspiration to push through to the end of the race as fast as possible. It’s almost as much a mental thing as physical…..

Also, here's to hoping that I am indeed in that spot of training where leaps and bounds are made! Next up? 18 miles tomorrow (getting my long run out of the way before the weekend) and 10 mile tempo on Saturday with Steve before a hard earned cutback week next week

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Week in review

72 miles on 8 runs including 2 workouts and a long run. Good week, legs are tired but trusting the schedule to get me to the start line of Richmond feeling fresh and ready to roll!

Getting it done

So after yesterday's workout my legs were sore all day, you know, that 'empty' feeling when you can't imagine ever running again! 16 miles were looming this morning and I wasn't all that positive! Especially seeing as I was going to be running solo and starting before 5am as I had promised Lisa I would be back home before the kids got up at 7.

With that in mind, I hit the sack at 9.45 (yes, on a Saturday night- this is what my life has become!) to get a few hours sleep in and hope that a few more hours rest would get my legs into some sort of shape for the run.

Well after a pretty slow start my legs eventually came round and I got it done, albeit with not one mile under 7 minutes! I checked out the 5k course I am now definitely going to run in a couple of weeks and got home in time to be there when the kids woke up. My legs are tired but this was the first time I have hit over 70 miles in a week since Richmond training last year. And no rest for the wicked yet- 75 on the schedule this week before cutting back again the week after- I'm sure I'll be looking forward to that by the end of this week!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Hard day at the office!

This morning I completed one of the toughest workouts I've done in a long time. Tough mainly as my legs weren't firing from the get go and I could tell it was going to be a long day! Luckily I had great company in Aaron, Spada and Falcone and the weather was beautiful so I was able to get it done. As I sit here a few hours later though my legs feel trashed. Tomorrow's planned 16 miles which I need to get started by 5am could be very interesting! Hopefully I will be doing a loop that incorporates a preview of a 5k course that I am now planning to race a week on Saturday.

I got home to find that good friends and fellow Charlotte Running Club members John Compton, Billy Shue and Alice Rogers had won their respective Half and Full races at Myrtle and Allen Strickland had nailed his qualifier for NYC. Awesome!