After school I took the kids out for a run. I was planning on four but due to a detour ended up running a little longer – 5.4
A while later it was off to Clay’s for my strength workout. After a warmup on the bike, I did 5 x 30s on the ski erg: 130, 131, 129, 131, 134! I added some band walks, some inch worms, some lunge jumps, some work on the ball, some band running (pulling Clay across the room,) some, some other stuff… Thanks Clay for letting me come work out with you.
Today was two for Tuesday day. First, after school I met with the Hillview kids and did a workout. We started with two laps around the two schools. I was especially pleased with one of my girls. She has been coming only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Side note: New runners and those incapable of keeping up with the team are only permitted to come on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On these days we stay on or immediately around campus so that no one gets left behind somewhere. Anyway, this girl has been running REALLY slow. I have had to have a talk with her mom about her lack of effort. Suddenly last Thursday she completed the first lap (about .9 miles) in 9 minutes and the second lap in in 11. Her previous best was 11 and 15! Today she was ahead of me for the entire first lap and was ahead of several other girls. She finished both in about 19!! The other kids noticed and cheered her on!!
After the warm up we did 15 form drills and a half mile cool down: 4.5 miles total.
I wore a sweat shirt over my running shirt for the 2 pm afternoon workout. If it was cold enough for two layers at 2 pm. How cold would it be at 6? Answer: COLD!!! It was so cold that our group of 20-24 runners became 11! The temperature was about 40 and there was a 15-20 mph wind which I am sure made for a sub freezing apparent temperature. Miguel led each repeat. Sarah Bird was next, then Joel, Branden and myself. Sidnee, Dave, Leo, Brenda, Bev, and Clare were the other hearty (crazy?) souls out there. The workout was the “Figaro” workout. (Sing Figaro 3 times… then three two one, three two one, three two one)
I preprogrammed my Garmin with the workout and it enabled me to not have to spend the night focused on my watch. I started my warm up with a push of the start button. The watch recorded distance and waited for me to get into the repeats. When I pushed the lap button, it knew what to do. It timed 3 minutes and told me weather I was in the 5K pace zone or the mile pace zone. It beeped 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 at the end and I yelled TIME! It automatically switched to timing the 3 minute rest! beep, beep, beep, beep, beep and we were off on a 2 minute fast rep. All I had to do, the whole workout was listen and run!
It is amazing while you are training that you have days when you feel good and your numbers show it. You have other days where you may not feel as strong, but the numbers still look positive. Of course the opposite of each of the above will also occur. You will feel weak and the numbers will show it or you may feel fine but end up running slow…..
Anyway, this weekend was the next step forward in my Boston Marathon training plan. I scheduled myself for my 20 mile Boston preview run on Saturday and an 8 mile marathon pace run (out of 12 miles) on Sunday. This combination was attempted 3 weeks ago. You can click here to read about the Boston Preview run from 3 weeks ago.
3 weeks ago Jeff and Karl ran the middle miles with me on a beautiful (as in not windy) morning and I completed the 20 miles in 2:51:19. Yesterday the weather was not so cooperative. Chuck did me the favor of meeting me at Jamba Juice (where I left my car) and driving me up to the aqueduct. We intended to run the first 5 miles together. We headed off to the east and had a very easy 2.5 miles. They were easy because the wind was at our backs and because we took it at a very easy pace. When we turned around I realized that I would have to hoof it a bit to get back to 60th by 7 am. Karl and Jeff were supposed to be meeting me there. Unfortunately, when we turned we experience the full force of 15 – 20 mph headwinds! I pushed it a bit while Chuck maintained the same effort. I made it back just in time to meet Karl. (and Clay who was on his way to his trail run.) After a quick potty break, still no Jeff, Karl and I headed off to the east again. Before long we met Jeff and Matthew Bierowicz. They had started at Jeff’s house and were presumably late due to fighting the headwind. The four of us enjoyed each others company and the push of the tailwind all the way to Highland. I had to keep an eye on the splits and reign everyone back a bit, however, as all three of these guys are capable of running way faster than me!
Behind Highland Jeff and Matthew split off to get refreshments from Jeff’s house, but they promised to catch us. They never did. Karl and I continued up my set of Newton Hills running through the Rancho Vista area. This time the hills were much harder due to the wind. Not only did we face the wind going uphill, but the inbetween sections on Rancho Vista Blvd and Bolz Ranch Road were into the wind. If you look at the splits for miles 12-15 below, however, we were able to maintain a decent pace through this section. At N8 and Rancho Vista Karl went right and headed home. I went left and ran 5 lonely but quick miles back to my car at Jamba Juice. My total time for the 20 miles was 2:50:30. This was 49 seconds quicker than three weeks ago!
Here are my splits for yesterday’s 20 miler:
| Mile # | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Split | 9:37 | 8:44 | 9:10 | 8:50 | 8:46 | 8:16 | 8:12 | 8:22 | 8:27 | 8:10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | |
| 8:24 | 8:46 | 8:41 | 8:46 | 8:19 | 8:02 | 8:24 | 8:40 | 8:10 | 8:34 |
When I got home, I assisted my wife who was throwing a bridle shower for our daughter. The day was pretty busy and I never got around to posting…..
Today, I headed over to the aqueduct at Ave S to try some marathon pace miles. When I attempted this three weeks ago it did not go well. I felt weak and light headed and I bagged the run after five slow miles. To make sure that I was ready for 8 marathon pace miles this morning, I got up early, had some lemonade, and ran two miles easy before running with anyone else! Today’s group included Chuck, Lance, Joel and I. Joel had intended to run the early two miles with me but he went to the wrong location before making his way to Ave S. So, I ran out and back for a mile, then I did it again. Joel met me in the middle of the second mile just after I turned around.
At 7 the four of us started out and ran 2 easy miles together. Than Joel and I accelerated up to my marathon goal pace of 7:30. Actually, for the most part we kept hitting splits that were a bit faster! The total for the 12 miles was 1:33:32 which is a 7:47 average pace. I almost averaged my marathon pace for all 12 miles when I was only trying to average it for the last 8! So, I am VERY pleased with the way my weekend has gone! 32 miles in two days to complete 60 for the week! The last mile of the 60 was run at a 7:21 pace! Woo Hoo!
Here are the splits for today’s 12 mile marathon pace run:
| Mile # | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Split | 9:00 | 8:30 | 8:31 | 8:18 | 7:34 | 7:25 | 7:24 | 7:17 | 7:21 | 7:27 | 7:23 | 7:21 |
One final word: I failed to post that I also ran with the Hillview kids on Friday. We did the Boulders Bluff loop. I took it easy.
My plan as I train for Boston is to do some nice long intervals on Thursday mornings. The goal will be 6 miles of repeats of at least 1 mile each. The pace should be just under a 7 minute pace. I met Karl at about 5:30 and started my warm up. After almost 2 miles of warm up we tried our first mile. Mine was 6:59. As the mile repeats progressed I got faster and then started to fatigue: 6:52, 6:45, 6:50 and 6:59. After the 5th repeat Karl had to go and I was feeling that “one more” would have been pushing it a little too much based on the slow down in the 5th mile.
After school I laced up and headed out to run with the Hillview kids. They have had a couple of tough workouts already this week so I took it a little easier on them. We did 3 loops around the schools for almost 3 miles. We then had some fun playing a little frisbee golf.
Yesterday, I did quite a bit of work. I did the leap frog run with my Hillview kids. The unseasonable 80 degree temps were making the kids wilt, but we got through it. It totaled almost 5 miles. The leap frog portions of the run are supposed to be a tempo run for the kids. I was trying to hold back to an easy pace. Sometimes I caught my self under an 8 minute pace but I always dialed it back to the slower side of 8.
Later I headed over to to Clay’s. I started warming up with a nice long stationary bike ride. I added 5 sets of 30s on the ski erg at 125, 129, 127, 129 and131. I did 5 ball slams alternating between the two heaviest balls. Lets see, I did some work on the climbing machine and some hills on the treadmill, plus some inch worms, jumping, and more….
Another Tuesday Night HDR Speed Workout has come and gone. The wind was nonexistent – great running weather.
We did a stepping down workout. 5, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2… Miguel, Justin and Chris were out in the lead today. Everyone else was spread out at all sorts of paces. For myself, I felt good but seemed to be lacking in staying power. My first lap on the 5 was 1:32, but my split after lap 2 was 3:12. The splits were similar on the the four. The total distance for the 4 was only about 15 meters shy of 1000. The first three was typical but the 2nd three was 10 meters short of where the 1st was. I was able to rally a bit for the two two minute intervals….
In other news, the Nutty Runners preregistrations is already into the 60s!
For those wondering where Mt Ava Verde is read on and I will tell you. To get to Mt Ana Verde go to Ave S heading west from the freeway. About 1/4 mile west of Tierra Subida, where Ave S crosses the Aqueduct turn right into the parking area and park your car. From there are you have to do is run Northwest on the Aqueduct. Of course there is a caveat: In order for your run to qualify as a Mt Ana Verde climb the weather has to cooperate. You have to have 15 mph or greater winds coming from the Northwest like we did this morning.
Most of the time when it is windy at the aqueduct in the morning, the wind comes from the south west. This causes it to only be bad in a couple of sections – crazy corner near mile 1 and the last half mile or so. But, when the wind comes from the Northwest it is in your face pretty much the entire 2.5 miles out to the turn around. Today’s first two miles were 9:46 and 9:56. The good news though, is that when you turn around at 2.5 the return feels almost like running downhill. Miles 4 and 5 were 8:10 and 8:20.
Lance, Chuck and I met at 7 did the climb up Mt Ana Verde together. Lance headed home and Chuck and I tackled it again. On the third ascent Chuck decided to head back down at the 1.5 mile mark, but I continued to the summit. This third ascent, btw proved to be the most difficult as it was getting even windier near the summit (turn around.) Of course, when I turned back the final time, with Chuck way out 2 miles ahead of me, I decided to not hold back on the final descent. Miles 14 and 15 were 7:49 and 7:33 as I cruised in to the finish.
Thus I completed a step back week – only 40 miles. Of course their was a nice 10K race in there.
btw, I have been progressing on getting the weight down for Boston – I have lost 9 pounds since Dec 20. My current weight is 169. (I want this to be in the low 160s when I go to Boston.)
I am counting today as a big step in the right direction. The last few days I have done a mini taper in order to run the YMCA Friendship run 10K. Wednesday I did not run, but I did go to Clay’s for a workout. Thursday I ran just 2.5 miles with the Hillview team. Yesterday, I ran a little far for a prerace run, but it was Jamba Juice day. I ran 4.5 miles to Jamba Juice.
With the steep build up of the past couple of months, however, the Training Peaks Training Stress Chart still did not show me as ready for a peak perfomance.
Key:
Blue Line – Chronic Training Load (aka fitness),
Pink Line – Acute Training Load (aka freshness),
Yellow Line – Training Stress Balance (readiness to race)
Red Dots – Training Stress Scores for each day
To see where I was before today’s race you have to look at the last upward tic in the descending pink line to the right of the graph. (The graph extends a few days into the future assuming rest.) You can see that that the Acute Training Load came down adding to my freshness and that the Chronic Training Level also dropped a bit. Even still though, the yellow line, for my Training Stress Balance is way too low for an optimum race performance. The picture above does not show the numbers but my Training Stress Balance was – 12. For a PR effort you would want it above +10 minimum.
That being said, I went out and ran hard anyway. It was pretty soon apparent, however, that I was not ready to shoot for a 10K pr. (I realistically did not think that was a possibility anyway.) Still, it was quite fun to find myself near the front of the race even though it was mixed with 5K and 10K runners. As I ran over the L8 bridge near the end of loop one, I saw the 10K leader – Scott Acton heading back out for loop 2. About 200 meters from the turn around Jeff Smith and another guy went by on their way back out. That put me in 4th place.
The 2nd loop was very uneventful. I maintained effort and felt good. At 4 1/2 miles I started passing the 5K walkers still on their first lap. Going over the bridge toward the finish I was still feeling smooth and comfortable. I tried to press it just a bit to the finish. My finishing time was about 42:35. I say “about” because I forgot to pause the Garmin and the YMCA did not announce times or results except for the top 3 overall finishers. I do believe the course was about .1 short btw….
So, not even close to a PR, but I felt good and smooth and fast. Plugging 42:40 into McMillan’s running calculator predicts a 3:20 ish marathon so it shows that I am right on pace to have a top quality marathon effort in Boston.
I do want to congratulate some of my running friends who also had good races! Lauren did the 5K in under 20:30. She was the overall first female finisher in the 5K. Jeff Smith, as I said was out ahead of me in the 10K and took 2nd place to Desert Christian’s Scott Acton. Eric Dombrowski and Lance Close also ran the 10K and finished not too far behind me… Good Job everyone!
I came up with this title, and then realized that last week the title was “I love Tuesdays.”
Well, I still love Tuesdays, but today was a tough one. I started with my workout with the Hillview team. We started with a mile and a half warm up and did a BIG set of form drills. I have stayed away from these, for the most part, since my injury. We lined up on the basketball courts. We did 14 different drills. Each drill took us the width of three courts. The courts are terraced so you have to go up a ramp between each one. After each drill you jog back, turn and sprint the three courts and then walk back to recover. We did 4 different types of skips, some side steps, some karaoke’s, some butt-kickers, high knees, bounding, backwards running, backwards skipping, and some jumping… I followed up with a half mile cool down.
Then I went home and rehydrated and refueled.
At 6 pm I got out of my car at Joe Walker. IT WAS COLD AND WINDY!! Earlier at Hillview it had been pretty nice, so I was a bit surprised. I am not sure if was the bitter wind, or the the fact that today is Valentine’s day, but attendence was a bit off! Justin Patananan, Justin Koo and Miguel were out in the lead today. David Villalobos (from Hillview) and sometimes Michael were next. Chris had a couple fast reps and then went home. Koz, Dan and Stacy were always close. The group was rounded out with Sidnee, Dave, Brenda, Leo and Bev. At home, I am looking at Clay’s name on the list, but I don’t recall seeing him there ?!
I continued the progression we have been working on. We did 10 x 2 minutes a couple of weeks. We did 4x 3 minutes plus 4 x 2 minutes a couple of weeks. Today we did 3 x 4 minutes plus 4 x 2 minutes.
Early in the workout my laps were running around 1:40 but by the end of the evening I was hitting 1:36. I feel it was not too bad considering the tough headwind every time we hit the back stretch.
The combined effect of the two workouts must have been pretty tough. I am sitting here staving off calf and foot cramps as I write this report…..
As I have been training for Boston V2.0 I have been making comparisons with my build up to my first Boston Qualifer, the 2009 Surf City Marathon. This was my a real breakthrough marathon for me. My PR going in was 3:48. I ran Surf City in 3:21. One of the keys for the huge improvement was the loss of 20 pounds. The thing that makes my current training similar to that late 2008 training though, is that in both cases I started by hitting the “reset” button. In 2008 I was hurting and sought treatment from Clay. As I got better, and as I dieted and got lighter, I gradually built up my training in the last half of the year. Similarly, in 2011 I was hurting and I got some help from Clay. The current training regimen is a bit of a steeper training curve than the 2008 version.
On Training Peaks, I went back and made sure that all the 2008 and 2009 workouts had training scores. I made a weekly comparison of the scores leading up to Surf City 09 along with CIM 09 and Boston 2010. The chart shows that I am beginning to compare favorably with the build ups leading to those top 3 marathons:
| weeks before: | Boston 12 | Surf City 09 | Boston 10 | CIM 09 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 74.8 | 78.9 | 70.9 | |
| 1 | 78.8 | 85.6 | 74.5 | |
| 2 | 83.8 | 97.2 | 81.0 | |
| 3 | 82.9 | 96.5 | 82.1 | |
| 4 | 79.2 | 96.8 | 78.0 | |
| 5 | 72.2 | 88.2 | 73.8 | |
| 6 | 68.9 | 89.2 | 65.2 | |
| 7 | 70.8 | 82.7 | 60.0 | |
| 8 | 66.7 | 86.4 | 70.0 | |
| 9 | 73.2 | 64.1 | 86.5 | 65.7 |
| 10 | 66.9 | 67.8 | 82.2 | 62.9 |
| 11 | 60.4 | 66.9 | 77.1 | 64.1 |
| 12 | 56.5 | 61.3 | 72.6 | 60.2 |
Oh, today’s workout?
I ran an easy 10 miles with Chuck, Lauren and Lance on the aqueduct. Lauren promised to run easy so that we could all run together, but little by little she had to pull away. Lance was hanging with Chuck and I didn’t want Lauren to run alone so…….
I did, however let Lauren go it alone when she decided on a fast finish.
After Church I decided to add some strength training exercises: Jump Rope, 2 foot jump ups, 1 foot jump ups, medicine ball slams, Ab extensions on a roller thingy, 100 squats on a bosu ball, band walks and lots of stuff with the exercise ball. Click the link above for the details – or click here..
