Mezamashii Review

Wow, totally did not write this review when I planned to. The last month has been crazy. That can wait for another post (hopefully sometime this week). This post is all about showing Mizuno some love.

Earlier this year I was invited to be a founding member of the Mezamashii Project (#89 of 600). For me, this is a huge honor. I feel that it means Mizuno believes in my running. Mezamashii is the Japanese word for "eye opening" or "brilliant". Mizuno is trying to open the door so that more runners can experience a brilliant run. To do this, they are sending members a pair of shoes and in return they are getting the support of the members via personal promotion to fellow runners.

This post is mostly a review of my Mezamashii Project shoes: Mizuno Wave Ronin 4. I absolutely love these shoes!

(Photo Credit: runningshoesguru.com)

They are lightweight, responsive and well cushioned. Initially I wanted the Ronin to be my marathon shoe. My current marathon shoe is the Nike Lunaracer. Not the original, the 3rd version. After Green River in June, I decided I needed a little more cushion in the forefoot. Any shoe I am going to race a marathon in needs to pass two tests: speed and long run comfort.

My current speedwork shoe is the Nike Lunaracer 2. I chose this shoe since it is lightweight and made me feel fast (it still does). Another aspect of the Nike I like is the level of firmness in the forefoot. The Ronin surpassed it with flying colors. It is a bit heavier but not noticeably. And I felt just as fast in it. A few weeks ago, on one of my own brilliant runs, I was able to crank out 10 miles at 6:30 pace without much effort. The combination of the wave plate and and forefoot construction gives the perfect level of cushion and firmness. It felt like the shoe was just an extension of my foot. Speed test: Passed!

My current long run shoe is the Brooks Pure Flow2 (I am a weartester for Brooks). Since this shoe has not been released, I can not give any details as to how it fits and feels on the run. I can say if you've ran in the Pure Flow, you will absolutely love the Flow2. This past Saturday, I left the Brooks at home threw on my Ronin's for a 20 miler with some friends. The Ronin's felt great the entire run. I had plenty of room in the toebox and enough forefoot cushion to make me favor this shoe over the Lunaracer. For me, that forefoot cushion is a huge factor. In every shoe I've ran long in, I get noticeably sore right on the ball of my foot around mile 18. Did not happen at all in the Ronin. Long run comfort test: Passed!

Looks like I found my new marathon shoe. Here's to hoping the Ronin's carry me to a sub-3 race in November!

The Busy Life

Wow, can't believe its been a month since I last posted. Life has been very busy. On top of training and working two jobs, my wife and I are getting ready to move! As you can imagine, this leaves little time for blogging.

Running has been going well. After the Miles for Meso 5k, I decided to do some actual 5k training and see what I could do. Yesterday I ran the Summerfest 5k. The plan was to go out in ~5:30 and see what I could do. Well....I went out waaaaaaaaaay faster than that, 5:00.4! Paid for it in the second mile, 5:57, and came back a little mile 3, 5:44. I'm very happy with the result. I took first place overall (my 3rd win) in a time of 17:34 (a 56 second PR). While I'm stoked to have finally broken 18, I can't help but wonder what time I could have ran if I went out as planned or even at 5:15. Oh well, its time almost time for my next marathon cycle so that will have to wait for next summer.

Sidetrack: for those keeping score, my mile PR is 4:58. Me thinks I'm going to spike-up and run a mile TT this week. I'm betting I can hit sub-4:50.

Back to this marathon thing (you know, the whole reason I write this blog). I'm actually going to be the RD for a marathon next weekend. Its super small (12 registered as of today). Its basically just an August race for local Marathon Maniacs. If all my volunteers show up, I'll run it too (marathon #4 this year). After that, its a few days rest and then jumping into my cycle for the Ghost of Seattle Marathon in November.

That's all for now, folks! Stay tuned for a full review of my Mezamashii Project shoes (my students have their final this week so I'll have more free time to actually post here).

~Run Strong

Mezamashii Part 2

In my last post I mentioned that I have been invited to Mizuno's Mezamashii project. Mezamashii is a Japanese word meaning "brilliant". Basically Mizuno letting their shoes do their advertising by giving runners a pair of shoes as they search for their brilliant run. Then, runners who receive shoes can let their fellow runners know how great the shoes are. I selected to receive the Wave Ronin. They should be here sometime this week.

Today, I had the first brilliant run I've had in some time. I had initially planned on an easy 10 miler. Then last night a friend says "wanna do 6 tomorrow?" Naturally, I accepted her offer. The park where we were to meet is ~4 miles from my house (ok, I a runner and a math nerd: the park is 4.3 miles away). So, 4.3 there, 6 with Cat, 4.3 home...14.6 miles. Ok, I can do that. Sure, I haven't ran more than 10 since Green River but I can manage 14.6 if I run slow enough.

On my uphill run to the park, I surprised myself. Splits of 7:41, 6:56, 6:54, 6:48 (not sure what pace the last .3 was at)! Towards the end of the 6 miles I was to run with Cat, she decided 7 would be better. Sure, what's another mile when I'm already doing 14? We parted ways and I headed home. After the first mile back, I decided 16 sounded like a much nicer distance than 15.6. Granted the finish was slightly downhill so its easier to go fast, but my last 4 miles were 6:51, 6:58, 6:46, 6:31! One hell of a way to end a run less than a week after my first 5k of the summer (more on that in a bit) and my longest run in over a month! I felt so much stronger at the end of the run than I have in a long time. You can't get much more of a brilliant run than that.

On July 4th, my wife, my in-laws and myself participated in the first Miles for Meso 5k. It was in a nearby town and one of the race organizers is a woman from our church whose husband died from mesothelioma a few years ago. They were able to get stellar funding and donations from sponsors so ALL proceeds went to charity.

My wife had a brilliant run of her own that day. She's training for her first half marathon (I'm finally rubbing off on her). She was able to take 2nd in her age group by running sub-30! She hasn't been able to hit that time in a few years so she was stoked! I couldn't have been more proud of her!

I didn't have it in the last mile so I missed my time goal but I still hit a 28 second PR. I won my age group and place second overall with an 18:30. I'm sure I'll be posting about another brilliant run last this week after I get the Ronin's. For now, ya'll will have to settle for some race pics!

Gearing up for the start. The guy in the blue sleeveless won in 17:03.

My awesome wife crossing the finish line!

Coming into the finish in 2nd place!

Post-race!

Mezamashii

I have been invited to be one of the founding members of the Mezamashii Project. I'll write a more extensive post later when I've got a bit more time (writing an exam for my stats class right now).

Maniac

Well, I never got around to writing that race report. Life has been very busy lately. More on that in a bit.

Vernonia was a fueling problem that I am still working out. I was not getting enough salt during the early stages of the race, leading to slight dehydration/cramps late in the race. Of course, I didn't figure this out until this past weekend when the same thing happened at another marathon.

Three weeks after Vernonia, I paced a friend in the Tacoma City Marathon. I use the term "paced" loosely here because she absolutely killed it the entire race! Her PR was 3:41 and we finished in 3:28:00, including a last mile of 7:01! Granted I was running her race, but I have never felt better after a marathon. I noted how I fueled (hammer gel mixed into my water bottle and powerbar gel's which have more sodium than gu) and used that as a plan for my next marathon.

This past Saturday I ran the Green River Marathon. For those keeping score, thats 3 marathons in less than 3 months. I am now marathon maniac #5511 :) Anyway, back to Green River. It is a very small, local race. There were 198 registered marathoners and 14 registered relay teams. I'm not sure how many showed up though. After Vernonia, this became another goal race. The previous years' winner was back and he ran 3:00 last year. I figured if he was running the same pace, I'd have someone to run with an maybe crack 3 hours. He did show up but was running a slower pace this year.

The race was on paved trail/sidewalks from Kent, WA to Alki Beach in Seattle. My wonderful wife, mom, and two friends came to see me off at the start. The horn sounded and I took off. I didn't see another runner from my start (their was an early start an hour before, most of whom I passed) until several minutes after I finished. I decided against my using my garmin. My best marathon came from not wearing my garmin so I went back to what worked before.

I felt strong through the first half (~1:28). My wife and mom met me here so I could swap for a new water bottle. There were aid stations along the course but I wanted to carry my own water and drink their sports drink at aid stations (another fueling trick I picked up in Tacoma). Around mile 17 I started to feel like I was trying harder. By mile 21 I was run/walking. I was super upset that I was crashing again! I pushed a little, probably not as much as I could have. I didn't want to need medical help after the race and I was in first place so I decided to settle for whatever time I got. Through the whole race, I was lucky enough to have some company from my running club. The lead biker was a one of my clubmates. Its nice to have someone to talk to late in the race when you are running alone. Around mile 23 (I think), I got held up at a stop light (free race=no closed streets). Thinking about it now, that probably cost me my PR. My official time was 3:09:52, 23 seconds short of my PR and 4+ minutes ahead of second place.

After having a few days to reflect on the race, I am happy with it. It brought out the fueling issues I was having in detail so I now know what to fix. It was my best race since I qualified for Boston in October 2010. While I didn't get under 3, I have a hard time complaining about finishing time when I won the whole race! Not to mention it was my 3rd marathon in 48 days.

I'm taking most of the week off from running (6.3-6.8). I haven't taken more than four days off in over a year. I was going to take a full week off but I want to go out with my club on Saturday. I think six days of rest is close enough. Next week, I'll start building up a base again for a few months. That will give me time to lay out a training plan/nutrition plan for my next marathon, Ghost of Seattle in November.

~Run Strong

Boston Repeat

That did not go as planned. I'll post a more extensive race report once I figure out what happened. I had a duplicate of my Boston race last year. Solid first half only to collapse the second half. Finished in 3:25:27, good enough for an age group win and 13th overall.

March/Weekly Stats

March
Distance: 231.8 miles
Pace: 7:53
Run Days/Rest Days: 27/4
YTD: 739.6 @ 8:24

March wasn't quite the distance I was looking for but it was a great month. I ran a new 10k PR and an unofficial 5k PR! It would have been a streak month (i.e. no rest days) if not for the dental procedure I had done on Monday. It put me out of commission for four days. Hence the low totals this week. So far I have 20 miles. Hoping to get out for another 5 tomorrow to give me 25 for the week.

M-Th: Rest days per Dr. orders
F: 7.25 miles @ 8:13
Sa: 13 miles @ 7:45
Su: 5 miles @ ?

Not sure how fast tomorrow's run will be. Probably a little slower, 8:30-9:00. My quads are a little sore after today's run. Hopefully next week is better than this week in terms of running. In terms of work it will be crazy. I'm use to teaching in the morning. Next quarter, which starts Monday, I will be teaching two night courses. MW I'm teaching until 10 and TTH until 7:50. That will take some getting use to. Also, I have 70+ new names to learn. Such is the life of a teacher.

Steep Taper

Looks like this first week of my taper will be very, very steep. I had an unscheduled (minor) procedure done on Monday. So I am not allowed to run until Friday. Now I'm planning this for a taper: 25-30 miles this week, 40 next week and 20-25 race week (not including the race).

Peak Week

Monday- 8.08 miles @ 7:03
Tuesday- 8 miles @ 7:18 (including a 5k TT @18:29)
Wednesday- 14 miles @ 7:22 (last 8 @ 6:49)
Thursday- 5 miles @ 7:58
Friday- 11.85 miles @ 7:39 (trail run)
Saturday- 21 miles @ 8:00
Sunday- 3.22 @ 10:50 (recovery run)
Total: 71.2 miles @ 7:46

I am very happy with this week! I hit the mileage I wanted to peak at and got in two sets of back-to-back hard workouts.

The first back-to-back was Tuesday/Wednesday. Tuesday was planned to be 8 miles with 5 at goal marathon pace. Unfortunately, I had an unplanned visit to the dentist that morning so I missed the start of the run (it was with a small group from my club). So, I decided to just haul until I caught them. Well, after I ran a 5k PR and was still about a half a mile back I decided to shut it down and cruise the rest of the run. They had already started the fast portion of the run (6:49's) so I knew I would have no chance at catching them. Slightly off track, I really need to find a 5k race to set an official PR. First I hit the PR as a split in a 10k, then I run faster than that in a training run. I guess my fitness is much better than it ever has been. Wednesday I ran on the treadmill. Mostly because I wanted to get in a lot of downhill miles. The marathon I am targeting in 3 weeks (still not 100% sure if we can afford it financially) has a long downhill section from ~15 miles in to the 20 mile mark. Here are the stats for that run:


2 miles @ 8:34 @ 1% 2 miles @ 8:00 @ 1% 1 mile @ 7:30 @ 2% 1 mile @ 7:30 @ 3% 8 miles @ 6:49 @ -3%

The second back-to-back was Friday/Saturday. Friday's run doesn't look to difficult but it was hard. It was a fairly hilly trail run with two runners much faster than I could ever hope to be. One is a former Division II runner who has a 1500m time under 4:00 and the other is a current DI runner. It was a walk in the park for them and a hard run for me. Saturday we had planned on 22 miles but decided that 21 was long enough. We (a friend training for Boston and myself) averaged ~8:15 for the first 15 miles and then picked up the pace to 7:3x. My last mile was a 6:37. Definitely a boost of confidence that I can pull that time out for the last mile of a 21 mile run with the week I had leading up to it.


Until next time...

Stats

Not too shabby for the week after a PR. Mileage: 62.8 Run days/Rest days: 7/0 Pace: 7:58 Breakdown: Monday- 10 miles @ 7:22 (last 3@6:49) Tuesday- 10.75 miles @ 7:59 (including 900+ ft elev gain) Wednesday- 5 miles @ 8:40 Thursday- 10 miles @ 7:08 (last 7/1 @6:49/6:27) Friday- 5 miles @ 8:59 Saturday- 20 miles @ 7:59 Sunday- 2.1 @ 10:29 (recovery) I had planned on running a 5 mile recovery run today. When I woke up today, the back of my right knee ached like I hyper extended it in my sleep or something. Instead of injuring myself, I took it a little easier than a normal recovery run and cut the distance down. The plan for this week has a similar breakdown but should get me to about 70 miles.

Race Pics

Official Results are in: 37:37.0 :)

Here are a few pics from the race

Near the 2.5k mark

2.5K mark again, but on the return trip so...7.5k mark

Finish line

Weekly Stats

Miles: 44.4
Pace: 7:46
Runs: 7

Took my runs mostly easy this week to keep my legs fresh for the race. Definitely backed off on mileage for the same reason. My only quality run, besides the race, was an MP run on Thursday: 9 miles total with 5@6:50 pace. Next week I will definitely be back up in the 60-70 mile range.

Foothills Dash 10K Race Report

Still waiting for official results/pics but this will have to do for now.

Time: 37:37
Place: 2nd Overall, 1st Age Group

I really didn't know what to expect going into this race. Well, thats not completely true. I knew I was in shape to PR. I had been putting in a lot of miles (50mpw for the 11 weeks before the race) and my previous PR was a split from a half marathon. The only real speed work I did to get ready for this race was three sessions of 4x1 mile. The first session average was 6:07, then 6:04 and finally 5:57.

The night before the race, my wife and I went to my sisters for dinner. Pasta and wine is a great combination for a pre-race dinner. The next morning I had a waffle for breakfast and some coffee. Then it was out the door to head to the race. It was fairly local, one town over. The field was a decent size, maybe 200 for the 5k and 10k. The field was not that fast though. There was one returning runner in the 10k (last years/this years winner) and a few other 5k guys who ran about our pace.

My wife was nice enough to go pick up my mom who wanted to see the race. Other than them, two of the women from my running club came to cheer for me. It was nice to have my own little cheering section.

After doing a very short jog and some hip exercises I took off my prerace/postrace clothes and headed to the starting line. I lined up in front for two reasons: 1. I was planning on running fast and did not want to get held up in traffic 2. This race was not chip timed. They did it old school with a stop watch and bib tags. I did a few strides to get my muscles warmed up to what race pace would feel like. The weather was close to perfect. Cloudy, mid 40's, slightly windy/rainy. Other than the wind and rain, couldn't have asked for better weather.

At the sound of the gun, myself and four other guys took off. We ran together, plus a few seconds, until the 5k runners turned around (both races were out and back courses). This is when I knew how I was doing place wise. Three guys turned around, only one kept going. So I was in 2nd place! I kept him in my sights as best I could. There is a small uphill at in the third mile that slowed me down a little, but I was able to use that to pick up some speed on the return trip. At the halfway point, he was about 30 seconds ahead of me. I knew that if I tried to catch him I might blow up, so I decided that 2nd place was more than good enough and focused on my time. My split at the halfway was 18:48. For those keeping score, that is a 10 second PR...set during a longer race...guess I need to find a 5k and set a real PR.

The second half of the race got a little more crowded. At first it was nice, just passing 10k runners who were still heading out. A lot of them cheered for the front runners which gave me a huge boost. One of them even told me "you're 45 back, you can catch him". At this point in the race, I fel0t like I could taste my breakfast coming back up. I thought, 'yeah, I can sprint to catch him and then throw up on the side of the course while he finishes'. Once we got to the 5k turn around, things got interesting. I had to weave between strollers and walkers and slower runners. Kind of annoying but it was not too bad. I never had to alter my stride so I was ok with it.

Coming towards the finish, my running club friends were banging their cowbell and hollerin', definitely gave me a little boost. As I got closer I saw the clock say 37:17. No way! I couldn't believe that was my time. I pushed a little bit and crossed the finish line. Very shortly after, I stopped my watch @ 37:37. That's 1:53 faster than my unofficial PR (the split from a half marathon) and 2:26 faster than my official PR.

Splits:
5:53
6:05
6:07
18:48 (5k)
5:55
6:05
6:07
1:23 (0.24 miles)

A few photos from my wife's camera.

 Coming in at the finish behind a 5k runner.

 With my mom before the race.

Doing some strides before the start.

Quick Version

Full race report later today or tomorrow.

Time: 37:37 (unofficial)
Place: 2nd Overall, 1st Age Group

Race Week

That's right folks, its race week. On Saturday I will be running in my second 10K race. My first 10K went fairly well. On the one hand, I won it out right. On the other, my time was 41:03. I've ran faster than that during the first 10K of a half marathon! Needless to say, I am setting out to crush my PR.

~Weekly Stats~
Distance: 65.2 miles
Runs/Rest Days: 7/0
Average Pace: 8:04

I only had two quality workouts last week. An 8 mile progression run on Tuesday and mile repeats on Friday. The progression run went better than expected. After an easy warm up mile, the plan was to hit these splits: 8:00, 7:40, 7:20, 7:00, 6:40, 6:20, 6:00. My actual splits were: 8:02, 7:40, 7:20, 6:59, 6:41, 6:18, 5:52. On Friday, I had planned on running 5x1 mile @6:0x with 90 seconds recovery. I was a little crunched for time so I decided to run 4x1 mile. My recovery was @ 10:00 pace. Splits were 5:57, 5:57, 5:57, 5:55.

This week I am mainly focusing on easy miles, that way my legs are fresh for Saturday. I may run some MP miles on Thursday to shake of some cobwebs. Other than that, nothing faster than 7:30-8:00. Hopefully my post on Sunday will have a shiny new PR as the title :)

A Little Bit Faster

~Weekly Stats~
Runs: 6
Rest Days: 1
Miles: 64.9
Time: 8:41:49

This week I started doing more speed work and marathon pace work. I have a target marathon in mind but am waiting to post about it. I still am not sure if I can afford the race. It is several hours away so I would need to stay overnight somewhere, cost of gas is going up and the race fee itself. Since my wife and I are only working part time and I have student loans that we are paying off, this race may not be in the cards. But if it is, I want to be ready for it.

I had three quality runs this week. Tuesday was an 8 mile run with 6 miles at goal marathon pace. I ran with a friend who is training for Boston. Luckily, my goal marathon pace is his tempo pace. So we targeted 6:51 per mile and ended up running 6:49's.

Thursday was my 6 mile run with 4x1 mile @goal 10k pace. Splits for that were 6:06, 6:05, 6:07 and 6:02; this was slightly faster than last week and gave me a lot of confidence in my chances at a PR in two weeks.

My final quality run was my long run yesterday. I ran 20.4 miles @8:14 pace. I would have like the average pace to be a bit faster but it was crazy windy during the run. I think the gusts were up to 40 mph. There were several places where we felt we were being pushed back. I ran the first 17 with Tom. Here is the breakdown of those miles; 11 @ 8:19, 5 @ 7:19, 1 @ 8:5x. We ran with another group of people who were going at a slower pace. Once we finished the distance Tom wanted, I headed back out on the trail to catch the other three runners in our group and finish with them. In all it was a good run.

I have noticed my patellar tendinitis flaring up a little. That is why I took today off from running. I have had my knee taped up all week but it really bothered me during the last few miles yesterday. I think part of it is how much I have picked up my speed this month. In January, I ran 250 miles @ 9:04 pace. So far I have 225 miles @ 8:15 pace this month. Next week I am going to make sure my easy runs are super easy and hopefully that will help. If not, I may need to re-hash my training schedule.

I was able to get to the gym twice this week for strength work! The goal is to keep that up all year. I do need to change the days I am lifting though. Stupidly, I lifted Friday knowing I had a long run Saturday morning. My arms were definitely sore and my water bottle felt like it weighed twenty pounds. No more weights on Friday. Next week will be my last at this mileage and intensity before my 10k. I plan on backing off mileage a little that week to give myself a better shot at a PR.

Week 10: The Start of Something New

~Weekly Stats~
Runs: 7
Rest Days: 0
Miles: 60.2
Time: 8:13:36

This was a great week of running! And I made it to the gym twice for strength training. One of my major downfalls is that I do not do any cross training and very little strength training. So I am trying to lift weights and do core work at least twice a week.

My three workouts this week were Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Monday was a 5 mile progression run starting at 6:48 mile pace and ending at 5:57. Tuesday was an 11 miler including 8 miles w/800+ feet of elevation gain (so 1600+ feet of elevation change). Thursday was 4x1 mile at goal 10k pace. Splits for that were 6:07, 6:07, 6:07, 6:04. No, I'm not that good at pacing. I just did the workout on a treadmill.

While I am still doing my easy runs much slower than before, I think I am transitioning out of HADD training and into a race cycle. I will still do the HADD fitness test to see how I am doing but after nine weeks of base training I feel ready for a cycle. I'm still not 100% sure about how this cycle will end but it may be an attempt at a sub-3 marathon. I know I said a few weeks ago that I am a long ways off from that but I think I may have been wrong. Once I run my 10k on March 10th, I will have a much better idea what kind of shape I am in.

See ya'll next week. Same bat-time, same bat-channel.

Week Nine

~Weekly Stats~ Runs: 7 Rest Days: 0 Miles: 63.3 Time: 8:36:46

HADD Benchmark #1

It might be two weeks late but I finally got around to doing my HADD fitness test. I did my baseline test back in December. You can see where I was starting from here. These were today's results:

Target/Actual/Pace
140/140/10:07
150/148/8:59
160/159/8:09
170/170/7:30
180/179/6:41

For those keeping score who don't feel like looking at the previous post, here is how I improved/didn't improve.

HR/Pace Change(seconds/mile)
140/+7
150/-3
160/-7
170/-3
180/-10

Overall a I am showing good improvement. I've still got a long way to go before making a serious attempt at a sub three hour marathon. I am very happy with these results.

The differences between this test and my baseline test: location, warm up/cool down, and rest. The baseline test was not done exactly how it should have been. I didn't warm up or cool down and I ran straight through each 1.5 mile interval with no rest. This test I did right. I had a short warm up and cool down and took a 90 second rest between intervals. As for the location, I decided I didn't want to run laps anywhere so I drove down to the Foothills Trail where there is a nice, uninterrupted (read no street crossings), flat section of trail for 2 miles. This is where I did the repeats. So read into this as much or as little as you would like. I feel that the location has little affect on my paces. The rest, however, probably worked out in my favor. While I did show improvement almost across the board, it probably would have been by a slightly lower margin had I done rests in my initial test.

I signed up for a 10K race which will take place on March 10th. I'm not going to shift my training toward that distance but still hope to run a PR based on my (improving) level of fitness. Since it is six weeks until that race, I will do another benchmark test in five weeks to see if I show more improvement.

Run Strong.

Week Eight

Ok, so there is only one blog post this week. I had initially planned this post plus a post around Thursday with the results of my HADD fitness test. Well, the test got pushed back. Instead I did a speedwork session with my friend Tom who is getting ready for the Boston Marathon. More on that session in a bit.

Weekly Stats~
Runs: 7
Rest Days: 0
Miles: 54.2
Time: 8:07:33

This was a great week! It was my seventh straight week of 50+ miles and coming off of a week that had a 25 mile long run! Since I did run 25 last Saturday (Jan 28), I took it easy pace wise for Monday-Wednesday. Then on Thursday I ran a speed workout with Tom to help him get ready for Boston.

Warm up and cool down aside, the workout was 4x1 mile with 0.5 mile recovery between. The splits I got on my Garmin were 6:20, 6:23, 6:16, 6:08.  I pushed the pace a little on that last repeat to get a better idea of my max heart rate (since I'm doing this whole HADD training thing, I thought it might be a good idea). So, instead of operating with a max hr between 185 and 190, I now believe my true max is closer to 200bpm. Tomorrow I will actually due my fitness test...which I should have done two weeks ago...oh well. Life happens.

Run Strong.

Week Seven

~Weekly Stats~
Runs: 5
Rest Days: 2
Miles: 60.1
Time: 8:47:49

I had a good running week this week. I had two runs of 15 miles or more, one tempo run and two easy runs. My easy runs were amazing this week. One of them was an 8 miler @ 141 AHR @ 9:47 pace. That's 13 sec/mile faster than my baseline HADD test at that AHR.

A big chunk of my mileage came from my birthday run yesterday. My birthday was last Thursday. Since I turned 25, I decided to go for a 25 mile run. My pace was all over the place and it was a blast! I ran the first 10 miles with Tom (who is training for Boston) @8:0x per mile. Then he turned around and headed back to the start so he could get his 20 miles in. The next 5 miles I ran solo. 7:54, 7:56, 7:3x, 6:47, 6:43. At this point I had reached my turnaround and made it back to where Tom turned around (it was an out and back run for me). Here, I was joined by three other members of my running club: Rich, Cat and Janet. We ran the next 6 miles together @ 8:39 average pace. Here, we were joined by my wonderful wife for the final 4 miles at a leisurely 9:4x pace. In all I ran 25 miles @ 8:29 average pace and 163 AHR.

Today I feel fairly good. My quads/hips are sore and tight but my calves and feet feel fine. I think I'll start off next week with an easy 6-8 miles tomorrow afternoon. Next week I will have two posts, my weekly update next weekend and the outcome of my HADD fitness test midweek.

RunStrong

Week Six

This is about a week late. We had one hell of a weather event last week and I just got my home internet back yesterday. So, here goes.

~Weekly Stats~
Runs: 6
Rest Days: 1
Miles: 50.5
Time: 7:19:24

This week was my lowest mileage since I started heart rate based training. I had planned on getting a short 5-6 mile run on Sunday. However, as I was driving to the gym I got in a minor car accident. So I didn't get to run that day. I am okay, my car will be okay in a few days once it gets out of the shop.

Sadly, I did not get to run my first ultra marathon. Due to the weather event I mentioned before, the race was cancelled. There were three feet of snow at the start of the race, which is a trail run in the mountains. Kinda makes it a little hard to hold the event when the course is buried. I still wanted to test my abilities so I did a 6 mile time trial. The result was an average pace of 6:19 with the last two miles in 6:09 and 5:51. Not too shabby.

The next day I got in a 10 miler @ 7:52 pace with an average heart rate of 162! That is a big improvement since I started HR training. Next week, probably Wednesday or Thursday, I will do another HADD test to assess my fitness. I would do the HADD test sooner but I have a big long run tomorrow morning. My 25th birthday was yesterday. Since I am working part time, I don't have time to run long during the week so I am celebrating my birthday tomorrow with a 25 mile run.

Run Strong.

Week Five

~Weekly Stats~
Runs: 7
Rest Days: 0
Miles: 56.1
Time: 8:37:36

This week was a little better than last week. I didn't quite make the mileage I was looking for (I wanted another 60 mile week) but I'll take what I got. This was my first week of teaching! Still getting in 56 miles while teaching, sounds like a solid week to me. My HR matched up to my paces a little closer to the way I think it should so I'm going to stick with this HR based training for a while. I may have to change the date of my next fitness test. It was going to be on the 23rd but it will probably be on the 30th because of a race I have next weekend.

Wait a minute, a race next weekend? That's right, I'm "racing" next weekend. I'm sticking to not putting out a race effort while I'm in this HR training cycle. But I'm not against running in a race. That being said, I will be running the Capitol Peaks Mega Fat A$$ 55k Ultramarathon on Saturday. I had planned on running the shorter race (17 miles) but the guys I am carpooling with are running the 55k. So I could sit around in the cold and wait for them or just join them for the long race. I opted for the long race. It will be a good test of my endurance. I've got a good mileage base going into it so I'm not too worried. The only thing a little daunting is that I've never ran farther than a marathon (42+k) before. That is why my only goal is to finish. I don't want to be worrying about how fast I am moving while I'm out there.

Run Strong.

Week Four

~Weekly Stats~ Runs: 6 Rest Days: 1 Miles: 62.3 Time: 9:41:38 Just a quick post this week. My overall pace dropped so I can assume that I am seeing a little improvement. Still, I had a few bad runs this week where my HR was very high considering the pace I was running. It ended with a great run today, 60 min @ 140 AHR. I ended up running 10:00 pace. This is the pace I ran at this HR during my initial fitness test. The difference, the fitness test was on flat ground and today was a hilly route. I take it as another sign that I am improving. On another note, I may be running my first ultra-marathon in 2 weeks. More on that later this week.