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.