Week 6... finished it up later due to vacation

This week was a reduction in miles which was welcomed as the long run day I would be on vacation . The humidity was pretty high this week.  I was able to get some of my runs down to a more reasonable pace.

Monday I was outrunning a serious thunderstorm which I don't recommend . It told me I had 50 minutes until the thunderstorm started (thanks minute by minute tracker from accuweather) and that was correct . As soon as I finished my 4 miler, the storm hit . I was able to do negative splits due to the storm... avg 9:56/mile with 10:21; 10:00; 9:46; 9:31 for the miles... felt good about that. Outrunning a storm can help your splits... The last mile I felt the wind pick up and so I just moved fast!  Reminds me of this picture.... in jest... I would never actually go out if there was a tornado approaching/tornado warning:

Wednesday met with my usual running crowd to do 6 miles.  Slower pace (which was welcomed).  10:53/mile.... I think we were all tired that day.

Friday did my last run before vacation.  4 miles at 9:25 pace... it was actually pretty hot/humid but we felt motivated to run faster.  Met up with another runner in a different place.  Stomach was feeling bad during the run and I had to take an unexpected break but it ended up working out well.

My final run for the week wasn't until Sunday due to traveling for vacation.  It was a 9 miler along a beach bike path.  It was super hot that morning so I started out at 5:30am!  79 degrees, dew point of 75.  It was a difficult journey.  Probably this was the run that I struggled the most throughout my lifetime of running.  I can't think of many that were harder due to the humidity and temperature... but I got through it.

Next week is week 7.  I will actually start it on Tuesday due to getting my long run in later for week 6.

Mileage totals should be about 4/6/4/13 for a total of 27 miles...

Week 5

I've already had a few posts this week so I covered the track workout Tuesday and having to treadmill at 3am on Weds morning... But basically it went pretty well with staying on track with ideal pace

So the plan was as follows: 4/6/3/12 for a total of 25 miles.

Monday 4 miles with a relatively progressive pace and average 9:55/mi

Tuesday I picked up about 1.8 unexpected miles doing warm up/cool down at the track workout.  A part of that was sprint drills so was definitely pushing the pace there.

Wednesday was the 3am insomniac treadmill session for 6 miles.  The pace was really hard to say because I feel my treadmill's calibration is off since I rarely use it.  I spent about 1 hour, 18 minutes on it so its possible it was actually more than 6 miles.

Thursday I was able to do 3 miles but I was still considerably sore from the track workout.  It was another progressive run and the average was 10:21/mi

Saturday I did get my 12 miles in.  Was able to find some company and kept the pace down and even took a few walk breaks.  It was hot but not overly humid.  10:23/mi which was close to the 10:30-11 was aiming for.  Felt like a good run.

Overall I ended up 26.85 miles for the week.

Next week I will cut back some.
Plan : 4/6/4/9 = 23 miles total

Safety and Temperature, Dew Point, Slower pace post

I realize that I need to post this.... It's very important to think about temperature and pace (as well as dew point, humidity, etc).

Came across a few interesting charts.  First, this one:

This one just demonstrates that pace will likely slow down with temperature, and it should.  However, I think the most important thing to remember is dew point/humidity makes the biggest difference in one's pace.

So I came across this on another running blog (http://maximumperformancerunning.blogspot.com/2013/07/temperature-dew-point.html)

So essentially what you want to do is find out the temperature and dew point and add them together.  This will produce a number that will give you some additional information.

100 or less:   no pace adjustment

101 to 110:   0% to 0.5% pace adjustment

111 to 120:   0.5% to 1.0% pace adjustment

121 to 130:   1.0% to 2.0% pace adjustment

131 to 140:   2.0% to 3.0% pace adjustment

141 to 150:   3.0% to 4.5% pace adjustment

151 to 160:   4.5% to 6.0% pace adjustment

161 to 170:   6.0% to 8.0% pace adjustment

171 to 180:   8.0% to 10.0% pace adjustment

Above 180:   hard running not recommended

What you do with this number is see the chart below:

For myself, I'm going to say 9:30 or 10:00 pace.  On a really humid day, I'm running maybe a minute per mile slower than I would on a typical day.  For example, today was 68 for the dew point and about 67 degrees when I woke up.  Which produces 135.  That is about a 2-3% pace adjustment.  If I was aiming for 10:00min/mile I would actually want to go about 15 seconds per mile slower to account for this.

Important to keep in mind!

End of safety announcement fellow runners.

Seriously sore from my track workout... impeding all fast running... lessons learned

Tuesday I decided to do something new, a track workout with a few of my running buddies.  It consisted of doing 2 laps on the track, suicide drills 4x, followed by the dirty dozen (down and dirty) and the abs workout.  I have never felt this sore in my life... even when doing the Insanity program for 2 months.  Ok, maybe it's close to that. 

So a weird thing happened to me that day.  I went to Starbucks and got a huge free drink for my birthday.  Then, didn't eat a whole lot except Piada (one of my favorites) for lunch, giant coffee, and a few donuts.  And some cereal/banana for breakfast.  So I didn't really have a lot of food in my system.  I felt nauseous a little bit during the workout.  I think most of that was because it was hot and I wasn't used to doing this type of long workout in the heat.  Then I thought, shower when I get home and sleep. 

Well, the sleep part eluded me.  I was supposed to get up the next day (Weds) and do my 6am run for 6 miles.  This was part of my marathon training.  I really didn't want to miss it.  However, the day was supposed to be oppressively hot and humid again.  I couldn't sleep and it was 2:50am so I went ahead and jumped on the treadmill, watched the 90s movie "Office Space" and got my 6 miles in.

I hate the treadmill with a passion, but I knew that there was pretty much no way I was getting to sleep except to thoroughly exhaust myself.  And it worked . I just ended up going into work later and sleeping the next morning.  Not the plan, but I got it in.

So my lessons are... never take a Trenta size (30 oz) coffee from Starbucks, even if it is your birthday and it's free.  It's deceiving how much caffeine is really in there.  I drank it at 3-4 pm and I think I really did have caffeine overdose from this.  I looked up the symptoms.  This body just can't drink that much caffeine anymore!  Then again, I've always been a lightweight.

Second lesson: If I have to, I can run on the treadmill.  It's not pretty and not pleasant, but it's doable. I've been avoiding it successfully for quite some time because I feel like a hamster on a wheel.  But it's really ok.

Third lesson: DOMS is real.  Especially with this kind of workout.  But it made me stronger.  And I wanted to try something new.  I would like to try it again but not sure about next Tuesday.  I feel like it puts a lot of burden on my family because the training place is 20 minutes away.  It pretty much burns up an evening.  Wish I lived closer to my buddies. 

Today the 3 miles hurt.  My body just wasn't used to that kind of workout.  But I believe it will subside.  And I might even try it again.  Maybe I'll do this week's workout virtually with the group?  It's a thought...

What week am I on... oh yeah, Week 4

This week was really a challenge for me. 

The biggest challenge was the fact that it's been 85-90+ degrees for most of the days I was planning on running last week.  Dew points 65+ and low temperatures not really below 65 most of the week.  Welcome to July in Ohio.

Let's look at Garmin Connect here to give me a good idea of pacing... I actually did make some improvements on consistency so that was a good accomplishment this week.

Mon July 4th I got a nice and consistent 4 miles at around 9:49 pace... felt good and I didn't take any walk breaks...

Wed July 6th met a friend at the park and ran 6 with her.  Managed a 10:03 pace for 6 miles but had to take some breaks and the humidity was unbearable.  Thankfully, a friend makes it go faster. 

Thurs July 7 did a quick 3 in the neighborhood with my new shoes (Mizuno Wave Creation 17) .  I liked them and didn't notice anything too extreme with muscle weirdness afterwards so I will give them another try on my short run the following week to break them in.10:01 average pace, but managed a negative split run this time...

Sat July 9 was the day I had my 11 mile run scheduled.  I decided to meet up with a group of my eastside Columbus friends and try a new location.  It was going to be a hot day and I planned traveling to see family/friends 3 hours away in my hometown (and had to be there by 1pm) so this meant meeting up at 6am with the group.  I usually do well with getting up at 6 or even 5:30 but that meant getting up at 5 because I like to fuel properly and do my "business" before I go out on a long run like that.  Especially when I don't know the restroom situation...

Had a great time with everyone and managed about 10:24 pace.  This was perfect because I am making an effort to slow down the long run.  There were definitely some slow down/speed up times but I did manage to run the entire 11 without too much of a decrease in effort.

Actually, now that I've described the week, it really doesn't seem like I struggled as much as I thought I did.  The humidity and heat has been bad and maybe I'm not giving myself enough credit.

This week is a pretty similar week.  I'm actually writing this Monday and I've completed my 4 miler already for today.  It was a cooler morning today and felt a lot better.

After today's 4 miles, I have a 6 miler Weds, a 3 miler Thurs and a 12 miler on Saturday for Week 5.  This will give me approximately 25 miles... I have been almost losing track of what week of training I am on... Trying to follow my plan as much as possible.

Week 3... Need to work on pacing a bit

I'm realizing more and more that I have a pacing problem.  My first half marathon I was able to run with negative splits.  My mind was in a different place then, and I have to get that mindset again.  Lately my pace has been all over the place with these summer runs and I have to make more of an effort to not go out too fast.  The fact that I feel out of breath and take small walk breaks makes me think that in some cases I'm going too fast . The humidity and hot weather also has been throwing me off.. Funny enough, this wasn't a problem for me until the past few months when I realized I was capable of running below or around 9:00/mile if I wanted to.

This week I cut back miles to 18.  Next week I go back up again after a rest week.

Run 1- Monday - 4 miles - 10:08 average pace
Run 2- Wednesday - 5 miles - 10:00 average pace
Run 3 - Thursday - 3 miles - 9:27 average pace
Run 4 - Saturday - 6 miles - 10:01 average pace

Thursday I had used as my tempo run so that was fine.  The other runs were on target except today I probably should gone a little slower.

Next week my long run is 11 miles.  I need to work on pacing.  A lot.... I need to think about what 10:45 or 11 would feel like and work on that.  26.2 miles is a long distance.  I know I cannot hold a 10:00 pace the entire time... So I need to work on this...

Next week:
4 / 6/ 3/ 11... total of 24 miles