Evaluation Run, ARRT

The summer heat is here as I noticed the temperature was 83 degrees upon returning. I ran the evaluation run well enough on the track with nothing significant to report. 5:55 and a 5:45 continuous for a 11:50 two-miler. All systems go.

The HRM is now dead, battery is suspect. The Assabet Railroad River Trail (ARRT) is currently being graded; really hope they don’t lay asphalt. It would just be another loss of Kenyan type surfaces to run on.

Some of the horseflies are out when you get deep into the path, around mile two, where it narrows to a wide single-track. Hence, the name Hell’s Alley! For now, it’s a sweet shaded 5.25 mile out and back on hard-pack.

Training: 12.8, 2M at 11:50, 9M at 6:59

REPORT: Marathon- Conditioning Week 4

The legs are tired as I write this after an 82 miles. The accumulation of runs, sleep of 6-7 hours and not the best of diets, dropped three pounds, is taking their toll. Weeks greater than 80 miles happen occasionally; when speed is mixed in on singles it gets tough. So, next week will be a cut-back.

Weekly Review
Total Miles: 82.0
Number of Workouts: 7
Stretching: starting up
Yoga: none
P\U, S\U: managed about 80\170
Notes: good training, albeit too much
Issues to Note: Poison Ivy seems to have gone away
Next Week Goal: At least one total rest day, eight hours of sleep, eat more vegetables, cut-back on mileage, at least speed, maybe incorporate doubles

Training: am, 60,sun,stroller, 13 miles at an average of 8:53 pace through Nashawtuc and the Senior PGA golf tournament, we were asked for tickets-it’s a public road shut off.

Tempo Run – Crashed

The accumulation of a thirteen day streak took it’s toll as this morning’s tempo faded around the sixth mile. I had a feeling from the start when grabbing the iPod that it would be a challenge. The 2.5 mile warm-up was slow.

The tempo first three miles settled okay but the continual downhill running of the out back could be felt in the quads. By the time I reached Pratts Mill it was fizzling out with form going away and the head looking more and more down at the ground. The liveliness was gone and it was four miles from home.

I took a different route home to spare a half mile but still arriving ten minutes late. End result was the same average pace as yesterday (stroller). Next is to see what I can muster up for tomorrow’s long run. Next week will need to be a pull-back.

Training: am,sun,60, 10M at a 7:51 pace average crashed and shuffled the last 4M

Senior PGA Tournament, Nashawtuc, Easy Day

Located in Concord bordering Lincoln and Sudbury. We ran Sudbury Road bisecting the tournament taking advantage of the road being closed to through traffic. Easy pace.

Trying to back off a little for tomorrow’s planned tempo and Sunday’s long run. The weather has been very cooperative of late and is absolutely ideal for running.

Training: am, 65,sun, 10M in just under 80 minutes w\stroller

Hills: Running Tips

A slight improvement on these hill numbers from two weeks ago. By the last turn my legs felt trashed from the running and Tuesday’s session.
Here are a few tips I think of when tackling repetitive hill climbs.

Hill Running Tips
1. Relax eyes, no “runners squint” - big payoff here
2. Drop shoulders
3. Controlled breathing
4. Bring the legs underneath
5. Use the arms
6. Think of slicing through the hill
7. Tap forefinger to thumb to relax
8. Even pace
9. Continue run after the crest, don’t let up

Training: am, 20K of Hills at 6:54 pace, yesterday 10M pm\stroller

Yasso 800s

I decided to give Bart Yasso’s marathon predictor workout a try for my first time today. Earlier this Spring, Mike reported doing these before Boston as a test.

The Concord track is a six mile warm-up run from here. The sun was bright, the air warm with a slight breeze. Pretty much tried to even pace the 800s around 2:45 each with a 2:45 (400 meter) rest jog. The last two took some effort whereas the first two were a breeze with a quick jog. I drank 20 oz. of fluid on the way over, 20 oz. on the track and 20 oz. of Gatorade on the return, then more water at home.

Training, am,78,sun 19.78 miles in 2:32, with 2:44 800s (ten)

REPORT: Marathon- Conditioning Week 3: 5K PR--Stroller

Bumped the mileage back up but this is still not an ideal training week. The summer racing excitement is here with so many races to choose from. Mostly you will find 5K to 10K with a few middle distance runs around the area.

Our first Fathers Day Stroller Race. B allowed me to run the course as a warm-up. This was without knowing the course or a map. Luckily all turns were well marked with arrows on signs. I didn’t get lost and managed the three miles around a 7:00/mile pace through the streets of Belmont.

As instructed we lined up with twelve other strollers on the track behind all the runners. We noticed two strollers 200 meters ahead of us as we ran into the bend. Unreal, they cut the rules and they were running fast. There was lots of congestion here as 330 runners pulled off the track and onto a single lane of the road. It took four minutes to pass the first stroller and another three for the second. Girls in the lead stroller were saying “Daddy you can’t run that fast!”

We finished the race in 18:41.9 for a 6:01 pace, first stroller, 5th in age group and 13th overall. The guy announced us as the first wheelchair coming onto the track. He had many other non-runner type comments as is quite evident baseball was his sport and the road race a good vehicle to raise money for the cause. A very good cause, and unusual incident.

Weekly Review
Total Miles: 73.10
Number of Workouts: 9
Stretching: fell off
Yoga: none
P\U, S\U: managed about 60\120
Notes: 5K Race pushing stroller
Issues to Note: Poison Ivy Medral dose pack six day course started
Next Week Goal: Looking for eighty miles, all is progressing well; this is shaping up to be a fairly loose marathon program sprinkled with short races. Been thinking about running Yasso 800s as I’ve never tried these before.

Training: am, 75,sun,stroller, 53:03 for a 7:35 pace, felt relatively good

MethylPREDNIsolone

My Battle Road Trail run yesterday at noon with a seven mile tempo effort didn’t break me too much. The ten mile total had two for a w\u and splits of 6.58,6.29,7.45,6.23,5.49,8.23,6.28,7.12. Okay not much of a w\u.

This morning I was hoping for a two hour run for the back-to-back efforts. Instead settled on a fit-in eight mile tempo effort with splits of 7.33,6.13,5.56,6.38,6.30,5.50,7.13,6.04 well pleased with the effort.

Predni is the steroid prescribed by my Doctor to combat the poison ivy. Believe me you don’t want to see the photos. She barraged me with questions, finally getting at why I was tired looking. Truth is Jeb’s awaken us the last three night’s around the hours of midnight and 4 am. I have no idea if the drug is prformance related, side effects didn't sound good, it's a six day program descending from six pills each day down to one.
Training: am,68,sun,52:01, 8 miles at 6:30 pace

Why Are You Still Running?

Was the question from a young boy meandering past the running track. A rain shower had just arrived on my second loop of a two miler. The boy’s Mom and his younger brother were making the long trek from the playground to home with the pattering drops speckling the synthetic surface. Next lap, “Do you race here?” By the third, they made it to the end where the pool was more interesting. Ran two miles on the Lexington Track at 6:00/mile at 159 AHR.

Wednesday was a belated run in the afternoon squeezed in prompting a faster pace. Ten miles at a 7:15\mile with stroller on Willow Guzzle.

This morning’s plan was 2x Morse Road with stroller. Despite cooler weather the legs felt stiff for the first couple of miles. With a warm up the pace progressed down around 7:40\mile. The effort was 50:15 for 10K. Too slow and it wasn’t feeling comfortable so I pulled the plug.

Hopefully later today will bring different results, for now I have to deal with this rash of poison ivy. On a side note, looks like the pollen has finally ran its course.

Cushioned Downhill Ride

The title brings out a nice aspect of my new Asics Gel 2120 running shoes replacing the NB 767s. As evident in yesterday’s shoe trial, five pairs, a bit of muscle tightness sealed my fate in running doubles.

Interesting note from the Emerson Hospital 5K Race is the second Master was actually a female!This race was much more competitive for the Masters Women as my closest Master was 19:54.

AM Playground nine mile run today in an easy 8:08/mile pace with a gorgeous, I think the pollen is gone, sunny day. Time for the afternoon tea as I think these shoes will work well.

REPORT: Marathon- Conditioning Week Two

A lighter week with two notable events, first are the new training shoes and second a 5K race. The NB 767s felt fine for running from Tu-Fr but the right inner shin problem came back. I had to pull out of Saturday’s run because it felt wooden. It may have cleared itself after a warm-up but with a race the next day it wasn’t worth it.

Race morning brought nice sunny low 70 degree weather on a mostly flat course. On the w\u I stopped near the train bridge before South Bridge over the Concord River, to rub out the wooden right leg, B caught me. It felt like it would hold up, I was duly cautioned.

A 5:09 and then a 5:35 were the first two mile splits. About a half-mile a HS Track runner pulled up along side me to share the lead. I said to him “glad to see someone else up here”. I was looking to break 17:00 and would want company. Never looked at the watch.

I broke the course record (17:21) by ten seconds but came in second place. The kid ran a 16:53; good for him. My last 2K were a shuffle, I ran by feel for the whole race. Breathing was hard early on, but I told myself this is what 5Ks are all about, pain, and pain that is short lived. After the race I commented that I felt like I had lung burn, my lack of speed work? A new masters PR in 17:11 for a 5:32\mile pace. Eleven seconds short of goal.

Weekly Review
Total Miles: 60.70
Number of Workouts: 7
Stretching: fell off
Yoga: none
P\U, S\U: should try the abs of steel next week, again…
Notes: Right leg pain and 5K Race
Issues to Note: Return NB 767 shoes for Sauconys
Next Week Goal: Need to spend some time laying this out, will put on training log

Will be looking for another run this afternoon.

Hills, New Shoes

Monday we had a lot of rain coming from Tropical Storm Barry that led to an easy five miles on the treadmill while doing course work. Tuesday was another evaluation run of 2 x one mile; ran at 6:04 and 6:07 pace on the Belcher Hill loop. Wednesday was a stroller run out on the Willow Guzzle course. Later flirted with the notion of running the Devens 5K race that evening; it never resolved.

New shoes started on Tuesday. I changed out of them after five miles after left heel was rubbing. Later discovered a hole in the sock! This morning was 2 x Morse Road hills at a strong effort. It was nothing overly exhilarating just getting in some work.

I am hoping to run some doubles, but reserving some for Sunday’s 5K race. Today we learned of three good races in July to run on courses from the past. We will see.

REPORT: Marathon- Conditioning

Surprisingly I broke 80 miles this week without feeling worn out. The pace was tempered for most of the runs to develop muscle conditioning through volume rather than intensity. I am going to let the miles land where they do while feeling comfortable with the time exerted. Concentrated efforts will be primarily on three to four workouts each week, alternating weekly.

Weekly Review
Total Miles: 82.60
Number of Workouts: 9
Stretching: getting better
Yoga: one, it’s helping
P\U, S\U: should try the abs of steel next week
Notes: Good start back to Marathon training, 2400M Lactate Test
Issues to Note: Shoe shopping this afternoon
Next Week Goal: Check my running log for next week’s workouts. Emerson Hospital 5K Race in Concord on Sunday morning.

Training: am,cloudy,stroller 13.1 miles (half-marathon) at a 8:55\mile pace for almost two hours, walked 10,000 meters home from the Concord Starbucks.

Too Fast - 7 Mile Tempo

Out the door quick enough to forget my HR strap. I ran the Groton Road Race course, a 10K, as the first of the marathon tempo build efforts. Off the cuff, I was thinking to run a 6:30 pace.

A warmup from the Groton School put me about a half mile from the start, it’s a loop so I started the Garmin and took off. This is a nice rolling hill course set in an idyllic New England town, definitely one for the race schedule.

Long story short, I lost track of the course in the last mile and stopped the watch at seven miles for an average pace of 5:56.

I am thinking that monitoring a workout, without overdoing it can be done by: GPS, HR monitor, how do you feel, and mile markers for splits. Todays run, questioned the GPS pace, I felt fine but thought I was running too fast, no HR available, did not track the mile splits on the ground not to mention going off course.

Training: am, humid, 11.5 miles with 7.0 miles at a 5:56/mile pace

Easy Day – Assabet River Rail Trail (ARRT)

The turtles are out on the sandy patrol road leading through the reservation looking for egg laying sites. The bugs of all shapes and sizes are also there; next time I should bring a hat.

This was an easy run for 90 minutes on mostly flat, soft ground. After I got started I thought it may be best to try and maintain an AHR of 140. This went off pretty well with the exceptions of the hills, HR obviously goes up on the up hill and down on the down hill. Should one slow on the up and speed on the downhill? I’ve always gone on the impression that you would try and maintain an even effort and let the heart be what it is.

I passed an old lady on the ARRT who was in her car, lights on, binoculars in hand, head looking up. She is probably a birder checking for wildlife. In another 300 meters I come across a freshly smashed turtle. Do you think the old lady drove over the turtle while performing amateur ornithology?

Training: am,73,sun,ARRT, 12.5 miles in 90 minutes