Monday, December 19, 2011

Week Ending December 18th 2011 (Week 8 of 12)

This past week was a mixed bag with regard to training. Started out slowly but then as the went on it got better and better until Saturday when I thought this is more like it. Only for something in my bad leg to get sore. After having Achilles tendinitis you tend to be a bit of a wuss and watch for the first signs of trouble.

Monday - 55 minutes easy running. Very easy after Sunday's mega run
Tuesday - 55 minute run with 11x1 minute on and 1 minute off. These are hard but enjoyable workouts.
Wednesday - 50 minute easy running as tomorrow is big run and a visit to the physio in the afternoon.
Thursday - 100 minutes 1:45 or 23K including 10x800 with 2:30 recovery. Since I don't have a track and don't like running at the Y on their T'mills (been asked to get off in the middle of a workout is not the greatest) I did these on my normal route home which included hills, slippy roads, traffic lights etc, etc. So these were more like 10x 3minutes felt good afterwards. Amazed at how much bringing drink with me changed the run from a week before.
Friday - Took the day off. As we had some important things to do.
Saturday - 85 minutes or 1:25 or 18.77K - This was the first progression type run of the build up 15-20K Tempo starting at normal running speed and then finishing at faster than race pace, well we blow the barn doors off that run!! Yeah Baby that's what I'm talking about!! I was hitting (according to the Garmin) sub3:20 per K pace at times with the last five K's at 10K pace. Felt great, until had to go to work and then I felt something around my left Achilles complain. It didn't seem to swell and its not sore so I'll be icing it over and cutting out both the speed and long runs for a couple of days to see if anything changes.
Sunday - Leg was feeling good still no swelling or soreness so I took it easy and ran on the Treadmill for about an hour. maximum speed was a whooping 7:5 minute miles.


Two more weeks of building up and then two weeks of sharpening/peaking and I'm done. Looking forward to it. now if my legs will hold up for a couple more weeks.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Week ending December 11th 2011 (Week 7 of 12)

This past week was not a good week for training. For the first couple of nights my son had a temperature, so was up a couple of times throughout those nights making sure that he was alright. Then Saturday night/Sunday morning he woke 3 or 4 time screaming and crying only to not remember it  later on Sunday.

Monday - 55 minutes easy running, which was interrupted a couple of times by people waving me down and asking directions. Did a 2 minute abs thing is it a workout when its that short? 2 minute ABS
Tuesday - 60 minute core routine followed by what was supposed to be a medium length run home. But ended up being a long run, not in terms of distance so much but more to do with how long it took me. According to my Garmin I was out there for a lot longer than this run has taken in the past. Maybe I was abducted by aliens as I seemed experience lost time.
Wednesday - Took the day off as I spent the morning in the Dentists office.  Three hours in the chair and then the rest of the day sucking coffee through a straw or breaking sandwich's done into bit sized chunks do I could eat them. Having your teeth crowned is not pleasant experience.
Thursday - 55 minutes easy running, as I was still feeling a little beat up after the dentist.
Friday - Took the day off. Woke up this morning feeling more tired than when I went to bed last night and then I let work catch up on me and so decided to take it easy.
Saturday - Today was supposed to be the workout I put off on Friday. Well it was a sufferfest right from the beginning. I ran on my treadmill for the first T'mill workout (non easy run) of this build up. 15 minute warm up and then it was supposed to be 3x2miles with 4 minutes recovery. Well I did the first repeat and realized that it wasn't happening halfway through the second repeat so I modified the workout and then did 3x15-18 minutes increasing the speed by.5 mph every minute until I got to the fastest speed I could handle for the last 4/5 minutes and finished the workout with a 15 minute cool down. I cracked doing this one and not even the Ironman coverage could do anything for me.
Sunday - Ran my longest run for some time with a couple of buddies. 36K through the river valley at the crack O dawn, wasn't feeling great for most of the run and kind've drifted off the pace on a few of the early hills. But the run was pretty good overall, it wasn't that cold (only -5) but the wind was blowing which made it feel colder than it was. My GU Chews froze in my jacket which made eating them a bit of a chore, not sure if I'd use them again. Gel's have never frozen on a run before. So this week is over and so I have to move onto thinking about next weeks training.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Week ending December 4th 2011

This past week was a pretty good week training wise. Monday was forced off day due to work commitments, but the rest of the week looked like this.

Monday - No Running or training of any kind
Tuesday - 2K swim at lunch time followed by a 23K run home. The run broke down to 30 minutes warm up and then 10K at tempo pace followed by 30 minutes cool down. The Tempo portion wasn't run at a pace that I normally run a tempo in but that was due more to the roads being covered with really slippery snow and the route I chose not being the flattest around. Aside from the speed I could see afterwards that I was working hard as my pulse was around what it is when running a marathon.
Wednesday - 55 minutes easy running, felt very good on this run and so may have gone a little faster than I was supposed but it was still around my easy run pace.
Thursday - 55 minutes with 10 times 1 minute on and 1 minute off. These Fartlek workouts always feel good. I was a little tired starting this one so I didn't have any speed expectations. Just ran as hard as I could for 1 minute 10 times.
Friday - 55 minutes easy running, felt tired for this one and thought that it was due to my being out a little later than normal the night before. The wind helped keep my pace under control as it made it feel colder than it actually was.
Saturday - Long run with fast finish. I was hoping to run the last 10K at marathon pace but that didn't happen. Someone ordered snow over night, not a huge snowfall but enough to cover the trails again making footing a little trickier as now those slick roads/trails had a fresh loose layer on top. My training partner and I ran about 14K before turned on the pace, we were working hard for the 10K and at one point I noticed that the heart rate was hovering around where it would be when running at 10K pace not marathon pace. So I decided after about 4K so slow it done a little, plus I was suffering pretty badly. I dropped down from my 10K pace to marathon pace and finished the segment in about the same time as I did on Tuesday. Pace per K didn't really reflect how hard the segment was but pulse rates where bang on. Total for the day was 27K.
Sunday - Will be my usual 55 minute run on the treadmill, I take my son swimming in the morning and Sunday's are my morning to lie in (as much as a 3yr old and a 6month old will allow you) so runs are usually when the little guys go down for a nap.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Twitter & an idea for a future blog post.

If anyone reads this they'll know I use Twitter a lot (far more than here anyway) and so I'll most likely post my daily training via Twitter and a weekly sum up here.


If you haven't seen them - the Training day video's that are posted on competitor.com are really interesting (if you ever wonder how the top Triathletes spend their days).I would love to do a training day with Niall type video - just have to convince someone to come out and shoot some footage while I'm training.......

December 2nd

Hey There,
I can't believe that its December already, time goes by fast without letting you know!!! I also can't believe that I haven't updated this thing since July when I ran the Canada Day race here in Edmonton. Is there any reason that I haven't been updating this thing? other than my own laziness? - No. Have I been injured  - No......no new injuries anyway. (I'll get back to that)


So what has happened between July and today? I hate to say it, but its either not very much or its so much that I couldn't fit it in one blog post without going on and on and on. So it's probably best if I summarize it into one or two paragraph's.


After the Canada race my training went pretty well, I ran the 10K event of the Edmonton marathon weekend and finished in a time that prior to having Achilles Tendinitis I would've looked at as a bad time, but I placed in the top ten overall and managed to get third in my age group so all in all it wasn't that bad. The finish time showed me that I was on my way back to the fitness I had previously.


A couple of weeks later I entered the Rotary for Life 10K looking to improve as this was the race that I had set as my goal race. Its amazing what three weeks of training and a cooler temperature can produce. It also reminded me that you shouldn't get caught up too much in races/workouts that don't go as well as you'd like while in the middle of training. Its the end result of that training block that counts.


I thought about doing some Cross Country through the fall but I could never quite make it to workouts and the first one that tried to get to didn't really inspire a lot of confidence in the group that I was hoping to run with. Nothing worse than rearranging your schedule and then have no one turn up. I kept training although at an easier pace to keep myself fit but the Plantar Fasciitis that has been bothering me for over two years (on and off) got a little worse than normal. So that put a stop to any race plans I had for the fall as I wanted to get that treated before my next race. It is now at a point where its just there, no worse no better. when I get treatment on it, its really good for a couple of days and then it starts to slide back to its normal condition.


So I took it easy from about mid September until the end of October when I decided that I would enter a marathon down in Phoenix in January. I'm six weeks into the training program which is one that I had gotten from McMillan Running for a marathon that I ran my fastest time back in the spring of 2010. I'll update the blog with entries for the next six weeks.


I also decided to take the plunge and go back to doing a couple of  Tri's in 2012!!!!! I've been thinking about this for some time now and seeing a couple of friends qualify for races like Xterra and 70.3 world Championships really helped seal the deal as it were. So I've entered the 70.3 scheduled for July 29th in Calgary. I start training for that race in February however all of my training has to be done at lunchtime or via commuting to work or if needed once the little ones are safely tucked into bed, but it also means that there are no six hour bike rides on the weekend and I have to do the race with whatever equipment I already have. The training for this race will also be run based meaning that I'm going to try and  run almost as much as I do now as I want to do a few running races such as the Timex series here in Alberta as well as a couple of half marathons before the triathlon.