Monday, November 11, 2013

November 4-10: But, Why All That Running?



Don’t you hate it when bloggers say “some of my readers have been asking about X?” when everybody knows that nobody, no, nobody, is asking them for advice?

Yeah, me, too.

However, I have, honestly, been getting questions about what on earth I’m training for now that I finished Ironman Mont Tremblant and got the business of qualifying for 2014 Age Group Nationals out of the way. Why am I not sitting on my butt nonstop?

Well, for one thing, that would be boring.

For another, I’m entered in one half ironman in early April (Galveston) and another in early June (Eagleman). While I don’t need to be training that hard YET, I do need to be consistent and working on my weaknesses – such as my running speed - before the intense training starts.

To help address that, I entered a half marathon in Annapolis on November 23, which is enough motivation to get the work done, yet not big enough to take over my life. Just about perfect.

In preparation for that, I’ve been doing long runs, and getting back into road racing to get a handle on my fitness and get more experience actually racing. A couple of 8ks in the last few eeks didn’t go so well, and I was sitting 2 weeks out from race day with quite a bit of self-doubt, so I did the totally responsible and reasonable thing and registered for a 10k without telling anybody – not even my coach.

Yeah, well…look, I broke 50 minutes in that 10k, so she can’t be THAT mad at me. Yet another 2013 goal out of the way!

It helped restore my confidence in my running ability, even if the elevation profile was as non-intimidating as they come.



God bless you, Hains Point, in all your flat, windy goodness.



Monday: Morning spin on the bike trainer, 60 minutes including 2x10 minutes at tempo effort. 4 easy miles of running in the evening.

Tuesday: 3 miles of easy running and 25 minutes of strength training in the morning, 4100 yards of swimming with DCRP masters in the evening, with 16x100 descending down to 4 at 1:20. 12 miles of bike commuting for extra fun.

Wednesday: A 6-ish mile lunchtime run, with 2 miles at marathon pace (8:33), one mile building to threshold (8:15, into the wind, just my luck), 2x400 (1:53-1:51). Plus 9 miles of bike commuting.

Thursday: A pretty light day – just 25 minutes of strength training and 9 miles of bike commuting. I meant to go to masters practice, but a work meeting ran late, so I pushed the extra swim to the weekend.

Friday: A confidence-boosting 13 miles of running before work, averaging 9:13 pace. The easiest way to swing this was to take the very first train into the office and run from there, which had me running into our CEO in the lobby at 5:40 am. So if he didn’t think I was insane before, he knows now.

Saturday: 3800 meters of swimming with DCRP Masters.

Sunday: A 10k race in 49:30 (sub 50! 7:58 pace!), plus 2 miles of warm up and cool down. A 3000 meter swim and 50 minutes on the bike trainer to recover.


17 comments:

  1. Congrats on the 10K! I also post to note with some amusement that you ran much more than I did last week. And I swam much more than you did. I think this is the end times.

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    1. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's right after the 4 horsemen...

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  2. Now that is the elevation profile that dreams are made of!

    Well done for breaking 50 minutes :) Do you have any time goals for the half, or are those top secret for the moment?

    xxx

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    1. It's not super-top-secret - in late September, I said I wanted to work for sub-1:45. After a few races and looking at my training the past 6 weeks, I don't think that's realistic for November 23, so I'm probably shooting for sub-1:50 and will just see how far under that I can manage.

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  3. I started reading your blog a few weeks ago, I found it by searching for ironman Louisville tips. Thanks for posting your weekly training!

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  4. Congrats on the 10K! I'm trying for a decent half-marathon time in January. My 10-mile Sunday run was quite painful, so my confidence took a bit of a hit - oh well!

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  5. I'm happy your broke 50 minutes. That is a serious accomplishment and I hope Annapolis goes well.

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  6. Here's an actual question for advice - How do you make yourself get up in the morning to run 13 miles BEFORE work?

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    1. Put on your running clothes the second you wake up and go outside before you even know what is going on. That way, you can't talk yourself out of it.

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  7. Congrats!! Is that the Run for the Parks 10k on Hains Point? That's my favoritest 10k ever...and also my PR. :)

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    1. It was the Veteran's Day 10k - same course, though.

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  8. YEAH, sub-50. Also, your CEO was ALSO in the lobby at 5:40 am, so sounds like there are at least two crazies in that story.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. He loves working and hates traffic. So the 5 am commute slot works, I guess? He's pretty awesome, he was all energetic and stuff at 5:40 am.

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    3. Ha, that's awesome! Morning people baffle me.

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  9. SOME OF MY TEAMMATES ARE DOING EAGLEMAN!! I'll have to solidify my sherpa schedule ASAP.

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