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Week starting May 24, 2015

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Location:

St. Petersburg,FL,

Member Since:

Dec 30, 2014

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

  • 5k - 3/8/14 - Armadillo Run - 15:58
  • 10k - 2/7/15 - BDR, Safety Harbor - 33:17
  • 15k - 2/21/15 - Gasparilla - 51:05
  • 1/2 - 12/14/14 - Holiday Halfathon - 1:13:31
  • Marathon - 10/04/15 - Twin Cities - 2:38:46

Short-Term Running Goals:

2016 Races

Clearwater Halfathon - Jan 11
Donna Hicken Marathon - Feb 14
Gasparilla 15k - Feb 20
Florida Beach Halfathon - Mar 6
??? Chicago Marathon ???

Long-Term Running Goals:

Find balance. Run with my girls. Break 15 in the 5k.

Personal:

Born in 1973 in Southern California.

Ran in high school for Arcadia. They have a famous cross-country team now. In my day, we were famous for dodging our coach during runs.

Over the next 15 years I ran very little, but life was awesome. I lived mostly in Northern California, where I met my wife. We moved back to her native state of Florida in 2005, where I gradually started running more seriously.

 

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
100.0010.000.000.00110.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
24.000.000.000.0024.00

AM: 24 miles, 6:50 average. Good run overall today, although Richie and I got into it about halfway through, and that cast a shadow.

Richie and Mike G. sometimes meet our Sunday group about 10 miles in. They're both strong runners, so their presence always helps. I told Richie this morning that I was training seriously for TCM, and he renewed his recommendation that I begin receiving online coaching from a friend of his, who runs a prominent American development program based on Canova workouts.

I like Richie very, very much, probably more than he likes me. Our relationship has never been terribly easy though. He bills himself as a New Yorker, and he is loud, brassy and domineering. Underneath that exterior though, is a sensitive guy who needs a very delicate balance of factors to feel validated. This isn't an ideal match for me. I rarely raise my voice, and am generally cordial- but my cool reserve goes deep, and when I argue with people I don't feel anything. It's easy for me to insult people. Not intentionally, and I've gotten better with age, but I have some disconnects.

What really enraged him today is that I told him I didn't need coaching. I know that sounds arrogant, it probably is. I'm not deluded though. Meb is a couple years younger than me, and can run a marathon 30 minutes faster. I wasn't trying to say I am a great runner. I was trying to say I know the path I need to walk.

Like many debates, be they politics, religion, or even running, one conversation often covers another. I tried pointing out to Richie, as he grew increasingly agitated, that we were really debating whether magic workouts exist. For Richie, they absolutely do. He attributes much of his success at Boston to "special blocks", in which you do a hard workout in the morning and another that evening. The theory being that your body is low on fuel reserves, and ..... (fill in scientific mumbo jumbo here) .... and adaptations occur. In seriousness though, I am sure that workout is great for Canova's Kenyan elites, but for a 41 year old father and full-time employee, I feel strongly that the risk of that approach is greater than the reward. As I've mentioned recently, I get injured most when stacking quality too close together, and the higher the mileage, the more caution is needed.

We do have a fundamental disagreement. I don't think there are gatekeepers, or keys, or special workouts. It's not so much that I have the answer- I don't think there's a real question. I think running a good marathon requires a boring, plodding base phase. Then at some point, a few months out, you transition to specific sessions - steady-state runs a bit above and below race pace, wave tempos - most of the things Canova advocates, actually.

And if there is one secret weapon to running, it is consistency. Richie says I'm a narrow minded computer programmer, and X+Y doesn't always = Z. Amusingly, my wife says the same thing. I am narrow minded, and pattern driven. But I still think I'm right. I have to feel that part of Richie's attraction to special workouts can be attributed to his aversion to structured training, which is an extension of his free spirit. His free spirit is one of the things that makes him special. I do think you need to run every day, though, if you want to maximize your potential.

I thought it was an interesting discussion, but Richie was out of sorts. I told him I'd keep tickling him until he got over his mood. Being from California, it's OK for me to do things like that.

Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
21.000.000.000.0021.00

AM: 6 miles solo, then 6 to the park with the family.

PM: 9 miles.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
20.000.000.000.0020.00

AM: 10 miles. We're closing on our house today. I have some nerves, but big picture it will be a great place for our girls to grow up. Yesterday, I found an old DVD of the Smurfs while boxing things up. In the evening, we watched the episode about the Smurf zombie apocalypse. One of the Smurfs gets bitten by a purple bug that turns him into a snarling, hopping rabid Smurf with the sole thought of biting another Smurf's tail (thereby transmitting the plague). We laughed about it, but at bedtime Anna was terrified, and for the first time in ages went to sleep in our bed. There was also a theatrical lightning storm outside.

PM: 10 miles at track. Workout was 5x300, 3 sets, 100 rest between items, 500 between sets.

With temp in the low 90s and dew point in the low 70s, this was more about survival than splits. Averaged 55.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.000.000.000.002.00

AM: 2 miles. The universe wants me to do other things than run today, but we'll see.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
20.000.000.000.0020.00

AM: 10 miles, just easy running on the bridge.

PM: 10 miles at lunch with Quint, new route.

I've had a kind of subterranean fatigue circling around me recently, but the walls came crashing in yesterday. It was probably a good thing I had no time to run. I felt like a ghost dragging chains around. Right before the crash though, I had the first glimmers that the recent excessive mileage was starting to click.

Work has been light over the last few weeks, which has allowed me to train my head off. Things are picking back up, so the challenge will be to stay employed and train my head off.

I signed up for a 5k on Father’s Day, partly to mark the transition into specific marathon training, partly because I could get permission.

Tomorrow, the forecast predicts a morning dew point around 65, which probably won’t happen again for 4 months. I’m planning a 10 mile MP tempo, which I would normally do every 2-3 weeks during specific phase. Usually the dew point is pegged out at 75 or worse from June through September, which will make that workout much harder than it should be.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
13.0010.000.000.0023.00

AM: 15 miles, 10 mile MP tempo in 58:56, 5:54 avg. Splits:

  1. 5:53
  2. 5:57
  3. 5:51
  4. 5:56
  5. 5:53
  6. 5:51
  7. 5:55
  8. 5:55
  9. 5:56
  10. 5:48

Best running weather I can recall for FL at the end of May. Wish I could say I felt strong today, but it was a grind the whole way. Pace felt about right for where I am in my training. Mentally and physically just exhausted though.

Glad to get my first official TCM workout on the books. It's a good sign to run this workout 4 months out.

PM: 8 miles at lunch with Quint, both of us dragging.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

0 miles, but I moved today. That was a lot of exercise.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
100.0010.000.000.00110.00
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