Ive been thinking about what my marathon goal pace should be. Its definitely somewhere between 6:25 and 6:50. My 5k and 5 mile times this season suggest a 6:25, but that just doesn't seem doable at this point. Anyway, Ive come to the conclusion that sub 3 should be a given, and sub 2:55 should be my primary goal. And I realized that 6.66min/mile =2:54:30 and, since 666 is the devils number, lol, 6.66 should be the devils pace which just sounds cool.
I have also been thinking that maybe I should take at least 1 mile in every easy run and do it at marathon pace. So I started today with a stretch of dirt trail that I know is 1.65 miles. I went a bit too fast because I didn't have any splits along the way. I ended up going just under 6:30 pace. Oh well, it felt pretty good and was a good way to split up the run.
I am also thinking about starting to detail my eating habits here in support of my effort to lose weight and run faster.
Breakfast: bowl of yogurt + granola ~ 500 calories
Lunch: bowl of mixed peppers + spagetti sauce = 300 cal + milk=100 cal + bowl of cereal = 300-400 cal total: 800 cal. Eating healthy stuff like the peppers and sauce can make you full but leave you hungry (for carbs most likely). So after I ate the cereal I was satisfied, but almost over full and felt bad about it. But given my run today as long as my dinner is reasonable I should still have a healthy calorie deficit.
Dinner: 2 bowls peppers + spagetti sauce = 500 cal + milk 150 cal + some yogurt 200 cal = 850
Total calories for the day: 500+800+850=2150 not bad considering 8 miles and core work
Another workout missed. My training parter and I both were sore from plyometrics after sunday's workout. It was my fault this time as the plyometrics were my idea. We are gonna do the workout tomorrow--4x5x400 @ vo2max with 100m recovery between 400s and 400m recovery between sets. Its best to do the workout pretty fresh to get the best benefit. Otherwise we would have to race to hit the times.
So instead I did 8 miles easy with a 1.65 mile pickup to marathon pace (6:35) which was the only part of the run that felt good. The rest was blah because I was alone, it was dreary, I had missed my workout, and taken a test this morning. I almost always feel bad after an exam in med school because I have parred down my life to just studying and running. Losing half of your life every 2-3 weeks for a day or two is not fun. And since running can easily (for me) be overdone, I can't just spend all of my time running when studying isn't an option. Its not that I like studying, but it gives me a sense of accomplishment and because I need to do so much of it, I have structured my life such that it is my only option a lot of the time. At least this exam was very straight forward. The questions I knew I knew for sure, and the ones I didn't I had no clue so I just guessed.
Gonna go for another run with the hash hound harriers tonight and have a few beers as well. I will add those miles after they happen (presuming mileage is like presuming race times, its bad luck).
Edit: Its always difficult to tell, but I ran at least 4 miles with the HHH, probably more. Unfortunately I drank too much and overate yesterday.
4x5x400m @ 80s with 100m recovery between 400s and 400m recovery between sets.
It felt great. This is my favorite workout. I always feel like a total beast afterwards. I paced it perfectly. First set avged 80.5 second and third set were right at 80 or slightly under and the last set avged 79.5 with a 76 last 400 because it always feels good when its over.
I am glad I waited till I was ready for this workout. The confidence it gives is necessary.
food: breakfast 500 cal, lunch 800 cal, dinner 900 total = 2300 not too bad
I think that I am gonna cut out cereal and instead eat canned fruit with milk. Its just as tasty and has fewer calories. Not stopping yogurt either, but might do it with fruit instead of granola as much as I can for the same reason.
8 easy in the morn. Why is it that every morning run is slower than every afternoon run? You would think that after 45 min of running you would wake up and run the last 2 miles faster? But no, steady 7:50-8min pace. Its not that I want to run fast for my easy runs, but I just like it when 7:30 pace is so easy I wouldn't think of going slower. In the morning 8 min pace can feel bad (but so does 10 min pace, or anything more than walking, so 8 min pace is a compromise where any faster would just feel worse).
Short day of classes so about to go out for 20 miles of rollerblading. I don't really know the conversion between rollerblading and running in terms of crosstraining miles, but I probably just wont count it. It takes at least 1.5 hours to do 20 on rollerblades for me, but the intensity is even lower than easy running. I am into specificity of training. So this isn't training except for the fat burned. And I'm coaching some people through a speed workout later and will probably run easy on the grass inside the track while they are going at it. Hopefully I'll get another 6 miles and catch up with Dr. bedoukian (training partner) on mileage for the week.
Got that 6 miles I wanted. Just ran in the grass inside the track while coaching a friend through a speed workout.
Almost got beaten up in my PM run today. I was only 4 blocks from my apt when a car stopped next to me and asked me for directions. I started giving them the directions and one of them jumped out of the car-AT me. I took off running and he jumped back in the car and the chased me. I made the first turn possible and they also did, then I turned down an alley (sounds stupid, eh?) but luckily right at the moment they caught up to me and one tried jumping out again but they were still moving so he only got as far as opening the door and yelling at me. At that point they were past the turn and could not follow me. I then booked it home the last 2 blocks. I don't really know why they chased me. If they wanted to mug me they would have been disappointed as all i had were my keys. What I actually think is that they saw this little 'rich' white guy running by himself and wanted to have some fun--aka beat me up and teach me a lesson for being a 'rich white boy'. This might sound racist, but not only have I seen it happen before, it happened to me fairly regularly in middle school.
Why isnt there a repeat or speed section to this blog? Oh well. 14x200 @ 32 w/200 recovery. Pretty fast for me. This is my least favorite workout. But it comes from lydiard believe it or not. He thought that in order to fully peak for a middle distance event you should do a boatload of anaerobic work in the last 3-4 weeks before the race. This differs from daniels in that daniels says you should do your speed work with as much rest as you need to feel fresh for the next one. If anyone has experience with which one is better please comment.
Who knows if it helps, but it will strengthen my legs if nothing else. It would make sense that it would help with the kick in the last lap of the mile.
Gonna get another 3-4 mile shake out tonight even though I don't need the mileage. It just feels right after that workout. Edit: went out for 3 but did 5 cause i felt so good.
Stress, recover, repeat has become the basic method to my training. I have seen a lot of return from that this semester and hopefully the improvement continues. I guess the devil lies in the details thought. The key is what kind of stresses and how much recovery.
I thought that bedoukian had more miles than me this week, but really he just counts his week from saturday to friday. Take that Matt! Damn, now he is gonna go run 5 and overtake me...
On the trails. Trail race tomorrow. Have to get up at 5:45. Not really sure why I do this. Its not that I am thinking of not doing it, I just don't know why I do it.
