Of Mice and Marathons

Day off. 25 days on. Unless I get anxious later and go out for a shorty.

AM: Flourtown Tempo Loop - 14 miles, averaged 7:38 w/ 8-mile MP tempo

Warmed up 3 slowly and my face was already covered in sweat. Temp spanned 70-80 degrees and the humidity went from 90-75%. Needless to say, I just wanted to get in my 8 miles at roughly the correct effort and not try to hit 6:20-6:30 because that is what MP usually is.

It took a bit to swallow my pride for my slowest 8 mile tempo in probably 2.5 years and I felt like pulling it pretty much every mile and during every mile I would tell myself to shut up and just maintain; you still get the stimulus by running at the correct effort. Fall is coming, just not today and probably not next week.

8 miles in 53:53

6:44, 6:47, 6:46, 6:47, 6:41, 6:43, 6:44, 6:41 (6:44 average)

The sock liner on my Rides folded around tempo mile 4, which was a pleasant feeling for the next 4 miles. Need to glue it in or chuck the liners.

PM: 5 miles. Felt good. Stride felt smooth and running felt effortless

AM: 7.25 miles.

PM: 5 miles.

+ stretching and core (late)

AM: 8.5 miles. Did a bunch of strides in the middle. One faster mile downhill ~6:30 pace.

PM: 5 miles.

+ light stretching (late)

AM/Lunch: 8 miles.

PM: 5 miles with Megan.

AM: 20 miles, averaged 7:34 w/ 8-mile AT tempo in 51:32 (6:26 avg)

Hit the roads at a decent hour for me on the weekend (9:30) and even though it was cool at night it was still 70 out with dew point 63 and 70% humidity (which felt comfortable) and I knew it would warm up fast. Better than the last three long runs, but I'm still waiting for that fall air to kick in. I did end up running a solid workout. I was tired out the warmup, felt just ok for the first 3 miles, then really good for the next 3, then tired on the last two. My legs were fine and breathing solid. Just fatigued.

7 miles, then 8 miles @ AT, then 5 miles easy

6:34, 6:38, 6:28, 6:24, 6:22, 6:26, 6:24, 6:14 (6:26 avg)

Started to work out of the zone slightly in the last 1-1.25 miles. Legs had more to give, but my breathing was up even though it was still in control.

80 degrees w/ 42% humidity and 55 dew point when I finished. Nice but warm for running long still.

AM: 5.25 miles at a gentleman jogger's pace. RHR 44/45.

PM: Off.

Legs were heavy this morning but felt pretty good overall. Figured I would rest this afternoon and absorb yesterday's run. Absorbed a little food and beer for a department Labor Day party as well.

AM: 8.5 miles. RHR 44.

PM: 6 miles. Did 6 x 200 on the track in 37.3. Just tried to meet them and not kill them (Dad's golf driving advice).

+ Stetching and core (late). Need to get back into this routine. I was lazy last week but my schedule has really picked up

AM: 10.5 miles. Workout of 4-mile LT tempo 

Saw what the conditions were outside (77/87%/73 DP) and thought I would jump on the treadmill. Walked outside and it didn't feel bad but I knew it would get uncomfortable quickly. Still, I thought to myself plenty of guys on the blog (Matt and Drew in particular) are slogging through workouts, barely slowing down and in worse conditions; you need to as well.

So I headed toward the track for an 8k tempo, but knew with the sun was coming out I wouldn't make it through, so I warmed up to Forbidden Drive and exhanged some shade for some rolling hills. It worked out fine. 4 miles was plenty today even though I felt like I should have pushed to 5.

Mile 3 was my turnaround and it has a slight grade just before that. Wore my HR monitor because I was planning to be on the treadmill.

3.25 up/3.25 down

5:55 (165), 5:58 (173), 6:11 (175), 5:47 (177) (5:58 average; 172)

Heart rate was fairly low overall. I'd like to get 5 miles in the low-5:40 range when it cools off and I get fitter. My best tempo last fall was 5 miles @ 5:48 average.

PM: 4 miles. Felt much better than I did around lunch time.

About an hour after I got home from my morning workout my GI gave me a serious thrashing. I felt ill, almost post-Boston ill but not quite. Layed on my side, extremely painful cramps. In and out of the bathroom. Took an Immodium. Either it or something else made me start to vomit. A fun morning wondering if when I got to my afternoon class if I would have to excuse myself. I stopped to get gas and drank a diet Pepsi and that straightened me out. That's what I did after Boston too. It has a strange effect on heat exhaustion.

AM: 7 miles.

PM: 6.25 miles.

Megan and I went to a happy hour for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. I had two beers, which I was not going to do but they were free and there's a moratorium on alcohol for faculty events due to budgetary contraints from now on. So you can't really say no to these things. I had some brie and blue cheese and some other assorted snacks. Managed to run fine. It was cooler and rainy but still perfect shirtless weather.

+ Stretching (very late)

Lunch/PM: 14 miles easy w/ 1 mile hard @ 5:34

Did the pickup mile around mile 10. Breathing was pretty good, but my legs just didn't want to turn over. That's what happens when you run 8:30-8:15 pace then try to drop 3 minutes+ per mile. I did another faster mile around 6:20-6:30 coasting downhill at the end.

I woke up this morning when Megan's alarm went off and thought I should get up even though I don't have to be anywhere. I forced myself back to sleep and woke up 2.5 hours later. I needed it. The last two nights I have been painfully tired.

PM: 4.5 miles easy

AM: 7.25 miles. Did some strides.

PM: 5.25 miles. Almost got smoked by a car that was paying too much attention ahead of it and not to where it was turning. #thatwasclose

+ rolling, stretching, and core 

PM: 18 miles steady, averaged 7:08 or ~87% of goal marathon pace (6:13)

Plan was to do 18 miles easy, whatever that pace happened to be given that I have done 20 milers the last 3 weeks. Weather was cool at 73 and overcast.

I got moving up Germantown Ave and hit 8:00 for the first mile, which is pretty good considering 8:45 flat is my usual (often 9:00-9:30) so uphill this was decent. Weaved in around all the people out on a Sunday (bad time to do long runs). Decided to keep an honest effort for as long as I could handle. From about mile 5 until I came back up the hill I was running 7:00 flat to 6:40 with one 6:33 thrown in there.

I think this was the right effort for the day. I don't know. Basically 2 hours at a pretty honest pace.

AM: 7.25 miles SLOW. HR 117.

Definitely earned the 10-minute miles today from yesterday. My legs were very heavy, so I just shuffled, which felt nice. Cool and breezy. Very fall-like conditions. Should be nice and comfy for the midweek workout. I'm doing an 8-9 mile AT wave tempo.

PM: 5 miles slow. HR 121.

AM: 7.5 miles. Did some strides. HR was off. Not sure why I didn't ditch it last time.

A little tired today but legs felt a lot less heavy. Should be ready for a workout tomorrow.

PM: 5 miles moderatish.

Felt like I was flying but only ran 7:40 pace, but I cut down from 8:45 to just below 7. That rarely happens. I guess the nice, warm and dry fall air had me feeling froggy.

+ rolling, stretching, and core (late)

AM: Flourtown Tempo Loop - 14.5 miles, averaged 7:24

Workout was an 8-mile AT wave tempo, given as 4-5% slower than AT and 3-4% faster, which worked out to about 6:32-6:35 and 6:02-6:07 or there about alternating miles. AT was based off my 10k time from August where AT = 6:17.

The workout went well even though it was quite hard. I expected as much because I usually do alternating ks at HMP/MP for 10k for my 10 day out marathon workout. I had to concentrate and my legs did not want to move. I didn't notice a ton of difference effort-wise between fast and slow in terms of breathing but I definitely had to get my arms moving, get my knees up, etc. The last two miles I was starting to accumulate some lactic acid, so I think my effort was about right.

Averaged just under 6:20 for the 8 miles (6:30.5 for slow/6:08.5 for fast)

6:40, 6:10, 6:29, 6:08, 6:26, 6:07, 6:27, 6:09

3.4 up/3.1 down

PM: Off. Trying to make this a cutback week given the week before last really wasn't.

+ rolling, stretching, light core (late)

AM: 6.25 miles slow.

PM: 7.5 miles. Felt great.

+ rolling, stretching, and core (very late)

Lunch: 13.25 miles. Did a mile hard on the track at mile 11 in 5:26. Did 4 x 100 hard strides on the way home.

Didn't get out until just before noon. It was a very rough morning. The run helped a good bit though.

PM: off. Cutting mileage back this week.

PM: 5 miles. Did some strides.

That's it for today.

+ rolling, stretching, and core (very late)

AM/Lunch; Flourtown Tempo Loop - 20 miles, averaged 7:14

Big Workout: 5 up, 10 mile tempo, 5 down

10 mile tempo in 62:05 (6:13 average pace)

Warmup was "fast" easy at ~7:45 pace, straight into the workout. They are back working on the tempo loop doing some street milling so there were some rough spots but no workers given that it is Sunday. Not much of an effort increase throughout the workout but I did start to get tired after 8 tempo miles. I was able to keep it rolling and could have dropped the pace if I needed to but wanted to keep things under control as I was already running ahead of plan. I checked my pace until the half mile mark then only checked individual splits when the autolap went off.

6:23, 6:24, 6:19, 6:16, 6:13, 6:12, 6:14, 6:10, 6:13, 6:08

5 miles pretty slow (8:45-8:00) with a good chuck back up the hill to Philadelphia. I am very pleased with this to say the least. Effort wasn't super easy but it was managable and I dropped the pace without too much change in effort and finished strong. I expected to run around 6:20-6:22 pace and be satisfied with that.

AM: 7.25 miles slow. Felt pretty good.

PM: 7.5 miles not quite as slow.

Had to add on a few miles for de-stressing. Managed to run my recovery pace and not get too charged up. Worked beautifully.

AM: Off. I was up until 2:00 working on course prep after doing online tutoring late last night. Decided I would sleep in this morning as I have been extremely tired, more tired than I've been in a long time. Mileage is a contributing factor, but I'm just not getting in a solid 8 hours, which I need whether I am running or not.

PM: 10.25 mile easy. Did some strides.

AM: 14 miles. Springside Track Workout. 6 x 1600 w/ 400 recovery jogs

I had an excellent workout today. I'm running a good deal faster than I ever have, which is good. I was going to do 25 x 400 @ ~10k pace but I'm just not sure about that workout. It sounds good for keeping the legs sharp but I am not sure it can tell me much about my LT. On the other hand, a set of mile repeats is a workout I've done in the past and it gives me a pretty good sense of what I can handle in a half marathon and for other workouts such as 4-5 mile tempos and 4 x 2 miles (which I will do in 2-3 weeks).

Warmed up 3.75 feeling just okay, did some strides on the straights, then went straight into the workout. Plan was 5:46-5:36. I ended up running the following splits

5:40, 5:37, 5:37, 5:38, 5:38, 5:35 (Averaged 5:37)

My watch got caught in the net with 300 to go on the last one, splitting the lap but I managed to think to just keep going and split at the 1600 mark and add. I'm glad the net didn't snag my watch worse.

I ran the last two without checking my lap timer (much easier to do on the track than the tempo loop).

Cooled down 3 miles slow.

PM: 4 miles.

AM: 5 miles slow. Feel tired but good.

PM: 7.25 miles easy. Had a Sasha-approved nap this afternoon. I haven't been getting in my naps during the week.

+ rolling, stretching, and core (very late).

Need to fit these sessions in earlier. As September has got crazy I just haven't been able to fit in my auxillary stuff. Usually I say that and I'm lazy about it but I've been going to one campus to the next, tutoring online late in the evening (or early morning), grading and prepping for teaching, and trying to get the last chapter of my dissertation written. Job market stuff is rolling in to. That's an impossible endeavor. Running is going extremely well and my more rigid schedule is to thank for that. Some mornings and most evenings I can barely see I'm so tired though.

Lunch/PM: 13.25 miles.

I pulled something in my back when I pulled my shirt off to weigh myself this morning. Mostly just stiff and uncomfortable. Did notice it running other than turning to look for traffic.

Did a mile pickup on Forbidden Drive in 6:27. The GPS was hindered by the tree cover. Did a fast downhill mile in 5:42 through traffic, over sidewalks, and on cobblestones. Not the safest idea but I survived.

Just kind of a blah run. Should have just slowed down and enjoyed it. Not that most of it was that fast but I woke up pretty tired still even though I got a good night sleep. Need more good nights' sleep in a row.

Lunch/PM: 8.5 miles. Did some strides.

My breathing on the recovery was very labored for running 5:10-5:00 pace for 35-40 seconds at a time. Probably #ipaphlemn. Not so much out of breath as not getting the normal volume of oxygen (if that makes any sense)

Back felt stiff in the night and this morning but it's fine to run (as near as I can tell) and it's loosening up now. I can still knock out my pushups, so it's fine. Running with Megan this afternoon. We only have 5 miles together for the month of September. I think we will get more this fall with the cooler weather.

PM: 5 miles with Megan.

AM/Lunch: Flourtown Tempo Loop - 22 miles, averaged 7:08

4-3-2-1 Workout (The "Easy" Version)

Decided I didn't want to run 23 miles today at 7:00-7:30 pace so I decided to do an the "easy" version of the 4-3-2-1 to get some volume with a sensible dose of quality while taking long enough recoveries to get the volume up but also decrease my recovery time between this workout and the next. Good thing. I could not have run the harder version of the workout with recoveries denoted in minutes corresponding to the number in the set (4 minutes after the 4 mile set, 3 minutes after the 3 mile set, etc)

6 miles easy: 8:47, 7:57, 7:46, 7:40, 7:36, 7:53

4 miles (avg. 6:25): 6:32, 6:28, 6:22, 6:16

1 mile @ 7:11

3 miles @ MGP (avg. 6:14): 6:12, 6:18, 6:12

1 mile @ 7:25

2 miles sub-AT (avg. 6:07): 6:06, 6:08

1 mile @ 7:57 (getting tired)

1 mile @ 5:49

3 mile cool down with a lot of uphill: 8:15, 8:24, 7:54

The first set felt comfortable but the start was somewhat slow. Decided to work into it. The workout was harder than I thought today but I had a little wind, I am tired, and my mileage is up about 7-10 miles per week over most buildups.

Oh, and I hit the 3000-mile mark! Historically, I have hit it on October 20 (last year) and October 11 (in 2013).

I'm fine with today's workout. I should put this down as a positive even though I wasn't overly pleased. I wish it felt easier even though it wasn't super hard until the last mile. My back is very stiff from compensating for the pulled muscle or whatever it was so I am trying to find my heating pad to work on that.

PM: Megan and I went for a walk. It was nice to walk through the neighborhood. A little over 3 miles. I'll try to make this a habit.

Lunch: 7.25 miles.

PM: off. No time. Just can't get it all in. Back is stiff compounded no doubt by stress and tension in my shoulers. Not sure what I'll be able to get in tomorrow morning. Depends on how late I am up tonight and whether I decide I need more sleep more than a morning run.

AM: 5.25 miles. A few really light strides just to get the knees up and the hips stretched out. 

+ light stretching

Back/neck still a bit funky. Loosened up the muscles a bit by having Megan walk on me. My problem is the base of the neck/top of the back. If I could afford it I'd have a chiropractor throw me around a bit. 

PM: 7.25 miles. Did some strides. Nasty humid and soggy. Clouds no help.

AM: Treadmill - 8.5 miles.  Did a short, moderate progression. (RHR 39)

10 minutes @ 8; 10 minutes @ 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3; 10 minutes @ 7.5 (my stomach was on the threshold of revolt)

Got quite a bit of sleep last night but could have slept all day. Did this run on the treadmill for a change of pace and the humidity and dew point is not something I feel like dealing with at the end of September. Skipped my actual workout today and move it to Friday depending on how I feel and how my easy runs go. Back is still tweaked but it feels fine. Mostly just annoying.

PM: 5 miles. Got dinner on the table for Megan and then headed out for some cool, rainy headlamp miles. 

This marks a month mileage PR by about 18 miles I think. Definitely my first 400 mile month.