Of Mice and Marathons

Purdue Co-Rec - 10 miles easy.

Ran into Brandon. I was telling him about the race. He's getting in good shape. Apparently he did a cutdown run the other day and was hitting 5:38 pace for the last few miles. There was a time last fall that I could keep up with him, but he is really getting his fitness back after a 2-year hiatus.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman died today. I rarely know who famous people who die are, and I am terrible with actors' names, but I greatly admired Hoffman.

Purdue Co-Rec - 8.5 miles easy w/ 4 x ~200m strides @ 12.2-12.5 MPH.  

Resting heart rate was a solid 40 this morning. That means the ticker is running about where it should be. 

Pre-bed: 40 minutes of stretching, core, rolling, and another 37 (25/12) pushups. 26 before the run.

AM: Icy Aerobic Builder - 15 miles, averaged 7:08 w/ 8-mile tempo in 51:22 (6:25 average)

6:36, 6:35, 6:28, 6:28, 6:24, 6:22, 6:18, 6:11; 3.5 up/down

Temp was 15 with just a touch of wind. I settled on this workout in place of a 4 x 8 minute @ LT pace once I saw the road conditions. Roads were solid ice for a few stretches, but my screw flats held up pretty well. Still had to slow down, but it probably helped me from going too fast. Going to be sore from using my dormant stabilizers though.

Very happy with this one. About 1.25 seconds slower per mile than my fastest 8-mile builder in October. Wasn't sure how things would go. I was thinking 5-6 @ 6:45-6:50 would be a good start since I haven't done any tempos since late October. Felt like I could have done 10-12 had I stayed at the pace I started at rather than cutting down the last 2 miles.

I'm scrapping my silly idea to run Sugarloaf ~3 weeks after Boston. No sense looking back now.

PM:  Purdue Co-Rec - 5 miles easy

Purdue Co-Rec - 9.25 miles. Did some strides as fast as the machine allows. 

Pre-bed: 18 minutes of stretching w/ hip and glute routine, changed the lanudry over, 30 minutes of core.

Forgot to add that I did a decent amount of shoveling this morning. Did the neighbor's sidewalk area and driveway then did mine. Keep the effort honest. Then I built a very small tunnel in a snow bank I piled up.

Purdue Co-Rec - 16.5 miles in ~2:15 (8:13 pace).

25 pushups before, 25 after.

Hoping that when the roads clear out that I will be much faster than on the treadmill. Recent experience suggests that I will be. For now it's about keeping the heartrate reasonable and putting in the time on my feet.

Very pleased with how my fitness has improved over the last two weeks. Decent race on Saturday, strong builder on Tuesday, and three weeks getting the mileage back up to 75-80. No 100 mile weeks planned this buildup. Maybe two weeks at 90-95 with consistent 75-85 mile weeks.

Purdue Co-Rec - 8.25 miles easy. Did some strides. 

4:50 is a number I like to see on my Garmin not my alarm clock. Off to Philly for the weekend. I should probably always be at the gym at 6:00 AM but I never want to go to be at night. 

Megan's Complex Gym - 9.1 miles in just over an hour.

2 easy

5-mile tempo in 29:29 (10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.3+) HR 172 average. Hitting 177-180 toward the end. Effort felt right, not sure about HR. But I had to concentrate in the last 2 miles and stay relaxed in the first few.

2.1 easy

I did this workout back in August on the same treadmill and ran 30:xx 4-5 weeks before Philly. It was 65 degrees in the gym and and I had Megan next to me so that helped.