Of Mice and Marathons

Spending time with Megan before leaving. 22 days on and back at 80 miles with 15% quality. As good a time for a day off as any. Might not be many more.

Megan's Complex Gym - 10 miles steady w/ 2 miles at 9.5. Lost my data but most of the run was 160-170 BPM.

Fought the 4.5 mph cool down feature the last 10 minutes to get my 70 minutes in.

Flight delays for 4 hours or so then canceled flight last night. I'm flexible so I was only mad I wasn't back here to spend time with Megan sooner.

I've learned a few things about living here. 1) The water pitcher is insufficient. I've been drinking around 150+ oz a day and I keep 2 gallon pitchers running most of the time 2) the max 10.9 mph governed treadmills just aren't going to work.

Purdue Co-Rec - 9.5 miles. Did 3 x 200. Was pretty gassed on the last one and skipped the fourth.

Still a bit of calf soreness from Saturday. Weather is cold (-14 this morning) and sidewalks are buried in places. Need to get 20 in this weekend, and I'm thinking a long warm up and cool down with a tempo might be the ticket so I can work the tempo loop without getting hit by idiot Lafayette drivers. A "Lafayette 'Canyon'" long run tempo might be a possibility as I'm sure 231 is in decent shape (or will be by Saturday).

Evening: 35 minutes of stretching, rolling, and core. Moved the side and front planks up to 2 minutes each.

Purdue Co-Rec - 9 miles easy, then headed up stairs to do 6 x Atrium Strides (1.25 miles total).

Just a watch click under 30 seconds (4:46 pace) on 170 meter track with slow people on the inside (as it turns out you really should run the outside given the short, unbanked setup if you are running fast). Around 64 second lap recovery. Didn't feel like I had any energy but this was good. Felt controlled despite the tight corners, but I can run faster (and safer) than the treadmill. 

Purdue had the briliant idea to build two tracks (9.5 laps to a mile and 10.25 laps to a mile). As Brandon pointed out they should have just built an 8th mile like everyone else.

Evening: 20 minutes of stretching and rolling. Another 25 pushups.

AM: LT Repeats: 2 x 2.5 miles. 2.25 mile warmup on the treadmill, then headed upstairs to do a few quick stretches then settled into the 55 lap workout. Goal was ~38 seconds per lap or 6:02 pace for 20-30 minutes or 4 x 1.25 miles if I wasn't feeling it. I could have done 20-25 but I settled into 2 x 2.5 and the effort was hard but doable. My legs have been sore from last Saturday so I was tempted to skip, but I went ahead and it was fine.

Repeat 1: 6:01/6:02 pace

3:00 minute recovery jog

Repeat 2: 6:06 pace

3:00 minute recovery jog

3 mile cool down on the treadmill

Averaged 6:04, which was about what I wanted. I would like to have had an a stretch of clear road and 30-40 degrees for this one but I made it work, despite having to dodge an old guy and some younger women.

Finished it off with the usual 25 pushups and homemade vegan protein shake. Today I drank it from a Mason jar like a man.

PM: Co-Rec - 5 miles easy. 26 pushups before, 30 after (105+ on the day). Much warmer weather in the forecast.

Purdue Co-Rec - 8.25 miles. 7 treadmill easy followed by 6 x Atrium Strides. Tired.

Night: 35 minutes of rolling, stretching, hips/glutes, and core (7 minutes of planks and 100 side crunches)

Long Run - 20 miles, averaged 7:16. We got about 3 inches of snow yesterday so I wasn't sure how the roads would be in my tempo area. They were snow-packed with ice, but not terrible, stable but could get much power on pushoff. I assume others have been dealing with similar conditions all winter while I have been on my cozy Woodway treadmill, so I won't complain too much :-)

The plan was 4 "easy as you pleasey," 4 Tin Man (6:40-6:48 for me), 8-mile builder ~6:25-6:30 average, 4 miles home at an honest effort (under 8-minute average) w/ 7:10-7:20 overall average. Anyway, it took me about 10-11 miles to warm up as it was 3 degrees but sunny (not actually as bad as it sounds. Quite pleasant.) About 13 degrees when I finished.

4 warm up (8:38 average)

4 Mile Tin Man (6:54 average); just couldn't get going on the snow. Didn't want to compromise my builder even though I know I can cruise at 6:40-6:45 on dry roads.

8.5 mile aerobic builder in 56:02 (6:36 average): 6:40, 6:39, 6:37, 6:37, 6:38, 6:34, 6:33, 6:31, 3:13 (6:26 pace)

3.5 cool down (7:44 average)

I know I am capable of running much faster on dry roads but I am pleased with this effort given the conditions and this was a good way to knock out the first 20 miler of the buildup. Tired on the cool down but not dead. Screw flats held up nicely.