Rhett

After taking a rest day yesterday, i figured I better get a qualitly workout in today, even if I didn't feel like it. After a 5 min warm up I did 11- 2 1/2 min repeats at 5K pace each followed by 2 1/2 min of recovery running on a rolling hills course.

Total run 8.25 miles, 60 mins.

Not a lot of time today.

Weight trained then did 20 min on eliptical.

Progression run on treadmill at 1% incline.

I did a 13.1 mile progession run with a 0.9 mile cool down. I started at 8.0 and increased the speed 0.2 every 2 miles. The final 1.1 miles before the cool down were at 9.2.

At 13.1 I was at 1:32:00.

Total run 14.0 in 1:39:43

2 Weeks till Painter's

I wanted to get in a good hard tempo run.

Treadmill @ 1% incline

1 mile warm up 8:00

7 miles at 1/2 marathon pace 6:27 (9.3) 45:09 total time

0.25 mile cool down

I failed to embrace the pain like I am working on and mile 6 I decreased the incline to 0.5 then mile 7 to 0.0. I was a bit dissapointed in myself that I gave in and lessened the intensity by lessening the incline on the last two miles, but overall I am happy with the run.

I won't be at the gym tomorrow so I did my final pullups today.  I did 13, so I improved by 8.  That may sound good, but it is a bit dissappointing since after about 2 weeks of the competition I was up to 12 and over the last few weeks have only gotten 1 more and I did work on it 3 times a week the whole time.. 

After some mild weight training I did 30 mins on the Arc Trainer.  I think I will do some jumping and maybe some core work tonight.

PM

I did about 40 mins of jumping and core exercises.

6 recovery miles on rolling hills.  50:43

Then, did a few minutes of 1 legged hopping (running).  That was kind of cool.  I'd never done it before, but you try and hop with one leg in a running motion for about 20 yards then switch to the other let and go back.  I think I did 5 or 6 on each leg.  It's supposed to help build power.

Boy was it a beautiful evening. I made it to the track a little after 5. It was about 60 degrees sunny and no wind. The sun was starting to set over the lake as I began my warm up mile. I did 5 one mile repeats followed by .25 mile recovery laps then as I did my cool down mile the sun finally set over the mountains that sit next to the lake. It was a great night for some speed work. Here are my mile splits.

1-5:54

2-5:55

3-5:54

4-5:54

5-5:52

I'd have to say this was my best mile repeat workout ever. Now I need to recover a bit for Painter's. I'm trying not to do too much of a taper since this is supposed to just be part of my Boston training, but I will do a mild taper by not cross training and cutting my long run this Sat. to 10 miles.

I did my last cross training before Painter's this morning. 

Full body weight training followed by 30 mins on Arc Trainer.

It was very windy out today, so I kept stalling on my run in hopes that it would die down. It never did, so about 4 pm I headed out into the wind. I did my first mile as a warm up (7:47) then I started on a 10 mile marathon pace run. I averaged 6:47 over those 10 miles. Total run 11 miles, 1:15:37.

1 hour arc trainer.  No pain in foot.  That is good news that doing eliptical type work doesn't hurt.

Woke up this morning with mild discomfort in foot.  I iced it, took my steroids and went to the gym for more eliptical work.

40 mins Arc Trainer.  Again no pain with this type of exercise.

1 hour arc trainer

If I keep this up, I'm going to have to change over to the "FastArcTrainingBlog"

My foot still feels fine.  I'm going to test it out tonight.  I am a bit scared to run on it, but I think I'm going to be fine.

It felt good to get off the Arc Trainer and actually run.  I did a warm up mile probably around 7:45, I didn't time it.  During warm up I was getting a bit worried about my foot.  By the end of warm up it was feeling pretty good.  Then I went into my all out 3 min run and I felt nothing accept my lungs wanting to explode and my legs getting really heavy.  I definitely will not race in those heavier more cushioned shoes.  I don't know how anyone tries to race in those things.  I felt like  a Clydsdale in them.  I may try and put my orthodics in my racing flats, or maybe I'll just wear an arch brace.

It was great seeing you all at the race and at lunch afterwards.  I had fun up there even though my race was dissapointing.  Final time 1:34:39  Avg pace 7:11 

I'll write a better report on forumflyers.

Easy run to get the legs loosened up.  6.25 miles avg. pace 8:23

Foot isn't any better, but isn't any worse. 

5.5 EZ miles.  Legs feeling good, foot still hurts but not getting worse.

6.35 EZ with hill sprints on the last mile.  I'll call that my speed work for this month.

1 mile EZ

1 mile tempo

1 mile EZ

1 mile tempo

1 mile EZ

1 mile EZ with hill sprints

6 miles at 7:23

6 miles EZ

Ran 11.2 miles at marathon pace in 1:16:35. 

Foot pain 4/10 for the first mile, then 1/10 for most of the rest of the run except for a few spikes in pain as I ran especially when turning left.

6 EZ miles this morning less than 12 hours after hard marhton paced run last night.

Legs felt great, foot not so much.  Foot pain 9/10 for first mile, grudually improved to about 2/10 by the end.  Once again any left turns cause the pain to spike a few points.

Mile repeats on treadmill at 1% incline with 3 to 4 min slow jog recovery after 1 mile warm up.

Mile 1 at 6:00, miles 2-5 at 6:10

Amazing thing.  I was so worried about the pain I was going to feel in my foot.  It was so bad the other morning that I almost couldn't bring myself to even start, but I pain level at the begining was only 1/10 and quickly eased of to no pain at all, just a tenderness.

OK, I survived the mile repeats last night, but now I was going to have to pay the price this morning.  I was sure I was going to be wincing in pain which would almost bring tears to my eyes.  But NO!  Same as last night, 1/10 pain to get going then no pain just tenderness.  I don't know how it improved so fast.  Maybe it is the 800 mg Ibuprofin 4 x per day and multiple 20 min icing sessions, or maybe it has to do with the power of prayer, or both.  It does seem to be getting better though.  Yeah!

6 miles avg. pace 7:29

EZ run with 10 hill sprints over the last mile+.  Avg pace 7:39

Foot pain 2/10 at start quickly shifting to mild tendernss for the rest of the run. 

Over all I felt very strong this morning.  I'm looking forward to see how my body responds to a 16 miler tomorrow.

What a beautiful day for a run. 47 degrees not a cloud in the sky and not even a small breeze. I made the most of it by heading out for a hard 16 miler. I did the easy out hard back thing. I made it out (8mile) in 1:00:20 then picked it up a bit on the way back. At mile 10 I was at 1:14:55 then my Garmin charge ran out so I don't know my final time, but I'm guessing somewhere around 1:57 or 1:58. The best part, foot pain was 0/10 for almost the entire run. I had a few little twinges, mostly on left hand turns and a bit at the start, but mosthly nothing. What a difference 4 days makes.

My attitude about my running has made a complete 180 degree turn this week as well. At the beginning of the week I was ready to pull out of Boston, now after having done an 11 mile marathon pace run, mile repeats (5), and a good hard long run, I'm feeling all jazzed about my running again. I'm never taking steroids for running things again. That totally messed with me and didn't help my foot at all. Advil has worked much better for me.

I did the last .3 as a cool down so I would hit an even 54 miles for the week. I'd have to go back and check, but I don't think I ever went that far during my SGM training this last time around.