Rhett

What a beautiful morning to get back into the flow of training.  I missed being in training mode for the last month with taper and recovery.  It was 59 degrees, clear sky, and a very slight breeze when I took off this morning right before the sun came up.  As the sun rose over the moutain I couldn't help but think how great it was that I was out running on this perfect morning.  Soon it will be close to 100 degrees at that time in the morning, so I took in every breath with joy.

I decided I better get started on training for the downhill of UVM today, so I ran up, up, up the highest paved road in Havasu the long, less steep way.  It was 8 miles to the top from my house and 1000 foot gain.  Then I turned around and ran down, down, down the short, steeper way back to my houses... 5 miles with the 1000 foot drop. 

I ran up keeping my effort on the hard end of easy.  I averaged 7:41 per mile.  When I turned around, I kicked it up to tempo effort and averaged 6:20 per mile on the way down.  It felt great to cruise down the mountain.

Total run 13 miles, 1:33:11, AP 7:10

Lower body weights

Ab and core work

20 minutes stair speed intervals

10 minutes elliptical

I guess summer is right around the corner.  When I started my run at 5 am this morning it was 75 degrees and by the time I finished it was 80.  I went to the track for the first time in over a year today to do my speed work.  I did all my speed work over the last year on the TM.  I figured it was time to graduate to big boy running and go to the track.

I drove to the track, then did 2 warm up miles on the road.  Then I hit the track.  I started with 8 x 150m In/Out sprints (50m build up/ 50m at 90 to 95% of an all out sprint/ 50m cruise) with 250m very slow recovery jog.

Then I did 1 mile recovery jog and then 4 x 1mile with 400m walk recovery.  Splits:  6:12 (on the first mile I realized just how much the pevious sprints had taken out of me), 6:11, 6:13, and 6:22 (I completely fell apart on this last mile.)  I then finished with 3 mile cool down on the roads.

It fet great to be back at the track and running fast.  I found that I have not run all out much probably since my days of playing soccer and my form was choppy.  I need to work on running smoothly at a full sprint.  I think it will help with my form when I step back to my normal speeds. 

Total run 13 miles,  1:41:??

Lower body weights

abs and core work

20 minutes stair speed intervals

10 minutes elliptical

Just the normal Tuesday/Thursday workout

I woke up at 4am and got ready to run.  I wasn't hungry so just had a glass of water before heading out the door.  About half mile into my run I realized I had forgotten to put any gu packs into my hydration belt which just had water in it.  I thought about heading back for some but decided to keep on going.  I was doing 20 miles.

The first 10 were uneventful.  I didn't push the pace since I new I was running without carbs.  I hit the 10 mile mark just under 1:15 for an average of 7:30 miles.  About half mile into the first mile of the second 10 I could feel my energy levels dropping.  I slowed to pace a bit to try and conserve energy, but it wasn't long before I felt like I was on a death march.  That was a tough 10 miles and the last 2 I felt like I wasn't even running straight anymore.  I was just focusing on putting one foot in front of the other.  By the time I got home I was a bit delirious and I'm still not feeling too good.  The second 10 miles took me 1:24:15 averaging about 8:28 miles.  

Total run 20 miles, 2:39:15,  AP 7:59

Too make me feel just a little bit worse, I logged onto the SGM web site and found out that Doone and I didn't get drawn for the big race.  Oh well, we'll just have to find another one to do. 

One hour stationary bike.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderful mothers on the blog.