Training Week Update: T-14
I am now officailly registered for the Houston Marathon! Elite registration email was just sent out this week, stoked!
Week of October 12th-18th:
Total Mileage: 77.53
Total Time: 8:53
Average Pace: 6:54/mi
Monday: 10 miles in 1:07, easy morning run, felt pretty good considering a hard 20 miler the day before. On trails along St. Charles and around the Audubon Park in New Orleans again.
Tuesday: 17 miles total (6 morning/11 evening) was planning a workout but decided to push back an additional day based on hot & humid weather and not feeling quite ready, the second run went longer than planned and I was definitely feeling the mileage fatigue by the last mile. This is where it becomes important to track 7-day rolling milege rather than just Monday-to-Sunday weekly mileage. More on rolling average below.
Wednesday: 3 miles easy with a few strides. Really late night run due to work, decided against a workout.
Thursday: 10 miles easy.
Friday: 4 miles easy with strides.
Saturday:Toughest 10k Galveston, 1st place, 32:27. Total miles: 12.42.
Good first race back on the roads at the bridge series race from Galveston over the bridge towards Houston and back again. Was honestly a little dissapointed by the height and grade of the bridge when I drove over in the morning but for Houston standards it is a hill, coming off the mountain championships I had high hopes for some elevation again!
Nothing special before this race, just half a bagel with honey on my way out the door and a bottle of Gatorade. Did a 2 mile warmup with some strides and drills, felt a bit of weekly mileage fatigue/soreness and not quite awake from the early morning. Took the race out feeling relaxed at 5:04/mi pace which was maybe a little fast but I was just trying to open a gap up on everyone. Nice to put the Altra One2.5's on for the road, super light shoe, paired with Feetures socks I'm gauranteed to not have any feet issues. Maintained my lead gap till about mile 4 where on the way back I had to navigate through 1,800 runners on their first trip over the bridge. It was a ton of fun but I definitely lost some time, the headwind was strong too. My GPS went a little haywire due to satelite interference going through all the other runners. Once I cleared the last pack of runners I turned to see what kind of gap I still had and Ryan was right on my shoulder! With a mile to go I decided to kick and was able to drop back down to a 4:55 mile to finish with just over a 6" gap. Tough workout and kept me honest! Great organized race, thanks to race directors, Jon on the mic, and all the volunteers.
Sunday: 20.26 in 2:06 on hilly course. Ryan, Austin, and I met up in Bellville for some nice cool weather and hills. We had almost 8 miles done before it was light enough to see our feet, thankfully the road we run is straight, quiet, and smooth. We're still not sure who, but someone was pushing the pace early with some 5:55's, just happens on its own when you get a few of us together, great quality. We let off the gas a little for the second half. I was feeling a little sore and fatigued from racing and have been quite tired afterwards. A Normatec nap and Cryospa session definitely helped. Polar GPS log.
General Health/Diet: Much better diet this week after getting home from work trip and eating home cooked meals (thanks Julie!). Still hit some burgers and beer twice this week. Weight down a few more pounds but settling in to normal training weight of low 150's. Heart rate when recovered is below 40. Shins are a little sore from mileage, for me this goes away when I push through it. Feeling pretty good overall!
Tips of the Week:
Mileage Tracking and Analysis
What's your weekly milege? Is a very common question and I'm always interested in how people track this. In most cases its the total miles run over the 7 days from Monday to Sunday, but what about Wednesday-to-Tuesday or Friday-to-Monday? How do you avoid doing too much? Here are my methods of tracking, yes I am a complete Excel junkie!
Rather than track only your Monday-to-Sunday weekly milege, track and forecast "Miles Last 7 Days" (a rolling weekly average) and a "+/- 3 Day Mileage" to help planning. Tally up your mileage and even see what it will be with a general forecast.
The blue graph is mileage per day, generally 0-20 miles. The green is mileage over last 7 days. You can see if you asked me on day 13 what my weekly milege was, which happens to be a Saturday, I was at 41. But the day before and after were much closer to 60. Continue to go by feel but sometimes it's nice to use something like this as a guide or to make sense of why you feel so tired. Forward planning will also help you stay on track, nothing worse than getting to Sunday night and thinking you have to squeek out another 5-10 miles to catch up to your plan. I spoke about ramping up milege in my previous week update but I'm being very cautious with the more than double amp up over last two weeks.
Interesting Reads:
A good quick read discussing the benefits of a diet, stress-free lifestyle, sleep, full body work, and the importance of comraderie. If you want a simmiliar but much longer read with amazing stories check out Christopher McDougal's (author of Born to Run) latest book Natural Born Heroes.
Inspirations:
Team Trail Racing Over Texas cleaned up at the Jackelope Jam 6/12/24 hour races this weekend: Tracie won the women's 6 hour with 35 miles. Jeff and newest member Daniel going 1-2 with 44 and 38 miles respectively. Matt Zmolek hit 102 miles in 24 hours for the win!!! That's a lot of one mile loops!
Loved seeing all the runners in their colorful shirts on the bridge, lots of cheers and high fives. Meeting new people after the race and others through the week who said they have enjoyed this training blog so far, means a lot to me, thanks!
A note on inspiration, we'll call it "The Circle of Inspiration". I meet people who are generally blown away by my times or paces and feel ashamed in front of me of their own performance. Inspiration is being motivated, given possitive energy, and drive to do better, mentally stimulated- this is what you tell me I give you, well guess what? I get the same from each you! I am motivated and driven to do better when I see and interact with other runners, no matter the speed. Maybe it can be in different forms, especially as I am competitve, if giving a better performance puts on a better show that will inspire others than I want to do better, so you can see the circle of inspiration that forms.
