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2011 Training Log–Week 11

Good week of training.  My legs are eating this stuff up and feeling stronger all the time.  Tues, Wed, and Thurs were all good efforts in the 150 range for average heart rate.  The other days were all easy plus a nice long run on Saturday.  Good to see the CTL climbing up at a nice rate now.  If my heel would let me, I would be pushing for more.  For now, I’ll take what I can get.

 

Monday
Run – 7.2 / 1:20 / 127avg
Nice jog in the VFFs at the boneyard.

53 pushups

Tuesday
Bike – 27.4 / 1:31 / 144avg
Was looking to enjoy a casual ride on a warmer day, but it turned out to be cold and windy. I was under dressed and decided to put in a 20 mile effort to stay warm even though I didn’t feel up to riding all that hard. Decent try, just missing the 20mph average on the mountain bike without digging too deep. No drama on the ride this time.

Split:
20 / 1:00:40 / 154avg

Wednesday
Run – 11.1 / 1:38 / 154avg
Solid cruising effort at the boneyard. Similar to last Wednesday, ran the 2k laps holding HR in the low 150s. Had to stop once to let the calves settle down, then felt better after that.

60 pushups

Thursday
Run – 12 / 1:44 / 152avg
Pre-dawn hilly neighborhood loops. Crazy weather, 57 degrees when I started @ 5:45, then dropped to 43 by the time I finished. Legs feeling worked, but got it done.

Friday
Run – 7 / 1:11 / 123avg
Nice recovery run.

Saturday
20.6 / 3:13 / 139avg
Started before dawn and had a nice run.  The pain in my heel was a pain in my ass, but everything else felt super.  Really easy run, not really sore much at all after this one.

Sunday
Run – 3 / :30 / 127avg
Easy recovery run on the treadmill.  Babying the heel.

66 pushups

Total Time – 11:09

Bike – 27.4 / 1:31
Run – 61 / 9:37

179 Pushups

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Pic of the week:

Dog!  We adopted a 3 year old Corgi on Thursday.  She obviously hates all of the attention coming her way now…

2011 Training Log–Week 10

Mileage for this week was a little lower (55) than I would have liked, but my 7 day rolling total through Friday was 82 so I have to take it in context.  Staying steady on the pushup program, and starting to feel some small gains there.  I had a scare with the heel on Monday’s run where I thought I would be shut down again, but I managed to work through it.  Feeling great other than my on-going calf and heel issues.  Starting to entertain thoughts of jumping in a race soon.

Monday
Run – 10 / 1:25 (8:30) / 147avg
Treadmill. This was a challenging run on tired legs from the 31 miler two days ago. I didn’t feel like I was working hard at all cardio-wise, but the legs were having a tough time keeping up. The treadmill is just relentless that way. I tried to keep good form and not thrash around.

46 pushups

Tuesday
Run – 7.1 / 1:09 /129avg
Holy heel injury. That run on the mill last night shredded the crap out of my bad heel. Feels like a two-month old scab has been ripped off. Limping pretty badly today. Still went for a super easy run. One of those days where I just felt like I’d rather run hurt than not run at all. Had lots of time to ponder the question – Is running just an idiotic pursuit in and of itself, or does running just attract idiots. I concluded the latter in my own case…
Wednesday
Run – 10 / 1:28 / 148avg
Back in the saddle somewhat today. Rolled the calf a bunch last night to take the pressure off the back of the heel, and also took 3 ibu at lunch, and 3 more before bed. That combo seems to be most effective for me.

This was a VFF run at the boneyard. An urban 2k singletrack loop with lots of small hills and turns. Usually my VFF runs there are very moderate in the 5 mile range and just barely a jog. Today I cruised 10 miles at 8:49 – my longest and fastest run in the VFFs. No doubt about it, my feet are happy in those thngs. The heel was not fantastic, but tolerable – and didn’t get any worse.

52 pushups

Thursday
Bike – 23.6 / 1:20 / 148avg
Well, I guess I have been a runner for too long. I have forgotten what it is like to have a PMEP (Pissing Match of Epic Proportions). A somewhat regular occurrence while training on a bike. At least around here. It’s kind of fun in a way, once in a while. Two complete strangers locked in mortal combat, each trying to crush the other. I was a couple of miles into my ride on a beautiful day, just planning on taking it easy since my legs were pretty tired and I was doing a long run tomorrow. I’m waiting at an intersection, and just as I’m clipping in after the light turned green some dude on a road bike blows through the tiny gap on my right between me and the gutter! Hey, if we’re racing in some office park – great move. But I guess I didn’t really appreciate it while traffic was streaming by on my left and I had nowhere to go. I usually hold a little space to my right while waiting at an intersection, then immediately move that way as I’m clipping in to let the traffic go by.

Anyway, I should have blown it off, but I got a little ticked. Next thing I know my knobby tires are screaming on the pavement as I’m doing 28mph to reel him in. Just as I got to within 20 meters or so he looked back, saw me, and surged. It was on. For the next five miles he would look back and see me coming and I could see his legs and back tense up as he applied more effort to the pedals. We were flying through the park, so much for my easy day… I wasn’t using any draft, always maintaining that 20 meters or so – he was trying to tell me that no way is any mountain-bike pavement-riding fool going to catch him, and me saying hey sucker I can ride and you’re running scared now – but no words were exchanged. Our legs were doing all the talking.

When we hit the main hill in the park, I went from keeping 5% in reserve to all-out 120% mode. Now it was really on! He saw me coming up on him again and abrubtly took the bailout option on the left about halfway up the hill just as I was about to make my bid for the pass. I gotta say, I was sort of happy to see him do that. I was fully commited, but more than happy to break it off. My quads felt like they each had a blowtorch pointed at them.

As I cruised down the long descent on the back side of the hill, I saw him off to the left down below. Riding circles in a parking lot until I passed by, then heading out the other way. Game over.

Friday
Run – 20.6 / 3:41 / 133avg
Did my long run after work on Friday to keep the weekend free.  Kids have a basketball tournament tomorrow.  Got just what I wanted out of this one. A nice long run on tired legs. I enjoyed some nice trails at sunset doing a 10 mile loop while it was light, then another one after dark. I’m normally pretty well prepared for a given run, but fell victim to dying headlamp batteries this time. Very slow going for the last hour. Heels acted up a bit, but it was tolerable for the most part.
Saturday
Day off
Watched four basketball games, ate out twice, and caught a movie. Good times.
Sunday
Run – 7 / 1:10 / 133avg
Treadmill nice and easy.

53 pushups

Total Time – 10:14

Bike – 23.6 / 1:20
Run – 54.6 / 8:53

Pushups – 151

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Pic of the week:

I sent a little message to my wife at the end of Wednesday’s run.

2011 Training Log–Week 5

Planned easy week.  Can’t complain too much, got a little variety in which was nice.  Ready to ramp it up again next week.  No bike, I need to get back on that even though it will be the trainer for the foreseeable future due to all of the new snow.

Hopefully got some good adaptation out of taknig it easier this week.  The TSB and ATL are lined up pretty well now meaning that my rest break timing was optimal.  I’ll drive the TSB back down over the next few weeks and watch the CTL climb a bit more.  Long way to go.

Made some progress on the diet side of things.  Eating habits were much improved, and I’m starting to see some downward movement on the scale for a change.

Monday
Rest day. Spent 30 minutes on the TriggerPoint rollers.
Tuesday
Run – 2.5 / :38
Hiked on the treadmill @ 3mph with 15% incline while doing curls, presses, and rows with 15lb dumbbells while barefoot. This workout doesn’t do a thing for the weekly mileage total, but I like it because it stresses the body without any real impact. I then finished with 1.5 miles barefoot at 0% incline and 5 mph. There is no speed or fitness component to that, it is purely a technique drill sort of like riding rollers on a bike. I’ve found that going at a slow jog allows me to fine tune my stride and footstrike and really listen to the feedback my feet are giving me. 

Spent about 45 minutes on the TriggerPoint rollers.

Wednesday
Run – 2 / :32
Repeated the same workout from yesterday. Barefoot on the treadmill 1 mile @3mph with 15% incline. Did continuous curls and presses with 15lb dumbbells. Felt better than yesterday. Then jogged a mile. 

30 minutes rolling calves.

Thursday
Run – 10 / 1:26 (8:39) / 151avg
Was feeling pretty good this morning, eager to get after it. In the past, that would mean jogging for about 10 seconds as a warm-up and then cranking for 90 minutes right at my threshold. Today I tried to be a little bit smarter and slowly jogged for a 1.5 mi warmup, then did 3 x 1.6mi ‘gentle’ efforts with 5 min rest. I struggled a bit with these, I think I rolled all of the spring out of my legs. They were dead. I plugged away and just kept it moderate, knowing that today was just one step in a long journey. Was 17 degrees and snowing hard, which was much better than -17 the day before. 

1.6 / 12:03 (7:29) / 163avg

1.6 / 12:12 (7:34) / 165avg

1.6 / 12:11 (7:33) / 166avg

Friday
Run – 6.1 / 1:09 (11:16) / 134avg
Mellow VFF jog in 5 inches of new snow. Lots of hills.
Saturday
Run – 2.3 / 23:47 (10:20) / 133avg
Disappointing. Headed out at 5:30pm in several more inches of new snow. The snow was a great consistency for running, just wet enough to pack down well underfoot. Legs felt springy and I was looking forward to around 2 hours. The heel said otherwise, though. It was tweaked, feeling like it needed to pop but couldn’t. The more I ran on it, the worse it got. Reluctantly bagged the run and walked home.
Sunday
Run – 5.3 / :44 (8:24) / 153avg
TM. Heel was a bit better today, rolled out the calves quite a bit last night. After a thorough warmup, did several efforts from 1/4 mi to 1.5 miles in the 9-10mph range. I was running at 10mph when the fuse tripped on the surge protector that the treadmill was plugged into. Luckily the belt slowed a bit instead of coming to an abrupt stop, was still a little dicey. Everything felt good and I was planning on going longer, but need to re-route the treadmill power source before I work the motor that hard again.
Total time – 4:53

Bike – 0
Run – 28.2 / 4:53

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Pic of the week:

VFF track.