Distance: 5.90 miles
Time: 47:56
Comments: I had a chat with Coach Dean this morning and, while I might not feel any better about the situation I'm at in terms of my training, we at least have an idea on how we are going to address it.
Basically I'm going to redouble my nutrition efforts and, since I'm clearly behind on my strengthening efforts, we'll address that in the quality workouts. If all goes well, the two avenues of attack will provide some success.
The first test of things was the run tonight at South Mountain. None of my efforts at this site have been very good but the last one was downright abysmal. The target was getting these under the 4-minute mark and staving off a drastic drop in quality.
The biggest change in my tactics here was not pushing 100 percent at the steep section about a quarter mile mark. I wasn't easing off, but, to often, I've tried to hold the pace and worn myself completely out on this portion.
The upshot, as I hoped, was a stronger finish. I was as breathless and worn-out when I reached the top but not completely toast and unable to do the next one. The first one went remarkably well, finally breaking that 4 minute mark, as was the second. And while I slipped back over the line on the last two I didn't slow by half-a-minute like last time.
Overall, I'm still tremendously disappointed in my conditioning. Given the amount of work I've put in, I should be doing these significantly faster and with a great deal more control. But keeping them all within five seconds is an important indicator of the state of my stamina.
Showing posts with label nutrition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nutrition. Show all posts
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Marathon Training Summary: Week 14
Distance: 18 miles
Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
Comments: A very limited week due to my ongoing battle with overtraining. I went out only when I felt pretty good and cut the runs short the instant they felt at all uncomfortable.
As a result I only got in two four-mile runs during the week, a substantially shortened long run and a funsies race to top it off. Not bad, overall.
The achyness from running the long miles of the last month has lasted much much longer than I expected. I'm becoming very nervous about the ability of my legs to bounce back in time for the marathon.
Despite that, I clearly have the strength in the legs for the effort. I've even noticed the muscle definition has become substantially pronounced in the past few weeks.
With just two weeks until the race I'm starting to feel a bit of anxiety about the thing. Every time I go back through the past times and future projections I get reminded how close a thing this is going to be for me.
This week I plan on doing a few low-impact runs, maybe one tempo run and a not-terribly-long run on saturday. Mostly, the goal this week is rest and recovery. My sister and I might drive the route at some point to get a look at the geography of the thing as well.
My training focus for the week will, instead, be more on nutrition. I need to be piling up the carbs and nutrients big time now my body is using them as fast as I consume them. I'll be trying to get regular meals as well as mid-meal snacks that work toward this.
A lot of running guides I've run across warn about the taper week weight gain - something I don't think is much of an issue for me.
Injury update: The calf issues seem to have ceded to the background but two very worrisome issues remain. The first is the ache in my left hip that seems to be connected with the upper quads. I find myself favoring it a lot around the house and when I shift gears in the truck it is tough to lift the leg. It seems to ease up after I start running but that's not very reassuring.
The other problem is the pain on the outside of my right knee when I get into the run. I cut short my long run due to this and it was an issue during my race. My masseuse said there was a lot of tightness up the outside of the leg, particularly focused on the muscles supporting the knee. My hope is rest and another session will make progress to resolving this issue at least.
Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
Comments: A very limited week due to my ongoing battle with overtraining. I went out only when I felt pretty good and cut the runs short the instant they felt at all uncomfortable.
As a result I only got in two four-mile runs during the week, a substantially shortened long run and a funsies race to top it off. Not bad, overall.
The achyness from running the long miles of the last month has lasted much much longer than I expected. I'm becoming very nervous about the ability of my legs to bounce back in time for the marathon.
Despite that, I clearly have the strength in the legs for the effort. I've even noticed the muscle definition has become substantially pronounced in the past few weeks.
With just two weeks until the race I'm starting to feel a bit of anxiety about the thing. Every time I go back through the past times and future projections I get reminded how close a thing this is going to be for me.
This week I plan on doing a few low-impact runs, maybe one tempo run and a not-terribly-long run on saturday. Mostly, the goal this week is rest and recovery. My sister and I might drive the route at some point to get a look at the geography of the thing as well.
My training focus for the week will, instead, be more on nutrition. I need to be piling up the carbs and nutrients big time now my body is using them as fast as I consume them. I'll be trying to get regular meals as well as mid-meal snacks that work toward this.
A lot of running guides I've run across warn about the taper week weight gain - something I don't think is much of an issue for me.
Injury update: The calf issues seem to have ceded to the background but two very worrisome issues remain. The first is the ache in my left hip that seems to be connected with the upper quads. I find myself favoring it a lot around the house and when I shift gears in the truck it is tough to lift the leg. It seems to ease up after I start running but that's not very reassuring.
The other problem is the pain on the outside of my right knee when I get into the run. I cut short my long run due to this and it was an issue during my race. My masseuse said there was a lot of tightness up the outside of the leg, particularly focused on the muscles supporting the knee. My hope is rest and another session will make progress to resolving this issue at least.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Long Run
Distance: 22 miles
Time: 3:39:01
Pace: 9:57/mi
Comments: The big monster. I wasn't looking forward to it in the least and it was every bit as horrible as I expected.
The problems following my regular runs this week prompted me to take Saturday off completely and to initiate a pretty aggressive icing regimen on my calves to deal with the knots. Generally, I was just dragging ass all week due to the sheer number of miles I've been racking up.
So the brisk winter air wasn't pleasant this morning and every sinew in my body said "Uh Uh" as I took to the street. I kept playing the 'just one more mile' game until I had racked up enough distance to make turning back seem stupid.
But my pace was no great shakes. I kept it abnormally slow at the start while I babied my right calf and the lack of reserves on the back end kept me from ever ramping it up. That said, it was not nearly as much of a singular battle with fatigue like the last three miles of the 20-miler two weeks ago.
I downed three of the Clif Shots they should be using in the race and went through a liter of water which I carried with me. I think, energy wise, I should be fine for the race if I carb up sufficiently beforehand.
Time: 3:39:01
Pace: 9:57/mi
Comments: The big monster. I wasn't looking forward to it in the least and it was every bit as horrible as I expected.
The problems following my regular runs this week prompted me to take Saturday off completely and to initiate a pretty aggressive icing regimen on my calves to deal with the knots. Generally, I was just dragging ass all week due to the sheer number of miles I've been racking up.
So the brisk winter air wasn't pleasant this morning and every sinew in my body said "Uh Uh" as I took to the street. I kept playing the 'just one more mile' game until I had racked up enough distance to make turning back seem stupid.
But my pace was no great shakes. I kept it abnormally slow at the start while I babied my right calf and the lack of reserves on the back end kept me from ever ramping it up. That said, it was not nearly as much of a singular battle with fatigue like the last three miles of the 20-miler two weeks ago.
I downed three of the Clif Shots they should be using in the race and went through a liter of water which I carried with me. I think, energy wise, I should be fine for the race if I carb up sufficiently beforehand.
Sunday, October 1, 2006
Marathon Training Summary: Week 1
Distance: 38 miles
Time: 5 hours 32 minutes
Comments: Well, my goal was to get in the 30-35 mile range but my misjudging the distance of my long run put me over that by quite a bit.
While this is a substantial surge from the week prior, it is not all that out of line from my weekly total just prior to the Brazil trip. That said, I need to keep on top of this in the future if I want to avoid injury.
My plan was to use this week's effort as a baseline for the rest of the training. Pretty much set my 10 percent weekly increases by this effort. If you lower the mileage total in respect to the skipping my speed work on Wednesday that puts it in the 35 mile range which feels about right.
So I have reset my weekly mileage totals to reflect this in the training schedule and I plan to go back over it again this week for final tweaking.
The other reason I got such a substantial total this week is that I made sure to institute the 6-running-day week. This is something I intend to keep up for pretty much the rest of the training schedule as well. Rest days other than Monday will now be low mileage/pace days with cross training or something.
As I have gotten more focused on the training for the marathon, I have tweaked a few things concerning my training.
Over the past few months, I really have not been very regular with my stretching. Since my runs have been longer and my pace nothing really spectacular, I have simply been getting dressed and going out the door. With these more intense efforts, that's gotta change.
This week, I have been putting in a good 20 minutes stretching before every run and then giving myself a mile or so to warm up before hitting my stride. In addition, I have been doing 15 minutes of stretching after my runs as well.
The next thing I have become more focused on is nutrition. I have been trying to eat better for pretty much the last nine months but now, well, now it's a necessity. The bottom line is I gotta bulk up on the carbs.
I stumbled across this article in The New York Times from last July that llooks at the preparations distance runners are doing for the Bejing Olympics in 2008.
You really get a sense of the importance of diet after reading it. While many runners were getting the 5,000 plus calories they needed each day, they were doing it irregularly; a small breakfast, snacking throughout the day and then a huge evening meal.
An experiment where athletes were given three high-carbohydrate energy bars a day, in midmorning, midafternoon and after dinner were able to lose nearly 2 percent of their body fat and greatly improve their performance.
So I am starting to try and balance my meals a bit more and starting the three-bars-a-day diet. We'll see how it works.
Time: 5 hours 32 minutes
Comments: Well, my goal was to get in the 30-35 mile range but my misjudging the distance of my long run put me over that by quite a bit.
While this is a substantial surge from the week prior, it is not all that out of line from my weekly total just prior to the Brazil trip. That said, I need to keep on top of this in the future if I want to avoid injury.
My plan was to use this week's effort as a baseline for the rest of the training. Pretty much set my 10 percent weekly increases by this effort. If you lower the mileage total in respect to the skipping my speed work on Wednesday that puts it in the 35 mile range which feels about right.
So I have reset my weekly mileage totals to reflect this in the training schedule and I plan to go back over it again this week for final tweaking.
The other reason I got such a substantial total this week is that I made sure to institute the 6-running-day week. This is something I intend to keep up for pretty much the rest of the training schedule as well. Rest days other than Monday will now be low mileage/pace days with cross training or something.
As I have gotten more focused on the training for the marathon, I have tweaked a few things concerning my training.
Over the past few months, I really have not been very regular with my stretching. Since my runs have been longer and my pace nothing really spectacular, I have simply been getting dressed and going out the door. With these more intense efforts, that's gotta change.
This week, I have been putting in a good 20 minutes stretching before every run and then giving myself a mile or so to warm up before hitting my stride. In addition, I have been doing 15 minutes of stretching after my runs as well.
The next thing I have become more focused on is nutrition. I have been trying to eat better for pretty much the last nine months but now, well, now it's a necessity. The bottom line is I gotta bulk up on the carbs.
I stumbled across this article in The New York Times from last July that llooks at the preparations distance runners are doing for the Bejing Olympics in 2008.
You really get a sense of the importance of diet after reading it. While many runners were getting the 5,000 plus calories they needed each day, they were doing it irregularly; a small breakfast, snacking throughout the day and then a huge evening meal.
An experiment where athletes were given three high-carbohydrate energy bars a day, in midmorning, midafternoon and after dinner were able to lose nearly 2 percent of their body fat and greatly improve their performance.
So I am starting to try and balance my meals a bit more and starting the three-bars-a-day diet. We'll see how it works.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Long Run
Distance: 26 kilometers (16.14 miles)
Time: 140 minutes
Surface: asphalt/concrete
Weather Conditions: cool, misty, overcast, 60s, morning run
Location: Miraflores/Barranco/Chorrillos/San Isidro/Magdalena de Mar, Lima, Peru
Comments: I wanted to put in a huge run today and 'lo' that is what I did. I took it easy yesterday, carbed up pretty well and got in the mindset. Felt rested this morning so had a bannana and an energy bar with lots of water to get ready. Then I hit the road with two gel packs and two bottles of Gatorade.
Started very slow and deliberate. My knees were achy and I focused on taking smaller steps to get going. I went a slightly different route through the streets of Barranco and Chorrillos to cut out at least two big hills... and for the slight change of pace.
I was able to pick it up again when I came back from Playa Herradura and kept to the beachfront. Going out a bit early kept me from the sidewalk congestion of the Sunday morning walkers on this section.
Humped it up the hill to the San Isidro exit and back down to Magdalena de Mar - further that way than I have ever gone. Heading up the cliffs there was the toughest part of the run. When I got back up onto the street level I was running badly.
But, when I got back on the Malecon, the Pixies came up on the iPod and I said "screw it" and decided to feel some real pain. I picked up my stride the whole final 20 minutes and ran full out on the last kilometer when the Nine Inch Nails song came on.
Tough effort but worth it. I don't plan on running this far again for several months but it was nice to get a personal best under the belt.
The gels today were Clif Shots which tasted of overly salted cookie dough. The vanilla was putrid but the chocolate wasn't too bad.
Time: 140 minutes
Surface: asphalt/concrete
Weather Conditions: cool, misty, overcast, 60s, morning run
Location: Miraflores/Barranco/Chorrillos/San Isidro/Magdalena de Mar, Lima, Peru
Comments: I wanted to put in a huge run today and 'lo' that is what I did. I took it easy yesterday, carbed up pretty well and got in the mindset. Felt rested this morning so had a bannana and an energy bar with lots of water to get ready. Then I hit the road with two gel packs and two bottles of Gatorade.
Started very slow and deliberate. My knees were achy and I focused on taking smaller steps to get going. I went a slightly different route through the streets of Barranco and Chorrillos to cut out at least two big hills... and for the slight change of pace.
I was able to pick it up again when I came back from Playa Herradura and kept to the beachfront. Going out a bit early kept me from the sidewalk congestion of the Sunday morning walkers on this section.
Humped it up the hill to the San Isidro exit and back down to Magdalena de Mar - further that way than I have ever gone. Heading up the cliffs there was the toughest part of the run. When I got back up onto the street level I was running badly.
But, when I got back on the Malecon, the Pixies came up on the iPod and I said "screw it" and decided to feel some real pain. I picked up my stride the whole final 20 minutes and ran full out on the last kilometer when the Nine Inch Nails song came on.
Tough effort but worth it. I don't plan on running this far again for several months but it was nice to get a personal best under the belt.
The gels today were Clif Shots which tasted of overly salted cookie dough. The vanilla was putrid but the chocolate wasn't too bad.
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