Posts tagged run

99 Days of Training: Day 76

Apr12
2012 Leave a Comment Written by @drose0

99 Days of a Training is a 99-part series that I will document my daily progress towards my first marathon. Each day I plan on recognizing a word or phrase that corresponds with that day’s training. This series will conclude on May 6th, 2012 when I toe the start line (or somewhere in the back of the pack) at the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati, OH.

Whew. In a way it is starting to feel really good to be back on track. But in a way I miss sleeping in I’ve been on the road all week and regardless of whether I was getting up to run or just getting up, I’ve been a wake way earlier than I had to be. I somewhat miss my lazy days. But, I also remember what those days were like otherwise, and I don’t want to be there again.

Today I got in a fun 4 miles on a chilly morning in Evansville. I didn’t put up the screaming pace I did on Monday, or even on Tuesday, but 4 miles at a 10:13 pace is still pretty good for me, so I’ll take it. You can see full details by looking at today’s RunKeeper data

I’m feeling a bit of soreness from yesterday. Not the 10 miles I detailed in the previous post, but the 55 or so pushups I did yesterday. Maybe that was a bit too much considering I hadn’t done pushups in 2-3 months.

Posted in 99 Days of Training, Training - Tagged 2012, 4mi, 99 Days of Training, family, hotel, Lap Log, marathon, mild, morning, outdoor, spring, track, training, travel

99 Days of Training: Day 75

Apr11
2012 Leave a Comment Written by @drose0

So far so good for this week. I’m scheduled to do 43, of which 19 was scheduled between Monday and Wednesday, and I’ve actually done it for the first time in ages. I’m at 19.04 now. As I’ve already detailed I put forth a blazing 5 miles on Monday, a steady 4 miles on Tuesday, and tonight I topped it off with 10 grueling miles.

I’ve also mentioned throughout the previous posts how much I love this track out here. I’m on the road this week and there is a great place to run, which helps. But, it is only about 0.62mi in length. If you do the math it is right around 16 laps to do 10 miles. It doesn’t matter where I am, 16 laps is very monotonous and I believe that really played in tonight.

I won’t lie, I struggled a bit. My pace wasn’t that bad (10:24), but I just wasn’t mentally there for this one. I firmly believe distance running is much, much more mental than physical, and I didn’t have it tonight. When you know you have to do 16 laps around the trail, and that each lap will take you 6-6:45 minutes, it doesn’t put you in the right mindset to start. I probably should have mixed some street running in to break it up, but I wanted an apples-to-apples comparison of miles for comparison.

I definitely did not come close to even splits tonight. I started out too fast, though I felt as if I was going slow (but when it was also the same course that I threw down 5 miles @ 8:26, anything will seem slow). My first mile was 9:36.. way too fast for me. I tried to slow it down some more, only made it to 9:51. This would come back later as I was no longer trying to slow down, rather speed up. By mile 8 I put down a 10:52. Not good if trying to achieve negative splits. For more details see my RunKeeper info for tonight.

As for my diet today.. it was good, though a bit high. I say high because I like to try to limit myself to around 2000 calories, which I know is stupid to do when running 10 miles. According to my HRM I burned 1,654 calories during this run, add that to the 2,010 calories that MyFitnessPal says I need a day to hit my goal and in theory I should ingest 3,664 calories. It looks like I’m ending the day with 2,298… but I feel stuffed. For dinner I had St. Barts Citrus Chicken at Cheeseburger in Paradise, which comes with rice & broccoli. By my guestimation that is only about 600 calories, but it is soooo good, and filling. To bump it up I also had a cup of gumbo for an appetizer. For lunch today I had a chicken salad sandwich on croissant along with a bowl of corn chowder soup (I love corn chowder!). In there I also had a banana for a morning snack (and potassium) and a fruit cup for an afternoon snack. Yogurt, mixed fruit, hardboiled egg and a bit of oatmeal for breakfast. I am not sure why I didn’t start using MyFitnessPal earlier, as it totally rocks!

Okay, that is long enough for tonight… back up in the morning to do 4 more before a much needed rest day on Friday.

Posted in 99 Days of Training, Training - Tagged 10mi, 2012, 99 Days of Training, evening, frustration, hotel, jog, Lap Log, marathon, mild, outdoor, spring, track, training, travel, weight loss

99 Days of Training: Day 74

Apr10
2012 Leave a Comment Written by @drose0

On the heals of my blazing run yesterday I decided to get up this morning and go at it again. No, I didn’t even try the pace I had yesterday, for multiple reasons. First off, yesterday’s run was done in the afternoon, having a good lunch earlier, having been up and going for hours, and it was sunny, warm and breezy… a gorgeous day. This morning I got out of bed, had breakfast (not sure why, I never eat breakfast before I run… I guess I was just thrown off by being at a hotel), then went running. I did put up a better-than-average pace, but nothing compared to yesterday. Today was a fun 4 miler (4.02 in 39:33) at a 9:51 pace. While not quite the 8:26 pace I threw down yesterday, 9:51 is still considerably ahead of my norm. The plus today, though, is my HRM didn’t complain nearly as much. I was still out of my target zone a bit,but not as bad as yesterday.

One weird thing did happen though. The loop I’m doing is around a beautiful lake outside my hotel. It is right around 0.62mi in length, and as with any lake it is surrounded by ducks, geese, etc. Usually they mind their own business and leave me alone, and today would have been no exception except for a little doggie. As I was getting near the doggie decided to chase the ducks, which made them want to fly back to the lake, and of course they flew right at me. I did a good job of avoiding them, except the last one decided to ram me in the back of the leg. Not sure if he couldn’t slow down or if my movement confused him and he thought he’d miss since my right leg was going forward, but whatever it was, he got me. I got a good laugh out of it, and can now add “being hit with a flying duck” to my list of running oddities.

Less than 26 days to go until the marathon… I’m ready to tackle it! I’m scheduled for 43 miles this week, and so far I’ve got in 9.03 of that (right on schedule). Tapering sort of begins after this week, so it is really starting to be crunch time!

RunKeeper data

Posted in 99 Days of Training, Training - Tagged 2012, 4mi, 99 Days of Training, awesome, hotel, jog, Lap Log, legacy trail, marathon, mild, morning, outdoor, spring, track, training, travel

99 Days of Training: Day 73

Apr09
2012 Leave a Comment Written by @drose0

8:26. No, that isn’t the time… that is the pace at which I ran tonight. Not just for 1 mile, or 2 miles, but 5 miles. Wow. Back on January 1st I ran a 5-miler in which I thought I was blazing. I ran that 5 miler in 45:35, for a pace of 9:04. Even my PR of a 5k was only at 27:12, or an 8:45 pace. Tonight I would have ran roughly a 26 minute 5k (8:22 pace). Considering my first 5K was about 13 months ago and I ran a 10:30 pace, this is nothing short of amazing.

I’m still amazed at this hours later. Oh, mile 2 was SUB-EIGHT!! I still am at a loss for word,s but this is awesome! This was a regularly scheduled 5 miles, but I wasn’t planning on the speed. I was looking forward to this all day and when I got out there I was just flying. The loop I’m doing is 0.6mi, and going in I was hoping for about a 10:30 pace.. but after I nailed lap 1 at 5:31 I thought this may work. The next 2 laps were exactly 5:01. Then I think a 5:14, 5:25, 5:35 ,and I forgot from there… but regardless that was freaking awesome.

As a reward, I had more Starbucks tonight .

Check out my RunKeeper data for this one…

Posted in 99 Days of Training, Training - Tagged 2012, 5mi, 99 Days of Training, afternoon, awesome, hotel, jog, Lap Log, marathon, outdoor, PR, spring, track, training, travel

99 Days of Training: Day 71

Apr07
2012 Leave a Comment Written by @drose0

It had been a while since I last ran with the Striders. As a matter of fact I believe it was November 19th, to be exact. So today I decided that I was going to get up and join them. I only had 12 miles scheduled so I thought this would be a good one to get in with a group.

This is the first time I had ran on the Polo Club / Dearhaven route and I must say it was gorgeous. Lots of horses, cows, rolling hills and full of the Bluegrass Beauty. We had 11, inclusive of myself, and a 4-legged friend that set out to do various amounts. I was hesitant to get up this morning, as I don’t particularly care for running when the temperature is in the 30s, but I’m glad I did.

Posted in 99 Days of Training, Training - Tagged 2012, 99 Days of Training, group run, marathon, morning, outdoor, spring, training, travel

99 Days of Training: Day 70

Apr06
2012 Leave a Comment Written by @drose0

Well, this is 3 days in a row. As I mentioned yesterday it’d been a substantial amount of time since I ran on back-to-back days… well, it has been even longer since I ran 3 in a row… Going all the way back to February 6-8th. This is completely unacceptable. But, I was back out this morning to throw down another 5 miles. My pace did drop a bit from yesterday, but that is okay… miles are what count on this journey, not time. When I finish my marathon, I’m going to be thrilled about doing so. Thus, the finish is the goal, not a time.

I won’t lie though.. I’m getting nervous. We are under 30 days to go now and it is starting to hit me that I have a lot of work to do. Next week is my last long week of training before the tapering begins. Bad news is I’ll be out of town for work, but the good news is the hotel I’ll be staying has an awesome running trail outside. I literally walk out the door of the hotel and I’m on the trail.

Tomorrow I’m scheduled for an easy 12… I may pick that up a bit to make up for not doing 20 last weekend (though that was because I ran a grueling 13.1). We’ll see how it goes and it may just be a feel of the moment kinda decision.
So, today’s training was 5.00 miles in 55:09 for a pace of 11:02. I’ll take it.

RunKeeper Data
DailyMile Post

Posted in 99 Days of Training, Training - Tagged 2012, 5mi, 99 Days of Training, cold, home, marathon, morning, outdoor, spring, training

99 Days of Training: Day 69

Apr05
2012 Leave a Comment Written by @drose0

Things are progressing again… though I have to ease back into it still. I just realized today makes the first time I’ve ran on back-to-back days since February 28th/29th… that is way too long. My training plan calls for 5 days a week… Monday thru Thursday and Saturday typically. The fact I’ve been 5 weeks without even coming close to that is not great. But, the good news is I’m almost back on track. I should hit my goal for the week this week, and hopefully next week I’ll be doing just as good.

Posted in 99 Days of Training, Training - Tagged 2012, 99 Days of Training, marathon, mild, morning, outdoor, spring, training

99 Days of Training: Day 68

Apr04
2012 Leave a Comment Written by @drose0

I really have to get back in the groove. Thanks to…well, excuses, my training has slacked lately. Time to end that. It isn’t just my running, but my eating, drinking, etc. I have been eating everything in sight (especially the cupcakes I bought for the UK game Monday night)… I’ve not been drinking water as I should (too little water along with too many diet soft drinks)…and I’ve not been running as I should (haven’t really met my weekly goal in over a month). Time is here for change.

Today I got up, against my will, and got in 7.51 miles. My pace was pretty slow, only going at 11:23/mi (1:24:34 total). I’m not worried about pace but I do have to get back in the groove. So, here is my plan.

To combat the running: back to the motto of “butt out of bed, feet on the road”. That is it… if I do that, I will get back in the groove.
To combat the eating: I’m going back to counting calories… this time using MyFitnessPal. I’m sticking to around 2000 calories a day, a bit more on days I run (luckily it’ll track all that for me).
To combat the drinking: just have to force myself to drink more water and less anything else. Time to get back to the roughly 100 ounces a day of water. Also to help out with hydration I’m going to add in some Powerade after any run over 5 miles. Probably unnecessary, but I’ve found in the past that this has helped me tremendously with not keeping everything I drink for days after a long run.

So, time to live up to this. If you see me deviating from these plan, smack me.

Posted in 99 Days of Training, Training - Tagged 2012, 99 Days of Training, calories, diet, hydration, marathon, mild, morning, myfitnesspal, spring, training, weight loss

RunTheBluegrass Race Recap

Mar31
2012 1 Comment Written by @drose0

Wow. That should be the only word needed to describe the RunTheBluegrass Half-Marathon today. The reason I use the word “wow” is because it can be used in combination of many phrases, all of which fully describe the day. For example, “wow, what an amazing event”, or “wow, what a gorgeous course”, or perhaps “wow, there were a TON of people there.” All of these are true, along with “wow, that was challenging” and “wow, that is the hilliest place in town.”. But the bigger wow is “Wow, I just set a Personal Record on a gorgeous, hilly, challenging course and tons of people were there to witness it.” Now granted, they weren’t there to see ME (well, 3 of them were), but it still is an awesome feeling to finish with so many people there.

This event had a different feel to me than my first half, the Iron Horse Half-Marathon (see recap here). I believe it has to do with the fact this time around, my goal isn’t today’s half-marathon, but the full marathon I’m doing in 36 days. This time I wasn’t out to prove to myself that I could do 13.1 miles, because I already had. This time I was out for fun (and a PR if possible), and it made it special in its own way.

Heading out I was still torn on my approach. My logical side told me not to risk injury or fatigue by pushing myself too hard; after all I do have a full marathon in 5 weeks. My competitive side told me “You ran a 2:11:28 your last half…beat that on a harder course and you are marathon ready.” Once I set out I decided to see what I could do. If I beat it, I beat it… if I didn’t, I didn’t. Would I have been disappointed to have had a worse time? Of course. But I also understood this course is much harder, much hillier than the other, so if it didn’t happen then it wouldn’t be for lack of trying.

Posted in Half-Marathons, Races - Tagged 2012, awesome, family, half marathon, outdoor, PR, race, spring, training

99 Days of Training: Day 62

Mar29
2012 Leave a Comment Written by @drose0

Today was just a quick tune up for this weekend’s half-marathon. I just put in 2 miles to kick off the rust. That is the only run I’ve had this week since my big 20-miler on Sunday.

A bit of reflection: Last year I ran the 5K at this race, setting a then-PR of 30’51″. I remember how awesome it was to see all the half-marathoners coming through after I was done that I thought “next year, that will be me.” Well, I underestimated myself because I really thought it’d take me a year to get to 13.1. I was wrong, as I ran the Iron Horse only 6.5 months later. Now, a year later I’m ready for my second half-marathon and will be only 36 days away from my first full upon completion. Amazing things can happen when you prove your self-doubts wrong.

Posted in 99 Days of Training, Training - Tagged 2012, 5k, 99 Days of Training, awesome, half marathon, marathon, PR, race, spring, training

Posts tagged run

99 Days of Training: Day 76

99 Days of Training: Day 75

99 Days of Training: Day 74

99 Days of Training: Day 73

99 Days of Training: Day 70

99 Days of Training: Day 69

99 Days of Training: Day 68

RunTheBluegrass Race Recap

99 Days of Training: Day 62

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