Marathon Training (Week 3)

Another week for the books. This was a down week and felt really nice to recovery all throughout the week. I got a good 60 hours of sleep this week, and still managed to get some work done towards my Master's Thesis. This week only had one real workout on the track, and an "easy" long run on sunday. All and all, it was a good week and now I'm already into full swing towards another "up" week.

Mon - off day

Tue - am. 10 easy / pm. 8 easy

Wed - am. 12 easy / pm. 4 easy

Thur - am. 10x1000m (3:09, 3:07, 3:06, 3:07, 3:03, 3:05, 3:02, 3:00, 2:59, 2:54) total 14 / pm. 4 easy

Fri - am. 12 easy / pm. 4 easy

Sat - am. 9 med / pm. 6 easy

Sun - am. 21 med/easy

Total: 104

Marathon Training (Week 2)

Well... another good week under my belt. This week topped out at 122 miles for the week for the 2nd week of this 18 week cycle (that's a lot of "week" words in there). It seems to be going very well with my trusty Daniel's Running Formula at my side, along with the support of our Dukes Track Club runners! This week, aside from miles, were two major workouts: 10x800 meters with 400m jog recovery on Thursday, and a Long Run with 5x1 miles at Tempo pace/effort; since we're at altitude, on sunday.

The 800's went well as we averaged 2:23.8 starting at 2:30 and coming down to 2:15 for the last one. Then friday came, and a couple of us decided to head up to Taos for a nice midday run through the busy tourist ski town. It was hot, and none of the trials were open as Chris Peverada and I ran on some side roads. Unfortunately, this side road took us straight towards the Taos Pueblo. Once we got to the entrance of their Pueblo with a Native Taos Pueblo Indian directing traffic and collecting money for parking, we decided to turn around and head out. But, we were quickly stopped, as we are not allowed to: walk, run, or ride bikes on the Taos Pueblo land. We had to wait 40 minutes for public transportation to take us off their "land". Once that ordeal was over, we finished our run around town and called it a day with only 8 miles in. I was livid! So, sunday finally came along and a decent group of us did our long run tempo workout. 20 miles total with a 4 mile warm-up before the fun began. Four of us worked together for about 3 1/2 of the 5 miles. The first one was hit in 5:29, then 5:23, 5:17, 5:17 and 5:08 for the last one. This was all done on the Bosque Bike Path by the river, so it was flat and nice. Once we finished our tempo, we ran 1/4 mile to make the total distance of 10 miles from where we started. We had a nice 10 mile cool down back to end the week.

All in all, it's another great week, with a recovery week coming starting on monday.

Mon- easy 10

Tue- am. easy 10/ pm. easy 8 w/4xstrides

Wed- am. easy 12/ pm. easy 6

Thur- am. 10x800m total: 11 / pm. easy 8

Fri- am. easy 8 / pm. easy 10

Sat- am med/easy 11 / pm. easy 8

Sun- am 2o miles w/5x1 miles @ tempo w/1min rec.

Total: 122

Marathon Training 18 weeks till NYC (week 1)

So, last week was a great week of training with some good workouts in it. I had to reassess my mileage plan since our new roommate Chris Peverada moved in with an all time high mileage count of 229 miles for a week. So, I had originally planned my peak mileage to be 120 miles with my first week of marathon training at 95 miles... That changed in mid week. I had one track session of 16x400m on thursday and a long run with 4x2 miles at tempo pace/effort. I increased my easy runs and got to 118 miles last week for my first week of marathon specific training.

It felt pretty good as I was only going to hit that mileage 3 times during my previous marathon plan. This plan is going to be great with a few half marathons leading up to NYC marathon! I'm hoping to hit the OT marathon qualifier in either a half or in the full this coming fall. We shall see how it pans out as I'll try to post weekly reflections on my training. As of now, its going well, and I already feel strong. Looking to run very fast this coming fall, thanks to Jack Daniels the PhD. guy, not the drink. His training has influenced me, and my 18 week build up for New York City is based on his running formula.

Another Week

I've finally got some decent mileage in and can't wait to get ready for a good marathon build up for the fall. I've only got the rest of this month to mess around with mileage and whatever races I feel like doing until I'll follow a specific Jack Daniels Marathon plan that I devised, which will not involve drinking heavily amounts of the Brand Whisky... I believe it's going to force me to train specially for the marathon and not allow me to venture off on another tangent of random races; which I've done in the past and ended a "season" on a marathon. This time, starting July, I'll just pound our marathon workouts, and the end goal will be a nice race finishing in Central Park in November.

Although, this week didn't go as well as I'd liked, I still got some good workouts in. The track workout on tuesday was a pleasant taste of some speed, which I haven't touched in a very long time. My tempo workout on friday was a little hectic as a large forest fire in easter Arizona created massive smoke inhalation throughout New Mexico. This forced me to save my lungs form inundating them with smoke, and move my tempo workout onto the treadmill. This wasn't something I was completely pleased about, but it was kind of nice to try something new. I just ran 6 miles at tempo effort, and it went really well as I started off at 5:40 and came down to 5:22. I averaged 5:34 pretty comfortably, and was very happy with that. Although, this hard effort would take its unknowingly toll on my long run on sunday with some of the guys. That long run was only 17 miles; the longest I've run since my injury, and by the time we hit 14 miles, I started to fade as the rest of the gang started to hit their stride and drop some quicker miles on me. Nevertheless, I was still happy with it and will continue to increase my mileage as the USA Outdoor Championships approach.

Getting in the Groove of things

Things are starting to feel better on/in my knee. I know it is not 100% healthy, but its getting there. I've been slowly increasing my mileage and using some local races as workouts. But, I think I'll start to incorporate some workouts in the next few weeks. It's starting to feel good to just run more, but I can feel the lack of fitness in me, so proper workouts will help throughout the next few weeks.

Kris, Fristoe and I figured out a good marathon schedule that will lead us to the New York Marathon in November. We will do a couple of half marathons here and there, but my main focus is going to be a huge PR in New York! It would be nice to run a fast half marathon this fall and hit the USA Olympic Trials Standard, but we shall see how things turn out.

A few key points to recovery; in my opinion, have been using a rope for Isolated Stretching. This method of stretching has seemed to lengthen some of my quad and hamstring muscles and lessened the tightness on my kneecap. I've also used a variety of Acupuncturist/Eastern Doctors here in town. One lady; Judy Lui, used a machine called ONDAMED, which is complicated enough to explain, except that Paula Radcliffe sought her out to be treated by that same machine. Another Eastern Doctor/Acupuncturist named Karla Koch has been really great! So all in all, I should be 100% soon, and my confidence in my health and the help I've received from these wonderful people is greatly appreciated!