Thursday, November 17, 2011

Thursday Speedwork Day

Today's plan calls for a Speedwork Run.

DC Bike Path: 1/2 Marathon Training, Speedwork. Dist: (7.58)mi. Pace-avg: (15:37). Speed-avg: (3.8)mph. Speed-max: (5.2)mph. Burned: (822) Calories. Running lights.


Plan: Run (6)mi. including (3x) repeats of (1600) meters @ a (14:08) pace, with (800) meter jogs in-between each repeat. Actual: Jogged (6)mi. with (3x) repeats of (1600) meters @ (13:13), (13:09) and (13:23) pace, with (3x) (800) meter recovery jogs, and bracketed by a (1.0)mi. warm-up walk, and a (1.14)mi. cool-down walk.
Fuel: Pre-run: GU Energy Gel (Strawberry-Banana); Mid-run: water; Post-run: Banana-Chocolate-Honey smoothie.

I really wish I had done this run before sundown. It was (56) deg.F. when I started out tonight, and it's only down to (53) deg.F. now. The ambient humidity, and some intermittent cloud cover tonight, seemed to keep the temps up enough to be just right. One blog buddy suggested that mid-50 degree temps are tank top and shorts weather, but I have to disagree: I appear to have poor circulation and my hands and feet are always cold, so I like to bundle up more to stay warm.

Tonight's run went much better than expected: I exceeded the planned pace for each repeat, and that makes me very happy. I am not too sore from running, although I hot spot on my left instep from Sunday seems to continue to ache for some reason. During Sunday's long run I had to stop and tighten my shoe-laces a couple of times. I may have left the laces too loose when I first headed out the door that night and I ended up with chaffing on both insteps; that made me very unhappy. Once I had stopped running and switched to a fast-walk for the remainder of Sunday's long run, my legs began to tighten up and continued to ache for the remainder of the workout. I was practically limping by the end.

Tonight, despite the achy spot on my left foot, I was able to keep up a pretty good pace during the repeats. If I can continue to improve on that over the coming months I hope to reduce my overall pace. I am definitely looking forward to that. I am hoping to improve quite a bit over my PR at the 2011 Bay to Breakers, perhaps even as much as getting my completion time down to (1:30) hrs.

I realize I skipped a couple of runs this week already, but my feet needed more recovery time from Sunday's long run than I expected. It was worth it.

Other News: I have decided not to run the Las Vegas Strip At Night this year. Based on my long run from this past Sunday I need more road time to condition my feet for the longer distance called for in running a half-marathon. My earlier set-back from the broken toe is one of the reasons, plus my continued unemployment, which needs to be remedied post-haste (still). I think I will register for the Modesto Marathon for next year, and run the half-marathon in that event. I may try for an earlier half-marathon if my continued training gets me to a point I can run (jog) for (13.1) consecutive miles. I will still try and run (13.1) miles on 4th December and just do it on my home training course, rather than Las Vegas. It'll still count towards my overall training. B-)

-Lancer!!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Sunday Long Run No.13

Today's plan calls for a Long Run.

DC Bike Path: 1/2 Marathon Training, Long Run. Dist: (14.88)mi. Pace-avg: (18:00). Speed-avg: (3.3)mph. Speed-max: (4.7)mph. Burned: (1595) Calories. Running lights.

Plan: Run (13)mi. @ a (16:44) pace for a total of (3:37:42)hrs.
Actual: Jogged/walked (13.0)mi. @ a (17:51) avg. pace for a total of (3:52:05.66)hrs., bracketed by a (1.0)mi. warm-up walk, and a (0.88)mi. cool-down walk.
Fuel: Pre-run: Glass of Gatorade (Fruit Punch); Mid-run: PowerBar Energy Gel (Banana-Strawberry), Honey Stinger Chews (Orange Blossom), Sport Beans (Grape); Post-run: GU Energy Gel (Mandarin Orange).

Ouch. Today's run was actually painful. It started out pretty good, but the last half was all pain. I jogged (7.0) consecutive miles, maintaining a pace between (14:59) and (16:31) for those seven miles, but then was overcome by pain in my left foot again, between my 2nd, 3rd and 4th toes at the ball of my foot. The last time this happened I had skipped all my runs during the week, then ran my long run (and did not finish). This week I again skipped all my training runs, then over-confidently went out for my long run. Clearly, I need the weekly build up to help maintain my running gains, so I will avoid ditching out on any training runs in the future.

I am still not signed up for the Las Vegas Strip At Night run in December, and after tonight's run I am thinking strongly of pushing back my half-marathon race till later in December, or maybe even January, so I can make up some of my lost training time from September/October; I also need to get in more strength training in the gym.

Friday afternoon I went shopping at On The Run again, and actually bought something: a Saucony Epic Run Vest. I wore it for the first time tonight, and it helped keep the chill off, though I did have to throw on my running shell, too, on the return leg of my run. The two (2) front pockets on the vest offered good storage space: I kept my running lights and my ninja hood in the pockets till after sundown, so I didn't have to carry them in my hands, or put them on my running belt; bonus. The vest also has a media pocket, and a hole for the earphone cord on the inside of the vest. The reflective surface on the Saucony vest appears to be pretty substantial, compared to the Brooks Essential Run Vest I had been looking at previously. Another bonus: the Saucony vest has a clip-on USB-LED light that can be recharged by plugging it into a USB port. It was much brighter than I expected.

Tonight's run started out at about (65) deg. F. with the sun nice and bright, then dropped down to (50) deg. F. by the time I got home four and a half hours later.

-Lancer!!