Note the title for today's blog entry. These are wise words spoken by Mr. Dave Poole owner of Aerocat Bikes. I had planned on running both Saturday and Sunday this weekend but yesterday left me tired and run down after Friday's speed session. So, I reflected on Dave's comment on my FB post the other day and decided that resting on Saturday was probably the smart thing to do! Well, next weekend is the mini and for this week I'm forgetting that I have a marathon coming up. Forget the daily 8 to 10 mile runs...this is taper week! I will log very few miles this week.
The last few weeks have been great for racing and training. A few weeks ago I ran the Give me a 5K race and ended up wining and set a PR for the 5K. The following weekend I ran a 15K race and again won as well as set another PR. 3 races this spring and 3 PR's. It's not luck but just hard focused training. I've dedicated the first half of this year to just running and it's paying off in a big way. I hope this 'payoff' continues for the Indy Mini as well as the Carmel Marathon. I'm having a great time preparing for the Carmel Marathon and have realized that running is my true fitness passion.
But beyond running well and winning races and PR's is the state of our fitness overall as a community. I'm talking about Delaware County and Muncie in particular. We are near the bottom of the heap when it comes to fitness. Not everyone needs to go out and train like crazy and race every other weekend. Just getting out there are moving for 30 minutes is a great start. People like Chris Day and other members of the Yorktown Run Club really inspire me in what they've done and I wish more people would just try to get more active. Kudos to the YRC for what they have done for increasing fitness levels and awareness for the community.
Well, that's about it for now. I'll post up a race report next week from the Mini...hopefully it will be a good one!
Keep moving!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Another Update
Well a lot has transpired the last two weeks! I'm back into a good training pattern after my feet started feeling better these last two weeks. My right foot/ankle is 100% now and my left foot still is a little tender at times but I'd put it at 95%+ which won't change my training at all. I was having some odd knee pain in the right knee but that seems to have gone away with slight adjustments on those tender days.
If you're in need of taping up a knee or ankle then you have to checkout this KT Tape (http://www.kttape.com/index.php). This stuff is great! I wrapped my right knee up last weekend to race a 10K and had absolutely no pain or discomfort from the tape. You can find it locally at Duhnam's Sporting Goods...an no they didn't pay me to promote this...the stuff is just plain good!
Now onto the 10K! I knew I had a chance of beating my previous best of 36:47 but had no idea what I was going to run at the Shamrock 10K in Muncie on 3/19. I toed the line with BSU Tri club member Gardner Burg and we both knew it was going to be a good race. Gardner and I pushed each other through 5 miles when he put a little bit of a lead on me. I started gaining on him the last half mile and ended up just 3 seconds short of catching him. We both PR'd with Gardner running a 35:42 and I ended up with a 35:45. I was very happy with this time! I think I can run faster though with better managing the first couple of miles...we came through mile 1 at 5:26!
The next day (3/20) I decided to back off on only ran 12 miles to give myself a little rest as I knew this coming week would be a big one. I really got in some good quality training this past week. Each run was 8 miles with varied pacing throughout the week. Thursday was the tough speed day with another 8 mile run consisting of a mile warm up, 5 X 1 mile runs at / below 10K race pace with .5 mile jogs in between. The last mile was run @ 6:01 which I'm hoping may be close to what I'm planning on running the Indy Mini in. Friday was an easy day and Saturday I rode my bike on the trainer for an hour for some cross training. Sunday capped off the 50 mile week with an 18 mile run that was pretty darn cold but very good. Everything felt good for the entire run!
I'll try to update a little more often than two week! Run hard folks!
If you're in need of taping up a knee or ankle then you have to checkout this KT Tape (http://www.kttape.com/index.php). This stuff is great! I wrapped my right knee up last weekend to race a 10K and had absolutely no pain or discomfort from the tape. You can find it locally at Duhnam's Sporting Goods...an no they didn't pay me to promote this...the stuff is just plain good!
Now onto the 10K! I knew I had a chance of beating my previous best of 36:47 but had no idea what I was going to run at the Shamrock 10K in Muncie on 3/19. I toed the line with BSU Tri club member Gardner Burg and we both knew it was going to be a good race. Gardner and I pushed each other through 5 miles when he put a little bit of a lead on me. I started gaining on him the last half mile and ended up just 3 seconds short of catching him. We both PR'd with Gardner running a 35:42 and I ended up with a 35:45. I was very happy with this time! I think I can run faster though with better managing the first couple of miles...we came through mile 1 at 5:26!
The next day (3/20) I decided to back off on only ran 12 miles to give myself a little rest as I knew this coming week would be a big one. I really got in some good quality training this past week. Each run was 8 miles with varied pacing throughout the week. Thursday was the tough speed day with another 8 mile run consisting of a mile warm up, 5 X 1 mile runs at / below 10K race pace with .5 mile jogs in between. The last mile was run @ 6:01 which I'm hoping may be close to what I'm planning on running the Indy Mini in. Friday was an easy day and Saturday I rode my bike on the trainer for an hour for some cross training. Sunday capped off the 50 mile week with an 18 mile run that was pretty darn cold but very good. Everything felt good for the entire run!
I'll try to update a little more often than two week! Run hard folks!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Back on Track!
The past week or so I've had to ease in and out of running. The previous week I cut my running short due to both of my feet being sore. I think my left foot was sore due to running too many miles in my shoes. My left foot has been sore for the last week because of rolling my ankle after coming down on a small branch during a speed workout. Well, I added in some healing time and switched to a new pair of shoes and I'm at about 90% on both feet which is good! Last week I only ran 32 miles but this week I got in some good quality runs and topped out at 45 miles.
My speed work and marathon pace runs are right on target if not a little ahead of where they should be. This is a great sign but I don't want to get too confident as there's a long way to go before June! Now I just need to run smart and ease off when there's an issue and train hard when I'm feeling good. I'm starting to think about a nutrition plan for the marathon which is probably where I messed up last time. I'm leaning towards just relying on gels and water...no gatorade this time. When I start getting up into the high teens long runs I'll experiment and see how my body reacts to this.
Today's run was the best run I've had this week. I ran 15 miles and started out with a nice easy pace. For about 8 or so miles I kept the pace at about a 7:10. From there I settled in around 7 to 7:05 for a few more miles. At Mile 12 I ramped up the pace and finished up the run with the last 3 miles averaging about 6:35 for a faster finish. All in all not too bad and very little foot discomfort.
Finally, I need to decide which pair of shoes to wear for the marathon. I'll most likely be done with my second pair of Newtons long before the marathon so I'll need to decide whether to stick with those or try something else. I've ordered two more pair of shoes to try out. In the mail are a pair of Saucony Kinvara and a pair of Saucony Mirage. I'm going to try the duo and train in the Mirage and race in the Kinvara's to see how well they feel. There's a couple of 5 and 10k races coming up so I'll get a chance to try these out. I ran on a treadmill with both of those shoes at a running store a week ago and they both felt like fast shoes. I'm hoping these can be my marathon shoes! We'll see!
Keep running folks!
My speed work and marathon pace runs are right on target if not a little ahead of where they should be. This is a great sign but I don't want to get too confident as there's a long way to go before June! Now I just need to run smart and ease off when there's an issue and train hard when I'm feeling good. I'm starting to think about a nutrition plan for the marathon which is probably where I messed up last time. I'm leaning towards just relying on gels and water...no gatorade this time. When I start getting up into the high teens long runs I'll experiment and see how my body reacts to this.
Today's run was the best run I've had this week. I ran 15 miles and started out with a nice easy pace. For about 8 or so miles I kept the pace at about a 7:10. From there I settled in around 7 to 7:05 for a few more miles. At Mile 12 I ramped up the pace and finished up the run with the last 3 miles averaging about 6:35 for a faster finish. All in all not too bad and very little foot discomfort.
Finally, I need to decide which pair of shoes to wear for the marathon. I'll most likely be done with my second pair of Newtons long before the marathon so I'll need to decide whether to stick with those or try something else. I've ordered two more pair of shoes to try out. In the mail are a pair of Saucony Kinvara and a pair of Saucony Mirage. I'm going to try the duo and train in the Mirage and race in the Kinvara's to see how well they feel. There's a couple of 5 and 10k races coming up so I'll get a chance to try these out. I ran on a treadmill with both of those shoes at a running store a week ago and they both felt like fast shoes. I'm hoping these can be my marathon shoes! We'll see!
Keep running folks!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
1st Week of official marathon training done.
I had a great week of training to cap off the first week of my marathon plan. I ran 47 miles and swam 5200 yards this week. I'm going to try and work in some biking as well. I'll probably cut down to just 1 swim a week and 1 bike per week with running making up the rest. I don't have any races planned other than running leading up to the marathon.. I'm hoping that concentrating on the run will better my chances of breaking 3 hours for the marathon.
My speed work this week told me I'm slightly ahead of where I should be so this is a good sign. I've hit 508 miles on my first pair of Newtons and they are done. My feet were killing me today on the 14 mile run so it's time to break out a new pair. This does present a bit of a problem though. I'll most likely burn through this next pair of shoes well before June 11th and I'm not sure that the Newtons are worth the extra cost. However, I soon have to decide if I need to start working in another type of shoes or bite the bullet and purchase another pair of Newtons @ $175!
I'm going to try and get down to Runner's Forum and try out some different shoes before too long.
My speed work this week told me I'm slightly ahead of where I should be so this is a good sign. I've hit 508 miles on my first pair of Newtons and they are done. My feet were killing me today on the 14 mile run so it's time to break out a new pair. This does present a bit of a problem though. I'll most likely burn through this next pair of shoes well before June 11th and I'm not sure that the Newtons are worth the extra cost. However, I soon have to decide if I need to start working in another type of shoes or bite the bullet and purchase another pair of Newtons @ $175!
I'm going to try and get down to Runner's Forum and try out some different shoes before too long.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
And so it begins...
Well, I just started 16 weeks of training for the inagural Carmel Marathon. Follow me on the journey as I attempt to run under 3 hours in order to get a guaranteed spot in the 2012 Boston Marathon. In order to run uder 3 hours I must maintain a 6:47 pace over 26.2 miles.
According to the Runner's World calculator I should be able to run a 2:44 which is a 6:16 pace! Well, I don't know about that one but I should be able to run anywhere from 2:50 to 3:00 however I'll train like I'm shooting for the 2:44! Now the McMillin calculator has me at a more reasonable 2:52!
My first official training run was a 12 mile run at a 7:10 pace. This felt very slow and way too easy. That's a good thing! I'm used to running in the 6:40's for a relaxed run of that distance so hopefully I'm off to a great start! The run was uneventful however it was raining and sleeting for most of it but nothing too bad.
For right now I'm following the Runner's World personal plan but I'm also looking at McMillin, Higdon, and even the Hansons Brothers brutal programs or a hybrid of several of these. I'll focus in on one plan within a week though.
According to the Runner's World calculator I should be able to run a 2:44 which is a 6:16 pace! Well, I don't know about that one but I should be able to run anywhere from 2:50 to 3:00 however I'll train like I'm shooting for the 2:44! Now the McMillin calculator has me at a more reasonable 2:52!
My first official training run was a 12 mile run at a 7:10 pace. This felt very slow and way too easy. That's a good thing! I'm used to running in the 6:40's for a relaxed run of that distance so hopefully I'm off to a great start! The run was uneventful however it was raining and sleeting for most of it but nothing too bad.
For right now I'm following the Runner's World personal plan but I'm also looking at McMillin, Higdon, and even the Hansons Brothers brutal programs or a hybrid of several of these. I'll focus in on one plan within a week though.
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