Week of November 20th, 2006

Thanksgiving week. Goals are to balance out all the food with fitness. A successful holiday week is one that you get in most of your regular workouts, endulge in good food and spend time with family, and hop on the scale Monday to read the same number as last week.

Monday: 8 miles, slightly progressive. Finished with 8x30"on,30" off at 5k pace
Tuesday: 8 miles easy, again finished with 8x30"
Wednesday: Evening 4mile shake out with 4 strides.
Thursday: Bonfield Express Turkey Trot 5k, 17:16. 10miles total
Friday: Day off, busy getting the after thanksgiving deals.
Saturday: 13.5 miles, 7:19avg. This is my first run over 90 minutes in a long time. Legs were sore at the end, but lungs felt good. Maybe 5bpm of drift. Working on getting this to 16miles.
Sunday: 6.5 miles, easy on the treadmill, pretty sore, so I had to slow down.

50 miles total with one short day, and one day off. 60 here we come.

The race on Thursday was not too bad, but 3 seconds slower than a 5k last month. I did have offseason of 2 weeks of no running though, so Im not too worried. 76 miles in the 10 days leading into the race is a lot for me, so I cant complain. I again started a little too fast in the first quarter mile and paid for it. I think my splits were 5:27,5:40, 5:35. The course has some elevation, but not enough to use as an excuse for slowing 13" in the second mile. I ran the course 2 more times afterwards, so including the warmup, 10 miles for the day. I made up for the 10miles with a decent sized plate at Lisa's Thanksgiving, including some Pumpkin Spice Ale, and a Apple Spice Ale. And some crappy $9 white wine. I was nearly in a food coma when we went to Jason's, but I felt I needed a full plate and a couple more beers there. The highlight of day was the stuffing at Lisa's and the Spinach Souffle at Jason's. Mmmm.

Saturday we went out for Lisa's friend's brother's girlfriend's 21st birthday (you got all that). A little too much Vanilla Grey Goose and Coke and dancing postponed the Sunday morning run to sunday night. After the Bears got killed. Who forces 5 turnovers and still manages to lose...lame

Overall a good week. Ordered some spinervals DVD's, hopefully will bring the motivation to get back on the bike. Might do the cross race on sunday, or just focus on the 60mile target.

Week of November 13th, 2006

The road to run durability is long, and boring sometimes, and cold. But, I hit a lifetime high of 56 miles this week. On the flipside, the only training outside of running was a short trainer ride. I will slowly add in other training as I become more comfortable with the higher run milage. I am planning on 5 more weeks of 60 miles before I move on.

Monday, 8.6 miles Easy
Tuesday,8.2 miles Easy
Wednesday, 8 miles Easy (GPS not working)
Thursday, 8 miles Easy
Friday, 7.89 miles Easy
Saturday, 50minutes Trainer 15min@ 232 watts, 10min @ 230 watts (IM Goal Wattage), 8 miles Treadmill
Sunday, 8 miles treadmil, 30' pickup @ 5:20 pace

Having a hard time pushing on the trainer, maybe boredom, maybe lost FT fitness. We'll see.
AF

Week of November 6th, 2006

The off-season is over, and its time to get off the booze, cigarettes, and late nights, for the most part. I will miss White Castle and Whiskey Cokes the most, but I will strive to keep a balance of race goals, recreation, and not abandoning friends and family.

The goal for the next few weeks is to build run durability via frequency, which will by definition raise volume. Cycling will be on the trainer for the most part, with the occasional outside ride (I am a big wuss for cold riding). Masters swimming starts back up

Monday: 6.25 miles, heart rate very high for what was a moderate pace.
Tuesday: 6.25 miles, same feeling as Monday, 7:30ish pace at 160 HR, weird.
Wednesday: 6.25 miles, focused on keeping HR below 150, regardless of pace.
Thursday: AM ride on cyclocross bike, 6x90" at LT, 30" rest. Felt good. Played some pickup basketball at lunch, but the potential for injury is too high, never again.
Friday: 8 miles, back to normal HR, ~150bpm for 7:25 pace.
Saturday: Nothing, its the first week of the season, I deserve a day off.
Sunday: Cyclocross race, 170HR average, 55 minutes.

Bos, Gatto, Firak, and I were all in the 3's race. 27 starters.
Right away the field split to 3 main groups, the Gatto group was off the front within the first 2 minutes. Bos and I were in the second group, with Bos doing most of the work. Firak broke his chain on the first hill and spent the race spectating. I was fighting to stay in the second group, for a few laps, capping out at 184 HR. Oops. I drifted back to the third group were I was comfortable sitting in and taking a few pulls. The long straight on the last lap I was sitting 4th in our group, I brought my cadence up to ~100rpm, and at the final turn, 100m I shifted down and brought it to the line, winning the "field sprint" for 11th overall. Bos got 9th, Gatto 4th. Overall I was pretty happy for my first cross race, I thought it was harder than a 3's criterium. I'll try again in a few weeks at Montrose, hopefully some time on the bike in the next few weeks will at least let me be a little more comfortable with the effort.