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Sunday, September 27, 2009

Weekly Workout Summary: Monster Dash Week 9, Sept. 21-27

Running Miles:19.25 miles, Avg. Pace 10:09/mile
Workouts: 1 Threshold/Tempo Workout, 1 Easy Run, 1 Long Run

Another disappointing week with only three workouts. I have been really lazy the past few weeks, and I need to pick it up.

Monday (9/21): Rest day

Tuesday (9/22): Rest day (unplanned)

Wednesday (9/23): 45 Min. Tempo Run, 4.85 miles, 44:55 (Avg. Pace 9:16/mile)
Two tempo intervals (15 min. and 14 min.) with 3 min. rest walk/jog between. Still not quite as fast as I'd like for these (I'd prefer around 8:10-8:15), but I have to go with what the heart rate monitor says

Workout Breakdown:
10 min. warm up (gradually increasing pace), 1.11 miles, Avg. Pace 9:01 (a little fast for warm up, oops)
Interval #1: 15 min., 1.77 miles, Avg. Pace 8:27/mile
3 min rest walk/jog, 0.21 miles, Avg. Pace 14:03/mile
Interval #2: 14 min., 1.6 miles, Avg. Pace 8:44/mile
~3 min. cool down (I was in a hurry), 0.16 miles, 18:33/mile

Thursday (9/24): 3.3 mile Easy Run, 36:49 (Avg. Pace 11:08)

Friday (9/25): Rest day

Saturday (9/26): Rest Day

Sunday (9/27): 11.1 mile Long Run, 1:53:35 (Avg. Pace 10:13/mile)
New record for longest run ever. Man these 10+ mile runs are long. Felt pretty good though.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Weekly Workout Summary: Monster Dash Week 8, Sept. 14-20

Running Miles: 27.23 miles, Avg. Pace 9:54/mile
Workouts: 1 Pace Run, 1 Threshold/Tempo, 1 5K Race

I was able to get my mileage back up, although I still only had 4 total runs. Next week I need to have a full 5 runs because this is the last week where I can really pour it on without having a potential detrimental effect on Race Day, Oct. 31. Here is how the workouts broke down:

Monday (9/14): Rest day

Tuesday (9/15): 50 Min. Tempo Run: 5.59 miles, 53:28 (Avg. Pace 9:34)
I cut the tempo intervals down from 3 intervals to 2 and increased the time of each. This was much tougher than I thought it would be (I really expected after two full days of rest and after being able to run in a tempo HR zone for the entire 5K I ran on Saturday that this would seem kind of easy). Good workout.

Workout breakdown:
10 min. warm up, 1.13 miles, Avg. Pace 8:51/mile (a little fast for the warmup, but partly I was building up to the increased speed of the tempo interval and I didn't want my heart and legs to be in shock)
15 min. tempo interval, 1.77 miles, Avg. Pace 8:27
3 min. recovery walk/jog, 0.18 miles, Avg. Pace 16:50/mile
12 min. tempo interval, 1.36 miles, 8:49/mile
13:28 cool down, 1.15 miles, Avg. Pace 11:43/mile

Wednesday (9/16): Rest Day

Thursday (9/17): Rest Day - I was planning on shifting around my rest day from Friday to either Wednesday or Thursday. Turns out I rested on both days.

Friday (9/18): 9x400m Speed Intervals, 7.21 miles, 1:14:02, Avg. Pace10:16/mile
My first speed intervals in a couple weeks, but they went great. I also thought I was supposed to do 9 speed intervals, but it turns out I was only supposed to do 8. Oops, extra work should payoff at the Monster Dash.
15:06 min. warm up - 1.42 miles, Avg. Pace 10:38
Interval Times:
1. 1:33 (6:15/mile pace)
2. 1:42 (6:52 pace)
3. 1:40 (6:41 pace)
4. 1:38 (6:33 pace)
5. 1:41 (6:44 pace)
6. 1:41 (6:45 pace)
7. 1:38 (6:34 pace)
8. 1:41 (6:47 pace)
9. 1:33 (6:13 pace)
12:56 cool down, 1.14 miles, Avg. Pace 11:21/mile

Saturday (9/19): 4.18 Mile easy run, 44:45, Avg. Pace 10:42/mile

Sunday (9/20): 10.25 Mile Long Run, 1:37:07, Avg. Pace 9:28 mile
My first time ever running for double digits. I felt good, but no matter how you slice it, 10 miles is a looooooooo...........ooooooong way. I tried to go at my half-marathon pace for the middle few miles. I had originally planned on trying to go at half-marathon pace for the middle 6 miles, but the hills on my LSD days are brutal, so I ended up scraping that idea partway through. Even though I didn't keep going at this increased pace, I was still able to have every single mile split be below 10 min./mile, and only one split was above 9:40 (Mile 9, which is toward the end and includes the steepest and one of the longest hills of the entire route with very little downhill to compensate). Most splits were around the 9:30 mark, with a few down near the 9:00 mark.

I still don't know about maintaining a 9:00-9:10/mile pace (which is what I need to do to hit my goal of a 2 hour half marathon), but thankfully the Monster Dash won't have anywhere near the size of hills that I run on during my LSD training days.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Weekly Workout Summary: Monster Dash Week 7, Sept. 7-13

Running Miles: 13.75 miles, Avg. Pace 8:56/mile
Workouts: 1 Pace Run, 1 Threshold/Tempo, 1 5K Race
Total Miles:
13.75 miles

This was a planned rest week, so there was a big drop in miles. Even so, I only had three workouts, so this was an especially short mileage week. My PF is still pretty delicate, so I don't feel this was a problem. I'll pick it back up next week. Here is how the workouts broke down:

Monday (9/7): Rest day

Tuesday (9/8): 4.75 Mile Pace Run: 4.75 miles, 42:11 (Avg. Pace 8:52/mile)
A much needed pace run to see where I stand. It had been a couple weeks since my last pace run. Today's run was 3/4 miles farther than that run, and I was able to keep a good average pace.

Wednesday (9/9): Rest Day (unplanned) - life got in the way, so no run

Thursday (9/10): 55 Min. Tempo Run, 5.75 miles, 54:31 (Avg. Pace 9:28)
I didn't technically do a tempo run on Tuesday (my normal tempo day), so I substituted Thursday's speed intervals for another tempo workout. My main reason for this is that I feel running at the lactate threshold is the weakest part of my running, so I need to work on it more than my speed.

Workout breakdown:
10 min. warm up, 1.07 miles, Avg. Pace 9:21/mile
10 min. tempo interval, 1.22 miles, Avg. Pace 8:11
3 min. walk/jog, 0.21 miles, Avg. Pace 14:26/mile
7 min. tempo interval, 0.86 miles, 8:06/mile
3 min. walk/jog, 0.2 miles, 14:54/mile
7 min. tempo interval, 0.87 miles, 8:00/mile
14:31 cool down, 1.31 miles, Avg. Pace 11:03/mile

Friday (9/11): Rest day

Saturday (9/12): James Page Blubber Run 5K, 3.25 miles (I know 5K is actually 3.1, but my Garmin said 3.25 and I look at the GPS track and it is what I ran, so I'm going with 3.25), 26:08, Avg. Pace 8:02/mile

My goal was to get 25 min. or less, and I missed it by quite a bit. I got excited by the crowd and went out way too fast (somewhere around a 6 min. pace for at least the first quarter to half mile) and this killed me later in the race. I knew this already, but I need to force myself to slow down at the start of races. Still not a bad pace and a really good tempo workout.

Sunday (9/13): Rest Day (unplanned) again, life got in the way

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Weekly Workout Summary: Monster Dash Week 6 - Aug. 31-Sept. 6

Running Miles: 28.35 miles, Avg. Pace 10:34/mile
Other: 2 Walks, 4.2 miles
Workouts: 1 Threshold/Tempo, 1 Long Run, 1 speed workout, 2 easy/recovery runs, 2 Walks
Total Miles:
32.55 miles

A big increase in running miles (83.9 %) and total mileage (65.9 %) from last week, but that's because last week ended up being an injury recovery week. It was only a 16.9% increase from my last full week of workouts back in early/mid August. Here is how the workouts broke down:

Monday (8/31): Rest day

Tuesday (9/1): Two Workouts
Tempo intervals + 1 mile Time Trial: 5.51 miles, 55:13 (Avg. Pace 10:01/mile)
10 min. warm up (1.05 miles, Avg. pace 9:31/mile)
1 Mile TT - 7:04 (slower than last time trial, but not by enough to be statistical), Avg. HR 184 (Max HR 188, very close to my supposed Max HR)
3 min. recovery walk (0.15 miles, Avg. Pace 8:11/mile)
2:43 min tempo interval (cut short from 5 min. b/c way too tired from Mile TT): 0.34 miles, Avg. Pace 7:58/mil, Avg. HR 162
3 min. recovery walk/jog (0.18 miles, Avg. Pace 16:45/mile)
7 min. tempo interval - 0.8 miles, Avg. Pace 8:47/mile, Avg. HR 169
3 min. recovery walk/jog (0.18 miles, Avg. Pace 16:17/mile)
7 min. tempo interval - 0.81 miles, Avg. Pace 8:37/mile, Avg. HR 172
12:25 cool down (0.99 miles, Avg. Pace 12:31/mile)

The mile time trial seemed very difficult, even though I was trying to use my Garmin to keep my pace right around the 7 min./mile mark to avoid going out way too fast, as I have done in my prior time trials. Also, because of the mile Time Trial I was totally wiped for the other tempo intervals, so they were not nearly as intense as last weeks. I think next week's tempo workout is actually going to be a 5K, so I will have another sustained tempo workout instead of shorter tempo intervals.

2.9 Mile Walk @ the Minnesota State Fair
Just walking around and eating lots of really fattening foods with Steph at the Fair. Nice break in the middle of the work week.

Wednesday (9/2): 3.67 mile easy run, 38:58, Avg. Pace 10:36/mile
My fastest easy run yet, so maybe I am getting a little fitness improvement. I only forced myself to stay in the low, recovery HR Zone for the first 2.5 miles, so that portion was still pretty slow (around 11:00/mile), and then allowed myself to speed up a little for the last mile+, although still at a fairly low pace (between 9:30 and 9:45/mile)

Thursday (9/3): 7x400m Speed Intervals. 6.22 mi., 1:04:15 (Avg. Pace 10:20)
15 min. warmup (1.42 mile, 14:54, Avg. Pace 10:30)
400m Intervals
1. 1:25 (5:41/mile) 5. 1:39 (6:39/mile)
2. 1:38 (6:32/mile) 6. 1:41 (6:45/mile)
3. 1:33 (6:14/mile) 7. 1:33 (6:16/mile)
4. 1:37 (6:30/mile)

This was my first speed interval workout in 3 weeks (since Aug. 13), so I wasn't expecting that much, but I was able to keep up good paces for each. In fact, I felt like I was going slow in the first interval, but as you can see it was the fastest, and was WAY faster than my goal split of 1:40-1:45. I guess that means I'm getting more fit since I felt slower but was going faster.

Friday (9/4): 1.3 Mile Walk with Steph and Andy (to the park for swinging)

Saturday (9/5): 3.85 Mile Easy Run, 45:41, Avg. Pace 11:51/mile
I finally used the BOB running stroller we bought way back in April as a running stroller (we'd used it tons on walks, but I had never taken Andy running with me yet). It is definitely tougher (you'll notice my average pace is over a minute slower than my last easy run even though I was in the same heart rate zone, and therefore roughly had the same exertion), but it was kind of fun.

Sunday (9/6): 9.1 Mile Long Run, 1:35:16, Avg. Pace 10:28/mile
My longest run ever. It was kind of humid and warm (especially for September), so I wasn't able to go as fast as I would like (and I had to walk a little too), but I made it and that's all I can really ask for.