The BREAK IS OVER!!!

For the past month I have not exercised one bit. Why you ask? One of those running of together events that really put running on the back burner. I had a fishing trip at the end of October with a bunch of the guys down in Ohio. That means lots of fishing, lots of beer and no running. That was to be expected. I also took the last two weeks of November off for deer hunting. Because I had such a large block of time off from work, I had to work twice as much for the first two weeks of the month. As such, I did not run at all during that time. The good news is I caught alot of Walleye on the fishing trip and got a 6 point during hunting. The bad news is I put on about 7 pounds during the process!

I did run today but wont go into the details until the end of the week. That should keep me motivated this first crucial week back to actually run! I dont have any races scheduled until Spring since its going to be snowing here for the next 4 months. While I wont go into detail about the run, suffice to say it sucked at bad as I thought it was going to.

Ill post more at the end of the week though! It is good to be back!

The End of Another Week!!

I should start out my saying I'm in a little trouble this week! Saturday is long run day, but we were unable to run it due to the weather, so we rescheduled for today. I had mapped out a local 8 mile run, but knew it to be verrry hilly and in the worst way. The first 4 miles of the run are basically flat/downhill. There were some inclines, but I wouldn't call them hills. The problem is, the last four miles is basically hills. I warned Corey that this wouldn't be like our normal long run, but she still wanted to do it. I let Corey set the pace for the run, and she pushed the hills the first half, speeding up to a 9:30 - 10:00 pace. The last four miles back though were pretty tough for her. Our pace fell at times, and twice she walked for a minimal amount of time. In the end, we finished the run 4 minutes off the best time for us running together. I told her, with the amount of hills in this run, that is a pretty decent time.

For the week's recap:

Monday - Interval's 10x400 @ around 7:03 pace w/ 45 second recovery in between. Ran 1/2 mile warm up and cool down.

Tuesday - Light Tempo 4 miles in 35:20 (8:50 pace)

Friday - Easy Run 4 miles in 36:11 (9:02 pace)

Sunday - Long Run (Hilly) 8 miles in 1:37:19 (12:09 pace)

Between the Week Thoughts!

Today I ran intervals, but that's not what this post is about. Its about how running is slowly changing my body. When I re-started running a year and a half ago, I was closing in on 220 lbs, and I'm one of those people where the weight gets deposited everywhere! Today, I am usually at around 180 lbs. Now, I haven't lost a pound since the beginning of the year, but changes-a-plenty still abound. My pace has inched upwards throughout the past year and a half, with what I think are huge increases this year in particular. What extra weight I do have is slowly being redistributed from my waist area and I feel a thousand times better than I can remember. My resting heart rate used to be in the mid 70's; its now in the high 50's. According to rough calculation, my max heart rate for my age should be somewhere around 182. It is closer to 192 beats per minute. (I have exceeded 182 on more than a couple occasions; usually on intervals)

The most awesome part of this whole thing though is my wife is now involved with me on our running adventures! Never in a million years did I think she would actually go to Cincinnati to run the Flying Pig 10k. Now, she's itching to sign up for the Flying Pig Half Marathon, pending results from the Grand Rapids Half Marathon we have already signed up for! This, and she has already found out about black toenails! The best part about all of this is we both actually enjoy running (especially long runs together) and the company makes it easier for both of us. I would encourage people interesting in running to get there significant others to "join the craze" with them. What helped us was the destination run in Cincinnati. You are kinda of stuck with it if you commit to the sign up. (unless you don't mind just giving them the money) We had a strong relationship before this running thing; but I think its made our relationship even stronger. We may have gotten a little crazier though too; we were talking destination runs in Hawaii in the other day! Who schedules a vacation around a half or full marathon!? Those crazy runner folks....that's who!

I had mentioned before that I had received a Polar RS800 sd and have posted a few screenshots. I have been nothing but impressed with the unit. It is expensive (mine was $300) but I'm one of those people who like to see graphs of all the information, so it is perfect for me. You get all of the heart-rate, pacing, altitude and calorie expenditure information you could ever ask for. My wife now wants a HRM that will help with the pacing. Go figure! I'll give a more detailed review of the unit in the next couple weeks.

That's really about it! I just was thinking about all of this the past couple days. Who willingly puts themselves through the work of 20-30+ miles per week for fun? (and health) In doing this, who willingly buys pair upon pair of shoes because they are leaving the bottom of the shoes on the road? Who purchases BodyGlide (which I had never heard of before) to put on body area's that start to chafe because your moving for that long. Like I said.....those damn crazy runner folk!

Another Week! Another Race! Another PR!!

My wife, her sister, mother and myself ran the Cherry Festival 5k this morning. It was great and I have a new post high-school PR of 26:45 (unofficial; it might vary 1 or 2 seconds) I was thrilled! As you can see by the Polar output, I pretty much ran it through at the same pace. I by accident stopped the Polar at the 3 mile mark or so, but that didn't affect my race. What did affect it though were two area's. About 3/4 to 1 mile into the race, we had to run through the Civic Center area. It was real tight, and with 2000+ runners, there was some speed up slowing down action. Worse yet, it was rolling through that particular area, so I had to push a little harder to keep the pace up. I usually like to run the first couple miles faster, just in case I find out there isn't enough gas in tank with a 5k. The second area was more detrimental, and you can see where it happened by my heart rate drop towards the end of the race. I got caught up in a pretty good group of people, and one particular slower runner who was all over the road. I lost a good amount of time in that area and recovered OK, but there wasn't enough time or distance left to make up for it. Oh well! I'd say a near 4 minute improvement over last year is good enough!

The week went well, although I missed Thursday's run due to work and didn't want to try and squeeze it in Friday before the race.

Monday - 4 miles @ 8:25 pace
Tuesday - 4.2 miles @ 10:59 pace (felt like crap that day....ate like crap all day though)
Wednesday - 4 miles @ 9:36 pace (felt much better)
Saturday - 3.1 mile race in 26:45 (around 8:35 pace)

The next race isn't until September unless we add another in. We have two in September and two in October. There hasn't been any close races we really wanted to enter in August, but that may be for the better as its the hottest that month. Half marathon training officially starts the end of this month, and we have to start training for a very hilly run in September soon, so intervals will be replaced by hills every other week. (that'll be fun)

Finally...A Solid Week of Running!!

This was a great week for running! I got in all of the running I scheduled, which doesnt happen very often! Not only was I relieved, but it felt great and there were no aches and pains!

Monday - Intervals - 10x400 @ 7:03 pace w/45 sec. recovery.
Wends - 4 miles @ 8:55 average pace
Thursday - 4 miles @ 8:47 pace
Friday - 4 miles @ 9:05 pace
Saturday - 8 miles @ 11:44 pace w/Corey

Like I said, it felt great...even the long run on Saturday; and it was warm again. I plan on keeping the same schedule this week with the exception of doing a tempo run today (Monday) in place of intervals, and keeping the pace somewhat slower. I do have a 5k race on Saturday (National Cherry Festival) and we plan on running back to the car at the finish. (for 6 miles total on Saturday) We then have a long break until the next run in September. We have decided though to add a run in September, the Mackinaw Island 8 mile run around the island. This should be a great training run for the upcoming half in Grand Rapids in October. I start that schedule July 27th although I am already training around the week 5 schedule. I wont add any more mileage until week 7 of that schedule, which calls for a total of about 24 miles for the week. The max mileage is 27 miles, so I'm not too far off of that. The long run is where the increase will come in, with a max distance of 12 miles.

Charlevoix 10k Week!!

Well, I finished the Charlevoix "10k" in 59:22 according to my HRM, which is my best time yet! I checked out my distance with my Polar though, and it was around 6.427 miles. I know that they can be off, but I ran this race much better than any of the others, and was actually a little upset at the 59:22 time. Oh well! All you can do is gauge against the results next year! I did have one problem in the race at a rather long incline just before mile 5. (great place to put that) I ended up walking up some of that. I posted my heartrate log from the run and you can see exactly where that happened. I was surprised it also posted my water-stops, although those are really only visible by the drop in cadence.

Corey did good too, beating her previous best time!

To recap, here is what I did this week:

Monday - 3 mile tempo run - 25:17
Tuesday - Intervals - 10x400 at 7:03 with 45 sec rest
Thursday - 3.5 miles easy - 35:00
Saturday - Charlevoix 10k - 59:22

A Shorter Week...Work Intrudes!

I had to work out of town this week, so I missed two days of running.

Monday - Intervals: 10x400 @ 7:03 pace. Total of 40 minutes with warm-up and cool down as well as 45 second recovery in between 400's.

Tuesday - 4.2 miles at an average of 9:00ish pace. The 1st split @ mile 1 was 9:18 but includes some warmup, the 2nd mile was 9:09, third was 9:05 and 4th was 8:27.

Saturday - 8.2 miles with Corey at the around 11ish pace. It was very warm today (had to near 80) so the run was significantly more difficult at the same pace. We also did not hydrate like we should have. (that won't happen again)

A week from today is the Charlevoix 10k that we are both running in. I'm going to have a look over of the course on Tuesday and see how "rolling" it is. This will be the last 10k race of the season most likely, and we will switch to 5k races through the summer.

Update for the Week!

This is my record retrieved from my new Polar from my 7 mile run on Saturday. I ran with Corey, so we ran an easy pace. She wants to get up to 10 miles non-stop on a run, and I told her the best way was to start off slow and make sure she can do it. She can then worry about how fast she can do it in!

I have decided to start posting blog's once a week instead of everytime I do something related to running; otherwise I would be on here forever. This week, I did the following.

Monday - 4.0 total - 2.5 miles intervals (400x10 @ 7:13) 45 second rest. Warm up/cooldown jog included.

Tuesday - 4.1 miles 41 minutes. Easy run.

Wednesday - 4.1 miles 41 minutes. Started at +10:00 mile and increased speed each mile.

Thursday - 4.0 miles - 39 minutes. Easy run.

Friday - Off

Saturday - 7.0 mile run with Corey. 1 hour and 16 minutes. We could have gone further and faster but didn't want to push it and we were running it together. Hope to add a mile in a week.

I think this schedule is going to work pretty good. I'm going to increase the long runs to 10 miles until the half marathon training kicks in.

Intervals....and they were awful!

Today I did my intervals. Last time, I did 10x400 @ a 7:30 pace with about a minute cooldown in between each one. This time, I did the same 10x400, but @ a 7:13 pace and only 45 seconds cool down in between each. I did my warm up run before; about a 1/2 mile or so @ a 10:00ish pace. I also ran around a half mile after the intervals @ a 10:00 pace. Next time I may go down to a 7:00 pace, but that will be it for awhile. I don't think I go much faster without seriously pushing it. It was hard enough today to do it today.....there was sweat flying around everywhere! We will see what the 7:00 pace does. I haven't really finished the intervals with nothing left, which is where I'd like to be near. I also haven't done intervals every week.....so Ill just have to see how my body handles it.

Tomorrow, an easy 5 mile run is scheduled. (and I mean easy!) with a quicker change up tempo 6 miler on Wednesday, and a 3 mile tempo on Thursday. Friday will be off and Saturday should be an 8 mile long run! I will have the new Polar by tomorrow, but be able to use it until probably Wednesday. Ill have that info, but all of this weeks runs until the weekend will be on the treadmill. I'd rather have the data from an actual outside run.

Update!

I haven't posted in a few days, so thought I would catch up. I was out of town for business, and ran a 5 mile easy run at the hotel on the treadmill June 4th. This went pretty smoothly; I just kept it at a 9:30/min pace. Yesterday, June 6th, I ran 8 miles at a very easy 10/min pace. I wanted to see how far I could go with the pace, and could have gone much further, but didn't want to jump the distance too far in one week. I need to concentrate a little harder on making the long runs on Saturday easier. I have been trying to hammer them out like they are races instead of it just being an easy run.

I mentioned I was getting a new HRM. Well, I finally ordered it and should have it in time (and figured out) for my 6-8 mile run this weekend. My wife and I will probably run a 6.2 mile route through the VASA trail here where I live. Its a pretty hard run, and I want to see if the elevation changes are picked up.

Lastly, a new pic of me at the finish of the Cincinnati Flying Pig has been posted. This course was more rolling then the Bayshore as you can see by the expression when I was done. Next year, I'll run the half marathon there and see if that is similar.

Tempo Six Miler

Today I ran a tempo six miler. I started off at a 9:30 pace and kept increasing it. I ended up with a total of time of 53:22. My best time this year, at least in training was 53:15. I probably could have done a little better, but am supposed to run an easy 5 miles tomorrow and six again on Thursday. (again easy....like 9:30-10:30 a mile) Today's run was a little odd though. My right leg seemed to want to almost fall asleep from 1.5 to about 2.25 miles. This has happened a couple times since I got my new shoes, and usually on the treadmill. Also, my left foot was aching pretty bad up until 3.5 miles, and then the pain mysteriously vanished. Ill have to keep an eye on both things and make sure its not a symptom of something worse.

On a different note, I may have mentioned before, but I usually use a HRM for running. My wife got me a Polar HRM for my birthday this year (I picked it out) and unfortunantly, I didnt do enough research on it. I only used the new one a couple times, so am going to return it and get a Polar RS800 G3. This particular HRM will do just about everything. It has an altimeter in it (and GPS) so you can not only get accurate mileage/pace on a run, but can see how your handling hills and descents and get measurements for those inclines and declines. I will also get the footpod for treadmill training. I cannot wait to try it out! Ill give a rundown of how it works and post one of the graphs you can create in the software that comes with it on the first six miler after I get the watch.

Lastly, I have a picture from Cincinnati's Flying Pig 10k my wife had framed. (1st 10k) Ill see how it will scan in and post it this weekend.

Three Mile Easy Run

I decided to just run three miles easy today. I had all intentions of running six miles, but with the race last week, and the jump in mileage and with the help of the call of nature on my run....I cut it short. This week will be a 23 mile week, with 26 miles or so after.

My wife also got the EA Sports Active "game" for the Wii. Now, this game is geared towards women mostly, but if you set the workout for intense, its pretty intense. Some of the exercises are too easy; anything upper body is because the resistance band that comes with the unit is too weak. That could be fixed by getting another one with more resistance. The lower body stuff though is pretty good. The incline skating routine with jumps is a fairly strenuous workout! I could barely finish it the first time, and then it had me do it a second time! While it could in no way be your only workout, its a good addition to a workout routine, and I think I'll be trying to add it in on my easy days (less than 6 miles) and off days.

Lastly, I posted a picture one of the course photographers had taken at I imagine mile 4. (it was after the turnaround and near the last water stop) As you can see, for some reason I am smiling, which must mean I wasnt going fast enough! I think I just passed my mother-in-law at that point when she was out on the course looking for my wife and I.

Three Mile Easy - Oh....changed my mind!

Today was "supposed" to be my easy three mile run as I have another six or so miler tommorrow. I started off with good intentions, and ran the 1st mile in about 9:30. I decided to speed it up a little bit, and ran the second mile in 8:30. The last mile, I still had alot left, so sped up a little more, and pushed out a 6:59 last mile! A 24:59 total! While this is a far cry from high school days, when 7 min miles were a norm (and a whole lot easier), it is quite a bit better compared to my last 5k race. (30:09) This was the kind of improvement I was hoping for over a year, and exceeded my expectations. Although I hope to be able to hold an 8:00 - 8:30 pace over much longer distances, that will come with longer runs I expect.

Disclaimer - There was Korn, Black Eyed Peas and Marilyn Manson playing during this run on my Ipod!

An Easy 6 miler

Due to my light running week last week, I'm diving right back into my regular running routine. I did 6 miles today in 56:06. Because of the rain today, I ran on the treadmill, and again set the incline @ 2%. I started off at a 9:30ish pace for the first three miles, and then gradually increased the speed as I went along. It was - dare I say it - an enjoyable run! No aches, pains or problems what-so-ever! I plan on a quick 3 miles tomorrow, and then six with my wife on Saturday on the trails.

The rest of our racing schedule is final too and is as follows:

June 27th - Run Charlevoix 10k
July 11th - Cherry Festival 5k
August 1st - Film Festival 5k
September 19th - Harvest Stompede 5k (this is a pretty hard one)
October 10th - VASA 5k
October 18th - Grand Rapids Half Marathon

May 25th - Intervals

I woke up today, ready to tackle an easy six mile run today, when I realized it was Monday. I typically do interval running on Monday's, mainly because it gives me some rest during the week before I do a long run. While I do run throughout the week, its mainly easy runs and maybe shorter tempo runs. I don't especially care for interval running, but know its good for increasing your speed and how fast your body will adapt to faster speeds so I deal with it.

I went out to do 8 x 400 repeats @ a 7:30 pace, or around 1:50 lap time, then walk/jog for half the time in between. (so about 55 seconds) I quickly found out I was probably doing them too slow, and next time will try for a 7:00 pace to see how that goes. I ended up doing 10 x 400 repeats at the 7:30 pace. My heart rate did get up into the 170's but just barely. I recovered down into the high 140's by the start of the next repeat until the last few repeats, when it stayed in the 150's in recovery.

I should note that I like to do my intervals on a treadmill versus a track. To account for the difference, I set the incline on the treadmill to 2%. This is supposed to make up for the lack of wind resistance you have when running on a treadmill, although I still think its easier. My heart rate monitor has a footpod so I can track indoor distances too (outside is GPS). The treadmill is usually within 2.5 - 5%, and it can go either way.

Post race, no bodily problems other than a sore shin, which is expected as I had to get new shoes just before the race. My wife did run into her first issue with chafing, so I'm getting a kick out of that. (I went through it a few times in a couple different places and learned what BodyGlide was real quick) Also, I we did have pictures that were taken about 3/4 of the way through the race; so they should be choice! Ill see if I can get a hold of those and post those later on.

Bayshore 10k

Well, the race is complete and although the official time is not in yet according to my HRM, I came in 59:25, just beating the goal I had set! The course was basically completely flat except for one hill coming back into the college for the finish.

The start was veryyy slow due to the amount of runners for the 10k. It felt like I was held back the first mile, but I was @ a 9:16 pace at that point, so I kept it up. I bounced between 9:00 and 9:30 most of way. I ran negative splits the first three miles with mile one @ a 9:16 pace, mile 2 @ a 9:03 pace, and mile three @ a 9:01 pace. The fourth mile and fifth mile were run @ a 9:41 pace, and the sixth mile was @ a 9:55 pace. I knew I slowed down quite a bit after the turn around but I figured I had time to spare to reach my goal, and almost slowed down too much. I wasn't completely wasted at the end, and was able to push the last 2/10 @ around a 6:30 pace. We will most likely run this course again next year. Its nice to have a course that is flat when they say its flat. The last hill I mentioned is more of a minor nuisance than anything. My wife Corey also beat her previous best 10k time from Cincinnati, and came in @ an unofficial 1:08:00. (yea for Corey!) She also wasn't completely spent after this race which usually is an indication that going faster is possible. I feel pretty good about my time. I know I could have probably finished in 55:00 or so if I would have really, really pushed it but could have also gotten hurt. This is my second 10k, and to improve 6 minutes from the last race is pretty good in my opinion.

Our next race is tentatively the Charlevoix 10k run on June 27th. This course has more hills in it, likely exceeding the Cincinnati 10k we ran at the beginning of May. I think we are going to run the Cherry Festival 5k also, just because it's really flat, and we ran it last year.

Three Mile Easy Run

With the Bayshore 10k on Saturday, I didnt want to push it too hard. Being holed up in a hotel in the Jackson, Michigan area, I decided an outside run wasnt what I had been wishing for. I finished the three miles on the treadmill with a 2% incline in 27:03. I started out easy @ a 9:00 minute mile and just kept it going at that pace. I had alot left at the end, but this was just to keep loose.

The weather forecast for the race isnt preferable by any means. There is rain and some wind in it, but its a 40% chance, so its a coin flip. The temperature is supposed to drop to the comfortable range, and not 80 degrees like today. Ill post the results after the run.

1st Post!

I am creating this blog to document the victories (and probable setbacks) on my quest to run the Grand Rapids Half Marathon in October '09 and eventual Full Marathon in '10, so hopefully this blog becomes something of a story!

To start off, I smoked cigarettes since I was 16 years old. (I am now 37). My wife and I started running to get in shape, but the goal has changed somewhat for myself. I have found it quite therapeutic to run in place of smoking! Being somewhat goal oriented, I have now signed up for the half marathon with the ultimate goal being a marathon. I have run numerous 5k's already and actually, the second 10k of the season is this Saturday at the Bayshore in Traverse City, Michigan. We had already ran the Cincinnati Flying Pig 10k earlier in the month. (time was 1:05; not great but something to work towards)

As I have a race this weekend, I am in a modified taper. I did run 3 miles yesterday in 26:15, which was my goal pace. I do have some soreness in my quads right now due to some weekend work, so am going to lay off running at all for a couple days. I might try an easy 3 mile run on Thursday to stay loose. I am hoping for a time under 1:00, although I hope I didn't jinx it by blogging it. I guess we will know on Saturday!

Like I mentioned, I hope to document this journey, which I would think will take at least a year, since the first goal is the half. I cant be ready for a full marathon by the end of the year with the half in October, so the Bayshore may be my full marathon initiation in '10!

Lastly, as a last edit to my post, I have linked my training program for the half that I start in July. For now, I am going to be running about 25 miles per week on average, depending on race schedules. (we have one 5-10k planned each month this summer) I will be using Hal Higdon's Intermediate training plan, which calls for gradual increases in distance. I have over 12 weeks to prepare for this, so this should ensure I dont end up with some kind of injury.