Re: The 3rd time's a charm!

mul21 Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:07 am

So now that I've got almost a full page of blog, I guess we can discuss my first run of the cycle! Last night was just an easy 6 miles with 8 x 10 second hill sprints. I averaged right around 9:01 pace and my HR was hovering around/under 140 for the most part. Looks like an 8 mile GA run is on the schedule for tonight.

Kenny B. Tue Jun 21, 2011 1:40 pm

mul21 wrote:So now that I've got almost a full page of blog, I guess we can discuss my first run of the cycle! Last night was just an easy 6 miles with 8 x 10 second hill sprints. I averaged right around 9:01 pace and my HR was hovering around/under 140 for the most part. Looks like an 8 mile GA run is on the schedule for tonight.

Good start. Enjoy the GA tonight.

mul21 Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:23 pm

It was a solid run tonight despite feeling a little light headed for a bit because I ran too soon after I ate. Knocked out 8 miles and averaged 7:43 pace. Kind of crazy that that's just a GA run when 6 months ago I couldn't hold that for a marathon pace.

I've been fighting a slight niggle in my right quad, which I think came from a relatively hard 10 miler last Friday in my NB905s that are just about shot. I've been massaging it with Bio-Freeze every night and it seems to be under control and didn't bother me much tonight during or after the run. One more night of that and I should be pretty much good to go. 10 on tap tomorrow night and I'll be almost halfway to my planned 50 for the week.

Kenny B. Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:31 pm

Great run I hear ya on GA being your old mp. Same here ga is about 7:55 -8:00 old mp from last cycle. Whats mp for you now? Ill be around 7:35 when I start cycle'

Dave-O Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:36 pm

Love seeing those GA paces dropping baby.

mul21 Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:42 pm

Kenny B. wrote:Great run I hear ya on GA being your old mp. Same here ga is about 7:55 -8:00 old mp from last cycle. Whats mp for you now? Ill be around 7:35 when I start cycle'

GULP! 7:05-7:10 probably. God, that just scares the crap out of me to type it!

ChasMcG Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:50 pm

Just catching up! 44 seconds? That's awesome and I know you can shave that especially if the weather cooperates. Chicago is bound to have a great year! I've been to two HOT ones and one reeeally cold one.

Good luck!

mul21 Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:52 pm

ChasMcG wrote:Just catching up! 44 seconds? That's awesome and I know you can shave that especially if the weather cooperates. Chicago is bound to have a great year! I've been to two HOT ones and one reeeally cold one.

Good luck!

Thanks Chas! Unfortunately, it's now 6:44 with the changes to the Boston Qualifying standards, but Dave seems to think I've got it in me, and who am I to doubt him! I know I can get in under 3:10 if I stay healthy, it's just a matter of getting the miles in.

JohnP Wed Jun 22, 2011 10:21 pm

mul21 wrote:I'm running Chicago for the third time this year. The first year it was 30 degrees at the start, last year it was 80 at the finish, and I'm hoping this year we'll find some nice middle ground. This will also be my second attempt at a BQ, and while I fell 44 seconds short in my last attempt, I doubt that would have gotten me in for 2012 anyway. I haven't picked a specific time goal for Chicago other than getting in under 3:10 to most likely guarantee me a spot at the line in Hopkinton in 2013.

I'll be training under the watchful and experienced eye of Dave-O again, so I suspect I'll be seeing lots of 10 mile tempos followed by a sort of long run in the middle of the week. Probably the most dreaded workout I'll see are the 16 w/12 at MP and 18 w/14 at MP, but really the rest of the workouts themselves don't ever seem that bad, but the accumulated fatigue from all the miles gets to me here and there.

I haven't done anything earth shattering since the end of the last cycle, but did get in some solid speed work and finally got back under 20 for the 5K. I haven't gotten past the 40 mile mark, but assuming I get in my last 2 planned runs for this week, I'll get to 45 this week and have a decent foundation for whatever Dave throws at me.

Happy running everybody and I'll see a bunch of you in Chicago!

Good luck in the training, and especially in the fall weather, Jim. Like you, it seems most individual runs aren't too bad, it's the accumulated fatigue. An occasional rest day helps there. 3:10 is really an impressive time, I think you'll get there.

Mike MacLellan Wed Jun 22, 2011 10:46 pm

Jim, just checking in. I remember my first MP run with 7:10s as my pace. It was 3 miles (maybe 4?) at MP and I thought I was going to die. With a GA pace of 7:4x, you've got it in you.

Tom H Wed Jun 22, 2011 10:51 pm

mul21 wrote:
Kenny B. wrote:Great run I hear ya on GA being your old mp. Same here ga is about 7:55 -8:00 old mp from last cycle. Whats mp for you now? Ill be around 7:35 when I start cycle'

GULP! 7:05-7:10 probably. God, that just scares the crap out of me to type it!

Two words. Holy Crap!!

John Kilpatrick Wed Jun 22, 2011 11:04 pm

Tom H wrote:
mul21 wrote:
Kenny B. wrote:Great run I hear ya on GA being your old mp. Same here ga is about 7:55 -8:00 old mp from last cycle. Whats mp for you now? Ill be around 7:35 when I start cycle'

GULP! 7:05-7:10 probably. God, that just scares the crap out of me to type it!

Two words. Holy Crap!!

+1

Good start so far!

mul21 Thu Jun 23, 2011 9:30 am

Mike MacLellan wrote:Jim, just checking in. I remember my first MP run with 7:10s as my pace. It was 3 miles (maybe 4?) at MP and I thought I was going to die. With a GA pace of 7:4x, you've got it in you.

Yeah, those pace runs (or the thought of them) early in the cycle can be daunting, but by week 12 or 13, they're tough but manageable. What's your next goal MP? Just getting under 3:00 or something more ambitious?

John Kilpatrick wrote:
Tom H wrote:
mul21 wrote:
Kenny B. wrote:Great run I hear ya on GA being your old mp. Same here ga is about 7:55 -8:00 old mp from last cycle. Whats mp for you now? Ill be around 7:35 when I start cycle'

GULP! 7:05-7:10 probably. God, that just scares the crap out of me to type it!

Two words. Holy Crap!!

+1

Good start so far!

Yep, that's about how I feel about it right now Tom and John!

mul21 Thu Jun 23, 2011 9:38 am

Last night's run was just one of those those slog through and get to the end of it in one piece. I thought it was strange that I was struggling a little in just my 3rd run of the cycle, but then I looked at my log and realized I've run 56 miles in the last 6 days and haven't approached anything close to that since mid-April. So, with that being the case, I was pretty happy to have knocked out 10 miles at 8:15 pace on a much hillier than usual route. I'm going to take today off instead of tomorrow since I have a short 2 mile XC race on Saturday morning with the old high school team and don't like taking the day off before a race, so that works out fine.

Kenny B. Thu Jun 23, 2011 9:52 am

mul21 wrote:Last night's run was just one of those those slog through and get to the end of it in one piece. I thought it was strange that I was struggling a little in just my 3rd run of the cycle, but then I looked at my log and realized I've run 56 miles in the last 6 days and haven't approached anything close to that since mid-April. So, with that being the case, I was pretty happy to have knocked out 10 miles at 8:15 pace on a much hillier than usual route. I'm going to take today off instead of tomorrow since I have a short 2 mile XC race on Saturday morning with the old high school team and don't like taking the day off before a race, so that works out fine.

This was a very solid run and good idea to look at the overall training. 8:15 for 10 miles with some hills sounds wonderful. Good idea to take off today and run the day before the race. I used to take off the day before race now Ill either do any easy few miles with some strides.

Nick Morris Thu Jun 23, 2011 10:05 am

mul21 wrote:Last night's run was just one of those those slog through and get to the end of it in one piece. I thought it was strange that I was struggling a little in just my 3rd run of the cycle, but then I looked at my log and realized I've run 56 miles in the last 6 days and haven't approached anything close to that since mid-April. So, with that being the case, I was pretty happy to have knocked out 10 miles at 8:15 pace on a much hillier than usual route. I'm going to take today off instead of tomorrow since I have a short 2 mile XC race on Saturday morning with the old high school team and don't like taking the day off before a race, so that works out fine.

I see that you are really putting the miles in...8:15 is a pretty good pace especially since you had put in 56 miles over the last 6 days. Keep up the good work and good luck on Saturday!!

Mike MacLellan Thu Jun 23, 2011 11:14 am

mul21 wrote:
Mike MacLellan wrote:Jim, just checking in. I remember my first MP run with 7:10s as my pace. It was 3 miles (maybe 4?) at MP and I thought I was going to die. With a GA pace of 7:4x, you've got it in you.

Yeah, those pace runs (or the thought of them) early in the cycle can be daunting, but by week 12 or 13, they're tough but manageable. What's your next goal MP? Just getting under 3:00 or something more ambitious?

Bingo. I'm going to just assume I have a vDot of 54 (I think it's actually 55, but 54 translates to 2:58:xx, which is fine with me) and train accordingly. So, 6:45-6:50. But this will be next year. Oof.

mul21 Fri Jun 24, 2011 11:38 pm

Kenny B. wrote:

This was a very solid run and good idea to look at the overall training. 8:15 for 10 miles with some hills sounds wonderful. Good idea to take off today and run the day before the race. I used to take off the day before race now Ill either do any easy few miles with some strides.

Thanks Kenny! That is exactly what I did today. Total of 6 miles with 8 x 100 strides so I should be good to go tomorrow morning.

Nick Morris wrote:

I see that you are really putting the miles in...8:15 is a pretty good pace especially since you had put in 56 miles over the last 6 days. Keep up the good work and good luck on Saturday!!

Thanks Nick! The cumulative mileage definitely had my legs a little dead and the day off was much needed. I felt a whole lot fresher today after the day off and hopefully I'm ready to go for tomorrow even after a 5 hour car ride home (which totally sucked by the way!).

So, like I said, 6 miles total including 8 strides at somewhere around 8:35-40 pace. A little faster than I planned, but I was just cruising along and don't think I exerted all that much effort. I'm already resigned to the fact that tomorrow's race is going to hurt because of the hills, not that they're big, there just isn't anything flat on the whole course. It's either up or down the entire 2+ miles. I'm hoping for something in the neighborhood of 12:30 or so, but I'll be okay with anything under 13:00. I used to be able to go under 11:00 on this course, man being old, fat, and slow (well, in comparison to my high school self anyway) sucks!

Kenny B. Sat Jun 25, 2011 12:07 am

Good luck tomorrow.

mul21 Sat Jun 25, 2011 1:31 pm

Thanks Kenny. Missed the goal time by 1.54 seconds. I ran 13:01.54 on a 2.0 something XC course. Legs just aren't used to the grass after all the road running!

Schuey Sat Jun 25, 2011 1:58 pm

Dave-O wrote:Love seeing those GA paces dropping baby.

Yep I agree with Dave on that one. There is no doubt when you start to see that pace drop you know that the fitness level (aerobic system) has gone to a new level. This is one of the best indicators to look at that you are improving. Awesome Jim!

Keep it up buddy. I'm sensing a BQ this coming fall.

Alex Kubacki Sun Jun 26, 2011 10:17 am

That's an amazing pace for a GA run. You're going to nail this in the fall.

Kenny B. Sun Jun 26, 2011 10:20 am

mul21 wrote:Thanks Kenny. Missed the goal time by 1.54 seconds. I ran 13:01.54 on a 2.0 something XC course. Legs just aren't used to the grass after all the road running!

You ran 2 miles XC in 13:01. Do you know the exact distance? I would say grass running sucks IMO. I have done it a few times and find it slow me down quite a bit as you need to pick your feet up a bit more. It works against you! Meanwhile you did very well am I assuming 6:30 pace on avg. I think you have faster times in you for 2 mile NO! Am I missing something?

mul21 Sun Jun 26, 2011 4:48 pm

It was pretty much exactly 2 miles. I think when the course is marked exactly right it's about 2.02, but it was a hair short yesterday since it wasn't anything official.

I got in some miles yesterday afternoon to get in a total of 8 miles for the day to keep me on schedule to get in 50 for the week. I got in 12 pretty hilly miles this afternoon at 8:17 pace to make it a total of 50 for the week. Overall, a solid first week of the cycle and I ramp up to 54 this week with a long run of 14, so Dave's still taking it easy on me so far.

Kenny B. Sun Jun 26, 2011 5:03 pm

mul21 wrote:It was pretty much exactly 2 miles. I think when the course is marked exactly right it's about 2.02, but it was a hair short yesterday since it wasn't anything official.

I got in some miles yesterday afternoon to get in a total of 8 miles for the day to keep me on schedule to get in 50 for the week. I got in 12 pretty hilly miles this afternoon at 8:17 pace to make it a total of 50 for the week. Overall, a solid first week of the cycle and I ramp up to 54 this week with a long run of 14, so Dave's still taking it easy on me so far.

I like watching your schedule Motivates me to catch your ass. Although not sure that will happen! I am doing 14 marathon training but the last few weeks really do count as I hit mid 50's a few times with long runs etc.

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