Training week ending 031112

Monday 030512 – mid afternoon, warm temps with decent winds but not as bad as the last couple of days.  8 miles pretty steady and feeling good.  I found myself over at BHS and so I added in eight 200m strides (nearing 5m/m pace) with a 200 very slow recovery walk jog.  12 miles on the day.  It felt good to be out and moving well.

Tuesday 030612 – after getting some significant dental work done (finished up the crown on the lower left side – and holy crap did this one hurt. Air and cold water getting blown on those teeth had me nearly to tears.  Yeah, I am weak), I went for a jog.  As I was in Boulder, I had ambitions on heading up the Creek path, and maybe getting Sanitas in the mix.  The weather was spring in full effect – hardly a breeze and temps in the 70s.  Near the library, I ran into Marty K – a true brother from another mother.  As I have not run with Marty in a bit, I decided to maximize my time with him and skipped Sanitas.   Only a few miles with MK, but very good for my soul.  10 easy miles.

Wednesday 030712 – started this run in a hole so to speak.  And the busy work day, nudging me to the mill did not help.  I even delayed that … doing weight and core work as a bit of staff before starting (did the dumb bell push up rows with 25s, and the stair farmer’s walk with 45s amongst other things)  I did not feel so hot, and was wondering what would come of it – even considering bagging at 3 miles.  But, then it was just get 5 miles in, and at 5 miles, I started to feel pretty good.  So I opened it up a touch.  And then a touch more.  10 miles in just under 70 minutes, which is not bad given I started at 8:30 mile pace.  So, I guess you could call this a progression tempo run.  Certainly not a workout that I killed, but some good work.

Thursday 030812 – 10 easy easy easy miles … kept the HR sub 145 for the first five and sub 150 for the next five.  AHR over the run was 141.  Achilles started barking like I had rolled it and I have no idea why. 

Later got to the gym (during JZ soccer practice), doing a variety of weight work, including (amongst other things) squats, 1 legged squat machine presses.

Friday 030912 damn Achilles is still pissed, but I felt pretty good otherwise.  A bit fatigued from last night’s weight work, but nothing bad.  9 miles on the trails out of the South Boulder Creek Trail Head (off 93), looking to get a bit more climbing (and this was 1400 feet).  Slipped pretty good on some of the stuff in the Mesa trail that was hidden in the trees.  Wanted two hours, but cut this short because of the lawn mower foot.

Saturday 031012 – I felt pretty good.  The weather was stellar, and it had been a few days since I went after it some, so I considered it for a bit.  The left Achilles was only marginally better however.  And since I am expecting to head to the Punisher’s house for a long run with plenty of vertical tomorrow, I kept this one short – significantly shorter than I wanted.  JZ joined me for part of it on his bikes and I also got the dogs out.

Sunday 031112 – headed up to Lucho’s.  I was still feeling gimpy with the strained Achilles, but it was improving.  Tim had 2 x 3 at tempo effort – on a climb and in the midst of a longer run on tap.  I figured getting through the run just with the climbing would be solid enough for me (given this would be my first longer run with any significant vertical – and I was concerned about the lawn mower foot).

And that was about right.  Bob and Lucho pulled away on the climb / tempo portion of the run, and I kept it back a gear or two.  This climb that Lucho has is pretty awesome though.  3 miles, averaging close to 7% – and that is including a section that is flat / descending.  There are pitches close to 15%.  Twice.  In the middle of a couple plus hours.  I am not sure if I went after it today that it would have made much of a difference.  Well … need to start somewhere. 

18 miles, with 2915 of climbing.  Not quite the 20 I look to get on the long run, but this was plenty for today.  Fun weather too as the weather went from fairly nice (upper 30s before dawn) to snowing to nice again.  And there was even a choo choo train in the middle.  The Achilles was barking a bit towards the end but I can safely say it is mending (slowly, probably as fast as it can with this sort of running on it).

These runs are awesome from a training stimulus effect.  But the best part is the banter with the guys.  Always a good core workout laughing it up.

Check out Lucho’s latest podcast with Tawnee.

Another interesting week.  I have been a bit jacked and this week showed that as well.  My mouth has been really sore from the dental work I had and so I got pretty liberal with the vitamin I.  That should not effect my running, but my gut was a mess most of the week.  And given I have no reason to point to for the Achilles flare up, I wonder if that is somehow tied in.  In any case, I managed 75 miles, over 10.5 hours and with about 5700 feet of climbing.  The last two weeks have given me nearly the vertical I got in the first two months of the year.

Got in a bit of turn over (Monday, 200s), and some form of a tempo (treadmill, Wednesday).  Looking to continue the pattern of getting regular miles, some turn over, and making the long run be a bit more vertically focused.  Typically the 20 milers gets me 600 or 700 feet.   The 18 today got 4x that.   I am gonna need that if I expect to be performing well later this summer.

Other things that caught my eye this week …

McDuff talks about how to make your own gels.  I might try it.

This guy is talking about cracking the CT record.  And I am aware of another 40-something who is considering the Colorado 14er record (not sure if that is public, so no link to that blog).   I thought mid life crises events were supposed to be a fast car?

All sorts of Achilles tendonitis stuff.