15 Weeks to Tacoma

Week 16 done

You should be happy every day you run or race for _whatever_ you can do."  -Meb K.

I heard Meb say this in Eugene. Can I say that Meb is such an opposite to Lance? Here's this guy that escaped from a horrible situation, came to the USA and then ran his heart out for himself  with the support of amazing parents and siblings. My hat is off to Meb K. and my hat is firmly staying on my head for Mr Armstrong. 

I am so happy to be feeling so good in my running.  Things are going very well and if I could give my body some kudos (besides massages and hot tub soaks) I would do it 8). 

When I get injured (e.g. calf strain mystery) I'm not the kind of person that things "stoopid calfs..why are you doing this to me?"  I am, after all, an engineer and so I think "What is causing this? How can I prevent this? What am I missing?".  Many overuse problems have a solution..not all, but many.

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So far I have dodged the flu. It's been quite bad in the USA. 

I have been noodling about what to do for training and decided that I'm (loosely) following the 3 key runs of RLRF (Run Less Run Faster), for the 3:55 goal, but I'm still doing 5 runs per week (not 3). I plan to do more marathon pace running than RLRF lets you do as well as more base running in general.

Unlike my previous build-ups, I'm doing weekend "sandwich runs"..which I LOVE:  I run Tue-Wed-Thur and Sat-Sun is bookended by two rest days on Mon-Fri. I felt that doing 4 runs in a row during the week was too much hard running in a row, and that the long run Sunday with rest before and after was too easy.

I think that being able to do 8-10 miles of MP running on Saturday, and then 20 Miles at MP - 15s or so on Sunday is great as the last long run and I intend to do that on this cycle if I am able. (Obviously having both rest days during the week is also easier schedule-wise for work too ).

Midweek, I'll be doing Intervals, Hills , Tempo and Base runs.
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Even though I ramped up quickly to running 34-35 miles/week for the last two weeks, I felt pretty good after the Monday off and decided to do some 1/2 mile intervals at 7:15 -ish pace. RLRF calls for 3x1mile I think but I knew I was not ready for that so just the 1/2 mile. They were not easy but it was fun:

2013-01-15 Tue
Split	Time	Miles	Pace	HR	Cad	Elev+	Elev-	YPB
1	575.7	1.00	9:35	125.0	87.0	0.0	8.5	1.463
2	215.4	0.50	7:13	151.0	92.0	0.0	5.3	1.608
3	200.8	0.31	10:39	136.0	84.0	0.0	0.0	1.214
4	219.5	0.50	7:20	152.0	91.0	2.4	1.1	1.580
5	184.3	0.29	10:45	131.0	81.0	2.2	1.1	1.253
6	216.3	0.50	7:09	150.0	92.0	1.2	2.1	1.639
7	587.3	1.00	9:47	131.0	85.0	5.3	1.0	1.377
8	591.0	1.00	9:50	136.0	85.0	8.6	0.0	1.321
9	40.3	0.07	9:53	132.0	85.0	1.0	0.0	1.360
Sum	00:47:10	5.2	9:07	135.8	87.0	20.6	19.1	1.426

tough run but happy with the results. You can think of this as "Yasso 800s" if you want, although Yassos would only have to be done at 3:55 per 800, which is 7:50 pace. RLRF has you doing 800s quite a bit faster. (And Jill had me doing stuff faster than Yasso pace too).

The next day, a simple base run

2013-01-16 Wed
Split	Time	Miles	Pace	HR	Cad	Elev+	Elev-	YPB
1	594.8	1.00	9:54	130.0	85.0	8.3	6.4	1.370
2	572.3	1.00	9:32	122.0	86.0	1.1	16.2	1.505
3	571.0	1.00	9:31	123.0	85.0	0.0	6.4	1.500
4	571.8	1.00	9:31	124.0	85.0	4.3	0.0	1.493
5	588.1	1.00	9:48	126.0	85.0	5.2	0.0	1.430
6	138.4	0.22	10:40	127.0	83.0	2.1	0.0	1.305
Sum	00:50:36	5.2	9:42	125.1	85.1	20.8	29.0	1.473

A bit stiff from the previous day..

Finally a short tempo run..ie gradually speeding up, hitting one mile at 10k pace and then easing off. Gradually I will make the fast portion longer.

2013-01-17 Thu
Split	Time	Miles	Pace	HR	Cad	Elev+	Elev-	YPB
1	586.0	1.00	9:46	121.0	87.0	4.2	2.5	1.492
2	550.3	1.00	9:10	127.0	88.0	11.5	8.7	1.517
3	485.2	1.00	8:05	145.0	90.0	14.7	4.6	1.512
4	578.6	1.00	9:38	128.0	86.0	4.2	13.9	1.423
5	609.8	1.00	10:09	117.0	85.0	3.3	7.3	1.479
6	218.3	0.35	10:25	118.0	85.0	0.0	0.0	1.432
Sum	00:50:28	5.3	9:26	126.3	87.1	37.9	36.9	1.479

Friday a rest day..felt really good as the day went on..going to bed I was eager for Saturday mornings 8 miles with 4 miles at MP...could not wait! That eagerness I have learned, is a good sign that my body is happy happy, so go for it:

2013-01-19 Sat
Split	Time	Miles	Pace	HR	Cad	Elev+	Elev-	YPB
1	566.7	1.00	9:26	155.0	86.0	6.2	6.8	1.204
2	590.6	1.00	9:50	125.0	86.0	17.3	7.0	1.442
3	530.4	1.00	8:50	130.0	87.0	17.4	0.0	1.548
4	537.4	1.00	8:57	132.0	87.0	25.5	22.9	1.501
5	528.3	1.00	8:48	131.0	87.0	20.9	18.3	1.536
6	525.8	1.00	8:45	130.0	87.0	0.0	7.7	1.541
7	602.0	1.00	10:01	121.0	84.0	0.0	16.1	1.442
8	607.7	1.00	10:07	117.0	84.0	2.1	9.1	1.483
9	22.2	0.03	11:04	113.0	82.0	0.0	0.0	1.406
Sum	01:15:11	8.0	9:21	129.8	86.0	89.4	87.8	1.498

Yes, those 8:4x paces are faster than a 3:55 marathon (8:58 pace) but remember there is gps noise and not running tangents so training for a faster pace on the Garmin is a fact of life.  

The Chi hip rotation to lengthen out the stride is working well. It seems like free energy. In fact if you look at the YPBs above you'll see that dropping back to a 10:00 pace my efficiency dropped quite a bit..but not enough data yet to really be sure...

Sunday was my first 11 mile run in a long time. I'm running with my friend Jeff which I also haven't done in a while. Jeff is one of the few people I will run with..usually running with others and the paces are too darn fast. Jeff is my age but way faster than me (although he doesn't race) however he is very careful to not push me along faster than I want to go. A real great running partner.

I was going to do 12, but I was so beat after the previous days  marathon pace running that I decided to quit early. Won't bore you with the table of that run...but it was tough! That's also kind of the point of "sandwich runs" 8}, running your long run on already-tired-legs gets you ready for holding pace during the last 6 miles.

Week wrap up:

Date	Miles	Pace	BPM	WHR%	Cad	Elev+	Elev-	YPB
2013-01-15 Tue	5.2	9:07	135.8	73.60	87.0	20.6	19.1	1.426
2013-01-16 Wed	5.2	9:42	125.1	64.86	85.1	20.8	29.0	1.473
2013-01-17 Thu	5.3	9:26	126.3	65.78	87.1	37.9	36.9	1.479
2013-01-19 Sat	8.0	9:21	129.8	68.69	86.0	89.4	87.8	1.498
2013-01-20 Sun	11.2	10:03	122.1	62.40	85.0	58.5	58.6	1.444
Summary	35.0	9:36	126.8	66.26	85.9	227.1	231.3	1.464

Week 15: Tentative plan to up the total miles by 2, do some 800 hill sprints, a longer tempo, same MP run and a 14 mile long run.