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Tuesday’s Run
Yesterday was a scheduled 8-miler at “easy” pace. I met Brian and Nathan at the Edwin Warner Nature Center for a run in the park and on the Harpeth River Greenway. My legs were very tired, but overall the run went ok. I do wish that I could push the pace a little faster, but at this point I’m happy simply be getting in all the scheduled miles. This is especially true considering the heavy humidity. Here’s a breakdown of our splits:
Today’s Run
Since I have a day-trip to Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow for a speaking engagement, I needed to move a few things on my schedule around this week. This meant that I got to do a solo track workout this morning at the Hading Academy track. Even though I despise doing track work by myself, this workout actually went really well.
I did the week 2 “speed” workout prescribed in the Hansons Advanced Training Plan. This was 8 x 600m with 400m recovery in-between each interval. This equates to 3-miles of intervals and 2-miles of recovery. Based on my goal marathon time of 3:15, the target splits for this workout are 2:26. While, this is the goal, the Hanson brothers really emphasize not exceeding your target pace, and even make their athletes do sets of push-ups for every second they exceed their goal.
I met Brian and Nathan this morning in the parking lot of the Bellevue United Methodist Church building for a 6-mile loop that incorporated the Harpeth River Greenway. We were met with temps in the mid 60s and a steady rain.
A run in the rain this morning was a welcome change from the soupy heat and humidity of the past two weeks. While it was obviously still humid, the rain was refreshing. My legs were very tired, but again they felt better than the same day last week, which is a positive. I can tell that my body is slowly adapting to the workload, but I still have a LONG way to go.
Today marked my 6th consecutive day to get in a training run, and I can’t remember the last time that has happened. I’m guessing it has been well over a year, if not much longer. Many of these runs have been fairly crummy (Sat, Sun, & Mon specifically), but tonight’s “speed” workout was BY FAR the best I’ve felt during those 6-days.
I met my normal track group tonight at Vanderbilt, but instead of joining their workout I did the week 1 “speed” workout prescribed in the Hansons Advanced Training Plan. This was 12 x 400m with 400m recovery in-between each interval. This equates to 3-miles of intervals and 3-miles of recovery. Based on my goal marathon time of 3:15, the target splits for this workout are 1:38. While, this is the goal, the Hanson brothers really emphasize not exceeding your target pace, and even make their athletes do sets of push-ups for every second they exceed their goal.
After a miserable run on Monday, yesterday’s run was significantly better. I’ve come to grips with the fact that I simply cannot hit the target paces from then Hansons plan when the humidity is at 95%. It’s funny that in the weeks leading up to the start of my scheduled training, when I was practicing the different pace ranges, that I was having trouble with being too fast! Of course, many of those mornings were in 50s or 60s with 60% humidity. It makes a BIG difference.
Anyway, I met Nathan and Brian at 5:00am on the Harpeth River Greenway for an easy-paced 8-miler. My legs felt better than Monday, and overall the run was much better too. We kept the pace very chill for the first 5-miles before picking it up a-bit for the last 3 (probably ran a bit too hard for the final 400m on the last one):
One of the core principles of the Hansons Marathon Training Plan is “Cumulative Fatigue,” which essentially means that you are always running on tired legs until the week of your race. Well, it has only taken 6 runs for “Cumulative Fatigue” to take over! Today I had NOTHING!
This morning I met Nathan and Brian at 5:30am for a jaunt on our old “Nature Center Loop” starting in Edwin Warner Park. I knew right away that my legs were dead, and they just seemed to get worse the longer we went.
Tonight was my first track workout in over a month, and it was good to be back running with the Jim Spivey Running Club (JSRC). I intentionally shifted the Hansons Advanced Marathon training plan a bit so that the “speed” workouts would fall on Thursday instead of Tuesday. This way I can continue to run with the JSRC during the “speed” phase of the plan.
Thick humidity has descended on Middle Tennessee with a vengeance this week, and tonight was tough with temps around 85º. I know it is only going to get worse, but my body struggling to get acclimated right now.
Today’s plan was for 8-miles at “easy” pace, and I was joined by my friend Brian on the Harpeth River Greenway at 5:30am. The humidity was again pretty dense (there was even a low-lying fog), and temps were slightly higher than yesterday.
We started off by the driving range on Old Harding, and ran 3.25-miles out and back on the greenway. Our pace was very chill, but I still nailed the high-end of my “easy” range on every split but the first one. It is already obvious to me than many of the goal pace ranges in the Hansons Plan will have to be modified as the heat and humidity continue to rise in Middle Tennessee.
In the lead-up to the beginning of my training schedule for the 2014 St. George Marathon, my goal is to keep building my base to prepare for the higher mileage weeks, and to practice the designated paces from the Hansons Plan for various types of runs. During this week I’ve been practicing “Easy” pace, which is supposed to be between 8:26 and 9:05 per mile. I nailed this on my Monday run, but was waaaay too fast on Wednesday.
Yesterday (Friday) morning I met Brian for a 4.5-mile run through the streets of Bellevue and on the Harpeth River Greenway. During that run we hit the goal for all 4 of the complete miles….
Today my goal was to get in some practice doing a 10-miler at “Long” run pace, which is supposed to be between 8:05 and 8:25 per mile. I started out with my running group at the Edwin Warner Park Nature Center. They were planning on doing approximately 10-miles on the Harpeth River Greenway, but I wasn’t sure if anyone else would want to run that pace since most are coming off recent marathons. About 30 seconds after starting I realized this would be a solo effort.
This pace is a lot faster than I’m used to for a long run, but I felt really good for the first 7 or 8 miles. Generally I did a decent job of keeping most of the splits around my goal range, but tended to be a little fast. My last two miles were a bit tough, but I still kept a good pace. I made the mistake of not carrying water, and was very dehydrated by that point.
My overall average was 8:04, so just a touch too fast, but not a bad first try. After grabbing some much needed water, I ran an additional 1.2-miles at a much more modest pace as a cool down back to the Nature Center. Feel good about this effort though I know it is only gonna get harder as the Summer temps arrive.
I normally don’t run on Sunday, but if I can be disciplined enough to get up early tomorrow I’m hoping to get in another 6-mile easy run before morning worship service.
Beast Mode…ON!
With thunderstorms in the area this morning, I decided to come home from work a bit early and try to squeeze in an easy 6-mile run before midweek Bible study. It was cloudy, windy, and a bit cooler (mid 70s) when I started but the humidity was NASTY. I also knew more heavy rain was on its way so I was hoping to knock out the run before it arrived.
I parked my car across from the Old Harding Road driving range, and ran 1.5-miles out-and-back both directions on the Harpeth River Greenway. My legs felt really good from the start, and my pace quickly got a bit too fast. The plan was to try and keep all my splits between 8:26 and 9:05, which is my “Easy Run” range under the Hansons training plan that I intend to start in a couple of weeks. I was good for the first two miles with 9:00 and 8:27, but then mile-3 was 8:07. As I started the second out-and-back I kept telling myself that I needed to slow down.
About a 1/2 mile into the second segment I started to feel a few raindrops and then after another 1/4 mile the bottom completely fell out. For some crazy reason I decided to run without a hat, and I could barely see anything with the downpour. I took off my shirt and made a quick, makeshift bandanna, which did a surprisingly good job of keeping the rain out of my eyes. Since I was already soaked, and there was no lightening, I decided to just finish my planned route. While the rain was a little irritating at first, I quickly started to feel fantastic. The cool rain was much more tolerable than the intense humidity at the beginning, and my body just dropped into a nice groove. Of course this also resulted in me continuing to run faster than I planned as my splits below demonstrate:
For some reason my body just wanted to go faster today, and all-in-all this run felt fantastic. The good thing is that the last mile really didn’t feel much faster than any of the others.
So, hoping to get in another easy 6 over the next two days before a 10-miler with the group on Saturday. Trying to build up my base a little over the next two weeks before St George Marathon training officially begins.
Beast Mode….ON!
This looks daunting when written down, but below is my tentative training plan (click to enlarge) for the 2014 St.George Marathon. It is based on the Hansons Advanced Marathon Training Plan:
It’s gonna take a LOT of discipline the make it through this schedule, especially considering I’m having a hard time finding running partners these days. The total weekly mileage peaks in the mid-60s, but the longest single run is only 16-miles (that’s right….NO 20-milers).
I shifted the Hansons plan a bit so I could end up with my Speed / Strength workout on Thursday and my tempo runs on Saturday. My plan right now is to do the speed workouts at the Vanderbilt track with the JSRC track group. I won’t be able to do the same workouts as everyone else, but at least it will give me access to a track. When it comes to the strength workouts I plan to do these on local greenways.
By far my two biggest concerns are consistently doing 6-days of running each week AND the tempo runs at goal marathon pace. Those are gonna hurt!
Beast Mode…ON!
Just found out about an hour ago that I was selected in the lottery for the 2014 St George Marathon! So excited to be participating in this race. Definitely one of my bucket-list marathons and a chance for redemption after dealing with multiple injuries over the past 18+ months. It is also the perfect race to celebrate my 40th Birthday! Can’t wait!!!
Now, I’ve got to work-out travel arrangement and my training plan. On training, my goal is simple….3 hours 15 minutes. I’ve broken it once before, but this time it will be for a BQ. Everything I do in training will be aimed squarely at this target. I also know that to get there I have to avoid injury, which has been a problem for the last year and a half.
I mentioned in my post yesterday that I hoped to get back on the road today after taking last week off. I got in a solid 6.25-mile easy run on the Harpeth River Greenway. It was pretty warm and humid, but overall my legs felt fantastic. If I decide to go with the Hansons Marathon Training Plan, my easy-run target pace will be between 8:26 and 9:26 per mile. Today I averaged 8:40 pace, which is right in-line.
Beast Mode….ON!!!!
Well…tomorrow is the day I find out whether or not I made it into the 2014 St George Marathon. Feeling a little nervous, because I REALLY want to do this race to celebrate my 40th birthday and return to marathoning. If I don’t get in, then I hope to quickly select an alternate race. Either way I plan on mapping out my training plan ASAP, and am strongly considering doing the Hanson’s Advanced Plan. More on that later if I choose to go this direction, still in the middle of reading the Hansons Marathon Method book.
After the 500 Festival Mini Marathon last Saturday, I took an unplanned week off from running this week. Just felt tired and decided to take a week to recover. My plan is to get back on the road tomorrow. I did a new core workout yesterday morning, and my obliques are more sore today than I ever remember before. This is definitely a problem area for me, so hoping this new routine will help out there.
Beast Mode….ON!