Carlsbad Marathon Week 5

8 comfortable - 11/9/15

Forgot my Garmin d'oh!  Maybe a good thing as everyone keeps saying 'forget the garmin and run by feel' whatever that means.  This was just a recovery run/easy run so wanted to take it easy anyway - plus still sore from the previous two runs and have a track workout tomorrow so this NEEDED to be easy.  Also was convinced this was only a 6 mile run until I cruelly saw it was 8 - wasn't mentally prepared for that.  Fortunately is was nice and cool outside and with some sprinkles so it was perfect running weather.

And I think it went ok - it ended up about 8:15mm was overall is too fast but the second half of the run felt good and I got into a good groove for a couple miles probably sub 8:00.  Of course the second half was the downhill half so that makes sense.  Tried to keep it slow and should have gone slower.   As long as it doesn't mess up track day tomorrow it's good. 

6x800 w/400 RI - 11/10/15

Went pretty good.  Bit tougher than I thought/hoped but got it done.  Averaged under 3:15 for the 800s.  Ready to move on from this one.

7 comfortable - 11/11/15

Really tried to challenge myself to run 8:30-9:00mm.  I know a run after a track workout is tough and I have my first 8 mile tempo tomorrow so REALLY wanted to take it easy and relax.  SWORE to myself I would keep it between 8:30-9:00.  DARED myself to do that.  BEGGED myself to do that.  And for the first mile it worked great with a 8:45mm!  I was sore and creaky and just holding that seemed to take about as much effort as I wanted to give.  

BUT slowly, as the run wore on, I got more loose, more comfortable my pace quickened.  Well long story short ended up averaged 8:15mm over the 7+ miles.  DUMB and STUPID.  Will surely pay for that tomorrow and beyond.  I suck.

8 tempo - 11/12/15

The Big Enchilada.  REALLY wanted to lock into a marathon pace for this run.  I really need to find my marathon pace and be comfortable running it.  Knowing there was probably no way I could hold my previous tempo paces for 8 miles I was hoping to average 7:30mm and feel good about it. 

So set the alarm for crazy early after going to bed crazy early and proceeded to have a very shitty night's sleep - was nervous about the run and a bunch of other crap in my life that has pretty much all come to a head this week.  It's very sad when you set your alarm for 5:15am but wake at 4:30am and wonder what to do.  Lie in bed for 45 minutes?  Hop up and out and get the run done and then hang out for over an hour until work time?

Eventually I got up around 5:00am and lazed around a bit and tried to mentally wrap my head around an 8 mile tempo.  Pitch black outside and HOLY CRAP COLD!!  Like FREEZING cold.  I started running without a warmup which is always dumb because it was TOO GODDAMN COLD OUTSIDE.

Set my garmin to for 7:25-7:40mm pace.  Had a strange hankering for Billy Joel on the nano and off I went.  OMG IT WAS COLD.  I literally could NOT feel my hands the entire run and my fingertips were painful.

First mile came in at 7:20mm which I thought was ok because it was a lot of downhill.  Second mile 7:18mm which was mostly uphill but it was SO COLD I was just trying to stay warm.  Third mile - ended up bailing on my original course - I saw the big hill at mile 2.5 and starting going up it but the mind was just not having it so I turned around and went to a flatter way.

My thought process was 'I need to find my marathon pace and the marathon I'm running is mostly flat so I need to be running mostly flat and find a pace I'm comfortable with.'  Did I mention I was freezing?  Actually at this point I think my body was pretty warm but my hand and fingers were numb.  So mile 3 comes in at 7:15 - 

Got back down to 'flatter' road which turned out to be 100' of elevation climb over a mile but that was fine.

Started going back up a hill at mile 4-5 and again didn't want to/bailed/failed on the hill and came back down for the next couple of miles - which went too fast but it was slightly downhill so I trundled on.  Ended up doing those downhill miles at sub-7:00mm pace - ugh.

Miraculously I ended up almost exactly a mile from my house with 1 mile to go.  The last half mile is straight uphill but fortunately managed to suck it up and finish a bit over 8 miles with an average pace of 7:10mm and a respectable ~475' of elevation climb all in 58 not-so glorious minutes.

I pretty much never felt comfortable the entire time.  Don't know if it was too cold or my paces were way off or what.  I never felt out of breath (until the very end) - my breathing was ok - legs a bit sore - but overall is was 'ok'.

Like I said I never got into a 'groove' which was unfortunate.  And 7:10mm is NOT my marathon pace that's for sure.  So this run, unfortunately, was sort of a bust.  I'm happy I can run 8 miles at 7:10mm and happy it's done, but I wasn't able to do pretty much anything I set out to do.

I think my next tempos I want to run on the actual Carlsbad Marathon route - which is pretty close to my house.  I need to see what paces feel comfortable on the actual route.

While there was NO WAY I could have hung that pace for 26.2 miles today, I need to find that pace and maybe the best place to do that is on the actual course.

Oh, and GLOVES!!!

REST - 11/13/15

Sweet, sweet rest.

15 long - 11/14/15

This went well.  A bit too fast but felt good AND was on a very flat course.  Was up visiting family in Silicon Valley (and going to the Stanford vs. Oregon football game!) so it was good to run somewhere else.  It was NOT this flat I promise.  Maybe 100' total elevation at least - impossible to be 0' of elevation amiright???

Didn't have any water or any food so the last couple miles was definitely dragging.  But the weather & temps were perfect.  Felt especially good at the turnaround point around 8 miles - was in a good groove just chugging along.

8 easy - 11/15/15

Ran around the old stomping ground - used to work at Yahoo and Juniper Network and ran by both so that was fun :).  Never would have thought then I'd be running by there on a random Sunday morning years later!  Surprised how fast this ended up - the first couple miles were VERY creaky but things loosened up and it was fun running around a new/different area.

ALSO busted out my old HRM as have been curious what my heart rate has been up to.  As usual the first 10 minutes or so the thing is wildly off - no I did not start the at 180+ bpm!  When it finally settled down I was pretty happy to see it staying very constant between 145-150bpm.  Still probably too fast but was 'heartened' to see my heart rate didn't just keep increasing and instead stayed pretty constant at sub-8:00mm.  It was pretty flat- to flat even.

Week 6

Back in San Diego for week 6.  I actually starting READING the Hansons Method - since I'm following their plan thought I should actually read the book and TURNS OUT the rest day is FRIDAY not WEDNESDAY!!! D'oh!!!

SO I think starting Week 7 I'll make the switch over as that's the week the 'speed' workouts changed into 'strength' workouts.

But the biggest change is no more rest day before the long run!  In fact it will go Strength Day -> Rest Day -> Tempo Day -> Easy Day -> Easy Day -> Long Day -> Easy Day back to Strength Day.  That's going to be nutso.  

Although currently my 'hardest' easy day is the day after a Speed Day - we'll see what it's like trying to run after a Tempo Day.  AND THEN a long run right after an 'easy' day - the point being since the plan has no run longer than 16 miles those 16 miles are supposed to be the LAST 16 miles of the marathon so there needs to be a bunch of miles the day before.  Gonna be interesting...  STAY TUNED!