Half & Half & 1 Woo-Hoo!

Ran 5.75 with Jeff, then 4.5 barefoot. Averaged 8:30's in XC flats with Jeff, and abut 10 min/mile barefoot. There is a lot of crap, glass, stones and other scree around after the big rains of last week.  But you know what is great?  Running with my kid:  Sixteen and 50 running down the street and now I don't know who the girls out springtime-driving are woo-hoo'ing about!

Where things stand right now...

Road east & west VFFs by thinnmann at Garmin Connect - Details

WOW- Garmin Connect fixed the elevation abnormalities!

Longest run today since January 9th's Watchung Winter Ultra. Wore the VFF's. Sunburned my head. Ran the first almost 5 miles with my son. April is all about LSD. I am so out of shape! I knew I was gaining weight during the January - March ski season, with low training mileage. I thought I had gained about 4 pounds, and I avoided weighing myself. Finally jumped on the scale last night and I was a whopping 150 lbs! I don't think I have ever been that heavy. That was a shocker. Gotta go run! I have a half marathon in two weeks. I am running that slowly, I suppose.

Training September 7 - 13, 2009

12 hours 21 minutes total time, 186.4 total distance = 168.5 cycling + 17.9 running. Ended the week today with 20:08 XC race, USATF-NJ 5K Championships, after a big workout day on Saturday of R5 & B44. Biked 43 miles after the race today. I need to do a duathlon!

While running today's race, I had little to no pain in my 3-week old broken toe. Wore Nike XC spikes. I can't complain about the time after so much cycling and so little running. I didn't feel aerobically challenged during the race, but I just could not run any faster. For example, a guy in my age group from Rose City Runners passed me in the last 100 yards, but I just could not notch up the speed to catch him. Our 50's team took 2nd, open won, and 40's were buried in 4th.

Workout summary below:

Training June 15 - 21, 2009

I had a moderate workout week this past week.  Considering the extra work at camp for a couple of days, I can't complain.  President's Cup 5K on Monday night resulted in my fastest 5K since July of 2005!  Bike ride yesterday on old rain bike had a decent speed considering what I was riding, and was mostly big-ring.

Workouts June 8 - 14, 2009

Had an easy workout week this past week, which was needed following the Towpath "Train"ing Run.  Rain has been relentless.  This is keeping bike mileage way down.  Raced fairly well on Tuesday night considering the 27+ miles of running I did last Saturday.  I guess I will run all the Summer Series XC races barefoot.

Training June 1 - 7, 2009

Good training week even though I lost my voice on Wednesday - have some respiratory thing going on.  I need some extra sleep to kick it out.  Lots of good barefoot running.  Not much cycling due to rainy days.  Still failed at trying to run the full 34 miles of the towpath, but had a great time with the people on Saturday.

Training May 25 - 31, 2009

Felt bad all week.  Digestive problems producing extraordinary amounts of gas and diarrhea all week.

Training: April 6 - 12, 2009 and Camelbak Commentary

Good training week - was my last chance to "cram" for Boston.  I just finished a 19 mile trail run at Watchung Reservation.  Felt just fine.  I love my Camelbak and PowerBar Gels.  It is so great to finish a long run not dehydrated and craving carbs!  I tried out a new Camelbak today.  It is the "Blue Wave Vigor ".  Seventy ounces of fluid.  I had been using my skiing Camelbak "Zoid". The Zoid's tube and pack are insulated, and the bite valve has a heavy rubber cover to prevent freezing.  So the tube bounced around a bit too much for running, and I always had to tuck it in under the shoulder strap when not in use.  The new one works much better - no tucking necessary - once I figured out that the sternum strap was movable.  At first it was set as shipped, which was too low.  The strap was bothering my chest and I couldn't get the shoulder strap fit right.  After about an hour I took it off to grab a gel, and I realized I could move the strap.  It took me a couple minutes, but once I moved it the Camelbak fit perfectly.  It also has a better zipper pocket than the Zoid version.

Training March 30 - April 5, 2009

This week was an improvement over last.  The weekend was breakthrough.  I had been feeling bad on every run for almost two weeks.  Obviously overtraining and lack of sleep.  So I took Friday off and slept 9 hours on Friday and Saturday nights.  The result was a morning 7 mile run with my son on Saturday that felt good, and a great 34 mile bike ride in the afternoon.  The bike ride was very windy and I managed a 17 MPH average on my single speed.  Today I ran 21 (or maybe it was 22) miles at Watchung Reservation and I felt kinda fine for the whole thing.  Today's run was pretty muddy, but I importantly got twice through the area where I fell and broke my rib last January.  I ran that area very carefully because the memory of that was actually weighing on me.  Silly, huh?  It was the first sunny warm day in a very long time.  Ran with my Camelbak and almost finished the whole thing.  Used three PowerBar Latte gels.

Training chart from Zelky below, some pics of muddy shoes and legs, and a cool new Blogger location widget!

Workouts: March 23 - 29, 2009

Three weeks to Boston and this past week of workouts were not that great. All my runs felt draggy.  I was generally tired all week.  Guess I need to sleep more.  The stupid cat wakes me up every morning at 4:30.  That has to stop.

Training: March 16 - 22, 2009

Now this week was more like a training week, not just a bunch of "workouts".  I said to a lot of people on Saturday morning, "I'm cramming for Boston."  Now, I wouldn't recommend this technique.  It isn't "the ten percent rule", it is about the 40 percent rule.  But I have been able to get away with it for the past bunch of years with minimal damage...

Longish Run This Morning and Recovery Spin in the PM

Ran 13 miles mostly on the Towpath this morning, mostly alone, even though it was the RVRR Saturday Morning Run.  Thirty people were there, but the people that went long started earlier.  It was a beautiful morning, and I am glad I can do 13 @ 1:45 = 8:07/mile at this point in time.  Went to Somerset Diner to meet the people who had gone for breakfast after the run, and most were practically on their way out.  Since the money was in for the bill already, they seemed to have bought me my bagel and coffee.  Thanks guys!

Added a 15 mile spin at 3:30 PM on my Quintana Roo Superform, which I retro-fitted to road bike styling.  Kinda hard to get the saddle position right with the forward positioning angles on that TT frame.  Makes it hard to get the same power from my hamstrings.  So far, even my single speed feels faster than the QRoo set up like that.  On the positives side, I was hating all the bars and cables for the TT set up - it was ruining the clean beauty of the bicycle.  So glad I am not presently a triathlete anymore!  But gotta thank the bike for fixing so many of my running problems last year.  Thanks bikes!

Run route and bike route in the two maps below, from MapMyRun.com:

Two Weeks of Workouts: March 2 - 15, 2009

Sixteen workouts in 14 days is an improvement - but I need to run more for Boston Marathon training!

Two Weeks of Workouts: February 16 - March 1, 2009

Thirteen workouts in 14 days....

Two Weeks of Workouts: February 2 - 15, 2009

14 workouts in 14 days.  Improvement over the last two weeks!

Two Weeks of Workouts: January 19 - February 1, 2009

I am catching up on some un-posted training logging.  I am back-dating these posts that I am actually writing on March 3, 2009.  My training during the intense skiiing season has been a bit lacking.  Yes, I am in great spring skiing shape.  But I am not ready for the Boston Marathon.  I am hoping I can snap back into distance shape in the next few weeks.  I am depending on my 35 years of distance running to serve me well - that is a lot of base.  I am not going to run anything near the 3:18 I ran at Philly last November.  I will be pacing for a 3:30.  If I can maintain that, I will see how I feel after the Heartbreak Hills.  The goal at Boston right now is to Have Fun!

Anyway here are my workouts for January 19 - February 1, 2009 (7 workouts in 14 days isn't exactly marathon training):

Workouts: January 12 - 18, 2009

Not a great workout week. Recovering from the broken-rib incident. Was able to ski the three day MLK weekend. I suppose I should be glad about that.

My Run Today - Five Days Since The Fall That Broke Rib #6

Training: First Week or so of 2009

First weeks of the year are always full of hope and usually a little long, unless the year happens to start on a Monday.  It was a good week.  Good skiing then good running and riding, then a great race.  Then I fell down...

Workouts: Last Three Weeks of 2008

December 8 - 31, 2008 were fairly bad for my training.  I had a cold at first, then bad weather curtailed bike commuting.  I trained significantly less in those three weeks than I had been doing in one week in October and November.

Guess I can call this downtime, recovery, active rest, and family ski vacation.

Looking forward to a great 2009!