My long runs so far aren't really that long, as I'm being quite careful about building the mileage back up slowly and steadily. That said, the 13 km I did yesterday is the longest I've ran in 2009. It was perfect weather, as I waited until later in the afternoon and therefore didn't get caught in the noon-time deluge that probably would have drowned me. I averaged 6:16 min/km for the run at an average heartrate of only 139. The heartrate is what gets me - I've never been able to run at that pace for that distance with that little effort. It's glorious!
Totals for the week:
Monday: rest
Tuesday: Bootcamp and 5.5 km of rowing
Wednesday: Hills (6X) - 7.25 km
Thursday: Steady 6km
Friday: Tempo 6km, 1.5 km warmup
Saturday: Steady 5km and weights
Sunday: Long 13 km
Total: running (38.7 km), weights (1x), bootcamp (1x), rowing (5.5 km)
Monday, September 14, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Hills - grrr!
I hate hill training. There, I've said it. If there is ever a run during the week that I'm liable to put off or skip altogether, it's hill repeats. I don't like getting that winded and I don't like working that hard. Running is fun for me and hill repeats, especially in this hilly ol' City of Lakes, are anything but.
I did them this week after skipping them for two weeks. It was ugly, it wasn't fun, but they are done. And last night I celebrated doing them the night before by going for a glorious 6K around Banook in the lovely cool of a still late summer night.
Last night is why I run, not Wednesday night.
I did them this week after skipping them for two weeks. It was ugly, it wasn't fun, but they are done. And last night I celebrated doing them the night before by going for a glorious 6K around Banook in the lovely cool of a still late summer night.
Last night is why I run, not Wednesday night.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
On the road again...
...after three days of travelling around New Brunswick with the girlies. I had hoped to get some runs in while away, but it didn't happen. Between long days visiting with old friends, taking the girls on hikes, sight-seeing, and a few too many drinks each night, the runs just didn't happen. Oh well.
I got back on the program today with my 10 K long run. The pace range for my long runs is broad - 5:53 - 6:38 min/km and I'm aiming for the slower end, so I've got the Garmin set to annoy me outside of 6:25 - 6:35. Unfortunately I'm having a hard time holding the speed down to that range and the average speed for the run was 6:22. Not bad, and a little better than last week's 6:17 average pace on my 6 K "long" run. Good news - I'm getting slower!
I am quite happy that I managed to keep my heart rate nice and low at this speed - average of 146 and after the first five minutes or so when it was strangely high (~ 160), it was really quite consistent in the 145-150 range.
I'm really happy the T is running now, too. She managed to get all of her runs in this week and I really think that she's feeling good about it. Her excitement about running is motivating for me, too. I hope she keeps it up.
Toodles.
I got back on the program today with my 10 K long run. The pace range for my long runs is broad - 5:53 - 6:38 min/km and I'm aiming for the slower end, so I've got the Garmin set to annoy me outside of 6:25 - 6:35. Unfortunately I'm having a hard time holding the speed down to that range and the average speed for the run was 6:22. Not bad, and a little better than last week's 6:17 average pace on my 6 K "long" run. Good news - I'm getting slower!
I am quite happy that I managed to keep my heart rate nice and low at this speed - average of 146 and after the first five minutes or so when it was strangely high (~ 160), it was really quite consistent in the 145-150 range.
I'm really happy the T is running now, too. She managed to get all of her runs in this week and I really think that she's feeling good about it. Her excitement about running is motivating for me, too. I hope she keeps it up.
Toodles.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Dear Diary...
Dear Diary,
I am a complete and utter failure...
Just kidding. What I am is a complete and utter idiot for thinking that I could go from no regular running to running even a pokey half-marathon using a high-intensity program in three months. A natural athlete might be able to pull it off, but not a force-myself-out-the-door type like me. The long and short of the last six months is this: I started training for the Bluenose half-M in the winter, travelled just enough for work to detrack my training a few times, developed a series of nagging Achilles' tendon problems that put me off even more, and went to sea for 45 days on a boat with no treadmill.
And to boot, the chef on the ship was Italian, so weight was, um, gained; let's leave it at that.
I'm back now, have brand new sparkly shoes, have run with reasonable regularity for the past three weeks, and have targetted a (more modest) 10K in October in order to get my (more hefty) rear in gear. To that end, I think it's finally safe to lift my head in running company once again.
I've never actually trained for a 10K before, so it's interesting already. I'm using the Running Room program from John Stanton's book, so there are more runs per week (five days generally), but at a lower intensity than the FIRST training I tried and blew in the spring. Since first starting to run a few years back, running farther was always my intent - speed never mattered, just staying out on the road for what I thought was an increasingly astonishing period of time. To that end, I went from my first 5K to a half marathon inside of eight months and then followed up two years later with a couple more halfs and a full.
Training for a bit of speed will be a fresh change for me and running the shorter training runs will help me get back into the swing of things and get running back into my life. I missed it.
I still want to give the FIRST program a go at some point, because I have a feeling that there is something definitely right about it, but I have to discipline myself much better and build up a better base of running or I'll just go down the same injury/despondance path of the spring.
Toodleedoo for now...
I am a complete and utter failure...
Just kidding. What I am is a complete and utter idiot for thinking that I could go from no regular running to running even a pokey half-marathon using a high-intensity program in three months. A natural athlete might be able to pull it off, but not a force-myself-out-the-door type like me. The long and short of the last six months is this: I started training for the Bluenose half-M in the winter, travelled just enough for work to detrack my training a few times, developed a series of nagging Achilles' tendon problems that put me off even more, and went to sea for 45 days on a boat with no treadmill.
And to boot, the chef on the ship was Italian, so weight was, um, gained; let's leave it at that.
I'm back now, have brand new sparkly shoes, have run with reasonable regularity for the past three weeks, and have targetted a (more modest) 10K in October in order to get my (more hefty) rear in gear. To that end, I think it's finally safe to lift my head in running company once again.
I've never actually trained for a 10K before, so it's interesting already. I'm using the Running Room program from John Stanton's book, so there are more runs per week (five days generally), but at a lower intensity than the FIRST training I tried and blew in the spring. Since first starting to run a few years back, running farther was always my intent - speed never mattered, just staying out on the road for what I thought was an increasingly astonishing period of time. To that end, I went from my first 5K to a half marathon inside of eight months and then followed up two years later with a couple more halfs and a full.
Training for a bit of speed will be a fresh change for me and running the shorter training runs will help me get back into the swing of things and get running back into my life. I missed it.
I still want to give the FIRST program a go at some point, because I have a feeling that there is something definitely right about it, but I have to discipline myself much better and build up a better base of running or I'll just go down the same injury/despondance path of the spring.
Toodleedoo for now...
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Week 2 update
I've been smoked with work the last five days or so as I prepare to travel and I've not posted an update recently. (Thanks for the poke, Jen!) Week 2 went pretty well, though work forced me to move my schedule around a bit and the flu bug that hit me forced me to miss one run, my speed intervals, outright. I managed to get my cross-training sessions in on the rowing machine, but I must cop to not getting my weightlifting sessions done. They're sooooo bbbbooooorrrrrriiiinggggg!
The weather this winter has been, like most of the country it seems, devilish. I can't remember running more on treadmills than I have in the past few weeks. Not ever. I think the city has cut back on street maintenance to such an extent now that there is almost nothing being spent on sidewalk clearing, and when they are cleared, nothing on salting/sanding. In any case, I managed two runs in Week 2 outside - my 8 km tempo run Tuesday (at 5:23 ave, 159 bpm ave HR) and my long run (15 km at 5:33, 153 ave HR) on the treadmill.
I have no idea why my heart rates were so similar from one run to the next - it's so weird I'm almost willing to blame the Garmin, but I don't think that's it. The tempo run was after work, on my 10 K loop home, and my long run was Saturday morning, so maybe the time of day played into it. Or maybe, since it was Sunday night that the flu bug hit, my heart rate was elevated Saturday as the illness set in. That sounds reasonable, probably something that I would have noticed if I monitored my resting heart rate from day to day. That seems like something only "real" athletes do, not wannabe's like me, so I have never done it.
Do regular people do that?
Also, it might be that my training speeds for the long runs are just too high and I'm running north of my purely aerobic zone. I'll play this out through to the Bluenose to give it a fair shake, but I reserve the right to run slower after than on the long runs.
I managed to get my speed work in for week 3 last night on the treadmill - 1000, 2000, 1000, 1000, with 400m rest periods in between. I didn't have the Garmin for that run so I don't have heart rate numbers, but I do know that I was right on my training paces 4:32 for the 1000's and 9:24 for the 2000. Treadmills are good for holding pace.
Hopefully I'll be able to keep my training up over the next couple of weeks while I'm away. There is a nice gym in Inuvik that I really hope has a treadmill. I didn't go in last year when I was down, but I intend to sniff it out next week. Next week's updates will be from north of the Arctic Circle.
Toodley-doo.
The weather this winter has been, like most of the country it seems, devilish. I can't remember running more on treadmills than I have in the past few weeks. Not ever. I think the city has cut back on street maintenance to such an extent now that there is almost nothing being spent on sidewalk clearing, and when they are cleared, nothing on salting/sanding. In any case, I managed two runs in Week 2 outside - my 8 km tempo run Tuesday (at 5:23 ave, 159 bpm ave HR) and my long run (15 km at 5:33, 153 ave HR) on the treadmill.
I have no idea why my heart rates were so similar from one run to the next - it's so weird I'm almost willing to blame the Garmin, but I don't think that's it. The tempo run was after work, on my 10 K loop home, and my long run was Saturday morning, so maybe the time of day played into it. Or maybe, since it was Sunday night that the flu bug hit, my heart rate was elevated Saturday as the illness set in. That sounds reasonable, probably something that I would have noticed if I monitored my resting heart rate from day to day. That seems like something only "real" athletes do, not wannabe's like me, so I have never done it.
Do regular people do that?
Also, it might be that my training speeds for the long runs are just too high and I'm running north of my purely aerobic zone. I'll play this out through to the Bluenose to give it a fair shake, but I reserve the right to run slower after than on the long runs.
I managed to get my speed work in for week 3 last night on the treadmill - 1000, 2000, 1000, 1000, with 400m rest periods in between. I didn't have the Garmin for that run so I don't have heart rate numbers, but I do know that I was right on my training paces 4:32 for the 1000's and 9:24 for the 2000. Treadmills are good for holding pace.
Hopefully I'll be able to keep my training up over the next couple of weeks while I'm away. There is a nice gym in Inuvik that I really hope has a treadmill. I didn't go in last year when I was down, but I intend to sniff it out next week. Next week's updates will be from north of the Arctic Circle.
Toodley-doo.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Long runs on treadmills and the first week done...
I finished the first week of training with my 13 km long run, on a treadmill because the weather outside is frightful. (Cue music...) A shade over 13 km in 1:12:24 (5:34 min/km) with an average heartrate of 157, according to my Garmin, which is reduced to a heart rate monitor during treadmill runs. This is quite a lot lower than last week's 163, which I think I can attribute to issues you have to fight running outdoors - wind and topography, as well as the slightly slower pace. I ran today with the 'mill on a steady 1° incline, however the hills around here are appreciably greater than 1°.
Weekly totals: 33:2 km running and 15.9 km rowing. A good week.
Weekly totals: 33:2 km running and 15.9 km rowing. A good week.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Speed run Friday
Speed repeats completed on a treadmill at the Sportsplex - 12 x 400m with 90 sec easy running between each and a mile warmup and warmdown. My average heart rates by interval were:
1 - 163
2 - 162
3 - 160
4 - 158
5 - 162
6 - 161
7 - 164
8 - 165
9 - 166
10 - 168
11 - 168
12 - 167
I didn't really feel tired during the repeats, though it's obvious that after finding my groove I did start to labour toward the end. Fun stuff.
I'm tired and it's time for a beer and the Battlestar Galacitica season opener.
1 - 163
2 - 162
3 - 160
4 - 158
5 - 162
6 - 161
7 - 164
8 - 165
9 - 166
10 - 168
11 - 168
12 - 167
I didn't really feel tired during the repeats, though it's obvious that after finding my groove I did start to labour toward the end. Fun stuff.
I'm tired and it's time for a beer and the Battlestar Galacitica season opener.
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