Training: Higdon week 3

      This week my training was all over the place. I did miss a few workouts, and I have already altered my plan for the up and coming week in order to take that into effect. I also was sure not to overload myself just to make up for one week.  That is one huge mistake people make and I have made that same mistake. You start to get down on yourself for missing some workouts and then you crunch everything into a small period of time, and the damage is way worst than the benefit. So this upcoming week will be just a bit more intense.
      What can I say about winter at this point except I am over it. I am done logging onto Facebook and seeing people update the weather like the rest of us don't know what is going on. I am tired of seeing pictures of peoples car temperatures. I am flat out just tired of winter.  You will never hear me complain about the heat, but these cold temps. are killing my runs. This week was all treadmill workouts, and I can not stand the treadmill. 

So this is how this week went down for me: 

MONDAY: 3 miles 26:34 and a shoulder workout.  One thing I have noticed is even though Monday, Wednesday, and Friday's are usually only 3 miles, my casual pace had dropped in this short amount of time on this plan.  I am now going sub 9 minute miles and I am hardly breaking a sweat.  I feel really good on these runs and I am now starting to believe that if you work on the short runs the long runs will really benefit.

TUESDAY: My workout called for a hill workout, but I had free passes to go see McFarland.  You can read my review that is a  few post's back.  I highly recommend you go see this movie. I am already putting this in my top 10 list.

 

WEDNESDAY: 3 miles in 26:38. I also did a arm and ab workout. 

 

THURSDAY: 30 minute tempo run.  I broke the run up into 10 minute sections. I ran the first 10 minutes at a 9:13 pace then I dropped down to a 7:10 pace for the next ten minutes and finished back at a 9:13 pace.   Shins were on fire for this run, and I am really dreading doing speed workouts on the treadmill. 

 

FRIDAY:  REST DAY

 

SATURDAY:I had all plans of waking up and doing a 5K at race pace.  Unfortunately on Friday when I was driving home from work my car basically kicked the bucket. Saturday morning was spent sitting at the car dealership buying a new car.  By the time I left the dealership in my new ride, the roads were a mess and cars were sliding everywhere. I couldn't even make it up my hill to get home. I had to park down the road and walk. Not the day I had in mind.

 

SUNDAY (Today): Even though my plan calls for a rest day, I am going to do some cross training. Nothing major just  some small workouts I can do around the house.

 

 

Hopefully next week I don't run into any issues like this week, and I can get in my entire workout. 

How did your week go?

What is your all time favorite sport movie?  mine is McFarland and Without Limits... 2 great running movies.

 
 
 

Training 1/12 thru 1/18

"TO BE THE GREATEST YOU HAVE TO TAKE CHANCES, TO BE REMEMBERED YOU HAVE TO TAKE RISKS"

This past week was my second week of training, but it was my first full week of really training. I am very pleased with how this week went. I didn't set a goal for the miles I wanted. I wanted to just get
in some good runs and see where I stand for the weeks to come. I will now be able to set goals on the miles I want to hit now that I know exactly where I am at.

MONDAY - I brought my gear to work and decided I would go for a run as soon as I clocked out. I was excited to get out and try some new course. I ran a 3.4 mile course that was pretty flat and took me right into the city. I am planning on every Monday running straight from work this I can have different courses. I felt really good on the run and as I ran I was already mapping new courses in my head for next week.

TUESDAY - By the time I got home from work it was already dark and cold out. I headed to the gym to use the treadmill. I ran 4.6 miles in 40 minutes and did negative splits for the entire run. I know this is not nearly the speed I will be doing my speed workouts at, but since it was the first one of the training session I was quite happy with it.  As I ran on the treadmill there was a younger girl next to me who was also running. I started to notice she had the speed set at 7 miles per hour. She would run hard for a minute and then jump on the sides and stand for about 4 minutes. As she was standing one time I suggested instead of jumping off just slow the speed and run at a slower pace. She said " I am not doing a set workout I am just running." I shut up and kept running. A little later she snaps a photo of her distance and time and I can see she is posting her workout on social media. First yes I was creeping on her. I was interested to see what she was writing. Second she did it and I was able to just look over and see. She wrote just went hard at the gym with the photo of the treadmill. I don't care really that she lied, but when you do things like this you are only cheating yourself.

WEDNESDAY- REST DAY

THURSDAY- I had a busy day so I made this my cross training day. I did some burpees and some body builders. A body builder is a burpee but when you jump down you spread your legs and then bring them back before you do your pushup. They are awesome for core strength.

FRIDAY- I headed out for a 5.5 mile run with some good hills. I will be honest I had a lot of problems. My asthma was making it real hard for me to catch my breathe in the cold weather. I had to take it really slow. I ended up running the 5.5 miles in 57.28.  I am going to have to take the cold outside runs real slow until I get my lungs back.

SATURDAY - In the daytime I had to do an event for the marathon. I got home late and headed to the gym for my run.  It's funny normally on a Saturday I would be worrying about where am I going to be drinking. Now I worry about getting my run in. Like I said in my goals for the year I am setting out too PR the Pittsburgh Half. I ran 5.12 miles in 48:21. A nice comfortable pace. I felt great when I was finished and at times had to stop myself from turning up the speed.

SUNDAY- TODAY- Instead of just doing a rest day, I plan on 60 burpees and 10 bodybuilders.

TOTAL MILES for the week- 18.62
GOAL for next week - 23

HOW DID YOUR WEEK GO?

Training Dec.1st thru Dec.7th

    After the last few weeks of piss poor training due to a cold, this was going to be my first full week back.  Needless to say I was super excited.

Monday:  Amanda and I headed to the gym. Amanda is not a runner and I am always telling her that with my experience I can take any person and make them a runner. So we are doing a little experiment I guess you could say. We both hit the treadmill for a half hour. I did 3.5 miles and Amanda did right around 2. I started her with a run/walk method.  I was really impressed with how well she did. After running we did a few ab machines together. I let Amanda be done for the day and I did a few reps on the monkey bars.  We recently switched gym's (same gym, different location) and the new gym has a synergy 360 machine which is great for obstacle race training. It is just what I need to train for this upcoming season.

Tuesday:  Once again Amanda and I were back at the gym. Normally I would be running this day, but with Amanda just starting I didn't want to overload her so we used it as a cross training day. I rode the bike for a half hour and did 8 miles, while she did the elliptical machine. We then finished the day out with a few arm workouts. I once again finished with some monkey bar reps.

Wednesday:  Rest Day.  We had all intentions of going to the gym but we had some running around to do. I decided to just chalk this day as a rest day.

Thursday:  Amanda was unable to go the gym since she had to get ready for a work trip. I decided to just do a quick workout around the house. I know what you are thinking, Shaun if you wanted to run so bad why didn't you run.  I am just getting back into the swing of things here. Marathon training doesn't start until after Christmas so I am not stressing out about missing a few days here and there.

Friday:  I ended up working later than I wanted to so by the time I got home and got something to eat, I was beat. I really wanted to go to the gym and get in a few miles but I knew I would make it all up over the weekend so I just rested this day as well.

Saturday: I headed to the gym and did 5 miles on the treadmill. I felt really good and I was surprised to see I really didn't lose a step at all.  After running I headed to the synergy machine and did a whole body workout. I was beat and sore but it was a great feeling.

Sunday:  I woke up today and had a terrible stomach ache. At first I thought I would just skip my run, but after dropping Amanda off at her work early in the morning (she was leaving for New York for work) my stomach started to feel a bit better. I decided to to hit the road and do 8 miles. I went slow since I haven't ran 8 miles in almost a month. For the most part I felt really good and was able to keep a solid pace. Once finished my legs felt a little sore, but that is to be expected.

TOTAL MILES FOR WEEK: 16.5

Next week I will do more running and I am setting a goal of 25 miles for the week. Also Amanda will be able to go to the gym more and I will be back training her.  I will post her progress since she reads this and now will be held accountable.

How far out do you start really getting serious about marathon training?

until next time runners stay safe.

If you are thinking about a gift for a friend or family member who likes to get dirty. You should think about an entrance to the Battle Frog Race Series.  There is many locations and this race has some good things on the horizon.  I will be doing Pittsburgh. running the Saturday 8:30 am 15K.
Promo Code: BFByrne is good for 15 percent off any race, any location. except elite heat.

2 Weeks Until Columbus Marathon

 

 

     2 Weeks or 14 days, it doesn't matter how you say it but the Columbus Marathon is upon us.  Today I was asked if I am nervous or excited. The answer is both. I am nervous when I go into any race, if you aren't nervous than you aren't normal. However I am more excited than anything. I feel like this race is going to be a defining race for me. Every race is a learning experience and we are supposed to take our mishaps from each race and use them to better ourselves for our next race.  Well I have ran a few marathons and some things I had no control over, but others I did poorly because I wasn't ready or I planned poorly. I am hoping with Columbus I can really use everything I have learned from my own experience's and the lessons taught to me from other runners and run my best race.  The ultimate goals are to run a safe and smart race.  A personal best time would be nice and so would a Boston qualifying time.  



     This week is what I call my get back week for training.  I just came off of 2 weeks of tapering and this week my goal was to start slowly introducing the miles until the week of the marathon would be a week in which I do a very long run at marathon speed. 

MONDAY:  4.5 miles at a 8:30 pace.  It is crazy how when I started this training session a few months ago to now how much easier the runs have became.  I hardly broke a sweat on this run and I almost didn't even feel like I was warmed up yet.  All good signs with a big race coming up.

TUESDAY: 4 miles at 8:05 pace.  I started this run going fairly slow and each mile I just picking up speed.  I did not intend to run negative splits but when I finished and looked at my Garmin and went over the mile splits I realized I did it without trying.  This is what I want to see this close to a race. I want to be able to pick up the speed and feel like I am still running a comfortable pace. 

WEDNESDAY:  CROSS TRAINING:  Instead of going to the gym for my cross training I stayed home and did burpees with some crunches, throwing in a few arm exercises as well . After talking to some obstacle runners, it was suggested that I do a burpee challenge in order to get usedd to them.  In any obstacle race there is a good chance you will be doing burpees.  Next season I plan on doing just as many obstacle races as road races and I want to be ready.  My goal for next season is to qualify again for the National Championship race. 

THURSDAY: REST DAY:  The only thing I did on this day was some burpees in order to keep up on my challenge, rather than that it was a rest day.

FRIDAY: I did a 2 mile speed workout on the treadmill at the gym followed by a leg workout.  This is about the time I will start to make sure my legs are loose for the race.  When I am at the gym I will be making sure to do some sort of leg or hip workout. In previous marathons I have gotten to mile 18 and then my leg muscles will start to spasm.  I think it was from going at a speed faster than I trained at for that far of a distance.  This time around I tried to do some race pace runs of long distance and I have worked on building the muscle in my upper legs.

SATURDAY: I woke up early and headed out for a 15 miler. It was only 42 degrees when I started my run.  Normally I would bitch about the temperature but I will take 42 degrees on race day anytime.  I decided not to look at my Garmin until I was finished. I wanted to run a comfortable pace and not worry about trying to pick up or drop speed.  I was amazed when I finished and looked at the Garmin and saw a pace of 8:58.  I felt so good and I thought I was going much slower.  A huge confidence booster for my last long run over 10 miles. 

SUNDAY: TODAY:  CROSS TRAINING:  I will be heading to the gym later tonight to do some chest and shoulder exercise's.  I will also be doing my burpees in order to stay on track with my challenge.  If there is some time I will use a few machines to loosen my hips. 
      This morning Amanda and I went to Soergel's Orchard in Wexford to pick some apples and buy some things in their market.  I came across some pasta noodles that they had for Halloween. The noodles were in the shape of pumpkins and cats.  I then found more noodles that they had for every sport basically.  I laughed and thought to myself I highly doubt they will have anything running related. Wrong!!!  they actually have a running pasta.  Noodles in the shape of little shoes and a person in stride. 

 

 

Next week's training will be a lot like this week. The runs during the week will be a little longer but the long run will only be a 10 miler. I am ready for this race and hope these last 2 weeks fly by.

 

 

How is your training coming?