Sunday, February 24, 2013

From Doubt to Confidence

The last time I wrote I was coming off a decent long run that had me running some quick miles the last 30 minutes or so. It was a blustery day with slick roads but I managed to get in a pretty good run. The week following was one of ups and downs with the downs taking command for most of the week. Thoughts of doubt were creeping in my mind and I felt like I had taken a huge step backwards. For some reason, a reason I will explain in a bit, I was feeling a bit "shot". Weird, because I finished the Sunday run and went to bed feeling like I was headed to a strong progression week. I started the week with a much shorter, easy run than I am used to taking. I called it at 34:00 and shifted my energy to lifting weights for a half-hour or so. The next day I opened my eyes, made my way downstairs and decided on a big, fat zero for the day. Too tired and I was now feeling extremely tired. Not too sore, but just really tired. If I remember correctly I went to bed at 7:55 pm that night. Wednesday that week I rebounded and had a decent ladder workout and hit my splits with ease. Sweet! I'm back. Not so fast, as the rest of the week remained extremely fatigued and listless. To get out and run was a struggle the rest of the week and by Saturday I realized I was battling a good ol' fashion virus. Duh! Most of the people at work had some form of "bug" they were fighting and I am sure I had a hit of it and it just wore on me. Having said that, I only missed two running days and I finished with a decent 15 miler on Sunday that had my legs singing the praise once again. It's amazing how those viruses can take a toll on you, even oh so slightly.

This last week was a very nice progressive week that had me moving everyday. My shortest effort this past week was 60 minutes and I hope to repeat that for a few more weeks. I decided once again on just one true "speed" workout instead of two for the weekdays. I wanted to make sure my legs were going to accept the increased running and I can say they handled things quite well. My mid-week workout was 11 miles with 7 at 5:56 pace on the treadmill, and this weekends long run was 20 miles on the roads. Overall a very good week in the right direction.

The next phase of training starts tomorrow. It's referred to as "strength" phase. I will continue to do my MP efforts once a week and will now add some longer intervals at a pace closer to true lactate threshold (LT). I tend to do much better during this phase of training and I hope history can repeat itself. For now, my main goal is to get the legs recovered well from today's long run. Right now I feel great. We will see what song I am singing on Tuesday morning when I wake up 48 hours post-long effort.

I also wanted to give a shout out to all those friends that did the 2013 Birkie races this past Saturday. I took a quick look at the results to see a lot of familiar names. It's nice to see and I am proud to know you all! Recover well and enjoy a pint!

Here are the last two weeks of training:

Feb 11-17th
M: 34:00 4 mi, easy + 2 sets of weights
T: 0 too tired!
W: 1:14:00  11 mi, ladder workout at 5:18-15 pace
Th: 1:00:00  8 mi, west skyline
F: 1.5 miles tread, tired, + 2 sets of weights
Sa: 1:02:00  7 miles, roads
Su: 2:02:00  15.3 miles *legs improving a lot

Week: ~ 47 miles (2 days off)

Feb 18-24th
M: 1:01:00 7 mi, trails Hartley
T: 1:00:00  8 miles tread
W: 1:13:00  11 mi, 7 @ 5:56 pace
Th: 1:05:00 8 mi, Hartley. pushed hills
F: 1:00:30  8 miles, roads/Hartley
Sa: 1:00:00  *snow! SHT snowshoe  5 miles
Su: 2:47:30  20 miles  *last three miles up from lakeside, 8:10 Glenwood mile

Week:  ~67 miles

Years Total: 451 miles

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