3x2 mile

My legs were still a little beat up from the 20 miles on Friday but I decided to go and do some lactate threshold work because I figured that that would be the easiest on my legs. I ended up getting a pretty good work out in, but I could definitely feel my legs on the last interval. The workout was as follows:
3x2 miles with 2 minutes recovery
1 - 10:10(5:03,5:07)
Felt great on this interval.
2 - 10:30(5:15,5:15)
I know there is a 20 second difference but coming back is slower than going out. The effort was probably about the same and I could hear my legs telling me they were still tired finally in the second mile of this interval.
3 - 10:07(5:03,5:04)
Legs were no longer telling me they were tired but they were yelling at me now. I just tried to stay relaxed and keep my form. I felt pretty controlled for the first mile, but the second mile starts with a long gradual hill so I just pushed to the top of that and then pushed on the gentle downhill to the end of the interval.

Overall this was a really good workout. The section I ran on was not super hilly but it was by no means flat. There was a nice a gradual uphill on the first and 3rd intervals and two gradual uphills on the second one. My lactate threshold is where it needs to be now I just need to my VO2 rolling and I will be good to go.

Recovery

I think I got a little too fired up on Friday and ended up hitting 20 miles total for the day. I am really feeling the effect of the mileage and am currently letting my body recover. I might go out later and try to do some cruise intervals to work on my lactate threshold a little more and get a workout in without trashing my legs.

The past couple days have been a struggle but I would like to thank those who entertained me over the weekend and I would also like the people that I can trust to always be there during trying times. Maybe I havent talked to you but just knowing that there are people out there when I need them has made a world of difference.

All Is Fair...

I tend to hope for the best and expect the worst. I have come up with a theory that this makes it easier to deal with the negative aspects of life. I am finally starting to realize that this is not the case.
After a few stressful weeks I have a reached a fitting deneumont to a certain chapter of my life. What follows is a focus on one thing that I plan to put all my heart and soul into(I know thats a cheesy way to put it, but its true). This thing is obviously running, and I plan to drop the part where I expect the worst. From now I am only looking forward to positive outcomes in the future. From now on I am not going to think to myself that I might be capable of doing something, I am simply going to go out and do it.
Right now I am fired up so I am just going off about everything and nothing at the same time without giving it much thought, but I will sit down and start writing out some goals for the future. And you can damn sure believe that these goals will be so outrageous that I really wont expect anybody except for myself to believe that they are possible.
On another note, I ran 14 miles for the day with the middle 10 being llama loop(mid 55).

I will leave you with a long quote from Rocky:
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done. Now, if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain’t you. You’re better than that!

Tired

I just finished up with an easy morning run and I am ready to call it a day. My legs are in need of some recovery and I think that explains why yesterday was so rough. I had my second best long run ever on Sunday and I ended up going farther than I should have Monday because I did some exploring. After that factor in the 70+ mile week and I am tired. I am expecting more of the same for Fridays workout, but I will make a conscious effort to turn next week into a recovery week.

Humbled

I was brought back down to earth today by my first VO2 workout in forever. I struggled through 2x1600(4:45,4:49), 1x600(1:49), 1x400(71)...which was actually supposed to be 4x1600. I guess the good thing that came out of the workout was that I have a pretty big upside in that part of training.
I am on my way out for my second run...the next post will probably come from jmu after I plan to get some form of a tempo in on Friday.

Finally....70 miles

I hit 72 miles for the week after all the mention earlier this summer about trying to get there and falling apart anytime I came close. I actually felt really good most of the week as well. I had the good tempo Thursday followed by a 16 mile long run on Sunday that was probably one of my best long runs of all time.
I looked back at the log and this was my 4th highest week of all time and the second if you take away the weeks at camp when I was running twice a day everyday at low intensity.

The plan for next week is to run about the same mileage wise with two workouts thrown into the mix plus a 15-17 mile long run.

Stresses

I have been constantly noticing the fact that I rarely drink more than one beer these days. I think that might just change tonight with a case of the working mans best friend(PBR!) in the fridge.

peace

7 mile tempo

I had a solid workout today on the W&OD trail. The plan was to do a 7 mile tempo with 4 miles in 5:40, 2 in 5:20, and 1 fast but controlled. That is definitely not what happened...

I did the 7 mile portion as an out and back with the last half into a fairly stiff headwind. I had no idea I had a tailwind on the way out until I turned out around and cursed the wind. I still managed to get in the 7 in 38:47(5:32 pace) with the following crazy splits: 5:17, 5:29, 5:49, 5:42, 5:33, 5:34, 5:21.

I am extremely pleased with how the workout turned out. To hit 5:32 pace in those conditions was impressive. I was grinding the last mile into the wind and hit 5:21, that gives me a good idea of how much the wind really affected me.

Thats it for the rest of the week as far as workouts go. I am going to take a few easy days with a long run this Sunday.

Recovery

I have been taking the past couple days easy to recover from the race on Sunday. I will do an easy double for my final recovery day before getting into some quality work.
The plan for the Thursday is to get in a 7 mile tempo with 4 miles at 5:40, 2 at 5:20, and 1 fast but not getting too carried away.

Leesburg 10k

I ran the Leesburg 10k this morning after 4 solid days of running easy and still feeling like crap on everyday. The crappy feeling carried on into the first mile and a half and fortunately for me it disappeared after that.
I ran 5:14 for the first mile and felt awful, I didnt feel smooth or comfortable at that slow pace. After that we started going uphill and I ended up feeling better. My next few splits were 5:09, 5:14, and 5:09. I felt really good for these miles; at some points it felt almost like I was doing a tempo because I was running extremely relaxed but still pushing. We started going down hill in the middle of the last mile and I get the intensity up which led me to hitting 4:55 for both of the next 2 miles.
I ended up getting broke in the last mile, but the race still turned out to be a great confidence booster. My overall time was 31:45 and I am pleased with that.

Mileage for the week - 51

Medium Day

Got in 14 today with a 10 miler in the evening. I am still a little tired from last week so the I ended up running 62 minutes for the 10.
I had originally planned on doing a 4 mile tempo at the end of this week but I think I am going to have to move it to next week to make sure I get in a decent mileage week.
I also picked up a yoga mat so I can actually stretch when I get done running instead of having to rush home and stretch.

New Personal Best

I set a new personal best over the weekend. 14...that is my new record for hours of sleep in a single night. I was blasted after a long day on Saturday and I ended up sleeping from 7 at night until 9 in the morning.
I got in about 10 miles the last 2 days to end the week with 64 miles. Not a bad a week overall, but maybe next week I will actually hit 70.

Solid 9

Ran 9 miles from the place tonight and it was a great run overall. It was nice to run at a slightly faster pace on the flats. The plan was to go for an hour but I ended up cutting it short because I decided to listen to my body.
After I ran I got in some solid core work. I will say that my core is extremely weak and I need to work on that at least 3 times a week from here on out.
The plan for tomorrow is to get in a similar effort for hopefully an hour this time.

Rest of Camp

I got in a couple good days while I was back in Harrisonburg. Tuesday afternoon I managed to get to the top of reddish knob in 44 mid, which was about 30 seconds that I did two years ago. Overall the effort was probably comparable to an easy tempo. I am extremely pleased that I could hit that time with the effort that was put in.
The past couple days really pumped me up to get back to training. I am going to hold myself back this week and keep the intensity low and focus on hitting 70 miles with low intensity. After that I would like to get in 70 miles with one or two quality days.