January in Review

It has been a crazy few weeks at work and I apologize for the sporadic commenting. Almost all of my life outside of work came to a screeching halt. Except for running, of course. I need endorphins...cannot function without them...wonder how I survived before I started running.

Some of you asked about the 15-minute power workout that brought me to my knees a couple of weeks ago. Here is what I remember of it. We started with dumbbells...40 reps each of front raises,

lateral raises

and shoulder presses.

Then, there were jumping jacks, different types of ab crunches and squats,

pushups

and reverse pushups...

...as many reps as we could each manage. That was the trick...you don't know how many reps you can handle until a day after the workout!

My "training" has been humming along, according to plan. Last week was a "high mileage" week, by my standards.

Total mileage for last week: 40

Monday: 10 miles - 1:29:26 (8:57 pace)
Tuesday: biking & core work
Wednesday: 6 mile tempo - 1 mile warm-up, 3 mile tempo (8:09, 8:00, 8:08), 2 mile cooldown
Thursday: 12 miles - 1:50:50 (9:15 pace)
Friday: rest
Saturday: 7.22 miles - 1:39:18 (13:46 pace) - Jockey Hollow (hilly trails)
Sunday: 5 miles - 45:48 (9:10 pace) + Glenn-designed "bootcamp"

By the middle of this week, there were little twinges in my knees, so I went easy on the mileage.

Total mileage for this week: 29.75

Monday: 6 miles - 53:50
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: 6 miles - 53:26 & strength training (abs, biceps and triceps, lunges and squats)
Thursday: 4 miles - 39:31
Friday: swimming 750 yards
Saturday: 7.25 mile group run on the towpath - 1:04:03
Sunday: 6.5 miles on Thompson Park trails (some hills) - 1:02:00

This brings my total mileage in January to 152.2 miles...the most monthly mileage I have done in over 6 months.

I ran the Thompson Park trails today with Jorge, who has run sub 3-hour marathons in the past. He is suffering from an injury which is now forcing him to run at my pace. I warned him that that wouldn't stop me from bragging that I ran with (and kept pace with) a sub 3-hour marathon runner!

So, what am I training for? Well, my training is always designed with a marathon in mind...the NJ Marathon? I dare hope...

And there are a few fun races to consider along the way. More importantly, I'd like to maintain a consistent and injury-free base mileage of 25 - 45 miles a week, even when I am not training for anything. I was more ambitious last year but a couple of injuries made me re-evaluate my goals. Now, weekly totals are not as important as they used to be. I am trying to throw some hills and speedwork, aka tempo runs into the mix. But as I experienced a couple of days ago, my body may not be in the mood for a tempo run on the day I schedule a tempo run.

Frank the Forerunner has become my cherished companion. Though I've had him for the past month, I only recently started downloading all the cool training data (never thought I would ever call data "cool"!). I must say, I am digging all the elevation, speed and pace graphs and charts. I changed some of the settings, so Frank now pushes me to be faster and nudges me with a "Speed Up" beep when I slow down for a water break. A watch used to put pressure on me...but I now realize (after a lot of trial and error, mostly error) that every day is going to be different, and a 8:40 pace on one day could become a 9:40 pace another day. So, instead of kicking myself like I used to, I am just having a lot of fun...even on those days when my legs are toast.

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